What Happened to the Reference Section?

Lately, the more I write the more I drown myself in doubt. Do I know what I'm doing? Is this story any good? Would anyone want to read it (other than me)? Should I change this character? Do I need more characters?

I fret, groan, and moan but keep plugging along.

Now that I am nearing the completion of revision round #1 of my manuscript, I am starting to doubt my writing technical expertise. I am a sucker for commas, and have yet to meet an adverb that I didn't like. I've known these two things for many years, so these are the "easy" edits that I make as I comb through pages. I decided that I needed some advice and guidance on fixing the not-so-obvious errors. It was time to repurchase a grammar book or two. A writer should always have one of those handy right?

I thought that I'd check out my options by visiting my local bookstore. (Okay- I admit that I look for ANY excuse to buy new books.) I used to spend hours pouring through hundreds of different books on all sorts of interesting writer topics. There were books to help you develop your characters, books to help you write realistic descriptions of places you'd never actually visited, books to help with voice and dialogue, and row after row after row on prompts and the technical "how-to's" to writing. It used to be a full aisle.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this wonderful section was now a half of one side of a rather short aisle. Of course there was a shelf for all the Writer's Market info, and the obligatory dictionary and thesaurus shelves. The popular books like Stephen King's On Writing, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and Strunk & White's The Element's of Style were all faced out. (The only oldie by goodie missing was Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones) But all of the other fun references were gone. I didn't see one book on query letters or manuscript formatting! But with such a small section, I guess they had to be picky about what they had keep in stock, and it makes sense to stick with the home run hitters.

I will miss my bookstore reference section, but this is just another good reason to head to my local library.

Swearing Goes Mainstream

Perhaps I'm a bit of a prude. I can swear like a trucker when the mood strikes me (and it does often) but never at work, in front of children or people I don't know, or out in public where others can hear me.

So there I was watching the Project Runway debut last night, when a movie trailer came on advertising Quentin Tarantino (and Brad Pitt's) new movie, Inglourious Basterds. Now I realize that there were some liberties taken with the spelling of the second word, but it is pretty clear what they were aiming for there. My 8-year old is clever enough to figure that one out (Ohhh- that's a BAD word!).

I realized how how far we've come in the area of using stronger language in the media. Mainstream artists have "insert swear word" here lyrics, and the full version plays in all it's glory on satellite radio. I have become desensitized to all it to the point where it takes something as in your face as Taratino's new movie title to wake me up to "Hey- this is pretty crazy."

Right or wrong- swearing in mainstream media seems to have arrived. There are only a few words left waiting their turn in the spotlight, but I have no doubt that day will come in the not so distant future.

As a writer, I utilize swearing in scenes to increase the impact of the dialogue and also signal that the action in the scene is very different than before (Hey Ms. Reader- pay attention!!). But I am still uncomfortable weaving it in regular character conversation. (And I guess I haven't encountered a character yet who would be swearing on a regular basis.)

What do you think?

Twitter dee dee- The Power of Twitter

I've been meaning to post on my Twitter experience to date and a tweet by Anthony Bradley (@bradleyanthonyj) to his blog post on Why People Don't Get Twitter drove me to action.

My social media experience was limited to Facebook until this past June. Even now, I post a status update there maybe once every few weeks, and use it primarily to play Mafia Wars. (I still don't think my life is that interesting.) Then I attended a Writer's Digest webinar on "Identify and Pitch the Right Markets for Your Work" hosted by Robert Brewer (@robertleebrewer) and Alice Pope (@alicepope). This webinar completely opened my eyes to the power of social media networks like Twitter.

Robert and Alice invited the webinar participants to follow them on Twitter, and I finally had a reason to check out this strange microblogging thing I'd heard so much about. I realized that there were probably a lot of people in the writing industry using this tool to talk about their work, their successes, and sharing resources to help others. I didn't have to pay a dime for access to this invaluable information- the only thing I needed to do was figure out how to follow the right people!

I pulled out my latest Writer's Digest magazine and went to town. I searched for every editor, writer, and author mentioned. I was pleasantly surprised to find many of them in the Twitterverse. I pulled out another writing magazine and did the same thing. I started diving into all of these great tweets, and then paid attention to who the people I was following followed, and I added people from there. In addition, I started getting people following me as I braved the world of RT.

I have been incredibly selective about who I chose to follow, and it is paying off in dividends. I have pages upon pages of informative articles, blogs, and quotes at my fingertips everytime I login.

As I've moved my attention from the writing trade to the specific topic of leadership and leadership development, I created a new Twitter profile to follow those industry experts. (Again, it just takes paying attention to who is out there discussing the topics on their blogs- many tweet too.) Then it was just a matter of finding the right kind of tool (like TweetDeck) to help me manage my profiles.

I think Twitter is a powerful tool if you chose to use it strategically. Like anything else, it is what you make of it.

Not the Usual "Character"

I have been spending quite a bit of time recently reworking a manuscript that I wrote for National Novel Writing Month in 2005. That story took the full 30 days, and I wiped the sweat from my brow and claimed my 50,000 word prize the last day and didn't look back.

You see, I had run into a problem with the story. It was unfinished, mainly because I didn't know how to finish it. So I put it away to pick up after a period of time, hoping that time would give me perspective. Unfortunately the story was promptly forgotten, and only mentioned when I proudly told people "I've written a book-twice."

As I was dusting off these treasures last month (as mentioned in my last post), this story started begging for my attention. But even after a re-read (which I was surprisingly pleased with), I still found myself with the same problem. How did this story end?

I started doing some re-writing and added in a prologue that I thought helped frame up the beginning a bit better. I went through and added almost 5000 words to flesh out the introduction of my characters. But I was still scratching my head.

This past weekend I forced myself to sit down and address this issue. Either I was going to figure this story out, or I was going to have to go on to other projects. I really didn't want to do that because I can see the potential here. I did mind mapping and timelines, character descriptions, etc. and then I made myself write out in 25 words or less what my story was about.

Eureka. Part of my plot is that the main character has an otherwordly experience with a house. The house was a key part of my story, and was the major character that I had not addressed at all in my manuscript. Once I realized this, the ideas came fast and furious. I now knew the "why" behind certain things happening, and with that I was able to outline the ending in my head (which I am sure will change, but it's a start!). I added an additional 5000 words over the course of the rest of the weekend.

Then, just for fun, my family drove over to the neighborhood where my story takes place. It is a well-to-do area just outside of downtown Minneapolis. After passing dozens of different houses, my husband all of the sudden said "That is a spooky house". He had no idea what I was working on, other than a story set in this neighborhood. I promptly took a picture with my iPhone, and now have the picture saved as my desktop background. It is helping with my inspiration and keeping the creative juices flowing.

So from now on when my writing is becomes difficult, and the story just isn't hanging together, I'm going to be looking for those "characters" I may be missing.

Rediscovering Old Treasures

I had an epiphany last week. I have spent so much time over the last few months agonizing over writing a bunch of "new" stories that I completely overlooked something. A couple of things actually: the two novels I wrote for National Novel Writing Month. Here I have been bashing my head against a wall tearing apart a more recent 20,000 word manuscript, when all the while I had two hidden treasures hiding on a jump drive at the bottom of my purse.

I think I shied away from these two stories because they were (from what I remembered) awkward and clunky. I wrote them in a frenzy, just pounding out the required 1667 words a day word count. Anyone who has done NaNoWriMo knows you don't have time to go back and read passages in the midst of the chaos. In fact, I NEVER read my second novel start to finish once I reached 50,000 words. I saved it and fell over in exhaustion. The poor thing didn't even have an ending because I got stumped right as I crossed the 50,000 word finish line.

But in my "Eureka" moment, I decided I had been too hard on my poor little stories. I could take them out, dust them off, and see if there was something there. Maybe with a little spit and polish, I'd find a couple of gems. You know what I found? They actually weren't that bad. Even with some awkward transitions, holey plot twists, and undeveloped characters there was a foundation there that I can work with and build on. What a relief! I CAN do this novel writing thing, and with more practice I even think I can do it well.

The Fly on the Wall

I've spent the better part of the last 3 weeks or so immersing myself in learning about the tips, tricks, resources and networks out there for writers. There is so much that I am usually overwhelmed on a daily basis. My work-life balance is terribly out of whack, especially as it is supposed to be work (day job)-work (writing)- life balance that I am trying to achieve.

I have hunkered down you could say. I'm in student mode trying to feel out different paths that make sense. My Twitterverse is getting a little bit bigger everyday as I find new people to follow, and I've managed a small following of my own (51! Woot!). I inevitably feel like I need to say something clever if I'm posting an original tweet, so have found a level of comfort retweeting other things that I find interesting.

I joined She Writes because I thought the premise was cool, and I was looking to expand my network. (Most of the women tweet as well.) I love the idea of swapping ideas and tricks of the trade with other women. It feels very empowering.

I listened in on a radio interview with Windy Lynn Harris (@WindyLynnHarris on Twitter), an AZ based freelance writer, who gave some great advice on how to find different avenues to market your work. That lead me to start researching contests and other smaller venues which I had not thought to target.

So I'm digging the fly on the wall mentality for now, and soaking it all in. I am confident that soon I'm going to start making some sense of all of this wisdom, and that's when I'll really hit my stride.

Practice until you are done, and then Practice some more

We took the kids to see the Cirque de Soleil show Kooza today. This is my 4th Cirque show, and I enjoy myself every time. There are certain elements that I can always count on. There will be crazy clowns that ensure audience participation. There will be amazing acts of physical prowess and stamina. And unless I read the plot ahead of time, I will have no idea what is actually going on with the story.

That is a great thing about Cirque shows. The storyline is always present, and is deep and thoughtful, intended to evoke our emotional side. But the action within show keeps you entertained for 2 hours even when you have no idea what's going on. You can catch the occasional glimpse, and you can get the general gist of things. There is a beginning, middle, and end that doesn't require any guesswork.

What blows my mind when I sit in the audience is the physical and mental stamina of the performers. The contortionists, the jugglers, the trapeze artists all are flawless in the execution of their acts. As I watch them flip and flow about, I think about the hours of practice time they have put into their performance. They must absolutely love what they do, to do it over and over and over again, and then put it out on display for the world to see.

Sometimes, despite the best execution, you will see a slip or a miss. For all the practice and preparation, sometimes things just don't go along as planned. But the performers don't stop. They pick themselves up and the audience goes wild, because it seems as much as we love those amazing acts, we don't mind seeing that these performers are actually human after all. We all make mistakes right?

This near religious devotion required to be a performer for the great Cirque de Soleil organization is inpiring to me as a writer. A writer needs to practice their craft with the same level of motivation. Before something is ready for "showtime" it needs to be rewritten, edited, practiced. Even when it is ready, sometimes we still make mistakes. We are only human after all. But that should never stop us. We must continue to practice, because it is only through practice can we hope to achieve perfection.