I happen to be a voracious reader, as I believe most authors are. While it’s true that my main purpose in reading is for the sheer joy of it, I also learn a lot from other writers. It’s one thing to be able to point to a book and express your appreciation of it; it’s another thing, however, to break it down and be able to analyze the specific things about it that worked so well. The ability to analyze technique is important for any aspiring storytelling.

Over the years, no author has taught me more than George R.R. Martin, through A Song of Ice and Fire. His books are brilliantly conceived and executed on every level. Praise for them is almost universal.

One of the many things I’ve learned from Martin is the art of juggling multiple characters and points of view. The means by which he intertwines his stories requires a deft hand, and over the years I’ve taken note of how he does it. One such method I’ve observed is that even when his characters are divided by entire continents, his novels are held together by powerful overarching themes.

And yet not all readers agree that Martin has successfully managed this aspect of storytelling in the two most recent volumes in his series. After bringing his third novel to the edge of a precipice, his fourth novel has been accused by many fans of being a letdown. Boring. Filler. In fact, if you were to poll Martin’s fanbase, you would probably find that a majority holds this opinion.

So, what happened?

This summer, I dove into a reread of the series. As I was coming to the concluding pages of that dramatic third novel, I came across this, a proposal for combining the fourth and fifth novels of Martin’s series and reading them concurrent with each other. The two books take place at the same time, each of them featuring different sets of characters but both proceeding as direct sequels to Book 3.

I decided to alter my reading plan. Instead of tackling the books separately, I decided to intermix them. Let me just say that my reading experience was educational. In a hundred little ways, it becomes clear that these two books and their disparate storylines were never meant to be disparate at all. They are thematically linked. They play off each other in surprising ways. They inform each other. Together, they form one of the best epic fantasy novels I’ve ever read; separately, they’re serviceable parts of a yet-incomplete whole. In short, there’s nothing boring about them.

To me, this serves as an illustration of the importance of stories complementing each other. Intertwining stories and character arcs is a delicate, sophisticated business, and when you mess with this balance the overall work suffers in ways that can be complicated to pinpoint. A great story is the result of many interlocking pieces.

My current work in progress has six viewpoint characters spread across three or four disparate plotlines (depending on how you count it). In order to shrink my novel to a more manageable length, it was suggested to me that I could extract several storylines and split them into different volumes. I thought about this, then divided the chapters, reorganized the material, and found that while the separate storylines were complete in and of themselves, they weren’t nearly as strong as when taken together.

Incidentally, if you feel the individual storylines in your work in progress could stand on their own two feet without the support of the larger volume, you may want to ask yourself whether or not these storylines are as strong as they could be. Perhaps the more interdependent and symbiotic the various aspects of a novel are, the better. In the future, I know I’ll be using the so-called Martin Effect as a gauge.

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It’s Sunday!  And that means we have 10 reads worth your time:

Jason Black discusses the important of the denouement in Cause of Death: Denouement.

Kristen Lamb has 5 Common Writing Blunders That Can Annoy or Bore Our Readers.

Over at Anne R Allen’s Blog, Ruth Harris lists 11 Reasons Writers Get Rejected – And Why Only 3 of them Matter.

At Writer Unboxed, Shari Stauch examines some unique blogs in Seven Out-of-the-Box Author Blogging Ideas.

Catherine Ryan Howard talks spam marketing in This is an Ethical Way to Sell Your E-Book? I Disagree.

Natania Barron discusses Five Ways Social Media Can Destroy Your Writing (And, Potentially, Your Career) and offers some solutions.

S James Nelson talks about How I Won David Farland’s Writing Contest by writing a specifically-targeted story.

Roni Loren has a warning about copyright in Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics On Your Blog.

A class action lawsuit has been lodged against Harlequin, alleging under-payment of royalites.  See the details at Harlequin lawsuit.

Interested in writing for Writer Beware?  They have recently put out a Call for Guest Bloggers.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest poster Jordan Ellinger – Flexing Your Writing Muscles with Help from the Writers of the Future Contest

Dylan Blacquiere – Writing Doctors

Colette Vernon – Can Goldfish Channel Muse?

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I’ll tell you  now, if you didn’t figure it out from the title and the picture, this post is a bit silly. Which is kind of sad since we’ve just had two amazing, interesting, and informative posts. And no, it’s not about the band, though I do have “Uprising” as my ringtone.

The thing is, I had my son’s goldfish nearby for quite a while. First, in my study. Then, in his room next door. The water sloshed through the filter creating white noise, the little goldfish swam around as I came in and out of the room, and occasionally I  stopped to give them an extra snack while they kissed at the edge of the glass.

They died.

No, I didn’t overfeed them. My daughter brought home a couple of new fish she’d won at a school fair or something. We put them in with the others.  Buttercup survived her initiation, though she swam sideways for a while. The other wimps didn’t have her evasive abilities. They  failed their mount wannahockaloogie test, and  the rest of the fish ate them. Even Buttercup eventually succumbed. We should have cleaned the tank as soon as I found the first skeleton stuck to the filter’s intake. I was busy, my husband was busy, and my son thought it looked cool. It was like something out of a Fringe episode. Within hours the whole tank was black and all the fish had died.

I had trouble focusing on my writing after that. I liked writing when it was quiet, with no background noise, not even light music. But without the fish tank, it was too quiet. Even the trees waving outside my window didn’t dispel the eerie silence.

I needed my muse back. In the nick of time, summer came, and I discovered a tall floor fan makes great white noise.

But eventually summer will be over– though since I live in southern Arizona it may take a while–and I’ll have to turn the fan off.  Maybe it’s time I had my own pet, instead of the numerous ones my kids take care of.  Or maybe I’ll just set up the tank and forget the fish. Any suggestions?

Oh, and yes, after it went black I put on some gloves and cleaned the tank. My bio-hazard disaster will not be blamed for an upcoming apocalypse, nor will it be a source of a post-apocalyptic story. Although….

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Irony of ironies, my series on the art of writing medicine has been unavoidably delayed these past couple of months by having to write my own board exams. I’ve passed, which makes me a fully qualified neurologist. It’s a tremendous thing to be able to say that, after four years of medical school and five years of residency; it also gives me some weight on what a credible physician character can be.

I have talked in past entries about how easy prey physicians are for cliché in fiction. To some extent, that isn’t surprising, as doctors and physicians are stock characters that show up regularly in genre work, often as a simple background fountain of exposition, sometimes as a noble, compassionate hero who starts her day reciting the Hippocratic Oath over her morning coffee. Sometimes the reverse happens, and the doctor is secretly an evil character who conducts unethical experiments or is involved in a vast conspiracy (often with a pharmaceutical company) for no other reason than the money. Take a look at any science fiction story or television show; odds are high that there will be an episode or a segment where the doctor struggles with healing the enemy, or where an unscrupulous physician is called out by a morally sound one on a violation of ethics. Money or research prestige is usually at stake, with justifications about it being for the good of science. It’s usually a surgeon, too, which makes my physician’s heart calcify with jealousy.

That isn’t to say that these tropes are always bad, but they can descend quickly into cliché. They’re easy to fall into as well, and it happens when the medicine takes over from the character.

So how to avoid the slide into cliché? The easiest answer is to write true characters who happen to be doctors, and many other posts have talked about how to write good characters in your story. Here are a few other pointers, though, which may help the next time you have a doctor among your cast.

1. Not every doctor is a bloody surgeon or emergency room specialist. Sorry, that may be my own pet peeve. But pity the poor internist, or family doctor, or geriatrician. It’s been a fond hope of mine to see a physician-hero who happens to be a radiologist someday. But in all seriousness, the practice of medicine is wide and varied, and not every doctor goes to the operating room or runs a trauma code.

2. Do some research into the training. For the most part, it takes at least six years of schooling after an undergraduate degree to become a doctor, yet it’s not uncommon to see preternaturally gifted doctors in fiction that went to medical training straight out of high school. That doesn’t happen, and it strains credulity to have your doctor too young.

3. Not every doctor does everything. The moment House lost its magic for me was when Alison Cameron, nominally an infectious diseases specialist, was the lead on a brain biopsy, which requires years of neurosurgical training. Some doctors are able to do many things in many different fields; these are generalists, like family doctors and general internists. Having your trauma surgeon show a sudden expertise in managing a heart attack or a stroke – that doesn’t happen. If you need your doctor to be able to do a specific thing, then plan that as you create your character – or have them acknowledge that they’re out of their depth if the situation calls for it.

4. There is life outside of the hospital. We do more than see patients; we teach and research, we shop for groceries and mow the lawn, we get flat tires and go to the bathroom. Keep in mind that doctors are human beings and that having sworn the Hippocratic Oath doesn’t take away from all of our other needs and secrets. Write your doctors as human beings, and make them more than just their profession.

5. The same tricks apply even if your physician is just a means for exposition. Having some hint of a back-story can help make the difference between a piece of furniture delivering dialogue and a good minor character that helps to flesh out the world that you’ve built.

6. As with any aspect of medicine that you write, read up on the medical science. If the doctor you write doesn’t know what he’s talking about, it’s going to show.

There actually aren’t many other tricks to writing physicians that don’t apply to writing people from other professions or occupations. The bottom line is that medicine is an occupation, not a character description, so you’re going to need more than that to flesh them out. Done poorly, doctors in fiction can stand out as tired clichés, but done well? Many of the greatest works of fiction have had physicians as strong characters. Maybe yours will be next.

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Guest Post by Jordan Ellinger

The Writers of the Future Contest, more properly known as “L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future”, is quite simply one of the largest, most well-respected short fiction writing contests in the world. By some accounts, it has the fifth largest purse of any contest, and is one of the only ones without an entry fee.

When Joshua Essoe, the managing editor for Fictorian guest posts, asked me to write an article about the Writers of the Future Contest, I started out with the title “How to Win the Writers of the Future Contest”. But that article has been written before, a couple of times, by previous winners of the contest. So I scrapped that idea, and instead decided to write about the experience of winning. But that article has also been written. Dozens of times. I used to even maintain a page linking to them.

So what could I cover that hasn’t already been discussed? Well, the contest has helped to shape my career almost from the moment I decided to write seriously, so I thought I’d write a little bit about what it has done to help me succeed professionally.

I discovered WotF back when I first started writing short fiction. I’d found a battered copy of Writers of the Future Volume 9 at a used bookstore, and the title intrigued me. “Writers of the Future”. It was an anthology for undiscovered talent. I was undiscovered and, hopefully, talented. I was excited.

It was encouraging that I recognized some of the writers within. Sean Williams was a #1 NYT Bestseller and Star Wars author and appeared in the table of contents alongside noted Baen author Eric Flint (1632). So that table of contents told me that some of the authors who won the contest went on to have great careers. I wanted in.

Unfortunately, the book was old. The spine was lined with cracks and calling the cover “dog-eared” was generous at best, so I Googled the contest and, impressively, it was still going. They’d just released volume 20. Longevity is a very good sign in short fiction, and twenty years impressed the hell out of me.

The first story I submitted was called the Autobomber, which was about a robotic suicide bomber. Looking back, I can see the story’s flaws and I eventually retired it to the trunk, but at the time it was the best I could manage. Encouragingly, it won an Honorable Mention.

Honorable Mentions are something I think the contest does right. Fully 10-15% of entries will receive HMs. Though the number of entries is kept a strict secret, internet gossip places it at around 1500 a quarter, which means that some 100-150 writers receive one. This is enormous encouragement. Often it’s the first bit of positive feedback an author has received at that point in their career.

While some writers win the contest on their first attempt, it took me seven, and I was able to mark my progress by the awards that I won. At first it was Honorable Mentions, then a Semi-Finalist, then another Semi-Finalist, and then eventually my Finalist story “After the Final Sunset, Again” won 1st place in Volume 25. Because there were so many tiers of prizes, I could actually see myself improving as a writer, and that was all the encouragement that I needed.

The prize for placing as a Semi-Finalist is a critique of your story by the contest administrator. In my case, that was the late K. D. Wentworth. I’d submitted a story called Mannequin Empire, about a hot shot engineer who figured out how to transfer the consciousness of a real dog into a robot body. Now, this guy was a bit of a jerk. Think Tony Stark without the redeeming qualities. When the critique came back K. D. explained that, though the writing was good, I had written an unsympathetic main character. Because she had no reason to like my protagonist, she had no reason to read further.

By the time I received K. D.’s critique I’d already submitted my next entry to the following quarter and it too placed as a Semi-Finalist. Guess what my critique said? Unsympathetic main character. Now, this contest is judged blind, so she had no idea that the same person had written both stories. What she’d done without realizing it was to identify a major weakness in my writing.

Armed with that knowledge, I set out to create the most sympathetic character I could. A mother who fights for the life of her unborn child. “After the Final Sunset, Again” was the result and it ended up winning first place.

I’m not going to talk about what the workshop or awards ceremony was like. Google “Writers of the Future Resources” and you can find dozens of workshop blogs, my own included, that cover the experience in more detail than the space allotted to me here. Instead, let’s talk about what happens immediately after you get home from the workshop week.

One of the best kept secrets of the contest is that Author Services Inc., the people who administer it, will keep in touch with you after you win, and continue to support you in any way they can, including getting you a spot on the 2nd most watched morning show in America. They have a vested interest in helping you to succeed. The better their contest winners do, the more the contest gets a reputation for picking winners. And they’ve picked some doozies. Patrick Rothfuss, Karen Joy Fowler, David Farland, Jeff Carlson, Stephen Baxter, David Zindell…the list seems endless.

I met several pro-writers at the workshop weekend, one of whom got me my first novel contract (coming out in November. No, I can’t talk about it yet. But it’s coming). Since then I’ve been developing a close network of friends who are neo-pros and we back each other up. We share opportunities with each other and recommend one another for writing assignments. Winning the Writers of the Future contest was my entry into the world of the genre writing, and for that alone I’m grateful.

Now, no article about the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest would be complete without a short paragraph on Scientology. Roy Hardin was asked about it on NBC Daytime, and I’m frequently asked about it at cons. I have no feelings about Scientology either way, or any religion for that matter. However, I do believe it’s wrong to discriminate based on one’s religious preferences–no matter what they are. ‘Nuff said.

The fact is that, to my knowledge, everyone at Author Services Inc. (the agency that administers the Contest) is a Scientologist. However none of the judges are (or have ever been), and no Scientologist has ever been included among the winners. There are rumours of a “firewall” between the contest and the religion L. Ron Hubbard founded, and in my experience it could very well exist.

No one ever mentioned Scientology when I was down there. No one. Not even the guests at the various events we were invited to. Whatever else he did, L. Ron Hubbard was a writer first and foremost and he enjoyed paying it forward. The folks at Author Services say that they recognize that and are paying it forward in his name, and I believe them.

So, to sum up, the contest has been the gift that keeps on giving. It encouraged me with Honorable Mentions when I was just starting out, rewarded me with a win when I’d reached a certain skill level, and has helped me develop a robust network of neo-pro and pro writers who’ve become my friends. It’s more than just a writing contest, and I encourage anyone who is reading this to enter. Hopefully it’ll help you to develop your writing muscles and launch your career the way it has mine!

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10 reads worth your time:

Ryann Kerekes has some tips for getting a first draft down fast in How Long Does it Take to Write a Book?

On the other hand, KM Weiland suggests some novels can’t be written quickly in Are You Writing Your Novel Too Fast?

Jeffe Kennedy talks about When To Stop Revising and Move On.

And when you do move on to revising, Matthew Salesses has some tips in A Month of Revision.

Matthew Iden examines Kobo as a competitor to Amazon in Kobo: The Heavyweight Challenger?

Jane Friedman has some e-publishing basics in The Best E-Publishing Resources.

Marcy Kennedy talks about increasing your blog’s audience in Four Little-Known Factors That Could Destroy Your Blog’s Chances of Success.

Victoria Strauss details one writer’s nasty shock in Editing Clauses in Publishing Contracts: How To Protect Yourself.

Bob Mayer recommendings letting go of bad reviews in How Should Authors Handle Book Reviews?

Finally, check out a unique advertising campaign from Mignon Fogarty (aka Grammar Girl) in What If Grammarians Had Their Own Magazine?

Missed any Fictorians articles?

Ann Cooney – Writing Stillness

Ann Cooney – Critiques Part 1 – Understanding the Process

Mary Pletsch – Filing Off the Serial Numbers: Part Two: Real Life

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I have writer friends who have characters based on or inspired by real people.  I had a good laugh when I finally met some of these folks in person, after previously meeting their fictional incarnation, and much to my surprise, none of them were really aliens from outer space…  Other writers strictly avoid direct imports from real life.

As with my previous post regarding characters and stories inspired by fan fiction, I’m not a legal expert and can’t comment on the limitations of the statement “Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.”  Translation:  naming fictional murder victims after the grade school bullies might not be the wisest course of action.

Importing a character from real life might seem to have some benefits—it’s a ready-made personality, and when you’re writing, you need only ask yourself  “what would my friend do?” to have an answer.  It can be a fun tribute to people you know to give them a fictional incarnation.  But bringing a real-world personality into a fictional story carries some pitfalls as well.

History.  Events can profoundly influence the course of a person’s life:  upbringing, schooling, jobs, illnesses, relationships.  This rule is even more important for fictional characters:  would Bruce Wayne have become Batman if his parents hadn’t been murdered?  What would Mal Reynolds have been like if the Browncoats had won?  How would the group dynamics have changed if Xander, not Buffy, were the Vampire Slayer?  Experiences that happened to the characters before the story even starts have shaped who those characters are when the story begins.

With a newly created fictional character, a writer can “work backwards” to construct a logical history that will explain the character’s motivations, goals, and behaviours in their story.  With a real person, the history that formed their real-life personality might not work with the role their character plays in your story, particularly if there’s an issue with…

Setting.  Your brilliant Physics PhD best friend might not have gotten a chance to become a scientist if she’d been born in the Wild West, which is where your story happens to be set…  Once again, the writer will need to tinker with the person’s life experiences to make the character “fit.”  Then, if the character’s present doesn’t logically reflect that past, the character comes across as contrived, wooden, or just plain not making sense.   And the past isn’t the only problem…

Character development.  The best characters grow and change over the course of a story.  The story gives them new experiences which shape their goals, beliefs, motivations, and outlook.  Nobody can survive a genocide unscathed; nobody can become a movie star or president or superhero and remain the same person they were when they worked at Burger Queen.  But as fictional experiences shape your character, they either grow away from their real-life counterpart or else leave readers wondering why the character is mysteriously unaffected by the events they’ve survived.

There are writers who have successfully blended characters based on real people into their fictional universes.  Personally, I’ve find it more effective to draw inspiration from real people—a trait, an outlook, a belief, a past event and their response—than to import exact copies.  This approach has allowed me to put my observations of real life into my fiction, creating characters that feel authentic and act in realistic ways, without slavishly adapting real-life personalities into fictional settings where they don’t quite fit, or cooking up convoluted backstories to justify why my Wild West housewife thinks and acts like a Physics PhD.  And since the characters aren’t copies of real people, I don’t feel badly if they develop in different ways then the real-life person who inspired them, particularly if some of those ways aren’t entirely flattering.

If you’re thinking of basing a character off someone you know from real life, think carefully.  How will this person’s history have to change to help the character fit into the fictional setting and fictional role?  Perhaps it’s best to keep real life people as cameo characters in your story, or use select traits or personalities from real people as a jumping-off  point to build a character who is wholly their own person.

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Recently I gave a presentation to a local writers’ group on the art of giving critique. To fully understand and engage in the critique process we need to first understand why we write, what a critique is, how an author can help the process and how to give a critique. In this blog, we’ll talk about why we write and why receiving a critique can be so difficult.

Why do we write?

When we understand why and what makes us so sensitive to feedback, it actually becomes easier to absorb the information we receive in an impartial way.

I, like many of you, write because I’m miserable when I don’t. As others need to breathe, so I need to write. We all write because we are story tellers – we have something to say, we see worlds and creatures and characters the average person does not, we give commentary about the human condition, our politics, our society, our values, our relationships – we are observers with a unique way of expressing ourselves – BUT most important, for us, writing is fun and it is who we are.

We have an idea – that is personal. We think. We sweat, we write and rewrite hoping that the story we tell is understood by others. The crux is that we, the writers become so intimate with the process and the material that it feels personal – and it is because every fabric of our being has been poured into the story.

So when someone doesn’t like what we’ve done and how we’ve done it, it feels personal even when it isn’t. But, when we focus on the need to express the characters and world we see, it becomes much easier to accept feedback.

This is not dissimilar to mining for gems. We find the diamond. It is rough. It is uncut. We cut. We polish. We wanting to reveal the heart of the stone – the heart we know is there. We work with experts who can help us get the angle just right on every facet. Then we polish until it sparkles.

Writing is no different. We have a gem stone of an idea. We hone our tools. We dig. We scrape. Sometimes we cut and reshape, making every facet as stellar as it can be. And then we must ask if others see what we do.

The critique process should help us polish our gems, to make the story stronger, to make its heart shine brighter. And, if you have a good critique group, they’ll help you do just that.

When we understand that our goal is to express an idea, to create a story which is both entertaining and enlightening, the feedback feels less personal, more constructive because we know that everything we do makes our gem shine brighter.

There are two other things to remember:

1) learning that the gem we polished isn’t as bright as it can be, hurts. And it can hurt a lot. That’s part of being human. Part of being a writer is understanding that and gracefully going forward by thoughtfully considering the comments.

2) the person giving the critique can get it wrong. As the writer you must also figure that out. But generally, most don’t get it wrong if there are problems with grammar, structure, story arc and character development. And let’s face it, if we don’t solve these problems before submitting, no editor will read the story, let alone help you polish your gem.

The next time we meet, we’ll talk about what a critique is and how to give a good critique.

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On a quest to recharge my writing energies, I sit on a sandy beach of a lake in northern Saskatchewan. After two days of billowing clouds, flash lightening and rain storms, the blistering sun bakes away all cares. But not all cares disappear.

Guilt.

Guilt for not writing every day niggles me – taunting, chastising. The niggling stops when a loud splash in the lake is followed by a wild cheer! A young boy is no longer the monkey in the middle  – he caught his dad’s poorly thrown ball. And I watch the young lad struggle to throw the ball over his dad’s flailing arms so his brother can catch it.

A cooing mom adjusts the umbrella over her toddler so she can comfortably play in the sand. A beer can snaps open. A sunbather sprays tanning oil across her almost naked body. Knee boarders leap in the air behind speeding boats while kayaks bob in their wake.

Guilt suddenly disappears when I realize that I’m honing my writing skills amidst summer’s languid frenzy.

Pacing.

It’s all about pacing not only my stories but myself.

We call our characters to action, ramp up the tension, put them into mortal danger and write them into such tough spots that only the ingenuity of imagination can save them. We twist their lives, beat them and those closest to them by raising the stakes in ways no mortal can survive.

And we do the same for ourselves. Yes, we writers set the stakes high thinking that if we do not remain faithful to those lofty goals, and if we do not meet our self imposed expectations that we as masters of our fate, will fail miserably.

Yet, like our characters, we need to pause to recharge, to reflect, to consider our options, to find help where we can get it – take the detour, the side road which may reveal its own treasures.

So I sit in the shade, nursing tender pink skin, watching children and adults play in the lake, dogs taking people for a walk, and I sip my wine, absorbing the stillness.

And I am thankful, that the writer of my life found the pause button, set the pace a little slower for a moment so that I may reflect and recharge. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be a little kinder to my characters too.

Have a happy summer!

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10 reads worth your time:

Agent Kristin explains the difference between action and activeness in Writing Craft: Action vs Active Openings to Grab Attention.

Dean Wesley Smith dispells the perception that being picked up by a traditional publisher means the book will actually make it onto bookstore shelves in The Secret Myth of Traditional Publishing.

Anne R Allen has tips on guest blogging in How to Blog VI.

Amber West also has tips for bloggers in Do Writers Need To Blog?

Rachel Kent shares Twitter and Facebook tips in Why Do Readers Connect With You Online?

The Savvy Book Marketer looks at how writers can utilise Goodreads in Promote Your Book on the Goodreads Network.

The Bluestocking Blog examines how not to annoy your followers in Balancing Promotion.

Porter Anderson demystifies the @ symbol in Get A Grip On Twitter Handles.

For inspiration: Writer’s Digest has 72 of the Best Quotes About Writing.

For writing contests: check out the list at Bucks County Writers’ Group.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest poster Mignon Fogarty – “OK”, “Okay”, and How to Deal with Other Troublesome Style Choices

Clancy Metzger – Writing Guerilla Warfare Style

KD Alex – Writing Between Naps

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I’m probably a little bit late to the party, but I heard about a little thing called burst writing that I thought I’d share.

Burst writing is this wonderful technique: You set an alarm clock for everything from 15 minutes to like an hour. As soon as the countdown begins, you just start writing. Whatever, wherever, however. You can’t take your fingers off the keyboard until the clock says stop.

I’ve got a rambunctious 16 month old and two equally feisty cats that take up every waking moment of my personal time. So whatever time I have to spend writing is spent scooping poop, picking up cat hair, potty training, and following the kids around with a dust pan and broom as I clean up the wreckage from the tornado they inflict on my house in their daily life.

But I don’t need an alarm clock. You see, I have one that’s much louder and much more urgent. It’s called nap time is over.

Previously, I used to take that wonderful hour and bask in the solace of silence. It was daddy’s time to eat lunch and sit on the couch reflecting on everything we think about over the course of the day. It was a time I learned to finally shut up and appreciate.

If you can turn the white noise of your brain off and focus the waves to instead awake your inner creative, well, then that’s time well spent.

And it’s not time you didn’t have before. It’s always been there. I just wish I didn’t wait 10 months to figure it out.

It finally clicked in my head maybe two weeks ago. I’ve been spending the past few months living out the whole “woe is me” thing. There’s no room, there’s no time, there’s no yadayadayada…

The only recurring theme in there was the word “NO.”

And that’s not a nice word. Just ask my kid. She doesn’t like hearing it, but she lo-oves saying it.

And apparently so do I. It’s what I’ve been telling myself probably since November. So, I started giving in and working around my schedule. On the first night I gave it a shot, I popped out 1200 words in one sitting. That was 1200 more than I’ve had in so long. And you know what? It felt great.

So, today I one-upp’d myself. I finished a chapter.

Sure, I only had two scenes to write. But, still. I -finished- a chapter!

This is huge news for me. Because it woke something up inside that I thought I lost somewhere over the rainbow. It led me onto other writing related tasks that I’ve pretty much been putting off forever. Things like finishing my writing, working on my 3d modeling, redesigning covers, burning excerpts, so forth and so on..

And I’m doing it all in burst time.

Who’d have thought that this whole thing only required me to put her to bed.

On a good day, I get two bursts per day while the baby’s napping. On a really good day, I get two naps, early bed time, and then my bed time.

All I really needed to do was figure out how to manage my time better. Maybe that’s all it takes you.

Give yourself a time management exercise…

Take an hour out of your day. Not when you’re at work. You know, the time when you’re home waiting for dinner, or when the laundry is cycling.

Figure out what you do with that time.

It just might be that time could be applied to something else.

I’ll rest when I’m dead.

For now, I’ve got books to write and webpages to finish. =)

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This last weekend I spent four days in a large house in the middle of the woods with seven other women.  It was understood from the get-go that this was a writing retreat, so excessive visiting would not be tolerated.  While there, we had a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner (we ate really good), and each of us was responsible for preparing one snack and one meal.  We had to clean up after as well, but that was the only time we really had to take out of our writing time.  We would stand around chatting for a few minutes during snacks and we would all eat together and check on our progress during meals.  This was fun and bonding for all of us.  But mostly, we were writing from when we woke up till we went to sleep.

Our commander-in-chief (and retreat organizer) aka the “Write or Die Nazi” said she would keep us on task. And she did.  We used Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die program ($10) and competed against each (I even did this virtually with a friend who didn’t come).  If you’re not familiar with this program, you set a word goal and a time limit – I use 1000 words in 60 minutes most of the time – and then hit the WRITE button.  It opens a new screen and this is where you start typing.  It shows you how many words you’ve typed and how much time you have left to go.  If you pause for too long, the screen starts turning pink and will go to red while simultaneously a heinous sound of your choosing starts blaring at you, but as soon as you start typing again, it will go away.  Trust me when I say this keeps you motivated.  When done, you can then copy/cut and paste your text into your main document.

Not all of us would participate all the time, but several times a day, our Nazi would call out, “Write or Die” and whoever wanted to join in would get ready and when called, we would all start at the same time.  An hour later, we’d check in and see how we each did.  After the brief cheers, we’d go back to writing.  Some would turn the sound off so as not to bother others (the red screen still keeps you hopping) and do it by themselves in between the group competitions.  We were writing almost all day of every day there.

The energy was supercharged and we all kept each other going longer and more productively than we would have if home alone.  This was exceptionally good for me because I’ve had a hard time writing lately.  I sit there thinking, fingers hovering over the keyboard, waiting for ideas to come.  At the retreat, I did this the afternoon of Day 1 and the first half of Day 2 and I had 800 words to show for it.  I was frustrated.  I had the Write or Die program on my computer but hadn’t used it in a really long time.  So, the next challenge that was called, I participated.  I did more words in that hour than I had in the eighteen hours prior combined.  I used the program and the challenges the rest of the  retreat and ended up getting almost 18,000 words done by the time I went home.  Our highest gal did 24,000 total.  We are romance writers who write in our free time when jobs, husbands, kids and everything else in our lives allows.  Some are better at making that time and being productive, others less so, but no one left from this retreat left with less 15,000 new words.

There are many of you out there that can produce like this or better without breaking a sweat, but for me it was huge.  Having the pressure of the red screen/screeching violins looming kept my brain from sabotaging me.  My inner editor couldn’t keep rereading and fixing the same material or searching for the perfect word.  My doubt couldn’t sneak in and plague me with whether I was going the right direction.  I couldn’t stall by doing research ad nauseam. I had to just write.  And I did.  Sure, I have to go back and edit it and add a lot of details that do take some thought, but it’s easier to do that when you have something to work with.  Surprisingly, it was even good material.  It’d been in my mind, I’d been thinking on it for a long time, but I’d been sabotaging my efforts to get it on the page.  Write or Die was like guerilla warfare blitzing my inner adversary.

If you are one of those who can produce consistently, I applaud you and hope to join your ranks sooner than later.  For those who may need some assistance, Write or Die may help.  I know that even since I’ve been home, if I use the program, I get more done.  I turn to it as a tool when I find my fingers hovering instead of typing.

Have you used it?  Do you use other types of warfare?  The more tools I have, the better.  Let’s hear it, troops.

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A guest post by Mignon Fogarty

Since becoming Grammar Girl six years ago, I’ve gradually come to the realization that English is a troublesome language. We do have some hard-and-fast rules: “A lot” is always two words, and we use semicolons a certain way. But a surprising number of words and punctuation marks swirl around us like rowdy schoolchildren shouting “Except when…!” and “Style choice!” When even language mavens disagree, what’s a writer to do?

We’ll figure it out by looking at an example.

Recently, Robert M. posted this question on the Facebook page for alumni of the Superstars Writing Seminar:

“Attention all you grammar aficionados: Do you have any objections to using ‘OK’ instead of ‘Okay’? Opinions please.”

“OK” or “Okay” Are Both All Right

“OK” is one of the words I wrote about in 101 Troublesome Words You’ll Master in No Time, and Robert was on the mark when he asked for opinions because English has two acceptable spellings for “OK.” Which one you prefer is a matter of opinion, and of course, in response to his request for opinions he got some strong ones, including a comment about slang and losing battles. Oh, the demise of our language!

Fiction Writers: Use “Okay”

However, if you’re a professional fiction writer, you should be relying on the Chicago Manual of Style, not your friends’ opinions. Chicago requires “okay.” End of story.

News Writers: Use “OK”

On the other hand, the conclusion is entirely different if you write press releases or articles for you local newspaper. The Associated Press Stylebook requires “OK.” End of story.

Know Your Style Guide

I’m routinely shocked by the number of e-mail questions I get from people who claim to be writers but obviously don’t own a style guide (or can’t be bothered to open it). “I remember that my fourth grade teacher said…” and “I prefer…” don’t cut it in the professional world. Traditional publishers have designated a style guide, and you should use it. Chicago is the standard for fiction. “Okay” is the only spelling that is acceptable. The Associated Press Stylebook is the standard for news writing. “OK” is the only spelling that is acceptable. The solution for a struggling writer? Know which style guide your industry uses and buy it.

When You Get to Decide

The time for opinions is when you’re writing for yourself or someone who hasn’t designated a style—when you’re writing blog posts, e-mail messages, and so on. When choosing for myself, I like to look at a word’s history, its etymology. That’s why I prefer “OK.”

The best evidence available points to a newspaper reporter coining the term in 1839. It was an abbreviation for a jokey spelling of “all correct”: “oll korrect.” Apparently, for a few years, it was trendy to coin these kinds of misspelled abbreviations, but “OK” was the only one that survived because it was used in slogans for Martin Van Buren’s presidential campaign.

I confess that I’m so enamoured with the “OK” etymology that I insist on “OK” instead of “okay” in my books, even though my publisher follows Chicago style. I’m probably being foolish picking a fight over this one little word, but we all have our foibles. Since my books are about language, I feel like my publisher should give me some leeway on the language, and they seem to agree—or at least they don’t think it’s worth the energy to resist. But the advice I give to any other writer, especially writers who are just starting out, is to follow your industry’s style. It’s the safest, wisest choice.

Guest Bio: Mignon Fogarty is better known as Grammar Girl and is the author of eight books on language, including her new book, 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS YOU’LL MASTER IN NO TIME.

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Wow, we’re already into the second half of the year.  What writing goals do you have for the next six months?  I’m hoping to finish edits on the WIP by early October but that seems a long way off yet.  If you’ve finished your writing for the day, here’s 10 reads worth your time:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks audio rights in The Business Rusch: Time and the Writer.

Jody Hedlund has 8 Reasons Not to Quit Social Media When You’re Burned Out.

At SF Signal, Zack Parsons Talks With Authors About Writing and Music.

Craig Mod discusses the changing role of the book cover in Hack the Cover.

Raphyel M Jordan discusses the importance of sci fi writers staying up-to-date with scientific advances in The ISS Caught a Dragon’s Tail. So What?

Ed Cyzewski looks at the need for a head for business in When Self-Publishing Is More Useful as a Marketing Tool.

RD Meyer talks about what he learnt during the writing of his latest manuscript in Wrongful Death – Lessons Learned.

Eugenia Williamson considers whether self-published writers are really better off in The dead end of DIY publishing.

Damien Walter advises writers to respect their fans in Fandom matters.

And, finally, Fictorian Evan Braun’s first novel, The Book of Creation, secures a lovely review by the Winnipeg Free Press.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Brandon M Lindsay – Never Surrender!

Evan Braun – A Matter of Perspective

Kylie Quillinan – First Drafts: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

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My first drafts are ugly. I have friends who talk about plotting and planning for months before they ever write a word on a new manuscript. I can’t see myself doing that. I’m getting better at plotting but even so, it doesn’t seem to matter how much I plan and ponder, dream and think, my first drafts are still rough.

For me, a first draft is largely an exploration of the plot. It’s also about me trying to get to know the characters. It’s not until I’ve gone all the way through a draft that I start to get a handle on the sub-plots and themes, and it’s only then that I start understanding my characters. So my first drafts are perhaps more what other people call planning.

I’d love to be one of those writers who can complete a manuscript to satisfaction in just a couple of drafts. It usually takes me about three drafts to really nail down the plot and it’s only then that I can start worrying about the details – sensory, emotional, visual. This is when I start looking at issues like what time of year events occur in and what the weather is like. For some reason, my characters are always trapped in an “unseasonal heatwave”. Here in Australia, we have very hot summers so perhaps this is the reason for my obsession with heatwaves.  At about the dozen draft mark, I start feeling comfortable with what I’ve written and it’s really only then that I start to feel like I have a manuscript that’s getting towards being half decent.

I’m currently working on the first round of edits for a manuscript that I meticulously – for me, at least – planned prior to writing. I even used index cards – lots of them – and I thought I did a much better job of laying out the plot than I ever have before. However now that I’m finally re-reading this draft for the first time, I’m realising all that planning has left me with a first draft that really isn’t any better than what I usually produce. There are still massive plot holes, contradictions and things I just haven’t figured out yet.

So I’m wondering whether all that planning was a waste of time. Perhaps this is just the way my brain works. Maybe I need to go through that process of laying the story out, in the form of a first draft, to get my head around it. Perhaps what I’ve been thinking of as a first draft is really my planning stage. Other people use index cards, character notes, and synopses for planning. I guess I’m doing much the same, only mine is 80,000 words long.

So I’m wondering whether I’m approaching this the wrong way. All this time I’ve been telling myself I need to plan better, but perhaps what I’ve been thinking of as a first draft really is my planning process. It’s just a little longer than what some other people do. But then again, maybe I’m kidding myself.  Am I just being lazy and avoiding planning properly because I find it so difficult? That’s the problem with writers, isn’t it.  We can convince ourselves of just about anything by justifying it as our “creative process” instead of laziness.

So tell me: what planning process do you go through prior to writing your first draft?

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