Tick, Tock, Countdown...

It's almost time! Although the 'official' start of our NaNoRevMo is next Monday, let's go through a few last minute things.

-You'll need to revise/reread your manuscript several times- but don't expect to do it multiple times in this month (only if you're on deadline, are stuck with nothing else to do, you have plans after the revision or you're quite adept at editing).

- When you sit down, do it in a workspace that encourages you to work hard: no too soft couches, no distracting noises (I can't work with music because I tend to sing along, and then the lyrics suggest other books, etc.) Make sure it's well lit, a comfortable temperature (but not too warm, it'll make you sleepy), you have space for all your resources like your theasaurus, coffee cup, etc.

-If you don't have to, don't answer the phone. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of a great thought and the phone rings for someone who wants to sell you something you don't need/want, or a friend/relative calling to chit chat. If it's your kid from school or someone else who you know most likely needs to talk to you, answer it- but jot down your thought first! It helps if you can tell your loved ones/friends that you'll be busy and could they call you after dinner or whatever hours you plan to work.

-Plan a schedule. Some of you have kids, like me. Some, jobs. Some, a sick relative. Whatever else you need time for, plan your editing around it- even if it's an hour while the kid is at sports practice as you sit in the car, or first thing in the morning before everyone is up. Find at least 1-2 golden hours total a day.

-There may be some days that you can't get any editing done. Like NaNoWriMo, don't beat yourself up! It took many writers years to write and perfect their drafts (and there still were changes), so unless you know aliens are coming next month to take you away and you want to leave the draft for your family to inherit, don't sweat it. It will get done in your good time. (But don't be a slacker! Don't give in to excuses like, 'I'm a little tired. I'll do twice as much tomorrow.' You don't want to get caught in the I'll-catch-up-eventually loop. A real writer can't rest until the job is done. Be one of those.

-You're going to have to cut up your baby. Be brave, be swift. Even when you have to lose scenes that you just love. (I'm still struggling with this- it's okay to cry and swear and throw a few pillows at the wall if it'll make you feel better. Usually it doesn't.) The goal is a polished novel, and like a gemologist, sometimes you have to sacrifice perfect bits so that the whole gem sparkles. And no, it never gets easier, but you somehow learn to do it and live with it.

-Take a break! Long periods of time sitting in a chair whether it's at Starbucks, your dining room table, the car, where ever, can make you stiff and drowsy. When you're pondering whether to kill a character, change settings, or even throw out a bunch of chapters, get up, get a drink, a snack, walk around. It may help you think, give your body an adrenalive boost. Never have everything at your fingertips.

-How do you work- on your laptop or the old fashioned way of pen and paper? I've done both, although for the first time through, I like the laptop. I fix the obvious- misspellings, format (centering of chapter titles and numbers, starting chapters halfway down page, etc.), obvious inconsistencies like when a character's name changes, and a general global search for those words I know I overuse, like 'just.' Then I move onto the paper and pen because it's slower, more deliberate (and I can take it anywhere- I can edit standing in line.) I find the mix of the two forces me to be more thorough.

-Stuck? Don't panic. Discuss it with someone (unless your relative/friend is an editor, agent, or fellow writer, find someone more neutral. No matter what, anyone with a close connection is probably going to like it. Trust me on this.). This is where a critique group helps (they can/should be brutally honest.) Or, make a list of possible solutions and see which one jumps out at you. Realize though, that you can't simply hopscotch over the problem and come back to it later because it's a domino effect- the problem gets bigger as your novel progresses. Fix it asap and let the rest of the manuscript fall into place.

-If the fat lady's singing... or simply if the book is not working- the characters are flat (fixable), the plot plods (fixable) or the dialogue is stilted (fixable) or the point of view jumps all over the place (fixable)- you can save the manuscript. But if you have a combination, most, or all of these problems, it might be the death knell for this book. There is not one successful author that doesn't have several novels sitting in a drawer or lighting the logs in the fireplace. It happens. Don't give up too easy- try to work through it by listing all the problems and then solutions. Attempt a resurrection, but if it doesn't work, kiss it goodbye and move onto that other idea that's been intruding at inappropriate times, keeping you from sleep or work.

-Don't even think of a 'book doctor' until you've attempted to fix it yourself. It's like calling in a carpenter to tighten a loose screw. If you become accustomed to relying on someone else to correct the flaws in your manuscript, you won't get valuable practice and experience, and if you ever sell your book to a traditional publisher, you won't be able to make the edits yourself. Plus, it'll cost you a fortune.

So get everything into place, read those books, make some notes (I know you've noticed some things needed fixing as you wrote the novel...). Maybe a chapter outline (one or two sentences per chapter) is a good starting point, so that if you have to cut out/add scenes, you can see how it might affect the subsequent chapters.

I'll be working on my time-travel YA romance. I've done one pass but I know it has a major flaw so that it reads as a collection of short stories. I need a better connector (I'm not using a time machine so I have to be real creative). Now that my belove New England Patriots didn't make the Super Bowl I won't waste time preparing for a big party and watching the game. This week I will be finishing my middle grade and my NA sci fi edits (again) so that I can focus on the time travel while we all edit together.

See you Monday, February 1st!

Char
All graphics courtesy of Microsoft, Inc.

Refresh, Remind, Revisit...

Yep, the blog post is late.

Again.

Life happens.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to completely blow it off. The post I planned will come out next week. In the meantime, something is better than nothing. This may seem like "Yeah, I know all this already" but just read through and double check your writing--or maybe this checklist applies to other areas of your life, like a memo for work, a presentation at a school board meeting...

Think about it.

15 Things Not to Learn the Hard Way…

1   No cutesy pictures, embellished envelopes, gifts, or gimmicks.

These are the signs of an amateur, someone who is desperate and hasn’t done his homework. If you’re a writer, it gives the impression that your work can’t stand on its merits. Unless they’re interested in the artwork, you probably won’t get a response. And packages coming from people the editors don’t know?  After 9/11 policies changed and rare is the editor or agent that will accept packages.

.        How did you get from Point A to Point B?

Don’t leave gaps in action or movement so that readers are confused. If there is a complicated action or fight sequence, act it out to be sure you’ve covered all the moves. Don’t leave your character sitting on the floor when a sentence previous she was lying on the bed. Be sure your character is using the correct hand, foot, etc. too! When using flashbacks or other ‘time-changing’ devices, make sure they didn’t have a transporter malfunction and ended up somewhere they couldn’t be.

     Have you got the time?

Do we know what time of day or year it is? Keep track of characters moving through years, days, and hours. If you have to, make a timeline. Use senses rather than clocks; bells ringing at noon, rush hour, dinner time, falling leaves, half moons, etc. to give readers a sense of time. If you have a big time gap, there has to be an explanation, like Meyer’s empty pages with just the month on them for Bella’s almost comatose state.

       I’ve heard that before!

Do a global word search in your ms to make sure you don’t have word ‘favorites;’ like just, simply, oh, really, yeah, well, etc. Use them sparingly, eliminating all but a few, and those should be well spaced. If you find you need a word, check your thesaurus for a substitution. And be careful of clichés!

     He said, she said, I said, we said.

You don’t always need a dialogue tag. Identify speaker by actions; I picked my nose. “Look, it’s green!” identifies the speaker; I glared at my sister. “What are you staring at?” Also, substitute other words in place of said; yell, cried, whispered, and the like because they are more descriptive. Yell is different from said. Careful about adverbs though, they are currently out of favor, but sometimes one is necessary; cried softly or cried loudly? Caution- don’t go crazy that every tag has to be different. Sometimes said is just fine.

     Did not you see?

Know your (not you’re!) contractions! Know the difference between accept and except, affect and effect, know that irregardless is not word! Relearn how to make a possessive! It’s means it is, its means possessive, but it’s not always that simple! Poor grammar leaves a poor impression and getting published is hard enough. You should have both Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style and either the AP or Chicago Stylebook. Ignore the squiggly lines in your document at your peril (but realize that word processing programs aren't always right!).

     See things from my point of view.

Stick to one point of view if you have one main character. With more than one character, First Person narrative can be alternated, but generally (as in kids' books) not in the same chapter. First person means “I,” so the character speaking can’t know what another person is thinking unless they are told, can deduce it from actions, or can make an educated guess. Third person omniscient means “They,” and the narrator can be ‘all seeing’ and know what everyone’s thinking. Mixing the two usually doesn’t work, and just confuses the reader.

 To be, or not to have been

See how awkward this version of Hamlet sounds? Don’t mix tenses, especially in the same sentence. Picture books are generally all one tense. There are ways to mix, but make sure you know how to do it, and if it fits with your voice and style. And keep in mind parallel construction- a list or series of words that all must be consistent; I like running, shopping, skydiving and sleeping, not I like running, to shop, doing skydiving and sleeping.

    Get thee to a critique group.

Hey, it’s a free critique! And more than one! Many successful writers have writer friends or a critique group that look over their work and point out inconsistencies, errors, lapses in timing, pace, dialogue, etc. If they can make time, so can you. One night a week either out of the house or online. The NJ-SCBWI or other writing organization can help match you up, you can Google for online groups, or start your own. Remember that it’s best if you have members in a similar genre because between all of you, you know what to look for.

Sticks and Stones will break your bones.

Whether it’s people in your critique group or a paid critique from an editor or agent, there’s going to be criticisms that hurt. It’s NOT personal. It’s just one person’s opinion. You are free to ignore it. Don’t make the mistake, like a recent author, to lash out, because you’ll be known more for being unprofessional and petty than you will be for your work. Suck it up. Put it aside for a few days, maybe even a few weeks. Then look at it with fresh eyes. Choose the suggestions that you think are best for your vision of the book, but don’t be afraid to try the more radical ones. If you won’t even consider the advice, don’t waste everyone’s time and energy. Successful authors make revisions-why shouldn’t you?

 One more time; let’s review this.

You know you’re going to have to review, revise, and review again. And each time you do, there are mistakes you’ve somehow missed, or even added in. The best praise you can get as an author is from an editor or agent telling you “I love this ms, it’s so polished.” Always send a sterling copy. Even if you have to revise it a hundred times. Read your ms out loud, have friends read it aloud to see if the dialogue is smooth and understandable. If they stumble or seem unsure, you need to revise.

 It’s the same old, same old.

Break the patterns; whether it’s dialogue-tag-dialogue, or starting every sentence with a subject, or ending every chapter with a question, when you consistently repeat a pattern, your ms stagnates. It’s so predictable that your readers will lose interest. Review to see that you’ve varied sentence structure; start out with a verb rather than a noun. Or even an adjective or adverb. Stretch your writing skills and style.

The zzzzzzzzzzzzzz factor.

The passive voice can be the kiss of death by boredom for your novel. Helping verbs are rarely needed, so eliminate them when you can. Action is what people want, not a recitation of past events, so ‘have, had, had been’ can be cut. With just a little reworking, an action verb will add zest to the pace. And avoid the info dump; it’s passive. When you can, introduce bits and pieces of information and backstory in an active way through action verbs and dialogue.

 How old is that?

Don’t let your passions for music, people, fashions, and even words date your ms. Unless you’re writing in the time period when this favored thing was popular, editors, agents and readers can guess your age. And ‘comebacks’ rarely last long, so if you have a person in your novel who is a famous singer, make up a fictitious persona. Some things, called classics, are timeless, like well known hymns, musical pieces by the greats like Bach, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, etc. Historical people like Cleopatra and Ben Franklin everyone knows, but in five years, which may be how long it takes you to get published, will most people remember Lindsay Lohan? TV programs and movies are even harder to use in YA and MG, so avoid if possible. Slang and technology evolves even faster, so keep that in mind when writing.

 Just give it up.

Unless you’re a super hero, writing takes time. It’s not just about writing, either; it’s about reading what’s out there, revising, attending critique groups, critiquing others, going to conferences and classes, submitting your ms, and buying more paper from Staples. There is not enough time to do it all, so choose your priorities. Give up the daily coffee with the neighbor and visit only once a week, learn to live with a little more dust, give the family lessons in microwaving leftovers. If you truly want to be a successful writer, you need time to work and some things are just not worth your time.

Get the pic? 

Char