Writers in the Storm

Writers In The Storm welcomes back literary attorney, Susan Spann, with her next installment of her  author’s business plan series.

By Susan Spann

Today we take the discussion of author business plans “on the clock” with section five of the author business plan – the Development Timeline.

This Development Timeline section actually contains a group of schedules – one for each phase of the work the business plan covers. Timelines prove most effective when authors use calendars and establish concrete dates, so even if your initial planning is done in general blocks of time, the finished Development Timelines should incorporate actual calendar dates. Remember: the key to timelines is flexibility: use concrete dates, but don’t be afraid to revise them as you go.

An author’s “Development Timeline” should have (at least) three timelines:

1.  The Writing and Editing Timeline tracks the author’s writing schedule. This timeline starts when the author’s pre-writing research begins – or, for works that don’t involve research, on the first day of outlining (for the plotters among us) or writing (for the pantsers).

Plan, and build in time, for at least two rounds of revisions – and as many more as you customarily need. (My novels go through at least seven drafts before my agent sees them.)

This timeline ends when the manuscript is polished, final and ready for publication.

2.  The Production and Publishing Timeline varies depending on the author’s path to publication. Independent authors should start this timeline when the completed manuscript starts into production. For traditionally published authors, the timeline begins either with querying (for unrepresented authors) or with delivery to the author’s agent or publisher. In all cases, this timeline concludes with the novel’s scheduled release date.

Between day 1 and release, the production and publishing timeline lists the relevant milestones the work will need to meet. These might include things like “editor’s comments integrated,” “copy edits finished,” “digital conversion,” and “cover art approved.”

This timeline is hard to construct until you know which path your work will take and the various milestones the book will pass in the process, but treat it like a work in progress – revise it as you go.

3. The Marketing and Distribution Timeline incorporates all of the dates and milestones the author will undertake in the marketing process. All authors must market themselves and their work – regardless of publishing path. Identify goals and schedule them.

Most authors find this timeline very helpful when it comes to tracking and keeping on top of marketing efforts. And remember: the marketing section of your business plan already contains a lot of the information you need.

Your homework between now and the February business plan post is trying your hand at the writing timeline for your current work-in-progress.Remember to include enough time for edits! And remember – the timelines, like every other part of your business plan, are there to help you and always subject to change!

Do you already use a calendar or timeline for your writing? Have you prepared development timelines to help keep your work on track? Please let me know in the comments – I enjoy hearing your thoughts on the topic too!

About Susan

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, July 2013), is the first in the Shinobi Mystery series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusanSpannAuthor

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