Friday Speak Out!: Connecting the Pieces

by Susanne Holly Brent

I’ve never been that great at jig saw puzzles, but when I got laid off due to the Corona Virus, I ordered one on Amazon. It looked fun. It never arrived. Determined even more to have a puzzle, after all I had plenty of time now to complete one, I took the risk and ventured outside. The big box store had just two puzzles for sale, and I bought the one titled Written in the Stars. It has golden astrological figures in a night sky above a snowy landscape of fir trees, roaring campfire and two colorful tents. (The tentative title of my novel is, I kid you not, Written in the Leaves.)

All I must do is duplicate the picture on the box by connecting 1,000 tiny jigsaw pieces together. I forgot there are A LOT of pieces. Much like my novel, I have a story I want to tell, but I have zillions of ideas scattered in my brain. With both, the challenge is to connect them. Unlike my puzzle, the more I write, the more ideas pop up, adding pieces to the picture I thought I had figured out and complicating matters. Both the puzzle and the novel looked fun to complete. Until the work began.

It took me awhile to open the puzzle. First, I decided I needed to buy a special table. Then I painted the walls lilac in the room with the puzzle. Sound familiar? How often do we distract ourselves before sitting down to do the work?

I go in my office to write and find myself watching videos of sloths at the zoo, friends on Facebook posting photos of bread they baked, or latest reports about the Corona Virus. In truth, like the puzzle, I feel overwhelmed about the task ahead. When I finally did dump all the pieces of the puzzle on my new table, my overriding thought was --- I need help.

My novel triggers the same thought. How in the world will I ever, all by myself, connect all my ideas in a cohesive manner to make a story that creates a whole picture?

I ask my husband for help with puzzle, but it’s not his thing. I ask my talented poet friend for feedback on my writing, but I’m the one who needs to sit alone in a room and construct my novel with the pieces of character, plot, setting, theme.

Finally, weary of my fears and excuses, I begin the puzzle, piece by piece, looking at the box for guidance. My confidence and faith in the work expands by doing the work. Trust in myself grows as I duplicate the picture on the box.

The novel, though, is better. I don’t have to follow someone else’s design. I create my own picture with my own creativity. Harder. But offering much more self-discovery, fulfillment and, yes, even fun. My inner map guides me and through steady effort, with that same confidence and faith, I can complete the novel. Piece by piece.

* * *

Born and raised in Chicago, after high school I moved to Colorado and practiced being a hippie before earning a journalism degree from Metropolitan State University in Denver. I moved to the small desert town of Coolidge, Arizona to work as a reporter on a weekly newspaper. Missing the big city lights, I moved to Phoenix where I wrote on a freelance basis for a variety of publications including The Arizona Republic. Recently I had a short story Hunger Pains in the online journal HCE Review from Dublin, Ireland which made me feel very European. For fun I write a blog. Find me at thatsnotmytable.wordpress.com or on Facebook Susanne Holly Brent. Oh yeah, I’m working on a puzzle and a novel. 
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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2 comments Friday Speak Out, jigsaw puzzles, novel writing, novel writing process, Susanne Brent

What's the Big Idea?

Let’s say you are looking for the next big idea for a novel. And one day, you’re perusing the paper, or walking around in a museum, or channel surfing, and bam! You come across someone or something pretty darn unusual. Immediately, the wheels turn, the story idea forms… but wait. It’s so different that you think a little research is in order. It wouldn’t do at all for there to be two books on this same unusual topic so you look and look and look and find nothing. Your heart skips a merry little beat as you sit down to write, write, write.

The day comes when it is finished. You type “The End” on the umpteenth revision and you sing a happy ditty as the email wings its way to an editor. And you can hardly believe it when just a week later, you hear back. The editor loves the idea but alas! Another editor down the hall is working on a novel WITH THE SAME UNUSUAL TOPIC.

What will you do? Or as Karl Malden said in that commercial years ago, “WHAT. WILL. YOU. DO?”

If you are Cathy C. Hall, you rant and rave, using language that no refined Southern Lady (or anyone, for that matter) should ever use. Then you decide that the universe is clearly sending a message and so you toast the years you’ve invested in your writing career and as you toss the wine glass into the fireplace, you throw in a couple of not-so-fond farewells: “So long, waking up in the middle of the night to jot down an idea! Au revoir to querying and never hearing back! Adios to endless mind-numbing revisions!” And you stroll into the sunset, older but not necessarily wiser.

Because after a few weeks, I remembered Big Magic, the book by Elizabeth Gilbert wherein she writes about this. This being the creative ideas swirling around all the time in the great ether and that sometimes more than one of us will pull out the same idea and go with it. Which sort of explains how writers or inventors or anyone with a creative thought comes up with what he or she thinks is truly original to find that it’s already been done.

It happens more often than one would think. But when you are a writer and it happens, you, like old Karl, must ask yourself what you will do. And maybe, you’ll answer this question in a more rational manner than I did.

Still, what it comes down to is really rather simple: do you continue or have you had enough? There are options.

You can shelve the manuscript in question and start something new. While you’re waiting to see if your idea and the book that comes out are the same, you’re working. Always a good thing.

OR you can go ahead and send your manuscript out into the world and see what happens. Because if you believe in this idea, and it’s a really good idea, then maybe there’s room in the universe for more than one book on the same idea.

Of course, you can throw in the towel, too. Perhaps this is the straw that broke the camel’s back and enough really is enough. But don’t be surprised one fine midnight (or later) when you wake up and scramble around in the dark to find pen and paper. Because you’ve just had the best big idea ever for your next book.

~Cathy C. Hall

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6 comments Big Magic, book ideas, Cathy C. Hall, Elizabeteh Gilbert, novel writing process, perseverance in writing

Friday Speak Out!: Algebra for Writers

by Lee Zacharias

I knew I wanted to be a writer from second grade, when I first put my hand up for show-and-tell and made up a story. I never knew what the story would be, but there was a certain logic to my tales. The longer I could draw out the suspense the less time we had for arithmetic.

So it might seem odd that when I got to high school I fell in love with algebra. To me the beauty of algebra was its system of logic. That my son never bought this argument when I was helping with his homework is beside the point. Writing is a process of posing problems and figuring out answers. There is a kind of algebra to writing a novel.

Some problems may be mundane: how to drain a lake, how to evacuate a ship? (Research helps there.) But the most pressing problems are more profound: why is this story being told, why now, what is the resolution, what does it mean? Sometimes you have to dig deep; it may take years to discover the answer. I was more than twenty drafts into my new novel, Across the Great Lake, before I knew who the ghost was. At some point in the first I knew why my narrator was telling her story, knew her secret, knew pretty much how the story would resolve, but I did not know who the ghost was. After all, the Great Lakes have a lot of ghosts. Why shouldn't any one of those spirits visit her?

But my narrator's ghost didn't come from Midwestern lore—I stole her from a night I once spent at the Island Inn on Ocracoke, nearly 1200 miles away from the Lake Michigan railroad car ferry where Fern's ghost visits her. I was at the edge of an ocean, not a Great Lake, but something about edges puts one between one world and another. Mrs. Godfrey—whose identity is fairly well documented, I've learned since—did to me what exactly what Fern's ghost does to her, grabbed my big toe and held on. (Is it a coincidence that the same toe later developed hallux rigidus and required a surgical implant?) She made for a restless night, but I might have convinced myself I'd imagined it or had a bad dream if the desk clerk hadn't taken one look at my face when I came downstairs the next morning and said, "Would you like to change rooms?" Yes, and Mrs. Godfrey never bothered me again. Why she chooses certain rooms over others I can't say. Ghosts keep their secrets. Perhaps that's why it took me so long to discover the identity of Fern's.

But a ghost in a novel can't be just any ghost you've read about in legends or even encountered yourself, unless you figure out why. A ghost needs a purpose, and once you realize that purpose you have found X, and it is that X that immeasurably deepens the meaning.

* * *

LEE ZACHARIAS is the author of a collection of short stories, Helping Muriel Make It Through the Night; three novels, Across the Great Lake, Lessons, and At Random; and a collection of personal essays, The Only Sounds We Make. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, North Carolina's Sir Walter Raleigh Award, Southern Humanities Review's Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award, Prairie Schooner's Glenna Luschei Award, and a Silver Medal in Creative Nonfiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (the IPPYs). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and been recognized by The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Essay, which reprinted her essay "Buzzards" in its 2008 edition. She taught at the University Arkansas, Princeton University, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she is Emerita Professor of English, as well as many conferences, most recently the Wildacres Writers Workshop. Find her online at http://leezacharias.com/
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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12 comments Friday Speak Out, Lee Zacharias, novel writing process, writer inspiration

Meet Flash Fiction Top Ten Contest Winner, Rebecca Gomez Farrell

Rebecca Gomez Farrell writes all the speculative fiction genres she can conjure up. Her first short story publication came from winning 3rd Place in the Summer 2009 WOW! Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest, and with “Hobgoblin,” she is now up to 19! Her first fantasy novel, Wings Unseen, debuted in August 2017 from Meerkat Press. You can find her other short stories in anthologies and magazines including Dark Luminous Wings, the Future Fire, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies among other outlets. Becca’s food, drink, and travel blog, theGourmez.com, has garnered multiple accolades and influences every tasty bite of her fictional worldbuilding. She lives in Oakland, CA, with her tech wizard husband and two trickster cats. Website: RebeccaGomezFarrell.com. Social Media: @theGourmez.

interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on your top ten win in our Fall 2017 Flash Fiction competition! What inspired you to enter the contest?

Rebecca: I’ve entered and placed in WOW’s contests before, and I love the format. Not to mention that the prize money is pretty good for flash fiction publication! Someday, I’ll get that grand prize, I hope.

WOW: Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, "Hobgoblin?"

Rebecca: "Hobgoblin" was originally written for a local open mic literary reading in Berkeley, CA, where the readings have to be completed within three minutes. The reading series is called Saturday Night Special, and it takes place once a month with a theme. That month, the theme was Heroes and Villains. Hobgoblin was what I came up with when I sat down to write something for the open mic. I thought it would be fun to do a character sketch of a misunderstood villain from fairy tales, and hobgoblins are a more nebulous category among those. I’ve revised the short story since then, but it retains the original lyricism that makes it an ideal piece for reading aloud.

WOW: You mention that you write “all the speculative fiction genres you can conjure up.” What are a few of your favorite types, and perhaps explain it a bit for people who may not be familiar with speculative fiction?

Rebecca: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for fiction that falls within the genres of fantasy, horror, science fiction, paranormal, superhero, slipstream, magic realism, alternative history, steampunk, and a few others that I’m sure I’m leaving out. The element these sorts of fiction share is that they come from asking a question that requires the author to speculate. For example, “What if Columbus had never come to the Americas?”, “What if people could read minds?”, “What if there were a world where it never stopped snowing?” When I began writing as a career, I thought I would focus on fantasy, as I’ve always loved stories that imply a deep history and lore and involve magic. But I’ve found that I also gravitate toward fairy tale qualities in my storytelling, whether existing or new fairy tales I invent, and I have written a fair bit of humorous science fiction tales. Horror, with more of a Poe or Twilight Zone feel than slashers, is also a natural fit for my narrative style. I’m not likely to write a highly technical science fiction tale any time soon, but I’m working on a postapocalyptic paranormal romance novel, currently in its second draft.

WOW: Your novel, Wings Unseen, debuted last year, which must have been very exciting. What was your novel writing journey like? What did you learn along the way?

Rebecca: I’m thrilled that Meerkat Press published Wings Unseen, my epic fantasy novel, last August. I had a great time putting together a book tour to promote it, and I’ve been happy with how much support I’ve received. Hopefully, a few readers will follow my work and buy my other books as they come out! By the time I graduated college, fifteen years ago, I knew the basic premise of the book and I knew my three main characters, from whose points of view Wings Unseen is told, quite well. But I didn’t seriously start writing the book until six years later, and I completed it four years after that. As I am working on any number of writing projects at a time, I am definitely not a fast novel writer!

I’m still rather surprised that my first book was published, as so many authors talk about their first books being in a dark drawer somewhere, never to see the light of day again. But it wasn’t a speedy process getting there. I knew I wanted to be traditionally published, but I didn’t necessarily want to go the agent route. So I spent a year sending the manuscript to the big speculative fiction publishers who consider work from writers without agents. That went nowhere, so I decided I would try to land an agent next, and while I had some promising nibbles, I became discouraged with that process by the end of the next year. I then switched gears to small presses that take work from writers without agents. Within six months, I had a couple of offers. Ultimately, I went with Meerkat Press, and I have been absolutely thrilled with them as publishers. They provided the full traditional publication experience: advances, multiple rounds of editing, fantastic cover art, distribution, and great support and access to reviewers. I hope to continue my relationship with Meerkat once my next book is complete. It took about a year from contract acceptance to the launch of Wings Unseen.

WOW: Congratulations and good luck with the next book! Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Rebecca. Before you go, do you have any tips for our readers who may be thinking about entering writing contests?

Rebecca: Contests are a great way for writers to get a confidence boost for their work – as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my very first published short story, “Last Complaint,” was a WOW third place winner, and that was in 2011, early on in my writing career. I’d caution writers against spending too much money on contest entry fees, as it’s rare that they’ll see a return on them, but WOW’s $10 entry is right at my sweet spot for what I’m willing to pay. Plus, it’s great to have published bylines, but it’s also great to be able to list contest placements among your accolades when querying publishers and agents.

Make sure you read up on the contest judges and submit a piece of your work that they’ll potentially connect with, if you can. And make sure that your submitted manuscript is as clean and error-free as possible! That always give me a leg up in the submission or contest judging process.

*****

For more information about our quarterly Flash Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Essay contests, visit our contest page here.

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2 comments becoming a published author, Contestant interview, Fall 2017 Flash Fiction Contest, Marcia Peterson, novel writing process, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, speculative fiction, WOW! Flash Fiction Runner Up

Friday Speak Out!: When Your Plot is Hijacked by Your Characters and What to Do About It

by Amy Willoughby-Burle

Do you ever have this happen: You’re in the zone, you’re writing is on fire, you’re typing so fast your mind can’t keep up with your fingers, and then BAM—one of your characters says or does something you didn’t see coming?

(Insert that SCREECH sound from movie trailers when the unexpected happens.)

“What was that?” You ask the offending character even as you’re deleting the unexpected line.

Who’s writing this book anyway, you think, slightly worried that it might not be you anymore. So, you take a breath and then dive back in. Your fingers rev up, the words are flowing, your laptop is nearly smoking with the effort, and SCREECH said character grabs the reigns again, and BOOM your story just took a turn that you can no longer pretend isn’t happening.

“Now what?” You ask, fully aware that there is no going back.

Your story has taken on a life of its own.

I had a character do that once and it gave me chills. He and his wife were fighting about an issue in their marriage that had driven them apart and I have to admit, I was writing him as the stereotypical unfeeling, unemotional, unavailable man and she was letting him have it for all those things and then he says, “Don’t you do that. Don’t you dare make me out to be a monster.”

SCREECH

He was talking to me and I knew it.

On a different novel, I had an entire subplot that I realized just wasn’t true to the story anymore. The more I tried to make it work, the more the characters fought against me—refusing to say and do what I needed them to. When I finally accepted reality and took that piece of the plot out, I copied and pasted it into another file, so that I’d see how much work I had done forcing that storyline. Friends, it was 75 pages worth of forcing my agenda on that story.

“So, now what?” You ask.

Well you and your novel are now in couple therapy.

You listen to what the characters have to say about themselves and the story you orchestrated for them. They probably know what they’re talking about. It might send you back to the plotting board. That’s ok. It might make you hunt up some good old-school character creating exercises to get to know them better. That’s probably a good idea.

But don’t worry, the upside here is that you’ve entered the sweet spot of writing. This is where the magic happens, but you’ve got to be willing to be flexible. You and your novel have to work this thing through together. Giving up is not an option just because things aren’t going to way you planned. You and your novel will be stronger in the end. Keep writing. Your story is worth it.

* * *

Amy Willoughby-Burle is the author of The Lemonade Year and Out Across the Nowhere. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband and four children. She teaches Language Arts and Creative Writing at Elevate Life and Art, an enrichment program for children grades Pre-K-12. She invites you to connect with her online at www.amywilloughbyburle.com and www.facebook.com/AmyWilloughbyBurle/
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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5 comments Amy Willoughby-Burle, Character and plot, character development, Friday Speak Out, novel writing, novel writing process, writer tips

Interview with Flash Fiction Runner Up, Allison Walters Luther

After living in such varied places as Southern Indiana, England, Southwest Florida, and Southern California, Allison Walters currently wakes up each day in the Seattle area. With three children ages six and under, she spends her days doing laundry, pretending not to see the crackers all over the floor, and writing stories in her head.*

When she’s not busy rescuing the children from whatever mess they’ve gotten themselves into, Allison is an avid reader, NSFW cross-stitch enthusiast, and general science and pop-culture geek. With two children on the autism spectrum, she is passionate about autism advocacy, and, if given the chance, will also talk your ear off about women’s rights and English and Scottish history.

Her favorite writing genres include historical fiction, horror, and suspense/thriller. She recently finished the first draft of her first novel, Bad River, set in 1860s Dakota Territory, and is looking forward to working on the revision in the next few months. Currently, she is finishing up a couple of short story projects and, of course, NaNoWriMo is just around the corner!

You can read about her family’s journey with autism on her blog simondoesntsay.com. She is also a frequent retweeter at @AllisonLuther.

* Her husband would like it to be known that he folds laundry better than Allison does.

interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on placing in the top ten in our Spring 2016 Flash Fiction competition! What inspired you to enter the contest?

Allison: Thank you! The Spring 2016 contest was my third time entering. I first placed in the Top Ten in the Summer 2015 contest with “Swinging” and also received an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2016 contest with “Widow’s Walk”. I love the challenge of writing flash fiction, as it forces me to really consider the impact of every every word, every phrase.

WOW: Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your entry, "Best Wishes, Melinda Rissmann?"

Allison: After the end of a relationship, I think a lot of people have fantasies about running into their ex months or years later and you finally have a chance to get that last little bit of closure. Or is that just me? “Best Wishes, Melinda Rissmann” was an exploration of how a scene like that might play out.

WOW: Yes, I think many people imagine running into an ex, so you're not alone! As a busy mom to three young children, how do you find time to write? What works best for you?

Allison: It’s been a hard summer for getting anything done, but now that school has started, I’m hoping it’s going to be easier. I generally can find time to write at night after the kids are in bed. Twice a week, I’m able to sneak off to a coffee shop and work while my youngest son is in his therapy class. I also have a notebook next to my bed, AquaNotes in the shower, and a writing app on my phone, so I can jot down the ideas that come to me when I’m away from my laptop.

WOW: You also recently finished the first draft of your first novel. What did it take to accomplish that big goal? What did you learn along the way?

Allison: I started writing Bad River in December 2014 and I think I started over at least four or five times, once scrapping over 50K words. Yikes! I finally figured out that as much fun as writing backstory is, you need to start your story in the correct place. Also, just get the story down and worry about revising and editing later. Write now, fix later.

WOW:  Sounds like you learned a lot from the process! Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Allison. Before you go, can you share your favorite writing tip or advice with our readers?

Allison: If you have to force the story, it isn’t the right story.

***

Our Fall 2016 Flash Fiction Contest is NOW OPEN!
For information and entry, visit our contest page.

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Leave a Comment Allison Walters Luther, Contestant interview, flash fiction runner up, novel writing process, Spring 2016 Flash Fiction Contest Winner, writing and parenting

Friday Speak Out!: My Sexy First Draft Experience

by Lois Paige Simenson

Yesterday was a milestone for me. I officially finished a first draft of my first fiction novel, hitting 95,000 words. That’s an all-time record; hadn’t written that much in one document since my master’s thesis.

I spent much of 2015 reading about novel writing. I dove into On Writing, by Stephen King, The Art of Fiction by John Gardner (that one was tedious), Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, and How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James Frey; all have excellent tips for the beginner novelist.

The problem was, I read so much that I confused myself and hit writers’ block. God forbid that I use an adverb, an adjective, or too much description! I became paranoid of revision. So, I stopped reading the how-to’s and took a writing workshop. The instructor said, “Write from the heart, be honest and don’t sweat the rules—that’s why God invented revision.”

I took her advice, signed up for Nanowrimo and wrote ‘till the cows came home.

They arrived yesterday.

During first draft, I discovered that I’d never written an action scene or a love scene. I asked my husband to help me write the action scenes, since he’d been a firearms instructor. He tried keeping a straight face reading my descriptions. “Rounds, not bullets,” he’d say, rolling his eyes that I didn’t know the difference between a revolver and a pistol.

The next challenge was writing my first love scene. I’m not a romance reader and never read a Harlequin in my life—but I did read the Outlander series. This is where method writing comes in handy. You know, like method acting, where you actually DO the thing. Okay, so I used my own personal love and sex experiences (ahem). But turning it into words on a page is another story.

I poked around our library and met a librarian who was a member of the Romance Writers of America. Score! She gave me a crash course on romance, loading me up with Harlequins, Signets, and Silhouettes. I grabbed a Danielle Steele, a Debbie Macomber, and set out to research romance. I won’t lie, it was a steamy couple of days…

My love scene turned out to be TEN PAGES. My novel is a crime-suspense-thriller, not a romance (oddly, my tough, outdoorsy Alaskan husband was the one who said I should include romance). I made myself laugh and cry and felt like Kathleen Turner when she finished her novel in Romancing the Stone.

You know what? A cool thing happened: I’m looking forward to revision!

And who knows, maybe my next novel will be a romance.

Who-da thunk it?
* * *

Lois Paige Simenson writes for newspapers and magazines. She guest blogs and has a blog, The Alaska Philosophaster at loispaigesimenson.com. Her writing has appeared in The Anchorage Press, The Hill Congress Blog, 49 Writers, and online at Erma Bombeck Humor-Writers.org. She is a playwright, with a play that received a staged reading at the annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, and two plays recently staged and produced by Perseverance Theatre at the Anchorage Center for the Performing Arts. She’s working on her debut fiction novel, Otter Rock.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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7 comments Friday Speak Out, Lois Paige Simenson, love scenes, novel writing, novel writing process, revision

Dear Work-In-Progress

Dear Work-In-Progress:

Before I begin the heart of my letter, or what my English teachers liked to call "the body of a friendly letter," I want to get a couple of things straight. First, I'm going to refer to you and your friends as WIP(s) (because typing work-in-progress is just too time consuming); and second, I'm not sure how friendly this letter is actually going to be.

I'm upset with you, dear WIP. Since I created you, I've been trying not to blame you and place all blame on myself. The problem is I can't seem to finish you. Yes, I did write "the end" last summer, and yes, I did pay to have someone critique the beginning of you, and yes, my critique group says: "Send it out," after I've revised you a couple times--but you keep telling me you're not really finished.

Now it's been several months and I haven't even touched you. All I really need to do is revise your first 10 pages and read the rest to make sure I didn't miss any changes.

But I can't seem to do this, so I'm finally admitting that it is, well, ALL YOUR FAULT.

Why can't you just fix yourself? We both know what you need to do. We need to move the inciting incident closer to the beginning of you. Then we need to take the blasted backstory and make sure that just enough is sprinkled throughout your middle that readers can understand why the characters are acting and reacting how they are. Can you please get this accomplished in a timely manner?

I really am tired of your excuses. "I don't have time," you say. "I am just tired of working on myself." "What difference does it make? No one buys books any more." The very worst one I heard you utter just over the weekend: "I am out of wine and chocolate."

Please, for both of us, for our livelihood and sanity, could you please help me fix you? I will show you how to turn on the computer and use the Microsoft Word toolbar, if you are confused. I will keep my butt in the chair and do what you tell me to do, if you will just aid me in revising you this one last time and finding the perfect agent to represent you. (What is the perfect agent? Well, someone who wants to help me sign at least a three-book deal--and thinks you and I are brilliant.)

I'm so glad I wrote this letter, and I will wait for your response. Please keep it brief because really, you need to get to work on you.

Sincerely,

Margo
(frustrated, but still your friend)

PS: Yes, a three-book deal would mean I have to create two more manuscripts. Yes, I know what you're thinking. But I will always love you best, if you would just get to work.

PSS: Yes, all writers feel this way. I am not being mean.

Margo L. Dill is a writing teacher and novelist. To check out her WOW! Women on Writing classes, including Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach (where she will not make you write a letter like this, although it is therapeutic), please go to this link. To find out about her books, please visit her website. 

photo by Guudmorning!  (http://www.flickr.com) 

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7 comments manuscript love, Margo L. Dill, novel revision, novel writing process, WIP, writer humor

How to Revise a Novel

For NaNoWriMo 2012, I started writing a novel. After two and a half years of a start-and-stop writing process and two rounds of professional workshops – The Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers and The Kenyon Review Novel Workshop – I am pleased to say...drum roll please...I finally have the first full rough draft of the novel!

I have 245 glorious word document pages glowing on my laptop screen. But I’m not finished yet. I need to revise, which is where I believe the true craft of writing takes place.

I prefer the revision stage over the drafting stage because I like having a mold to work with, to bend and shape and chisel into a piece of art. But I know from working with hundreds of composition students that many people resent and recoil from this stage, especially when it’s with a piece of writing this long.

So I’d like to share with you my revision process. I revise differently with different pieces of writing, or even with the same piece of writing on different days, but it generally looks like the process outlined below. I don’t suggest you follow my process exactly, but I do believe it’s helpful to hear other writers’ processes so you can pick and choose what will work for you.

My Revision Process

Take a break. Admittedly, this is the hardest part of the process for me. If I finished a draft, then I’m on a roll and want to keep going. But I become too close to the manuscript. I need to give myself time and distance so I can return to it with fresh eyes. I put the manuscript aside for a few days, minimum.

Reread the manuscript from start to finish. During this reading, I am checking the logic of the story. Does it make sense? Does it flow? Do I use the character’s names consistently throughout the novel and not accidentally change Jane’s name to Jenna halfway through? Did Dannie’s baby, who was born in July, suddenly become 18 months old by February? Does the opening page or chapter set a precedent for the tone, style, and content for the rest of the story? Does the ending make sense with the preceding story, and does it leave the reader feeling satisfied without tying everything with a neat little bow?

Reread the manuscript from start to finish. Again. One of my writing weaknesses is showing the setting. I get so involved in my characters’ appearances, actions, and speech that I forget to fully create the world in which they live. So after I have everything in place and well-organized plot-wise, I will go through the story again and fill in the descriptors that make the setting come to life.

Reread the manuscript from start to finish. Round three. This is where the revision process turns into the editing process because I will now search more carefully for typos and the quality of the line-by-line writing. As much as possible, I eliminate passive voice and the overuse of “to be” verbs because they often make the writing clunky and weak. I pay attention to the rhythm of sentences: are there too many short, choppy sentences in a row for no reason? Why is this one sentence nearly a page long? Does the rhythm of the sentence match the pacing and action at that point of the story?

Give it to someone else to read. Even if I believe I have done a thorough job of revising and editing my manuscript, it is essential that I let someone else read it before I send it to an agent or a publisher. The story makes sense to ME, but that doesn’t guarantee it makes sense to everyone else. Other people bring new perspectives to the story and can help spot plot deficiencies or character flaws you may not have noticed on your own. Likewise, they may find some deep meaning in your story that you hadn’t noticed, which you can use when you pitch your story for publication.

Reread the manuscript AGAIN. This time, focus on the feedback from your reader(s) and decide what you’d like to revise based on the feedback. Learning to solicit the “right” kind of feedback and how to revise based on that feedback is a tricky process if you and/or your readers are unfamiliar with it, but that may be a post for a different day.

Were any of these steps helpful for you? What does your revision process look like?

Happy writing and revising!

Written by Anne Greenawalt, writer and writing instructor

Other Resources for Revising:
Writer’s Digest
Writer’s Digest Workshop
Huffington Post

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2 comments Anne Greenawalt, novel revision, novel writing process

Friday Speak Out!: Letting Go

by Susanne Brent

I had the slogan NO QUITTING pinned to the bulletin board near my desk. Each time I was tempted to give up on my novel, I would glance at the bulletin board and tell myself I was not a quitter. I could never abandoned the characters I created and that I’d grown to know and love, Genevieve and Darcy and all the others I birthed in my yet-unfinished manuscript. I must continue. I didn’t want to feel like a failure, to have wasted all those hours at the keyboard for nothing. How would I tell well-meaning friends who regularly asked about my novel that I, gasp, quit?

Letting go whether it be a job, a relationship or a story I’ve written, is a struggle for me. When it comes to objects, no problem. I donate clothes and other things to my local Humane Society thrift shop with ease. I’ll never be on a hoarder reality show. Yet, when it comes to people, I avoid saying goodbye. My loyalty may look commendable, but often it is fear holding me back from saying adios to that worn out friendship or stale job.

The same with my novel which I’ve labored on for more than seven years, hours spent writing and editing as well as priceless help revising from writer friends. I wrote 75,000 words, and find myself wanting to call it quits.

I revised the first chapters so many times that I am confused about my original intention. I committed the mistake writing instructors warned me against. I revised the beginning chapters before I finished the entire manuscript. For some writers revising while writing is fine, but not me. I should have just plowed through the entire story.

Ah well, it’s too late now to lament how I fouled up my writing process. I tell myself it wasn’t wasted time. I was writing and not dusting or cleaning the fridge I was practicing.

Last week while in Costa Rica I discovered not just the rainforest and monkeys, but a new idea for a novel I want to write. Those are the key words. I want to write. I don’t want to write my old novel anymore. There I said it. I confess. Now what?

I feel guilty. A quitter. I feel like a married woman with a new lover, obligated to my novel but wanting to start afresh. I worry, too, that I am untrustworthy and fickle. I’m able to discard a novel I’ve loved for the promise of the new.

To help myself let go, I tell myself I can revisit my novel someday. I grew as a writer even if the novel was never published. I apologized to my characters. I have to move on. There’s a new story calling me. I’m learning the four letter word quit doesn’t mean I’m a failure. Not when I am replacing it with another four letter word. True. I must be true to myself. And my writing.

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Susanne Brent is a freelance writer who worked for several years as a newspaper reporter. She has had her news articles, short stories and essays published in various publications including Cup of Comfort for Christmas and Matter of Choice -- Twenty Five People who Transformed their Lives. Her blog is writerwaitress.blogspot.com

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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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4 comments Friday Speak Out, new start, new story, novel writing, novel writing process, Susanne Brent, true to self