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Write by Faith

February 6, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

Erin here—still fighting sickness. One of my critique partners, Ellie Ann, graciously offered to guest blog for me. WOOT! Ellie is completing her YA fantasy novel and will soon begin to query agents. Smart and determined, she keeps working hard toward her goals. Please give her a warm welcome!

Write by Faith
By Ellie Ann

Did I really write “he was angry” and “it was a beautiful day”?

Sticklebacks! I found two-hundred and eleven unnecessary and easily deletable words.

Ugh. “Pattered” twice in the same paragraph, describing different things.

How did I not notice that only three days elapsed, not five?

Demas wouldn’t respond like that to Eyre’s artwork. It’s so out of character.

How embarrassing. What was I thinking? What’s that doing there? I’m a horrible writer!

Thus my thoughts during the second draft.

This is when I start to doubt my story, and my ability as a writer. This is when I must start writing by faith, not by sight.

You see, from all outward appearances, my book looks like a failure. The plot has as many holes as swiss cheese. My characters wander around, not sure of who they are. My grammar ain’t so bad, but my punctuation would make my English teacher want to burn my book at the stake. And my prose . . . let’s not go there.

But regarding this book, I am God. And God does not judge by the outward appearance, but by the heart. And I believe my book has a beautiful heart. Somewhere DEEP beneath the layers of writing mistakes and grammatical errors, a great story is waiting to emerge.

“Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill.”  Edmund Morrison.

During this second draft, I make lots of coffee. I vacuum. I go on walks. I take baths. I think a lot about the book. About the settings—I close my eyes and imagine what Garbonzo Cafe smells like and who its customers are. I have fake conversations with Demas, my main character. I decide what themes I want to heighten, and which to lose. The initial excitement of the first draft is over (the dating stage), and now I must commit to it, believe in it, and bring out the best in it (marriage). I stare for thirty minutes at the computer screen, then add three words and delete two sentences . . . and then the next day I delete the entire scene.

“Writing is rewriting.  A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes.  To fall in love with the first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.”  Richard North Patterson.

“I have rewritten- often several times, every word I have ever written.  My pencils outlast their erasers.” Vladimir Nabokov.

Do you believe in your story? The second draft tests that. It took me a month to write my 65,000 word first draft. It took me thirteen months to finish my 76,900 word second draft.

“Half my life is an act of revision.”  John Irving.

The first draft has lice, and during the second draft you must go through its hair with a fine tooth comb until it’s healthy and shiny. Don’t give up, even though you get sick in the stomach and feel like shearing it off completely. Your writing is important. It’s important for you to tell your story. It’s important for you to believe in it. For if you believe in it—then others will, too.

Ellie, thanks so much for sharing your insight with us! If you have any questions or remarks for Ellie, please leave a comment!

Posted in Second Drafts (WERE) | Tagged , | 3 Comments »

THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan

February 3, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

Today the Writer’s Book Club returns to this website to discuss THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan!

To keep from spoiling the book for those who haven’t read it yet, I’ll post the discussion questions in the comments of this post. If you have read the book, click on “Comments” to respond with your thoughts. If you haven’t read it, then what are you waiting for?? Go out and get it!

Remember to be respectful of everyone, and the WBC should run smoothly. I’m fighting sickness, so please help me by replying to each other’s comments. I made up these questions in a groggy haze; if they’re terrible, feel free to create your own questions, LOL.

The WBC will meet again on March 3rd for the discussion of our next book: MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco Stork, appropriate for ages thirteen and up. The focus of my questions will be on staying true to point-of-view.

Let the discussion begin!

ETA:  Some of the discussion threads are getting long (which is awesome!), so it may get tricky to jump in with replies. If you’re trying to reply to a SPECIFIC comment, but the “Reply” option is not showing up, you’ll have to scroll up until you see the first comment of the thread—click on THAT comment’s “Reply” link. YOUR comment will then show up at the bottom of the thread, which may or may not immediately follow the comment you wanted to reply to. If necessary, use names and quotes so people know who you’re talking to or what you’re referring to. Hope that helps, but let me know if you’re having trouble. Thanks for the great discussion, everyone—I’m lovin it!

Posted in Writer's Book Club | Tagged , | 70 Comments »

The Second Draft, aka The Love-Hate Draft

January 30, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

I know everyone writes and revises differently, so take this post with a grain of salt. It is only based on my own limited experience.

For me, second drafts are the hardest and longest of all my drafts. Here’s the breakdown (not including time between drafts) for my first novel, written in 2007-08:

First draft: Ooh, shiny new! Intensely draining, but also exciting! Eight weeks.
Second draft: What was I thinking when I wrote this junk?! THREE MONTHS.
Third draft: The test readers are right; I need to make these changes. Four weeks.
Fourth draft: Yikes, how did I miss these problems before?! Two or three weeks.
Fifth draft: I am determined to delete every unnecessary word! One week.

(Note: now I realize that novel needs a sixth draft, in which I hope to delete huge chunks and add brand new chunks. Then the whole process will start over again. But that messes up my pathetic Draft Theory, so pretend I never mentioned it).

ANYWAY, I hope you see my point. I hate second drafts.

Yet at the same time, I love them! One of the best perks of writing—taking a good sentence and making it great. Or at the very least, taking a bad sentence and making it decent. The second draft is full of moments like that. It’s a chance to improve the entire story.

So why the hate? For a perfectionist like me, it is such a daunting, overwhelming task. Every time I sit down to fix a scene, I find ten more things I need to fix. In the first draft, I just write and write and write until I reach 1600 words a day or whatever the goal is. I make progress every day—WOOT! During the second draft, I feel like I’m constantly losing ground. One step forward, ten steps back. ARGH!

In December, I spent a lot of time analyzing my story, but no time making actual changes. I knew once I committed myself to jumping into the second draft, I would be neck deep in swamp goo for approximately three months. I would get tired and cranky and possibly lost. I did not want to make that jump.

Yet at the same time, I did want to! Because on the other side of that swamp—glorious feedback from critique partners. The highlight of my writing process.

I can procrastinate and complain and avoid the second draft like the plague, but all it does is waste precious time. I’m not passing up the chance to reach that third draft . . . so I might as well start swimming.

I’m certainly covered in gunk this week. I’ve been tackling big info dumps, deleting the worst of it and scattering the best of it. In the first draft, one of my characters gave a huge speech to answer all of Kari’s questions. How embarrassing. Bad, character, bad! When will you learn the rules of dialogue?!

I’m also finding some scenes that I left unfinished during the first draft. If I got stumped, usually I just skipped to the next scene to keep from losing momentum. Now I stumble on these broken scenes and there’s no escaping them! They cling to me until I think of a way to finish them. The second draft is unforgiving, strict, and ruthless, eager to challenge every word I wrote.

In short—I’m hating this second draft, but I’m loving the results! Each day is one day closer to feedback. For that, I will become Swamp Queen.

P.S. Book club on Wednesday! WOOT WOOT!

Posted in Editing, Second Drafts (WERE), Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Make Your Story Stronger

January 23, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

Good news for this week: WHEN YOU REACH ME was the 2010 Newbery Medal Winner! Congratulations to Rebecca Stead on this well-deserved honor! Click here for more award winners (Caldecott, Printz, National Book Award, etc).

Reminder for this week: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, by Rick Riordan, will be discussed February 3rd here, on this website (not on LiveJournal). Buy it or get it from the library, I care not. But do it now, before the movie-rush sweeps away the copies!

Bad news for this week: I have strep throat. So my feats are few, and this post is short!

Winter’s Editing and Revising Extravaganza—This Week’s Feats:

1. Themes. I deeply pondered what I wish to convey with this book. Major or minor themes, obvious or subtle. Sometimes I wonder if I’m tackling too many themes, and thus will fail at all. If I come across as preachy, I will fail. If I don’t inspire you to think, I will also fail. This is why good critique partners are priceless. Until I get their feedback, I will struggle on blindly.

2. Research. The one good thing about confinement to a sick bed—lots of reading time. I reread my old mythology notes and discovered new mythology. Then I recorded in my notebook which mythology to use for my story and which to ignore. It’s all so interesting, I wish I could include it all. But I can only choose the aspects that drive the plot. Still, if someone were to ask me for more details, I hope to answer thoroughly, without hesitation.

3. Sources. Whether they be quotes, books, movies, songs, or works of art—sources can add depth to a story or even support a theme. I’m currently deciding which sources to refer to. Of course, copyright can become an issue. You need permission to quote someone in your book. I’ll worry about that later. For now, it’s fun to wallow in the words of those wiser than I. Today I’ve been devouring a perfect anthology, catching my breath every time I find a relevant quote. I usually hesitate to highlight or dog-ear my books, but this poor anthology is receiving rough (though well-loved) treatment.

All of the above can make your story stronger. What do you hope to accomplish with your book? What message would you like to share? Whatever it is, research other sources to improve your themes. Work and work and work until you’re sick and lost and confused. Then hand it over to your critique partners so they can lead you back to the right path.

Questions? Concerns? Feel free to share your WERE accomplishments! I’d love to hear your insights.

Posted in Research, Second Drafts (WERE) | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

Revising: Stage 1

January 16, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

Author Natalie Whipple recently blogged about Stages of Revision. Her Stage 1 centers on plot revisions, when she asks herself, “Is that the best way for this story to unfold?” She has a detailed list of other important questions, so check it out! I’m currently on my second draft, but these revision questions can be answered during your later drafts as well. It all depends on how you approach your edits.

Celebrate Winter’s Editing & Revising Extravaganza by sharing your accomplishments, thoughts, and ideas! My WERE accomplishments for this week:

1. Storyboarding my chapters. I listed all the scenes and the word counts for each chapter. I also blocked off my three acts. Now I have a better idea of which chapters need cut down, which need added to, and where I need to work on pacing.

2. Creating a timeline for my story. I’m using an extra 2010 calendar to map out the events and make the time-flow realistic. I realized that I’m a week off at one point in my story; it’s supposed to span five weeks, and I wrote it as only four weeks. I also noticed I should refer to the days more often so I can anchor the story.

3. Fixing my backstory. In the first draft, I introduced the tidbits of backstory rather awkwardly. Then I got an idea for how to improve it while reading WHEN YOU REACH ME (that’s why reading is the most important thing a writer can do. It’s not plagiarism—it’s inspiration). I cut my ten excerpts and pasted them into appropriate places. Now it makes more sense, and it even helped me with one of my plot holes.

4. Starting a list of things I need to fix throughout the novel. Slightly daunted by the growing size of the list! But I’m also excited, because I know these ideas will make the story better.

5. Updating my novel’s playlist. Yes, this was crucial. LOL.

I challenge you to try any or all of the above methods, if you haven’t already. Let me know if you have any questions!

Posted in Second Drafts (WERE) | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

Taking Care of Business

January 14, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

I forgot to announce this sooner: the book for the February’s WBC will be THE LIGHTNING THIEF, by Rick Riordan (appropriate for ages nine and up). Discussion will start February 3rd, with a focus on modifying mythology for contemporary novels. THE LIGHTNING THIEF movie releases February 12th, so I hope all of you will read the book before seeing the movie!

Speaking of the book club, I need your vote. Would you rather have the discussion on WordPress, like we did for SHIVER in December, or on LiveJournal, like we did in January? Please let me know which site you prefer, and majority will rule. Thank you!

I haven’t posted links in awhile; here are a few gems I had to share:

The best marketing for your book is based on the best use of your time, from the ever-helpful Nathan Bransford.

If you have finished writing a YA novel, you might be interested in these two contests.

Click here to learn more about a developing genre called New Adult, with protagonists aged 18-26.

What other business am I forgetting? I’ll be back on Saturday with a post about revision!

Posted in Writer's Book Club | Tagged , | 6 Comments »

Official “Share Your Writing Space” Day

January 9, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

So it’s not an official holiday . . . I made it up. Just go with it, okay??

Back in December, I talked about revamping your writing space as a way to inspire yourself. Well, I’ve been fixing up my office, and I’m finally ready to share some pics! I’m happy with it for now, but no doubt it will change in the future. The next project will be turning my door into storyboard central via magnetic paint.

Before we even moved into this house, I knew I wanted my office to combine some of my favorite things: books, nature, and the color green. I don’t like sitting at my desk on beautiful days, so I decided to bring nature into my office. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it surpassed my expectations. Now it’s my favorite room in the house, my sanctuary. I smile every time I enter it. I’m looking forward to spending many, many hours in this room.

This office would not exist without the help of my wonderful husband. First he helped me paint the room green, and then he made this desk for me. See the funny corner of the room—it juts out a little, making a typical corner desk impossible. He had to make the two sides separately, based on the wall measurements, and then fit them together. The desktop is plywood, but the legs and shelves are made from oak from his parents’ woods.

He also helped me make and hang the bulletin board. I picked out the fabric (leaves and branches) which we stretched over a corkboard/cardboard combination. Then I tacked on the ribbons. Right now the board holds pictures, memorabilia, quotes, and anything else I find beautiful or inspiring. When the revision process gets crazier, I’m sure I’ll have  a million Post-it notes up there.

I thought my two filing cabinets were ugly, so I covered them with pictures of nature scenes. The desk doesn’t have drawers, so I use the pretty boxes for pens and other supplies. I have two trays for papers I need to file, projects I’m working on, or things I can’t forget to do. The very top shelf has all my writing books. The horizontal books on the corner are books I’m currently reading (a strange combo of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, and CALL OF THE RIVER).

I bought a new chair, which you can barely see in this pic because of the green crocheted blanket. Hey, sometimes my legs get cold.

This is the other side of the office, aka the guest bedroom. Come visit me, and this is where you will sleep. Overnight guests are rare though, so I use it when I want to curl up with a book. Or sometimes I just lie on the bed and stare up at the posters (prairie scenes). The bookcase in the corner is my YA/MG bookcase, which brings me much joy.

This pic shows the storage under the bed. Three of the drawers hold extra sheets and blankets, and two drawers hold computer supplies. To add to the natural decor, I bought bamboo shades for the two windows. It’s currently night, but the bamboo lets in so much light during the day—I love them!

I could go on and on in exhaustive detail, but I’ve probably put you to sleep already. I invite you to celebrate Share Your Writing Space Day! If you have a blog, website, or Facebook profile, post your writing space pictures; then put the link in a comment on this post so we can all check it out! If you have no way of sharing a public link, simply describe your favorite things about your writing space. No writing space? Then tell us about your dreams for a future one!

The Writer’s Book Club is still discussing WHEN YOU REACH ME—stop by if you’ve read the book! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead

January 6, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

This month, I want to try hosting The Writer’s Book Club on my LiveJournal blog. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll be back here next month. For more information, discussion questions, and comments, please click here for my LJ.

Sorry for the inconvenience! Let me know if you have trouble with LiveJournal.

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Resolutions for 2010

January 2, 2010 by E. M. Rowan

I didn’t have time to post resolutions earlier in the week . . . and now it’s January!! Snuck up on me somehow. Out with the old decade, in with the new. It drives me a little crazy to think of years and decades passing so quickly. 2009 bombarded me, like a year-long kickboxing session. I’m hoping 2010 will be more like yoga. RIGHT, sure it will.

Usually I post my resolutions from the year before to see how I fared. This year the results are embarrassing! I only accomplished two of my seven professional goals in 2009:  1) improving the website and starting a Facebook page, and 2) reading 65 or more books. In my defense (that is, to make excuses for myself), I did go through some life-changing ordeals. 2009 was about survival; 2010 will hopefully be the year of writing!

Because I love to talk about books, I’ll sidetrack and chat about the 77 books I read in 2009 . . .

~ 64 were audiobooks! I almost met my goal by auditory means alone!

~ 58 were Young Adult or Middle Grade novels.

~ 47 had some type of fantasy element. It’s too time-consuming to differentiate between high fantasy, urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy,  and futuristic stories.

~ I read books by 46 different authors. In the second half of the year, I decided to broaden my horizons and try several new authors. 29 of the 46 authors I just discovered this year. My favorites of the new authors I tried: John Green, Tamora Pierce, E. Lockhart, Markus Zusak, Suzanne Collins, Shannon Hale, Francisco Stork, Maggie Stiefvater, Rebecca Stead, and Kristen Cashore. Some of these are fairly new authors, but most have been around for awhile. Why did I wait so long to read their books??

~ Only two were nonfiction (and a third was based on a true story). That’s rather sad. I read partials of nonfiction all the time, but I rarely sit down to read a nonfiction book from cover to cover. Ironically, I’m in the middle of a nonfiction audiobook right now, but that will have to wait for the 2010 book list.

~ I gave a top ranking (five stars) to 27 of the books . . . which means over a third of the books I read were excellent. And 44 books received four stars. 2009 was hard in a lot of ways, but it might just be the BEST. READING. YEAR. EVER.

Okay, I’ll try to reign in the book joy for now. It will resume on Wednesday with the discussion of WHEN YOU REACH ME (by Rebecca Stead, mentioned above!). For now, I suppose I should get back to the whole point of this post—my 2010 resolutions:

1. Work on the second draft of TRE in January and February.
2. Send TRE to critique partners in March; work on third draft.
3. Attend at least one writer’s conference.
4. Finish TRE and query agents.
5. Start on TRE sequel or rewrite EOL.
6. Read fifty books.

In case you’re wondering why I might drop from 77 books to 50—I’m guessing I’ll have less audiobooks. This new house is smaller (thus less cleaning) and has a dishwasher. Cleaning and washing dishes used to be my best audiobook time! Plus I’ll be trying to write like a madwoman, so that means less reading of the paper variety. I’ll do my best to average a book a week.

More personally, my husband and I resolve to read devotions and exercise together every day (alternating Pilates and kettlebell). We figure we can hold each other accountable that way. My son is usually in bed by seven, so we’re setting aside 7:00-8:00 PM for devotions/exercise/household chores. Then I get to write for the rest of the evening, and everyone is happy.

Ellie recently made a very good point: “I want to write for the rest of my life, so I need to make writing a healthy habit instead of an obsessive one.” That’s not a direct quote (sorry, Ellie, I can’t remember exactly what you said!), but you get the idea. Don’t shut yourself away and write in every spare second. Find a way to balance family, exercise, writing, and other priorities. Then you’re less likely to get burnt out on any one thing. Easier said than done? We’ll see how balance works in 2010.

Don’t forget—book club on Wednesday! And I’ll resume WERE next Saturday!

Happy New Year!!

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

WERE 4: Revising the Joy

December 26, 2009 by E. M. Rowan

Hope everyone had a very, Merry Christmas! I can’t believe this is the last Saturday of 2009. Next week if I have time, I’ll blog about my favorite books of ‘09 and my New Year’s resolutions. One of my resolutions is to finish my novel, which means I need to wrap up these preparations for the second draft and actually get started on the thing. So without further ado, the last December edition of Winter’s Editing and Revising Extravaganza!

In my opinion, one of the hardest things about writing a novel is seeing “the big picture.” Yeah, I can sit down to reread my manuscript, but my mind tends to focus only on the words I’m currently reading—or maybe the current scene or chapter, if I’m lucky. So how can I step away from the words and see how all the scenes and chapters fit together into one complete story? How can I study the novel’s timeline, or the appearances of a character, or missing plot elements?

The solution: a storyboard. I think “storyboard” was originally a Hollywood term, used by movie or TV-show producers to describe a sequence of drawings representing the shots they plan to film. But writers can also use a storyboard to represent the scenes in a novel. If you like to draw (stick figures welcome), then feel free to create an artistic storyboard! If not, consider these other possibilities . . .

Visualize Scenes with a Storyboard, courtesy of Editor Unleashed. Read the comments from that post for more ideas of how to storyboard (such as using photos instead of drawings).

Kate Messner’s revision process relies on Scrivener writing software, which includes a virtual bulletin board with different colored notecards. One color represents school scenes, another color for home scenes, another for extracurricular scenes, etc.

If you don’t have appropriate writing software, do it the old-fashioned way! For instance, Caitlin Kittredge’s notecards and bulletin board work well for revisions. She uses one color of notecard for existing chapters, a second color for the changes needed for existing chapters, and a third color for brand new chapters (she went from 25 chapters to 40). So if a card for each scene sounds too daunting, try a card for each chapter.

Post-it Digital Notes is another type of computer software you can use to organize your story. Or get real Post-its (of different colors) and stick them on a table or on the walls of your office/bedroom!

Some authors brainstorm with a whiteboard and marker. Others write scenes/chapters on pages of paper and hang them from laundry lines! Another common practice is to enter the scenes into a spreadsheet (Excel or other program), which allows you to easily change the order of the cells. I’m thinking about painting my office door with magnetic paint; then I could rearrange scenes using notecards and magnets.

It doesn’t really matter which method you use—find what works for you. Once you’ve chosen a method, decide on the focus of your storyboard. I might focus on plot (the mystery, mythology, subplots, etc) and the characters (best friend, love interest, mother, etc) to get a big-picture view of how much time I spent on each plot thread and each character. I may be focusing too much on one aspect and neglecting others. A good balance makes for a stronger book.

Any questions about storyboards? Any ideas you’d like to share??

I’m not sure what will happen on next Saturday’s post—I’m flying by the seat of my pants at the moment. But if you want, use this Christmas break to prepare for revisions based on the WERE advice. Then jump into a new draft on January 1st!

And don’t forget to read WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead. Book club discussion begins Jan. 6th!

Posted in Editing, Second Drafts (WERE) | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

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