C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

11/04/2012 • 7:34 PM 2

#NaNoWriMo Tip: How to blast out of the gate

Find tons more tips and inspiration here.

As you write your manuscript, grab your readers by the eyeballs right away. Here’s how:

Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire both have bonus offers of free ebooks. Buy two books and you get four!

1. Start late and bait the hook. When writing guides say, “Come in late,” they mean to bring the reader into the action quickly without throat clearing. Stick your media in the res.

2. “Throat clearing” means focussing the back story and distractions more than the action. (Usually weak first draft paragraphs tarry too long over the weather, flora and fauna.)

3. Instead of taking too long to set the scene, let character be revealed through action and dialogue.

4. Look for the unusual and strong verbs in to give your hook strong bait.

5. Preserve mystery to pull readers in. Don’t give it all away at once. For instance, if your protagonist is chasing someone through a dark warehouse in your opening paragraph, don’t tell me she is FBI right away. Focus on the pursuit and the danger around the next corner. Let the details leak through. It’s much more intriguing to have a woman chasing a bad guy when you don’t know right away that she’s on the righteous side of justice, has a ton of training and resources and her back up is on the way.

Free to download Nov 5 to Nov 9, 2012.

Here’s my opening to Bigger Than Jesus (which, ahem, happens to be free to download here from Monday, November 5 to Friday Nov. 9.)

Water drips from the soot-black gargoyle’s tongue like thin saliva, as if the grotesque statue is mocking you and eager for blood. Panama Bob Lima clings to the gargoyle, using it as a shield. You are on a thin ledge on the side of a very high building and for once you wish you wore your Nikes instead of twelve-hundred dollar Tanino Crisci shoes. So far, this job is not going at all as planned.

Rationale: A mood is set in an unusual situation. Weather (the water through the gargoyle) is mentioned because it’s relevant to the danger the protagonist faces and we get a taste of the crazy to come. The second-person, present tense brings the reader into the middle of the action and provides immediacy. The second-person present tense and reference to the ominous gargoyle is purposely disorienting in the first sentence, just as the threat of the long fall is dizzying. It’s an opening that poses questions: What is the job and why the pricey shoes? The protagonist is probably not there to help since Panama Bob uses the gargoyle as a “shield”. The opening tells the reader they can expect a fast pace and the ironic last line is a clue that the story won’t be told straight. Dry humor is ahead.

6. Open every chapter with a baited hook and action. Give readers action that propels and compels and you’re on your way to a better book.

Higher Than Jesus, the follow-up to Bigger Than Jesus, is available here.

~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of five books of suspense and two writing guides that, if you’re reading this far into this blog, you obviously need. They are Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire. Check out all of Chazz’s books here.

NaNoWriMo: My crucial mistake (chazzwrites.com)
My crucial brain hack to win #NaNoWriMo (chazzwrites.com)
#NaNoWriMo: The key tip to write a much better book (chazzwrites.com)
#NanoWriMo Tip: How to finish with a flourish (chazzwrites.com)
Ta-da! Motivation, Inspiration & Information for Writers (chazzwrites.com)

Filed under: publishing, Amazon, Aspire to inspire, Bigger than Jesus, book promotion, Book Writing, books, Come in late, Crack the Indie Author Code, Creative writing, crime novel, ebooks, fiction, free ebooks, free promo days, freebies, hardboiled, higher than jesus, media res, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Robert Chazz Chute, suspense, thriller, Writer Resources, writers, writing, writing advice, writing tips

11/03/2012 • 11:05 PM 8

#NaNoWriMo: The key tip to write a much better book

When we plunge into writing a book, there’s lots of enthusiasm on the front end of the challenge. But how will we fill all those pages, especially in that saggy middle where we really don’t know exactly what’s going to happen? How will we give our story verisimilitude? How will we make readers care about our characters and give the book depth? Where will all the conflict come from? How will we sustain our enthusiasm all the way to the end of NaNoWriMo?

There is a solution that many writers shy away from to their detriment. They want their protagonists to be likeable so they make them Christlike figures. This saps a lot of juice from your book. Here’s why you must make your characters more flawed:

1. With flawed characters, there’s much more to write about. A former writer on Seinfeld said recently that stories that focussed on Jerry were always the hardest to write because he had the fewest flaws. George and Kramer and Elaine had plenty of neuroses and quirks, so that allowed the writers plenty of material with which to play. Give your detective an obsession or a hobby that doesn’t help him. Nero Wolfe had the orchids upstairs. Monk has OCD. Everybody has a blind spot or maybe even a fatal flaw that your plot can turn on.

2. Flawed characters have an interesting past that has a bearing on the present and future. My hit man in Bigger Than Jesus and Higher Then Jesus was abducted and abused as a child. Those scars interfere with his love life now. He wears very expensive suits and can’t stand to have sex without his clothes on because he has emotional scars. He also doesn’t want a lover to see the physical scars across his chest. His psychological quirks go deep, dealing with PTSD, addiction and his relationships with women. He falls in love too quickly always searching for a woman he can idolize and worship. Or is he really looking for mom?One of my favorite chapters in Higher Than Jesus is the one in which my hit man goes to group therapy (and fails miserably at it.)

You don’t want to stop your narrative cold with flashbacks too often, but if you can weave those flashbacks into the story well — and if those flashbacks are compelling enough — you’ve got a tool to give your readers a much richer story.

3. Flawed characters create tension. Your plot should spring from character. For instance, Jesus Diaz is prideful. If there’s a problem, he feels he has to handle it. Other circumstances conspire to make him feel he can’t simply call the police to handle his issues, but his resolve is key to that plot point. Higher Than Jesus would be at least a third shorter if Jesus solved problems the same way normal people solve problems.

4. Flawed characters have more conflict with their world. Jesus has a hard time relating to anyone else as a “boss”, for instance. He’s not a guy who is meant for the 9 – 5 world, especially with his limited skill sets in finding people, his inability to work in law enforcement because of his shady history and the creative uses he finds for super glue. Tension and heat increase from friction so be mean to your protagonist and make at least some of his problems his own damn fault.

Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire both have bonus offers of free ebooks. Buy two books and you get four!

5. Readers relate to flawed characters. A novice writer asked me to read a chapter from her paranormal romance. The hero was very heroic — blandly so — and had an impossibly heroic name. The heroine was everything you’d expect from a heroine and more. They’d never done anything wrong and never would. They were always right, always predictable and always relatively safe because they were amazingly capable. Meanwhile, most readers think they should get to the gym today and most of us won’t make it. When you write your hero as if he’s Superman, he’s boring and you have a book the length of a comic book with just as much believability. Go Batman. In the ’60s comics, he was written as The World’s Greatest Detective, kind of Sherlock Holmes in a cowl with a cool car. The character’s real surge came when writer Frank Miller tuned into the underlying subtext of Batman’s vibe: He’s a billionaire with Daddy issues who trains himself to become a psychotic badass vigilante who won’t kill, but he’s no boy scout, either. That’s much more interesting than relentless virtue.

My hit man is obsessed with movies (just like me). Movies are our society’s touchstone, so Jesus has seen the same movies you’ve seen and sees the world through that Hollywood prism. He not only wants the Happily Ever After ending; he thinks he deserves it. Through movies, I make readers share a common interest and knowledge base with a hit man.

Consider Elmore Leonard’s characters: They’re often a bunch of criminals doing crazy things you’d never do, but some of their traits remind you of your crazy, racist Uncle Larry or that nutty girl you shared a room with in second semester before she dropped out to go to Art School. Flawed characters are people we know and believe because we’re surrounded by people who are flawed.

Resist the urge to make your characters better than human. In fact, we’ll like and believe them more if they aren’t perfect.

For more tips, inspiration and motivation for National Novel Writing Month, check out Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire, on sale now.

~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of Crack the Indie Author Code, Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire, Self-help for Stoners, The Dangerous Kind & Other Stories, Bigger Than Jesus, Higher Than Jesus and Sex, Death & Mind Control (for fun and profit).

BONUS:

A fresh podcast is up at AllThatChazz.com which explains how you can get free ebooks.

Filed under: publishing, All That Chazz, Aspire to inspire, Batman, Bigger than Jesus, book, Character, Crack the Indie Author Code, Creative writing, crime novel, ebook, Elmore Leonard, flawed characters, Frank Miller, higher than jesus, how-to, Jesus Diaz, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo tips, National Novel Writing Month, Nero Wolfe, plot, Podcast, Seinfeld, Sherlock Holmes, story, storytelling, Write Your Book, writers, writing, writing advice

11/02/2012 • 7:47 PM 3

#NanoWriMo Tip: How to finish with a flourish

Jodi McMaster asked a great question: Got any tips on how to approach endings? As a matter of fact, I do! I talk about story arcs and related whatnot in the writing guides, but here’s my take:

Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire both have bonus offers of free ebooks. Buy two books and you get four!

1. Some people think you have to have happy endings. I prefer satisfying endings. A satisfying ending isn’t necessarily a happy one, but it should be generally perceived as an inevitable ending in retrospect. Surprising, yet logical and inevitable when you look back on it. That’s the ticket to reader happiness. It’s a tough order to fill, but it works every time when you do it right.

2. I love surprise endings. Twist endings are shunned in some literary circles, but the readers in those circles are squares. I once read a literary critic sneer at surprise endings as “too, too O. Henry.” Oh, please. “Too” O. Henry? As in the guy who wrote some of the most memorable, popular and enjoyed fiction of his time and beyond? It’s not a cheap ending if it’s logical and entertaining. Do that and nobody minds a surprise ending.

3. No cheap tricks, such as “And then the little girl fell out of bed and realized it was all a dream.” A really bad movie called Wisdom with Emilio Estevez did something like that. It was not wise and that’s why you’ve never heard of that movie, unless some unfortunate movie goer was speaking about lousy films on which to spit.

4. Readers should not be puzzled with your ending. If you’ve read a bunch of winning short story contest entries at some pretentious lit mag, you’ve read this sort of ending. It’s the nebulous ending favored by some very expensive MFA programs. It’s the sort of ending that’s so vague, it’s unsatisfying or downright opaque. You read it and reread and wonder if there’s any meaning behind that poetic last paragraph? Then you wonder if you just had a stroke and that’s why you can’t figure out what the heck the author is trying to say. Annoying. You can have intriguing endings. You can’t have loose ends that read like a quantum physics equation.

For Higher Than Jesus, my first ending was clear-ish. One of my beta team told me to make it more explicit and less poetic because that’s the last impression the reader gets before they go write a review. He was right so I rewrote the last paragraph for more of a punch between the eyes.

5. It should be an ending but you can hint that there’s more to come. I love leaving the door open a little. When readers invest themselves in a character, it kind of hurts to say goodbye to them. Characters should be so rich that the reader feels that the heroine’s and hero’s story will continue beyond the life recorded in the book. Hope for more from your characters in the future is uplifting. It can also uplift your sales when you turn one book into a series.

6. If you’ve got a too-easy ending, think about it longer. At the end of Casablanca — a movie I love — there aren’t any Nazis at the plane checking travel documents, the point the structure of the movie turned on. They could have wrung a little more tension out of that final plot point if there was some question of an external factor keeping Ilsa and Victor from getting on the plane, too.

7. Don’t stay too long saying goodbye. This is the dreaded viscous ending. Think of the last Lord of the Rings movie. It didn’t have one ending. It had five endings that dragged on and on. This was meant to appease lovers of the book. It made my butt numb in the movie theatre. Instead, hit your last power peak in the story and opt for the short dénouement. (Note that the end of the trilogy had a little of Casablanca’s plot niggle, too: Why all the walking when you can ride a giant eagle and zip back to the Shire in no time?)

8. Be very careful about killing off your protagonist. It’s a lot to ask of a reader to go through a whole book cheering for a character and killing them off at the end anyway. (See Point #1 again.) Remember how everybody hated Alien 3? There was lots to hate, but consider (spoiler alert) that after rooting for the little girl to live all through Alien 2, she dies in her cryotube at the beginning of Alien 3. It wasn’t a great start and it did not get better. Why? Because the audience was cheated of their earlier victory. It’s not that you can’t kill off a protagonist, but be smart about it and give the reader a payoff to make the sacrifice worth it. If you’re going to kill off Bruce Willis on an asteroid in Armageddon, for instance, it better serve the cause of saving the planet from said asteroid. (This was back when Bruce Willis was more popular. We’re okay with killing him off earlier in the show now.)

9. More specifically to Jodi’s question: Great endings and great books spring from character. What does the protagonist want? Are they worthy of that goal? As we make the reader care and amp up the tension along the way, the story is all about the obstacles in the protagonist’s way. When we’re through the obstacles, failures and reversals of fortune, have they won the day? Does the hero or heroine mourn the sacrifice it took to get them to end of the story but at least reach a higher level (e.g. wiser, stronger, redemption, making the family unit whole, saving the world, saving themselves, vanquishing their enemies, winning love etc.,…)? The protagonist doesn’t have to meet all their goals to provide a satisfying ending, but for the reader to be satisfied, they should feel that the trip was worth the time and the stakes were high enough.

Another example from movies (and a spoiler alert ahead): Michael Keaton is awesome in the film Clean and Sober. However, as good as Keaton is in the drama, the ending is unsatisfying. It ends with Keaton declaring his first days of sobriety, but it doesn’t feel like he’s really earned the achievement. He goes through a lot, yes, but it seems like he gets sober through an unlikely inability to get his hands on any drugs rather than an act of will and discipline. Sobriety is something that happens to him, not something he went out and did or didn’t do. Heroes own the locus of control. That’s why everyone’s a sucker for a training montage in any sports movie.

10. The clue to a great ending is often hinted at in the beginning of the book. Your opening is a statement of the core problems the protagonist faces. Your ending is the solution to whatever that problem is. At the opening of Higher Than Jesus, I’ve got my hit man, Jesus Diaz, about to kill a guy in a sleazy after-hours joint in Chicago on Christmas Day. Jesus needs money and he has to get rid of the bad guy. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say that at the end of Higher Than Jesus, he’s clearer about his own character and why he does what he does. The payoff is wisdom and growth and…much more I can’t tell you.

My first clues to great endings were in reading Esquire magazine. Any great magazine article saves a little punch at the end. (Newspapers use the inverse pyramid model, so all the good stuff it’s up top and they edit coarsely by cutting from the bottom.) Magazine pieces always end on a strong note. It can be ironic or funny or powerful or triumphant or geared to make you cry. Read a bunch of those articles and then compare that feeling to the feeling you get at the end of your book. If you have a similar tickle in your brain and pull at your heart, you’ve got a memorable ending with punch.

~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of two writing guides: Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire. They aren’t your Grampy’s and Grammy’s guides to writing and publishing. Lots more inspiration, zero scolding and tons of ideas and motivation for writing your books to completion. (“To completion” is not an orgasm joke. That’s a terrible euphemism. Don’t use that!)

My crucial brain hack to win #NaNoWriMo (chazzwrites.com)

Filed under: publishing, Arts, Aspire to inspire, Crack the Indie Author Code, fiction, indie author, Literature, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo tip, NaNoWriMo tips, National Novel Writing Month, O. Henry, Robert Chazz Chute, story arcs, Write Your Book, writers, writing advice, writing tips

11/01/2012 • 10:32 PM 3

My crucial brain hack to win #NaNoWriMo

There’s a trick I use for problem-solving, plot twists, brainstorming and inspiration that really works. (I blogged about it long ago, but it’s so powerful, it bears repeating and you probably haven’t seen it.) This writing tip will be especially useful to you if you’re a pantser, but plotters can use it, too.

I wrote Bigger Than Jesus and Higher Than Jesus (each over 60-some thousand words in about a month for the first drafts) using the hypnogogic state. I wrote these thrillers chapter by chapter, covering at least a couple of thousand words a day. Most nights I went to bed not knowing what adventures and twists my hit man, Jesus Diaz, would face in the morning.

If you’ve read the books, you know it’s always something surprising. Things go well and things go awry (mostly awry) in clever, unexpected ways. Getting into the hypnogogic state is not hypnosis per se, but this technique does access a state of mind that’s particularly useful for writers, especially during National Novel Writing Month where you need a lot of cool ideas in a short time.

To access the hypnogogic state for greater creativity:

STEP 1: Just before I go to sleep, I plant the seed. What question do I want answered in the morning? (e.g. What will happen to my Cuban hit man in the next chapter? How will he get off that cliff he’s hanging from?)

STEP 2: Go to sleep. No light in the bedroom, no TV. Beds are for sex and sleeping and that’s all. Turn your clock face away so the big glowing red numbers don’t taunt you. Avoid stimulants, alcohol and exercise late in the day. The magnesium in mineral water can help you relax, but don’t drink so much you’re up peeing all night. Do whatever you normally do to achieve a good night’s sleep.

STEP 3: Wake up slow. It’s far preferable if you do not wake to an alarm clock. The time between sleeping and waking is a precious time and you want to prolong it. (That’s what all that great stuff in Step 2 is about, so you don’t need to wake to alarm bells.)

In that time between sleeping, dreaming and waking? That is where you will access your creative genius and, as you slowly swim up to consciousness, ask yourself: What’s the answer? The answer will come to you in that special, relaxed state.

Sounds too simple doesn’t it? It works for me every night and every morning.

~For more writing tips, inspiration and motivation for your journey from keyboard to publishing, pick up Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire by Robert Chazz Chute. Chazz — a former newspaper journalist, magazine columnist and insider in traditional publishing — now has seven books for sale.

NaNoWriMo: My crucial mistake (chazzwrites.com)

Filed under: publishing, Book Writing, books, brain hack, brainstorming, creativity, ebooks, hypnogogic state, indie author, inspiration, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, publishing, Robert Chazz Chute, self-publishing, writer, Writer Resources, writing, writing advice, writing tips

11/01/2012 • 10:56 AM 20

NaNoWriMo: My crucial mistake

The first time I tried National Novel Writing Month, I did a lot right but I did one crucial thing wrong.

What went right:

1. I created a loose outline before NaNoWriMo started so I wouldn’t write myself into too many corners and dead ends.

2. I planned my calendar and even reserved babysitters to make sure I had enough time to write.

3. I wrote more than the bare minimum each day (1,666 words) so I got ahead of my word count goal early. You don’t want to derail your NaNoWriMo challenge just because you had the flu for a few days or other work demands pulled you away unexpectedly.

The crucial mistake:

It’s okay to paste in the broad strokes to fill in later (e.g. “insert awesome sex scene here” or “this is the chapter where little Bobby discovers he can crush badger skulls with the power of his mind.”)

However, as I reached 50,000 words, I stopped short. I didn’t write the last scene before typing “The End”. Later, when I returned to my manuscript to revise and edit, the magic momentum was gone. The missing end sucked my enthusiasm for the project. NaNoWriMo is a sprint and it feels great to cross that finish line. Fifty-thousand words isn’t the only finish line. Build the skeleton of the entire book and you’ll have something more solid to work with when you’re done.

For more on National Novel Writing Month and brainstorming tips, tricks and inspiration to carry you to the end, get my new book, Crack the Indie Author Code.

Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire both have bonus offers of free ebooks. Buy two books and you get four!

Filed under: publishing, bonus offers, Book Writing, books, ebooks, fiction, free ebook offer, free ebooks, indie author, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Robert Chazz Chute, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, Write Your Book, writers, Writers Resources, writing, writing advice, writing guides

10/31/2012 • 5:23 PM 9

Ta-da! Motivation, Inspiration & Information for Writers

Whether you’re about to throw yourself into the teeth of National Novel Writing Month or every month feels like a NaNoWriMo frenzy, I have two new books (in pixels and paper) to keep your writing and publishing flow: Crack the Indie Author Code and Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire. Boiled down from over 1,000 posts on this blog, I’ve edited again, added bonus writing and publishing tips plus new content that’s never been seen on ChazzWrites.

Need more? How about free ebooks? When you sign up for my newsletter at AllThatChazz.com, you automatically get a shout out on the All That Chazz podcast and a plug for your website. However, there’s a new and different cross-promotion you can’t get anywhere else. Sign up for the newsletter, answer a qualifying question in the back of the books, and you get a coupon to receive a free ebook of suspense. Complete the easy giveaway instructions and you get the podcast plug, and/or Sex, Death & Mind Control and/or Self-help for Stoners! If writing and publishing books aren’t for you, there’s a similar offer in the back of Higher Than Jesus, the next instalment of The Hit man Series. (#1 was Bigger than Jesus.)

Jump in for the hardboiled fun. Higher Than Jesus promises a little less swearing, snappy dialogue and jokes, more sex, more twists and more clever violence. My Cuban hit man is embroiled in a conspiracy around an arms deal in Chicago that has dire ramifications for the entire United States. It’s a classic tale of Bad versus Evil.

LATEST PODCAST: The Halloween edition of the All That Chazz Podcast is up with a reading of “The Way Out is Through”, a chapter of Bigger Than Jesus. Hear the podcast at the AllThatChazz author site.

~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of Bigger Than Jesus, Higher Than Jesus, The Dangerous Kind & Other Stories, Self-help for Stoners, Crack the Indie Author Code, Write Your Book: Aspire to Inspire, and Sex, Death & Mind Control (for fun and profit).

The Way Out is Through (and a bonus!) (allthatchazz.com)

Filed under: publishing, allthatchazz.com, Aspire to inspire, Bigger than Jesus, book promotion, books, Crack the Indie Author Code, E-book, free ebooks, freebies, hardboiled, higher than jesus, mystery, National Novel Writing Month, Podcast, publishing, self-help for stoners, suspense, thriller, Write Your Book

11/08/2010 • 10:35 AM 5

#NaNoWriMo: Five Advantages of Fast Writing

Traditional wisdom is that it takes a lot of time and energy to write a book. That’s generally true. However, that counts the entire process. It takes a long time to revise, edit and hone a book until you feel you’re ready to let it go. That doesn’t mean you can’t write a first draft quickly. Some purists will protest that haste will decrease the quality of a writer’s work in favour of quantity. Sure. I have a different take on that objection. Assume your first draft is going to suck anyway. Since you’re best writing is rewriting, it’s best to have something to revise. For many writers, if they didn’t write the first draft in haste, they might not have anything to revise at all. You can’t edit a blank page.

So here’s my contrarian view on why fast writing can be a very good thing:

1. You maintain your enthusiasm for the project because you get the first draft done quickly. Marathon writing takes endurance. A sprint can be advantageous, especially if you haven’t completed a manuscript in the past and you’re developing those muscles.

2. When you write in haste, you can see the whole project’s development at once. You’re less likely to drop threads when you get the first draft done in a short time. If you’ve read Under the Dome by Stephen King—a huge and heavy book of great length which, in general, I enjoyed—maybe you noticed that he seemed to have a supernatural element on the protagonist’s side that is never explained and soon forgotten. It took him three years or so to write it. That might be why something’s amiss.

3. Increased productivity primes your art pump. If you produce a lot, you tend to produce more the rest of the time, too. It’s the literary equivalent of, if you want the job done, give it to a busy person. Artists need to get into the habit of production and treat their work as a business and a craft (instead of something that can only produced when the planets align and you have a handy vial of unicorn blood to consecrate your art-making ceremony.)

4. Increased production equals more money in the long run. That’s not mercenary. That’s math. If you can produce four books (and sell them) in the time it takes someone else to write one, you’re ahead (unless the other guy is William Styron, but he’d be ahead in any case…and he’s dead.)

5. You may not sell everything you write. In fact, if you’ve got an agent, an editor and a publisher between you and the market, there’s an excellent chance someone will stand up at some point and say, this isn’t ready for your customers. (They may or may not be right about that. When Robert Munsch‘s publisher told him the world wasn’t ready for Love You Forever, he took that controversial children’s book elsewhere. And had a hit.)

My point is, if you spend ten years writing a book and it does not sell, you will be sad. If you have other books to sell, the one disappointment won’t sting so much. You know how every second Star Trek movie was great and the others suck? It evens out when you have more out there.

If I sound like I’m blaming, shaming and pointing fingers, I apologize. I have been guilty of acting like a dilettante about my fiction. I’ve had to gather unicorn blood before I could summon the muse. That’s changed recently as I’ve reevaluated. I’m motivated now to go into heavy production and get to work on the revisions for my books and, as Seth Godin puts it, “Ship!” (Also, see the post below on Lessons Received from An Evening with Kevin Smith for the whys and wherefores. )

My book production won’t happen overnight. But it will happen faster than it was happening. Boo-ya!

Seek Library Write-In Support: NaNoWriMo Tip #6 (mediabistro.com)
Simplifying NaNoWriMo (and Other Writing) (simpleproductivityblog.com)
“Sunday Salon: Writers, readers, and NaNoWriMo” and related posts (3rsblog.com)
Use a Name Generator: NaNoWriMo Tip #5 (mediabistro.com)
NaNoWriMo Tip #7: Consult Role Playing Game Plots (mediabistro.com)
Better yet, DON’T write that novel (salon.com)
Bio Break salutes NaNoWriMo writers! (biobreak.wordpress.com)

Filed under: NanNoWriMo, writing tips, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, seth godin, Stephen King, William Styron, write fast, writers, writing fast

11/02/2010 • 9:13 AM 0

#NaNoWriMo: The Back-up Plan (& The Hypnogogic Writing Tip)

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I really struggled with my plot for NaNoWriMo. I laid down beats for one-and one-half books before I scrapped it all. It wasn’t that the ideas were bad exactly. The ideas were not ambitious enough. The stories were strong up front but I couldn’t see my enthusiasm carrying me through to the end.

When I say “scrapping it all,” it sounds rather careless and casual. It wasn’t. With only a few days before the start, I didn’t have a story I wanted to tell. That was surprising (to me, least) because the bigger the story, the more I want an outline. Compounding my worry (and shame) was that I had already advised others that they needed an outline to increase their chance of NaNoWriMo success. I have written a couple of half-books before. Poor abandoned halflings they were. They’d been born strong and healthy but they went bad, failed to thrive and died on the table in my surgery. Agony crushes your heart. Reaching for something that isn’t there caves your skull. Non-writers would call it self-doubt (but nevermind non-writers. I don’t understand them any better than I grok non-readers. Bunch’a freaks.)

Halloween night as little goblins and comically-short Vader imposters came to the door for cavity and diabetes inducers, I looked over my outlines. How would I make them work? Could I rig the stories so I’d have the energy to ride all the way home? No, I decided. Problems can be fixed, but a lack of enthusiasm for one whole plot and the utter lack of the second half of a book? I might wake up with a solution to those conundrums some day, but I was sure I couldn’t force a solution over a 30-day writing stretch. Not without breaking something.

Then I decided, screw it. <insert sigh of self-loathing here> I’ll wing it.

Or…waitadamnminute…what did I say about waking up with a solution? Of course!

I let the hypnogogic state come to my rescue. The hypnogogic state is that special twilight of consciousness between sleep and waking that is rich territory for buried treasures and epiphanies. I’ve used it to resolve many issues. As I fall asleep I ask the question. As I wake, the answer comes. I’ve plotted solutions, found resolution and clarity and come up with intuitive and counter-intuitive ideas for many questions in my life and work. It didn’t fail me this time, either.

Yesterday morning I woke thinking about a short story I’d written recently. It’s an alternative future as many of my stories are. It occurred to me that I had left the end of that sad story on a somewhat comic and hopeful note for change.

The epiphany was, “That hopeful ending worked as a short story. If you trash the hero’s hopes for that resolution, it’s the end of an early chapter.” A-HA!

Few plot developments fail if the author is determined to torture the protagonist. I had created a rich world in that short story. Now that early preparation could be useful for the NaNoWriMo project. I’d use that world and link it up with the half-story I had plotted. The two stories are unrelated, but they could share that world of secret police, relentless surveillance and a theocracy run amok.

I woke up smiling with a good beginning and a hero who was now a Cheech and Chong/Fugitive meets Mr. Spock in search of a Terminator (played by Summer Glau, not the governator.) The first story was about the discovery and governmental repression of a miracle drug. The second was about robots reaching such complexity they are indistinguishable from humans. Now those stories will be in the same timeline.

I’ve found my enthusiasm for the story. It will carry me to the end now.

First Day of NaNoWriMo (blogging2learn.wordpress.com)
Tis The Season For NaNoWriMo (chicagoist.com)
NaNoWriMo and other Stuff (distractible.org)
Bio Break salutes NaNoWriMo writers! (biobreak.wordpress.com)
“Writing the mad dash – National Novel Writing Month” and related posts (scholarsandrogues.com)

Filed under: NanNoWriMo, publishing, writing tips, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Plot (narrative), writing tips

11/01/2010 • 9:07 AM 0

The Rewards of Writing: Why do you write?

Image by Tojosan via Flickr

Most of us don’t write for much money. Fame, if it comes, is fleeting. Writing is a need that can’t be fully explained. I got my first byline pretty young and before that I had letters to the editor published. It was a thrill then, narcissistic and validating. It’s not such a big deal now, although I admit I did experience a little extra pride when I had two articles in two separate magazines side-by-side on the shelf at Chapters. But why do we do it, really?

NaNoWriMo has begun! Are you off to the races? All stocked up on coffee? Good. Pace yourself. It’s a long month. Forgive yourself your lapses and keep pushing forward. You can always figure out the plot holes later.

Today I received a nice fan letter for my column. She started out with a couple of nice compliments (always a good start) and followed that with a thoughtful letter on the subject of the piece. She, too, was compelled to write on the my topic. She couldn’t expect any reward for her efforts in putting together a long letter except the passion to be heard and to expound. It felt great to stimulate such deep discussion. However, I don’t write in the hope I’ll receive the odd fan letter. Sometimes I wonder why I write at all. I managed to give it up for a few years there, but no matter what I did, I felt like I was doing something other than what I should do.

I do remember I got the bug early. When my older sister left for college she left behind an old manual Underwood. I must have been seven. Working the keys got my attention. I can’t say why. Like I said, the urge to write cannot be explained fully. I like telling stories. I began by telling them to myself.

As we begin the month-long challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel, there are lots of bits and pieces of encouragement I could prattle on about. But the most important is to feel the fun of it. Lose yourself in your story. National Novel Writing Month is a gift to make our usually solitary journey feel a little less lonely as we travel along our separate paths.

Good luck NaNoWriMo people. And when you have a moment, please do leave a comment. I’d love to know if you have any clearer idea than I why you write. For me, the answer is obscure. I was born this way. I did not choose it.

NaNoWriMo – I salute you (tdhurst.com)
NaNoWriMo (aseeofgreen.wordpress.com)
“Lifehacker Takes On The NaNoWriMo Challenge” and related posts (lifehacker.com.au)
NaNoWriMo: an excuse to write (bhplnjbookgroup.blogspot.com)
Write a Novel in a Month (howto.wired.com)
“NaNoWriMo Writing Tools for the iPad” and related posts (gigaom.com)

Filed under: NanNoWriMo, Writers, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, why write?, Writers Resources, writing

10/29/2010 • 12:14 PM 2

10 Tips for NaNoWriMo

: Image by owlbookdreams via Flickr

NaNoWriMo begins November 1. A few suggestions:

1. If you can do more than 1700+ words per day, try to do so. It takes the panic out of the equation when you miss a day. And you will miss a day. You aren’t a machine. You may miss several. Do more when you are able so there’s a cushion.

2. Stay calm. You’re not actually writing with a gun to your head. Remember this is supposed to be fun.

3. It’s probably best to have an outline. Yes, you can explore instead, but when you’re against the clock, it’s good to plan out what the major scenes are going to be ahead of time. If you find yourself pulled in another direction, there’s still no gun to your head. You can veer off as necessary and discover an entirely different ending than you had pictured. It happens all the time.

4. Remember, this is just a first draft. Don’t worry about heavy research. That’s for later. You can always fill in gaps and correct niggling details in your next draft.

5. Remember, this is just a first draft. Every year agents and editors get some submissions which are obviously the raw feed. Novels are not ready for submission just because a writer takes the time to hit spell check once.

6. Write with a buddy. Write against a buddy. Make a bet. Get some stakes in this game.

7. Know why you’re writing. Maybe this is the one way you will get a first draft done…or a good start on a first draft.

8. Try to get to the end of you story. Even if you have to stick in pages that summarize scenes, this tip will help you complete your draft later. (e.g. X happens here, write that. Y happens here, write this.) That strategy will help you harness the momentum NaNoWriMo gives and protect you from frustration and disappointment.

9. Know why you’re doing NaNoWriMo. Some writers have acted like poo heads (not Winnie the) about National Novel Writing Month. They dislike it because they figure it’s for people who aren’t very serious about their writing. Well, d’uh! They’re right! A lot of participants aren’t very serious about it. Some people participate just so they can scratch “Write a novel” off their bucket list. If you’ve read No Plot? No Problem! you know that the spirit of this thing is fun.

10. For others, it’s deadly serious and provides the motivation they feel they need to get started. What’s wrong with that? They know it’s their first draft. Maybe they haven’t written anything and been paid for it. Yet. So what? Every professional writer started out from that same place. The hotheads must be awfully threatened and snobby. Or worse, they receive awful first draft manuscripts from naïve people who don’t know the word revision.