Marching On (or Springing Back?)

Tip of the Day: Like zombie books and literary fiction? You must read THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES by Carrie Ryan!

Is it that time again already? By gum, it is! Time to see how I'm doing on my March goals as written in January:

March -- Complete first draft of SS

Oi. OK, I am so off track from where I thought I'd be -- yet in a good way! Since the end of February, I've been deep in revisions for an editor who requested them. Spot-on revision suggestions that have been improving my middle-grade novel, BAKE, so much.

On top of that, I don't think I'll get back to SS until fall. This spring and summer, after I turn in these BAKE revisions to my agent, I'll be first drafting PforF, a new idea that I got the agent thumbs up on.

So it's all good stuff. And it is interesting to see the direction my writing life is going compared to the way I thought it would be a mere three months ago.

What fun surprises have come up in your writing world this month?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Mystery Central: The Crime

Tip of the Day: happy soon-to-be spring everyone!

Continuing on about mystery novels, in addition to the mystery structure there's a few more things I like to know about my book before I get started writing.

The first one: The Crime

Now since we're talking about MG and YA novels, the crime probably isn't going to be anywhere near as bad as in an adult mystery novel (though never say never, I guess). So the saying that a mystery novel has to contain a dead body, doesn't always apply to mysteries for younger readers. Whatever your crime is, it has to fit the tone of your book.

Once you have a general idea of what your crime will be: kidnapping, theft, murder, etc. then there's a few things I like to figure out:

1. Crime Scenario (Victim, weapon, scene of the crime, etc.)
2. What appears to have happened
3. What really happened
4. Why this crime matters to the sleuth

With MG and YA mysteries the sleuth is often more invested in the crime, merely because they don't have jobs such as a police officer, private investigator, lawyer, or even bounty hunter. Sure you can have them pretend to be one of the above or aspire to be one when they become an adult, but there still has to be something linking the sleuth to this particular crime.

Knowing this ahead of time helps me a ton when writing.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Photo borrowed from: http://www.mysterygift.biz/mystery.jpg

Internet Discouragement

Tip of the Day: Well, I was going to let you all know why my driveway is covered in earthworms (yours too maybe?) but it turns out to be more complicated than I thought! Consensus is that it can get too wet underground for their non-lung breathing. There's your science-is-fun fact for the day.

On Friday, Lisa posted about maintaining a positive attitude online. She discussed our online personas and how we want people to see us on the internet. But I want to change the subject a bit.

Have you noticed lately that hanging out on the internet can be depressing?

I get discouraged as a writer. I guess everyone does sometimes. I get discouraged when I can't get a scene right, but I usually figure I can eventually revise it into submission. I get discouraged when I get form rejections, but I usually figure it's part of the business, and just one opinion on one story.

But reading too many blogs and message boards is much more dismal. I used to enjoy it, but now so much of it is on the state of the business. Libraries losing funding. Amazon commenters refusing to pay more than a few bucks for an e-book. Publishers bidding millions for the latest celebrity ghostwritten title while they slash acquisitions. Layoffs everywhere.

For a while, I kept reading, thinking it was a good idea to be informed. But I finally realized the problem. For many of us, our love of writing has turned into the skills we use at our day jobs. We're librarians, book sellers, editors, journalists, freelancers. And I've made so many writing friends over the years. Ack, what are we all going to do?

Oh, but look. I can stop reading about it. Problem solved. Well, not really, but honestly, I feel a lot better.

So now it's time for a poll.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Keeping the seven dwarfs in mind

Tip of the Day: Great post by Nathan Bransford on things to ask yourself if you are considering self-publishing - go HERE to read.

Recently on Facebook, someone had one of those games where they answer a question about one of their friends. Her question was - which of the seven dwarfs is Lisa most like (or something like that).

I sort of panicked for a second. How would she answer that question? When I saw she answered the question with "Happy" I breathed a sigh of relief.

So, why am I blogging about this, you ask? It made me realize that I *want* to be Happy. The problem, however, is that being an author doesn't always make me happy. Some days, yes. But not always. I'll spare you the details. (cough, *low sales*, cough, *bad reviews*, cough, *rejections*, cough).

And more and more I understand that anything other than happy really shouldn't come through on-line. I want everyone who I meet as a part of my job as author to think of me as "Happy."

I've made some mistakes over the years - letting my frustration out in a blog post or a tweet. Bad Lisa, bad! Some days, it can be REALLY hard to keep it to myself. I want others to understand how hard it can be. But the thing is, generally, they won't. So I've learned I need to turn to my trusted writer friends in private for that support - not for the general public on-line. People will say they like seeing both sides of the business, and they like seeing that we are all human. But I've learned my lesson because I also know that to some people, it comes across as ungrateful or whiney or just plain GRUMPY.

So now, whenever I'm tempted to post something questionable, I'm going to make myself think of the Seven Dwarfs. AND, I'm going to get off the internet and go for a nice walk or something, because 90% of the time, the internet itself is what makes me less than happy in the first place!

Happily yours,

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

I Want to be Swagalicious Part 2: So Where Do I Get Stuff?

Tip of the Day: Printrunner has free shipping right now until 3/31/10.

Thanks for all of your suggestions last week-- I think I'm on my way to being swagalicious. This week I've been researching where to get stuff and I thought hey, share the info with everyone else looking for swag!

Postcards

Why do I need them? Aside from sending them to absolutely every friend and family member and old teacher etc. that you know, send them to independent bookstores and teen librarians!

How do I get them? Vistaprint has some super awesome oversized postcards and here's the thing with Vistaprint-- they will send you e-mails numerous times a week offering you free stuff. LOTS of free stuff. Postcards are almost always on this list. You just pay the shipping. And if you're not in a hurry, choose the cheapest route. I just got some more free ones last week to send librarians-- aren't they cute?

Bookmarks

I already wrote a completely brilliant ;) post on bookmarks and I still love them so read here.

Buttons

Why do I need them? Cuz' they're cute. Really, they're completely optional giveaways. See the totally cute ones I got from Tera Lynn Childs:

How do I get them? Busy Beaver has totally reasonable prices. Check them out.

Stickers

Why do I need them? Why not? ;-)

How do I get them? I am about to order 1000 cuuuuuute stickers for Espressologist for $57 at printrunner.com (and like the TOD says, free shipping!). Still contemplating a Fake Boyfriend sticker but I'll order those too when I come up with something. In the mean time, check out Carrie Ryan's cute sticker for her new book:

Temporary Tattoos

Why do I need them? Cuz they're swagalicious. And who doesn't love putting something on their skin that takes a good 3-4 baths to get off?

How do I get them? Check out Tattoosales or Branders for deals.

Gel Bracelets

Why do I need them? I actually don't think I do. But I see them a lot at events so I'll include the info!

How do I get them? Here's a really cute place!

Other Stuff

I'm going to add one more tip that I got from Mandy Hubbard. Check wedding favor sites! Mandy got super cute lip glosses with her book title Prada & Prejudice on it. Check out this site, Beau Coup. They have everything from fortune cookies to poker chips to mini candles. Cute!

Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves

The Phrase of the Day (or Big Buts)

Tip of the Day: To find out how many times you use a word in your manuscript, do a Find/Replace for the same word and see how many changes are made. Compare that number to the number of pages in your document. Is your word usage to heavy in your book?

There are some phrases I like, but I use them too much. There are other words I like, but I managed to cut down on their usage by maintaining my conscious awareness of them. "Just," "back," and "really" are examples of some of these overused words in my past, but now I have a new vice.

Can you tell what it is?

BUT!

And not just any "but," but the but that follows a comma. In my 208 page manuscript, I found 155 instances of this phrase! ACK!

The scary thing is how long it took me to discover this crutch. This is the novel that captured the interest of my current agent. I revised it twice with her, and am now revising it again for an editor. And until now, on page 138 of the 208 page ms, I didn't realize how many times I used it. Holy macaroni! I can't believe this book has made it this far.

On the plus side, it shows that voice, character, and plot can take a book far. On the minus side, omg, how come no one told me I had toilet paper sticking out of the back of my pants for so long?

I have returned to page 23 of my ms and am diligently searching out and destroying as many ", but" phrases as humanly possible. The crutch must go!

What are your latest, newly discovered crutches?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Mystery Structure

Tip of the Day: get out your sleuth hats and your magnifying glasses because it's mystery time!

Since I've been working on a middle-grade mystery book lately I've been studying up on how to write an effective mystery. I know not everyone out there reading this blog writes mysteries, but I thought someone might find this helpful. So for the next few weeks, Tuesday is going to be Mystery Central.

The first thing I wanted to share is basically my Mystery Bible. One of my writing friends passed this mystery structure along to me a few years ago. I have no idea where it came from originally (but I did find a more detailed list here), so I can't give credit where credit is due, but whoever compiled this thank you! This small piece of paper has been like a life saver and a very good starting point when I'm planning a mystery.

Because starting a mystery without having a plan, is somewhat pointless to me. Some books you can get away with without knowing where the book is going, but that is very difficult to do in a mystery. You kind of have to know "who did it" and "why" otherwise you can't lay the groundwork for the sleuth or the reader to solve the crime.

Classic Mystery Structure

An “act” is traditionally 3-5 chapters long (but can be as long or as short as it needs to be for the story.)


ACT 1
Introduce the crime

• Disclose the crime/mystery to be solved.
• Initial clues revealed.
• Set the sleuth on the path toward solving the mystery.
• Something should occur which makes the reader know that the crime is more complicated than initially suspected.
  

ACT II
Direct the investigation toward a conclusion that later proves to be erroneous

• Reveal facts about suspects
• Flight or disappearance of one or more suspects
• Investigation should broaden to put suspicion on other characters
• Develop a sense of urgency.
• Make clear the sleuth has a personal stake in the outcome (his own life may be in danger).
• The sleuth comes to an erroneous conclusion about the crime
  

ACT III
Change of focus and scope of the investigation. This is the pivotal point in the story as it becomes evident that the sleuth was on the wrong track

• Something unexpected, such as the appearance of a second body, the death of a major suspect, or discovery of evidence that clears the most likely suspect. The story must take a new direction.
• The sleuth reviews the facts of the investigation.
• The solution seems to be impossible. Attempts to solve the crime have stymied the sleuth. Misinterpretation of clues or mistaken conclusions have lead her in t he wrong direction, and logic must be applied to force a new way of looking at the clues,
• Review of chain of events that provoked the crime.
• The crucial evidence is something overlooked in Act I, which appeared to have little consequence at the time it was first disclosed. That evidence takes on a new light with information disclosed in Act II. The solution remains undisclosed to the reader.
  

ACT IV
Solution

• Based on what he or she now knows, the sleuth must seek positive proof of the as-yet undisclosed solution.
• The climax: dramatic confrontation between the sleuth and the perpetrator: the sleuth prevails.
• Resolution: Revelation of clues and deductive process that lead to the solution.
  

--Emily, Miss Querylicious