This is Encouragement Month. Restart Month. Keep Going Month.

Don’t Give Up Month.

So I’m going to share with you some of the things that I find encouragement in.

I just got an email from one of the ladies in my Romance Writers of Australia group saying she was thinking about giving up writing. Permanently. She decided to enter one more contest first. She won the contest. The editor who judged her manuscript told her to send the full as soon as possible because she was very interested.

How can you read a story like that and not feel heartened?!  :)

A somewhat smaller degree of encouragement for me is great articles on writing. Articles that make me feel inspired or show me a new way of doing something or give me a new tool. Here are several I really like:

Author Virna DePaul has some “cheat sheets” for writers on her web site. There are a couple free ones here, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you can get access to all the rest. The free one on Ways to Bulletproof Your Manuscript is an excellent tool for the editing phase. She goes into a lot of depth and detail, so there’s always something I think “Oh, right, I forgot to do that or check that” when I re-read the cheat sheet.

If you enjoy how cool your brain is and how the two sides do different things, you might like this article. Laine Cunningham’s great “Lefty Tighty, Righty Loosey” talks about creativity and how it relates to writing. There may not be anything “new” to you here, but when I read it I feel inspired. I remember that there is a time for everything, for creating and for revising the creation. You make a baby, and then you dress it up. (Right? That’s how it works, right? My friends and their new babies seem to be a constant stream of new outfits. Hmm, maybe that’s not a good way to work on your manuscript! LOL!)

Perhaps you write in more than one age group – the various children’s age groups, YA, adult. Kate Forsyth has written for every age group. As she says, “You can read me from birth to death!” You might find some words of wisdom in her article “Writing Books For All Ages.” Kate’s got some good things to keep in mind when you change age groups as you’re writing.

You so often hear that emotion is the most important part of writing. I find that thinking about times I did or said or experienced something that brought out a strong emotion, this helps me get more and stronger emotion on the page. If you like exercises that help you think about emotions in your own life, try this article from Writer’s Digest.

I hope some of these give you encouragement, an ah-ha moment, or in any way help you keep writing this month. That’s our goal!

As for me, I have four days to come up with the beginning of a story with an alien being where intergalactic travel is assumed. The sci-fi assignment for my Popular Fiction class. I want to do something like Doctor Who. But what? If you have any ideas for me to brainstorm on, let me know! Meanwhile, I’m going to sit here on the couch and stare at the ceiling and try to think of something.  :)

          Jenny Martin is the first of our librarian and booksellers guest blogs. Shonna, Kitty and I thought it would be break from the routine to hear from some non-writers aka readers (our target market, right?). Who better than those who help people find and enjoy the many books available? I first learned about Jenny Martin when Shonna sent me to Jenn’s blog, Book Binge. I hope this post whets your appetite for more from Book Binge and Jenny Martin.

          As a writer and a librarian, I read a lot. Seriously, I’ve picked up a ridiculous number of books.

          And unfortunately, I’ve thrown too many across the room because they failed to enchant me within the first five pages.

          Five pages!? I hear you groan. You may think that’s harsh, but there are too many vibrant, spectacular novels in the world to waste time on stories with lackluster beginnings.

          Each time I read opening pages, the author and I strike a bargain. The writer promises a string of the wondrous, fearsome words and in return, I agree to stick around. I want to keep that promise, I really do. I want to fall in love with the story. But sometimes, I can’t.

          To read on, I must:

1. Understand the nature and conflict of the novel.
2. Care about the protagonist.

          That’s it. That’s all I’m asking. An easy request to fulfill, right? Wrong. Making a grand first impression on the reader requires great skill. Sadly, many writers don’t make a memorable impression at all.

          Their first pages fall flat because:

1. The prose meanders, burying tension and conflict.
2. The characters are stiff, unreal.
3. There is no voice; the point of view character does not interpret the action.
4. The story is devoid of life, a meaningless string of “… first this happened, then this happened, and then…”

          Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about having a dead body on page one. It’s not about thrusting the protagonist into a battle in the first paragraph. It’s about making the reader care. It’s about the implicit promise of a good story.

          And it is possible to hook a reader in half a page. For example, look at the opening lines of “Prom Dates from Hell” by Rosemary Clement Moore:

          As an interactive horror experience, with beasts from Hell, mayhem, gore, and dismemberment, it was an impressive event. As a high school prom, however, the evening was marginally less successful.

         I should start at the beginning, but I’m not entirely certain when that is, so I’ll start with the day I realized that despite my most determined efforts, I was not going to be able to ignore the prom entirely.

          Rosemary is a skilled storyteller, to say the least. See how her voice shines in the first few lines? In less than one hundred words, I know that:

         
1. The protagonist is a teenager.
2. The protagonist is witty and whip-smart.
3. The protagonist is uncomfortable with high school norms.
4. There will be blood. And hellish beasts. At prom.

          Wow. Three sentences and I can relate to the protagonist. Three sentences and I’m clued in to both the internal and external conflicts. Three sentences and I want to read more.

          I did read more. And then I bought every book the author has published.

          Perhaps I’ll buy your book someday, too. I hope your first five pages make a grand first impression.

          Jenn Martin writes YA about weird, trippy stuff. (She’s so not kidding about the Evil Elvii who spring from volcanoes.) She is represented by Mary Kole at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc.

          Find out more about Jenny Martin by visiting her blog and twitter pages (@jmartinlibrary).

Part of the process of finishing is going back and revising. That means not only moving some sentences around, checking eye and hair color of every character all the way through, and other polishing type touches, but it also means throwing out whole chapters, moving big chunks from one place to another, and then rewriting scenes to make the story really pop in a way that it did only in your head before.

Getting through the second draft, or first revision, or what I often still call my first draft, can be harrowing depending on how smoothly the story came out the first time. Reading more articles on writing during this phase can often go a long way toward helping you plan your revision.

For instance, I often write out the major plot points and fill in the blanks for the Hero’s Journey to see if there are any holes or if the order of events should change. There are different examples of the Hero’s Journey here and here and lots of other places on the web. Here is an example of a beat sheet from StoryFix.com, which has a similar function.

Sometimes I find articles on things I already “know” to be good reminders as I’m going through the process of editing and revising. Checklists like this one can be helpful. This Writer’s Digest article is on creating better villains. Here’s one on rescuing your story from plot pitfalls. While you can spend too much time surfing the Net and reading books and articles, I find that the ones that catch my eye often do so because subconsciously I’ve picked up on a problem with my villain or the plot and as I read the article, I have some little ah-ha moments. Then I know what I need to go back and change in revisions.

An article on generating ideas or the pros and cons of writing this or that (see this article on Donald Maass versus Natalie Goldberg on “write what you know”) will sometimes make me think of why a character is the way they are, which will help me better refine their goals, motivation and conflict. Or such an article could underscore my belief in the theme of my book, or make me question whether I really said what I was trying to say.

This article on mental health and others on physical health are necessary reminders that the things I often allow myself to think of as “extra” and therefore the first to be pushed out of a busy schedule are some of the most important things for long-term success. I need these reminders about long-term success so I don’t work for the short-term goal and undermine myself for later.

Other days I need to focus exclusively on the publishing house/imprint I’m targeting. This article lists what a Harlequin editor (I’m targeting the Harlequin American Romance line with one of my books) is looking for in submissions. Very important!

Here is an article on pitching from Writer’s Digest and another one from the edittorrent blog. Part of finishing is pitching, and I’ll be pitching to a couple editors at the Romance Writers of Australia conference I’m going to this week. I’m printing these out to remind me of what I want to say and how I want to say it – meaning I want to stay relaxed and be myself!

I get a fair number of emailed newsletters from various writing sites. Most are skimmed and deleted. A few are kept for future reference. Some of the articles get printed or filed. I don’t consider this procrastinating unless I’m reading every single one word for word even if it doesn’t appeal to a need. It’s more like extra fuel to kick up the heat during the revision process.

          Finishing. Something I find hard to do.
          What makes it so hard for me to finish things? When you are a constant procrastinator like me, it seems as though the answer is easy. I just need to focus a little more, discipline myself a little more, write a little more.
          Or do I?
          Maybe, sometimes, occasionally it’s understandable. Not completely my doing. Maybe.
          Like now. Or rather, like two months ago. With my latest success-failure.
          At the beginning of the summer, I went on a month-long road trip/vacation. Just as that vacation began, I finished the rough draft of the TimeTracker manual. TimeTracker is the software application my husband wrote for me to keep track of where I spend my time. I’ve enjoyed using it so much, I wanted to make it available to others. For months I kept track of what I did and how I did it. I wrote detailed instructions and organized it all into a readable format. Or so I thought.
          On my first travel day, sitting in an airport during a 5-hour layover, I finished that baby. Jubilant, I emailed it to my husband. He’d have plenty of time to read it and make notes before I returned home. Not so.
          A week after I returned, he opened the file. I sat in the room with him, supposedly working on something else. His groans and complaints pulled me back into the everyday world. He’d expected a finished, polished draft. I’d sent a first draft. He’d expected icons and other “bells and whistles”. I’d put in some, but expected him to note where others belonged as well as commenting on the content. He said there was no sense evaluating the content when the format needed so much work.
          Is he right? Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly the document needs more work. But I needed input. And maybe just a teeny-tiny high-five for actually finishing a step in the process.
          Well, that’s behind me now. Yes, his lackluster response killed the enthusiasm I had for the project and sent me into a corner to nurse my wounds. That’s part of the life of the writer. Now it’s time to pick myself up and finish this project. That is what I’ll be doing this week. Really finishing the TimeTracker manual. Or at least the next draft.
          And this time . . . when hubby opens the file to evaluate it, I’ll be out of earshot.

I’ve been having a hard time finishing my current work-in-progress. That’s really begun to bother me in the last few weeks. Granted, enrolling in an advanced degree program of any kind is not necessarily conducive to finishing any non-school-related projects. (I started the second semester of my Master of Arts in Creative Writing program this week. More on that at the end.) But I did think I would be further along by now.

During my semester break, after company left, I completed the usual pre-second-draft steps.

1. I printed out my entire manuscript. (Sorry, rainforest, it’s necessary. But I did print in the 2-page format on the back side of already used paper.)
2. I sat down in the morning one day and read the entire book through with a notepad to make notes of things that needed to be changed or reordered, and a bright pen (I don’t like trying to find my black inkpen writing on a sheet with black typing, so I use bright blue or purple or green) to write notes on the ms. I wrote “Del?” next to several scenes that were only in notes stage in the first draft once I realized they may not be necessary and could probably be deleted.
3. Then I opened the last version of the first draft and re-saved it with a new name. That way no matter what I change or delete in the second draft, I can always find my original material in the previous file. I start the filename of the second draft with “2D” so I know which draft it is. I always end with the date so I know the latest version, and so any previous changes can be found should I decide I have to see it the old way again. My new filename might now be “2D Fluff N Fold July 13″.

Then I sat there.

Nothing. Couldn’t figure out why my mind was a blank. The next step should be easy – the manuscript was covered in notes and I had another piece of paper with notes on things that needed to be done or re-thought.

Still nothing. I went and dug a hidden dark chocolate bar out of the back of the cupboard. Maybe I needed to be more comfortable. I pulled out my favorite winter blanket and kicked off my slippers and propped myself up against a pillow on the already comfortable couch.

Then I remembered a question I had to ask my husband, so I went over to my mail program and sent him an email. You know what happened next. Then it was the end of the day and I’d pretty much accomplished nothing.

After a week of this kind of torture, I had to get ready for school again, so I was at the university library checking out books. I found a book on how to write romances (The Art of Romance Writing by Valerie Parv) with a diagram in it. Maybe I needed something visual. I went home and drew the diagram on a big piece of butcher paper. Then I went through my book and tried to fill in the diagram. Amazingly, it worked! I had all the elements I needed in the plot – as I “knew” I did. I just hadn’t been able to look at 100 pages in a pile and figure out what to do next. Not this time anyway.

Since I’ll have to be working on my romance in between homework assignments, and since having a visual aid helped me a lot, I’m going to make index cards for those boxes on the diagram. Then I can focus on one thing, the next thing I have to write. That will make writing in fits and bursts somewhat easier, especially when I’ll also be working on other writing assignments for class.

With a little luck and some hard work, I hope to get a lot more done on my romance this semester!

Master Degree Notes: I’ve been trying to keep you updated on my degree program so you can live vicariously through me if you like. I’ve had “school-brain” since about the second week of school, and it didn’t go away during the semester break. I think it’s similar to what my friends with new babies called “baby-brain” during the late stages of their pregnancies and now with their babies. You simply can’t keep track of anything else anymore! LOL!

But I am keeping track of school stuff. It’s going to be an awesome and challenging semester! I’ve only been to one class so far, Popular Fiction, the one I’ve been most looking forward to, and the reading list is huge! We have to read a book a week – big ones like The Fellowship of the Ring and Dune – and we have a writing assignment each week, and we have academic readings about how to write or the theory or whatever. Sheesh! And that’s just one class! I’ll keep you updated as to how it all goes along!

I’ve been reading a book that I don’t like. At this point in my life, being very aware that time is limited, I would normally walk away from a book such as this. But, I’m curious about how the author crafted the theme. She’s done a really good job with an unusual topic and I know I can learn something from her work.

But the writing? Is. Driving. Me. Crazy. It’s so overly stylistic and clever that my brain hurts after reading it. Too. Many. Periods. Though the book is quite long, it reminds me of a bunch of Twitter posts. Every character talks like a Gilmore Girl, somewhat sarcastic, and never boring. I’m begging for a plain sentence to give my mind a place to rest.

On one hand, I’m impressed that this author can think of so many clever ways to say something and I wish my writing could be so trendy and cool. On the other hand, I’m drowning in voice and not connecting with the characters.

When I’m reading a book like this, I play the Agent Game. I pretend I’m an agent and I ask myself: “Would I have signed on for this book?” When the answer is “no” I get encouraged. Why? Because books are so subjective. Agents say it all the time: “It’s not for me, but another agent might feel differently.” Yes, these agents are just being polite, but they are also speaking truth and we should believe them.

When you are trying to get published, a lot of the game is trying to find the person who likes your work. So, for me, I’m happy to see books published that I don’t necessarily enjoy. This tells me that my manuscript which may get rejected by Editor A can still be picked up by Editor D and go on to get published. To. Great. Acclaim.

          I was an impressionable child. I believed my mother when she told me “Books are our friends.” They are my friends. By reading books, both fiction and non, I have visited more places and eras than I ever could without them. I have met people and done things that only exist as fantastic collaborations between an author’s creativity and my own imagination. I have experienced events and emotions, even learned to empathize with wildly different perspectives. I’ve done this by immersing myself in stories or being mesmerized by more factual books. (No wonder it is such a wrench to return a library book or give away a store-bought one. )

          My love of reading led to my love of writing, but reading and writing are vastly different. Writing is fun and full of excitement . . . sometimes. Most times, though, it is hard work. Satisfying, soul-deep nourishing work, but still work. Being able to appreciate a good story does not ensure you’ll be a good story creator. Even being able to analyze the pieces that make a story good isn’t a guarantee you’ll be able to reproduce a similar work. I’m not sure what combination of inborn talent, inclination and learned skills creates a writer, but at some point that writer ceases to be just a reader and becomes a storycrafter.

          For some, it is an intuitive process. For others, not so much. I’m one of those not-so-intuitive writers. I used to think otherwise. When my kids were young, I created stories off the top of my head that kept them intrigued and begging for more. Either they were an easy audience or I’ve lost my understanding of how to craft a good story.

          I’m on a mission to rediscover it.

          For the next few weeks, maybe even months, I’m going to read and analyze a stack of my “old friends,” those novels I’ve saved and reread (and reread), many from 10, 20, even 30 years ago. I’m hoping that by analyzing stories I know so well I will be able to see the pieces and the parts and how they were combined to create stories that have lingered in my mind for years. I’ve enjoyed these novels as a reader. Now it’s time to read them as a writer.

          I will go through each book (my goal is one book a week) and list each scene. Using Larry Brooks’ Story Structure Architecture, I’ll determine which of those scenes are milestones and plot points. After that, I’ll write up a short synopsis.

          My goal in doing this is to somehow absorb the structure of a good story so I can better reproduce it. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

          This past week has been super busy, with yet more opportunities to see the “Slow and Steady” reaction win the day. I come to the end of one busy, busy week and the beginning of another busy, busy week relatively stress-free. Or at least stress-controlled. That control came in the for of routines and incremental progress through multiple projects, both writing and non.

          I don’t think I can stress enough the value, at least to me, of small, easily attainable goals and regular, daily progress. At least one major project over the past six weeks is completed, in large part because I “ate this elephant one bite at a time.”

          I spent some of the brief moments allocated for my writing looking at a few new and regular websites with writing tips and encouragement.

          Linda Clare’s Writing Tips.

          Where the Map Ends.

          Randy Ingermanson’s website.

          I encourage you to keep writing, even if it’s only a few hundred words. And spend a portion (only a portion!) of your writing time exploring ways to improve and develop your writing craft.

Every now and then you have a week when you find all kinds of great information and interesting articles. It’s been such a week for me. For instance, a few weeks ago I was cursing Microsoft Word (I really should try Apple’s Pages program since it’s on my computer) because it kept changing what I was typing. Elsa Neal and the Blood-Red Pencil authors wrote a blog “How to Stop Word Messing with Your Manuscript.” Great Stuff. And it looks like Elsa is offering a Word 4 Writers course as well. I don’t know anything about it, but now you have the link so you can check it out yourself.

Then I found a guest blog by Robb Grindstaff (doesn’t he sound like a wizard from Middle Earth?) on Helene Young’s blog/web site. Here Robb discusses the 3 Ds of writing this week – Dialog, Description and Despair. Interesting, huh? It doesn’t hurt that he starts out talking about how cool AVATAR is, the movie my husband worked on.    Looks like the article will be in three parts Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, so take a look and see if there is anything you can take away from it.

The theme of Writer Unboxed that caught my eye is one I try to keep in mind fairly regularly. (And yesterday was one of those days I really needed to keep it in mind!) Have More Fun is advice you can’t get enough of in my opinion. Your joy is the reverse osmosis filter for your writing well. You need it to keep your well overflowing with fresh water. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to talk about this more later myself.

A friend of mine suggested last week I check out the Write It Sideways blog. I quickly found an article I liked on organization called “6 Organization Tips for Disorganized Writers.” Maybe you’ll find it useful, too. What I found most interesting is that the author, Suzannah, is very organized at work but not so much at home, and her writing is somewhere in the middle. Hmm, something to think about in my own life. She’s also got an article called “5 Reasons Fiction Writers Should Blog” if you’re blogging or thinking about blogging.

Speaking of blogging, Christina Katz of Writer Mama fame wrote “15 Aspects That Might Need Your Attention” about things you need to check and possibly fix on your blog site.

Now that I’ve shared some interesting posts with you, I guess we should all get back to our writing! Enjoy your writing and enjoy your week!

This is our final blog on Anti-Procrastination month. Time for a status check. If you took the challenge, how did you do? If you didn’t officially take the challenge, maybe all this talk of anti-procrastination subconsciously affected you and you crossed off some projects from your to-do list.

My plan was to make it through Margie Lawson’s Deep EDITS lectures. I will be done in a few days. Hooray!

Trouble is, when Margie says deep, she means deep. Going through her lectures, I am applying the material to only the first three chapters of my current WIP. Yes, I’ve spent over three weeks editing three chapters.

Throw in a side trip led by Stephanie to www.storyfix.com to read Shutter Island and work through the story deconstruction, and I’ve studied a lot of craft this month.

In Margie’s lectures she encourages you to not be satisfied with a scene you would rate at a 6 or 8, but make each a 10. She gives lots of tips on ways you can write to subconsciously make your book a page-turner.

My head all full of her lectures, I sat down with my latest stack of books. Usually, I have three or four going at once, in various locations around the house. But there is one book that I keep passing over. I’m making good progress through it. I am enjoying it. But when I’ve got a quick minute, I will reach for a different book.

So what is it about my slow-moving book? It suffers from a lot of missed opportunities and uses very few rhetorical devices. Different techniques the writer can use to provide an interesting read.

One of my favorite techniques is backloading.

When your paragraphs end with interesting or powerful words, you want to read on.

Pre-edit, my middle-grade novel’s first paragraphs ended like this: it, said, aloud, paper

Changing a few words around to backload, my paragraphs ended more like this: silence, disappearing, strange.

Which paragraphs do you think provide a more interesting read? I may have already had those colorful words there, but rearranging them to the ends of my sentences and paragraphs should help propel the reader through my work faster. Can you say page-turner?

But then, I got to the lecture about MRU’s. Yes, the motivation-reaction units. I still struggle with these little guys, and they messed up my nicely backloaded paragraphs when I had to change the paragraph breaks.

No wonder deep editing is taking me so long. And when my three chapters are done, I’ve got to continue on through the rest of the WIP. But hey, when I’m done. Those first three chapters will be ready for a submission!

Note: Margie Lawson was our month-long guest back in January. If you want a taste of her deep edits, just take a peek into the archives.