PNWA Book Doctor Interview: Secrets Revealed

Jason Black

I'd like to introduce author Jason Black and PNWA's own book doctor. I reviewed his latest middle grade book, Pebblehoof on MMGM a few weeks ago. You can see the review here. I was so glad that Jason agreed to an interview here on the blog. Welcome Jason! And now for our first question:
  
1) Why do you write for children?
You know, people ask me that a lot. I sometimes wish I had a deep, philosophical answer, but I don't. I never set out to be a children's author--and indeed, have written in genres all over the map--but somehow, I've ended up writing several books for kids of various ages. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but there you go.

  
That said, for each book there are specific reasons why I wrote it for younger audiences. I've written three novels as gifts for specific children, and therefore, needed to write something that was accessible to that kid. I have a fourth title in the works that is YA because that was the most natural audience for the subject matter.

  
However, having done it several times now, I have to say I really enjoy
writing for kids. My list of to-be-written books is still all over the map,
but you can bet Pebblehoof isn't the last youth title you'll see from me.
  
 2) Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a writer. 
Oh, my least favorite question ever! I'm such a boring subject. :) I'm a technical writer in the software industry by day, freelance developmental
editor by night (hey, everybody needs a secret identity), novelist when I can
squeeze it in, and father of two book-loving children who are occasionally
willing to test-drive manuscripts for me.

Like many writers, I tried my hand at fiction when I was a teenager. Although the kind and supportive adults in my life praised my efforts, to me they were abject failures and best forgotten. I couldn't understand how real writers did it. I would think of ideas for stories, which in my head were grand, epic
affairs. Then when I'd write them, I'd be done after about three pages, and I had no idea where the grand, epic-ness had gone. I figured I just didn't have the magical knack of sustaining a story for hundreds of pages like the published writers did. What followed was two tragically lost decades of not writing fiction at all. That's one of the biggest regrets of my life. I can't get that time back.

Then in 2005, a co-worker at my day job talked me into trying National NovelWriting Month. I was skeptical, but for some reason or other I said yes. I decided to novelize the events of a role playing game I had run with some friends several years prior. Laugh if you will, but thirty days later--and utterly astonished--I held a 100,000 word manuscript in my hands. 

That month of literary abandon, as NaNoWriMo calls it, was easily the single greatest time of creative joy and liberation I've ever had. I was hooked, and haven't looked back since. But don't ask me what changed during those two fallow decades. To this day, I haven't the slightest idea why I can do now what was so impossible in my youth.

  

Order Here!

3) What was the inspiration for Pebblehoof?

Pebblehoof was written as a gift for my niece. And I'll tell you, for any writer looking for inspiration, nothing beats writing for a _specific_audience. Pick one individual child, and write for her. In my case, my niece loves horses. And I mean, she really, really loves horses. So naturally, I had to write a horse book. Since it's for my niece, I wanted it to have a strong, female protagonist of a similar age.
  
With those two requirements, I started thinking about plots and settings. There were basically two. I could do something set in the modern day, about dressage or show-jumping or something like that. Or, I could do something historical, in an age when horses were as common as cars are now.
      
Of the two, dressage made me yawn straight away. Apologies to those who do
love dressage, it's just not even a little bit my thing. Historical, however,
opens up some great stuff. Like the American West during the homestead era, when the land was wild, the law was basically nonexistent, and the
opportunities for a strong female protagonist to get into some dandy
adventures with her horse were much more readily available.
  
 4) Tell us about your process.
  
Well, I guess I already started answering that, so I'll just continue. Boiled
down to a three-word philosophy, it would be “always increase specificity.” [Step 1]* I start with whatever vague inklings of a story happen to come to me, and from there refine that idea into something that is ever more specific. For Pebblehoof, I was starting with "girl and a horse in the wild west." That's nice, but is far too vague to work with. So, piece by piece, I evaluated
options for making it specific.

 

[Step 2]* Take the protagonist. Since the book is for my niece, I made the protagonist two years older than my niece was going to be by the time the book was in
print. The rule of thumb I've been told for middle-grade and YA fiction is that kids like to read about protagonists who are a little bit older than themselves. Next, as much as possible I want my niece to identify with the protagonist, so I named my protagonist Maria because that's phonetically similar to--but not a dead-on ringer for--my niece's name. I gave the protagonist a family structure that mirror's my niece's family: a mother,
father, and younger sister. I gave them similar names to my sister, my brother-in-law, and my other niece too. My family is of German extraction, so I made the protagonist's family into German immigrants. 

 

[Step 3] Now we're starting to get specific, and to a point where research can help.
America's German population largely came over in the mid-19th century, as a result of civil war in Germany. That fixed the time period pretty specifically, at least as far as when Maria's parents would have come to
America.  
More research: what was going on in America during those years? Obviously, lots of stuff. The question of slavery, predominantly, but I wasn't interested in writing a story with a heavy, moralistic, social-studies kind of message. There’s a place for books like those, it just wasn’t what I wanted to write. I also found that the Homestead Act was passed in that same time period. Ah ha, said I, that's a perfect fit for the needs of an immigrant family looking to
start a new life in a free land.
  
So you see how this works: [Step 4] I look at the parts of my premise or plot which are too vague, then I do research and brainstorm until something strikes me as a good fit for what I'm after.
  
In like fashion, I found a specific location for the story (the Platte River
area around Columbus, Nebraska), discovered and invented various plot elements and turning points in the story, and learned tons of great historical details that provide the color and texture for the story. That same process even gave me the story's central conflict involving the Transcontinental Railroad.
* Red Added.
  
 5) Pebblehoof is an incredible historical fiction and it is clear you did extensive research. Can you share anything you learned about research:how-to strategies, determining what to use and when, and ultimately—how to know you've done enough?
  
I think I've answered most of that already. I'll just add that the process. I've described works incredibly well for historical fiction, but (research) also works great for other types of fiction as well. The only difference is that what constitutes "research" may differ.  
My research was the traditional kind, because if I'm going to write a
historical novel I want it to be actually historical. And if I'm going to
write for kids, I want them to learn something along the way. Not to hit them
over the head with the history, or require that they learn dozens of names,
dates, and significant places just to track the story. I just want the story
to be as close to something that could have happened as possible, while still
telling the story I want to tell.
  
But, if my niece were a space buff and I had instead chosen to write her a
futuristic sci-fi piece set on Mars or something, my “research" would have
involved a lot more "imagining stuff to fill in the gaps" rather than looking
things up in books and on the internet.

The sources may vary, but the process remains the same: do whatever you need to do to turn _vague_ ideas into _specific_ story elements. To that extent, the way you know when you've done enough is when the elements have become specific enough you can actually write about them.
  
Knowing what to leave out is important, too. This is a tough one for a lot of writers, because we are so easily enraptured with the cool stuff we discover while researching. We naturally want to share it all. But not everything we
discover necessarily belongs in the story. There's all sorts of historical detail about the Transcontinental Railroad, for example, which didn't make it into the book. It wasn't germane to the specific plot Maria was involved with. To add it would have been a digression. It would have killed the pacing.
  
You can get away with adding more of that stuff in literary genres. But for
children's literature, you _have_ to keep the plot moving. It is very, very
easy to lose kids' interest if the story bogs down. For children's lit,
knowing what to leave out is absolutely critical.

6) What does a typical writing day look like?
Hah. I wish I had typical writing days. Reality is that the demands of a day
job and freelancing leave me with precious little time to actually write my own stuff. I carve out November for novel-writing (sorry, clients!), but that's about all I get so I have to make the most of it.
Research, fortunately, is something that can be done in odd moments. I spend
September and October doing that, turning my initial vague idea into a
fully-developed scene list, with everything in order, all the plot issues work
out, and scene-by-scene notes of what's supposed to happen. That way, when
November comes, I can make the most out of the two to three writing hours I
can squeeze into an evening after the kids are in bed.
  
During November, my typical writing day looks like this: Wake up. Feed the
kids and get them dressed. Shower while my wife takes them to school. Go to
work. Write boring stuff about software. Come home. Eat dinner. Do baths and story time for the kids. Sit down at the computer. Grab the next scene
description out of my notes. Write what it says. Do the dishes, and go to bed.

Not exactly the Ernest Hemmingway model of adventure, seaside vistas, and
mojitos at the Havana Club, is it?

6) Where is your favorite place to write?

Typically, my home office. But anywhere quiet will do. Someone once said that the greatest asset you have is time. Someone smarter said no, the greatest asset you have is _uninterrupted concentration_. In my life, just about the only place I can find uninterrupted concentration is at home, after the kids are in bed.
  
7) What did or do you find most challenging in creating the story and getting it published? What do you wish you would have known?

Probably the hardest thing in Pebblehoof was in creating a story in which
Maria could be the strong, female protagonist I wanted to give to my niece.
Although it is a story about a girl and the horse who is her only friend in
the world, I didn't want it to become a "super horse saves the day!" kind of
story. I needed Maria to matter to the story. But just the same, I needed
Pebblehoof to matter to the story, too. It wouldn't be much of a
girl-and-her-horse story if the horse was just an afterthought, or was
irrelevant to the way the story unfolded.

What I needed to do was build the plot around what Pebblehoof _enables_ Maria to do that she wouldn't otherwise be able to. That was the key. It was about finding ways that Maria could save the day, but only because she had
Pebblehoof.
Beyond that, the most challenging elements of publication for me are the fact that I have no visual design skills at all, which means I'm basically helpless when it comes to book covers and interior book design. Fortunately, I was able to hook up with an excellent photoshop artist on the NaNoWriMo message boards who created the cover for me. Also fortunately, I found a kindly publisher who happens to have amazing book design skills and was willing to trade publication services for developmental editing services. All of which is good, because as I said, the book was a gift, so I was committed to publishing it with or without help from traditional publishing.The book as a whole turned out really beautiful, and I’m delighted with it.
  
The one thing I wish I’d have been more cognizant of ahead of time was how long to plan for copy editing. I didn’t leave enough time, and didn’t have a copy editor lined up far enough in advance, so that part of the process turned
out to be a stressful, last-minute scramble.
  
8) What is the best writing advice you have ever received?
  
Easy: "Show, don't tell." The person who told me that never explained what it
meant, but somehow it made sense to me anyway. These days, because I do
developmental editing for other writers and constantly find myself having to
explain what "show, don't tell" really means, I have a very clear
understanding of the concept and how it serves as the single, bedrock, guiding
principle for all narrative writing.
  
I know that sounds like a hyperbole, but I mean it quite literally. Explaining
why is probably a whole other interview, though.

9) Are you working on a new project? Can you tell us about it?

I am! This year's NaNoWriMo just finished up, and I'm pretty excited about
this rough, first draft I just wrote. It is middle-grade book for my other
niece, and will be coming out for her birthday in September, 2013. (Writers,
beware! While it's great to write for a specific, one-kid audience, there is a
potential drawback: having done it for one niece, I'm now on the hook to do it
for her sister and for my own kids as well. Still, there are worse problems to
have.)
  
This one is about a beaver in the far north of Ontario, on the run from the
fur trapper pursuing her for her rare black pelt. I'm reading it to my kids
right now, to see what they think and learn whether I need to fix anything.
I'm not sure what they think of it yet, but so far I'm quite pleased with how
the book came out.
  
10) What advice would you give others that write for children?
  
Respect your audience, both for their strengths and their limitations. Maxim Gorky said, "You must write for children in the same way you do for adults, only better." I do my best to take that to heart.
  
For me, that means two things. First, it means is recognizing that children
are every bit as smart as you or me. There is never a need to "dumb down" a story just because you're writing it for kids. Just focus on telling the
_best_ story you can. Don't worry about making it simple. Pebblehoof is by no
means a simple story; Maria's and her parents have a pretty complex dynamic
(hey! just like in real life!). Similarly, the family as a whole has a
shifting, love/hate relationship with the railroad and the railroad baron who
is the book's central nemesis.

Second, it means to recognize that kids don't yet have the reading skill
grownups do. And why should they? You and I have been at this whole reading thing for decades. Kids have only been doing it for as little as a year or two, depending on the particular age you're writing for. This has a bearing on how you write the story. (But note, it doesn't mean you dumb down the language. Quite the opposite, actually, as the early literacy years also coincide with kids' period of most rapid language acquisition. To dumb down the language of your writing is to do them a disservice by eliminating their opportunity to experience new words in context and figure out what they mean.)
  
What it does mean is that for a kid to read two pages of story, say,
represents a significant investment of time and effort. That's not an easy
thing for them, and you'd darn well better respect their work. They'd better
get some payoff out of it, which means that the story had better _move_ within those pages. If you give the kid two solid pages of beautiful, poetic,
evocative, Pulitzer-worthy landscape description in which nothing happens, you
haven't respected their work and you shouldn't be surprised if the kid decides
your book is boring. Adult readers might happily stick with you for those two
pages. But then, for the same amount of effort the kid put in, the adult might
well read 20 pages instead of 2. For kids, there's a very different ratio of
work to reward than for adults. I said earlier that pace was critical for
children's literature, and this is why. If you're going to write for kids,
keep that story moving!

Thanks so much for stopping by Jason. I hope you all enjoyed the interview as much as I did. Be sure to check out his editing services on his website here. 

I'm going to take a few weeks off to plan for the new year. Join me on January 14th for my first middle grade book review of 2013!

Only You Can Write Your Book: Q/A with Carol Fisher Saller and a Giveaway

We are very privileged to have Carol Fisher Saller, author of Eddie's War and the Subversive Copy Editor with us today.
You can see my review of Eddie's War here.
Carol has offered a signed copy to one lucky commenter!

So let's get started...


1) After spending many years in academe what made you decide to write a book for children? 

Actually, although Eddie’s War is my first children’s novel, I wrote several books for younger children before I started working in academe. In the early 1990s when my children were small, we read a lot of children’s books, like Beverly Cleary’s books about Ramona and Beezus, and the Little House books, and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series, and Jack Prelutsky’s poetry collections. Not to mention a million picture books. It made me want to try writing them myself.

2) Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a writer.

I grew up unremarkably in Peoria, Illinois, and like all writers I must have begun writing as a wee tot, since I don’t seem to remember the process.

3) What made you decide to use verse to tell Eddie's story?
Truly, I never set out to write in verse, nor would I call it that (although you aren’t the first reviewer to describe it that way). I would call it “prose chopped into short lines.” Early on, a critiquer at a conference told me the short lines were a bad idea, so I rewrote them into paragraphs, but the short lines continued to assert themselves and I finally stopped fighting them. I like the way they slow the reader down. They also allow a bit of stream-of-consciousness when I don’t want to be explicit. And of course, without them, the book would only be about 50 pages long.

ORDER HERE

4) Tell us about your process.
It’s kind of a mess. I don’t follow any of the usual advice (write every day, keep a notebook, etc.). When I’m writing, I try to give it 20 or 30 minutes when I first get up in the morning, before I go to the office. Writing Eddie took me something like six years, and it’s a really short book! I’m very slow, partly because I’m compulsive self-editor. I love revising so much that I do it continuously as I write. I spend much more time rewriting and honing than drafting. It’s so much more enjoyable and rewarding. 

5) I understand the inspiration for Eddie's War came from the journal of your father. Tell us what other research you did and it's role in the creation of the story.

The research was endless, and unlike many writers of historical fiction, I did not love it! It was like homework. But I took my responsibility seriously to get things right, and since I’ve spent my whole adult life copyediting scholarly research, I know how to find facts and document them. I read old newspapers on microfilm; I read books written by WWII bomber pilots; I looked at memoirs from the 1930s and 1940s. I read about farm machinery, typewriters, sparrows, horseshoeing. I listened to Churchill’s war speeches and bought a CD full of radio news programs from the war. (You should listen sometime to Edward R. Murrow reporting from London during the Blitz!) I looked at several books about the Roma in Poland and read whatever I could find online. And my father’s diary was a gold mine of period detail. If I needed Eddie to be doing some authentic-sounding farm chore in June 1943, all I had to do was look in the diary and take my pick. I used the names of books my dad was reading, movies he saw, radio shows.

Although the usual sequence is that a writer needs to confirm a fact and looks it up, your question reveals that you know it sometimes works the other way around: you look something up, and what you discover suggests a new twist. For instance, Jozef was a minor character before I read about the Polish Roma, after which he seemed so much more important as a symbol of the war and its atrocities.

4) You stated that revision is your favorite part of the process, even to the exclusion of drafting. You've also written an important book The Subversive Copy Editor. Why did you feel compelled to write this?

For many years, as part of my job at the University of Chicago Press, I had been reading all the e-mails sent to The Chicago Manual of Style, and so many were from writers and editors who were asking for proof that they were right about something so they could win an argument with someone. I began to see how much needless trouble and angst there was in the editing process, writer versus editor. I also saw how many educated people felt superior when they were actually just clinging to fake or antiquated rules (like not splitting an infinitive, or not using the passive). I wanted to write a book that would give both parties a smack and ask them to update their knowledge, put egos aside, and cooperate in service of the reader.

7) The underlying theme seems to be about keeping the experience of the reader at the forefront of the editing process. Why is this especially important now with the digital evolution of publishing? 

Because online publishing is not always run by professional editors, there’s an increased likelihood of errors and inconsistencies that both detract from the reader’s experience and damage the credibility of the writer and publisher. The idea that editorial quality matters to readers is widely accepted, but editing costs money, and low-budget publishers often decide it’s dispensable.

8) What does a typical writing day look like?

Unfortunately (fortunately?), I don’t have writing days. I have the day job, and I’m involved in a lot of other activities outside work, so I write in little bits and pieces. I’ve often thought that even if I were free to write all day, I’d probably find other things to do after a half hour.

9) Where is your favorite place to write?
In the sun, which is difficult on my high-glare laptop. I wonder if there’s some kind of gadget for that.

10) What did or do you find most challenging in creating the story and getting it published? What do you wish you would have known?
I got very discouraged at times, thinking that the whole thing was hopeless. My writing group and my editor, Stephen Roxburgh, kept telling me just to keep writing, and I wish I’d had more faith that it would actually lead to a finished book. 

11) What is the best writing advice you've ever received?

Aside from “Just keep writing,” it would be “Only you can write your books.” I’m sorry I don’t remember where I heard it. It’s easy to get caught up in comparing myself to other, more celebrated writers. Or worrying about whether someone else is writing something similar, instead of remembering that what I do with a given idea is unique and valid, and that writing is not a competition. There’s room for many voices.

12) Are you working on a new project? Can you tell us about it?

I am! I’m still outlining, so nothing is set in stone, but I can at least say that it’s about a girl whose great-great-grandmother was hanged for murder. I want it to be a bit dark—a mystery—as the girl tries to track down a journal that will prove her ancestor’s innocence. It will be more YA than Eddie, and set in the present—although of course we’ll have to go back to 1935 when the hanging took place.

13) What advice would you give others who write for children? 
                    Join SCBWI! That will give you all the advice you’ll ever need.

Thanks so much for coming by the blog! This has been great getting to know more about you and your work.  Find more Carol here:


Website
Subversive Copy Editor Blog


And now for the giveaway...


Answer the following question in a comment and tweet about this post. Easy, right?


Question: According to Carol, what was the advice she wished she'd had more faith in?


Whoops, I forgot to put a deadline on this give away. Deadline for entry is March 31st and winner will be announced on April 1st. 

Revision Friday: Three Ways To Beef Up Your Fiction

Revision is all about making your WIP the best it can be, right? When we are creating it's best to keep moving, no stopping to make sure every sentence does what it's suppose to. Revision is different in that it requires a level head, devoid of the emotional energy of creation. Here are three ways to absolutely improve your work in progress.

1) Slay your babies.These are those sentences created in the heat of getting the words on the page that you read over and say, "Well, now that was an awesome sentence." Sometimes, that's all it is; an awesome sentence that adds clutter. Clutter distracts the reader from the story. Believe me, usually your "babies" aren't as cute as you think they are. 

2) Cut the flab. These are those extra words that in our hurry to get the story on the page we add without noticing. Things like: He nodded his head in agreement. Really? What else would he nod, his toe? Take out all the unnecessary words that cover the muscle of the story. Who doesn't want well toned arms? Stories need toning, too.

3) Chop those cliches. You know, those turns of phrase that are stale and overly used. Sometimes in the heat of creation they creep in. It's our job as writers to seek them out and excise them. Or, convert them to something fresh.  

For example:  She waited quiet as a mouse.     She waited like the forest after rain.

So what are you going to SLAY, CUT or CHOP today?

Wrapping Your Mind around POV

Point of view has been a challenge for me. From what I've read it's a problem with many writers, so much so that there are often POV shifts showing up all the time in published books. Once you get it, it is amazing how obvious one of these violations can be. Try finding the shift in POV in the following passages from the same story. 

Sarah ran out into the yard, hoping Dylan was still there.

    He was, standing guiltily. "What did you do?" she said, "You come here this minute!"

Did you catch it? The first sentence tells us Sarah's point of view. She hopes Dylan is there. The next line jumps to Dylan's POV when it says "standing guiltily." That's the shift. Sarah can't know what Dylan feels.

Now this is the fun part, how can we change this and stay in Sarah's POV and still say Dylan feels guilty? 

Sarah ran out into the yard, hoping Dylan was still there.

    He was, his head down and his hands behind his back. "What did you do?" she said, "You come here this minute!"

Fixing the POV also changed it from telling to showing. Isn't that what we want?

Let's try another:

     Dylan slowly walked towards Sarah and said, "Promise you won't get mad?" She always knows, how does she always know?

What happened? Yep, that's right, we just got inside Dylan's head, he's thinking that she always knows. 

What about this one, still part of the same story?

     Discipline is one of the hardest things for a parent to do. It can take years to become good at it and by then the child is grown, with a family of his own. The most important thing is to be consistent. If you say you're going to do something do it.

This is what they call "author intrusion" unless Sarah has a good story reason to include it. Even then, it doesn't sound like the character.

You never knew spotting POV shifts could be so fun, did you? Do you or did you struggle with a particular POV? How did you beat it?  

Here are some more resources:

Writerly Life

Robert Sawyer on POV

Or check out this list of books:

The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life by Alicia Rasley

Points of View: Revised Edition by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny

Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card 

Point of View in Fiction by Paula Berinstein

 

 

Cooking the Perfect Synopsis

So, I've been working on my synopsis for my middle grade novel, which means I've scoured sources for suggestions, formats and instruction on getting it right. 

Why? Three reasons: 

1- It's a vital marketing tool, next to the Query.

2- If it isn't right you may have a flaw in your story. 

3- At some point someone is going to request one.

I've coalesced what I've researched into a basic recipe. 

*****************************************************************

Rockin' Synopsis
Preheat: Present Tense
Serves: Agents, Publishers anyone looking 

1 cup Voice               [Gives a taste of your unique voice.] 

1/3 cup   Who       [Main characters: What do they want?]

1/3 cup   Why       [Why should we care?]

1/3 cup   How       [How is he/she going to get it?]

1/2 cup   What      [What goes wrong, who/what gets in the way?]

1/2  cup  Risk            [What is he/she risk? No risk, no story.]

1/2 cup  Reward    [Do he/she get what they want or version of it?]

Mix well trimming extra words, unnecessary phrases until you have a succinct mix. Set aside for several days. With fresh eyes, revise again perfecting every sentence until you have the exact flavor you want. Then share it with several  CP's or Beta's to see if they see what you see, feel what you want them to feel. If not, revise again. Repeat this until the synopsis has risen to the desired level. 
***************************************************************************

I found several excellent suggestions for how to obtain the perfect ingredients and boiling them down to the exact proportions. Here are a few links you may find helpful!

How to Write A Synopsis
How to Write A Book Synopsis: Tips, Techniques
Writing A Synopsis
Synopsis
Writing a Synopsis That Rocks

I know there are tons more out there! Do you have a post on your blog? Share a link in your comments! 

*Check in next Monday for Middle School Review of Savvy and Scumble by Ingrid Law

Why Isn't This Scene Working?

Tweet    "It's 2:00am and I have been up for two hours frantically typing a scene for my current middle school MS. You know what I'm talking about, the kind of scene that won't let you get on with anything in your life until you get it on paper."

    Sound familiar?  Well, it had been two months since that night and I still couldn't figure out where the scene fit.  Still sound familiar? Well,  I revised it, tried it in several different positions but it still wasn't working. So I decided that I would just put it aside and deal with it later and picked up one of the current books I'm reading, The Architecture of the Novel by Jane Vandenburgh. In her section on plot  she writes:

      "So plot is story's sequence--the 3,2.1 or the 2,3,1 of it's scenes. These are events arranged not necessarily in the order in which they chronologically happened. Rather, they are positioned so they best show us what we are to understand about each event in the moment in which it occurs. Sequencing has everything to do with the way plot weaves layers of time... we can look back...and understand and events significance-- only later, when we encounter meaning in the story's narrative future.' (Vandenburgh, 78) 

Eureka! It suddenly occurred to me that the scene that I believed was for my protagonist,  was actually a scene involving her deceased mother. So now I had to discover where in my plot this information/ scene would be meaningful and how my protagonist would learn about it.

Uncovering story and plot is such an adventure! Have you had any eureka moments you would like to share?

It's still not to late to enter my 80 followers celebration give-away, enter here. Amazingly in only two days I have now jumped to 103 followers, so....in celebration I will be adding another copy of Possession, doubling the chances of winning!! :) Be sure to enter before 12:00 midnight on December, 9th.

WIP Thursday: I know, I know, It's Friday...

     I just sat down to write this and *hic* got the hiccups. *hic* And no I haven't been drinking. *hic* Ok, this is getting an*hic*noying.  While I haven't been drinking, I have been a bit frustrated.  I took Elana's advice (check out Marieke's Musings and Operation Awesome) about writing your query letter while you are in the middle of writing your novel. What did I find out? That my last 20,000 words are mostly back story and the real story is what happens next.

The exciting part is that the "edge" I was looking for presented itself and the murky waters of my muse have cleared. Did the last few months of work mean nothing? How do I let go of something I have put so much blood and sweat into? 

First question: No, this wasn't a waste but a necessary process for me. I can accept that. It did get me to the real story, and besides, now I totally get why my MC wants what she wants. That's good, right?

Second question: Letting go is hard to do *tacky music plays* This is probably one of the most difficult things a writer does, slaying your babies for the sake of the story. The bottom line is, you can have the greatest turn of phrase, the most awesome character development, a really twisty plot but if no one is interested to turn the page and read on, what's the point.

So, I will keep my 20,000 words on the computer for reference. Then I will build a fire out back and burn those pages as a sacrifice for the better story.  I won't lie, it hurts.  It also means I am not as close to a finished novel as I thought. I have always told my children it is more about the process than the results, so I guess I will take my own advice and see that experience for what it was, a honing of my talent as a writer.

Excuse me, I think I need to go have a good cry...and no Honey, you can't fix this.
       Maybe I will have that drink, now.
Have you slayed any babies, lately?