Lessons 8 and 9 were helpful, and I think I can share a little more of what's going on in these lessons so it can help you. (To read more about my HTRYN lessons, click here. To get to the course page, click here.)
First, before you start really digging into revision, you need to know what you're aiming for. That's logic, right? So lesson 9 simply has you make a list of things you know are important: 3 things that are vital to your story, 3 most important conflicts/scenes/characters/parts of your world. Pretty simple stuff, but it helps to see it all in front of you. Holly also asks you to write about why you wrote this book and what you learned from it, to help you keep your perspective.
Lesson 8 was... well... a little painful. First we created a synopsis of the story we had. (NOT the book we want to have when we're done. The crappy version.) Each paragraph has something we like about that part of the book and something we want to change. I think being able to look back at this synopsis and seeing how much has changed is going to be phenomenal. I look forward to that day. :)
Then we write about our themes. What they are, how we did them right, where they could be stronger, and where they absolutely suck. What can I say? Lesson 8 is all about honesty.
And then comes the REALLY honest parts. Holly has you analyze your book (the crappy version) and then write yourself a negative review. Like what you might find at Amazon.com, this would be a review that's objective, but has a 1-star rating. Yeah. Ouch.
And THEN you write a 1-sentence rejection for your book as if you're an editor. Yeah. Double ouch. The goal is to be objective and summarize the very worst aspects of your rough draft. My rejection went something like:
The characters fall flat on the page, lacking consistent voice, emotion, and action.
Yeah, it's a little harsh. But if I can fix that, I'm golden. And I think I have to tools to fix these problems now. So yeah, these lessons hurt, but they bring a lot of hope to the table too. Which is good, because lesson 10 is greuling.
April 29, 2010
April 27, 2010
Revision Helps
Ah yes, revision. It's a broad topic, with tons of techniques. Here are some of them:
First, if you're not familiar with The Oatmeal, you have to read these. The Oatmeal uses comic strip humor to demonstrate some things that should be common knowledge. Here's one of my favorites about How to Use an Apostrophe. It's basic grammar stuff, but presented in an oh-so-funny package. :)
Books Are Like Ogres. They have layers. Author Janice Hardy shares how she revises by going through her story layer by layer.
Roz Morris has some fascinating techniques. This is a girl who knows what she's doing. She has what she calls The Beat Sheet and uses it to measure the high points, low points, and plot points of your book by marking all the important aspects. She even has a nifty little example of how to use it starring Harry Potter.
First, if you're not familiar with The Oatmeal, you have to read these. The Oatmeal uses comic strip humor to demonstrate some things that should be common knowledge. Here's one of my favorites about How to Use an Apostrophe. It's basic grammar stuff, but presented in an oh-so-funny package. :)
Books Are Like Ogres. They have layers. Author Janice Hardy shares how she revises by going through her story layer by layer.
Roz Morris has some fascinating techniques. This is a girl who knows what she's doing. She has what she calls The Beat Sheet and uses it to measure the high points, low points, and plot points of your book by marking all the important aspects. She even has a nifty little example of how to use it starring Harry Potter.
April 24, 2010
Putting Emotion Into Your Characters
Writers hear all the time that our books need more emotion. That this character needs to have a bigger emotional impact or that scene lacks believable emotion. So... how do we write emotion?
The easiest way is to tell us, "George was angry." But that doesn't make it believable or have much of an impact.
The next easiest thing: show us using basic gestures. Angela Ackerman posted an emotional thesaurus, listing appropriate or likely responses to certain emotions on The Bookshelf Muse.
If you're looking for something a little more complex, I've already linked to The 5 Stages of Grief on Show Some Character. Take another look if you're stuck. :) It doesn't just help with depressed characters. The 5 stages of grief are applicable to any character experiencing any level of distress. (And your characters better be experiencing some sort of distress in one form or another.)
From the same website: some advice on choosing which emotion to show. Here's Dramatic Frustration: Remember to Keep the Emotions Real.
We're not our characters and we don't share the exact same experiences as our characters. But we can use our experiences and emotions to make things just as scary (or scarier) for them. In I'm Not Them, But I'm Just As Scared, Lili St. Crow shares how she fuels emotion using her own past. Good stuff. :)
The easiest way is to tell us, "George was angry." But that doesn't make it believable or have much of an impact.
The next easiest thing: show us using basic gestures. Angela Ackerman posted an emotional thesaurus, listing appropriate or likely responses to certain emotions on The Bookshelf Muse.
If you're looking for something a little more complex, I've already linked to The 5 Stages of Grief on Show Some Character. Take another look if you're stuck. :) It doesn't just help with depressed characters. The 5 stages of grief are applicable to any character experiencing any level of distress. (And your characters better be experiencing some sort of distress in one form or another.)
From the same website: some advice on choosing which emotion to show. Here's Dramatic Frustration: Remember to Keep the Emotions Real.
We're not our characters and we don't share the exact same experiences as our characters. But we can use our experiences and emotions to make things just as scary (or scarier) for them. In I'm Not Them, But I'm Just As Scared, Lili St. Crow shares how she fuels emotion using her own past. Good stuff. :)
April 22, 2010
Lessons 6 and 7: Characters, Setting, and Props
These lessons are really flying by! I can't believe how much I can learn about my book in just a week. Since they're going by so quickly, I'm going to combine my reviews for lessons 6 and 7.
To read my thoughts on all the How to Revise Your Novel lessons, click here.
Lesson 6 is a character sharpener exercise, but the most valuable information I got from it came from the minor characters. This lesson helped me to see that I put a lot of weight on characters that only show up once or twice in the book. As I tried to figure out why, it dawned on me:
My main character lives in a small town where everybody knows just about everybody. So when my heroine goes into the hospital, she knows her doctor, the nurse, etc... When the police come to take her statement, she knows the chief of police. She knows how they normally act, and she knows when they're not being themselves. My heroine notices things about minor characters because of her familiarity with them.
So the question is: do I fix this "problem", or do I let it be part of the worldbuilding and risk annoying my readers because they thought the chief of police was going to have a bigger role?
Lesson 7 was all about setting. This included props, which I'll get to in a minute. The biggest, most atrocious flaw in my book is that I don't build the setting well enough. And it showed. I was asked to write down all the description I had for setting A and sometimes there wasn't anything to note.
I'm mortified. How could I let that happen?
But then came the part on props. Apparently, a story needs props that affect the story. (Who knew?) As I read that part of the lesson, it made sense. Of course there need to be props. But as I went through my book I noticed that I didn't have very many. And the ones I do have are pretty ordinary and don't really affect the story (for example: food that my characters are eating).
So I really need to go back and brainstorm. Who knows? Maybe I'm missing some great tension and conflict that would make my story so much better.
To read my thoughts on all the How to Revise Your Novel lessons, click here.
Lesson 6 is a character sharpener exercise, but the most valuable information I got from it came from the minor characters. This lesson helped me to see that I put a lot of weight on characters that only show up once or twice in the book. As I tried to figure out why, it dawned on me:
My main character lives in a small town where everybody knows just about everybody. So when my heroine goes into the hospital, she knows her doctor, the nurse, etc... When the police come to take her statement, she knows the chief of police. She knows how they normally act, and she knows when they're not being themselves. My heroine notices things about minor characters because of her familiarity with them.
So the question is: do I fix this "problem", or do I let it be part of the worldbuilding and risk annoying my readers because they thought the chief of police was going to have a bigger role?
Lesson 7 was all about setting. This included props, which I'll get to in a minute. The biggest, most atrocious flaw in my book is that I don't build the setting well enough. And it showed. I was asked to write down all the description I had for setting A and sometimes there wasn't anything to note.
I'm mortified. How could I let that happen?
But then came the part on props. Apparently, a story needs props that affect the story. (Who knew?) As I read that part of the lesson, it made sense. Of course there need to be props. But as I went through my book I noticed that I didn't have very many. And the ones I do have are pretty ordinary and don't really affect the story (for example: food that my characters are eating).
So I really need to go back and brainstorm. Who knows? Maybe I'm missing some great tension and conflict that would make my story so much better.
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