Category Archives: fiction

advice, Business, fiction, resources

Gifts of Writing Love: a Valentine’s Gift for Our Writers

No matter what you write, these little gifts of writer’s resources will speak to the heart and soul of your writing life, with  unique, fresh insight (and some rappin’ too).

Career Survival

From award-winning novelist Jenny Cruisie:

Rats with Islands: How To Survive Your Publishing Career

Excerpt:  “My plan was to make this column about the realities of publishing, giving you all a head’s up on what you’re about to face. Then I realized that was a remarkably bad idea.

“Here’s the thing about reality: It’s not good for you.”

Powerful Technique

From Mary Jaksch at Write to Done:

Why Disconnectors Are Critical In Keeping Your Readers Awake A guest post by Sean DSouza of Psychotactics

Excerpt: “Disconnectors create a jolt

“Imagine you’re driving a car. And the highway stretches in front of you straight as an arrow. Mile after mile of the same, same seems to suck you into vortex of yawns.

“Then suddenly you you see a curve in the road.

”The curve is the disconnector

“It’s the thingamajig on the journey that jolts you back to life. You’re all alert. You’re all eyes and ears. And you’re paying close attention.”

Insanity vs. Humor

from LifeHacker:

How to Work from Home Without Going Insane

Excerpt:  “When you work at a location of your choice you can control what distracts you. If you want to work for 4 hours and not use the bathroom you can do it; if you want to work with 2 lbs of nachos taped to your face like a beard while wearing a sombrero filled with nacho cheese for snacking you can do this. Most people think they will be far more productive due to being able to control large blocks of time, but I found that the experience was quite jarring.”

Making the Professional Leap

From Junhax 

The 10 Blogs That Taught Me (Almost) Everything I Know (And Why You Should Be Reading Them)

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” ? Mark Twain

Excerpt: “Truer words have never been spoken.

“I was a failing student before I started my blog; I went to community college just because my parents told me to — yeah, I know, I was one of those guys.

“But when I started my blog, I had a sudden epiphany: I started to read many books (and as weird as it sounds, I used to never crack open a book), I read many blogs, took advantage of newsletters and Google Reader (RSS), and put what I read into action.

“My life from last year till now is a completely different book; I established myself as a writer, I’m about to publish my first eBook, I met many new friends and networked with incredible people, and overall my attitude and mindset became positive. I learned to live frugally, to be content, to stay focused and follow my passion.

“I’m thankful for all the positivity and people that came into my life, but there’s a reason for all of this: I read all the right blogs.”

Making It Yours

Fron LatinaPen 

2011 Best of Writing Articles and a Rap on Writing

 

 

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

fiction

5 Reasons Your Novel’s Protagonist Hates You

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

Dear Author Dude,

You have some ‘splaining to do. 

The Novel and Short Story Protagonist’s Guild (in league with the Heroes’ Union) has done an extensive survey of members, and we find evidence of a widespread campaign by authors to diminish our stature in fiction.

super-hero

In short, as “the main doer” in your stories, we demand a little respect.

#5 Give Us A Clue. 

Quit making us oblivious to the evils in the world.  We’re tired of being perpetually shocked, confused, surprised, sideswiped, and devastated by the mercurial nature of being alive a world where Bad Things Happen. 

Why, oh, why do we always have to believe that our lives are picture perfect and destined to stay that way… until BOOM, you drop conflict, tragedy, and upheaval into our laps.

Would it really be so bad if this wasn’t the first problem we’ve had to handle?

#4  Good = Weak, Strong = Villain

Ug.  There’s nothing more frustrating than signing up for a noble, heroic role only to find out that, once again, we’re frail, sincere, and ill-equipped to handle the story ahead.

Well, actually there is something more frustrating.  It’s getting to play a well-equipped hero, only to find out that your definition of heroic means that we’re here to out kill, out torture, and out destroy the villain. 

You think we won’t notice you’ve made us into villains? 

Yeah.  We end up in therapy.  Angels weep.  Humankind forgets the mythic roots of story.  And somewhere, a reader’s dim memory of epic story flickers out.

#3 Oh, look, we’re so deep.  (Eyes rolling)

No, wait.  What you really mean is that we’re self-involved, depressed, angry, untrusting,traumatized,  jaded, pessimistic, and perpetually unhappy.

We call that a cheap and easy substitute for deep.  

It’s your job to think, to make the hard decisions and plumb the depths of humanity.  Yet, time after time, you resort to the easy answer.  If you want a “deep” protagonist, you make him unhappy, suicidal, antisocial, and angst-ridden.

Newsflash: Emotional, spiritual, and intellectual depth are seldom explored when stuck in depression.  When someone is traumatized, they do not suddenly become deep.  And pessimistic people latch onto every negative they hear and totally give up. Huh.  That looks kinda thin to us. Not a lot of character depth required in jumping to ‘life sucks, so why try?’

We hereby recall the word "’deep’.’  In its place, from now on, use the word ‘profound.’ 

#2 You’ve made us ‘realistic.’ Gee thanks.

Why is it you confuse realistic with skeevy, mean, snarky, lacking in morals, and pretty much everything related to jackassery.

While there are real people with those traits, do you honestly believe that character’s aren’t realistic unless they’re a pain in the ass?  (This would explain much, if your answer is yes.)

We’d like to introduce you to the idea that  an author’s keen eye in observing his fellow humanity should extend past the current trend of celebrating protagonists who are jerks.

#1 Protagonists Do; Victims Don’t

Make up your mind already.  Are we the protagonists of your stories or the victims?  Victims are a whole other union, and we’re tired of being tricked into playing victims in your books.

As protagonists, we’re the doers of your story’s action. 

Victims don’t do.  They twist their wimpy ankles. They wait for the next badness that you have planned, knowing they need to be rescued, but unable to make it go.

Many of you writer-types already get that.  But what you don’t get is that we protagonists care deeply about what’s happening now and about what will happen next. 

We’re not neutral, nor do we float along.

We don’t just wake up the next day a blank slate, unable to make up our minds or unaware of the current story and our part in it.

We care, we decide, we act, we react.  And we certainly don’t give up.

Victims may care, but they’re prevented from deciding, acting, and reacting by the plot or their own inertia.

So, let’s be clear.  If you hire us protagonists, we’re gonna need to Get It On.  None of this sitting around, falling into things, or not knowing what we want.

Bottom line, we have a powerful function in your stories.  We’ve earned your respect over centuries.  And we’re banding together to say, “You can do better by us.”

(Or else we’ll contact the Villain’s Union, if you get our meaning.)

Sincerely,

Protagonists For Narrative Good, Inc. ( a fictional production)

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

fiction

5 Strange (But Helpful) Tips for Writing A Great Novel

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

#1 Learn to recognize a really great idea.

Most writers have lots of good ideas.  Workable ideas.  Ideas that seem interesting and full of promise.  But most writers have very few GREAT ideas. Showstoppers. Strokes of pure genius.

eureka

Learning to recognize the difference between a good idea that is probably publishable and a great idea that could launch a bestselling career is a pretty neat skill to have.

So start training yourself to rate ideas, plot points, twists, and all the ways that plot conveys story.

Try using a 10 point scale, where 10 is HOLY COW, and 5 is what you see in most published books.

Shoot for a 10.

Now do the same when you build your characters.

#2  Learn to wow 2 people on every page.

You and your reader.  You haven’t hit wow until you are amazed at what you wrote… and so is your reader.

#3 Write to devastate your characters (and your reader).

Don’t be neutral.  Don’t be small.  Don’t pull your punches.  Don’t relegate trauma to off-stage.

Show us the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical blood of your story, right on the page.

Let us know that this story matters.  Not just in this sentence or paragraph, but in the nuclear fallout of every scene after that.

#4 Don’t do the work for the reader.

One of the greatest joys as a reader is…

  • piecing together the subtext of what your characters are scheming,
  • following the threads of meaning to the awful truth,
  • understanding (or speculating about) the repercussions of ever single action, every word spoken, and
  • drawing awful conclusions about what is to come.

There is tendency for writers to rob readers of this joy by spelling out every motivation, every piece of backstory, every conflict, every thought as if the character has spent years in therapy and now understands “the universe” with startling clarity and clinical detachment.

Stop that.  It sucks the fun out of reading.

It’s annoying to have everything explained in a sanitized “sound bite” before we, the readers, even know we need it.

#5 Build to a staggering conclusion; deliver even more.

Don’t let yourself off easy.  Build a powerful ending, and then blow the doors off that.

Readers have already seen al the powerful endings.  Whatever it is that you’re writing, your reader has read a hundred or so books just like that.

Do more.  Pull it off like no one has done before.  Reach into the guts of your story and rip out all the meaning and power you can.  And then take it all the way home.

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

fiction

5 Insider Secrets For Brainstorming a Great Scene

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

1.  Ask yourself, “Why can’t this scene be cut?"

There’s nothing like the threat of having to cut your own writing to get your attention and inspire great brainstorming.

To be a scene that can’t possibly be cut, something needs to happen that impacts the story and changes it.  You’re looking for something that produces fallout that will ripple across scenes and chapters.

2.  Ask yourself, “Who experiences disaster in this scene?”

Fiction is all about disasters small and large.  It’s what gives characters a chance to show off their personality, be it heroic or villainous. 

3.  Ask yourself, “Who is lying in this scene?”

Lies and secrets are innately interesting to readers.  Some lies are told for good, and others are told for varying degrees of evil, from embarrassment all the way to plots to rule the world.

Of course, lies only work if you give hints to the reader that they’re being lied to. 

And if you really want a great scene, expose the lie.

4.  Ask yourself, “What twist can I insert that blows my viewpoint character’s mind?”

Throw your character off balance, and you’ll throw the reader off balance as well.  Hint:  readers love this!

5.  Ask yourself, “How can I re-stage this scene so there’s better, more dramatic, physical action?”

Scenes can be choreographed in the same way as Cirque du Soleil, to be a  mind-blowing, visual feast.  Even small, quiet scenes can be re-designed to be more compelling.

If your mother and teen-daughter characters need to have an argument, where is the most effective place for that to take place?  We’ve all seen the scene where the teen yells, stomps down the hall, and slams her bedroom door.  Been there, done that.

But what about the teen who starts tearing pictures off the living room wall?  Same argument, different setting and actions. 

Or what if they’re not at home at all.  What if they’re at church, hissing at each other in the pews during the service?  What if the daughter suddenly stands up, yells, “I hate you!” and stomps off, down the aisle and out the church door?

Now that’s a scene!

—

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

fiction

9 Pacing Techniques, 1 Scene on Fire (example using real, live writer)

1 Comment

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

Time For Reality

After 9 pacing techniques, 14 in-depth articles, and 6 months…. it’s time for the rubber to meet the road.

  • Is is possible to learn pacing?
  • Can you improve your manuscript by following Diane’s advice?
  • Will you be a better, stronger, more powerful writer?

writer_at_work

Meet a Real Writer Named Marcy

Back in September, I offered to work with one of the Freelance-Zone readers to improve his or her pacing.

Marcy Campbell  (a real, live writer!) answered the call, and I’ve been working with her as she transforms her novel’s opening (a real manuscript with real rejections) by applying my pacing insights.

I totally lucked out.

#1  Marcy is a very advanced writer. She has a beautiful voice and style of prose.  Her characters are fully fleshed out.  Her plot and themes are in place.  In fact, she’s so good, when you read her prose, you don’t know why she hasn’t sold yet.  (Hint: pacing.)

So she was perfect to work with.

After all, how do you improve something that’s already 99% of the way there?  That’s the advanced writer’s dilemma.

#2  Marcy is writing a quiet, up-market, commercial novel and not a thriller.  This excites me (a thriller writer), because pacing is often mistaken as something involving blood and car chases.

But it’s not.

It’s something that even nice, quiet books need.

#3  Marcy is a hard worker, fearless, and willing to re-write, re-vision, and create totally new scenes in order to kick pacing ass.  And she did all this without losing her personal vision of what her novel is or should be.

Rock on, Marcy!

This is such a rare trait, even among career-focused writers.  Why?

Because ego can get in your way – the hope, fear, or insistence that what you’ve slaved over really does work, and the person giving advice just doesn’t get it.

Rewriting over and over means you have to be okay with hearing that there’s more work to do.  Sometimes that can break your heart.

Oh, and you need  to still hold true to your vision.  That leaves you juggling openness, ego, and wisdom.  Marcy did this, and I admire that tremendously.

How Marcy Did It – Diagnostics

(*  See the expanded pacing definition below.)

Marcy’s original version was so finely written that the pacing issues were only truly visible when looking back over it.

This is true for many manuscripts.  In an initial read, all you have as a reader is a vague feeling that the manuscript just isn’t compelling enough (something commonly mentioned in rejection letters).

The summary below will make her work sound obviously problematic, but that wasn’t the case at all.  Her deft prose was fairly dazzling, her voice quite beautiful, and her protagonist’s thoughts filled with sly wit.   But underneath that, she faced the following challenges: Continue reading 9 Pacing Techniques, 1 Scene on Fire (example using real, live writer) →

fiction

How Do You Know Your Pacing is Working? Part 2

1 Comment

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

In Part 1, we took a deep look at using your characters as a diagnostic tool for your pacing.

Pacing is the reader’s experience of the story as brought to life by the characters and scenes you’ve chosen.

If pacing is a factor of the reader’s experience, and if your reader enters the story through the character’s viewpoint, then perhaps your characters can help us out.

Today, we’re going to look at two additional diagnostic tools:

  1. Story, plot, & scenes
  2. The mysterious reader

Stories at Work

If  you think story, plot, & scenes are the same, you’re not alone.

A small detour, but this is important to your pacing.  Trust me; I have candy.

There’s so much overlap here, that it’s not always helpful to get up in someone’s grill and demand, “Do you mean story or plot?!”

But for today,  use the following definitions.

STORY.  First we’re only going to be talking about story that is appropriate for fiction and not “stories” about your day or stuff that happened and went nowhere (lacked unity).

In the case of fiction, story has 1 or more characters engaged in some interesting story goal and/or conflict and/or event that is resolved in the end (usually).

PLOT is the sequence of motivated  events and impacts – how the story unfolds to the reader or listener.

SCENES are the real-time (with sections of summary or flashback) dynamics of the characters who are enmeshed in details of the plot, in service to the story.

Confused?  Just think of all the different film versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

  • You’ll notice that the same story can be told using different details, different dialogue, and still be the same story and the same plot (but the scenes are modified, added, deleted, etc.).
  • The same story can be brought to life (dramatized) using a different sequence (plot).
  • And the same story can be transported and transformed even more by using different characters, different set-up, different situations, different historical context, etc. to inform it.

Because of this, a great story can be told in a thrilling way that brings it to life or in a sub-standard way that disappoints.  Great scenes do not guarantee a great story.  And having great material (story) does not automatically mean it will be carried off well.

If all three elements must work in concert, then your pacing must work on all levels as well.

CANDY REWARD: Here are some additional resources on the difference between story and plot, check out:

Back to pacing….

Pacing Diagnostics Tool #2: Story, Plot, & Scenes

Readers ultimately have one question: “Do I want to read on?”

Story, Plot, & Scenes control the reader’s experience of story and how it unfolds, from the large-scale understanding and meaning of events upon the characters, all the way down to what’s happening RIGHT NOW, on the page.

When your pacing is working to your advantage, readers are getting the full impact of a great story, dynamic plot events, and dramatic scenes.

Pacing won’t save these things if they’re not great, but if they are great and your pacing is off, it will absolutely hurt the impact on your reader.

Here are questions you can use to diagnose your pacing woes.  You might want to do a pass for each level – story, plot, and scene. Continue reading How Do You Know Your Pacing is Working? Part 2 →