Pirates, Pantsers, and Plotters

And don't be forgettin' today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. 

Argh.

Ye can learn more 'bout it here.

'N if ye need help translatin' into scurvy pirate, here be a few resources:

Here, here and here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From PowerPoint

I've tried. I really, really have tried.

I sit down at my computer. There story's there in my mind, and I'm going to do an outline. Just a simple outline. Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. I can do that. Right? It's simple.

I stare at the monitor, my fingers poised.

Nothing.

I stand and stretch, get a drink, and come back.

I can do this. I'm organized and orderly in every other aspect of my life. For heaven's sake, my DVDs and spices are in alphabetical order!

The monitor stares back at me. The keyboard mocks me. Nothing comes. I've been at this for an hour, an hour of precious writing time and I have nothing to show for it.

Like a junky needing a fix, I have to do something, get it on paper. The story's there. It wants out. I've been dreaming scenes for days. Too many days. If I don't get it down, I'm going to lose it. I'm old that way.

From PowerPoint

Fine. What is I just write a little bit of the story? The beginning. Just a little and see if I can force an outline of some kind out there.

And I write. And write. And write.

It's thousands of words later, and I'm jazzed. The story's coming. I'm getting those scenes I've been dreaming about down finally.

Other things are happening that hadn't occurred to me before, taking me down different paths than what I've been dreaming about.

And I like the way it's going!

For me, once I'm actually in the writing, my creative juices just flow like crazy. It's like they feed off the starting ideas and blossom out like yeast fed some sugar (all right, I haven't have breakfast yet).

So, that's my problem. I keep hearing from authors who outline who talk about how much easier writing is if people will just plot things out first. I'm happy for them. I'm astounded I'm not one of them.

I don't just jump into a project blind. I have a psychological profile I do up for my main characters which helps me establish backstory and motivations. At lot of that stuff, however, grows as I write. Characters become important I hadn't even considered creating when I imagined the tale.

I use Dan Wells' 7 point story structure format. It's simple enough that I can get some basic stuff down that I know I want to happen without pinning me down too much.

I tried to outline once using 3x5 post-it notes. Got 35,000 words into the story and went in a completely different direction with the tale and negated all the rest of my cards. Stopped the story cold and it was months before I picked it up again.

For me, the writing happens in the edits. The sooner  I get it down on paper, the sooner I can do the real writing.

What about you? Are you a plotter or a panster? What's appealing to you about your chosen style?

Book Review of "Searching for Arthur" by Donna Hosie

Searching for Arthur by Donna Hosie

Book Description:
Legend tells of King Arthur, mortally wounded at the hand of the traitorous Mordred in the final battle of Camlann. Before he was taken to the magical Vale of Avalon, Arthur declared that one day he would return, when the kingdom of Logres was once more in need of his leadership.

That day has now come.

It is hard to make friends when you’re constantly on the move. Seventeen-year-old Natasha Roth’s father is a diplomat, and so her mother – who is paranoid about terrorists – has moved Natasha and her brother, Arthur, to their eighteenth house in seventeen years: Avalon Cottage, deep in the heart of a Welsh forest.

Yet the terrorists are closer than they realize.

While out running, Natasha falls into a hidden tomb and awakens the legendary knights of Camelot: young warriors who have been in an enchanted sleep for a thousand years. All have been waiting patiently for the return of Arthur from the mysterious land of Avalon.

And now the knights are awake, they intend to reclaim their king.

When Arthur goes missing, Natasha joins forces with his girlfriend, “Slurpy” Samantha, in order to look for him. Natasha believes Samantha has fewer brain cells than an amoeba; Samantha believes Natasha is a freak. Retracing Natasha’s original steps to the hidden tomb, they bicker their way into a Welsh mountain and beyond, to the realm of Logres where the Knights of the Round Table are rallying once more.

Natasha falls in love with Sir Bedivere, the most loyal of knights to Arthur. He may be in dire need of a 21st Century razor, but he still possesses a set of lime-green eyes that can melt the soul. Yet just as Natasha starts to find confidence in this mystical land, Samantha deserts her. People who play by the rules are of no use to “Slurpy”. Samantha will take her own path to Arthur, aided and abetted by the dark arts which she willingly absorbs from a hot young stranger called Mordred.

A race across magical yet deadly lands is on. Natasha battles dwarf-riders, dragons, and eventually “Slurpy” to reach Camelot, where Arthur is held captive by the barbarian Saxon, Balvidore.

Natasha’s woes become numerous. What will happen to her and Arthur when the knights realise the eighteen-year-old boy they thought was their king, is in fact a math student with appalling taste in girls? Can two people with a one thousand year age gap really have a relationship? And for the love of all things holy, how is a girl supposed to ride bareback in a pair of skinny jeans?

My thoughts:
What can I say? I'm not a huge follower of Arthurian legends or tales, but I've read one or two. I'm probably as familiar with some of the names as most people. My greatest resource of knowledge comes from the Richard Harris film "Camelot".

I loved this book. It was easy to relate with Natasha, a normal girl who'd gone through (and carried the scars from) some tough things. Hosie does a good job giving us just enough of the back story relating to this family trauma. My heart ached for Natasha, alienated from most members of her dysfunctional family. We're not told how stable the family was before the problems began, but that kind of thing can either strengthen a family or tear it apart.

Poor Natasha has one champion--her brother, Arthur. And he brings his own baggage with a witch of a girlfriend who's favorite thing to call Natasha is "freak". Lovely.

And that's even before the fantastical things start happening.

There's plenty of action, romance, betrayal, magic, and mystery. Hosie totally wrenched my emotions, especially as we got to the end. There is a scene where a character does "the wild thing" for the first time. I appreciated that Hosie didn't show the scene in detail and was honest about the pain a girl experiences, that it's rarely the Hollywood fireworks fantasy. That made it real.

Can't wait for the sequel. As a fan of strong and proactive female characters, I want to see how something that happens in this book (no spoilers) plays out in the future.

 Other Books I've Been Reading
I've been cranking out several books over the last few months--thank heavens for audiobooks! Here're a few:

As you can see, I like a variety of genres.

Do you have any recommendations?

Wow. All I can say is Wow.

I just finished Regina Sirois’ book On Little Wings. I’ve been hearing hype on this book for a long time now and had actually purchased the ebook months ago. It moved up high enough on my to-read list. I'm SO glad.

I’ll say right now that I don’t give many five-star reviews. I love a lot of books. A three-star review means I liked the book. Four stars mean I really liked a book and would own it and read it again. Giving a book five stars means it touched me in some way.

Sometimes a story struck a chord because of real-life experiences that made me relate to the characters (such as the I Am Not a Serial Killer series by Dan Wells—and no, I’m not serial killer material).

It might be that the five-star story captured my imagination with its world building, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the fabulous places and desperately wanted to go there and meet these characters.

It could be that the weaving of words and the story haunted my sleep and followed me around even when I wasn’t reading. Like a delectable dessert whose lingering taste keeps me wanting more.

On Little Wings is one of those books for me.

So, what’s it about?

Jennifer's mother is not an only child.
Jennifer's aunt has thirty seven freckles.
And life just stopped making sense for this sixteen-year-old girl from Nebraska.
It will take one forbidden journey, an octogenarian movie star, three old pirates, and one scarred genius to put all the pieces back together.
If that is even possible.

When Jennifer finds a dog-eared photograph of a freckled girl, she never dreams the innocent picture will tear open a gaping wound to her mother's secret past.

Jennifer must leave her home, parents, and best friend in the wheat fields of Nebraska and travel to the rocky shores of Maine to find the aunt she never knew she had. Her search for the truth is distracted by the strange and hilarious characters in the tight-knit town of Smithport. From the 88 year old movie star who likes to show off her tattoo, to the fishermen who have a passion for rockets, to the aunt who recites poetry in the long, Maine nights, Jennifer is intrigued by the lives swirling around her.

In the midst of madness she meets Nathan, the tight-lipped, reluctant prodigy who is surrounded by women who need him to be brother, father, protector, provider, and now, first love. With a restrained, mature, and uncertain voice, Jennifer shares her tale of family, love, loss, truth and beauty.

As Jennifer seeks to piece together her mother's shattered story, she inadvertently writes one for herself.


Sirois uses beautiful language to paint this tale. I’m not in to too much description and will skip over a lot of flowery language. That’s not what Sirois does as she crafts this story. But she made me feel like I was there. Made me want to go to Smithport so I can meet these quirky, fun people. There's a certain showdown that we anticipate, and I loved the circumstances when it finally happened.

On Little Wings is up for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for Young Adult Fiction. I’m not the least bit surprised.

You can download a sample of the first fourteen pages from Kindle here.

What do the star ratings mean to you? We often see books with extremes--5s or 1s. How come we see so few 3s?

A to Z - Zany

1. a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
2. a buffoon in one of the old comedies; imitates others for ludicrous effect
3. like a clown; "a buffoonish walk"; "a clownish face"; "a zany sense of humor"
4. pungent adjectives of disesteem; "gave me a cockamamie reason for not going"; "wore a goofy hat"; "a silly idea"; "some wacky plan for selling more books"
5. A merry-andrew; a buffoon.
6. To mimic.

Okay. That's one I've never heard before. A merry-andrew?

Definition of merry-andrew: clown: a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior.

Well, folks. We survived. We completed A to Z. Phew.

And Woot! (that means We Owned the Other Team, btw.)

Now, I'm taking a rest and heading to the Storymakers conference this Friday and Saturday. I'm also doing something called Publication Primer. I hear my drill sergeant (though this isn't bootcamp) is brutal but brilliant. I hope to have lots to report next week, especially since I'm taking all master classes this year.

When I went last year I knew almost no one. What a difference a year makes! I became a member of the wonderful Authors Incognito group (you have to have attended a Storymakers conference to join), and I've found an incredible and supportive community of writers and authors. They provide online training, the most recent was a two-week long series on pitches. The first week was on writing and preparing to present it. The second week was on going beyond the pitch, presenting yourself. And this was all before the conference!

Seriously. Am I lucky or what?

And the fabulous Sarah Eden is going to be the Master of Ceremonies again. Sarah writes regency romance and has a delightful sense of humor. I read her books to my hubby, and he likes them. Did I mentioned that I love Love LOVE her books?

Storymakers also has something called the Whitney Awards. These are to recognize LDS authors. I'm a sucker for speculative fiction, so here are the finalists (a complete list of the finalists can be found here):

• The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson
• I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
• The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
• A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells
• No Angel by Theresa Sneed

I've read four of the five, and I'm embarrassed to admit it's Scott Card's book I haven't gotten to yet. I didn't go to the awards banquet last year. I'm so going this year.

Have you ever attended a writing conference that changed your life?


P.S.

I was hoping to hit the 600 follower mark with A to Z, but while I've followed a ton of new people few of them have followed me back. And I really, really wanted to hit that nice round number of 600. I sent out a plea to a new group I've joined of clean romance writers and within 10 minutes I had 9 new followers. Thank you, ladies!

LTUE

So, things are nuts, and I'm sick. This post will just have some pictures from the event. I took tons of notes and will rehash some of that information in subsequent posts.

Panel on Marketing

Authors Bree Despain, Lynn Hardy, Jenn Johansson, and Elana Johnson

Panel on Queries and Pitches

Lisa Mangum (author and acquisitions editor), Chris Schoebinger (Shadow Mountain), J Scott Savage (author), Kirk Lovell Shaw (Covenant Publishing), Donna Milakovic (moderator)

Panel on Making a Book Trailer

Heather Monson, Angela Corbett, Paul Genesse, Lani Woodland, Dan Wells

Author Michael Young on Avoiding Cliche

Author Andrea Pearson on Indie Publishing

Writing Excuses

Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, Larry Correia, Brandon's brother Jordy, Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson

Panel on Why We Love Horror

Nathan Shumate, Michael Brent Collings, Michael Collings, Robin Weeks (moderator), Jenn Johansson

Panel on What I Wish I'd Done Differently

Mette Ivie Harrison, Author Andrea Pearson, Brad R. Torgersen and Elana Johnson.

Panel on Plots, Subplots, and Foreshadowing

Brandon Sanderson, Stacy Whitman (editor), James A. Owen, J Scott Savage and Bree Despain

Panel on Urban Fantasy

Natalie Whipple, Bree Despain, Kasie West and James Dashner

Lotsa Peeps

Elizabeth Mueller, ?, Kasie West

The Schmidts

Leigh Covington, Brenda Sills, Me

Melony Pulley, Kenzie Pulley, Amy White, Me, Stephanie Kelly

Lotsa People

Peggy Eddleton, Leigh Covington, David Powers King

Heather Cole, Betsy Love, Theresa Sneed, Kari Pike

There were tons more classes and people. These were just a few of the ones I was able to attend or connect with.

UVU Book Academy Report ... And Queries

My very first writing conference was the UVU Book Academy in 2010. It's a one-day conference held at the local university. I thought it was an amazing event then because I had nothing to compare it to. I was also extremely new and raw to this writing thing. I'd completed one book (and was editing it) and had written 50,000 words of a new project (something I'm dying to get back to).

It was a very different experience this year because I knew people, and I actually understood some of what they were talking about. I even knew more about some stuff than other people there.

Scary. I mean, really. Me? Knowing more than someone else? But it showed me how much I've learned in the last last year. Sometimes those little advancements we make are slow enough we don't notice them.

I got some pictures with people whose blogs I follow.

David Powers King (click here for his blog)

Brenda Sills (click here for her blog)

Michelle Teacress (click here for her blog)

I got to touch base with a wonderful lady I met last year, who's toying with the idea of writing a nonfiction book but hasn't taken the plunge yet. And I connected with two awesome ladies who are members of my League of Utah Writers chapter and my ANWA group--Canda Mortensen and Deanna Henderson. They are a mother/daughter writing team (how fun is that?), and with another author, Cindy Hogan, they've started a writing network called iWriteNetwork. You can check it out here.

Dan Wells, one of my favorite authors, was the Keynote Speaker. You might recognize him from his I Am Not a Serial Killer series (which I reviewed here). Dan also cohosts Writing Excuses (with Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal). Dan's funny and addressed a question he gets a lot from people. "Where do you get your ideas from?"

Quote of the day: 

"It is not about ideas; it's about turning ideas into stories.

~Dan Wells

 Dan then went on to demonstrate how ideas are all around us, from news stories to politics to science to casual observation of the people around us. He had people suggest a simple statement and then go on to see how that could be developed by asking questions. Some of the suggestions were funny, but Dan made them hilarious. There were some with real story potential.

Queries

I'm in the process of writing (and rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting) my very first query. I've done a ton of query writing research and have had several people look at it and will take it to my live critique group on Saturday. It's been quite the experience. It still needs work, but I've made progress, which I find encouraging. Because of this I was particularly interested the the following class today.

Kirk Shaw, a senior editor at Covenant Communications, and Lisa Mangum, author and editor for Deseret Book, presented a class on "Writing Killer Query Letters", which they renamed "Writing Nondreary Query Letters."

Prequery Research

• Read your genre
• Try and find a publisher or agent who already represents books you like to read
• Find out what the publisher's or agent's expections are
• Follow agents blogs who review queries
• Pay attention online to input on how agents/publishers treat their writers. No relationship is perfect, but be cautious about jumping in where the fit doesn't work
• Check page length / word count requirements

Placing Your Story

• Set the genre
• Compare to similar books either in style, voice, or theme where it applies. Don't make it up if there isn't a similarity.

Tone

• Be professional. You can decide to treat it as a business contract proposal (which it really is) or you can try and capture the tone from your book. 
• Get into a simple review of the story

Hook (Lisa took this from a class author Scott Savage taught)

• Who it is about
• What the goal is
• What the obstacle is
• What are the consequences / cost of failure

A great place to see how well hooks can be done is to read the dust jacket of books.

Summary

This should lead them to want to keep reading.

References / Credentials

• Why should they invest in you as a brand?
• Are you a serious writer? What have you done to prove that? Are you already published? Do you attend writers conferences or belong to writers groups to further your knowledge of the craft?
• Can they trust you to be a partner in the publishing process?
• You may share other projects you're working on, even if they aren't finished.
• If it's a series or has series potential, this is where you'd mention that.

They suggested writing your back copy and then writing the book. You can then go back and see if you met your goals and rewrite the back copy.

From the rest of the conference, I came away with lots to think about, especially as I begin the plotting process for my NaNo project.

Have you written a query letter yet?

If not, do you have any plans for when you do?

If you have, do you have any suggestions for us noobs?

What I've Been Reading

Don't forget to check out the

Banned Book Giveaway Hop here.

As much as I complain about not having enough time to read, I have been getting through some books.I'm usually listening to an audiobook, so I can have something going while I'm doing mindless things at home like laundry, cleaning, or yard work. My hubby likes me to read to him, so we've frequently got a book going together, though those take us a while since he tends to fall asleep rather easily (he's got Fibromyalgia). Then I'm usually reading a book myself, either before I go to sleep (when I'm not critiquing) or when I'm on my treadmill or exercise bike.

So, here's what I've been reading (or listening to):

Seeking Persephone is a prequel to Courting Miss Lancaster which I reviewed here. These are Regency Romances by Sarah M. Eden, whose writing I love dearly. She's got a wonderful way of creating conflict riddled with humor. And her characters! I was crushing on Adam after reading CML, but we get to learn so much more about him in SP, that I just love him even more. Sarah hinted there might be another book in the series. I can't wait to visit these characters again. 

I had an opportunity to read the ARC for Everneath by Brodi Ashton, which I LOVED! You can read what I said about it here. It comes out in January 2012.











And another ARC I got to read was Shifting by Bethany Wiggins. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It comes out on September 27th. You can read about it here.

I've read the first two books in this trilogy, and the final book comes out in October. I hesitated to start it since I heard about the first book right after the first Hunger Games book came out. I didn't want to start a new trilogy. But then I was so disappointed with Mockingjay, I wasn't sure I wanted to risk be disappointed again. But Dan Wells did such a fabulous job with his I Am Not a Serial Killer series, that I decided to give this series a chance. We'll see in October. 


I enjoyed Watched by Cindy M. Hogan. I'd definitely want to keep track of any children I sent on summer field trips after reading this book!










I loved Laura Josephsen's book Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School). You can read my thoughts on it here.                    

Hubby and I have been reading this series together (we're on the third book). It involves the brother of one of the characters we meet in The Saint Squad Series--see below (love these books about Navy Seals).

 Hubby and I have one more book to go in this series after we finish The Deep End.

 This book is the first in the Runelord series by David Farland. I really enjoyed it. David is the "father", so to speak, of the online critique group forum I'm a member of.

I recently listened to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (who died before the book came out) and her niece Annie Barrows again. I just love this story and the way it's written using letters or notes. The unique voice of each character is so well done. Some of the characters I wish I could meet in real life and just hug!

This books provides one of those places I wish I could go to and live.

I hate getting old. I was thinking I hadn't read this one. Guess what? I have. Oh, well. I liked it the second time, too. It's the sequel to her book Masques, which I read earlier in the year. What can I say? I love Patricia Briggs's books. 

Entwined by Heather Dixon is a charming retelling of the fairytale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells is a really interesting book, very different from his I Am Not a Serial Killer series. Because of that, it took me a few pages to get into it just because it was so different from what I'd expected. It's a farce and has some very silly moments. Talk about a comedy of errors!

From the product description on Amazon:
Wrongly imprisoned, Frederick Whithers is desperate to commit the crime he's already being punished for: defrauding the bank out of a vast inheritance. He fakes his death to escape, but when he's seen climbing out of a coffin everyone assumes he's a vampire; when he shows none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, they decide he must be the most powerful vampire in the history of the world.

Half horror and half farce, Frederick's tale is an ever-growing avalanche of bankers, constables, graverobbers, poets, ghouls, morticians, vampires, vampire hunters, not to mention some very unfortunate rabbits. With a string of allies even more unlikely than his enemies, can Frederick stay alive long enough to claim his (well, somebody's) money? And if he can't, which of his innumerable enemies will get to him first? 

I think this book would make a hilarious play.

Okay. I really need to quit complaining that I'm not getting any reading time. 
Obviously I'm doing better than I thought!


So what have you been reading?

Anything I should add to my Goodreads list?
I haven't reached 100 books to read yet.