Lately, I keep telling my children to “Just do the thing in front of you.” We started homeschooling again and have been in that transition from summer-I-can-do-whatever-I-want back to school-and-mom-has-a-busy-schedule-planned. My TV-deprived kids are constantly coming up with new ideas for what we can do after school before we’ve even opened a book. So I repeatedly have to re-direct them to what is in front of them.

This year I’ve added a lot more hands-on activities so we can combine much of our lessons and my youngest can still have fun. Only, I’ve become a more frustrated teacher rather than a fun teacher. I’ve noticed that these projects really derail our schedule. Our learning time.

I can hear Stephanie yelling in my ear right now that the projects ARE learning time. The more projects the better! I know, I know. But when they take their little explorer fact cards we are making and start turning them into Pokemon-like trading cards with health points based on the difficulties of their voyages, etc. I look at the spelling and the math books and begin to twitch.

My goal is to get to the end of the day and get through everything.

My kids’ goal is to have fun.

Having thought about this a lot, I finally realized where the tension lies and what to do about it. I am trying to harness in my children’s creativity so we can get finished—stop thinking of new things and let’s just do what is in front of us already!!!! But this is the exact opposite of what makes homeschooling so great. We are supposed to take the time to explore ideas. Play with new information. Allow creativity to flourish instead of being squashed into the proverbial box. So, what to do? I need to relax and explore with my kids. Teaching opportunities will naturally arise on these extended projects, and they will likely learn more—having fun while they do.

As all thoughts eventually lead to writing, I began to wonder. Am I doing this to my writing? Am I too concerned with getting to the end that I don’t explore enough? Be creative enough? I’ve written a lot of blogs about staying focused and on track. You know, keeping up the writing routine.

My goal as a writer is to get to the end of the book by my deadline.

My readers’ goal is to have fun.

There has to be a balance. No one will ever read my books if I don’t get them finished. On the other hand, no one will want to read them if I haven’t taken the time to infuse them with my own creativity. Ah, once again, the students teach the teacher.

What are you learning lately?

http://twitter.com/shonnaslayton

Writers often read for pleasure differently than non-writers. We see things that others don’t – typos, errors in logic, problems with point of view, questions in character motivation, and lots more. And so many times we think, now so long as I don’t do that, I’ll be fine. Or, if only I could do that I’d be an amazing writer!

I got tired of trying to keep track of what I’ve read and what I wanted to remember from it. At the beginning of this year, I bought a schoolchild’s composition or exercise book and I write down one page of notes on every book I read. (Right now, I’m only writing down information on fiction.) At the top of each page I write the date, the title, the author, and whether I borrowed the book or own it (in hard copy or on Kindle).

Then I write whatever comes to mind as I finish the book. Sometimes I’m surprised at how differently the book reads now than the first time I read it (like Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis). I didn’t remember Fog Magic being such a simple story, and I thought of lots of complexities I might add if I wrote it today.

A few times I’ve really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book and then the ending ruined my enjoyment – which means it’s the last thing I remember (Meridian by Amber Kizer and Fallen by Lauren Kate). These are the times that the sooner I write down my thoughts in my Reading Notebook, the more likely I’ll be to remember all the good things I liked about the first half of the book as well as what I felt was wrong with the end.

And then there are books I’m reading solely for escapist pleasure. Whether they are books I’ve read several times (Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood) or the first time read of a book by a favorite author (An Affair to Remember by Karen Hawkins), I make a note of my favorite parts or what I thought could be improved on or whatever I feel like writing at the time.

Now that I’m in school again, I’m also recording the novels I’ve read for class (Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer) and books I’m reading to study something on my own, maybe to study a technique or how description is used or how world-building is done (The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis). The entire process is less helpful if I don’t write down my thoughts right away or if it took me too long to read the book. (It took me nearly three months to read Dead Beat by Jim Butcher simply because I was constantly reading something else for class.)

Have you started something like this? If not, give it a try for a few months. It’s great for looking back and remembering a technique you wanted to emulate or something you wanted to steer clear of.

          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.

I’m convinced that a writer takes a vacation quite differently than most people (photographers and other artists notwithstanding.)

Planning: If at all possible, the writer will finagle an entire family vacation around the future setting of her next book. No matter if the book takes place in the distant reaches of the earth, or simply one town over. Or, if the desired location was not finagled, wherever the writer ends up WILL one day become the setting for a book. Somehow, someday. Furthermore, any related museums, excursions, taste-testing, and the like, must be researched and itinerized (this would make a great verb) ahead of time. Not to be neurotic, but there must also be high-speed internet access. And no complaining, family, please.

Packing: Books. Notepads. Pens. Camera. Voice recorder. Laptop. Chargers. Extra chargers because experience has proven that one will somehow get sliced in transit <!>. Oh, and I guess some random changes of clothing. Anyone have room in their suitcase for more books?

The Visit: The writer will try very hard to relax. To keep the computer turned off. But the mind, oh the mind when it relaxes! It begins to dream wonderful dreams about new characters and inciting incidents. And how would you describe that smell of the pine trees? Woodsy, with a hint of vanilla? Clean? Sharp? Pungent? What is the word I’m looking for?

The Warning! Woe to the spouse of a writer. You will have to endure moments such as your wife booking a room at a bed and breakfast housed in a mansion built in the 1930s just so she can experience living (and sleeping!) in such a place. Try not to get embarrassed when she takes pictures of EVERYTHING. Including the little key-hole covers, the arched doorway leading to the bathroom, the intricate wood paneling, the chandeliers (both of them), the window levers….She just doesn’t know what little detail she might need for the next book.

Souvenirs. If the writer has done well with a camera, she may not need an extra suitcase for the local guide books, history books, local artisan crafts, pressed vegetation, etc that she tends to accumulate. It’s not her fault. A writer never knows what is important until she’s into the second draft. Besides, this is a vacation. Doesn’t everyone bring home soil samples?

P.S. The photo above is of the fabulous Blaylock Mansion located of the shores of Kootenay Lake near Nelson, B.C. Canada. Constructed in the mid-1930s, it has three levels, 22 rooms. And yes, the keyholes have little covers that you would have to sweep to the side if you had one of those thick, clunky old keys with you.

I had a bad week last week. I got a couple of my final school papers in the mail and I wasn’t pleased with my grades nor all the comments from my teachers. I thought I’d done a lot better than I had. (If you didn’t know, I’m getting my Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree at UTS in Sydney.) Like so many things in life, I didn’t fully understand what had so upset me until a few days after my mini-meltdown.

The shortest explanation is one a friend had to remind me of – the last year and a half has seen a lot of huge changes in my life. Regardless of the fact that I wanted most of those changes (moving around the world, going back to school), they still take a physical and emotional toll. Add in some short-term good things (company from America) and some short-term irritations (accountant needed more tax info from me that I had to find), and I found myself getting angry to one degree or another regularly, finally losing it when I received my school papers.

The reason I didn’t recognize what was happening is that it was all on the inside. I’d get mad about something, vent, and move on to the next thing. I’d get frustrated, take some deep breaths and push through. Then I’d get down about something (grades) and find myself unable to get up again. Because I was focused on trying to push through, to be strong and keep plugging along, I wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on the inside until I couldn’t get out of bed one day.

The day that happened I knew I had some serious thinking to do. It finally occurred to me that I was low-level angry at all kinds of things a lot of the time. In the stress of my first semester of grad school, I’d let my interior monitor get out of synch. By the end of the semester, I couldn’t even tell I was stressed about anything. But that morning in bed I realized I’d stopped making a conscious choice about how I wanted to react to the situations around me. I’d gotten into the habit of letting myself feel frustrated at every opportunity, at the world, at others, and at myself.

So for the last week, I’ve been practicing choosing not to be angry, frustrated, or depressed about things. It’s amazing how many opportunities there were for practice!    But my interior monitor is getting re-synched. I’m getting better at reading myself again, and knowing when something needs to give, or change, or be left behind.

I was at a friend’s house who has a reverse-osmosis filter at her kitchen sink. She reminded me to fill my water glass using the filtered water rather than the regular tap water. The parallel between the water and my bad week was instantaneous. She needed a filter so that the water coming through her old pipes would not bring up all the rust and other deposits into the glass.

We need the same kind of filter when we are writing. We need something that purifies the water coming up out of our inner well. For many of us, that filter is the joy of writing. But that filter needs to be cleaned regularly or it stops working as well. I’m trying to shine up my joy-of-writing filter every time I sit down to write now. I picture myself writing happily on my book, and I let that image seep into me until I can feel myself smiling over how much I’ll enjoy it. Then I start writing.

Like with any other rejection, I gave myself 24-48 hours to get over the sting of those first semester grades. Then I went back to work on my book, knowing that I understand my target market, and believing that I’m doing a good job even if my academic acquaintances only half-agree.

If you haven’t done so lately, take a minute and check your interior monitor. Do you need to take a break? Do you need a cleaner writing filter? Or is your writing well clean and full of fresh ideas? I think I’m going to try to add this to my monthly or quarterly routines.

(If you missed it, check out my post on expectations and good and bad stress.)

          I love to write. If I don’t get to write for awhile, if get irritable and cranky. It’s as necessary for me to write as it is for me to eat or sleep. Even when I’m not actually writing, my mind is capturing and playing with ideas. The stray word or phrase, the interesting character, an intriguing circumstance.

          Sometimes, though, the ideas dry up and disappear. (Don’t you hate when that happens?) No matter how hard I search and struggle, I can’t pull anything worth writing out of my brain. Sometimes that signifies that I really need a break and I should back off the pressure and go do something fun. When I return to the computer in a day or so, the words flow easily from brain to keyboard. Sometimes, though, what I really need is to push through the block and just start writing. (Learning to discern which it is at any given time is a trick I’m still trying to master.)

          When I realize I just need to force myself to write, I do that in several different ways. I might spend 10-20 minutes just writing random thoughts about what I could be writing or how I feel about not having any ideas. A lot of times, this is all that is needed and I end up segueing into my project. At other times, I need a little help. That’s usually when I turn to my prompt books. I have a few I return to over and over again.

          “Fast Fiction” by Roberta Allen is probably my most-used. I think this is where I first read the idea of setting the timer for 5-minutes and writing as fast as possible about something. Suggestions from this book include “Write a story about a lie,” “Write a story about death,” or “Write a story about a disguise.” Other books I’ve used for inspiration are “Everyday Creative Writing – Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink) by Michael C. Smith and Suzanne Greenberg and “Story Starters” by Lou Willett Stanek.

          Lately I’ve been searching for other places to generate ideas. Of course, just as any sane person in this time would do, I Googled “creative writing prompts”.) I came up with more sites than I could possibly go visit in a reasonable amount of time. Here are a few I have visited.

• http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
  This one has a page full of numbers. When you hover your cursor over the numbers, a pop up window appears with the short prompt.
• http://writingfix.com/index.htm
  This one has several lists of writing prompts, sorted by type, such as right-brain prompts and left-brain prompts.
• http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/writing/writing.prompts.html
  This one has picture prompts.
• http://www.thewritingsite.org/resources/prompts/default.asp
  This one has lots of prompts as well as ideas for teaching others to write.

          How do you break through writer’s block?

Part 1:  Daydreaming for Ideas

A few weeks ago, Stephanie mentioned she was starting the writing processes with some daydreaming. Which got me to thinking about daydreaming.

And, since I like to classify, I identified three types of daydreaming a writer should do often. First up on the blog: daydream for ideas.

Ideas are arguably the bread and butter of the writer. You’ve got to come up with better ideas than the other writers out there; purposely cultivate your imagination so you get used to thinking differently than everyone else.

Tips:

1.  Free writing. Morning pages. Whatever you call it, you simply write for 10-15 minutes or so straight, putting down anything that comes to mind.

2. Story starters/Writing Prompts.

a. For kids, the Scholastic Story Starter.  I spun the wheel and came up with Describe a day in the life of an old magpie bird who is shipwrecked on a desert island.

b. The Storystarter website randomly offers ideas like: The unhappy crayon collector found the top secret document in the store to answer the challenge.

Now, these particular examples would be good for writing kidlit, but if you don’t write kidlit, you could maybe take a word or phrase that stands out to you like “answer the challenge” and go from there.

c.  Gail Carson Levine’s blog,  more often than not, includes writing prompts following a teaching point. For example, this prompt from the blog post Change or stay just who you are:

Your main character wants to reform herself, stop being bossy and become more caring.  Write a scene in which she completely fails at this self-improvement.

Her excellent advice usually includes:  “Have fun and save what you write!”

3.  Doodle with words. Make yourself a word cloud by hand, or use wordle. Or the google wonder wheel. Follow all rabbit trails to see where they lead.

4.  Read the newspaper and find a human interest story that catches your eye. Keep a file.

5. Pretend to take a nap; keep a notepad nearby.

6.  Review your journal of ideas–you have one, right?–and pick one idea to sit and daydream about.

Now off you go. Find yourself a comfy hammock and daydream away.

Part 2: Daydreaming For the Future.

          I have a Kindle! I have a Kindle!

          Laugh all you want at my excitement. It won’t phase me. I’m too immersed in reading the plethora of books I’ve discovered for my new Kindle.

          This unexpected gift was handed to me last week, just in time for an extended road trip. And just in time to help me achieve my Anti-Procrastination Month goal of reading 4 new novels this month. I knew I needed to read more, fill my creative tank, so to speak and this month seemed the perfect time. I had an extended road trip planned and would have at least half the travel time to read (more if my daughter can’t relax enough to let me drive her car).

          Before I even suspected I would receive a Kindle, I’d learned about Amazon’s Kindle for PC, an easily downloadable program that allows you to read Kindle books on your PC. In a few easy steps I had the program loaded and my first (free!) book downloaded. Within days, I’d discovered the Kindle version of several books I’d been wanting to read. They were only $.99! In the two weeks leading up to my vacation, I added more books to my Kindle for PC. I was ready to go. I could read my novels on my computer while we drove all over the US.

          Two days before my departure, an elderly relative called and asked me to come see him. When I arrived, he handed me a box. I opened it. It was a Kindle! I have a dear friend who calls me the Queen of Understatement. To say I was thrilled is a huge understatement. I squealed and hugged him and thanked him several times. Then I went home and neglected the multitude of tasks I needed to do to play with my new toy.

          As content as I was to read my books on my PC, I’m so thankful to have a Kindle. It is so easy to read! I can even sit in the sun and read, no glare on the screen. And it’s so small, it fits in my purse, available at anytime I might have to redeem otherwise wasted minutes. It holds more books than I could read in years, all a 5 x 8 “book” that weighs less than most paperbacks. I can be read multiple books and my Kindle automatically takes me to the last page I read when I open each book. I love my Kindle.

          The definition of kindle is “to ignite or set on fire.” Receiving my Kindle has done just that. I’ve always loved reading. I now love it even more.

          My goal for Anti-Procrastination Month was to read 4 novels. I read “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane before my road trip, “Rooms” by James L. Rupert in the first few days of the trip and am now reading “The Light Princess” by George MacDonald, “Refuge” by Stephanie Gallentine and “The Word Reclaimed” by Steve Rzasa. I still have 1500 more miles to travel. With a battery that holds a charge for over a week, that’s plenty of time to finish these stories. (Especially if my daughter never wants me to drive. ) I love my Kindle!

          Do you think reading novels is as important (and fun!) as writing them? What novels are you reading? Do you have or want an electronic reader? Or do you prefer the experience of paper and ink? What kindles your reading enthusiasm?

          It took me years to discover, or at least admit, the value of routines. As you have surely picked up on if you read us regularly, I am pretty much a free spirit. I like being free to choose what, where and when to do what I want to do. I don’t like being a slave to a clock or to a schedule. Or maybe a people person is a better description. I rarely turn down an opportunity to spend time with others. Every one of my grown children know that I will stop what I’m doing to have a conversation with them. They need only skype or call and I’ll make the time to chat or talk. Only occasionally do I tell them I’m busy and need to talk later.

          The peace to do that, though, came only once I embraced the structure imposed on me (some self-imposed, most life/husband/others-imposed). I think I’m now a fairly disciplined and structured person. (As long as you don’t compare me to my husband . . . or ask him to verify what I just said. LOL) It is because I discovered routines actually make spontaneity easier, more fun and much more guilt-free. Once I realized that, I embraced structure with all the passion of my all-or-nothing personality, even as I’ve bent it to my people-first, spontaneity-loving personality.

          Structure helps me be productive even while feeding my penchant for spontaneity. Routines, the right routines, allow me a freedom not present in an I-can-do-anything-I-want kind of day. When I fashion my daily activities and responsibilities into routines, I can act without thinking, do without a lot of decision-making, create without any guilt. When I fashion those tasks I want to accomplish into steps or actions that are done every day, in the same way, in the same order (although not always at the same time-I’m not a clock watcher), I get more done, I have more fun experiences and I’m much more content. When I jettison my routines, decide to wing-it and take each moment as it comes, I miss so many opportunities and lose facets of enjoyment, even in the creative moments of the day.

          No, I do not like, nor do I do well, when every moment of my day is structured or when I have a lot of time-sensitive activities in a day. I need a balance, a free-flowing, amorphous structure that can change and adapt to my emotions, desires and what’s going on around me. I need a schedule that easily adapts, retains its form even as it flexes to accommodate changes.

          Over the years, I’ve had a lot of such routines. When the children were young and we first started homeschooling, our schoolday started with a bible story, a reading lesson, a math lesson, and story-time. Every day, once the first activity was started, it was easy to do the others. We did much more than those activities, but that was the routine that kept us on track. (That and the weekly routine of getting together with another family for school activities once a week.)

          My morning routine is actually my most established one. Some might even call it a rut. It serves me well, though. I’m not a morning person, not by any stretch or contortion of imagination. When I get out of bed, my mind is still sitting on the edge yawning and stretching. No matter how awake and refreshed I feel. The no-brain-needed routine of makeup, hair and clothes ensures I am ready for the day by the time I leave my bedroom. (I tacked feeding my cats to that routine so the poor things would be sure to get fed. )

          Routines establish a base, a foundation of structure, but they can be as unique as each personality. Just as two houses can have the same floor plan, but look totally different, so routines can be modified and supplemented . Your routines of life will not look like mine. In fact, my husband swears I have no routine. But I am up and dressed every day, the house stays reasonably clean, meals are prepared with regularity, we rarely run out of anything essential to daily life and we always (well almost always) have clean clothes to wear. I engage in multiple volunteer and social activities. I know with one glance at my calendar what new activity I can or cannot add. He is right, though, to look at my days would be to see a lot of activity, much of it unique to the day. That’s the way I like it. Just like the piles on my desk that look like clutter, but whose contents are solidly in my mind, so is the schedule of my daily activities solidly ensconced in productivity-producing routines.

          Most of the time.

          What routines keep you on track? Or maybe you need to create one that will get you making progress during this month of anti-procrastination.

Programming note: Before we get on to Margie’s last blog with us, I just wanted to announce our second annual Author Crush Month. In honor of Valentines Day in February we are taking the entire month to have our favorite authors blog with us about their writing routines. (Use our search tool to find our “author crush” authors from last year!) It’s going to be a fantastic month, you won’t want to miss it.

Now, onto Margie Lawson! We are so going to miss her after this fabulous month of revision. In our behind-the scenes correspondence I’ve been calling it our Margie Extravaganza! Margie has been a joy to host. She is one hard-working lady! I know you have all benefited from her blogs this month. Here she is with her final word:

More Secrets to Writing Irresistible Fiction

MARGIE’S KILLER 5Q!

The Five Question Scene Checklist

My Five Question Scene Checklist is tough, tough, tough. It’s lethal.

I developed my Five Question Scene Check list (5Q) for writers to use as a tool to assess all the facets of Margie-style deep editing. That’s psychologically anchored deep editing.

If you know me, you know I’m a Deep Edit guru. I analyze people, books, characters, plot, writing craft . . . Analysis is my world.

Most of what I teach in my editing courses is what I’ve created. It’s not your 10^th grade English teacher’s editing.

I dig deep into my 5Q in the Deep Editing course I teach on-line in May. The 5Q consists of five questions. It’s the subsets that are killers.

The multiple subset questions make you analyze, assess, probe, and justify each line, paragraph, page, and scene.

Margie’s Killer 5 Q:

The Five Question Scene Checklist

1—ANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES?

Power Opening:

— Opening Hook?

— Anchored Reader in POV?

— Oriented Reader to Setting and Function?

— Used Cadence?

— Optional:  Used Rhetorical Device?

— Made Opening Compelling in Other Ways?  How?

Power Scene:

Fresh writing?

Nixed Clichés?

Specificity?

Characterization?

Character Description?

Cadence?

Pacing?

Flow?

Used Which Rhetorical Devices?

The EDITS System – Balance?

– Emotion?

– Dialogue?

– Internalizations?

– Tension?

– Setting?

– DABS:  — Dialogue Cues

— Action

— Body Language

— Senses

MISSED OTHER OPPORTUNITIES to Add Power or Clarity?

Is dialogue character-specific?  Tight?  Natural?  Sentence fragments?

Can you put NYT in the margin by a line or paragraph that is so stellar it will boost you toward the New York Times Bestseller list?

2— CAN YOU TIGHTEN THE PAGE, SCENE, CHAPTER?

Backstory?

Throw-away words?

Attributions?

Walking the Dog?

Could you delete a section and replace with a narrative line or paragraph, and still keep your reader hooked – and informed — and pick up the pace?

3— WHAT WOULD ENHANCE EMOTION?

Is the POV character’s emotional set shared with the reader. How?  Where?

Add Power Words?

Backload?

Add more Body Language and Dialogue Cues?   Specify:

Rewrite Body Language and Dialogue Cues to make them fresh?

Add more Visceral Responses?  Write them fresh?

Add more Emotional Hits?

— Take Basics to Complex?

— Complex to Empowered?

Add Power Internalizations?

Does a Turning Point need to be Empowered?

Hook at end of scene or chapter?

4— HOW CAN YOU UP THE STAKES?

On every page, ask yourself, WHO CARES?

How can you make the problem count more?

Can you add a complication?

Can you make the situation worse?

Can you empower the writing to immerse the reader in the sentence? Paragraph?  Page?  Scene?

5—HOW DOES IT RATE?

1)  Scrutinize each line. Do you need every word?  Does every word work?

2)  When each line passes inspection, place a red check mark in the right margin by the last word in that line.

Is every line checked?

3) RATE EACH PAGE:  Choose 1 – 10, 10 being your best work. Write the number at the top of each page. Circle it. Is it a 10?

If you can’t give that page a TEN – Why not?

What do you need to add?

What do you need to delete?

JUSTIFY HOW YOU RATED IT.

If it doesn’t rate a 10, tweak it. Rewrite. Get tough. Rewrite again. Apply the 5Q again.

When you get it to a 9.7 – 10, KNOW WHY.

Be prepared to defend your rating with your critique partners.

BLOG GUESTS – ARE YOU STILL BREATHING?

Let’s dig deep into three excerpts. I’ll analyze the first one.

Here’s an amplified example from Harlan Coben, LONG LOST.  My Deep Editing Analysis is below the example.

I was about to crack wise—something like “tell all your friends” or “sigh, another satisfied customer”—but something in her tone made me pull up. Something in her tone overwhelmed me and made me ache. I squeezed her hand and stayed silent and then I watched her walk away.

ANALYSIS:

1. Showed WHAT WASN’T HAPPENING, what he didn’t say

2. Uses DIALOGUE CUE  –  describes how the dialogue was delivered

3. SPECIFICITY – throughout the passage

4. Rhetorical Device – A DOUBLE.  I made up that term – DOUBLE.   SOMETHING IN HER TONE is an intentional echo.  It’s almost the rhetorical device, anaphora — repetition of first word or phrases of three phrases or sentences in a row.   Powerful.

5. Second part of the DOUBLE – goes DEEPER.  Taps emotion.

6. TONE is used as a STIMULUS – and the reader gets FIVE RESPONSES from her TONE:  pull up (stop), overwhelmed, ache, squeezed hand, stayed silent, watched her walk away (did not follow her)

7. POV character shared what he intended to do, but didn’t – because of her TONE.

8. Rhetorical Device:  AMPLIFICATION:  developed emotion and showed all those responses

9. COMMUNICATION with HAPTICS – touch

10. Rhetorical Device:  POLYSYNDETON – Last sentence uses multiple conjunctions and no commas.  Makes the read more imperative.

11. CADENCE – strong.

12.  Show EMOTIONAL SET of POV character changing from playful to angst

13. TAPS EMOTION in reader

14. FRESH WRITING

15.  HOOKED ME.  DRAWS ME INTO THE STORY – Makes me want to read more.

Tana French, THE LIKENESS:

My hand was on the door handle when for a split second out of nowhere I was terrified, blue-blazing terrified, fear dropping straight through me like a jagged black stone falling fast.  I’d felt this before, in the limbo instants before I moved out of my aunt’s house, lost my virginity, took my oath as a police officer: those instants when the irrevocable thing you wanted so much suddenly turns real and solid, inches away and speeding at you, a bottomless river rising and no way back once it’s crossed.  I had to catch myself from crying out like a little kid drowning in terror,         I don’t want to do this any more.

Robert Crais, THE TWO MINUTE RULE

Wally came over and touched Holman’s arm with fingers as light as a breath.

“He was killed last night. I’m sorry, man. I’m really, really sorry.”

Holman heard the words: he saw the pain in Wally’s eyes and felt the concern in Wally’s touch, but Wally and the room and the world left Holman behind like one car pulling away from another on a flat desert highway, Holman hitting the brakes, Wally hitting the gas, Holman watching the world race away.

That’s powerful writing.

It’s cotton-candy-on-your-tongue writing.  It makes you want more and more and more.

It’s the caliber of writing you find in some New York Times Bestsellers. It’s the caliber of writing you will find in books by Harlan Coben, Tana French, and Robert Crais.   ))

BLOG GUESTS:  It’s your turn!  I’m giving you options.

Option One:  Analyze the excerpt by Tana French or the one by Robert Crais.  Share something Tana or Robert did right.

Option Two:  Analyze the excerpt by Robert Crais.  Share something Robert did right.

Option Three: Apply one or more questions from the 5Q to a page or a scene in your Work In Progress. What did you learn?

REQUEST:

I’d love to hear from you!

I’ll respond as time allows during my work day. I’ll be on-line in the evening (Mountain Time).

POST A COMMENT – AND YOU MAY WIN A LECTURE PACKET!

I will draw a name for a Lecture Packet, a $22 value, at 9PM Mountain Time. Winners may choose a Lecture Packet from one of my six on-line courses. Lecture Packets are available for all my courses through Paypal from my website, www.MargieLawson.com.

1.  Empowering Characters’ Emotions

2.  Deep Editing:  The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More

3.  Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist

4.  Powering Up Body Language in Real Life:

Projecting a Professional Persona When Pitching and Presenting

5.  Digging Deep into the EDITS System

6.  Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors

Margie Lawson —psychotherapist, writer, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques for writers.

Her Deep Editing tools are used by all writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers.  She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.

Over four thousand writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material.  In the last five years, she presented fifty-four full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Lectures from each of Margie’s on-line courses are offered as Lecture Packets through PayPal from her web site.  For more information on courses, lecture packets, master classes, and 3-day Immersion Master Class sessions, visit:  www.MargieLawson.com .

FYI:  BRENDA NOVAK’S DIABETES AUCTION!

NYT Bestseller, Brenda Novak, donates an amazing chunk of her life to fundraising for diabetes research.  She selflessly gives months of her energy, creativity, and what would have been writing time, family time, self-time to her DIABETES AUCTION.

For writers – it’s a warm-your-heart win-win.  Bid on one of the hundreds of items – support diabetes research and you may win an experience that changes your life. A plotting lunch with an agent or NYT bestseller at a national conference could contribute to a contract for you.

If you’re not familiar with this auction — it’s a gold mine for writers!
My husband and I love to support the Diabetes Auction.  With close to 1000 donations, if I don’t mention them . . . you might miss them.

Yikes – a Missed Opportunity!

Margie’s Donations:

1. A set of six Lecture Packets
2. A 50 page Triple Pass Deep Edit Critique

3. Registration for a Write At Sea Master Class by Marge Lawson on Deep Editing Power, April 4 -8, 2011; donation by Margie Lawson and Julia Hunter

4.  A FLYING GETAWAY FOR TWO

You select the destination – any place within 600 nautical miles from Denver.

A weekend, you and a friend, plus my pilot-husband flying our four-seater plane, me, and a two-hour deep editing consult. The consult is on the ground.

THE DIABETES AUCTION runs from MAY 1ST to MAY 31ST. You can tour the
Diabetes Auction site now.  http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/

Brenda Novak is my hero.  What a way to give back.

Thank you for your time – and thank you for joining us today!

All smiles…………Margie

www.MargieLawson.com