Contest Winners!

The three winners who get to choose a free writing clinic by Holly Lisle are:
Margay
Carolyn Kaufman &
Ryan D. Rhoads

Congratulations!

I'll contact you to make sure I know which clinic you want.
Thanks to all who participated. If you didn't win, I'd encourage you to look into the clinics to help you with your writing. The prices are pretty darn reasonable. (Hey, I bought them.)

(you can click on the pictures to get a description):

Contest: Writing Clinic Giveaway!

Sometimes I talk about writing resources I've come to love. Holly Lisle has created some fantastic online courses that have helped me out tremendously. She also has some writing clinics (in pdf form) that are much more specific.

So I've decided to give away some free writing clinics! There will be three winners, each winner will get one writing clinic of their choice from the options below (you can click on the pictures to get a description):

Okay... the contest rules...

To win one of Holly's Writing Clinics, you have to be a follower of this blog. You automatically get 5 entries. To enter, fill out the form below. (Comments don't count as entries.) You have to fill in the form to be counted.

You get extra entries for...

Tweeting about the contest (+2)

Posting about the contest on Facebook (+2)

Blogging about the contest (+3)

Putting this contest on blog roll/side bar of your blog (+5)

For being referred (+2)

Each person who says you referred them (+2)

Remember, if you use twitter or facebook or a blog, please include the URL in the space provided. Otherwise, I can't verify and it won't be counted.

Re-Post (and Follow-Up): Crash Test for Writers

Let me briefly get you up to speed, in case you don't religiously follow my posts:


Holly Lisle makes a living as a writer. She also happens to be a great teacher and devotes her time (in between novel writing) to teaching writers how to be better writers. I've mentioned her Clinics and course How to Think Sideways, but she also does Crash Tests.

A crash test is where she takes a few paragraphs of fiction from one of her students and she picks them apart piece by piece, showing what's good, what went wrong, and how to fix it. She just posted her fourth crash test AND IT'S MINE!!! Holy cow!

It's very helpful. I knew there were things wrong with it, but didn't know how to fix them. Anyway, here's the link to Holly Lisle and the Case of the Ghostly Girls.

This was really exciting for me. She helped me a lot with this scene. Looking back over this, I'm not sure I used her advice as much as I should have. In fact, I kind of want to go back and fix it. I will resist.
But here's the scene after editing:


Ghosts can be so rude sometimes. I walked with Lisa to a shaded picnic table, ready to take a break from schoolwork when I suddenly felt very strange--awkward yet familiar, like that dream where you find yourself on stage and can’t remember what you’re supposed to be doing.

The courtyard came to life around us, the tables filling up fast with students and the smell of fried food wafting from the cafeteria. Squirrels scampered around garbage cans and darted over piles of mulching leaves. Everything around me was normal. Or it seemed that way.

Then I saw him: a guy sitting with his arm draped over a bench. The guy who was looking right at me, his face expressionless. Normally, I’d be freaked out by someone staring at me like that, but this guy wasn’t eating. He wasn’t interacting with anyone. He was about my age, but he wasn’t dressed like a student. And Lexington, Virginia has its share of ghosts.

“Rachel?” Lisa raised an eyebrow. “What are you staring at?” She pulled her leg over so she straddled the bench.

With her back turned, I braved another look. Kids behind him shouted and threw a Frisbee back and forth, but the ghost sat perfectly still. His stare was starting to bug me. Why couldn’t ghosts remember to be polite every now and then?

When Lisa twisted back around, I forced a laugh, trying to soothe the confused look on her face. “Sorry. I spaced out. You ready to go?” I grabbed my bag and stood, trying to shake the ghost’s intense gaze. Didn’t he have any manners? At all?

Lisa looked down an her cell phone and opened her eyes wide in mock surprise. “Ooh yeah, better hurry. We only have thirty-two minutes before the bell.” She laughed, but picked up her bag. “It’s okay. I want to have a talk with Paul before next period.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh.” Paul Mason was a baseball player Lisa had a crush on. She talked about him constantly and dragged me to parties if she thought he might be there. For some reason Lisa had never been able to get him to notice her, even though she was stunning. No other girl in school could compete with her full lips and perfect oval face.

“I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” Lisa wiggled her fingers at me and practically skipped across the courtyard.

Fine with me. I wanted to talk some sense into this ghost.

If You Want to Take a Writing Class, Now is the Time!

I got this info today:

Anyone that signs up for How to Revise Your Novel (HTRYN) or How to Think Sideways (HTTS) between this coming upTuesday (the 25th) and November 2nd at 10:00 AM, will get the Motivation
video course ($50 value) and the Dialogue video course (another $50) for free.

I'd highly recommend getting HTRYN for post-nano. If you aren't doing nanowrimo, but want to learn how to tap into your muse and write a better novel, then HTTS is probably a better choice. If you're not sure which one is right for you, read the descriptions I've linked to. I've taken both of these courses and each one put my writing lightyears ahead. It's a great way to really push yourself and learn what works for you, while improving your writing dramatically.

I took the Motivation video course. It's interesting. It breaks things down and shows you what motivation is and how to conjure it. The best part is: it's applicable to anything, not just writing. I'm looking forward to the dialogue video course :)

I'll give more details as I get them.

Announcement!

A quick post right now before I dig into today's topic. Holly Lisle's courses: How to Think Sideways and How to Revise Your Novel are going to be offered early.

HOW TO THINK SIDEWAYS (my How To Write Your Novel and Build A Writing Career course) was supposed to be closed until June.

HOW TO REVISE YOUR NOVEL was supposed to be closed until November.

But they're both open now!

I strongly recommend that you don't join both at the same time. (There are rumors of heads exploding with students who tried that.)
;)

Seriously, BOTH courses are a lot of work, each uses different skill sets, and they're better approached one at a time than both at once.

I've taken How to Think Sideways. It teaches SO much, but the most valuable lessons I got were How to Find Your Ending and How to Find Great Ideas for Your Book. Oh, and How to Make Your Characters Matter. If you want to see a list of all the lessons, you can find it here.

I'm taking How to Revise Your Novel right now. I mentioned this before, but I revised Shadow Bound on my own about three times. I thought it was done, but it got rejected. (Very polite, personalized rejections, but still.) After I finish this course, I think it may be "the one" that gets me an agent. I can't believe how much more I see in my manuscript. It's unbelievable.

* Both courses apply to ALL genres. You do not need to be working in a specific genre to benefit from them.

* Both courses are "work-at-your-own-pace" with the added benefit of a community of dedicated writers if you choose to make use of it. (Community participation is NOT a required part of the course. The course is complete without it.)

* Both courses are online, with downloadable lessons and a student page that will keep your lessons for you.

* And with either course, you get every upgrade and new addition I make to the course, with no increase in the price you pay, and with no additional charges after you have finished paying.

How to Think Sideways and How to Revise Your Novel have accelerated my writing. They say you need to write a million words to get "really good" at writing. I think these courses will cut it in half.

Think about it.

Re-Post: More Writing Tools

This is one of my must-read posts from last year. I've been thinking a lot about these clinics. They're invaluable. I can turn to them whenever I get stuck. They're reasonably priced, too. :)



***
May 2009

I found some other cool stuff to help with my writing. This is much more affordable. The same author/teacher that does the Think Sideways course that I've been raving about also does mini courses that focus on specific areas.

I've tried the Plot, Character, and Page-Turning Scenes ones and they're very good. They helped me to create deeper characters, taught me what every scene needs to have (in order to be interesting), and how to come up with ideas for a story I've already started (especially how to get a killer ending!) Anyway, for anyone who's interested, here are the links:


The Holly Shop (Where the magic happens :) Good for comparing prices, etc...)

Create A Plot Clinic

Create A Culture Clinic

Create A Language Clinic

Create A Character Clinic

How To Write Page-Turning Scenes (This one was my favorite, followed closely by the plot clinic.)

Clinic Writing Bundle (This has the Plot, Culture, Character, and Language Clinics wrapped into one for a discounted price, which is what I went with.)

How To Beat Writers Block

Also, see my post: Helpful Writing Software for a huge list of goodies (a lot of them free!).

The Big Ten Books

I'm on a mission. I want to find 10 books that are magical. Ten books that I can't put down, that make me a self-proclaimed bookworm. You know the type. We all have them, I think. Some of us don't read as much as we used to, so our "magical books" are from our childhood. (As a side note, I think a lot of kids today don't read. I don't know that they have magical books and that breaks my heart.)

There are a few that were magical for me in my childhood. The one that stands out the most in my mind is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. That book made me stay up all night, laugh out loud, and sob like a baby. Ms. Levine is the person who encouraged me the most to start writing. So yeah, Ella Enchanted is on my 10 Magical Books List.

What is this list for? Well, as writers, we can learn by reading. But we can learn a TON by reading like writers. I want to find ten books that are amazing, for one reason or another (or several) so I can pick them apart and find out what makes them tick. What about this scene brought out an emotion? Why do I love/hate this character? Why do I root for that character? Why do I feel as if this world is a real place? Why do I care so much about what happens next?

I want books that I wish I had written, books that can help my writing. Right now, I write Young Adult Fantasy. I want some books on my list that are classics, some that are brand-spanking new, and some that are just my personal favorites or hopefuls. I want a wide variety of books with a wide variety of strengths.

So far, here are the books on my list (and the biggest reason why):

1) Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (emotional impact, relatable characters, romance)
2) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (world building, sympathetic protagonist)
3) The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (voice, humor, worldbuilding)
4) The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (creating constant conflict and raising the stakes, romance)

Books I have in my To-Read Pile that I hope will be magical:

1) Graceling by Kristin Cashore
2) Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
3) Gossamer by Lois Lowry
4) Immortal by Gillian Shields

Books on my tentative/maybe list:

1) Twilight (character building/showing but not necessarily the characters themselves)
2) Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
3) Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (action sequence, emotional development)
4) The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle (fantastic plot and world building, how to create doubt and emotion by showing, best ending ever, but not the most fantastic example of YA fiction, in my opinion. Also, I've learned a lot of Holly's techniques from her course, which may save me some trouble)
5) Something by Madeleine L'Engle
6) Something by Bruce Coville (another childhood favorite)

I have a lot more maybe books, but I want to get through the four to-reads I listed above before I delve into those.

What magical books make your list?

I finished The Ruby Key and Wow!

If you haven't entered the contest to win a copy of The Ruby Key, do it now!

I finished it last night and it's amazing! The ending is just so beatifully crafted, everything fit together. The world building is fantastic, of course. And Holly Lisle has mastered the art of putting emotion on paper.

Seriously, even if you don't win the contest, this is a must-read for fantasy lovers (and fantasy writers).

Oh, and have a great holiday!

Idea for a Contest Prize

I've been brainstorming some ideas. The holidays are right around the corner and I was thinking -- and this is just a thought -- that maybe I could offer the first two months of Think Sideways as a prize for a contest. I know some people that read this blog are already members, but for the rest of you, would that interest you?

I don't know what the contest would be yet, and I'd have to work out the logistics of how to get the course to the winner, but it could be fun.
What do you think?


Just so you all know, How to Think Sideways is going through some changes. If you want to take the course this year, you'll need to sign up before October 9. Otherwise, you'll need to wait until some time in 2010. Holly's only going to offer the course once every six months.

Writing Characters that You Care About

I figured I'd go back and hit a basic: Characters. How do you make them believable? Likable? Despicable? How do you make them matter? I think I'll turn to the experts on this one.

First, let's assume you have no idea what you're doing. You want to write a story with killer characters, but you don't know where to start. Holly Lisle (of course) covers this extensively in How to Think Sideways and her Create a Character Clinic. But if you're not into that, Holly did a great Blog Talk Radio episode where she goes through a (fairly lengthy but very detailed) exercise which will take you from ground zero into creating characters with need, a scene with sensory details, and conflict. Yes, it's that good. Here's the link. I recommend you download this as a podcast and pause it to do the writing parts. It took me an entire day to do the whole thing, just to warn you.

My personal recommendation is this: do not write your novel until you can breathe as your character. Do exercises, practice scenes, fill out charts, whatever you have to. But you're not ready to write your novel until you can be your character.

My own personal example:
For Shadow, the first character that lived for me wasn't my main character. It was her best friend, Lisa. I wrote out a couple of scenes between Lisa and Rachel to try and get a better feel for Rachel. One of those scenes had some nice dialogue between the two of them. Through that conversation, I was able to understand their relationship, and through that, Rachel. I really got to know Rachel and I found her through Lisa. That's when the story came alive. Incidently, that scene became the rough draft's opening scene. (That scene has been totally revamped, by the way. But the essence is still there.)

Anyway, the scene breathed because of Lisa. She doesn't play a huge role in the book, but without her, I wouldn't have given a hoot about anyone else. Lisa had needs. She was a regular teenager, but she lived in front of me.

Next Posts: Writing Characters that Have Depth and Writing Characters that Drive the Story

Endings Are Beginnings - How to Write an Ending for Your Book

I realize that my post about Endings may have been confusing. I found a video that elaborates a little more on how endings should be connected to your beginnings:

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure, Part 4

Beginnings:

Grab your reader with a killer opening line. Some may tell you never to open with dialogue, others will tell you...

well, there's an amusing article (more of a rant) that lists a number of ways you should not start a story. Read A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: How Not to Write a Story.

Joe Konrath makes some excellent points and explains each one (for the most part).

So how should you start a story?

• First and foremost: introduce conflict. Conflict is the bread and butter of fiction. Without it, fiction is boring. If no one in your first scene has a need, then you need to cut that scene. Start somewhere else.
• You also need to show (and I do mean SHOW) your character(s). Just the main ones for now. You don't want to overwhelm your readers with a bunch of characters at once. You do want them to connect to the characters that will be central to your story.
• Show genre in your beginning. If you're writing fantasy, show some magic or paranormal elements to give your reader the right expectations. It doesn't have to be big. I once started a story with a paragraph about a bully with some unusual talents. (Making my heroine's hair stand on end, for example.)
• Sensory details. Imagery. Give the readers details. There's a piece of paper on the counter. Is it rolled up? Folded? How big is it? Is it notebook paper? Parchment? A sticky note? Give smells. (That's a hard one, but it can instantly bring your characters into the setting.) The trick is to provide as much setting in the fewest words possible. If you give too much all at once, you'll boor your readers. Sneak those details in as you unfold the plot, character, and conflict.

Middles:

This is the hard part. The part where all your ideas have to come together, in an interesting way, to set you up for your ending.

You needs lots of conflict here. Make your characters work hard. Make them suffer. I know it's hard, but trust me, as soon as things start to go right for your characters, your readers will put your book down. You need to constantly be stirring the pot.

If you've read my posts on sentence lite, you'll know what each scene (whether beginning, middle, or end) needs: protagonist (that has needs and is interesting), antagonist (who also has needs and is interesting), conflict (how their needs conflict with each other), a setting, and a twist. The twist is something unexpected. It moves the story forward.

In Heidi Thomas' article Prop Up Your Sagging Middles, she discusses some key questions you should ask yourself about each scene.

If you find that your middles are slim and/or your word count is too low, you'll love Dani Greer's article on Plumpers.

Throughout your book, you'll need strong scenes. This is crucial. I have to recommend Holly's Create Page-Turning Scenes Clinic. (Yes, I know I recommend her a lot, but she's the best I've found.)

Endings:
This is where pantsers seem to have the most trouble. If you plan out you novel well, know where your novel's pulse is, and know your themes, then you should already know your ending. All you have to do is write to it.

But, here are some pointers:
Your ending, wherever it is, whatever happens, needs to connect back to your beginning. Somehow. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. If there isn't a way to connect your ending to the first three pages of your story, then maybe you didn't begin in the right place.

At the beginning, you made your reader a promise. You told them, "This is what the book is about." Now you have to deliver on that promise.

For example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone begins with the headmaster and a teacher discussing the fate of the boy who lived. How does it end? The boy who lived fought against the same villain and lived again. Some consider the first chapter to be more of a prologue, but it's still there in the second chapter. Uncle Vernon notices a number of strange happenings that are related to (surprise!) the boy who lived and the celebration of his conquest over the dark lord. Trust me. Your beginning needs to be similar to your ending.

BUT

Your characters need to be different. They need to change throughout the course of the story. Their needs changed, they've learned something about themselves, conquered a weakness, whatever. They can't be the same person they were on page one. Otherwise, there's no point in telling the story.

For clarification, I've posted a video on how endings are like beginnings here.

If you want to read this series from the beginning, here is Part 1 of What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure.

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure, Part 3

When I first got bitten by the writing bug, I found an excellent series of articles, the first being: Does Your Novel Have a Heartbeat?, by Holly Lisle.
They're directed at those who already have a novel written out, but it would be helpful, in my opinion, to read them before you've typed 100,000 words and devoted a year of your life to a piece of your soul.

Read these articles, and create something with a heartbeat from the beginning. Create something real and meaningful to you. Love your work before you even start writing it.
You can find the other articles of this series at this page (scroll to the bottom).
Yes, it's a lot of reading.

As if that wasn't enough, I have some free resources for download. These tools (along with others from the same source) have made a bigger impact on my writing than anything else.

Holly's Create Your Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course is a free, completed mini course on developing a plot, starting from any number of places: a character, a twist, world building, a structure (like the ones I listed in Part 1 of this series), or questions. This is a rough sketch of one of the techniques you can use to create a workable plot. She explains the process, gives a demonstration, and then provides an exercise for you to build part of your plot.
You can download this mini-course in PDF format here.

If this is something that works for you, you can get more in-depth instruction from Holly's Create a Plot Clinic. I have the first 52 pages of it here for free.
The full course can be found here: Create A Plot Clinic, by Holly Lisle

Seriously, this has everything you need to know in order to plot out an entire novel. Last I checked, she had an updated version of this for $9.95. But she also has it available at a discount in a bundle, with building characters, cultures, and languages: Clinic Writing Bundle. They're all good, but the plot and character ones are the best (unless you do a lot of world building).

Part 4 will cover beginnings, middles, and endings.

Part 1 was on classic plot structures, and Part 2 covered getting down to creating a story that matters to you, but will keep your readers interested.

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure, Part 2

So, now that you know how plots used to be structured, how does today's writer plot out a novel without repeating the same-old, some-old?

Liz Strauss says the number one thing readers want from writers is for you to use an idea that is intrguing to you.

"If it intrigues you, I’m likely to be intrigued by it too. At the very least,
I’ll be curious about what it was about the idea that captured your interest and intrigued you. "

Read the rest of the article here.

This is vitally important. So many writers are overly concerned about "what's hot", what's selling, or what agents and publishers are looking for. While you should know your markets, don't let trends decide what you're going to write about. There are two good reasons:

1) The trend will most likely be old news by the time your manuscript is ready for publishing. (Getting a book to the shelf usually takes several months after you write it.)
2) If it sells, and you don't love it, you're going to hate being a writer. You'll be expected to write more of what you don't love. This job is way to hard to be worth it unless you're passionate about writing.

Create, Complicate, Resolve: The Keys to Keeping Your Readers Interested touches on the art of gripping your readers without letting them down by "cheating". (We've all seen it before--'and then I woke up.') Her advice:

Create a believable story where actions are followed by consequences. In real
life, situations happen this way, so don't hold back in your stories. It may
seem cruel, but your audience will actually thrive on how much trouble you
can heap on your protagonist while watching him drag himself over broken
glass by his lips to save the woman he loves.

Read the rest of the article here.


In Part 3 of What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure, I'll post some freebies and other resources that helped me with plotting.
Part 4 will be on beginnings, middles, and ends.

You can read Part 1 here.

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Plot and Structure, Part 1

Let's start with classic story structure. Basically, this covers myth, legends, fairy tales, epics, etc... It has been repeated many, many times.
(Star Wars is famously known for using this.)
According to Jospeh Campbell, many plots contain the same elements and structure. You may be familiar with the Monomyth or Hero's Journey. He lists 17 stages of the monomyth, including:

1. The Hero is called to adventure
2. The Hero Refuses
3. The Hero Receives Supernatural Aid
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
5. The Road of Trials
6. The Ultimate Boon (hero completes the quest)
7. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
8. (The hero is a) Master of Two Worlds

Then there's Vladimir Propp's 31 functions (his is my personal favorite).
For you Harry Potter fans out there, I believe J.K. Rowling used each of the 31 functions repeatedly in her series. If you don't believe me, or would like a challenge, the 31 functions can be found here.

These are based on classic storytelling and archetypes that, according to Carl Jung, every human being has a connection with. Nina Munteanu has an excellent article on classic story archetypes.
She also has an article where she takes The Hero's Journey and gives multiple examples in her Journey's Map.

The pros of classic structure: it has the tools for a perfect story arc, something that settles nicely with everyone, happy ending and all.
The downside is that it's been done millions of times. Readers want something fresh. The trick is to use elements of classic storytelling, while putting your own twists and turns, red herrings, and other goodies into your writing.
Which will be covered in part 2, part 3, and part 4.

How To Think Sideways Lessons

I recently looked up some information for the How to Think Sideways Course that I'm taking. I wanted to know when I would get the full details on how to edit and revise a first draft. Well, it's going to be a while. I'll go ahead and edit as planned. I just may have to do it twice. No biggy for a perfectionist like me :)

Anyway, I thought you might like to know what lessons are offered, so I compiled a list. Some of the titles are a bit vague, so if you have any questions, then by all means leave a comment. I'll answer it to the best of my ability.




Lesson 1: How To Break The Four "Thinking" Barriers To Your Success
Lesson 2: How To Discover Your Writing "Sweet Spot"
Lesson 3: How To Generate Ideas On a Deadline
Lesson 4: How To Recognize And Build On Good Ideas
Lesson 5: How To Define Your Project's Needs (The Dot and the Line)
Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Project's Market
Lesson 7: How to Develop Your Personal Project System
Lesson 8: How To Plan Your Project While NOT Killing Your Story
Lesson 9: How To Write From Inside Your Story
Lesson 10: How To "Plan" Surprises That Surprise Even You
Lesson 11: How To Design Compelling Queries, Proposals, And Sample Chapters
Lesson 12: How to Create, Complicate, And Solve Problems
Lesson 13: "Can't I Just Kill Them All?" How To Fall In Love With Your Project A Second Time
Lesson 14: How To Find And Use Your "Planned" Surprises
Lesson 15: How To "Hire" Spies, And Why Your Project Needs Them
Lesson 16: How To Assess Your Progress And Make Mid-Course Corrections
Lesson 17: How To Use Story Gravity To Get To Your Ending
Lesson 18: How To Find The RIGHT Ending
Lesson 19: How To Write The Ending That Sells The Next Book
Lesson 20: How To Work With Editors, Agents, Marketing Departments, And Artists, And NOT Wreck Your Project
Lesson 21: How To Plan Your Revision
Lesson 22: How To NOT Fix What Ain't Broken (While Still Fixing What Is)
Lesson 23: How To Deliver What You Promised And What They Want On Deadline
Lesson 24: How To NOT Be A One-Book Wonder: Learn to Produce Repeatable Results

Bonus Lessons
How NOT To Write A Series---And Why You Don't Want To includes:

Lesson 25: Why Write A Stand-Alone Instead Of A Series?

Lesson 26: That's Why... What About HOW? (the six critical reasons why HOW you get to the end of your novel is NOT the point)

Lesson 27: The Ending Before THE END



All the lessons I've taken so far are fantastic, no doubt about it. But the ones I marked in blue are the lessons that I've taken and I think are exceptionally awesome. The ones marked red are the ones that I haven't taken yet, but am super-psyched about. Either I've talked to people who are ahead of me and have worked through those lessons, and/or it's something I need, and/or I've gotten samples of Holly's methods in those areas and am eager to get more details. Most of them, it's all three.

Okay, New Plan

I just finished Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways and, to be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed. Basically, the lesson says to write a sentence (called the Sentence Lite) for each scene that describes the protagonist, her conflict, the obstacle/antagonist, the twist, and maybe the setting. If you don't have these, then the scene is incomplete. Thinking back, I'm glad I have SOME scenes with all of these elements, but there are a lot of scenes that don't.

So, I need to go back, make a plot card for each scene with the complete Sencence Lite on each one, and figure out how much I have to revamp.

This is really going to help my writing. Now that I'm more aware, the scenes with all of these elements are the best scenes in Shadows. Now I have the tools to make every scene just as good. This is going to be a challenge.

I knew I'd have a lot of work to do. Don't get me wrong. But now that it's time to get crackin' I'm nervous. How much will I have to cut? How much will I need to rewrite? Will I have enough time to plan my phantom novel before November?

Stay tuned.

Links: Organizing, Creating, and Marketing

So, here I am, twiddling my thumbs as I wait to add to my manuscript. I understand why I need a break from it before diving in again, but sometimes it's hard! So, to occupy my time, I've been searching for good resources and advice from the pros. Here's what I have so far:

The number one link I think I can ever give you is :
How to Start a Novel
Read it, explore the links, and explore the side bar for more articles. This site covers everything.

Organizing:
Plotting Under Pressure
How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method - this provides an excellent checklist that an agent (or intern at an agency) will go through to see if they should take you on as a client. Very helpful.


Creating:
One Word - a 60 second writing exercise
Deeper People: Putting Yourself into Your Characters
Pacing Scenes
How to Write the Perfect Scene
How to Finish a Novel
5 Evergreen Editing Tips - When you're done with your manuscript and think it's ready for submission, make sure you've gone over this checklist before you do.


Marketing:
Advanced Fiction Writing E-Zine
How to Query an Agent
When Reading Submissions

Free Intro: Create a Plot Clinic

I found a nice little freebie from Holly Lisle. Her Think Sideways course is a bit pricey, although I can say from personal experience it's worth every penny. Still, for those of you on a budget, she has a number of writing clinics, which I've mentioned before.
For those of you on a tight budget, I found a free intro to her Create a Plot Clinic:
Click Here To Download

I've bought and used the entire clinic and it is fantastic. It takes you through the ins and outs of plotting a novel no matter where you are in the process. She gives a number of techniques and gives lots of examples. Anyway, hope you find it helpful.

Another Crash Test!

Another one of my segments made it as a Writer's Crash Test. Here's a link in case you missed the first one. Helpful stuff, though I really got an ear full from other followers about my character's methods.

Holly Lisle and the Case of the Subtle Secret