Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Writing Your Book: Who Tells the Story?

The biggest choice you make when you start your novel is the decision: who tells the story?

If you tell it in the third person, who's the primary viewpoint character? 

On the other hand, if you choose the first person -- "I" -- that presents challenges. Your first person narrator needs to be there for all pivotal scenes. Moreover, there's a limit to what he knows and understands.

As this article, How a Pronoun Shaped a Novel, says:

Writing in the first person was thrilling at first. No scene started as a blank slate—my heroine was always there. I was not obliged to do any complicated bobbing and weaving between the narrator's perceptions and those of other characters. And writing from a single character's point of view sped up the Frankenstein-like authorial process of making her seem alive.

Writing in the first person can be comfortable, but it may not be the best choice for your story. It's not the easiest choice, either.

Try writing from your preferred point of view. If it doesn't work, that's fine. You can always rewrite if you see it's not working.

 

 

A Christmas Carol: it's that time of year again

It's the season of peace and goodwill, so dig out your copy of A Christmas Carol and read it to the deserving young in your life. Or you can read it again, just for yourself. :-)

You can download a copy here, if you don't have one.

If you just want to listen, you can buy a copy of A Christmas Carol at Audible, read by the wonderful actor Paul Scofield.

The ending always brings a tear to my eye, no matter how many times I read it:

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and
infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was
a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a
master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or
any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old
world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him,
but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was
wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this
globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill
of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these
would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they
should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in
less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was
quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon
the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was
always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas
well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that
be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim
observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Want to start a family tradition? Reread A Christmas Carol each year. As a writer, reading the master is  good for your soul.

Writers' Christmas Treats: Writing Gifts for You, Dear Writer

Want to write a book?

I've received several questions this week about freelancing fiction.

These kinds of writing jobs are available on the outsourcing sites, but if you want to write a novel, just write it, and sell it. You just may get lucky. Writers hit the bestseller list every year.

Start by writing a genre novel. Readers of these novels have certain expectations, and if you can meet those expectations, there's a real market for your writing.

In First Steps To Write A Novel: Pick A Genre | Write a novel | Write A Nonfiction Book or Novel and Get It Published I wrote:

"These expectations that readers (and of course publishers) have for a genre give you a handle on how to write that particular genre of novel. You start by deciphering what those expectations are, and how the elements of the book meet those expectations. Tip: many publishers offer ‘writer’s guidelines’ for their books. While these are useful, your own thoughts about WHY readers like a genre are much more valuable to you, because everything you write is filtered through your own experience."

Happy writing. :-)

If you're interested in kicking off your freelance writing career quickly, check out next week's ezine, in which our theme is Mastering Freelancing FAST.

NaNoWriMo tools you need for your writing journey

Here comes NaNoWriMo again. Another month devoted to writing until your fingertips ache.

Good luck to you if you're taking part -- enjoy the journey. :-)

Here are tools to help.

Firstly, a couple of counters. All Freelance Writing » Blog Archive » 2 Free Word Count Trackers for Writers reports:

"Our second word count tracker is a cool little tool that you can use for much more than tracking your word counts. For example, if you set an income goal as a freelance writer and you want to keep your blog readers updated on your progress (for the year, month, or however long you choose), you can choose to track a dollar amount by entering that into our custom field. Or you can use our preset options to track words, pages, or posts (such as a certain number of blog posts each month). Do you know what’s really great about the custom field though? You can use this to track anything, even if it’s not writing-related! Need a weight loss tracker? Here you go! Want to count down until a vacation or other event? You can do that too! You can track just about anything you want!"

Next, some ideas for preparation.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 1: Pick a genre 

Think about what you'll write in November; start by picking a genre. 

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 2: Be a squirrel

Squirel away the stuff you'll need in November.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 3: Your characters' professions

Choose professions for your characters.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 4: Write a character journal

Choose one character, and write his or her journal.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 5: Interview your hero and heroine

Following on from #5, it's time to interview your primary characters.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 6: Gear up with story boards

Have you discovered story boards? They're a great help to keep track of your story.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 7: Get organized

When you're writing a novel, you need to get comfortable with creative chaos... and then get organized. :-)

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 8: List action scenes - fiction is not real life

In fiction, you leave out the boring bits. List your action scenes and write them.

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 9: Get your story into shape

Conquer the dreaded middle of your novel (that's what ACTION scenes are for.)

* NaNoWriMo QuickStart 10: Ready for takeoff?

Final tips to help you through November...

You've only got a couple of days until the big day -- make the most of them. :-)

Fiction: getting to know your characters

Miss Potter is a lovely gem of a movie. If you haven't seen it, rent it as soon as you can. It's a must-watch for novelists.

In it, Beatrix Potter knows her characters. They are real to her.

Without giving away the plot of the movie, there's a time when Beatrix can't draw or write. She's close to a breakdown. Watch what happens with her characters in the scene where she's trying to  write: it's truthful.

So how do you get to know your characters as well as Beatrix does hers?

You get to know them the same way you get to know people: you live with them, talk to them, listen when they talk to you.

You write down snippets of information about their history and their daily life. You journal about them and care what happens to them.

When you begin working with characters, you will "make them up." But as you continue to live with them, they will become as real to you as all the other people in your life. They will then become real to your readers too.

Discover more about creating characters which live in your heart, and your readers'.

Technorati Tags: fiction

NaNoWriMo: time management so you can write a book in a month

Writing a novel is FUN. If you love to write, then covering a notepad or computer screen with words is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Or off, come to that. :-)

With NaNoWriMo just a couple of weeks away, I posted "It's write-a-novel time again - here comes NaNoWriMo" with some links to some NaNoWriMo QuickStarts I wrote last year.

But know what? You don't need all that preparation. What you need is TIME. Nothing will derail your NaNoWriMo efforts faster than not having time.

I suggest that you clear a block of time either at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day, depending on whether you write better at night, or early in the morning.

For NaNoWriMo month, that hour or two is sacrosanct: you'll need to protect this time like a mama bear protecting her cub from others in your household, and from yourself too.

If you're going to tackle NaNoWriMo, tell yourself that no matter what, you'll show up for yourself and your writing each day.

So start thinking about how you'll clear that block of time now: it's vital to your success.

Good luck. :-)

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

It's write-a-novel time again - here comes NaNoWriMo

It seems just a little while ago that the madness was over, but here we are again - it's NaNoWriMo time...

I've already  covered NaNoWriMo extensively in previous years, so here are some links for your enjoyment -

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 1: Pick a genre

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 2. Be a squirrel

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 3: Character professions

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 4: Write a character journal

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 5: Interview your hero and heroine

NaNoWriMo QuickStart 6: Gear up with storyboards

That should keep you happily engaged until the big day. :-)

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo

Got a novel? Cash in with Amazon.com's Breakthrough Novel Award

Money for writers is always welcome. :-)

Amazon.com: Breakthrough Novel Award: Books reports: "Are you a writer longing to be discovered? Submit your manuscript for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It’s the perfect opportunity to become the next great novelist: the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!"

How much do you win? Publishers Marketplace says:

Amazon's contest promises the largest field of potential entrants--they'll accept up to 5,000 unpublished manuscripts between now and November 5--and the biggest prize, which includes a publishing contract with the Penguin Group for an advance of $25,000, plus some lovely gifts from Hewlett Packard.

If you haven't started your novel yet, it's too late for this one. However, since there are so many novel contests at the moment, it's a real clue that publishers are struggling to find talent. So get writing. :-)

Fiction: free course on how to write your novel

A few days ago I found this amazing resource, and have been reading it with delight. Novelists Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer are writing a year-long novelist's workshop, He Wrote, She Wrote. It's both fun and enlightening. Whether you're writing your first novel, or your tenth, you'll love it.

Fiction secrets: getting to know your characters

Characters are at the heart of your short story or novel. You need to understand them to bring them to life.

I admit I've rarely bothered to develop characters for my novels before I start a first draft. The "what color eyes/ education/ hobbies/ clothing" character sheets bore me witless. I start my stories knowing what the character's challenge is, and his history. That's all. I develop characters as I write.

Although this works sometimes, I often end up with characters I don't  understand. They're shadows living in a ghostly world. I journal about them, and write their diaries, but I rarely feel that I'm getting under a character's skin: getting to understand what makes a character tick.

But there's this woman...

I've had this character and her story skittering around in my imagination for weeks. This woman won't leave. She's constantly at the back of my mind, and I can't stop thinking about her.

Great, yes? Obviously I'm meant to write this woman's story. But I don't want to. I've got quite enough writing to do. The thought of investing months in a story which withers and dies scares me.

Well, praise the lord and pass the ammunition, when I downloaded Holly Lisle's Create A Character Clinic I found the solution. The book's amazing. I've only been working with it for a few hours, but I can see that it will help me to write my  skittering-woman's story. I now know something of who she is - and how to discover more about her life and her world before I start the first draft.

I've admired Holly's work and her commitment to it for years, and "Holly Lisle’s Create A  Character Clinic: A Step-By-Step Course for the Fiction Writer" goes far beyond what I expected. I never considered that Maslow's hierarchy of needs could be helpful in developing characters. Holly shows you exactly how to use them, and much more.

Thank you Holly, great stuff.

Technorati Tags: fiction

A writers' fear: What if they don't publish your novel?

When you're writing a novel, it sometimes hard to keep your mind on your writing.

Doubts creep in. What if your novel never gets published?

I received a panicky email this week from a writing colleague who's riddled with angst about her current novel. She's bogged down in the middle of the book. Her inspiration's long gone, her characters seem wooden, her plot seems  contrived, and she's ready to hit the Delete key and send the whole mess into oblivion.

More novels are junked at page 143 than at any other time. Don't hit Delete.

Panicking is allowed. Stopping writing isn't.

If you're stuck in the middle of your novel too, please realize that it's normal: expected even. At least once in a novel, you'll hit a wall, and you won't want to go on.

Here are some tips which may help:

* Realize that you're not thinking straight: you're tired. You're not capable of assessing what's "good" and what isn't right now;

* If you're rereading obsessively, stop rereading. Just keep writing;

* Chunk the remainder of the novel. Write one scene at a time, and forget everything else. Write one word, one paragraph at a time, but keep going. You may not be capable of your usual daily output for a week or two. Be satisfied with a little progress. If you can only write 50 words a day, so be it. Just keep going at that rate;

* Tell yourself that yes, it's all garbage, and that you may throw it out, but you can only do that when you finish;

* Change the Point of View. If you're writing in first person, change to third person POV for a chapter. This will sometimes be enough to break whatever's damming up the flow of the book.

Good luck; keep writing. :-)

Technorati Tags: books, fiction, novel

Mac novelists rejoice! Jer's Novel Writer is out of beta

Mac novelists are spoiled for choice when it comes to great writing software, and now the fabulous Jer's Novel Writer is out of beta.

If you're contemplating NaNoWriMo this November, you've got time to think up great plots and characters.

Here's a quick list of features in Jer's Novel Writer:

Margin Notes
Automatic Outline
Database
Full Screen Mode
Bookmarks
Separate formatting options for print and screen
It actually knows what a chapter is (or whatever organizational structure you want to use).
A panel for general notes lets you keep track of story issues and ideas (and the last time you ate).
Word count
More accurate page count estimates
Better performance than most word processors for really, really big documents.

Technorati Tags: fiction, NaNoWriMo, novel, writers' software

Weekend Writer: One-Minute Fiction - A Character And A Problem

One minute fiction is great fun. The idea is to write a story of 500 words fast. You start out with a character who has an immediate problem on which he/ she must act... Unless the character acts right away, there will be dire consequences.

One-minute fiction helps you to develop good fiction writing habits, because the keyword for effective fiction is - ACTION. Some new writers write stories about "thinking heads". Nothing much happens, but the characters think. These stories are impossible to read, much less sell, because there's no drama. One-minute fiction breaks you of this habit.

So this weekend, create a character with a problem, and have him/ her take action on it. Have fun. :-)

Technorati Tags: fiction

Fiction: Collect settings, the more unusual the better

When you start writing fiction, it seems that there's a lot to need to track. One of the most important aspects of your fiction can get lost in the shuffle: your locations - your settings for your story.

Settings are vital. If you place a character in a setting, how he reacts will tell you much about him.

Create a "Settings" section of your writers' journal. Pretend you’re a location scout for a movie.

For the next two weeks, wherever you go, write a short entry in your journal describing the key points of your location.

A "location" can be anywhere. Your workplace, a restaurant, the mall - anywhere and everywhere you go. If you get into the habit of recording locations, it will become second nature to you, and you'll find all your writing easier, because you've become more observant.

Technorati Tags: fiction

Fiction: dreaming your scenes

A common complaint for novelists and short story writers is not being able to make progress on a story. If this happens to you, you need to know that this is essentially a lack of communication between your right brain (creativity) and left brain (logic)… you can fix it, very easily.

One writer just writes one scene, and then gets STUCK. This one scene seems to be all there is, and no matter how much time he spends on it, he can't "see" another scene. He thinks he's procrastinating, but his challenge isn't time management, it's getting back into a right-brain mind state.

This is very common for beginning writers. Your single scene (or in some cases collection of two or three scenes) is what you can see/ imagine; it's what your right brain/ inspiration is serving up at the moment. ;-) Then your left brain kicks in, and you try to THINK your way to scene two, but it doesn't happen.

Here's how to handle it, if you have one-scene wonders, OR if you get stuck anywhere in your fiction. In novelists, this kind of sticking happens at around chapter three. Again, it's just a right/ left brain thing, and it's easy to fix.

THE FIX: dream the next scene, with your eyes open. That is, pretend you’re having a dream.

Write: "I'm dreaming that____" and carry on writing, describing a dream that you imagine. Write around a page, describing this (imaginary) dream. You're imagining that you're imagining. :-) This is excellent, because it kicks you right into your right brain – there's no way you can be logical about this.

If your dream has nothing to do with Scene One, or wherever you're stuck, that's fine. Write your page. Then, no matter what the subject matter of your dream sequence is, morph it into your stuck scene. Just cram it in there – you'll be amazed that it WILL fit.

Try it.

Technorati Tags: fiction