3T Writing Tidbit

 As I write this, I'm making self-editing passes on Night's Bliss, the final book in the Ancients series. One of the most important stems from the three-pass system by the always awesome Liz Pelletier, publisher at Entangled. It requires a complete read through and deals with overarching things like plot pacing. Normally I have 3-5 pages of notes when I'm done.

This book, I had four pages--in the first 10%. 

Most were line edit type things. Wrong word choice, muddled phrase or sentence. So I went through the book cleaning up the prose first. Then I tried the full read again. 

This time I got through four pages and 14%.

Frustrated, I did another nitty-gritty pass, cleaning up muddled paragraphs and sharpening dialog.

Then, finally, I was able to read the book at the level where I could see problems with character arc and plot structure.

It brought to mind a workshop on editing I took with great writing coach Laurel Yourke as part of A Weekend With Your Novel (UW-Madison Continuing Studies). She calls it "trees" versus "forest."

As writers, we spend a lot of time honing the trees. Crafting an elegant turn of phrase, getting just the right word. But too many of us get bogged down in all those elegant phrases and perfect words. We never see the forest, which might be a horrendous mess. Yourke, as I remember it, said we need to do more forest-edit passes.

True. But I discovered something during my rounds of self-edits. While the whole-book high level pass is essential, the shape of the forest can't be determined if the trees are choked by weeds. That is, the prose must be clean enough that you can actually see the shape of the big-picture things.

I encourage every writer out there, if you're not doing a read through like a reader, where you plow through the whole book from beginning to end with as few stops as possible--start. (If you don't know what to look for, I found insight with the two people I mentioned, but there are plenty of guides out there. Find one that works for you.) But be aware that the grand read-through pass may not be possible until you've weeded the garden first (or trimmed the excess clay from the pottery wheel or plucked the extraneous hairs from the eyebrow or whatever metaphor works best for you).

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits. 

2T Repeat Performance - Use Artist

 I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published April 20, 2010 for Vivi Andrews

Question- How has your writing approach changed since you've been published?  Does the fact that you now know readers & reviewers will be reading your books affect your writing process at all? 

Use Artist

Thanks so much, Vivi, for having me here today!

I admit to being a total use artist, use rhyming with moose, as in usefulness. I wrote church plays when my church needed plays. I sang tenor in my husband's choirs even though it drove me nuts when the sopranos complained the notes were too high (I live for sailing above the staff). I'm a flutist but learned oboe when my college needed an oboist. When our wind band needed extra percussion for a tour I stepped in again—and soloed throughout Europe on bass drum, LOL.

As a writer I need to be useful too, so what the reader wants factors hugely. Oh, I have some general ideas where I want my stories to go. But if I sense readers want more or less of a certain thing (or sooner rather than later), I’ll do it if I can.

The big caveat being if I can. I spent enough time writing before getting published that I know my writer self pretty well. I know there are certain plots, certain character types I can't write, no matter how wonderful they are. My husband has suggested some stunning plot twists but if they involve the hero being less than alpha (for example) my heart won't be in the writing. And when my heart's really not in it, the writing really doesn't happen.

So my basic approach hasn't changed that much. Sure, writing to public expectation makes the process harder. Besides Little Miss Inner Critic I now have Imaginary Shoulder Readers (not to be confused with Liese’s shoulder buddies).  And I spend about a third of my writing time in the colorful world of PromoLand, which I didn’t have to worry about before.

But knowing reader expectation actually makes the writing process easier too. I write all kinds of stories, science fiction to erotic romance. Before publishing I had to guess which to work on. Now I can choose what to bring to the front burner based on what other people want to read.

So if it’s Biting Love people want, that's what I'll mostly write. To paraphrase Nixie, it's what I can do to make other people happy.

 

3T Writing Tidbit

How do you come up with those ideas??

Have you ever been asked this question?

Have you ever answered it?

I like creating stories, characters, and settings because to me it's like Tetris. Different characters have different shapes (needs/goals/personalities). They fit different ways with their setting, and with each other.

Some shapes don't fit at all. Some snug down so beautifully I know they were meant to be together. Some even fit together with the hole of the exact shape of another character!

But I have to be willing to put a few together wrong to really appreciate when they're right.

Or it's like building blocks. Snap a few together and you get a bridge. Snap others and you get a building. Depending on what kind of theme I want to explore, I'll pick up and discard a dozen, two dozen or more element blocks of character, setting, and motives.

But I have to be willing to discard a wrong block and try another.

The point I'm trying to make is, creativity abounds with wrong paths. 

Creativity isn't like most things in life. It's not building something everyone knows how to build. It's not following a recipe to the letter to get exactly what you expect.

It is, by definition, creativity creates, which means the unexpected. It also means some things won't work out.

At some point in the writing process--either before you start writing, when things aren't going well, or if the ending falls flat--you need to envision the scene you're trying to create. Put people there and work with them; put them through their paces. They might not work out. In fact, the first few probably won't!

But keep trying. Be willing to envision and scene and try different paths. be willing to put together pieces that might not work. They may surprise you! or turn out to be absolutely awful.

It's still creative. And if you keep creating, you can make something that you'll read and be astonished and delighted and proud.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - What Kind of Reader Are You? A Quiz.

 I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published April 20, 2010 for Vivi Andrews's blog

Thanks so much, Vivi, for having me here today!

I love those little “What kind of chocolate monster are you”-style quizzes, and thought it might be fun to try my hand at one.  Keep in mind this is totally subjective and without scientific basis. Though there’s scoring, no bias is implied toward any category.

I tried to find a non-value rating system but the closest I have at the moment is hash marks.  Add up the hashes to find a category.

Note: No bunnies were harmed in the making of this quiz.

1.       When you look for a read, you’re looking for

a.       A good story – 4 hashes

b.       A great story – 3 hashes

c.       A solid story built in nearly-perfect fashion – 2 hashes

d.       A story that excites you personally – 5 hashes

2.       You need to tell everyone when you find what kind of book?

a.       A great book – 2 hashes

b.       A wonderful book – 5 hashes

c.       A POS-awful book – 3 hashes

d.       It doesn’t matter, I need to tell everyone the best of every book – 4 hashes

e.       One or two movers-and-shakers – 1 hash

3.       You read

a.       Everything and anything – 3 hashes

b.       Your favorite autobuy authors and a few new ones if they look good – 5 hashes

4.       You try to

a.       Find the best in what you read – 4 hashes

b.       Find the worst in what you read – 3 hashes

c.       Find structure in what you read – 1 hash

d.       Just read—unless something breaks your suspension of disbelief, then you throw the book ☺  – 5 hashes

5.       When you find a great new author, you love to

a.       Abstract the story into a few sparkling sentences – 2 hashes

b.       Tell just the right person – 1 hash

c.       Turn all your friend onto her – 3 hashes

d.       You prefer to know your friends’ tastes, and recommend just the right author – 4 hashes

6.       Nothing good was written after

a.       Shakespeare – 1 hash

b.       1940 – 2 hashes

c.       Great new authors are popping up all the time – 5 hashes

 

Here are my totally unscientific results!

24-29 Reader—You're priceless. Without you there would be no publishing industry☺.

18-23 Reviewer—You're smart and wise, with the ability to find the best, most exciting things about a book. You pass that along to your readers, helping a story find its audience.

13-17 Critic—You're witty, clever, and primarily an entertainer at heart. The story's important but more important is how you can use it as a tool to entertain.

10-12 Judge—You're looking for a solid story, without the need to impress or excite anyone else. A Plato, measuring every story against the perfect Story Form.

0-9—You're my eighth grade E

 

3T Writing Tidbit

More tension! We hear it all the time. But how can we do it without resorting to characters simply screaming at each other for no good reason?

Well, goal, motive, conflict. Pick two characters with goals that don't mesh and you have conflict. But here's a little variation that's really nice, if you find a place it's appropriate.

Have people accuse the hero of stuff (usually not true or not true in the way people accuse). But here's the twist: don't have the hero rebut the charges. Have them walk away or stand and take it, making no answer--until by sacrifice or suffering or heroic act they earn the right to say their piece.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

2T Repeat Performance - The Conquering Vampire Hero

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published April 12, 2010 for VampChix

Thanks, Michele, for inviting me to VampChix today!

I love alpha males, heroes that leap off the page.  But I never wanted to write a vampire story.

Vampires scare me. Always have, since I snuck into my older brother’s room and a book cover of Dracula sent me scampering back out. Dark places and things that go bump in the night scare me. Death scares me, having dealt with it too early.

Oh, and blood. I get faint at needles and blood; it doesn’t even have to be my own. Don’t make me tell the story of when my son broke his arm and we took him to the emergency room. It’s embarrassing.

But I write vampire romances. Why?

In her interviews Michele asks five wonderful thought-provoking rapid-fire questions. Three that interest me especially are light/dark, neck/bag, dead/undead. Overwhelmingly the responses are dark, neck, undead.

Michele’s questions gave me the key. Vampires are all about dark. It’s their natural habitat, to the point that daylight is a threat. They’re all about blood, to the point that they consume it.

And vampires are all about death—are in fact about beating it, about going through death and coming out undead on the other side. 

That’s why I write about them, why they fascinate me. Vampires aren’t afraid of the things that scare me. They’re not afraid of blood and death. They’re not afraid of things that go bump in the night—because they are the things that go bump in the night.

Vampires have no fear of dark and blood and death—more, they thrive on them. They’re beyond fear because they’ve conquered it—the ultimate hero material.

What’s your preference? Light/dark? Neck/bag? Dead/undead?

Biting Me Softly Coming April 20 2010!

He’s a candy box of sex appeal wrapped with a golden bow. She’s on a diet.

Blood, sex, violence. Blood, okay, but computer geek Liese Schmetterling had enough S&V when her cheating ex fired her. Now security expert—and lip-smacking gorgeous—Logan Steel saunters into her Blood Center, setting fire to her libido. And threatening her job.

Visions of pink slips dancing in her head, Liese tries to push Logan away without touching his jutting pecs…or ridged abs. Or petting the Vesuvius in his jeans. He’s hiding something, but it doesn’t seem to matter when his smiles stun her, his kisses crank her to broiling and his bites rocket her to heaven. Fangy bites which, if she weren’t grounded in science, would make her think ampire-Vay.

Centuries old and tragedy-scarred, Logan’s mission is to fortify the Blood Center’s electronic defenses against his nemesis, the leader of a rogue vampire gang. He’s ready for battle but not for Liese, who slips under his skin, laughs at his awful puns, charges beside him into dark, scary places—and tastes like his true love.

No matter how often Logan declares his love, Liese can’t bring herself to trust him. But when his archenemy comes after her, not trusting him may cost her life...

Warning: contains explicit vampire sex involving absurdly large male equipment (hey, they’re monsters), unbelievable stamina (just how long can he stay underwater in a hot tub?), hide-your-eyes violence and horrendously bad puns. And, just when you think it can’t get any worse, a computer geekette trying to play Mata Hari.

Five Nymphs Literary Nymph Reviews Only

Five Cherries Whipped Cream Erotic Romance Reviews

Read an excerpt at MaryHughesBooks.com.
See the trailer at YouTube!

Mary Hughes is a computer consultant, professional musician, and writer. At various points in her life she has taught Taekwondo, worked in the insurance industry, and studied religion. She is intensely interested in the origins of the universe. She has a wonderful husband (though happily-ever-after takes a lot of hard work) and two great kids. But she thinks that with all the advances in modern medicine, childbirth should be a lot less messy.

To learn more about Mary Hughes, please visit www.maryhughesbooks.com.

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