It's all a plot

I remember dreading discussions of plot and theme in literature classes. It always seemed plain to me that the plot is what happened in the story and the theme is what the story is about. However every year instructors seemed convinced that I was either missing essential layers of nuanced meaning or was being deliberately lazy. (Most began the term believing the former and ended the term convinced of the latter.) As a student, I never earned more than a "C" in a literature class.

As a writer I've never given a moment's thought to theme.
But as a writer I'm thinking about, and working on, plot all of the time. Because without a plot there is no story. Beautiful sentences, evocative settings, scintillating dialog, compelling characters -- all of these things are wonderful, but if nothing happens it's not a story. If you're a storyteller, you're a plotter.

With plot such an important element, you can be sure many writers spend a great deal of time working out every detail of the plot. One friend of mine, science fiction and mystery writer Ilsa Bick, produces 20,000-word outlines for 100,000-word novels. While not everyone is this meticulous, it is common for writers to thoroughly map out their plot before writing. Political thriller writer Allen Drury developed formal outlines for each of his subplots and main storyline before writing. Stephen King works out summaries of each chapter before he writes. The strength of this approach is the writer is never taken by surprise; never at a loss as to what to do next. One trap of this method is crafting the perfect outline or summary could become an end in itself consuming creative energy. Another potential problem is the writer missing opportunities in the writing process, not exploring options that are not in the outline.

Other writers are plot deniers, and I know several of these. They start with a blank page and begin writing. These writers often describe the writing process as letting the words flow. Many say things like their characters just take over the story and all they did was watch and listen and type what happened. Of course what they're doing is using their subconscious to plot, a process not unlike directed dreaming. The primary problem with this approach is -- as anyone whose ever tried to recount the events in a dream will tell you -- the subconscious is not big on logic. Just as there are holes in your dream there will be holes in your plot. And with this seat of your pants method there is always the danger of writing yourself into a box; or finishing a killer scene and having no idea where to go from there; or starting with a love story that becomes a mystery that ends with a gunfight and a Broadway musical medley. Most authors with collections of half-finished manuscripts began with little or no plot laid out in advance. But there are also successful writers who earn their livings writing this way every day.

Most writers employ elements of both of these extremes. They block the main events of their novel -- where it begins, where it ends, major decision points between the two -- but do not think through the steps between each plot point in much detail. One writer has described this as seeing each major point as a mountain peak above the fog. She knows there's a road connecting the peaks, but the actual path is in the fog. She sets out on the road knowing she will find her way by keeping the peaks in sight, but that she will also discover things she had not anticipated as she goes. She does not worry about how winding the road is as long as she keeps moving toward the next peak.

I call my own method composting, though it's been suggested percolation may be a more accurate metaphor. I think scenes through, sometimes for days before writing. My family is used to me muttering snatches of dialog unrelated to anything happening outside my head, missing turns, mowing the hostas, or calling home from the grocery store to ask what I had been sent to buy. Though I seldom have a detailed outline, I do have key elements thought through and set -- with minimal descriptions jotted in a pocket notebook -- before I ever sit at the keyboard. When I seem to simply sit down and type more often than not I'm writing down the highlights of days of guided daydreaming.

A common tool for keeping track of events while plotting is storyboarding. The writer starts with a stack of index cards, then writes one-sentence descriptions of scenes and key plot elements on each card. Then the cards can be laid out or tacked to a bulletin board. This gives the writer a visual overview of the novel as a whole, allowing her to see where what she is writing at a given moment fits. I have used this method with some success, and found it particularly useful when the flow of Wolf Hunters was not working: I was able to shuffle and rearrange the cards, playing with plot structure until I found a combination that worked. For short fiction I often use graph paper and create a very rough flow chart of events to help me remember sequence and context.

However you do it, and whatever tools you use, if you're going to be a writer you must be a plotter.

How about you? How do you plot your stories? And what tools do you use to help you stay on track and turn that plot into a story?

Reach More Readers by Revamping Your Marketing Techniques

This past Sunday, I was fortunate to be part of an amazing three-and-a-half hour teleconference on ways to reach readers during a time that is perceived to be an industry crisis. It was hosted by the phenomenal Ella Curry, President of EDC Creations Media, which is a marketing, branding, and promotions firm. I'd like to pass along just some of the things that were covered during the phone call:

1) Keep your website updated - do not continue to have the same outdated information year after year. Your website is your control center. Have direct links where readers can buy your books easily, have a place for them to sign-up for your newsletter/mailing list, try to include excerpts and high res book cover images. Make sure you have a link for an electronic press kit.

2) When you attend events, stand up and greet people, be available and professional, make sure you have a sign-in sheet and if you can, pick up business cards - build your email list. Get organized and form your database of readers. Send regular e-blasts that cover more than just the book release.

3) Have a FaceBook page w/photos of events and of yourself, a blog that focuses on a message you're familiar with (blogging is imperative but stay with it - don't abandon it), write articles that relate to the subject matter of your books and what you're passionate about, and allow other authors to be featured on your pages and in your articles as well. Try to focus on your message, not your books.

4) In your writings, challenge readers with unusual settings, stories, current event storylines, etc. Be original.

5) Continue to do signings and events whenever you can and network - pass out bookmarks and talk to people whether they buy your book or not. Also, continue with online book tours and Blogtalk radio.

6) Try to have a real-life video of you talking about yourself (maybe a day in the life or you at home), an informative topic that is your passion, as well as your books. Make sure you're on Goodreads, Shelfari, RedRoom, YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Be willing to be a guest blogger whenever possible. Be visible.

7) Update your Amazon author pages. If you don't have one, make one. Make sure your Amazon book page has a synopsis and bio. Do not include your education on your bio unless it is key to your message/theme or validates your credentials relating to your books.

There's so much more information that I didn't cover. If you'd like the replay link to the conference call, please email me at divapublishing@aol.com.

For more information on how to accomplish the above and more, you can check out Ella Curry's website at http://www.edc-creations.com/. She is a phenomenal talent and beautiful person. Tell her Marissa Monteilh sent ya! =)

If you have any more suggestions, please add. We're all in this together. Let's continue to share information and cheer each other on. Good luck!

To clean or not to clean?

When I first started freelancing nineteen years ago, one of my freelancing friends told me that I would be more successful as a writer if I viewed everything in terms of billable hours, as lawyers do, and avoid tasks that weren’t “billable.” She gave as an example cleaning one’s office. Cleaning brings in no revenue, can’t lead to future revenue (as writing queries or going to a conference might), and can expand to fill the time available.

As someone who had routinely straightened her office at the end of the day, I thought this was great advice . . . for the first few years. Not cleaning up saved me extra eight hours to ten hours a month, which I could spend making more money or taking off a Saturday.

It is a good idea in moderation. Most writers will take any excuse they can to avoid writing. Straightening up feels like work and eats up a satisfying amount of time, creating a false sense of accomplishment. (In that sense, it’s like writing a blog post.) The result: lots of hours in the office, but not much writing done.

But my office provides many examples of the problems that arise from focusing too much on billable tasks.

• Every raised surface and most of the floor are covered with papers.
• The stacks of related papers have gotten so tall that some have fallen on each other and merged.
• There are so many stacks of paper that I don’t remember what paper is where.
• To get to the built-in drawers and cabinets in my office requires moving boxes of supplies, promo items, or papers, which encourages leaving even more things on the floor instead.
• I waste probably an hour a week looking for lost items.
• My account book for 2009 is blank, and an unsorted pile of receipts several inches tall awaits entering.
  

Please do as I say and not as I do. Don’t wait to clean your office until the task seems as resistant to solution as the Sphinx’s riddle. Take enough time to file, straighten up, and throw away that you can find what you need when you need it.

A good start may be routinely straightening your office at the end of the day.

✥✥✥✥✥

Your visit was appreciated. Please stop by again on January 23, when I'll be blogging about how much and what writers should read.

—Shauna Roberts

Here We Go Again…

It’s nearly a week into the New Year, and my weekly Weight Watchers meeting is packed with newbie’s vowing to really do it this time.

The determined look on their faces reminds me of the resolutions I make in the heat of a book deadline.

I promise my jittery hands I’ll wean myself off coffee and Diet Coke.

I tell my aching back I’ll return to yoga class.

I assure my queasy stomach to never again eat Hershey bars for breakfast or turn to a box of Cheez-it’s for an easy, no-cook dinner.

Finally, I raise my fist to the heavens Scarlett O’Hara style and vow to manage my time better and never, ever get caught in a deadline crunch again.

Sigh.

Once I meet my deadline, my determination dissipates quicker than the crowds will in my WW meeting room.

My resolution?

Just for today, I’ll cut back on coffee, go to yoga class, stay outta the snack cabinet and put in some quality time with my WIP.

And I’ll worry about tomorrow – tomorrow.

www.phyllisbourne.com

My Next Release

Recently, I signed on to Amazon.com to check out the sales of my latest novel, I Can Make You Love Me. I do this once in a while to see if there is still a little buzz about the book. As I scrolled through the list, I found a new title among my previous novels.

My next release, You're All I Need was listed. With a sense of awe and pleasure, I clicked on the title and learned the official release date and the number of pages. Looking at this new title, I got a sense of excitement at seeing my name in print and the next book. It's a snapshot of what is to come. Although the novel was coverless, someone had bought a copy.

That wowed me. No cover and very little information and yet someone had purchased the book. It made me feel very proud and humble to be a writer and I wanted to thank all my readers for supporting me and my books.

I always enjoy feedback from readers and writers alike. Don't be a stranger. Email me at karenwowens@gmail.com

Karen

What America's Next Top Model taught me about books

I'll admit it, I'm a fan of America's Next Top Model, and if I happen to run across an all day marathon on VH1, nine times out of ten I'm in front of the television for hours. I've tried to fight it, but I just can't. The show sucks me in every time.

During a recent ANTM junket (it was the one with Jade, the bitchy but beautiful girl I wanted to strangle on every episode), something one of the judges told a contestant struck a chord. She was told she wasn't pretty. Wasn't pretty? But this is America's Next Top Model. And all models are supposed to be pretty? Right?

Apparently, pretty isn't what everyone is looking. Interesting is what the judges wanted from the contestants. Just a pretty face won't get you very far in that competitive industry, and the same goes for publishing.

Some people have a knack for putting together long, flowing sentences that are so lyrical you can hear a harpsichord in the background as you read. But a bunch of well-written sentences strung together without an interesting story behind it will not get you passed an editor assistant's desk. Time and again, usually when judging writing contests, I've run across pieces of work that are filled with beautiful, perfectly written words, but the stories lack substance and have me bored by page two.

There's more to writing than just "pretty" sentences. You must know how to craft a story that pulls readers in and doesn't let them go until the last page. Some people are born with this gift, others have to work for it. But if you want to survive in publishing, it's something you had better master.

That episode of America's Next Top Model reiterated something I've known to be true, but have to remind myself of every now and then. There is room for all kinds of stories and writing styles out there. And what works for one person won't automatically work for another (just check out some of the disparity in reviews of my books). But the underlying core of every good book is an interesting story, whether the writing is "pretty" or not.

Re-visiting a novel’s journey to prepare for the year ahead

I started my writing “career” with a homemade diary in fourth grade. In the years since, I chronicled my crushes, school adventures, joys and disappointments in diaries of one form or another. As a teen, I resorted to plain old three subject notebooks (sans dividers) because there was just too much life to pack into a tiny store-bought diary.


In college and the immediate years afterward, I began using journals; hand-selected with much thought and care to their covers more so than the inside pages. I guess at some point I realized that if the journal was short on pages, I could simply continue in another one. The artwork of their front reflected a specific space in time for me, a mood, a life phase. Occasionally, I go back and re-read them. There are others I avoid. The covers remind me of difficult life passages I don’t care to re-visit.


I journaled with each of my three children’s pregnancies. Those memories are precious. While there was awe, fear, hope and joy with each, the emotions varied with the circumstances surrounding each; first baby, breech baby, the girl. Those I do go back and re-live those beloved beginnings through ultrasound photos, prayers I crafted that were miraculously answered, and due dates (all missed of course).


With my first book being one of those major events in my life, it made perfect sense to chronicle my writing in much the same way I did so many other happenings. The first writing journal is just a 3x5 lined notebook; something I’d buy for my daughter to scribble in. New Year’s seemed a perfect time to step back and enjoy how far I’ve come.

The journey was both insightful and sentimental. I know the pertinent dates to the book’s publication: that I submitted to Dorchester on February6, 2006, the offer came on Oct. 10th and the book was released in August 2007.


What I tend to forget are the hills and valleys in between, like submissions to about 40 agents between October 2005 and January 2006. I decided pretty early on that I would go agent free if I had to because my goal was to get published. It worked for me, but not without all that prior angst.


I forget about the daily word count tally I kept. It’s a practice I still maintain. It’s so cool (or a good kick in the butt when you need it) to look back and watch the pages grow. You can’t always feel that sense of accomplishment when you’re mired in making it happen.


I started my web site in 2005, with Where Souls Collide not only unagented and unpublished, but unfinished as well. Immediately afterward, there’s an entry reminding me to “limit promo to one hour per day. Write!” Is that not the ongoing struggle I continue to face?


There are scribbles of new story ideas, lists of character names, and most importantly, every month there are goals. The to-do’s range from page counts and future submissions to thank you notes and social networking. But the cumulative message of those 120 journal pages is to keep moving forward. Keep trying, keep believing, and one day you’ll get there. And it happened. Not by luck or magic, but hard work on several levels, day after day after sometimes unrewarding day.


I’ll mark this year in the same monthly fashion with goals and entries that note my progress. I look forward to diving into 2010 with the confidence of small and big successes behind me. It’ll be fun a year from now to revisit, remember and re-energize again.


What are your writing goals for the first year of this new decade?

Happy New Year!
Stefanie