Monday Meanderings - September 19, 2016

First Meandering ... 

I'm posting over at the Really Real Housewives blog this week. Today I'm touching on all the things that make September 19th awesome (besides it being my birthday). :D

Second Meandering ...

I'm letting everyone know about an opportunity to get fifteen free books.

Yeah, you heard that right. FIFTEEN books.

FREE.

Click here for details.

Third Meandering ...

I attended a great writing conference this past weekend. Lots of great classes and an inspiring keynote by J. Scott Savage. He's a wonderful teacher as well. And he writes fun books besides.

Fourth Meandering ...

House news. We have walls!

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Conference Gems

I love attending writing conferences. I love the networking and the chance to see old friends and meet new ones (often folks I've associated with online but not met in person). The Storymaker conference was in May, and the Indie Author Hub conference was in June. Sometimes I take home only inspiration and energy.

Some years, I hit the jackpot for what I need at the moment!

At Storymaker:

• An inspiring and uplifting keynote from Martine Leavitt - her  intensive where she taught us (Cliff Notes version) what her MFA students learn.
• The Power of Deep Editing by Margie Lawson (I'd love to take one of her longer classes).

TAKE HOME: Emotional hits add power to your story and you do that by powering up the emotion. She compared emotional hits to drink sizes at your local Stop N Go. Save your Big Gulp for that important moment. No more than one or two in an entire book.

• Making the most of your writing time by Tracy Hunter Abramson. 

TAKE HOME: Begin your day with writing something creative, even if it's only a few minutes. It will get your creativity going and fuel you for the rest of your day.

At IAH (this was a much smaller and more intimate setting--it was fabulous!):

• Great keynote and classes by Michaelbrent Collings. He has a great sense of humor and really got into a game.
  

TAKE HOME: "Being an author is one of the hardest and most frightening jobs in the world." - Michaelbrent Collings

 "If I was good at regular life, I wouldn't be a writer." - Michaelbrent Collings 

• Christine Kiersey did a class on doing newsletters. I'm dreadful at them, so I found this very useful

TAKE HOME: Once you have enough books, use a permafree book as reward for signing up for your newsletter. Tell them about it in the front of your other books and then remind them about it at the end.

• The Power of Four by J. Scott Savage. Oh, my heck! This was a class about pacing and just what I needed.

TAKE HOME: You can take your story and break it into four parts. He reviewed what should be included in each of those four parts. I came home and immediately implemented it in the ghost story I was editing. 

I gleaned a lot more at the conferences, but those are a few of the highlights. I feel so armed now and ready to battle on!

I've been critiquing and getting ready for family who will be moving in with us. What did you do for the weekend?

Storymakers Writing Conference

I feel so jazzed. I got back late Saturday night from a wonderful writing conference. They held it at a larger venue this year so there were over 600 attendees. The organizers also expanded the number of class options each time period and repeated some of them.

Today I'm sharing a few of my notes from a class taught by the awesome J. Scott Savage. He taught what was called an Intensive which was a limited attendee (meaning you had to sign up in advance) two-hour session. His class was about using subtlety.

Eighty percent of what a reader gets from a story is not on the page - J. Scott Savage

We were shown examples of what he called thesis statements. We should all remember those from school. A thesis statement kind of an opening remark. Bill was tired. (hint: was should be a warning sign--besides being passive, it  Then the author goes on to describe all the things that indicate the character is tired. That opening statement of Bill was tired is actually the author intruding in the reader's experience to point something out. Better to just show the reader.

After doing some exercises where we all reworked a thesis statement Scott provided (the examples were fascinating in their variety and how they could completely change a story), he talked about a few other things and had us once again work through scenes provided:

Foreshadowing
* Good foreshadowing doesn't call attention to itself.
* If the reader notices it all, they shouldn't know what is being foreshadowed.
* It increases the power of the story when the event occurs.
* May have circularity (great blog post explaining this here).

Misdirection
* To get you looking in one direction while bringing something else from another.
* One of the most powerful tools if you're not too heavy handed--don' let the reader see you doing it.
* Mention it early as an aside - let the reader assume something that turns out to be wrong.
* Ask yourself what your character could believe that might end up not being true.

As anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd. J.K. Rowling is the queen of foreshadowing and misdirection, of things hidden in plain sight, of subtlety. Her hints about so many things are often only obvious when rereading the series. For example, there are hints in both Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince about Snape's Patronus. Anyone know what those were?