It's 2008

Welcome to 2008!

We are two months into the new year - how many pages have you written?

What held you back?
.....Can you let that go?

What pushed you forward?
.....Can you get more of that in your life?

What brings you joy?
.....Do more of that, as that is where the muse lives!

The New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

What a great time to set up some writing goals for yourself. Think about where you would like to be in 5 years (as far as your wriitng career)

What would like to have accomplished?
How many books written?
How many courses taken?
How many published books?

Writing goals down is the first step toward making them real. Ask any successful person and they will tell you, once they wrote their goals down on paper, things really started to happen for them. You have to know where you want to go before you can get there.

Now break these 5 year goals down -
what do you need to accomplish in year 4 to get there?
year 3?
year 2?
and most importantly this year?

Take some time to figure this out and write it down... Let us know how it goes.

I have several egroups in the works to help you write quickly. See www.CharactersJourney.com for links (you may need to reload the page)

Best of Luck!

Procrastination

An interesting quote was in my inbox today... Any thoughts?

Quote of the Week


When you have many excuses not to do your work, ask yourself what guarantee you have of another chance to do what needs to be done. Time lost is lost for good. No matter how much you promise to improve, no matter what good intentions you have for making it up, the time is gone for good. Feeling sorry about the situation will not bring it back. You can never buy back that precious piece of time. You may think, "Well, that piece of time has passed, but I still have a long stretch of time left." No, you do not! What guarantee is there that you will have another piece of time like this one? Wake up and stop the excuses; they never made sense before and do not make sense now. Laziness and procrastination have never worked in a sound and helpful way. It is only sound and helpful to get things moving.

--from Dharma Paths by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, translated by Ngodup Burkhar and Chojor Radha, edited by Laura M. Roth, published by Snow Lion Publications

Check in

How often do you 'check in', as a writer, to reasses the way your writing career is going?

Sometimes life pulls us in so many directions, you have to make $$ to eat afterall. Having a set date to 'check in' can help you stay on track. 

Perhaps the first of the month or the beginning of a new Quarter would be a great time for you to 'check in' and reasses the direction you are headed in? For those of you who are really driven it could even be every morning. 

The act of making time to look at where you are headed, as a writer, may be enough to motivate you - especially if you write down what you found. Imagine looking back and seeing month after month of 'Didn't get much done last month but this month....'

At least then you will be living in reality and can face that you need to do something different to be successful next month. 

Summer Blues

Boy oh boy! Seasonal tasks and family obligations can really take over your life, or at least your writing life.

Living in Los Angeles and Florida I never had much trouble staying on track throughout the year, regardless of the seasons, but here in New York the summer season just takes over your life! Everyone seems to stop their regular routine to enjoy the sun and go on vacation. I found myself constantly interrupted with family obligations, new chores and outings.

In the warmer states this was never a problem. You could enjoy the outdoors year round so the summer season was really no big deal. Though I thought the year round sunny weather was keeping me from being a more productive writer.

I always admired writers in NY for the wonderful long winter months when they could hibernate and get a manuscript written, but not so much anymore :-) It all evens out when the spring/summer months come around and you can't get anything done.

It seems every place has its' ups and downs and there really is no 'perfect' writing state.

Anyone else experience this?

Backstory

Most writing teachers will tell you not to include too much backstory in your story, that it will only slow things down and turn the reader off. 

If I didn't agree before I certaintly do now. I liked the film Underworld (love the vampire stories!) and was looking forward to seeing Underworld 2. 

But after a few minutes I could tell this film was nothing but backstory, explanations of 'why' things were the way they were in part 1. 

Very often the first few chapters a writer writes will be nothing but backstory. This is so the writer can get a handle on the story and figure things out. Often this is because the writer didn't create a detailed outline. This is fine of course, just make chapter 3 - chapter 1 and you're fine!

Backstory should filter through the actual story in dialogue, manerism, exposition. It should not make up the entire plot line. 

Just take a look at these two films and you will get a great lesson in backstory. Maybe you loved this film, that's fine. If you want to write backstory like this, then do so. Just know what you are doing and be ready to tell your agent and publiser why it works for your piece.  

Bad Agents?

Boy have things been busy! I have been acting as my own agent with my latest book deal and thought I would pass on some information about it.

Many of you want to know how to get an agent and are anxious to find one, any one, but the truth is in many cases you can be your own best agent. Now I speak mostly from a non-fiction perspective but it still holds true for fiction.

I sold all of my books on my own. I later found an agent to represent me and work out the deal. The second agent I used was horrible and got me less then the previous agent had. I have to pay this agent royalties forever on this book even though this agent didn't do anything at all for me (I sold the book remember). This agent also kept me from sending out proposals becuase this agent would take forever to get back to me and wanted to change everything in my proposals - making them completely different from what I had envisioned.

A good agent will work with you, be somewhat available and be a champion for your work. He will also get you a larger advance (to pay for his fees) and encourage you. Hopefully he will get you writing assignments as well.

A bad agent will definitely hold you back, get you less money then you deserve, not be available and not stand behind you and your work. In this case you are so much better off on your own.

You should do research and send out your work to a small number of publishers at the same time you are looking for an agent. I say small number because you don't want to get rejections from every house your agent may want to send to later on. Send it out to a few publishers and see what feedback you get. Make sure it is your best work.

Mood

Have you ever struggled to get 'into' your story? Not just getting 'into' sitting down and writing, but getting into the mood or subject matter of your story? What if you are working on a Vampire storyline but are in such a great mood you can't get into the angst of your main character?

This has happened to me several times and I have found that music can help a great deal to get me into the right mood for a particular story or scene. Have you ever tried to match a story to a certain type of music? It really can work wonders. Especially if you can find a soundtrack from a movie that is similar to your story. I have such a variety of music in my library it is very difficult to figure out what I personally like to listen to during off hours.

The next time you are struggling to get on with writing your story maybe you just need to use some music to get into the right mood. Experiment with it a bit and see what happens.

Main characters

While I have spent a lot of time figuring out the types of stories I would like to tell and how I would like my readers to react to my work, I haven't considered the type of characters I want to write about. Up until now it has all been about plot and subject.

There is more to figuring out a main character then writing backstory or answering questionnaires, though they are great! First you need to know what types of main characters appeal to you. This way you are not struggling with a main character who just doesn't fit in with who you are and therefore fit in with your story. Secondary characters are free game but main characters are a very personal matter.

This technique should help you figure out what types of main characters you would most like to write about:

Without thinking too much - just write about your childhood role models (real or fictional) why did you like them? Were they anything like you? Did they have to overcome something? Accept something about themselves? Were they powerful? Special? Gifted? Smart? Can you find a male and female example?

Now write about your childhood bullies. People you just couldn't stand. Why didn't you like them? What were they like? Is there an explanation as to why they acted the way they did?

This should help you get a feel for the type of charcters you should be writing about now - at least main characters.

Does it help?

Subtexting

When should a writer worry about subtexting? Is it important?

Subtexting adds layers and depth to a story, well at least to the characters. Subtexting is that hidden psychological meaning behind what is said or done by a character. It's all about history. The more history a character has with another character the deeper the subtext between them will be. Each minor argument or conflict will have years of history and arguments behind it. The trick is figuring out how to get that subtext out and onto the page.

You can do this through action, reaction, a few chosen words, mannerisms, inner monologue, the playing with a prop, and symbolism.

What in the scene can symbolize the subtextual meaning of this scene, for example.
Or what is the character really thinking at that moment?
Or does a certain word evoke a particular memory for one character?
Or does one character seem to over react to what is being said?

Answering 'why' can help you find the subtext. You may even go back and create a history between two characters to make the scene more lively.