Have you signed up for 750words.com yet? Or will you try doing 750 words on paper? I’ve just completed my 36th day of doing 750 words!

If the first task of Think Like a Writer is to observe the world around you, the task of the fiction writer or the novelist, is to create, then observe the world of the story. The exercise is the same, but this time you draw upon imagination. What does your character see, hear, taste, touch, feel as s/he moves around in his/her world?

As a writer you can create this purely from imagination, or you can draw upon observations about places you’ve visited. For example, I spotted this praying mantis on the Great Wall of China.



Thinking like a writer means to notice the small things like this, because often, it is the smallest details that make a story come to life. Yes, I observed the usual things while climbing the Wall, but the praying mantis is one of the special things I remember.

Details of Your Story’s Setting

Today, think like a writer and create the sensory environment of your story. Like yesterday, write out what the characters See, Hear, Feel, Taste, and Touch. Then write a paragraph using those details; don’t feel like you have to use every detail you wrote, just select the ones that work; add anything else that occurs.

Does the story come alive better now?
What writing exercises or prompts do you use to make a setting fresher and more alive?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Yesterday, December 31, my friend Charlie Woods rode his bike 60 miles and finished his yearly goal of 10,000 miles. That’s an average of 27.8 miles per day and he’s been hitting that goal for over 3000 days. Yes, without fail. Rain or shine (he has a stationary bike for bad-weather days), sick or healthy, he never misses.

It makes me think about my commitment to writing. Do I write every day? Almost every day. But EVERY day? No.
And what does this say about how I think about my life? How does a writer think?
I want to strengthen my thinking as a writer, I want a deeper commitment to writing.

A new tool I’ve found to do this is the website www.750words.com.
It’s simple. You log on the write 750 words every day. That’s it. Simple and easy. As the website says, it started with the idea of “morning pages,” but Buster wanted to create something online to do this. The 750 words you write every day are “private, unfiltered, spontaneous, daily.”

I’ve done it now for 33 days and earned several “badges“. No, they aren’t Girl Scout badges and really, they don’t matter much, except to me.

• Everyone starts out with an egg, a big fat zero.
  
• Writing 3 days in a row gets you a Turkey
  
• 5 days is a Penguin
  
• 10 days is a Flamingo
  
• 30 days is an Albatross
  
• 100 days in a row is a Phoenix.
  

I’m working on my Phoenix now! 35 days down, 65 to go!

In addition, I’ve earned these badges

• a Cheetah (fast typist)
  
• a Hamster (typing without distractions–no pauses greater than 3 minutes)
  
• The Early Rooster (because I type early in the morning) (There’s also a Night Bat, but I’ll NEVER win that one.)
  
  

It’s fun. I want that Phoenix.
For more information see the FAQ on 750words.com

Here’s my New Year’s Challenge to you! Join me in becoming an Albatross.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll post a daily prompt, which you can use, or you can do your own prompt, if you’d rather.

30 Days to Thinking Like a Writer Prompts

What I’m doing is using the 750 words as an exercise, like playing scales on a musical instrument. I want to sharpen my skills and the prompts will be something that encourages you to spend 30 days Thinking Like a Writer.

Day 1: Thinking Like a Writer

The basic exercise for writers is to observe the world around them and accurately reproduce it in their writing. As humans, we know the world around us by using our senses, what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste. For this exercise, just think about a place you’ve been recently. Maybe you’re sitting on a park bench, eating popcorn when a truck flies by.

Type, SEE. Then record specific observations. Specific is important. Not a truck. But a steel-blue Ford F-150 with mud streaks. The more specific you can be, the better.

Repeat for each sense; here’s an example.

• SEE: Steel-blue Ford F-150 with mud streaks
• HEAR: squealing tires, high-pitched, lasted 3 seconds
• SMELL: burning rubber, contrasted with the smell of popcorn popping
• TOUCH: chilly wind
• TASTE: buttered, salted popcorn

Some senses will be harder than others depending on the situation. You may not have a smell or a taste. Think of TOUCH as temperature and texture. This isn’t emotional, such as “I felt scared.” It’s the actual physical sensation of touching something; it can also be the kinesthetic feel of moving through space. Also, search for great verbs for each sense: shivered in the chilly wind, tires squealed, dropped the slick popcorn bag, clapped greasy hands to my ears. For HEAR, try for Onomatopoeia, whenever you can.

Once you have the sensory information recorded (I call this a sensory details worksheet, the most important prewriting activity for a narrative, fictional or real), then use the information to write a paragraph or two. Add any information that occurs to you as you write and don’t feel compelled to use every detail. Just use what works.

A chill wind blew steadily and I hunched under my trench coat, crunching my popcorn, when suddenly, a steel-blue Ford F-150 sped down the road, just as the stop light turned yellow, then red. Wheeeeeeeee! The high-pitched squeal from the truck’s brakes blasted the quiet day. It stopped. Halfway through the intersection, but just short of a red Miata convertible, with a crazy driver who thought such a chilly day was a good day for driving around with the top down. No, the crazy driver was behind the wheel of the Ford.

Not great writing, maybe, but specific and detailed. That’s what you want when you do this exercise, practice your scales, write your 750 words.

Try it with me. Either on paper, computer or online at www.750words.com (it’s 3 typed double-spaced pages, if you do it offline). I’ll post prompts daily for 30 days as we Think Like a Writer and earn your first albatross!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

On Spec or Proposal?

Would you like to buy my book?

A second way to write is to create the concept, a couple sample chapters and put together a book proposal. This is common for experienced writers, nonfiction topics and series.

What goes into a proposal?

A proposal includes a clear concept and samples of the writing that will appear in the finished manuscript. Let’s look at non-fiction and fiction separately.

Fiction Proposal

Concept: For fiction, a book proposal a high-concept catchy one-liner is helpful. “Boy meets girl” isn’t enough. You’ll need something interesting enough to carry the proposal, so think about how to phrase the one-liner, the hook.

A love affair with a twist: she wants his bite, but he wants her humanity.

Chapter Breakdown: Usually the first book in a series must have a couple lines per chapter. The editors will want to know that you can, indeed, plot a tight story. Each chapter should include a couple lines about the major actions of the story.

Characters: Sometimes, it’s helpful to include short sketches of each major character. Nothing long, a paragraph at most. Make sure each is unique and interesting and contributes to the story.

Series Outline: If you’re proposing a series, then you’ll need half a page or so on each title. Include an overview with the main problem, major complications and a resolution.

Your Bio: Why are you the best person to write this story? What are your past publications, etc. Keep this specific to the proposal, yet general enough to cover your career.

Writing Sample: You must include a sample of the writing for this book, so the editor has a clear idea of what they will get for this contract. Don’t be skimpy. Write three solid chapters and polish them, put your best foot forward.

Letter: This is the usual business letter that you would include with any query or submission letter. Be sure to include the series hook and a hook for the first book.

NonFiction Proposal

The nonfiction proposal includes everything above, except maybe the character sketches. For a biography, though, you’d include it as well. The extra for a nonfiction proposal is the bibliography. You course, you’ll uncover many more resources as you write your story, but you need enough here to let the editor know you have material to write about.

Especially important here is your access to sources. If an editor gets two similar proposals for stories about George Washington, s/he’ll look at the access to sources. Writer A has done online research and has uncovered interesting info. Writer B, though, has contacted Mount Vernon and has an invitation to stay in the VIP suite while talking to staff about the research.

Which writer would you give a contract? Writer B, every time!

With competition so stiff these days, make sure you have the best access to sources possible. It will make your proposal more likely to be accepted.

How Well Do Proposals Work?

Some do, some don’t.

After a successful book, an author might just need to hand an editor a two-page proposal to get a contract. A new author might need to write an entire 100,000 word novel on spec. And everything in between happens in publishing. You’ll have to decide how much you want to do on spec and how solid your relationship is with your publisher. But keep in mind that as your career grows, your book proposals could shrink!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Need to know how well your writing, editing and revisions are going? Here’s a variety of checklists to help you evaluate where you are in the writing process.

1. Checklist of 17 Character Qualities
2. 10 Checkpoints for a Scene
3. Style: Checklist For Fiction Writers
4. Editing Checklists for Story, Plot, Characters, Dialogue and more.
5. A Novel Writing Checklist
6. Story Plan Checklist
7. Synopsis Checklist
8. The DUMMIES Checklist for Writing a Novel and Getting it Published
9. The Checklist for Critiquing a Novel (Things to Look For)
10. Revision Checklist for Novelists
11. Writer’s Editing Checklist
12. The Expanded Power Revision Checklist

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

YA for Dummies and Prairie Storms

What sounds does a ground hog make? An earless lizard? A burrowing owl? Six months ago, I had no idea!

August, 2011 Release

Written by Deborah Halverson, founder of the writer’s advice website DearEditor.com, it has great advice on writing and publishing a teen novel. Deborah edited young adult and children’s fiction with Harcourt Children’s Books before picking up a pen to write the award-winning teen novels Honk If You Hate Me and Big Mouth.

The book is filled with great features, including:

• tips for targeting an audience, finding an angle that’ll make the story stand out, and writing a killer hook
• an extensive chapter on self-marketing to help writers move boldly into the realm of self-promotion–including book trailers
• techniques and exercises to shape plot, create teen-friendly characters, develop a convincingly youthful voice, write natural dialogue, and use setting to illuminate characters and plot
• 13 National Book Award winners and finalists, Newbery medalists and honorees, and other award-winning luminaries sharing their insights
• self-editing tools to transform a first draft into a strong submission-ready final draft
• insider tips for finding the right agent and/or editor and preparing a stand-out submission package
• answers to common book contract questions
• advice on self-publishing for YA writers

Read more at DearEditor.com

Finding Audio for a Book Trailer

To anticipate the release of Prairie Storms and celebrate the release of Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies, I’m debuting the Prairie Storms book trailer here today.

As the author of The Book Trailer Manual, I had some simple ideas on where to find public domain sounds and inexpensive audio tracks.

Sound Track. First, I knew that I wanted a sound track to back up the animal sounds. Jeremy Doss, my nephew, is a talented film composer with experience in creating the musical moods needed to accompany and enhance images. A graduate of Film Score program an University of Southern California, he also writes music for video games and other uses.

We talked about what sort of music I needed and Jeremy was fantastic to work with. Contact him at jersam1995@sbcglobal.net

Animal Sounds – FREE. Second, I needed audio of the sounds made by each animal. Any time I need audio or video for animals in the United States, I start at the Fish and Wildlife Multimedia Library. The government agency provides public domain multimedia, free for public use. Here, I found great audio for the American Bison and the Bald Eagle. However, none of the other animals had sound tracks.

Animal Sounds – Inexpensive. My next stop was www.SoundDogs.com, a site which has a wide variety of audio clips. Amazingly, they had every other sound I needed, except the ground hog. For these clips, I looked for short audio clips with clear sounds of the animal involved. You can sort by the length of a clip and I was looking for the shortest possible: I knew I wanted the whole video about one minute in length, so I would only need a 4-5 second sound clip for any one animal. I searched and listened to clips and made decisions. One disappointment was that the earless lizard had no sound; indeed, most lizards don’t make any sounds. I finally decided to go with a clip of a lizard running on wood as the most likely option.

After I put all the sounds into the shopping cart, I was a bit afraid to look at the total. It was a pleasant surprise to see that I had only spent about $20.

Ask Permission from Private Party. Then, there was that pesky ground hog. Fortunately, I found www.hoghaven.com, a site specifically about ground hogs, and they had a dozen sound clips of ground hogs. I wrote the site owner, explained the project and asked permission to use one of the sounds. They were gracious enough to give permission. That gave me the last sound that I needed.

Creating the Book Trailer for Prairie Storms

With Kathleen Rietz’s (www.kathleenrietz.com) watercolor images from the Prairie Storm book and the sounds, I set to work. I use Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope) to edit my video. No, it’s not a free program like PhotoStory, it has lots of flexibility and options. I searched and searched for a program when I started doing book trailers, until I came to Vegas. Here’s what sold me on this program: they have extensive tutorials right at your fingertips, built into the main screen. The learning curve for this program was minimal compared to anything else I tried, an hour instead of four or five.

To create this trailer, I made some decisions:
The trailer would run about one minute.
With twelve animals that meant about 4 seconds per animal, with the remaining time going to the opening screen and credits.

I set up the program with markers every four seconds and added the images on one track, the animal sounds on a second and the sound track on a third. Then, I went through and added to a fourth track the text that appears on the video. Vegas has the capability to scan across an image or zoom in and out, so I adjusted this. Initially, the images were full page, but the text of the book interfered, so I zoomed in on each animal, then panned across to create movement. Static images are weaker than moving images in a trailer, you lose the viewer’s attention.

After previewing it a number of times and getting feedback, I took my husband’s suggestion to create a bit of a splash at the end with the book cover. After the American Bison at the end, there’s actually a half second of nothing except the music track. This is followed by a thunder clap and the front cover of the book. To find the right thunder clap, I went back to www.SoundDogs.com and searched through their extensive offering of storm sounds.

The video ends quickly with credits to the publisher, Sylvan Dell, the film composer Jeremy Doss and thanks to hoghaven.com for the groundhog sounds.

Working with a publisher, I was careful to run drafts of the video past the editor, publicity director and publisher. Jeremy Doss approved the trailer, as did Kathleen Rietz, the illustrator. When all approvals were in, I uploaded it to YouTube. And waited. It was ready early June, but I knew that I didn’t want to show it until after I spoke at the American Library Association, where the trailer would have its debut. And now, here’s the debut on this site:

*|YouTube:uaUirE0ed6Y|*

TEACHERS: If your school blocks video through your server, please email me (darcy at darcypattison dot com) for a copy of the file to show to your class.

AUTHORS: Need more on how-to create book trailers? See my sister site www.booktrailermanual.com

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

When you’re writing do you tell people what your working on or not?

Darcy, the Storyteller!

It’s helpful to do this because you can orally narrow down a topic, rehearse details, ask for more details, and even do oral revisions before they ever put pencil to paper. I like this as a prewriting strategy for student writers.

But then, I thought about my own writing. Do I tell others about what I’m writing? Do I rehearse the story orally, decide to add/subtract details, look for weak areas and shore them up with an oral revision? No!

Why not? I don’t know. Certainly, I tell real events over and over and hone the details, presentation, delivery of the punch line. But fiction? Somehow, it’s different? I don’t like telling the story before hand?

Would I benefit from doing that? Maybe. I’m working on a science fiction story and realize the scientific basis of a couple things must be meticulous. So, I am discussing those things, trying to get it straight what might and might not happen, not using pure invention here. But that’s nonfiction stuff again.

The question is this: for your fiction, do you tell people what you’re working on? Why or why not?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Amy Holder debuts with THE LIPSTICK LAWS

Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11.

• Class of 2008
• Class of 2009
• MORE 2k11

Guest post by Amy Holder

Black, white, gray, red–and a machete

Honor Your Process. The process of revising is not black and white, and its gray area is vast and subjective. What works for some won’t work for others, so it’s important to know what works best for you and your writing style. This comes with trial and error. Chocolate consumption may also help. For me, I’ve found that hibernation is an essential part of revising. I’m not talking about gorging myself on Thin Mint cookies before sleeping for months upon finishing a first draft (although that might be tempting)… I’m talking about putting away my finished draft for a couple weeks and detaching a bit from it before coming back to it with a red pen and machete. Revising a manuscript after some time away from it helps me read and revise it with more of an impartial editorial eye. It also allows me to cut unnecessary content without feeling like I’m cutting off my left arm.

Murder Your Characters. Another extremely helpful revision tip I use is about the characters. I believe that characters drive a story, and a great plot without compelling characters can fail miserably. One of the first things I do when revising is cut characters that don’t add anything to the plot and story scenes. If your storyline wouldn’t miss one of your characters, it’s time to give that character the axe. While revising The Lipstick Laws, I cut five characters at various points of revision. FIVE CHARACTERS! That’s like a semi-crowded elevator! The result was a cleaner storyline, less character confusion, and a more concise and manageable cast of personalities.

Focus on Remaining Characters. After I got rid of all the dead weight characters, I was able to focus more on the characters that I kept. I concentrated on their back stories, unique characteristics, patterns of speech, interactions, etc. I really tried to make each character’s voice recognizable, so that if all the names were erased from the manuscript, a reader would still be able to tell the characters apart.

Soften Evil Characters; Roughen Sweet Ones. Last but not least, I picked up a great character revision tip from James Scott Bell’s fabulous book (which I highly recommend): Revision & Self-Editing. His advice was to avoid making a villain/oppositional character all bad (and if a villain is mostly bad, give him/her a sympathetic reason), and never make a protagonist all good. Most “bad” people have at least one redeeming quality and a back story to their antagonistic characteristics, whereas all “good people” make mistakes at times and have flaws. I took this tip and ran with it, applying it to The Lipstick Laws during revision. With this pointer, I was able to make my protagonist and antagonist a lot more well-rounded, believable, interesting and less one-dimensional.

These are just a few of the things that have helped me with my own revisions. I hope you’ll find them useful when you revise as well!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Not “Just” Facts: Information that Evokes Story

I’m in that shadowy world of researching things for a novel. Yes, even when you invent a story, you need to be grounded in the real world. A friend wrote a story in which an arson case was crucial to the story. He wrote first and researched later. Not good. Too much of what he wrote had to be scrapped or totally overhauled.

So, I’m researching. I’m looking for:

• Facts. I need to know the true facts about certain settings, events, materials, etc.
• Implications. I need to know not just the basic facts, but the implications of those facts as they might play out in a story. How do these facts make my characters cry, hurt, laugh or feel some other strong emotion?

  For example, I’m writing a science fiction story and found some interesting information about water. We normally think of it has having three phases: ice, water, steam. In fact, there are 14 phases, which happen at extremely high temperatures or under great pressure. A planet extremely close to a star/sun could still have liquid or solid water, IF it’s also under lots of pressure. It could have Hot Ice.

  The question here is what would it mean for the “people” who live on such a planet? They’d be used to very high temperature and very high pressure. Would they live on the surface, or perhaps live under water, where the temperatures are lower? Facts alone aren’t enough, whether you’re writing a mystery or science fiction or literary fiction. You must think about how those facts affect your characters.

When do you have enough information?

Sometimes, I think I could get lost in information, it’s just fun to research. You have enough, though, when you can start to put those facts to use as you develop your plot.

Think of Scott Westerfield’s new book, Leviathon. He extrapolates a world where the Darwinists have genetically engineered all sorts of strange beasts, including a flying whale. When he got to the flying whale, it was enough to start plotting. But he went a step further and created his story as an alternate history, retelling and reinterpreting the events leading up to World War I–another extensive bit of research!

How Long will I be in this phase?

Until I sick of it and start writing.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

10 Checkpoints for a Scene

30 Days to a Stronger Scene Table of Contents

Featured Today in Fiction Notes Stores

Does your Scene Pass this Checklist?

We’ll wrap up this 30-day series on scenes with a checklist.

1. Where/When. (Setting) Did you orient the reader at the beginning of the scene? Does the reader know where this takes place: room in house, city, state, country, etc? Does the reader know when this takes place: time of day, season of year, place within chronology of story? If the answer to where or when is no, do you have a firm reason for leaving the reader disoriented?


Do NOT Pass Go Until You've Passed this Check List

2. Stakes. Are the stakes of the scene goal clear? If the protagonist fails, do we understand the consequences? Are the consequences substantial? Can you put more at stake, or make it matter in some way?
3. Structure. Is the structure clear, with a beginning, middle, pivot point and ending? Is the chronology of the scene clear (did you use transitions such as then, later, before, after, etc.)?
4. Actions. Are the actions of the scene interesting, and told with active verbs and great clarity?
5. Emotions. Are the emotions clearly stated or implied? Can the reader empathize with the characters? Does the reader weep or laugh, even when the character can’t or won’t?
6. Dialogue. Does the dialogue move the scene forward or is it empty chit-chat? Are there minor conflicts embedded in the conversations?
7. Language. Are you telling or showing? Does your storytelling have clarity and coherence?
8. Voice. Does the language create the proper mood, tone, voice?
9. Transition. Does the scene make a smooth transition to the next scene? If you use a scene cut, does the reader have enough information to follow the cut without getting confused?
10. Cohesive. Do all the elements work together to create a gestalt, a scene that is better than the sum of its parts?

Where does your scene fall down? Revise. You know the drill.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

30 Days to a Stronger Scene Table of Contents

Featured Today in Fiction Notes Stores

Best Length for Scenes?

What’s the best length for a scene? IS there a best length? In his book, Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing, action/adventure author, David Morrell (creator of the Rambo character, among others), says he tries to write short chapters (or we can translate this to scenes, too), so that a reader can complete one chapter (or structural unit, i.e. a scene) at one sitting.

He bases his ideas on two essays by Edgar Allen Poe, The Philosophy of Composition and The Poetic Principle. Poe argues that short scenes/chapters are better because they accommodate the human form which needs to move around. We get up to go to the bathroom, to relieve a hurting back, etc. By keeping scenes short, you will keep the reader turning pages and actually reading every word.

Morrell says he keeps his structural units small in order to accommodate the reader’s bladder, TV interruptions, phone calls, a neighbor who drops in, etc. Poe’s essay is worth reading, as is Morrell’s chapter on “The Tactics of Structure.”

So, there’s not really a right or wrong. I’ve read 30 page scenes and I’ve read 1/3 page scenes. Whatever works. But if in doubt, short is better than longer. (Kinda reminds me of blog posts! Short is often better.)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win