2012 November | Best Fantasy Novel

Seeking the Write Life: How Good Writers Make You “Feel”

Some great advice on how to evoke rather than merely describe emotions from Seeking the Write Life: How Good Writers Make You “Feel”:

It means, when the shocking reveal of critical information occurs, the writer gives most of their focus to the implications that cause the feelings, rather than the feelings themselves:

Rather than “John wasn’t in New York when Samantha was killed? He could be the murderer? My entire body trembled. I sucked in a breath, unable to believe it could be true. John had lied to me! John could be the killer?! No!…” you’ll find more of “John wasn’t in New York when Samantha was killed? I knew I should speak. Deny it. But all I could see was her bruised and twisted body, lying naked in the sand, cold and alone. The way her hair twisted around her ear and stuck to the raw skin on her neck. The numb vacancy her death had left in my gut. Was it possible he’d done that? Was John that monster?”

Check out the rest.

by Tara Maya

The Writer’s Hiearchy of Needs

If you’ve ever taken a Psych 101 class, or read a book of pop psychology, you’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. As I mused about what constitutes Bad Writing, it occurred to me there is a similar hhierarchy of skills a writer needs to master.

Let’s take a closer look. I’ll explain why I’ve placed these things in the order I have.

1. Grammar

Grammar is basic. You must communicate clearly before you can hope to write a novel. Good grammar goes beyond semi-colons and apostrophes, although that helps. Do you know what First Person vs Third Person means? Do you use words correctly and not grab them out of a Thesaurus without fully understanding them? Do you understand the difference between the past present and passive voice?

How to improve your grammar: Take books that you admire and enjoy, and copy out particularly striking sentences or paragraphs, word for word. Then try to write a sentence or paragraph with the exact same structure but your own content.
How NOT to improve your grammar: Read comments on YouTube.

2. Plot

Fairytales and many other ancient stories are all plot. Beowulf? All plot. Don’t sit there trying to sell me your English teacher’s BS about the deep character insights of Beowulf. Monster attacks village, dude kills monster. But yes, it works, because a story only requires one thing to be a story. You need to know who is doing what to whom. In other words, you need grammar (clarity of communication) and plot (what is communicated).

It wasn’t the cardboard characters, but unbelievable plot that tanked Nurse Betty.

How to improve your plot: Study scriptwriting to learn beat structure and then, as you watch television shows or movies, note down when each beat occurs.
How NOT to improve your plot: Get an MFA.

3. Character

I believe it was the Modernists who attempted to introduce books that were Character with no Plot. You’re entitle to your own opinion, but in mine, that was a disaster. Sure, the prose in The Waves was lovely, but oh lordy. However, I think it’s true that it’s harder to write original characters than original plots. Great literature as well as most blockbusters, have both.

To write believable plots, you need to master Text; to write believable characters, you need to master Subtext. Real people interact mostly through Subtext.

Painting a realistic character is like painting a realistic portrait. You need to know basic human anatomy first (or in the case of writing, basic human psychology). Then you need to practice, practice, practice, paying attention to the detail. Use delicate strokes.

Portrait by seventeenth century painter, Velázquez.

How to improve your characters: Observe yourself and other real people closely. Take notes on human interactions, including gestures, sensory details and emotions.
How NOT to improve your characters: Copy characters from television or cinema.

4. Theme

I think if you have story with a solid plot and psychologically realistic characters, theme will emerge naturally…but it might not be the theme you intended! To start with a theme and write plot and characters from that risks turning your characters into Sock Puppets for Author Rants. When theme, plot and characters all work together, a simple story can achieve a greater richness and depth.

How to improve your theme: Know thyself. Take an issue you care deeply about and then imagine you are someone with the opposite point of view and argue it from their position. Then try to look at it from a third or forth point of view.
How NOT to improve your theme: Rant.

5. Style

Style, like self-actualization, emerges from mastery of the rest of the pyramid. Can you learn to improve your style? Certainly. Read widely in your genre, read widely outside your genre.

Read. Write. Repeat.

How to improve your style: You can learn style in the same way you can learn grammar. Take books that you admire and enjoy, and copy out particularly striking sentences or paragraphs, word for word. Then try to write a sentence or paragraph with the same voice and style with your own content. See if you could write a paragraph of Hemingway or Austen or King.
How NOT to improve your style: Not bother to read books because that would contaminate your genius; not bother to learn grammar because bad grammar is your “style.”

by Tara Maya

NaNoWriMo Tip #22: When You Can’t Write…How To Deal With So-Called Real Life

I use this same recipe.

These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works.

If there is one theme to these Tips, it’s that not all Writing is writing. There’s a lot more to finishing a novel than just typing the scenes.

It’s possible you have other stuff to do today besides sit at the computer working on your novel. I’m not going to guess what that might be… what am I, psychic?

I mother three boys under six and frequently babysit one to three more young cousins along with them, so there are many times in my work week when I have to live with distractions. I can’t concentrate on writing on the computer with the kids around, so I don’t try. However, there are some activities I can do even while watching the kids. They work on their stuff and I work on mine and if I need to look up from my work to praise a castle construction or mediate a dispute, no problem.

Here are some of my low-concentration-required tasks. Your list may differ; go ahead and jot it down, or just give it some thought.

1. Imagining.

2. Reading novels in my genre to inspire me.

3. Reading nonfiction How To Write books to help me with particular problems, or just inspire me.

4. Reading drafts of fellow writers.

5. Writing related email.

6. Writing related social media.

7. Sketching characters from my novel, or scouring magazines or the internet for pictures of people, places and things in my novel

8. Working on my map or chronology.

9. Talking to friends about my story.

10. Pretending any conflicts, fights or family tension I might be experiencing is happening to characters in my novel. 😉

If you prefer these Tips as an ebook you can buy it here for $0.99:

by Tara Maya

Thanksgiving Gratitude: Writer Edition (Via Pitch Slapped)

I thought February Grace’s sentiment for Thanksgiving was lovely.

To those who are as yet unpublished, I wish for your every good dream to come true, and I wish for you the gratitude of appreciating where you are in your journey, right now, this moment.

Appreciate the innocence, the sense of pure and limitless possibility that lies before you…and keep after your dream, in one way or another.

Don’t forget to be grateful for those who have helped you along the way; friends who read your stuff, teachers, mentors, other writers to commiserate with and look up to. Appreciate the people, because they matter more than anything else.

To those who have just been published for the first time in say, a magazine or anthology, I wish you the ability to truly CELEBRATE this momentous occasion. Do not listen to the whispers in your head that tell you ‘but it’s not a novel’ or ‘it’s not my memoir’ or whatever it is your hoping to write in the future.

You have stepped through a door that can never be closed to you again; you ARE a published writer. Don’t forget to be grateful for the people who helped you get there; those who read and accepted your work, those who helped you hone it before you submitted, and the friends and family who put up with your agonizing during the waiting period between when the submission date opened and closed.

You can read the whole thing at her blog Pitch Slapped: Thanksgiving Gratitude: Writer Edition.

by Tara Maya

Is Thanksgiving Old-Fashioned?

Then.

Now. (I love the bacon wrap!)

It’s ironic that although this year I’m more distracted than ever from the holidays because I’m writing a book for NaNoWriMo and writing a book about writing a book for NaNoWriMo (a meta-NaNo book, if you will), I’m also thinking deeply about holiday traditions because that’s the setting of my novels.

The Halloween story is the easiest for me, which is great, since that’s what I’ve started with. The Christmas story, I think I can also handle. But if I write three books in the series — even if each one is standalone — I think it would make sense to go: October Knight, November Knight and December Knight.

The obvious holiday associated with November for my California-based teens is Thanksgiving. I explain in the world-building that which local holidays are linked to the Gates differ around the world; it’s not that everyone in their universe celebrates the American Thanksgiving or even Halloween or Christmas.

So far, so good… but Thanksgiving is not a holiday bursting with story-associations for me. What I am going to have … ghost Pilgrims and Indian spirits? Um, that could get awkward and weird fast, given the political and historical ramifications. It turns out that some people HATE Thanksgiving…

Writing In The Crosshairs: WHY THANKSGIVING?:

I think Angelina Jolie is beautiful, you all know that. Her humanitarian efforts on behalf of the world’s children touches my Lakota spirit.

Then, I discovered Angelina Jolie hates Thanksgiving…

According to some sources, Angelina Jolie is so disgusted by “Thanksgiving”, she takes her kids out of the country so they are not around the madness that is embodied in the holiday.

And sadly, the records prove her right about the genocide of those Indians by the pilgrims AFTER Thanksgiving: the first true Black Friday.

Does Angelina Jolie have a point, or has she completely missed the point of having a holiday just to remind ourselves to be grateful for the blessings in our lives? What do you think?

For me, Thanksgiving is a more healing holiday than what Christmas has degenerated into today:

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is all about counting our blessings and sharing a meal with loved ones. It is not about presents and shopping and commercialism…

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized, there are people who hate Halloween and Christmas too. Maybe not the same people. But every holiday worth celebrating has its army of naysayers. Why? I have no idea…. in my story, however, it’s probably because they are Evil Joy-Stealing Demons.

I’ll be honest: I love holidays. I love traditions and pageants and an excuse to eat food not on my diet. Holidays are always being renewed and if the old meanings and associations are no longer what we want to emphasize, we can make new ones. It doesn’t me we trash the whole holiday.

The question: Is Thanksgiving too old-fashioned? got me thinking, meanwhile, and I now have a premise for November Knight…

by Tara Maya

NaNoWriMo Tip #21: Never Forget To Do This One Thing Before You Write

These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works.

One of the keys to writing fast is to be in the flow. Inspired by the muse. Possessed by the demon. Drunk (with inspiration).

One of the hardest things to do is to make yourself write when you are not inspired.

When I was in high school, nothing could stop me from writing. I wrote all the time, always in a fever of inspiration. It was joyous, it was brilliant, it was unquenchable. The worst torture in those days was that I never had as much time to write as I wanted.

A weird thing happened once I became a full time writer. Even though I now had all the time to write that I wanted, I often sat for hours diddling at my computer, or worse yet, diddling for hours away from my computer, feeling uninspired and depressed and guilty about it.

Ugh. What happened?

I analyzed what had changed. One thing I realized was that when I was in high school, although it felt like nothing could stop me from writing, in fact, a lot of things stopped me. Classes. Homework. Dance practice. Dating.

Often as I was doing these things, I was also imagining a story. That’s what gave me the feeling that I was writing all the time, and that therefore this would be a good profession to pursue. Now, of course, I wasn’t actually thinking of a story every minute of the day, even while taking a Spanish test or kissing a boy. It depended on how well I was doing on the test or how well he was doing on the kiss.

If I was bored because I was stuck doing some activity I didn’t like, my mind would wander to my story and transport me to another world.

Aha! The problem with my life after I married and had kids was that I was never bored. (Be warned! That’s what happens when you marry a good kisser.)

More to the point, I had this idea that if I was going to be Writing, I had to be sitting at my computer actually typing words of the scene. I had somehow forgotten that when I was younger, I spent 90% of my time “writing” my story in my head…imagining the scenes in full 3D splendor. I would go to the park and swing for an hour, imagining. I would sit and doodle, imagining. I would walk around my college campus, aimlessly, just enjoying the sun or rain and architecture, imagining my story taking place all around me.

Then I Got Serious About Writing and totally forgot to employ my imagination.

Learning to compose at the keyboard is an important skill to have. Don’t get me wrong. I learned how to do that from my mother, and I’m grateful. There was a point when taking the story from my head, where it was beautiful and perfect, and transmuting via keystrokes to some form others could parse was like trying to grate cheese with my fingernails. It took forever and didn’t result in well-grated cheese. If you are a newbie writer, THIS may be the step that is still the most challenging for you…which is a good hint that it’s the step you need to practice most.

But now that I can tippy-type new material without breaking a sweat, the real question is whether that material is worth typing. Yes, I can force myself through a chapter, but it’s not how I want to write. I want that heat, that muse, that drunken inspiration.

I’ve come full circle. I now have to nourish my child’s heart, let myself go to the park and swing, or engage in some other activity, and just imagine.

This may sound crazy, but don’t discount it. Before you write your scene, imagine it. Don’t let yourself start writing it down yet. Try to exercise as you imagine…walk or swim or jog. Go outside if the weather permits. Or cook. You may be doing a lot of cooking today and tomorrow, for whatever bizarre turkey-related reason. Go through the same scene more than once, perhaps with different dialogue or different endings, and savor the best bits.

After I’ve imagined the same scene this way a few times, not letting myself type it yet, I am so eager to write it down that I race to my computer like a lunatic and type away. If the doorbell or phone rings, I literally don’t hear. I need to write. It’s unstoppable.