The Secret

What do you do when a big secret just happens to come to light and you aren't even thinking of your story? How do you keep that secret from exploding to a full-on reveal?

This happened to me just recently in my wip - Imogene: Innocense Lost. I discovered a secret, not about Imogene who the story is supposed to be about, but about her mother who is on the quest to save Imogene. The secret has blown up in my head and I'm very anxious to get it written but I can't. Once the secret comes out, the dynamic of the story changes drastically. It will no longer be about saving Imogene but saving Sarah Beth and the story is about finding Imogene first and foremost.

The biggest problem is that not even Sarah Beth knows the secret yet and I'm afraid once I put the secret on paper (or on the computer in the story somewhere - writing scenes as they come to me this go round since this is not like anything else I've ever written) that the story takes on a completely different meaning. I need to get Imogene's story written before entangling her mother's story and therefore, the secret will have to just keep niggling me until it's finally right to write it. The secret actually reveals a good bit about Sarah Beth that I didn't know before (my characters were still a bit two dimensional as the story really hasn't taken hold in my head and gotten to the point that I can just write from beginning to end). Maybe if I do a character chart for Sarah Beth, the secret can be put there for now and when it's time to work it in, it will be fine.

I just don't know what to do with this secret and this style of story now since I'm exploring new waters for me. If you've had a secret just pop up in your writing and have kept it a secret until just the right moment, please drop me a line and let me know how you handled it. See you all in the postings - E ;)

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Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook
E's blog
E's website

What Inspires You?

By Kathleen Moulton

Some writers are inspired by watching people. Others are inspired within their own imagination (where Sci-Fi just has to come from!) Still others draw inspiration from uncovering information in other times and places. And only hearing a word can spark a title and an idea for a novel.

Me? I am inspired by nature. No, I am exhilarated!

Recently, I was talking to my son, who is a Border Patrol Agent in Texas. I was telling him I woke up that morning hearing a cardinal.

“You heard it?”

He thought it was strange that I would know what a cardinal sounded like.

I had been trying to bring cardinals to the feeder for a few years. When I heard it, I bounded out of bed, grabbed my camera, and peered out the window. I’ve also been known to slip on a pair of boots donning only a cami and sweatpants, and crunch along the snowy yard to capture frozen, crystal droplets hanging on branches. I can’t help it. The sun makes them so beautiful!

Yup, that’s how much I love nature. I’m just wired that way.

I often use the beauty (and the not-so-pretty) outdoors to connect with a point I make in my writing. The visual touches me so deeply and it pushes the words I have inside out on paper.

What inspires you? Soak in it. Allow it to take you places you thought you could never go. Something is resonating inside you and you may not even be aware of it. We’re so busy with our heads down and focused on accomplishing our goals that if we’re not careful, we can miss our uniqueness that will make writing easy. Everyone is different. We can learn from each other but sometimes we learn too much and find that we are trying to imitate what works for someone else.

We’re all inspired by nature to a certain degree, but don’t necessarily think my inspiration will be yours. What is in you will find its way out. It’s quite a natural process that will suddenly occur to you.

Discover yourself!

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Kathleen Moulton is a freelance writer and nature lover. She is married, has 8 children, ages 10-28, and has been homeschooling for 25 years. You can find her passion to bring encouragement and hope to people of all ages at http://kathleenmoulton.com/

The Virtual Book Tour (a primer and example)

I know all about online book tours. Right now I'm smack dab in the midst of one.  You know about them too, because you're here, reading this blog post, and with any luck, you'll be participating in the process shortly with your retweet or share.  The VBT as those in the know like to call it, is an absolute must for any book marketing campaign these days for a number of reasons.  The first is that anything you do online has lasting value - people will continue to come back to it again and again, long after your book signing at the local bookstore (if you've still got one) is a distant memory.  The second is that they're generally inexpensive and ecologically sound (especially compared to in-person events that require fuel to get to). The third is that they're wide reaching - you're not limited geographically and can reach readers in your target market from all over the world, and connect with those readers intimately, even personally (during my last tour, one reader who said they loved my book is now a firm friend, even though she lives in a different country to me).  It's a great way to launch a new book, which is pretty much what I'm doing here with my novel Black Cow, but it's also good for generating buzz and getting things moving on an existing book - maybe six months post-launch, or a year post-launch.

So how do you do it?  You start by identifying a number of blogs with an audience that matches your target.  I've got 20 in mine but that's probably a little excessive!  Try 10.  Mix it up by choosing a range of blogs, a webinar or two, some radio shows, and maybe a few review sites.  Then query them with an offer (it usually helps to offer your book). Begin setting up dates and times as responses come back (I use Excel and Google Calendar to keep track of mine), and when you've got enough positive responses you're ready to begin touring.  It sounds easy, and it is, though the process takes time and the only way to do it right is to query each stop individually, specifically tailoring your offer to them, offering something unique and of value to each host.

At this point you can begin advertising the tour. Put the dates on your blog, tweet it, set it up as an event on Facebook, and start the buzz. Then comes the fun part - you have to write your blog posts.  If you're promoting a new book, then already well-used existing blog posts won't do - you'll need to write new, fresh, relevant ones just for the tour to draw in readers, since that's the whole point of it (that's why 20 is, ahem, excessive).  Get your posts to your hosts at least a week prior to the posting date and include all graphics and some suggested tweets for them. They're doing you a favour so make it easy for them.  Add a giveaway or two and you're on.

Online networking is critical in the book world and whatever you do to help others will definitely come back to you, so be generous in your support of other authors and generous in your own hosting and you'll find the process of gathering stops for your tour relatively easy. 


That's it!  But before you go, please take a little moment to re-tweet this one (use #blackcow), comment, or share it on Facebook, and you'll go into my draw to win one of a number of autographed bookpacks, electronic sets, and limited edition signed promotional items like magnets, stickers, books, bags, and postcards.  And don't forget to invite me to your tour - I'm looking forward to it.

Magdalena Ball is the author of the newly released novel Black Cow. Grab a free mini e-book brochure here:  http://www.bewritebooks.com/mb/BlackCow/BlackCow.html

or visit the Black Cow booksite.

What I Learned From the Movie "Young Adult"

I recently saw the movie "Young Adult" starring Charlize Theron. The premise: a writer of young adult novels returns to her small hometown to woo her high-school ex-boyfriend. Only problem? He's married with a newborn baby. Not exactly the recipe for a fairy-tale romance. But the screenwriter is Diablo Cody, who wrote the smart and quirky movie "Juno," so I went to see "Young Adult" with pretty high hopes.

Well, suffice to say it didn't live up to my expectations. After the movie ended, a woman sitting in front of me turned around and addressed the theater: "What did y'all think? I was not impressed." Still, I believe there is something to learn from every experience, so here are some writing take-aways I got from "Young Adult" that might be helpful to your own writing, too:

• Write anywhere and everywhere. In the movie, we see Charlize Theron's character working on her young-adult novel in coffeeshops, restaurants, in her bed and at her desk. When she checks into a hotel, the first thing she does is plug in her laptop. That said, I was annoyed by the portrayal of her getting incredibly drunk every night and waking up hungover, yet still magically being able to finish her book. I think the drunken artist/writer is one of my least favorite cliches. I also didn't agree with the way the movie depicted the YA genre as shallow, uncomplicated, and easy to write. If classic books like Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird were published today, they would be considered YA.

• Be mindful of your details. Charlize Theron's character constantly eats junk food throughout the movie, and a lot of it -- a family-sized meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken, pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, liters of Diet Coke. Yet she remains supermodel-thin and looks down on other characters from her hometown for being "fat." There is no way she could eat that way and look the way she does!

• Avoid stereotypes. Charlize Theron's character returns to her small town, and her stereotypes about "small-town people" are reinforced. The comic-book lover is a "boring loser" who paints model action figures and lives with his sister. The women her age all got married at twenty and never left town. They wear tacky sweaters and have no idea who Marc Jacobs is. It would be one thing if this was just how Charlize Theron's character saw these people -- that would fit well with her character -- but that is not the sense we are given from the film. Case in point: a scene towards the very end, when one of the young women who lives in this small town asserts the stereotypes to be true: "People here are all fat and dumb." As someone who now lives in a small Midwest town, I personally know this is not only completely untrue, it is also offensive and, in terms of writing, sloppy. Push past stereotypes! Deepen your characters!

• Have your characters grow. This is perhaps the biggest problem I had with the movie "Young Adult" -- Charlize Theron's character doesn't grow or change from beginning to end. She is immature, narcissistic, and self-centered when we meet her, and she is the same way when the credits roll. It's fine if you choose to write an unlikeable character, but even unlikeable characters should have likeable sides to them. The best characters, in my opinion, are nuanced people. What makes me care about and root for a character is seeing them grow and change, hopefully for the better. Charlize Theron's character certainly had plenty of room to grow, yet she didn't take any steps forward, not even baby steps. I left the theater thinking, What was the point of that?

Have any movies -- good or bad -- taught you something about writing? I'd love to hear your comments!

Dallas Woodburn is the author of two award-winning collections of short stories and editor of Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three years in a row and her nonfiction has appeared in a variety of national publications including Family Circle, Writer's Digest, The Writer, and The Los Angeles Times. She is the founder of Write On! For Literacy and Write On! Books Youth Publishing Company and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Fiction Writing at Purdue University, where she teaches undergraduate writing courses and serves as Assistant Fiction Editor of Sycamore Review.

Checklist for Self-Editing

Here is a handy checklist from Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. This is a book I recommend to my editing clients and something I like to look at for my own work every so often.

• How many "ing" and "as" phrases do you write? Remember, the only ones that count are the ones that place a bit of action in a subordinate clause.

• How about "ly" adverbs. Both tied to your dialogue and within your descriptions and narration.

• Do you have a lot of short sentences, both within your dialogue and within your description and narration?

• Do you use a lot of italics? We mean a lot of italics. And you don’t use many exclamation points, do you?!!

• Are there any metaphors or flowery phrases you’re particularly proud of. Do they come at key times during your plot? If so, think about getting rid of them.

• How much time have you spent moving your characters around? Do you cut from location to location, or do you fill in all the space in between?

• How much detail have you included in describing our character’s action? Try cutting some of the detail and see if the actions are still clear.

• Take a look at your flashbacks. How often are you interrupting the forward flow of your story? Do you have flashbacks at more than one level—that is, flashbacks from flashbacks? It you spend nearly as much time in the past as in the present, take a look at each flashback individually. If it were cut, would the present story be hard to follow?

• Keep in mind what you’re trying to do with each paragraph—what character point you’re trying to establish, what sort of mood you’re trying to create, what background you’re trying to suggest. In how many different ways are you accomplishing each of these?

• If more than one way, try reading the passage without the weakest approach and see if it isn’t more effective.

• Do you have more than one chapter that accomplishes the same thing?

• Is there a plot device or stylistic effect you are particularly pleased with? How often do you use it?

• Keep a lookout for unintentional word repeats. The more striking a word or phrase is, the more jarring it will be if you repeat it.

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Stop and Smell the Daffodils

 Stop and Smell the Daffodils

It occurred to me a couple of years ago that I had missed spring.  I looked up and it was time for our summer beach trip and I had missed the daffodils.  In that moment I realized what a treasure I had taken for granted.  As kids we don’t notice how fleeting the seasons are; we don’t even notice specific flowers until we are about 10.  So I calculated that I had only had the privilege of really seeing daffodils so many times in my life so far and I had completely missed one of those opportunities. If I live to 85, I will only have the chance to see them another 20 times and that is not nearly enough.  Spring is the time of new beginnings; a time of budding trees, spring showers, the sighting of Red winged Blackbirds, and daffodils.  I will never miss daffodils again and I hope you don’t either. Right now make a list of all the things you don’t want to miss this spring and spend a few minutes every day noticing the gifts of the season. Then of course get back inside and do some writing!

Anita Tieman, Ed.D

Co-author of the Movement and More series of books.

www.Wholechildpublishing.com

10 Things Every Literary Hero Needs

My first draft of Odessa, then called Dragons in the Dark, could have given a garbage dump a run for the money in stink. I was so happy and proud to have the entire 600 word story finally written and out of my head. As you know, if you’ve read any of my interviews, the entire story has resided in my head for over thirty years awaiting the right moment and amount of time to pop out. When it finally did and I read it through the manuscript was obviously full of errors, bad writing and a fatal flaw. I had no distinctive main character—no hero or heroine.

Because the story is about a group of seven teens, I assumed they could all tell the story. But it didn’t work that way. I had to decide which of them would tell the story to the reader and be the hero of the book series. Once I knew that, I revised the story about eight times, writing it from Myrna’s point of view, until I got it right. The funny thing is I have a strong driving need to revise it again. I’m guessing that’s a common feeling for authors. And one day I might do it, who knows.

But I digress. My point is this: There are certain aspects of a hero/heroine an author must provide for the story to work.

1-Your protagonist must be interesting. There should be some quirk, personality trait, etc that makes your hero special. Why would a reader care about her and what happens to her? This was my first big area of improvement and why I need to revise Odessa—Myrna isn’t likable enough and she’s too white bread.

2-While the reader doesn’t need to feel sympathetic for your protag (as in the case of a detestable character-murderer, rapist, etc), they should be able to feel some empathy for them. Maybe a horrific childhood that created their current character.

3-Protags should act bravely.

4-As the ‘god’ creating your characters, it is imperative the author knows every aspect of each main character in the story. They should exist in the author’s head as surely as any living person. There are many character creation templates to help with this. I’ll post my own in my next posting.

5-Conflict, conflict, conflict. Your story must have a general overriding conflict, but so should each of the characters—especially your protag. If your hero has no inner conflict or problems to overcome, what makes them interesting enough to hold a reader’s attention?

6-In addition to or in conjunction with a conflict, your hero should have a weakness. They may not realize it at first, but sometime during the story it should come to light and they must work on improving that weakness while accomplishing their tasks.

7-All characters in a story, but especially your protagonist, must change and grow throughout the story. If you are writing a series, each book should have a character arc of growth which is different from that of the series.

8-Your hero must have a reason for doing whatever they are doing in your story. The protag’s younger sister was kidnapped; her parents were killed and the murderer is after her; she is trying to get someone specific to fall in love with her. Whatever the reason, without a purpose for the protag’s actions/journey, you have no story.

9-Make sure your hero is believable. No one is completely good or absolutely bad. Even angels and demons can have slight issues causing them to question their behavior. This is what has made the Romantic Vampire so attractive.

10-The war and final battle between the protagonist and antagonist should be satisfying and believable. Even in a Sci Fi story set in a far-away universe, the conclusion to this battle can be believable to the reader if the author understands human nature and sticks to the rules of world building they’ve created. If the story is historical, make sure you stick to the actual history of the event.

These are just some of the things I’ve learned over the past couple of years and have tried incorporating into my writing. And from personal experience as a reader I can conclude with this final nugget. If you have an awesome main character(s) your story doesn’t even have to be awesome because the character will carry it—but if you can have BOTH, you’ll have a best-seller.

Laman and Harpies are currently in edits and should be available soon.

Rebecca Ryals Russell is a MG/YA Fantasy Author of two series: Seraphym Wars Series for YA and Stardust Warriors Series for MG readers. There are currently three books of each series available via eBook wherever eBooks are sold, with several more currently in edits and others in the works. Follow Rebecca’s progress at Under the Hat of Rebecca Ryals Russellor Tween Word Quest.