Writers in the Storm

Heather Webb

The most detested word in the publishing industry, perhaps even in the English language (we writers might argue) is rejection. Even saying it aloud gives you a nasty swirling in your stomach. Whether it be from agents and editors, or readers and reviewers, the word itself embodies our deepest darkest fear—we aren’t good enough. When the “R’s” begin to pile up, we sink into the sludge that mires us deeper in our fears and that horrible message becomes louder, crippling us.

As I’m working on book three, this fear of the dreaded “R” sits on my chest like a fat cat—even after two contracted books at a large publisher. Even with the overwhelming good fortune of having a network of writer friends I’m proud and blessed to call my tribe. I’m pushing the envelope, you see. In my first novel I mashed up historical fiction, women’s fiction, and romance. My second, I skipped ahead to another era and fell in love with a lesser known artist figure and her struggles with madness. Now, I’m taking on a well-known story and turning it on its head. No biographical route for me this time.

Some serious genre pushing.

But WHY I ask myself? Why must I stick my neck out, push my craft to the point of almost physical pain. Why must I risk my publisher saying “no thank you” to this next book, and the one after that.

The answer is simple.

I can’t avoid the challenge, the tugging in my soul that pushes me to grow—in spite of the quaking in my knees. Reach higher, my heart says. Create better, it begs. INSPIRE MORE. Yet I don’t know if I will succeed and this terrifies me. I know many of you know what I’m talking about. You struggle as I do to get a hold of this nasty thing called fear. So what does one do?

Find Your Center
Work on the exercises that bring you to a deeper, centered you. For me, that’s running or biking until the jitters are gone and you can breathe again. Whether it be meditation or exercise, or sketching or journaling, every writer needs a way to disconnect from the voices in your head. Plus you get the added bonus of all that meditative activity adding years to your life.

Put the Risk in its Place
In the grand scheme of life, how does this risk rate? Is it life-threatening, or life-altering? Will it obliterate your reputation or your self-worth? Will it destroy important relationships around you? If the answer is no to these questions, POWER ON. Take the risk and don’t look back. If it’s yes, it’s time to evaluate that risk. Weigh the pros and cons and remember—regrets will follow you your entire life.

Use a Lifeline
My friends are my lifeline—both my writer buddies and my “real life” friends who understand nothing about the pressures in publishing. Sometimes you need both to balance you out, to remind you of all you have accomplished. To remind you of the simple goodness that is you.

Revel in the Risk
What is life without taking chances? A safe, boring affair that passes you by in a cloud of regret. Get a hold of your fear by the throat. REJECT HOW IT RULES YOUR LIFE, YOUR DECISIONS. Embrace the thrill of being bold, of striking out, and of being the best version of yourself—your best writer self. I’m trying like a mad dog. I hope you are, too.

I leave you with a beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson. It’s called HOPE.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

There is always HOPE and ADVENTURE when taking a risk. Don’t let the fear ruin all that beauty. I, for one, am choosing to banish it.

Have you ever branched out, far from the core safety of your tree to write something edgy or different? How did you tackle your fears?

About Heather

Heather Webb is an author, freelance editor, and blogger at award-winning writing sites WriterUnboxed.com and RomanceUniversity.org. Her first women’s historical, BECOMING JOSEPHINE, about the life and times of Josephine Bonaparte set to the backdrop of the tumultuous French Revolution, and her forthcoming novel, RODIN'S LOVER, about art, love, and the lines between obsession and madness releases from Penguin in January 2015.  Heather is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and she may also be found teaching craft-based or publishing industry courses at a local college. Find her on Twitter: @msheatherwebb or her website: www.heatherwebbauthor.com/

Janice Hardy

There’s something satisfying about finishing a first draft. The novel that’s been poking you in the brain for months is finally done and you can stand back and marvel at it like a new parent. And like a new baby, there’s an awful lot of mess to go with all that joy.

Protagonists who started out a little aimless and ended up with a stronger emotional journey, and now need to be tweaked. Subplots that were supposed to be a major part of the book that dead ended when another more interesting problem came along in chapter nine. That love interest who kept changing names. You know—perfectly normal first draft stuff.

After I’ve finished a first draft, I like to create an editorial map (also called an edit map, book map, or plot map) that quickly sums up every scene in my novel. It’s a huge help during my revision process, and allows me to easily see how my novel unfolds and where things happen.

Step One: Identify what happens in every scene or chapter

While you can certainly write as much or as little as you’d like, aim for the plot-driving goals and conflicts. These are the elements that are creating your novel’s plot.

• What is the POV character trying to do in this scene? (the goal)
• Why are they trying to do it? (the motivation for that goal)
• What’s in the way of them doing it? (the conflict)
• What happens if they don’t do it? (the stakes)
• What goes wrong (or right)? (how the story moves forward)
• What important plot or story elements are in the scene? (what you need to remember or what affects future scenes)

For an example, let’s take a peek at the opening scene of my teen novel The Shifter:

What is the POV character trying to do in this scene? Nya is trying to steal eggs for breakfast

Why are they trying to do it? She’s hungry and has no money to buy food

What’s in the way of them doing it? She’s caught by a night guard and the owner of the ranch

What happens if they don’t do it? She starves, and she might go to jail for stealing

What goes wrong (or right)? She runs for it, and uses her pain shifting ability to get away, which gets seen by two boys who alert the bad guys that she has this ability

What important plot or story elements are in the scene? She meets and helps Danello (who becomes a major secondary character and love interest), gets seen shifting pain by apprentices at the Healers’ League, and has a reason to go visit her sister at the Healers’ League in the morning, which is where she gets identified and comes to the bad guy’s notice.

Step Two: Summarize those basic elements

Once you know the details of the scene, summarize it in a way that will allow you to capture the essence of the scene in narrative form. This will be a great help when writing a future synopsis, as well as seeing how the story unfolds as a whole.

For example: Nya is stealing eggs for breakfast when she’s caught by a night guard and the owner of the chicken ranch. She makes a run for it, and in the process the night guard (Danello) is injured. Out of pity, she heals him and takes his pain, which is seen by two apprentices from the Healers’ League who will tell the Elders about her. She knows she’s just revealed her pain shifting ability to the wrong people. It’ll be a risk to go to her sister at the Healers’ League in the morning to get rid of her pain, but she has no choice.

Other things happen in this scene (some cute banter, an exchange of threats, a chase scene, some desperate bartering with witnesses), but the above paragraph captures the plot-driving elements that start the novel and trigger the rest of the plot. Without these elements, the novel would not have turned out as it did.

Step Three: Map out the entire novel

Go scene by scene and follow steps one and two for each scene. It can be a little time consuming, but well worth it. By the end, you’ll have a solid map of how your novel unfolds and what the critical plot elements are. You’ll easily see where/if a plot thread dead ends, or wanders off, or even any scenes that lack goals or conflict, which will make planning (and doing) your revisions that much easier. It’ll be clear what needs work and where.

Bonus Step: Map out any additional arcs you might want

Aside from the core plot elements, you can also add critical steps in a character arc, the pacing of reveals or discovery of clues or secrets, how multiples POVs affect each other, or whatever else you want to track. It can be woven into the narrative summary, or kept as a bullet point or subparagraph if that’s easier. You might even have two or three paragraphs per scene: One for the plot, one for the character arcs, and one for information you need, but the characters don’t know yet. Whatever format and details you need to move forward on the novel.

This additional information can be very useful for tracking subplots or inner conflicts, as well as mystery clues or what the antagonist is doing off-screen that’s affecting the protagonist. Timelines can also appear here if you need to know when events happens to ensure everything works together and you don’t have any 27-hour days.

The beauty of an editorial map is that it’s a quick and easy to reference summary of your novel. When you get stuck during revisions (and we all do, right?) you can flip over, see what happens when and where the story needs to go, and get yourself back on track.

Extra Bonus Step: Map out what revisions you want to make per scene

For those who really want to go the extra planning mile, I’ve found it particularly helpful to have a version with revision notes on it as well. That way I can see what I want to do and where, and be able to see how those changes affect the novel as a whole. This also makes it easy to update my editorial map as I revise.

A little preparation can go a long way and make the revision process easier and more productive. It’s a lot less hassle to find holes in the plot in a summary than realizing it after a beta read when you thought you were done. An editorial map is a handy tool to help you focus on the critical elements of your novel and keep your mind free for the fun creative work.

Do you use an editorial map? Do you think one might help you?

Looking for tips on planning or revising your novel? Check out my newest book Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a series of self-guided workshops that help you turn your idea into a novel, or help you refine and tighten a first draft.

About Janice

Janice Hardy is the author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, where she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her novels include The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The first book in her Foundations of Fiction series, Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is out now. She lives in Georgia with her husband, one yard zombie, three cats, and a very nervous freshwater eel. Find out more about writing at her site, Fiction University, or find her on Twitter @Janice_Hardy.

Margie Lawson

THANK YOU to all the uber-talented and uber-fun WITS gals for inviting me to guest blog again!

Ready for some fun?

Margie’s Rule #5: If the Hyphenated-Run-On Fits…

If you’re a Margie-grad, you know I love well written hyphenated-run-ons. That’s my term for stringing three or more words together with hyphens. They give you a boost on the write-fresh scale. You can make a hyphenated-run-on as fresh as you dare.

Okay. Dare may be too strong. Rewrite: You can make a hyphenated-run-on as fresh as fits the character and the scene.

Look at this series of hyphenated-run-ons in one sentence from an NCIS episode. Tony looks at Gibbs and says,

"Uh-oh. I know that look. That's the stay-up-all-night, no-sleep, take-one-for-the-team, I've-got-a-plan look."

Four back-to-back hyphenated-run-ons, probably not something you’d want more than once per book. Maybe zero times. But you may have a place where two or three in a row are perfect.

The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, Sarah Hantz, Margie-Grad

I look across at Lori, who’s smiling at me. Thing is I don’t know if it’s a wanting-to-please-teacher smile, or whether it’s a genuine I-want-to-get-to-know-you smile.

Sarah Hantz played up that contrast with two hyphenated-run-ons in one sentence. Smart!

Chasing Luck, Brinda Berry, Immersion-Grad, 7 examples

1. JT takes a sip of red wine and relaxes into his you're-being-unreasonable smile.
2. The older man who exited the men's room gives me the she-must-be-on-drugs look, mumbles apologies, and walks off.
3. I hook the printer up and know I'm in for some death-by-reading and I'm definitely on a suicide mission coded please-get-to-the-point.

Brinda Berry took what could have been mundane, used power words (death, suicide mission), and added humor hits with two hyphenated-run-ons to make that sentence strong.

4. And I almost melt into a pool of girly goo. Jerk. Totally gorgeous-beyond-words jerk.

Fun, fun, fun!

5. I'm struggling to hold my totally-undeniably-pissed expression.
6. Call me a coward, but I don’t know how to do this friend-with-a-female thing.

I shared the full paragraph in the next example.

7. The scales definitely tip in the direction of bad news. She's not his trophy wife or barely-legal mistress. She’s his niece — the number one spot on the dateable-but-off-limits list. The girl looks at me and her gaze makes a slow run down the length of my body. I'm beyond screwed. Goodbye Miss Innocent, hello Miss Seductress.

Strong writing. Fresh hyphenated-run-on. Compelling cadence throughout.

The Last Breath, to be released Sept. 30^th, MIRA, Kimberly Belle, 4-time Immersion-Grad, 4 examples

1. By the time I make it to the front door, she’s standing on the welcome mat with a crate of medical supplies and a hurry-up-and-let-me-in grin.
2. When the kitchen door swings wide a few minutes later revealing Jake coming at us with two plates piled high with tonight’s special, I realize I’m ravenous. Outta-my-way-and-let-me-at-it ravenous.
3. Plus, one look at Jake’s just-got-laid grin and the purple love bite below his right ear, and everybody in the place will know.
4. I give him an I’m-thirty-four-so-don’t-even-go-there look. “Out.”

Kimberly Belle used a hyphenated-run-on to slip in the POV character’s age. Brilliant!

When You Are Mine, Kennedy Ryan, Immersion-Grad, 3 examples        

1. “How are you holding up, Aunt Kris?” Jo kept her eyes on Kristeene’s thinner-than-usual face. “Don’t lie to me.”

Two examples with strong dialogue cues.

2. “Walsh, you know Cam is serious about Kerris, right?” Jo used her don’t-play-a-player voice on him. “He’s going to propose again.”
3. Walsh lobbed a silent yes-get-me-out-of-this expression to his mother. She returned with a mama-always-knows smile.

Love the way Kennedy Ryan used one hyphenated-run-on as a stimulus, and another one as a response. Smart writing!

Sixth Grave Beyond the Edge, Darynda Jones, NYT Bestseller, Margie-Grad,  4 examples

1. I’d have to pull the talking-into-the-phone routine.
2. If her puking-on-demand skills were anything like her acting skills, she’d nail it.
3. “They definitely bugged. That whole gun-to-the-head thing was very annoying.”

Darynda Jones is a master of Humor Hits. Gun-to-head thing, annoying—great understatement.

4. This was the part I didn’t handle well. The people-left-behind part. Their sorrow was like a boulder on my chest.

Darynda Jones can also grab your heart, and squeeze. You feel her characters’ pain.

Sweet On You, Laura Drake, 2014 RITA Winner, Immersion-Grad, 4 examples

1. Doc spoke in his calm-a-spooked-horse voice, his hands running over the cowboy’s neck, checking his skull, his facial bones.
2. Buster was going to get on a ton of pissed-off, stomp-your-guts-out bull, and he smiled.

In the next example, the male POV character is referring to a girl. Love it!

3. “Tiny, blond, and shiny as a showroom-floor sports car. Fully loaded.” He closed his eyes. “It was more than that. She looked at me like I’d made the world just for her. That’s pretty heady stuff for a fresh-off-the-farm boy.”

I had to share the full paragraph in the example below too.

4. But under that, deep in the bottom of her mind where light couldn’t penetrate, was fear. Helpless, paralyzing, curled-in-a-ball-blubbering fear. Every screw-up took her down farther into that hell-hole. She wondered when she’d reach the place where she wouldn’t have the energy to try again.

Wow. Look how Laura Drake kept amplifying and taking the reader deeper and deeper.

Notice the power words and phrases in that last example: deep, bottom, mind, penetrate, fear, helpless, paralyzing, blubbering, fear, screw-up, down farther, hell-hole, wouldn’t have energy

Hear the compelling cadence.

You’ll notice that all the examples in my blogs, and lectures, have compelling cadence. Yep. Cadence is that critical.

You’ll also notice that all the examples in this blog are from Margie-Grads.

I am proud, proud, proud of my uber-talented Margie-Grads!

Wrapping Up:

You may have some common hyphenated-run-ons like door-to-door, hundred-mile-an-hour, or off-the-grid. They work. They’re fine. But I encourage you to write some fresh, make-the-reader-laugh, or carry-a-punch, hyphenated-run-ons too.

DANGER, DANGER!

You can have too much fun with hyphenated-run-ons:

• If you have too many too close together
• If they don’t fit the emotional tone of the scene
• If they don’t fit the POV character’s voice
• If they don’t fit the writer’s voice

Hyphenated-run-ons can be all-purpose slip ins. You can use them to slip in a hit of backstory, setting, attitude, facial expression, dialogue cue, humor, angst…

You can use them to provide a contrast, or a balance.

You can use them to make the mundane more interesting, to make a character more interesting, to make a scene more interesting.

You can use them to share a concept or a visual in fewer words. They pick up pace.

If you haven’t included hyphenated-run-ons in your WIP, dig deep and write fresh.

If you have fun writing a hyphenated-run-on and it fits, your reader will probably have fun reading it too. Make your writing like chocolate mousse on the tip of the tongue. Make your reader want more and more.

BLOG GUESTS: IT’S YOUR TURN!

Want to post a hyphenated-run-on you’ve read, or a hyphenated-run-on you wrote?

Post a comment, and you’ll be in the drawing to win an online course from Lawson Writer’s Academy!

 If you want to see the previous Margie's Rules you can find them here:

• Margie's Rule #4: Add Power to Blah
• Margie's Rule #3: Lock in the Emotional Set
• Margie's Rule #2: Write the Hard Stuff - Facial Expressions
• Margie's Rule #1: Never Take Any Word for Granted

Check out the courses we’re offering in October:

1.   Scene and Sequel: Superpowered Writing Tool, Instructor: Kathleen Baldwin

2.   Taking a Book From Good to Sold, Instructor: NYT Bestseller Shirley Jump

3.  Taming Twitter and Facebook Too! Instructor: Julie Rowe

4.  Create Compelling Characters, Instructor: Rhay Christou, MFA

5.  Creating That Historical Feel, Instructor: Anne Mateer

6.  30 Days to a Stronger Novel, Instructor: Lisa Wells

7.  From Madness to Method: Usingacting techniques to invigorate your story and make each moment Oscar worthy!  Instructor: Tiffany Lawson Inman

The drawing will be Friday, September 19, 8:00 PM Mountain Time.

See you on the blog!

All smiles................Margie

About Margie

Margie Lawson teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners. Margie has presented over ninety full day master classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Margie is excited to share that Romance Writers of Australia is bringing her back to present at their conference next summer!

To learn about Lawson Writer’s Academy, Margie’s 4-day Immersion Master Classes (in Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, San Antonio, Columbus, Jacksonville, Houston, and on Whidbey Island), her full day Master Class presentations, keynote speeches, on-line courses, lecture packets, and newsletter, please visit www.MargieLawson.com.