Big Screen Movie Magic

Since I'm working on Fantasy books right now, I've focused in on other Fantasy stories to help keep the creative juices flowing. But seeing Fantasy on the big screen not only helps my brain think up new and exciting adventure, it embeds it in my mind with larger than life pictures.

I had the time to go see Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters on Saturday. It was a story about going on a quest, but with problems, foul-ups and your basic bad guy to boot. Although it wasn't what you'd call an epic film, it had its good points as well as its bad. But this isn't a movie review.

This movie was chalk full of imagination. Of course, I thought the kids always had easy rescues from their situations, and with their super powers, the only real fight was with the big guy at the end. No spoilers. But it gave me ideas and insight into my own story and a new clarity as to just how easy or hard situations will be, depending on how you let the characters get out of trouble.

I decided to go for broke and let my characters climb up the mountain and slide down the other side, rocks and all. That means, the problem will be tough and the resolution tougher.

What about you? Have you seen any inspiring movies lately?

Splitting Infinitives

Have you had a grammar lesson lately?

I was doing a little reading this morning and discovered I have a bad habit. I like to split infinitives. What it that? Infinitives are words starting with to, for example-. To go, to run, to walk. When you split them, you generally add an adverb between the to and the word-to boldly go, to quickly run, to slowly walk. The most famous one comes from Star Trek, To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before.

Over time, the rules bend and change about grammar. Originally, English rules were taken from those of Latin. And since an infinitive was not split in Latin, it was carried over into English. That was then, and this is now. To see an infinitive split in writing and not be edited out shows evolution of the English language. We are more accepting of how we use our language.

I'm not an expert on grammar. I don't have a degree in English, nor do I pretend to have some extensive research done on the subject. But I spend a portion of each day as most of you do, hammering out those sentences that create our stories. This counts for something, I hope. And my belief is that we need to create the most exciting, emotional experience for our readers that we can. And if it means to split a few infinitives along the way, I only hope they don't get eliminated when they reach the editor's pen.

Do You Use Spell-Check?

I recently was clearing out my old emails and found this poem tucked away with save stamped on it. Turns out it was from my sister, Loretta Stephenson (Art By Retta). She'd been reading one of my posts that I didn't use spell-check on. What a funny way to remind me just what can happen when you don't edit. Loretta isn't a writer, but has an incredible eye for editing and a talent for knowing the craft. If you could ever get her to read your work, her observations are worth a million.

Ode to a spell chequer

I halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plane lee marques four my revue
Miss steaks aye ken knot sea


Eye ran this poem threw it
Your sure reel glad two no
It's vary polished in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew


A chequer is a bless sing
It freeze yew lodes of thyme
It helps me awl stiles two reed
And aides mi when aye rime


To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud
And wee mussed dew the best wee can
Sew flaws are knot aloud

And now bee cause my spelling
is checked with such grate flare
Their are know faults with in my cite
Of nun eye am a wear

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed to be a joule
The chequer poured o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule

That's why aye brake in two averse
My righting wants too pleas
Sow now ewe sea wye aye dew prays
Such soft wear for pea seas

~Anonymous~ 

My spell-check went crazy went I put this poem in! And yet some words won't get caught by spell-check because they mean something else. Arghh!

Discouraged With Writing?

The Insecure Writer's Support Group posts the first Wednesday of the month and hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. You can visit its group members HERE.

Recently I was discouraged by an article in a newsletter I read about taking your writing too serious and how if your characters and plot were lacking originality, perhaps you need to revamp. The article's viewpoint was that if you are not careful, these four things can happen. 

1. Your characters end up spouting proverbs and glaring moodily into space.

2. Does your story harp on some great payoff in the end, only to let it fizzle out.

3. Your characters spend more time talking about great things, rather than doing them.

4. You plot and characters bring nothing new to the table and don't offer a wink at their own unoriginality.

These four things are good points as a guideline. I agree that you need a balance in your story and your plot needs to give its promised rewards, but I believe that it's necessary to take a serious look at your story as a whole and see if it tells the story your intended to tell. Too many new writers (and me included) start out with an idea in mind and perhaps because of not having a cohesive ending in sight, write a meandering story that loses sight of the original goal. I've solved my problem of doing this by outlining my story ahead of time.

I hope if you are feeling discouraged by your writing that you will take time to step back and remember why you started writing in the first place. It usually will bring you back to that burning desire to let a story out that's been whirling around inside you. It's a precious gift to be able to explore the world with others, no matter what genre you write in.

"Perhaps it is just as well to be rash and foolish for a while. If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself 'Why?' afterward than before. Anyway, the force of somewhere in space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing and untold story inside you."

~Zora Neale Hurston from Dust Tracks On A Road~ 

Hello, Readers!

I apologize to all my readers for being away so long. I was buried in finishing the second book in what I'm calling The Dragon Stone Trilogy. The first book is called Call of the Dragon, and I've finally name the second book The Puzzle Box. Right now, I'm still without a title for the third book. It is the final installment in a story where the dragon stone is passed back to the dragons and life in the Valley of the Dragons becomes settled once and for all. The evil sorcerer is finally put to rest and the boy of the third book finds out he is a dragon rider and a prince in the Kingdom of Mar.

So much for what my last few weeks have been like. One thing I've learned about during this writing bonanza is the use of description. Especially how we need to pay attention to forward motion in our stories. When we are creating physical description for a character, for example, there is no greater motion-stopper than immobile chunks of physical description. A head to toe assessment of a character that we hardly know is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. We need to get to know the characters as we read, so chunks of description don't stop the flow of the story.

I went back through the last two books (the Dragon Stone Trilogy books) and checked for heavy chunks of description. Correcting that flaw helped my stories flow and seem better paced as we got to know the protagonists and antagonist in the stories.

How do you introduce your characters? Do you have a special idea for each character and then show your character a little at a time?

Are You Writing A Breakout Novel?

While I've been working on my new story, The Puzzle Box, which is the second installment in my series about dragons, kings and a little bit of magic (as in time travel), I've come across an interesting workbook that I thought I'd tell you about.

The workbook is Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook, by Donald Maass. I bought my workbook from Amazon.com. I'm stressing workbook, because he also wrote a book by the title: Writing The Breakout Novel. I didn't have the money to by both books, so I chose the workbook because it has exercises with each lesson and I wanted to be able to take the lesson and use it. The workbook also has all the writing exercises that Mr. Maass leads in his workshops by the same name.

In this book it tells you how to read a novel like a writer, understanding the technique and motivation behind every choice an author makes. You will find help making your characters more memorable, adding layers of plot and weaving them together, discovering themes hidden in your work, using time and place more effectively and more.

Sound like a sales pitch yet? I hope not, because this book isn't for everyone. If you don't have the time to sit down and do the exercises, which require some application, then you won't get to the gold in this book. And that comes from you. When you learn from your own writing, as you push out those exercises.

Here's an example:

Adjusting the Volume

Step 1: At random in the middle of your manuscript, pick anything at all than your protagonist thinks, says, or does. Heighten it. Make it bigger, funnier, more shocking, more vulgar, more out of bounds, more over the top, more violent, more insightful, more wildly romantic, more active, more anything. Make the change in your manuscript.

Step 2: Take that same action, thought, or line of dialogue, and make it smaller. Tone it down; understate it; make it quieter, more internal, more personal, more ironic, more offhand, less impassioned, barely noticeable. Make the change in your manuscript.

Follow-up work: Select twenty-four more points in the story where you can heighten or diminish something that your protagonist does, says, or thinks.

Conclusion: Larger-than-life characters powerfully attract us. Why? They are surprising, vital, and alive. They do not let life slip by. Every moment counts. Every day has meaning. How can you give that kind of life force to your protagonist? Turn up the volume on what she says, thinks, and does.

(From: Page 35, Heightening Larger-Than-Life Qualities) 

What are you reading? Does it help with your current project?

Reasons For Rejection

The Insecure Writer's Support Group, which posts on the first Wednesday of the month, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh, can be found by clicking HERE. You can see other members and what they are writing about, or join up yourself.

I want to pass on some interesting reasons for rejection when you are ready to submit a manuscript to a publisher or an agent. These are things that you can investigate in your own writing and see if you need to do some editing. Please remember that there are a gazillion reasons why an agent or publisher might not use your work. It might be as simple as the wrong genre for that agent or publisher. But investigating them beforehand is always prudent and will keep you from having to waste time submitting and waiting to hear back.

Here are some other reasons:

• An opening image doesn't work.
• Opened with a rhetorical question(s).
• The first line's hook didn't work, because it wasn't tied to the plot or the conflict of the opening scene.
• The first line's hook didn't work, because it was an image, rather than something that was happening in the scene.
• Took too long for anything to happen; the story taking its time to warm up.
• Not enough happens on page 1.
• The opening sounded like an ad for the book or a recap of the pitch, rather than getting the reader into the story.
• The opening starts with phrases, "My name is..." and /or "My age is..."
• The opening contained the phrase, "This can't be happening."
• The opening contained the phrase or implication, "And then I woke up."
• The opening contained too much jargon.
• The opening contained one or more cliched phrases.
• The opening contained one or more cliched pieces of material. For example: a character's long red or blonde hair.
• The opening had a character do something that characters only do in books. For example: a character shakes their head to clear an image, or "clearing the cobwebs."

Do you know of other reasons why agents or publishers reject manuscripts? Can you add to this list?

Comments about writing: I believe that whether or not you choose to follow the current flow of what's acceptable in writing, is up to you. You are the author and as long as you can present your material masterfully and creatively, then if you want to take ten pages to "warm up" your story that's great. It might not be received as enthusiastically by this generation of readers, but you have to write what's in your heart and not sell out to commercialism.