Best Links of the Week

/

 

9 Unfinished Novels by Great Writers « PWxyz  This is my favorite story of the week.

Thinking in Blocks of Time  A superb way of looking at the marathon that is novel writing. I think new writers get discouraged when they realize just how much time is involved in writing a novel.

From the Terrible Mind of Chuck Wendig, 25 Ways To Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story This is more good advice - the more prepared you are for the journey ahead, the easier you will find your task. Especially useful with NaNoWriMo coming up in November. 

Also from the Terrible Mind of Chuck Wendig, 25 Things You Should Do Before Starting Your Next Novel Just a note from our sponsors, please DO NOT read this if you're easily offended grossed out or otherwise delicate. Chuck's sensibilities are not for the faint of heart, but his premises are incredibly sound.

Kristine Rusch writes a hugely important article why writers should avoid exclusivity situations, Content is King Why would you want to sell in a single channel, when that channel has the power to do whatever the heck it wants with your product? Too much risk, and you alienate multiple other segments.

In the awesome news category, Barbara’s Expands into 40 Macy’s Stores  Any news about NEW bookstores opening, however modest, is GREAT news to hear.

A seriously honest interview on Bryon Quertermous's Coping with Sanity Blog: Frank Wheeler shares the darkness. It consumes us all from time to time, and writing is the lifeline.

The Divine Deanna Raybourn has In which we're talking beginnings - a wonderful example of murdering your darlings. Beginnings are my rough spot too - that first 25,000 words just hates me, as I despise it. 

Don't Try to Hone in on a Copy Editor : The New Yorker  - Heh, heh, heh. Which do you prefer - hone in or home in?

And lastly... remember when you had to go to the bookstore for this info? Meet Edelweiss, Your New Favorite Book Discovery Tool I have to tell you - I sort of miss the whole trip to the store to pick up the latest releases, but since Nashville's kind of lacking in the bookstore department, I turn to online resources too. 

My Favorite Writing Books

/

 

A wise woman once told me, sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes, the bear eats you.

This week, I am being eaten, bite by scrumptious bite, by the bear. So please forgive this rather truncated post.

Earlier this week I was asked what my favorite writing books are. I have several, books that influenced me, books that I read over and over, books I think are vital to the writer's process, and to the craft itself. Here are some of my favorites: (click on the link for more suggestions)

On Writing - Stephen King

The gold standard. When I'm approached by writers who are just getting their start, this is the book I send them to first. I tell them, if it speaks to you, you're a writer. If it doesn't, you may want to think about another path. I didn't read this until 2006, and it was like lightning struck my brain.

Write Away - Elizabeth George

Should the previous book speak to you, this is the next on the list. A perfect nuts to bolts book that gives tips on everything from building story to defining characters and outlining. 

Forest For The Trees - Betsy Lerner

The first writing book I ever read. It changed me in many ways, and showed me the path that I eventually found myself on. Well worth it.

The War of Art – Steven Pressfield

This one is for anyone who wants to be a creative - for that matter, anyone with dreams unfulfilled should read Pressfield's little gem. You hear me talk about resistance a lot. Here's the book I got that from. It's a hugely important book, and one I strongly recommend.

P.S. You will see a consistent path from here on out. Interestingly, books about craft aren't as important to me as books about process.

The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp

I loved this one from dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp. It's a great book about creating good habits, organization, and other lovely bits. Some of it I already did, and some I added into my routine. Most important rule of all - build your habits, then stick to them.

Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott

The definitive guide to the writing life, by a woman who's both acerbically funny and poignantly truthful. 

Hamlet's Blackberry - William Powers

A superb book about the history of communication and the ways modern technologies change the world. Also awesome for its tips on ways to unplug from the grid. My favorite of all the productivity books I've read.

The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron 

A little honesty for you. Once the excitement of the debut year is over and the reality of being a working writer sets in, that's when the voices start. External and internal, from reviews and reader emails to editor and agent inputs, everything starts changing. Sales goes up and down, proposals are loved and changed, or hated and revamped. The vacuum we start in, writing a little book in our spare time, mostly for ourselves, to see if we can do it, suddenly turns into the machine that controls your life. it's very easy to get thrown off track when things aren't going perfectly. And this is publishing, folks. Trust me when I say, things NEVER go perfectly. For anyone. So when the going gets tough, the tough do THE ARTIST'S WAY. It changed my world, and I'm sure it will change yours too. But it doesn't work unless you're at a certain point. Heck, it doesn't even apply until you're at a certain point. 

The Writer's Journey - Christopher Vogler

I shouldn't call this one of my favorites, because truth be told, I hated it. I've always just written from my gut, and didn't realize that I was following a pattern that had been developed practically since the first people got together under the stars and told tales of their day chasing mastodons. I adore mythology, and somewhere along the way I think I got a sense of story from that. But realizing it wasn't my own method ticked me off royally, and then I started thinking in Vogler's terms, and suddenly, everything was about the three acts, and the Hero's Journey, and it wrecked me for a couple of years. So don't read it. (But if you do, it's a fantastic journey, and it will help you identify the areas of your story that might be sagging. But you'll never watch a movie the same way again. So you've been warned.)

That should be enough to get you started.

Want to share some of your favorites in the comments? I'd love to hear what you like, too!

Best Links of the Week

/

 

Settle in, because there are lots of great links to read this week, starting with what's possibly the most important advice for writers wanting to get published:

Writer Unboxed » The Biggest Mistake Writers Make and How to Avoid it  ("Writing is taught everywhere, but not story.")

And we all have these moments, when it just doesn't work. I Hate It — But I Wrote It | Writerly Life 

On The Kill Zone, James Scott Bell tackles A Writer's Ego, which is absolutely excellent. 

From Information Diet, some truth - Notifications are evil  I have all my notifications turned off. Why be a slave to them? Which ties right into the next wonderful observation, Today's Technologies Need an Off-the-Hook Option  The new iOS6 operating system on my phone has a Do Not Disturb option which can be tailored however I need it. If I could only do this with my home phone....

My friend Barbara Claypole White blogs about OCD and Believable Characters. Her new book, THE UNFINISHED GARDEN, is wonderful.

Author Bryan Hall writes a very provocative, and pretty darn true essay on The Lazy Writer 

In the age of Facebook, how do you keep you manage to stay friends with people you don't agree with politically? How to Use Mindfulness to Keep Your Friends During the Election  I loved this - and it applies to much more than just politics

This essay cracked me up and made me sd at the same time. Just Freaking Call Me It's so true, too - 20 minutes of texting can be eliminated if you'd just pick up the phone! It's good to see that our texting generation is realizing that phones do work. ERMEGERD!

And from the super cool category: Far From ‘Junk,’ DNA Dark Matter Proves Crucial to Health Can you imagine - all that DNA junk they thought didn't matter, does. Pretty soon they'll figure out why we need a spleen.

"What Is Your Biggest Shame?" And Other Character Tricks

/

One of the hardest aspects of writing is building deep, complex, believable characters. Characters with meat on their psychic bones, who you care about, root for, cry with. Characters who have relatable issues but rise above - or sink under the surface and are mourned. One-dimensionality is something to be strictly avoided whenever possible with any character, regardless of their place in your story. But for your heroes and heroines, they need even more.

So how do you write these kinds of characters? The ones readers chomp at the bit to find out more about?

Years ago, one of my writer buddies, the divine Jennifer Brooks, came up with a brilliant solution to this quandary. She was writing a book with an omniscient POV and several main characters. The BMW’s (my critique group) were having trouble keeping all of them straight, and we badgered her to do something about our inability to “get” who was who. (Many times, POV problems are a result of not knowing your characters as well as you should. If you know exactly how your character will react in a certain situation, what they’ll say, how they’ll feel, your POV will fall into place.)

Have you ever been sent an email survey by one of your friends, the kind that has a huge list of questions that either you or said friend must fill out? They ask detailed questions that are meant to show how much you really know someone. My friend, in all her brilliant glory, decided to fill out the survey as her characters. Since many of her characters were in relationships or strong friendships, she allowed the characters themselves to ask the questions of their friends and lovers. It gave her a stronger grasp of who each character is and how they could be presented in the story to help us, the readers, keep them straight. It worked wonderfully. The characters came alive for her readers. And, I daresay, for the author herself.

I've used this trick several times in the past, and I know with the internet this advice has circulated a lot. But just the other day, another divine writer, Paige Crutcher, asked about getting deeper into a character, and I suggested this method. She found the Proust interview and sent it along, which I've included here. It's as good a kickoff point as any I've seen to get into your character's head. 

Just FYI, this is a bastardized version of the Proust Questionnaire. Here's a link to the story behind this, and the original interview, too. 

  • What do you consider your greatest achievement?
  • What is your idea of perfect happiness?
  • What is your current state of mind?
  • What is your favorite occupation?
  • What is your most treasured possession?
  • What or who is the greatest love of your life?
  • What is your favorite journey?
  • What is your most marked characteristic?
  • When and where were you the happiest?
  • What is it that you most dislike?
  • What is your greatest fear?
  • What is your greatest extravagance?
  • Which living person do you most despise?
  • What is your greatest regret?
  • Which talent would you most like to have?
  • Where would you like to live?
  • What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
  • What is the quality you most like in a man?
  • What is the quality you most like in a woman?
  • What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
  • What is the trait you most deplore in others?
  • What do you most value in your friends?
  • Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
  • Whose are your heroes in real life?
  • Which living person do you most admire?
  • What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
  • On what occasions do you lie?
  • Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
  • What are your favorite names?
  • How would you like to die?
  • If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? 
  • What is your motto? 

I posit that this list is missing one of the biggest, most important, juiciest character building questions of all time, so I will add it here.

  • What is your biggest shame? What is the one thing you hide from everyone, even, sometimes, yourself?

Know that, and you will know your character's true nature, and their heart.

And just to explain the picture above, my all-time favorite meaty character is the one and only Heathcliff. I know, I know, but I am a sucker for the Byronic hero.

Who is your favorite meaty character? And if you have tips or tricks for building them, feel free to add them in the comments.