Life getting in the way of life? Maybe

OK, OK, here I am. Sorry for being absent last week. Life has been crazy busy. Last week, Aug 16-22, was county fair week here in Northern Illinois and I spent 4 of the seven days attending the fair for at least 3 to 4 hours each visit. Plus my niece was visiting from California. Then we had one of our children, with spouse and child, staying over the weekend and one child heading back to college—all in all a very crazy week. So finding the time to sit down and write was nearly impossible.

The Impossibility of Writing

Which leads me to a problem that has been plaguing me today. I’m trying to write some poems as I’ve committed to being part of a poetry anthology. Why I was asked is still a bit of a mystery to me. Don’t get me wrong, I have composed several poems I am exceptionally proud of, but I only have 8 poems to offer up for the anthology. But those poems were written as an emotional reaction to something happening in my life. One that I’m particularly proud of was written in response to our daughter Dayna getting married in May. I’ll post it here some time for you all to enjoy.

Anyway, now I’m trying to write poems on purpose and finding it a difficult trail to navigate. I’ve written one poem a dozen times now. I think what I started doing today may be the final, but it’s going to take me days to finish what I think will be a seven stanza poem with an abcb rhyme scheme. Meter I’m not even worrying about. If I can get this one done that will make nine poems and I’d like to have at least a dozen written for the book. But I only have 7 weeks and this one poem has taken me nearly two weeks. Not looking good.

Sitting on the Deck

So in order to get a different perspective on things I sat on the deck on this absolutely beautiful August afternoon. Low humidity and mid 80 temps—heaven. I went out armed with an old notebook, dictionary, thesaurus, and my notes and handouts from the RWA conference in July. Thought I might have time to read through some of my notes—um, yeah, right.

Anyway, I started out just observing the day. I live in the middle of twenty acres, 3 miles from the nearest town of 1,100 and 15 miles from the nearest city of 150,000 and only 4 neighbors bordering our property and those far enough away that I can only really see one of the houses. The view from my deck is currently a field of corn with a woods at the far edge of the cornfield—very relaxing. As I sat there thoughts of my dad, who passed away a year ago, crept into my mind. My dad loved to sit on the front porch on summer afternoons armed with the radio tuned to WGN for the Cub’s game, wood for whittling and a cold beer at hand. Sitting there in my solitude I understood why he loved it so. It refreshes the soul and clears the mind like nothing else I know. And it made me think of him and smile. I miss seeing him sitting on the front porch. I’d stop if he was there and we’d talk and share a beer. My mom is now living in a Alzheimer’s care facility and I drive a different route back and forth to work so I don’t go past the house very often. And I did find a little inspiration for my poem—I decided on the abcb rhyme scheme and actually accomplished writing two stanzas in the new rhyming scheme.

Notes for 2009 RWA Conference

In the back of the notebook I took out on the deck with me I found notes from the 2009 RWA conference in Washington D.C. I started reading through the notes and came across some from a workshop I attended on building layers into your writing. It was a very interesting workshop. The presenter was author Renee Ryan and she explained how she writes. She creates her first draft and then so goes back through her first draft and begins building layers into her ms. There are seven layers she adds into her scenes, but not all scenes will need all seven layers.

The first layer is action. Renee made a point of noting there a no talking heads in her books. Stationary people do not exist in real life and so they shouldn’t exist in your manuscript either.

The second layer is adding in the five senses. The sense of smell can have a very powerful pull on a person’s memories, as do songs. These things can be layered into the scene to add dimension.

Layer three is setting the scene. Putting your characters into a setting adds richness and puts your readers into the time period of your story.

The fourth layer is emotion. This is an important aspect of any fiction, but is especially important to romance. You want your reader to feel what your characters are feeling. When you add emotion you give the reader a richer experience.

Layer five is dialogue. Make sure your dialogue rings true, is true to your character and to your character’s gender. Dialogue that is stilted or rigid or is not something your reader thinks that character would say will throw the reader right out of the story.

The sixth layer is weaving in your backstory. Be careful not to do a backstory dump. Keep the reader on a need to know basis when it comes to backstory by only giving them the essential information for that scene. Do you really need to tell the reader the heroine loved to bake pies with her Aunt Maude? Only if it pertains to the scene.

Layer seven is sexual tension. Adding this in gradually and carefully will make the romance believable. If you skip building sexual tension and it’s just lust that brings your hero and heroine together your reader won’t buy into their being compatible and staying together for that all important HEA (happily ever after).

Now, not all of this layering has to happen in each scene. That’s where the talent and creativity of the writer comes into play. As a matter of fact I believe that adding all of this into each scene will make your writing rather tedious for your reader. Be discerning and look at each scene and see what it needs to have more depth.

If you have any thoughts I’d love to hear from you.

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mc

Adverbs: In or out?

The RWA forums, especially the craft forum, have been busier than they have in the year since I started participating on them. I should probably more correctly say, since I became a lurker, I read but almost never post. Most of the time it’s because I don’t feel I have anything of substance to contribute. But other times I find the conversation so lively and informative that I just enjoy reading.  Every once in a while I’ll jump in on a topic that I feel compelled to participate in.

It was about 6 weeks before the RWA’s Annual Conference that I noticed an increase in posts on the craft forum and it hasn’t slowed down since returning from the conference. The level of help that is offered is outstanding—new authors pose questions while seasoned authors give exceptional advice. I've learned a lot being a lurker.

Adverbs

One recent discussion on the craft forum is one that comes up with some regularity, rules. Now there are some rules that all writers should follow, such as the rules regarding grammar, punctuation and spelling. Some of which I know I will never get right. But the ‘rule’ that was brought up in the forum this week was concerning agents and their dislike/hatred of adverbs. One newbie said she had heard all agents hate adverbs.

First of all, one cannot make a generalized statement about any group of people—ever. Every agent or editor is an individual and will have their own likes, dislikes, expectations and preferences, unknown quantities that one cannot judge or access. Second, thinking that all agents dislike adverbs, can shut down a writer’s willingness to submit. Actually I believe what is really being said here is ‘don’t overuse adverbs’. Chose strong verbs that will make your writing more interesting.

Rules

I hate rules for any type of art form. Rules can stifle creativity. BUT, you need to have a good understanding of them before you can start to break them. Many of the greatest writers and artists were rule breakers. But they first had to work within an established set of rules. Then they started pushing against the sides of the boxes containing those rules. They stretched, pulled and manipulated those rules to create something new and interesting.

Now, there are rules you will have to follow as a writer, the grammar, punctuation and spelling rules I mentioned at the beginning and the rules outlined for contest entries. Follow those to the letter if you want your contest submission in the voting pile instead of the disqualified heap.

So when you hear someone say or you read somewhere that agents and editors don’t like something, question it. Is it really a rule or is it a guideline? What is that guideline telling you? That agents and editors don’t like adverbs? Why don’t they like adverbs?  Think. Question. Push. Stretch. This stuff isn’t written in stone. Challenge yourself. Now, go out and break some rules!

More RWA Conference Reflections

So, the big meeting at the RWA Annual conference with Linda Fildew from Harlequin Mills Boon. I wrote about the meeting with her several weeks ago. She was one of the reasons I ordered business cards. I prepared diligently for my appointment weeks before the conference. I wrote and rewrote my sentence for pitching my book several dozen times. I tried not to obsess over my pitch. When I got to the conference I listened to conversations going on around me at lunchtime or standing in line at a book signing or sitting and waiting for a workshop to begin. I listened to other writers who were preparing to pitch to an agent or an editor. All of them seemed to be saying the same thing. You need to have your pitch down to a sentence and then leave the rest of your time open for questions or conversation. I did this. I sat in on a workshop called The Tiny Art of the Elevator Pitch. The presenter emphasized having your pitch to a sentence and to use words that gave your sentence punch. I submitted my sentence for review, but time ran out before mine came up. But I took the advice to heart and rewrote my sentence one more time. I also made a list of high points I didn’t want to forget to talk about after presenting my pitch sentence.

I arrived for my appointment the requisite 10 minutes early for my 10 minute appointment. Along with the other appointees, I dutifully lined up. Then we walked by rows to the line of tables were the editors and agents were seated. Ms. Fildew was lovely and welcoming. I gave her my card, sat down and she invited me to tell me about the book I’d written. I gave her my pitch sentence. She asked me to elaborate. She told me she thought my story sounded interested. Then she told me about a contest that Harlequin Mills Boon is sponsoring. A writer submits their first chapter. If the judges like the first chapter they will ask for the second and the submission will continue until they may request the whole manuscript. The idea being for the judges/editors to see how you write and hear your voice and decide if what you have will be a fit for Harlequin Mills Boon. She gave me the information for submitting to the contest. I thanked her and left. I went back up to the main conference floor and listened to the excited phone calls other authors were making to family and friends. I knew they had been accepted, while I had been given something just shy of a rejection. I didn’t bother calling my husband, who was off riding roller coaster and other rides I no longer enjoy riding. There wasn’t anything to tell him. At last year’s conference I had an agent appointment. She requested partials of both of my finished books. Which lead to my making a couple of very excited phone calls. But I never heard another thing from her, even after I sent numerous e-mails and left messages. I understood the excitement of the conference attendees who’d had successful editor/agent appointments. I felt that way last year. I only hoped that these authors had better luck than I’d had.

But I’ve decided not to let this disappointment color what I am going to do. I WILL enter the Harlequin Mills Boon contest. I will take what I learned about writing query letters at the conference and begin sending them out. Jayne Ann Krentz said she had decided she would keep trying until she had 1,000 rejections. Luckily for all of us it didn’t take a 1,000 rejects before someone took a chance on her.

One thing is very clear. To be an author means to be tenacious. That if you really want to be a writer and make a living doing it you have learn your craft, work hard and you can never give up, never take no as an acceptable answer and never let anyone get under your skin. Of course knowing or understanding those things is a whole lot different from actually living it. Yes, I will still suffer the self-doubt all writers struggle with. Yes, I will want to throw in the towel when I receive rejection after rejection. Yes, I will probably let someone’s unflattering review get to me. Yes, I will have set backs, big and small. And yes, somehow I will find a way to move passed all that and continue on because I have never wanted anything more in my life. 

Any thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.

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mc