Writers in the Storm

By Laura Drake

It seems I’m always confessing in my blogs. I’m not sure I want to know what that says about me, but I know wherever my mother is, she’s proud that she had some influence. But that is, as they say, ‘a different meeting.’

I suck at tracking time in my novels. You know -- how much time passes between scenes, and the time span from the beginning to the end.  A year? A decade?

I just finished a huge revision for my ‘biker-chick’ book, Her Road Home, due out in August. I got busted by my editor. I kind of hoped she wouldn’t notice. She did.  Here are a few actual editorial comments:

• How much time has passed since the last scene?
• What month is it?
• I’m a little unsure of how much later this scene takes place . . .

Good questions. My answer? “Damned if I know. “  I'm a Pantser.  I just wander along, and somehow, one day, I get to the end.

I do know that the  inciting incident, the motorcycle wreck, happened in February, and the closing scene, a Christmas party, happens in early December. I’m always clear about the beginning and end – it’s the middle that gets fuzzy.

The really embarrassing part is that I’m anally organized (no, not that I organize – oh never mind, you know what I mean.) My library is in alphabetical order, as are my albums (yes, I still have them.) I can lay my hands on anything I own in the dark -- if Alpha Dog hasn’t moved it. I have a white marker board full of to-do lists, and my calendar is color-coded, for cripes sake!

But for whatever reason, my mind doesn’t want to track time in my novel.

I needed tools.

The first I found is cool. It’s an Excel Template (yeah, like you’re surprised.) It’s easy to use, and gives a great overall view. You can snag it free, here.

Here’s the one I made up for my PBR book, The Sweet Spot, due out in May:

It worked great as a starting point – a macro view. It allowed me to see my obvious holes, and locate gross ambiguity.

But not everything will fit. My biggest problem was in the scene-to-scene details. So I needed a micro tool. Excel to the rescue (again.) As you may know, I use Excel to track my scenes, chapter page count, word count, and much more. If you missed that post, it’s here.

So I just added a page to that Excel Sheet.

But I found that I needed two micro views:

• One for before the book began, so I could keep the backstory timeline for the two main characters, and reconcile their ages when the book began.
• One for the book itself; scene by scene time management.

Here’s a portion of the one I did for the biker-chick book, Her Road Home:

I sent it in with the revisions, so my editor could visualize the entire book at once.

PROBLEM SOLVED! And the accountant in me loved creating it.

Now I just have to be sure to use it on the novel I just started – it’ll save a lot of time and confusion later!

Do you have a time tracking problem?

I’m always looking for new tools – how do you track time in your novel?

Writers In The Storm is delighted to have Janice Hardy back. We love her and the fabulous writing resources on her blog, The Other Side of the Story.

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Decades ago, a detached, omniscient point of view was all the rage. Readers wanted to be told a story, so the stories read as if someone was indeed telling them. That style faded as readers sought a more immersive read, and tight points of view became popular.

Regardless of who the narrator is, that's the person the reader experiences the novel through. A tight first person narrator, an omniscient third, a limited third, it's all filtered through somebody's eyes. Sometimes this filter is invisible and the reader doesn't feel any distance between her and the point of view (POV) character. Other times the filters are obvious and the reader feels the wall between her and the characters. One style looks through the eyes of the POV, the other looks at the POV.

What adds this layer?

Filter words.

Filter words distance the reader from the POV character. They remind readers they're reading, explain things that are obvious, and often lead a writer into telling. Even worse, filter words are frequently found with their passive, telling cousins, pushing the reader even further away.

If you're after a tighter and more immersive POV experience, you might try looking for and eliminating these filter words.

Redundant Filter Words

The easiest fix is to get rid of words like, saw, heard, felt, knew, watched, and looked. What makes these words feel detached is that they're explaining that a character saw or heard something, and then the narrative goes right ahead and shows it anyway. POV characters by definition are relaying everything they sense, say, and think. If it's described, readers know the character experienced it in some way. It's like saying, I'm going to look at something, and now I'm telling you what I looked at.

Let's look at some examples:

Lisa wandered through the field and saw three crows sitting on the fence. Their black feathers glistened in the morning sunshine. She heard them caw the way crows do, and watched them take flight and soar across the bright, blue sky.

I could hear cars whooshing past. The sound of horns blared against my ears, muffled by the morning fog. It felt cold and clammy, sticking to my skin like a layer of wet cloth. It smelled musty, though I knew fog couldn't possibly be musty.

Notice the extra layer. The character is relaying information in a detached, after the fact, watching-me-do-this tone. There's a feeling of an outside person describing what the character sees and hears rather than experiencing the same things through that character's senses.

Look at these same paragraphs without the filter words:

Lisa wandered through the field. Three crows sat on the fence, their black feathers glistening in the morning sunshine. They cawed the way crows do, then took flight and soared across the bright, blue sky.

Cars whooshed past, their blaring horns muffled by the morning fog. It lay cold and clammy against my skin like wet cloth. Musty, though fog couldn't possibly be musty.

Now the POV character is describing what they experience without telling the reader that they're looking or hearing or smelling. The reader feels closer to the POV, and can imagine themselves in the story instead of watching the story from afar.

Revising to eliminate filter words is an easy way to achieve a tighter POV, and even fix any told prose in the process.

Do you prefer a tight or a distant point of view? Why? What about it captures you as a reader?

BIO:
Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, 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 books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE. DARKFALL, from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel. You can visit her online at www.janicehardy.com, chat with her about writing on her blog, The Other Side of the Story, or find her on Twitter @Janice_Hardy.

Links:

The Shifter                     Blue Fire                        Darkfall

Writers In The Storm is pleased to welcome a new guest blogger. I have the incredible pleasure of being in a local chapter with Kimberly Kincade and cheering her on as she swept the contest scene and then secured a fantabulous contract for her foodie novels. She obviously has a winning recipe so who better to talk about overcoming writer's block? Help me welcome Kimberly to WITS! - Orly Konig-Lopez

As writers, we all know the scenario: You sit down in your trusty chair. It’s quiet, all the chores are done, you’ve got nothing on the agenda but to write. You’re all ready to go, fingers poised over the keyboard, and…nothing. Nada, zip, zero, nothing comes out. Writer’s block can strike swiftly and be oh-so cruel, but don’t worry! While they’re different for every writer, there are ways to jump-start yourself back into the zone. Here are a few things I do when The Block strikes.

Step Away From the Keyboard. Yes, I know this sounds counter-intuitive. You’re supposed to be writing! But that blank screen can give your mind the same idea sometimes, so don’t be afraid to do something else that will engage you. Watch an episode of your favorite show and watch how the characters interact. Go to Starbucks and eavesdrop a bit on people interacting. Or get out and do something solitary that will let your mind wander, like gardening or taking a walk (I have one writer-friend who swears she gets the best ideas ever while in the shower. Mine tend to hit while I’m behind the wheel). Whatever you choose, allow yourself permission to think freely. The sparks will follow.

Read. Read some more. Books by others aren’t just a source of oh-yes in the down-time department. They can be an incredibly valuable resource in getting our creative juices going. You might choose someone who writes very differently than you, just to see what options are out there. Or you might feel better reading someone similar to you, to “remind” yourself of your path. Whatever you pick, reading can be a great bribe for your muse!

Talk it Out. Some of my most inspired ideas have come from conversations that started with the phrase, “I need an idea for a book!” I’m fortunate enough to have five incredible critique partners, all of whom have said this, and heard me say it, at some point or another. Noodling things out with another person can flesh out ideas, and often offers up surprises as well as sparks. Sometimes I have no idea my hero had a dark past or my heroine wanted to open up her own cooking school until I hash out threads of ideas with my CPs. And once I figure it out, I’m off to the races.

Let’s Get Visual, Visual! Like many people out there, I am a very visual creature. I write foodie romance, and so the grocery store is a hotbed of inspiration for me (I’m reminded of the time I wrote half a scene in the middle of Costco because the bunches of bananas sparked a whopper of a story idea. Always keep a pen and notebook in your bag, people!) But your visual inspiration can come from anywhere. Magazine pictures, people in their cars at stop lights, stories on the news, all of these things have the potential to get your brain un-blocked if you really look at them.

Toys. My inner kid loves this one, and chances are, yours will too. Whether they’re designed specifically to shatter your writer’s block or they’re just plain fun to play with, toys can get your creativity out of a lurch. I won a set of Writing Blocks Idea Dice from the lovely Mia Zachary last year, and they are a fabulous writing tool when I’m stuck. They’ve got possible plot elements, conflicts, and character tropes on them, and you essentially roll them to come up with the framework for a story. You can use all of them if you’re just starting out, or just one or two if you’re stuck on a particular element. They’re tons of fun, and I’ve surprised myself more than once playing with them.

So tell me, writer friends! What methods do you employ to banish The Block? What works best for your style? And how do you keep those ideas flowing?

Bio

Kimberly Kincaid writes contemporary romance that splits the difference between sexy and sweet. When she's not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as "The Pleather Bomber", she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to éclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. Kimberly is a 2011 RWA Golden Heart® finalist who lives (and writes!) by the mantra that food is love. She is thrilled to have collaborated on a Christmas anthology with Donna Kauffman and Kate Angel, titled The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap, to kick off her Pine Mountain foodie series with Kensington this October. Her first full-length novel, Turn Up the Heat, will follow in February 2014. Kimberly resides in northern Virginia with her wildly patient husband and their three daughters.

You can find out more about Kimberly on her website - www.kimberlykincaid.com

On Twitter at @kimberlykincaid

And on Facebook.