As announced in yesterday’s post about David Farland’s son, Ben, the Book Blast is here! Please browse the titles and buy for yourself, buy for your friends, and share to everyone you know.

Please note, if you click through the Amazon links embedded below, Dave will get a percentage of ANYTHING else you buy while there!

Some people sing at night to drive back the darkness. Others sing to summon it. . . .

Bron Jones was abandoned at birth. Thrown into foster care, he was rejected by one family after another, until he met Olivia, a gifted and devoted high-school teacher who recognized him for what he really was–what her people call a “nightingale.”

But Bron isn’t ready to learn the truth. There are secrets that have been hidden from mankind for hundreds of thousands of years, secrets that should remain hidden. Some things are too dangerous to know. Bron’s secret may be the most dangerous of all.

Million Dollar Outlines

If you are a writer, you may want to consider purchasing David Farland’s MILLION DOLLAR OUTLINES. It has been a bestseller on Amazon for over a month and is only $6.99.

As a bestselling author David Farland has taught dozens of writers who have gone on to staggering literary success, including such #1 New York Times Bestsellers as Brandon Mull (Fablehaven), Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time), James Dashner (The Maze Runner) and Stephenie Meyer (Twilight).

In Million Dollar Outlines, Dave teaches how to analyze an audience and outline a novel so that it can appeal to a wide readership, giving it the potential to become a bestseller. The secrets found in his unconventional approach will help you understand why so many of his authors go on to prominence.

For updates on Ben’s condition, the details of what happened, or to make a donation please visit the site James Duckett was kind enough to build here.

Book Bomb For Ben Wolverton

April 9, 2013

Joshua Essoe

Guest Posts Joshua Essoe The Writing Life 2 Comments

I would like to briefly interrupt our regular schedule today to talk about something that happened last week. David Farland’s son, Ben, age 16, was in a serious long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th.

Imagine the worst skateboarding accident you can without cars, or guns, and there you have it. His list of injuries is staggering: brain trauma, internal bleeding, bruised lungs, blown eardrum, broken pelvis, broken tailbone, crushed vertebrae, cracked skull . . . He is currently in a coma.

His family does not have insurance.

Dave is one of the best guys I know. He’s mentored, and taught, and helped out more students and aspiring writers than any person I know. Personally, I would not have been as happy or as successful without him. I know I’m a better person for having him in my life; let alone a better writer and editor. He’s one of the good guys. He’s one of the ones who honestly cares.

Turns out that early estimates of the medical bills are as staggering as the injuries, so we are helping with a book bomb on Ben’s behalf.

You can learn more about Ben’s condition, or simply donate to the Wolverton family here.

WHAT IS A BOOK BOMB?

A Book Bomb is an event where participants purchase a book on a specific day to support the author, or, in this case, a young person in serious need: Ben Wolverton.

WHAT BOOK SHOULD I PURCHASE?

David Farland’s young adult fantasy thriller NIGHTINGALE has won 7 awards, including the Grand Prize at the Hollywood Book Festival–beating out all books in all categories. It is available as a hardcover ($24.99), ebook ($7.99), audio book ($24.99), and enhanced novel for the iPad ($9.99).

You can purchase it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and on the Nightingale website.

Or, you can get the enhanced version, complete with illustrations, interviews, animations, and its own soundtrack, through iTunes.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Some people sing at night to drive back the darkness. Others sing to summon it. . . .

IS IT GOOD?

In short, yes.

Authors such as James Dashner (The Maze Runner), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), and Paul Genesse (Iron Dragon series) all praised it. Nightingale has 4 and a half stars on Amazon. But just go buy it tomorrow and find out for yourself.

WHAT IF I ALREADY OWN NIGHTINGALE? OR I’M NOT INTERESTED IN IT?

If you are a writer, you may want to consider purchasing David Farland’s MILLION DOLLAR OUTLINES. It has been a bestseller on Amazon for over a month and is only $6.99.

Get it on Amazon, or on Barnes and Noble.

Check out the reviews. Is it worth it? Again, yes.

CAN I JUST DONATE MONEY?

Yes. You can donate money to Ben here. Or you could purchase a book as a gift for someone else!

I WANT TO HELP BUT I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY!

The best way you can help is by spreading the word of Ben’s donation page and the book bomb tomorrow, Wednesday April 10th. Share it on facebook, twitter, pinterest, your blog-anywhere you can.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT BEN. WILL HE BE OKAY?

David Farland has been keeping everyone posted on facebook. Subscribe or friend him to get up-to-date information. At the moment, Ben is stable and appears to be improving.

Thank you! Just keep those wishes, hopes, prayers, flowers, cheers and skols flowing.

Feeling Tense: 2 of a 2-part series

April 8, 2013

mary

Craft & Skills Mary Pletsch Writing Tools 3 Comments

Feeling Tense: 2 of a 2-part series

Part 2: Third person

Third person omniscient

“Cora felt uneasy as she stepped into the cave’s gaping maw. Tina, on the other hand, was thrilled at the opportunity to explore.”

The narrator is God, looking down on Her characters. Since the narrator is omniscient, the writer has the freedom to reveal what any character is feeling, thinking, or doing, at any time. If characters are keeping secrets from one another, the omniscient narrator knows, and can share those secrets with the readers. If a storyline is complex, an omniscient narrator can make sure the readers find out what they need to know to follow the story.

This technique has its drawbacks. Third person makes it easy for the writer to preach: to tell the readers how they should feel about the characters, or whether a character’s decision was “right” or “good,” instead of letting the readers draw their own conclusions about the characters’ thoughts and actions. It is also somewhat impersonal in that the characters are held at a certain remove from the reader (we’re watching them, rather than seeing through their eyes); a novelist wants to avoid the dry tone of a history book.

One of my English professors once suggested to me that the narrator was also a “character” of sorts. The narrator affects the reader’s interpretation of the story’s events by the use of judgmental language–descriptions can include value judgments about characters or actions–and by describing certain events in detail while glossing over others. The omniscient narrator may not be a neutral one. When writing this tense, be aware that how you describe things, and what you choose to dwell on or leave out, may skew the way your readers look at your characters and plot.

Tight third person

“Cora looked around the inside of the cave, shivering in the disgusting dampness, wishing she was anywhere but here. She shot a glance at Tina, hoping to ask if they could leave, but Tina was too busy gawking at the cave’s ceiling.”

If first person is a view from behind the narrator’s eyes, and standard third person is the God’s-eye view, tight third person can be described as a view over the narrator’s shoulder. In the above example, although it is third person, since it is seen from Cora’s viewpoint, she does not know that Tina likes the cave. All she knows is that Tina seems to want to look around, while all she cares about is getting out as soon as she can. Similarly, while the omniscient point of view allows the narrator to outright tell the reader that Tina’s excited to do some exploring, the tight third person viewpoint requires the narrator to drop hints which will allow the readers to guess at Tina’s mindset, whether or not Cora ever figures it out.

From Tina’s point of view, this same scene might look like this:

“Tina looked around the inside of the cave, fascinated by the beautiful limestone stalactites tumbling from the ceiling. Unfortunately, Cora didn’t seem as entranced. Tina couldn’t imagine why not, but she wasn’t going to let her friend’s reluctance get in her way.”

Is the cave disgusting, or beautiful? In this case, it very much depends on which character is doing the looking.

In real life, different people might have different interpretations of the same event. Tight third person also allows for the narrator to get right inside the thoughts and feelings of his characters, but also provides the possibility of showing multiple points of view. This viewpoint is tricky, since the “narrator as character” is muted, and it is imperative that the writer describe events in a manner consistent with the beliefs of the character, as opposed to colouring them with her own experiences. It can be uncomfortable to see through the eyes of a villainous character-a bigot, a thug or a self-serving sleazeball-and present their point of view as rational, even natural. However, it allows for a fascinating insight into the way different characters think.

It’s Finished… or Is It?

April 5, 2013

Colette Black

Colette Black Craft & Skills Editing First Drafts The Writing Process 6 Comments

We’ve all done it. We finish our manuscript, think we’ve done our self-editing, followed submission guidelines, we hit Send, and then…oops. We should have done__________.

checklist

I had a completely different post written out for today. One with lots of links to books, and workshops, and what to do and not to do, and it sounded patronizing–not the customer kind, but the looking down your nose kind. I mean, let’s be real. I think I’m a good writer, maybe even a great writer someday, but I’m no editor. Every time I go to send a query, send out my next novel, or write up a series synopses, I think I’m going to hyperventilate. Why? Because, I almost always forget something. I have an editing checklist, but it’s changed over the last couple of years, improved, and yet I’m realizing right now, I’ve never actually updated it. Most of the checklist is in my head and for me, that’s not the safest nor the most reliable location. So for my sake, and I hope this helps someone else, here’s a revised self-editing checklist. This is my list for end-of-the-line editing, not the content editing or even the full line-editing list. Maybe we can do those another time, but it’ll be a much longer post.

Basic Formatting:

One-inch margins
12-pt Times New Roman font
Double-spaced
No spaces before or after paragraphs (check to be sure)
first-line indent
Header with last name/title/page #
Correct title page with contact information, Word count, and title done correctly
Chapter Heading one-third down the page with page breaks between chapters (but no blank pages)

My Particular problems:

No extra spaces between words/before paragraphs
Search and replace or delete over-used favorite words, like “just”
Check for improper usage of past and past-perfect tense. (This became an issue when I read a lot of YA books with this problem, so now I especially check to make sure it doesn’t seep into my own writing–Thank you David Farland for pointing this out.)

Problems to watch for, learned from David Farland’s workshops:

forward and toward, not forwards and towards (That’s American English vs. British English)
Check usage of “and, then, finally, felt, saw, look, that” Get rid of them whenever possible
Use spell-check
Check “-ly” adverbs–There should be few, if any
Have I read the manuscript out loud, at least once?
Did I change the font and read the manuscript in order to catch less-noticeable errors?

And a few extra:

A basic spell-check
Re-read the publisher’s or agent’s specific requirements
Include appropriate letters (query, cover letter, synopsis)
correct postage for snail mail
proper formatting for electronic submissions
If I cut and pasted from another submission, change editor/agent name, word count, work’s title, name of magazine/agency, and all other details.

And NOW, it might be ready. This seems like a lot, but I think I’ve forgotten almost all the points on this list, or have almost forgotten them, at least once when sending to agents and publishers. I wish I’d put this together years ago, but then I don’t think I knew half the items on this list years ago. I hope this helps someone, and I’d love to add anything I’ve forgotten, so if you think of something please leave a comment.

Happy Writing!