Writers in the Storm

by Erika Marks

First draft.

Talk about two words that manage to strike both excitement and fear in the hearts of all of us who write, yes?

After having published three books and now deep in the middle of my fourth, I’d like to think I’ve got this whole first draft thing sewed up.

Except, well, I don’t.

But while I’m no pro at this yet, friends, like all of us, I’ve amassed a decent catalog of tried-and-trues that work for me.

Since everyone has her or his own tip sheet, what works/what doesn’t when they sit down to write that often elusive, sometimes terrifying but always consuming first draft, I thought I’d share some of mine with you all today. And I’d sure love to hear some of YOURS in the comments section.

Okay. Here goes…

First off, don’t sweat the small stuff.

I have found that nothing derails my writing flow in a first draft more than stopping to find that perfect word or the perfect piece of accurate historical detail.

It may seem like a simple Google search, but beware. That simple Google search offers a rabbit hole that could easily steer you far from the source of your search, not to mention your manuscript. When I hit a spot like that in a manuscript, I use a placeholder, three x’s, and I forge ahead. I can always come back.

Just get to the The End.

I’m not suggesting you pull a Jack Torrance and fill 500 pages with a single, maniacal sentence just to reach the end of your first draft. But I am giving you permission to get rough and rude with your first draft. Manners are for second and third drafts.

First drafts are uncouth things, messy things, often filled with gaps and wrong words—even wrong scenes!—but you must let them be just that: rough and messy. Because here’s the thing, my dears: No one is looking!! So go for it!

See the Big Picture

For me, first drafts are about the big items. The emotional core of each character’s journey. First drafts are for getting into my character’s heads and understanding what makes them tick. I try not to get wrapped up in where they go to do what, but rather WHY they go where they go and does it propel them (and the reader) further toward that character’s reckoning?

Whatever you do, don’t stray.

Your first draft is a small child; don’t leave it unattended for any reason. When it comes to writing that first draft, distance does not make the heart grow fonder.

The passion you have for your first draft is very much like the beginnings of romantic love. It’s lustful and all-consuming. Don’t squander that unbridled passion for your story by thinking a few days away will clear your plot’s cluttered head. It won’t. If you can manage it, keep near to your first draft, keep in regular contact with it, let it know you can’t keep your hands off it, and that excitement will endure.

Make notes as you go.

Like I mentioned earlier, you want to avoid breaking the stride of your writing flow. But that said, unless you are truly gifted at keeping a zillion plot points in your head at once (and maybe you are—and more power to you! I, however, am not. It’s all I can do to not lose count of how many scoops of grinds I’ve put in the coffee maker!), then I suggest making a quick note of your inspiration.

Some notes I make in a notebook, others I will make directly in the manuscript, always in parenthesis and IN CAPS.

Sometimes they are character notes, sometimes they are plot notes. Plot notes can either refer to something I plan to write in a future scene, or something I will need to go back and insert into a previous scene for continuity or just to enhance a storyline. Again, this keeps me focused in the present scene without having to lose that light bulb moment.

I always have to remind myself that first drafts are sketches, not finished paintings. Make sure the bones are there and you can fill in the highlights and shading and all those lovely details later on.

When Stuck, Take off your Pants and Plot.

It happens without fail with every first draft: I pants and pants along…and then I hit a wall. It generally comes at page 100.

It used to be that I’d flail around stubbornly, determined to continue the flow of story I’d been enjoying (sans outline) from page one to page 99. Now I know better. When the flow stops, I take to the outline. I plot the chapter in full, maybe even the next two chapters.

Invariably, the flow returns and within a few more chapters, the pants are back on. Ahhh.

And lastly, accept that your process is never finished, and never final.

This summer, I’ll be on the road for a trip with my family, a trip that comes when I am nearing my fall deadline for book 4. On the road, I won’t be able to take my computer but since I can’t be away from my manuscript at this crucial time, I am going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to print a hard copy of my pages and read them with a pen, making edits/adds/comments/cuts in the margins.

I know what you’re thinking: Wait—what? This is the first time you’ve done this, woman??

Yes, friends. It is.

And you know what? I can’t wait!

Because something tells me, if I am lucky enough to get to come back and visit you lovelies here at Writers in the Storm after my next novel, I will have a sparkling new tip to add to our list.

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About Erika
A native New Englander, raised in Maine, Erika Marks has worked as an illustrator, an art director, a cake decorator, and a carpenter.

She now lives in North Carolina with her family and still rushes to the ocean every chance she gets. The author of Little Gale Gumbo and The Mermaid Collector, this is her third novel.

[You can order The Guest House on Amazon or B&N.]

Find Erika on Twitter or Facebook, or at her website: http://www.erikamarksauthor.com/

 

 

by Jenny Hansen

One of my favorite speakers on writing is Jennifer Crusie. For some reason, she makes sense to me...as if she has an expressway dug directly into my writing mind. Stephen Cannell (creator of The Rockford Files) was the man who etched 3-Act Structure on my brain, but for turning points it was all Jenny Crusie.

Below is an excerpt of the talk she gave at an RWA conference a few years back, and I'm using it this morning to edit my fiction.

The 5 Turning Points ala Jenny Crusie:

A turning point is a part in the story where an event happens that throws the protagonist into a whole new place.

1^st turning point is where things go from stable to unstable. You can start 5 mins before or after this turning point, but not later. You must introduce a protagonist that the reader wants to stay with for the whole book. (It’s why you often start things off with the protagonist in trouble.)

Your reader is going to connect to your hero or heroine from that first page – you give them the payoff with your turning points.

2^nd Turning point - The original trouble gets worse.

3^rd turning point is where the reader can’t go back.

Some people title each turning point, which I think is a grand idea. In Agnes and the Hitman it was called "Agnes Unleashed" and it was where she gives in to her rage.

4^th turning point is the Dark Moment. This is the crisis where both the heroine and the reader lose everything. This is the crisis the heroine is not sure she can overcome. The actions the heroine decide on here will determine the last turning point.

5^th turning point is the end where there is once more a stable world, it is just a new stable world.

Now, here come my favorite bits of "Jenny" advice about turning points!

1. Do not identify these turning points until the 2^nd draft.

2. If you're thinking in terms of 100K book, the 1^st turning point should be at the 30K word mark. This needs to be a very big event.

Note: Don't confuse "inciting incident" with "turning point."

3. About 20-25K words later, you hit them with another big event. (This second event combats "sagging middles.")

4. Each chunk of the book should grow smaller.

5. Things are getting worse faster if the pacing is quick and you keep the heroine struggling with these events.

6. Pace the novel AFTER the first draft.

7. Every scene should have a protagonist and an antagonist (keeps conflict on every page).

8. People do not change because of thoughts – they change because of actions.

Are those stellar or what??

Most writers shake their heads over Elmore Leonard's famous quote on writing:

I try not to write the parts people skip.

Jennifer Crusie's talk on turning points was the first time I got a glimmer of what the hell Mr. Leonard was talking about.

Have you ever heard a good talk on turning points? Who gave it? What turned the lightbulb on for you? Add your own bit of advice in the comments! If the idea of turning points is new to you in your writing, do you have questions?

Jenny

*** Need more Jenny? Check out her latest post:
5 Vices I Get To Keep (Sweet!) ***

About Jenny Hansen

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after the newly walking Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing.

When she’s not at her blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA and here at Writers In The Storm. She's also the author of the Risky Baby Business posts at More Cowbell, a series that focuses on babies, new parents and high-risk pregnancy.

Or... Turning Whine into Gold
by Kathryn Craft

I’d like to thank the team here at Writers in the Storm for letting me blow in with a series on attitude adjustment.

If you think this has nothing to do with becoming an author, you couldn’t be more wrong! From our first words tentatively pressed to the journal page all the way to our most recently published book, writing is an artistic endeavor fraught with anxiety that, if we let it, can have its ugly way with us.

This series seeks nothing less than alchemy: if we accept that negative feelings are part of the artistic process, we can learn to manage them to our advantage.

First, let’s drum up some optimism, shall we? Because optimism can help you get published.

Doubt it? More than thirty years of research in high-rejection endeavors, from athletic competition to life insurance sales, suggests the statement is true. There is more to optimism, however, than The Little Engine’s “I think I can.”

Optimism is the practice of framing what has already happened in a positive light.

To raise your optimism quotient, try the following ten affirmations. Meditate on them, speak them, and copy them down in your own hand until you are convinced of their truth.

Once you own these concepts, your writing will be less about the absolutes of success and failure, and more about gleaning the benefits of every step on your path. And who knows—you may end up appreciating the long process of getting traditionally published as much as you enjoy the writing.

10 Affirmations To Bolster Your Optimism:

1. Agents, editors, and authors all love to read and all have the same goal: to increase our country's wealth of good writing. Agents and editors need writers to keep them in business. We are comrades.

2. The book industry is super tough right now, but I am doing what I can to improve both my craft and my knowledge of the publishing industry.

3. I believe that being a published author is my destiny and I will start my journey down that road, but factors beyond my control will affect the timing of my arrival. I will get there when I get there.

4. While pride is the first of the seven deadly sins, optimism is a blessing for myself and for all of those around me. I love my work, so I will share my enthusiasm for it with others.

5. Rejection is the badge of honor I must sometimes wear to prove that I am boldly putting my work out into the world. But it is better to learn that I am not quite ready for publication through a private note from a publishing professional than to get slammed by critics and readers in the court of public opinion, where I might realize poor sales and never be published again.

6. No other writer has my exact combination of innate abilities, predispositions, life experience, interests, passions, and humor. These elements create a perspective all my own that will contribute to the wealth of existing literature. My readers unwittingly await my arrival.

7. Every experience is a good experience for a writer. Victory, failure, acceptance, rejection—they are all part of the human experience, and stoke the creative fire within me.

8. If I am an optimistic fool, so be it. The real fool is the person who stops doing what he loves just because it is difficult.

9. Worst case scenario: it never happens for me. My epitaph: "She died pursuing her dream." What stronger, more beautiful statement could be made about my life, published or not?

10. I am committed to learning. Learning can be uncomfortable, but ignorance will not move me forward along my path. If writing is truly my passion, I must not give up. If we writers stop pursuing our dreams, who will write all the books?

Have you ever turned around a difficult situation by writing out affirmations? It’s a powerful tool. Yes, it’s a bit like brainwashing—but think about it. In an industry as tough as publishing, how can this type of brainwashing hurt you? From the inside out, you will become a writer optimistic that she will eventually get published—and sensing this, others will perceive that you are already a success.

Awesome stuff, right? Kathryn will be here with us at WITS every 4th Monday for the next while. Let's give her a rousing welcome down in the comments!

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Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com. Her debut novel, The Art of Falling, will be released through Sourcebooks in January 2014. To read more about her book, check out her author site, KathrynCraft.com. Pre-order links are live at bn.com and Amazon.com!

Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania literary scene, she loves anything that brings writers together—conferences, workshops, retreats, and blogs like Writers in the Storm. She also blogs at The Blood-Red Pencil and at her personal blogs, The Fine Art of Visiting and Healing Through Writing.

Connect with Kathryn on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.