Dominoes And Your First Chapter

August 28, 2012October 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 6 Comments

Imagine for a moment, going about doing the mundane things you do every day, putting a load of laundry in the dryer, reading the morning news, or making a phone call. Small things. The sorts of things you do without thinking when suddenly something unexpected happens, and your world is thrown out of kilter. You’re forced to make different decisions, change behaviors, or even your life style.

It happened to me. The past week has been eventful, to say the least. While doing routine things around the house, An unexpected event knocked me and my ordinary life off kilter, literally. BAM! Without warning, I fell unconscious to the floor!

After spending a few days in the hospital, I’m better and certain I will be fine, but will I have to do things differently than before? For a while. When all of the excitement died down, I was able to relax a bit, and the first thing I thought about was my novel. So, this is what an inciting event feels like.

More than 30,000 words into my first novel, I keep coming back to the first chapter and all its intricacies. Had I hooked my readers?

After my own inciting event, a light bulb went off. That one event created a domino effect setting off all sorts of conflicts in my life for at least the next month.

As soon as I was able, I pulled out my novel and reread the first chapter, with a new appreciation for the inciting event; everything had clicked into place. I finally got it.

I call it Newton’s effect, based on Newton’s Third Law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Something happens (inciting event), the character reacts, causing other reactions or consequences(conflicts); in essence, a domino effect.

I couldn’t wait to get back to writing and tweaking the conflicts I’d introduced in my novel.

The inciting event, introduced in the first chapter, propels your main character into action and moves the story forward. The conflicts created from the event raise the stakes and create the tension, keeping the reader turning the pages.

Falling to the floor this week has taken me and my family on a hell of a ride creating all kinds of excitement; if I can create the same in my novel, I’ll be good to go.

What about you first chapter? Did you set Newton’s effect into motion? Did the event propel your character into action? Did your character’s reaction cause conflict and complication(s)? Did the dominoes begin to fall? What happens next?

Middle Of The Novel Hibbie Jibbies

August 14, 2012October 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 4 Comments

Besides being quite busy this summer with family obligations and a sundry of other unexpected happenings, I have also been playing dodge ball with my novel. Okay, I’ve been procrastinating. I put my novel aside and have found every excuse in the book, not to go back to it. Now, I am trying to figure out why.

I’m almost half way through. Part of me wants to force myself to finish, and the other part of me wants to tear it apart and see where the trouble lies. Is it something about the plot? The characters? Is it the opening? Or, is it simply that I’m new at this and hitting a familiar place all newbies hit? The middle of the novel, hibbie jibbies. Maybe.

Whatever is bugging me, I will figure it out, but in the meantime, I think it best to finish what I started. I’ll make notes along the way, and I’m sure once completed I’ll have plenty of opportunity for revisions and editing.

What about you? Have you experience the middle of the novel hibbie jibbes? Please share your story of triumph in the comments.

Walking The Walls of a Writer’s Life by Guest Luke Reynolds

July 23, 2012October 21, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

Today, I have the distinct honor of introducing Luke Reynolds to you as my guest blogger.

Over the last month, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Luke, author of Keep Calm and Query On as he mentored me through the process of writing a query for my first novel, HELLO HELL. I won this opportunity through a recent blog giveaway, courtesy of The Bookshelf Muse and it has been an incredible experience.

In Keep Calm and Query On, Luke discusses his journey as a writer with all its bludgeoning defeats and small triumphs. Luke’s journey as a writer is accompanied by interviews with fourteen other powerful and prolific authors. They discuss their worst rejections, first publications,what keeps them motivated, and why they believe in the power of words.

Luke currently makes his home in York, England with his wife Jennifer and son Tyler.

Walking the Walls of a Writer’s Life

By Luke Reynolds

Where we live in York, England, walls surround the city. 1.9 miles of 1000-year old Roman walls enclose the heart of the city. Tourists comes from all over to see the walls and walk on top of them, gazing out at the city that stretches through nooks and crannies and yet still feels like a village.

1000 years ago, the walls were an intricately planning defense, allowing the Romans a massive advantage over any enemy invaders. Today, they’re an attraction, something on which one would walk before stopping in the local cafe for a cappuccino and a muffin.

Recently, when my wife Jennifer and I and our three-year son, Tyler, ventured out for a walk on a section of the walls we’d never before traversed, Tyler decided that he wanted to wear his pirate costume. No strangers to creativity and fun, Jen and I wholeheartedly agreed. (And I deeply wished they made adult-size pirate costumes for Daddies so we’d be a tandem team.)

As Jen and I and our little pirate walked the walls, tourists pointed at our son, smiled, and laughed. We laughed with them, joking about Tyler’s great exuberance for imagination. It struck me hours later that walking walls in this way is about the best advice for us writers on how to stay awake to the joy of what we do.

For writers, walls are everywhere. Every minute of every day, we’re confronted by walls that seem to wrap themselves around the heart of our dreams: walls in the form of writing blocks, walls in the form of rejections, walls in the form of revision needs, walls in the form of publishing, walls in the form of sales, walls in the form of criticism.

And essentially, we have two choices. We can stand and look at those walls the way Roman enemies once did, and say, Dude! We’ll never capture the heart of this city! Did you SEE those walls? No way!

Or, we can realize that it’s possible to walk on top of those walls. We can don some crazy outfit, let loose our imaginations, and circumnavigate the heart of the dream city of a writer, all the while laughing with those we meet along the journey. This happens when we realize that the joy of the journey isn’t in destroying the walls, but rather in learning how to navigate them while keeping alive our own creativity, imagination, and fun.

And good thing for us writers: none of the previous three entities rely on success. Success doesn’t enhance our creativity, imagination, and fun. Success corroborates our efforts and validates what has already occurred. And that’s cool—but success doesn’t help us walk the walls.

Instead, walking the walls of a writer’s life is a choice we have to make, and we have to make it every day. It isn’t easy initially, but the more we focus on which costume we’ll choose for the day, which way we’ll walk, and who we’ll walk alongside, the less we see the walls as barriers and the more we see them as a part of the journey. Strong, yes, but not invulnerable.

Thanks Luke!

Have you faced any Walls, lately? Please comment.

Luke is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency.He is co-editor of Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk, and Hope (Rutgers University Press, 2009) and of Burned In: Fueling the Fire to Teach (Teachers College Press, 2011). A Call to Creativity: Writing, Reading, and Inspiring Students in an Age of Standardization (Teachers College Press, 2012).

The Seduction Of Art

July 20, 2012October 20, 2017 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 3 Comments

I tugged nervously on the hem of the expensive new dress, the lady at the boutique had said, “Fit me like a glove and accentuated my best features,” and entered the room filled to overflowing with rich and glamorous art enthusiasts.

The product of a small no-nothing town, I was new to the big city with its whirlwind of activity, lights, and glitz; but I shoved my own insecurities aside when the company handed me the invitation; this was my new beginning.

Conscious of a few heads turning as I strolled through the gallery, I clutched the small evening bag tighter in an effort to still the niggling edge of doubt and began to wonder if the sexy, new dress with its draping backline had been a mistake.

I did not hear him approach as I stood staring at the painting with is vibrant mishmash of colors, swirls, zigzags and bleeding crimson black, just the whisper of his words carried on the soft scent of his cologne, “The most beautiful work of art in the place,” he said.

I turned to see who, in their right mind, would call this painting beautiful, but the intensity of his gaze robbed me of my voice as he lifted my hand from the clutched bag bringing it to his lips, “I was speaking of you,” he said.