Free Local Authors Expo

For those who aren't fond of nighttime events, here is another opportunity to connect in person: a Free Local Authors Expo on Saturday, Oct. 21. 

The event is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Prayer Towers Ministries Church of God in Christ, 500 Stryker Ave. in Joliet.

Rebekah and I will be there with BryonySeries books and special giveaways with select purchases.

If you're a writer as well as a reader, I was asked to provide a few suggestions for improving your writing.

The event also includes an optional prayer breakfast for $25. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

For tickets, call Lisa Moulton at 815-546-2941.

If you have a few minutes to pop in, please do. 

Have a great Tuesday!

WriteOn Joliet

For anyone who writes, wants to write, is seeking feedback on their writing, is looking for writings by local authors, or event just wants to hang out with some awesome people who happen to write -  WriteOn Joliet just might be for you.

WriteOn Joliet is a welcoming, diverse group of writers of varied skills, interests and experience. The group includes professional journalists, fiction novelists, bloggers, screenwriters, musicians and poets. We promise a safe, comfortable and supportive atmosphere to share your work, and constructive feedback so that everyone can benefit from our shared knowledge.

Some of WriteOn's members have self-published or have been traditionally published. Others are still exploring their writing options and interests. Regardless of our place in the writing world, WriteOn welcomes everyone looking to write, read and grow.

WriteOn is a dues-paying organization. Your first visit is free, so please come by and check us out!

Dues are either $50 for the year (January through December) OR $5 a meeting not to exceed $50 for any 12-month period for regularly attending members OR $35 for the year for online members 

These help pay for the website (and other marketing materials) and in publishing our annual anthology. Dues also help fund special events including guest writers, projects, and social gatherings.

WriteOn Joliet held its first meeting in February 2012. We still have original members who attend nearly every meeting, and we continue to expand, evolve, and grow.

For the rest of 2023 through November, we will meet from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Joliet Public Library, 3395 Black Road in Joliet.

We will also meet from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month on Zoom.

Our anthology release party will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Joliet Public Library.

A members-only holiday gathering will also be held in December.

For more information, visit writeonjoliet.com.

The Satisfaction of Getting It Right

Editor's note: Tone may sound depressing to some. If concerned, skip the read.

Anyone who writes, or is perfecting a craft, often hears (or reads) how he or she is getting it wrong.

Articles with headlines of Ten Ways to Fill In Those Plot Holes, Five Darlings You Need to Kill Now, How To Hit That Daily Word Count, Writers: Stop Doing These Three Things Now all imply we need improvement in in these areas and more.

I'm all for self-improvement. But we rarely stumble upon articles that tell us when we're doing it right.

Well, one found me this morning.

Before I share it, one piece of advice to anyone who is working on a skill: strive for betterment but also seek out those reassuring signposts of progress and perfection.

My lone BryonySeries super fan has told me that a psychology student could write a doctoral thesis based on my books because the character development is that rich. 

While such a compliment is easy to wave away (as opposed to a general bad review that says I suck as a writer, which tends to hand around murkier than mist in Simons Woods), I read a gem of an article this morning that reinforced a nuanced part of Before The Blood in which I got something write.

And it feels good, especially since the book centers on how people live, how they die, and (especially) how they live in such a way to ruin their lives and wind up not quite in the afterlife.

In Before The Blood, one main character has a childhood nightmare that recurs in adulthood during times of great stress. The character always awakens from sleep calling for his mother.

In childhood, of course, she's there. In adolescence, she's there but not really. In adulthood, she's gone.

Here's my little win:

“A nurse from the hospice told me that the last words of dying men often resembled each other. Almost everyone is calling for ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mama’ with the last breath."

Illustration by Christopher Gleason for "Staked!" Follow him at artworkbytopher.com

In Praise of Adverbs

Readers, this post may leave you mystified, but many people who write will understand.

In the "writing world," expert and (non-expert writers) exhort fledglings like me to write neatly, concisely, and to strip sentences of all unnecessary fluff.

And to beware, at all costs, the most useless word of them all: the adverb.

Adverbs, as the maxim goes, are redundant and weaken the power of verbs, diluting a sentence with two words when one strong word is preferred. If you do use them, no more than two or three to a manuscript.

OK.

That is true in some cases. And maybe the origin of Tom Swifties.

But the point of adverbs is to modify the verb, the adjective, and even other adverbs, and I drilled this definition into my children's head when we studied the eight parts of speech.

The right adverbs at the right time (sometimes even several at a time) gives the black and white sentence its color and tone.

Agreed, any useless word, adverb or not, should be ruthlessly removed during the editing phases. But not at the sacrifice of the writing, not to create writing stripped to its informational essence and abandon writing that stirs emotions.

It's nuanced, I know.

Before I submitted the first installment of Before the Blood to my editor, I rewrote the first three paragraphs of the third chapter many times to eliminate the adverbs and most of the adjectives (because they come under suspect, too).

Ever hear of the Peter Principal? It's when a person rises to a level of incompetence. 

For example, a great teacher is promoted through the ranks until he finally becomes a superintendent. But teaching and superintending are different skills, and the traits that made our prototype a great teacher make him a poor superintendent. He has risen to his own incompetence.

The same came happen with over-editing. I finally decided to leave the paragraphs alone and let my editor decide if the adverbs had overtaken the garden like kudzu or of they added a sense of naturalness, like a few dandelion heads in a back yard.

This poison of tallies and figures had spread to his mother, for Lucetta moved more slowly and with greater lethargy, an ethereal presence even in her own suite, as she cared for, and murmured softly to,  her beloved and rapidly multiplying houseplants.

Slate has a hilariously true article that expounds on this more eloquently than I did. And if you want to come away from it with a deeper sense of good writing, please read it to the end.

Because I have clearly broken all the adverb rules in this post.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/06/02/abolish_the_adverb_you_seriously_must_be_joking.html

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

Not Terribly Clever

I like to share particularly helpful posts about writing I find online with my followers.

But here's an insight into my writing style. I usually don't read or consider writing advice when I writing a story. I may use them afterward to polish and rewrite drafts.

However, I don't build certain elements into my story for the sake of writing a "correctly structured" story. Heck, when I wrote my first book, I had only a dim awareness such things existed.

When I write my characters, I'm not making sure I have a predetermined character cast.

When I'm building my world, I'm not making sure I incorporate any canned elements that all good world-building "must" have.

I don't write my stories based on models or structures (snowflake, hitting certain mood or plot beats).

I simply write the story.

That's not to say any of these aren't helpful/useful/beneficial or necessary for writers (including me). Many times, I've had "aha!" moments by reading one of these insights.

It's just to point out there's more than one path to a compelling story. Some writers appreciate guidelines to turn their jumble of thoughts in well-crafted stories. Others write better with a "free range" style.

I think I fall somewhere in between. And I think it's because I've read such a huge volume of material in my life that I've absorbed all this great advice.

I think.

Now I do have my own quirks. I prefer to write in silence, with coffee, on a desk top and, (if I'm writing fiction) in an upstairs room.

But because I'm also a professional writer, I can write in a flash, on deadline, and in a roomful of people. But it's not as enjoyable. And not as efficient.

And BTW: ignore anyone who purports to have "the secret" creating great writing.

There isn't any.

Except maybe one, and it's not a secret.

You do have to write it.

And rewrite it.

And rewrite it.

And rewrite it.

Until the story in your head becomes the story on your screen.

What Rewriting Actually Means

When editors harp to writers about the necessity of rewriting (and rewriting) their stories, that doesn't necessarily mean scraping the entire piece and starting from the beginning each time.

Although it can mean that, too.

Usually, however, it means examining all the elements and rewriting to create prose as smooth as glass. (or as jarring as a bumpy road, depending on the reaction in the reader you wish to create).

It means analyzing the the structure as a whole and questioning if relevance of the information, along with its placement and whether or not too much or too little is provided.

It means pruning and rearranging dumpsters of information, filling plot holes, and tightening sagging middles.

It means weeding out unnecessary words or replacing weak words with strong words (or weeding out words that are too strong and replacing them with gentler versions).

It also means plucking out cliches (unless they occur in dialogue, see below) along with overused phrases (including yours).

It means refining each character's dialogue and actions so they are true to that character.

It means removing passages that are too long - and lengthening others that are too short.

It means adding and removing details from your setting until the reader lives in your story's environment, too.

Rewriting and self-editing is like building a house.

The frame is your outline.

You need a tight plot to keep readers from raining on your writing.

With subplots running through like electrical wires to make your story shine.

Words that flow are like good plumbing. Sometimes plots  heat up, something they cool down. And sometimes you ramp up tension with well-calculated drips.

However, readers will spot weak writing like mustiness coming up from the basement through the vents.

Make sure real people live in your story. Don't cheapen it with stand-up cardboard paper dolls. Even great clothing with good tabs won't hide it.

Writing a genre story can be similar to an owner completion home. Even though the stories have basic similar elements, each owner/writer transforms those similarities with unique details.

Revision and editing is like picking out the curtains and deciding the best spot for artwork (or the comfy chair).

A good story is like a good home, a place readers will enjoying visiting.

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for "Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony." Follow him at www.facebook.com/artbymattcoundiff 

Writers: This Happens When You Develop a Character

They, um, develop.

I can virtually hear some of you say, "Well, duh! That's the point."

But it's true.

And that's one good reason why, soon after the writer types the last words of the novelist, he or she needs to get out the red pen, go back to the beginning, and reread (and edit) the characters.

Because they'll have changed.

Funny, isn't it?

We spend SO MUCH TIME getting them JUST RIGHT. We know what's on their feet and in their refrigerators. We know what they do on Saturday afternoons and how thoroughly they clean their homes.

Yet somehow, as if they have lives of their own, these make-believe people will grow, change, and take on a lives of their own while you're busy writing their story.

We can see it happen in other media. Take a television series that's run ten seasons. Re-watch the earlier seasons and compare the characters, then and now. Or reread first comic books of longtime series: Foxtrot, Doonesbury, Peanuts.

You see what I mean? Now look at your story.

You'll giggle (or groan) at some of Joe Doe's early dialogue. He'd NEVER say that!

Or you'll shake your head at some of his reactions and responses in the opening chapters. Nope, not Joe!

Even when we put dedicated time in fabricating pretend people, until we move them about the story like chess pieces, we never see their full scope. It can happen so gradually, you may miss it.

Hence, another read, the red pen, and a bit more editing.

You'll be happier with the story if you do.

And so will your reader.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

5 Ways to Write a Scary Story

1) Quickly establish a bond between reader and protagonist.

You want your reader to walk closely with your main character.

2) Foreshadow early in the story.

Creates unease in protagonist AND reader.

3) Confine evil to shadows.

We fear what we cannot see.

4) Take the normal and natural and give it a hard twist to the left.

Our minds find safety in the predictable. Shake that up.

5) Wrap up the story (but not really)

Let your protagonist think the danger has passed. Your reader will know better.

Word Tics

A few days ago, a member of WriteOn Joliet posted this on our Facebook page.

It's an article about "words tics" or "word crutches" (oft-repeated words and phrases) that creep into our writing and online generators that can spot them.

With only so many combinations of letter characters combined with how our brain processes them, it's only natural writers (moi included) will repeat themselves.

In addition (or instead) of online tools, there's one good way to spot them: Be very, very familiar with your own work.

While writers can be too close to their work to be their only editor, reading, rereading, and reading your writing again and again will help you spot certain words, phrases, metaphors, comparisons, descriptions, etc. that repeatedly worm their way into your prose.

Cut them.

Rewrite them.

And here's a tip for avoiding them: Question any brilliant passage that instantly pops into your brain.

Chances are you've already used it (or a variation) somewhere.

Henry Matthews, BryonySeries writer, approves this message

Quick Fix For Writer Discouragement

Is the next chapter jelling well?

Have you run out of ideas?

Does the prose sound stilted and boring?

Or is it simply TAKING TOO LONG?

Although all of the above is part of the process, sometimes a tired brain needs a pick-me-up and an encouraging pat.

So while you're brewing another cup of dark roast, open up a previous chapter (or essay, poem, etc.) and not a recent chapter either. Pick one that felt laborious to write at the time, one you meticulously self-edited.

Read how nicely the words flow. Feel the joy in reading it. Remember the long journey to get there.

See? You can do it. You can really, really do it. 

You just need time.

And patience.

And more hard work.

The Holy Trinity of good writing. Amen?

Staying the Course

Although it's often frustrating finding enough time to work on my fiction projects (and I had to stop far too soon on Saturday for a work-related project), and I feel progress is slower than I wish, I'm quite encouraged by the amount I'm able to accomplish in my thirty-minute increments (most mornings).

These short bursts sharpen my focus, whether it's self-editing, honing in on a character description or scene, or filling in sections of the current chapter.

Although I love the increasingly rarer opportunities for spending many long hours composing, I'm nevertheless amazed at what I can do these tiny amounts of time.

During the in-between times, when I'm contemplating rather than actively writing, I'm able to mentally structure, a good antidote to writer's block.

This morning's surprise: I'm farther along in Henry's seventh chapter in Before the Blood than I previously thought. With hopeful stance and fingers crossed, I'm looking to finish it up within the week.

Anyway, these are my musings this Monday morning. Enjoy the day, vampire fans! :)

Playing With Mood

"Show, don't tell," is great for scenes, less so for mood.

When I say "mood," I don't mean "emotion," for which "show" works wonderfully well for drawing the reader into what a character is feeling.

I'm referring to something subtle and somewhat intangible, a sense the reader discerns, that something wonderful or not is about to happen.

How do I create it? I play with a combination of techniques.

I show, I tell.

I fiddle with expressing the tone with similes and metaphors to the extent of thickly spreading cheese over the prose.

I move synonyms around like chess pieces.

I mold and squeeze together all of the above, like a baker kneads bread.

In the midst of this muck, the aura I wish to convey emerges.

When I can define this undefinable, I whip out the shears and start pruning and cutting every piece that doesn't contribute to the atmosphere.

First drafts, you see, aren't always straightforward. Sometimes they're a jumbled, disorganized mess of impressions. It's the author's job to make order from this chaos.

That's called writing.

When Just Any Word Won't Do

I spent the majority of my thirty minutes of fiction time working on three paragraphs, trying to play with the right combination of words that conveyed the rainy scene and the emotions in an unspoken communication between two people about to enter a "situation."

The scene I see in my head and the feelings it should invoke: how to create that bridge from my mind to the readers?

I played with words, rearranged them, cut them, and brought some back, jostling them around. "Show" is more than sentences with strong action words and light on the adjectives. It's finding the right mix of vocabulary and varying the sentence structure. It's attempting to create a visual, a mood.

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm closer. Amazing how a handful of words can absorb so much time.

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: Tips to Avoid a Sagging Middle

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Tips to Avoid a Sagging Middle

The other day, a writer posted in WriteOn Joliet that she does a great job with beginnings and endings and not-so-well the parts between them.

We've all heard about how important it is to snag your reader from the beginning. But how does one keep that reader stuck to your story until the end? How does THE WRITER keep him/herself stuck to the story until the end?

In short, how does one keep the spring in your story and prevent the midsection from drooping?

For me, the answer is an outline, not the dreadful (or dreaded) outline many of us remember from our grade school days, but a tailored-to-you type of outline that keeps your thoughts organized and ideas happening. For me, outlining is a process of visualizing the entire story and then breaking down the tasks into tight components. I actually do something similar when writing feature stories, although the process is brisker and, at time, nearly simultaneous, since those stories are short and deadline is often tight.

1) Write a one-sentence summary of your story. The writer should always be prepared to give a one-line summary of his story. At The Herald-News, that one-liner goes into our daily budgets. If you're pitching to agents and small presses, especially at conferences, that one line might be the only opportunity to grab someone's interest. Know your story well enough that you can pitch it in a single sentence.

Example: "Bryony" is the story of a '70's teen that trades her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time.

2) Write a back cover summary of your story. If you self-publish, you'll need one anyway. This helps provide the details (or summarize them, if you already know them). If you query agents and small presses, you can use this material there.

3) Write a three-page synopsis of your story. This helps expand the details and gets your idea rolling, and, again, if you plan to pitch to agents and small presses, you might be asked to provide this. Writing it now will put you on top of the process.

4) Decide how many chapters you want in your book. Open separate files for each and name them. This mentally formulates where the details of your story will go.

5) Write the first few sentences and the last few sentences of each chapter. This ensures that the beginning and the end of each chapter is compelling and flows well into the next, keeping the string of interest tight. It also narrows what information will and will not go into each chapter.

6) Make notes in each chapter about the details of that chapter. This not only helps with plot and pacing, it gives your a framework for character development. It also lets you know where research is necessary.

7) Write the chapters. The writing is now simplified, almost like a paint-by-number book, because much of the advance thinking is already done.

8) Refine as needed. As you write, you may decide to change elements of the plot or characters that aren't working, or you may expand parts that are. That's perfectly fine! An outline is not meant to be a static rulebook of adherence, but a flexible mold to get you started and unleash the muse.

And there ya go! :)

Novelists: Don't Forget This Important Character

Who is this character?

Your setting.

We often view places, setting, scenery as static, unchanging locations, but when we stop to think about it, we know that's not true. Just compare photographs of your hometown today to those of fifty years ago. The changes will be obvious.

Settings may have personalities.

By turns, our hometown can feel friendly, hostile, vigorous, and tired.

In a social gathering, some guests might dub the atmosphere friendly, others intimidating.

Settings not only change over time, they change with the time of day. Our perception of them change with our moods and life experiences.

Give as much consideration to your settings as to the people you place in them. Don't stop at simple description. Give them unique character traits. Allow them to shift and develop with your protagonist and plot even as they influence both.

For readers of the BryonySeries, the Munsonville of the first book is not the Munsonville of the second and third books, although the village appears frozen in time. And as Melissa changes, so does her view of Munsonville, not always for the better.

Below is a link to adjectives that describe personalities. Which ones apply to your setting?

For instance, Melissa initially felt Munsonville was tedious and boring, while her younger brother Brian saw it as full of adventure. Their mother, one the other hand, liked the lack of stress and greater opportunities. Steve viewed it as friendly and affable.

Same village. Different viewpoints.

How about the setting in your novel?

http://learnersdictionary.com/3000-words/topic/personality-types

A Writing Break (Of Sorts)

To be clear: I don't think writers ever completely take a break from writing. Our minds are always absorbing and creating.

But starting in September and continuing almost until Christmas, the amount of features work I compile and manage rises A LOT, mostly because of the extra community events that need processing in The Herald-News in some way.

While doing all the holiday stuff one does during this time. Especially, but not exclusively, when one has a family, etc.

This means I shelve quite a bit of non-timely work.

It also means an increased need to exercise my creative side. And I've truly had a productive few months.

So for the next couple of weeks, I need to address the items on the overflowing virtual shelves. And while our managing editor is on vacation, and our associate editor is assuming his duties, I'm assuming some of hers.

And the holidays aren't quite over. At least not for moi and mine.

I'm also the weekend/holiday editor for New Year's Eve and beyond. So I won't have another day off until Jan. 6.

But it's all good.

I'm catching up, and I'm looking forward to returning to Before the Blood with renewed energy and a fresh perspective, especially since my current chapter took off in a direction I hadn't anticipated before it sucked me in.

Oh, and I still need some time for fix the formatting errors in Cornell Dyer and the Missing Tombstone. And I have an event in January. And I have some photos to take for next year's Bertrand the Mouse Christmas story.

See what I mean?

Choose Your Words Wisely: More on Show, Not Tell

First, an update on yesterday's blog.

Several people let me know the link to the BryonySeries blog is broken. It's not broken, but we ARE having trouble with the mobile site. Switching to a desktop view on one's phone fixes it until we can haggle it out (again) with GoDaddy.

That link again is www.bryonyseries.com.

Onward to show, not tell.

All writing by its very nature is "tell." Crafting a story that immerses a reader takes refinement of skill, practice, manipulation of words, practice, plenty of self-editing, and practice.

Straight "show," even if the writer uses an abundance of words and lays off the adjectives and adverbs, will actually sound like "tell."

The way an author makes a story come alive has much in common with writing dialogue.

Just as writing dialogue the way people naturally speak it makes it sound unnatural, so writing straight show makes a story seem like a collection of dull facts.

Rather, think in terms of when to present information in the form of a scene or as a summary.

And then play, play, play with the wording until the prose leaps off the page and sparks the reader's imagination.

Galavant - You never handed me the fucking amulet (2x02)

Quick Tip for Character and Plot Development

On Friday, I visited a friend in hospice. One of the ministries she enjoyed was working with abused women. She showed me an exercise she used with them, and I realized it could be used to add depth to a character.

All you need is paper and pen.

Draw a tree.

Add apples. The number of apples must be less than the age of your character.

Count the apples. The number of apples is the age your character was when something traumatic happened to him/her.

Make up that traumatic incident.

Weave it into your plot.

Ta-da!