The ABC’S Of Writing

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

November is a huge month. We select a new President and a slew of writers of all levels will take on the challenge of NaNoWriMo. Starting November 1st, participants  all over the country will write a complete 50,000-word novel in one month. Oh, how I would love to sign on for the challenge, but the truth is I don’t have the guts nor the time and I’d have be in the land delusion to even try attempt such a feat.

As much as I strive to have a structured time and place for writing, life happens. Over the last year or so many of you have read my resolutions to write a certain number of words per day and each time I gave it my best shot, but for the most part, I fell short. Things  haven’t happened the way I planned. Why? Simple, life happens. I’m not the only person in my universe.

As I read through some of my favorite blogs the other day, I found a number of them to be on the   same issues: How to overcome writer‘s block, become more inspired or tricks and prompts to keep you writing. I read each one with the intention of using their best advice offered. It didn’t happen, life did.

Instead of being productive, I became frustrated. I couldn’t keep up with all the reading, weekly prompts, tweets and blogs, my own writing, writer’s group and family responsibilities. I needed an attitude adjustment.

Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn gives three tips on how she keeps herself from being distracted.

1. Diary scheduling – days scheduled for nothing else but writing.

2. Working out of the Library

3. Setting a timer for ninety minutes -broken into four sessions, per day.

The first one would take an act of congress, divorce, giving my dogs away, or moving out of the country, but occasionally it happens. The second one works, and I’ve been stealing a couple of hours away from home to cut down on distractions. The third one, I’m trying this week. Emails, twitter, and research have a tendency to suck the hours out of a day and I get lost. The timer will be good for me, as long as I don’t reset it.

Life does happen to all of us. It’s unavoidable. We must learn to roll with the punches. It was easier when I was younger and a great multi-tasker, but that was then.

CJ Lyons in her blog No Rules Just Write, offered the best advice. She said there is no secret recipe to writing a good book or story and no one can tell you the right way to write.  Her own secret was “as simple as ABC: APPLY BUTT TO CHAIR”.

Sounds like good advice.

 

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LOST VALUES

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

I’m in Washington DC visiting my daughter. Getting used to her new mode of transportation, the metro has been fascinating, interesting, and scary. The pace at which she and the throngs of people move are taxing on me. I’m not used to moving at lightening speed. My leg muscles and lungs are screaming, but I know if I don’t keep up, I’ll get stepped on, knocked about, left behind, or lost in the mob.

I’m amazed at the strapping young men who ignore the handicap and elderly as they board the crowded trains. Young men sit sprawled out on the seats unconcerned as people less fortunate with canes, crutches, aged or worse fight the crowd to board. Their arms often heavy laden with bags intertwined with devices meant to help them ambulate. Bent with age and disease, yet they do not complain. They s hold on to a pole or overhead bar and struggle to maintain their balance in the speeding train while young, strong, able-bodied, men sit by hog the seats and ignore them.

I had taken the last seat, sitting down beside a young just before the old man hobbled on board behind me. His head was covered in a makeshift white rag cap. He carried a dirty cloth bag draped over a cane aiding a leg so crippled he bent when he walked. He shifted his load and grabbing hold of the nearest bar two inches from a young couple moments before the train lurked into motion. I waited for one of the two young men to jump up and offer the old man, now teetering to maintain his balance, their seats. Surely, they would step forward and do the right thing. But, they didn’t.

I don’t know the old man’s age. Disease ages you, but I could have been those young men’s grandmother. I was tired, but I couldn’t sit there while that poor man struggled. I had two good legs.

I stood up. “Sir,” I pointed to the seat. “Please have a seat.” A look of relief washed over the old man’s face, and he hobbled to the seat.

“Thank you, Miss.” He smiled gratefully and plopped down, far more tired than I. The young man sitting beside him got off at the next stop, he asked me to sit down, and he told me how much he appreciated what I had done.

He shook his head in disappointment. “That young man should have offered his seat,” he said. He went on to explain he’d fixed dinner for his wife who was in the hospital and had gotten on the wrong train earlier. He was tired and flustered but hoped the doctor would let her come home tomorrow. We exited at the same stop, and I wished him and his wife well. I thought about the conversation, and life lesson’s those young men missed out on. I felt bad for them.

All of us are in a rat race these days. Everyone is caught up in either electronics or their own selfish agenda. But, I remember a time when parents taught consideration, compassion, empathy, respect and manners.

One day not too far in the future those young men will be old. They may be visited by ill health or accidents may leave them crippled or hobbled.We do not know what life holds in store for us. I hope for their sake when age or infirmity bends their bodies, someone will remember those lost values. But, from the looks of things, I witnessed I have my doubts.We reap what we sow.

 

 

 

 

 

How To Critique A Novel Chapter by Chapter

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

 

CHAPTER  by CHAPTER 

Our writer‘s group raised the question recently, “How do other groups critique novels, chapter by chapter?” With several authors bringing novels in for critique, we wanted to know if we had the best  process in place.

So, I took the challenge and decided to do a little research of other critique groups. I found the process other groups used were as individual as the groups themselves, but the content and the components  required to  make a well written chapter, varied not at all.

My writing group has been invaluable. However, after my research I  realized  we’d  glossed over or failed to mention  a number of elements in our critiques.  Seems we’d gotten into a rut, mentioning the same glaring things from one critique to the other. It was time we started digging a little deeper into our critiques and being specific.

Let me explain.

How many times have you walked into a book store and picked up a book, opened it to the first page and began reading? If you bought the book after reading the first few paragraphs or page, you were hooked. If not, you put the book back on the shelf and picked up another one.

To keep the book from going back on the shelf is exactly what an opening line, sentence or paragraph is supposed to do. Did the opening line hook you? Did it make you want to turn the page or buy the book? Of all the chapters, chapter one is the most important chapter of a novel. I was reminded to pay more attention to the details and dig deeper when critiquing the first chapter, not only the opening line, but the introduction of the main character, the setting, voice, and the POV. 

The main character deserves a closer evaluation than whether  we like  them or not. Are they believable? Readers want  to understand the conflicts, problems, and obstacles placed in the character’s way. They want to connect with, cheer on, fear for, and worry about the character. So, evaluate the character from a readers perspective.

The inciting event is “something” that happens which propels the character into action and the story forward. This is the one thing that turns the character’s world upside down and on which all other action or reactions are based. Is the inciting event clear? Did it work, and is there a clear transition into the next scene or chapter? In subsequent chapters or scenes, you should see the domino effect from the inciting event, leading to more complications. Does the event make sense based on what you know about the character so far? It reminds me of Newton’s Law: For every action there is a reaction. So, talk about this in your critiques.

Which leads me to stakes, conflict and tension; every scene should have one of these elements. In order to keep the story moving and the reader interested, the author must raise  stakes for the character  or increase the tension. Without them, the reader will be bored to death. All of which is worth mentioning in a critique.

You don’t want the reader to lose hope for your character or have the sensation  they’re racing through the story; is it a fast or slow read? That’s why pacing is an essential aspect to good critique. A well written story will have some periods of narrative for down time.  Look for the action and active verbs and evaluate whether the backstory is done naturally and only as necessary. I had glossed over this aspect of the critique before, but understand now, how crucial pacing is to the novel as a whole.

Dialogue is rarely overlooked in a critique but, the tendency is to look at dialogue tags or the use of passive voice, but there is much more than tags to evaluate. Is the dialogue difficult to read, incongruent with the characters, too stiff or confusing? Does the dialogue move the scene forward? (When the dialogue doesn’t move the story forward, consider its merits and don’t be afraid to recommend the author cut unnecessary dialogue).

Voice is one of those hard to define things for many people and is often overlooked in critiques. However, voice is very important. Voice is the way the story is written. It creates the mood and tone of the story. The question to ask is, does the voice reflect the right mood and tone for the story? Is the voice cohesive and does it work? This is something rarely mentioned in critiques, but voice does matter. I recently had a short story rejected, and in the letter, the reason was, “…the tone of the story wasn’t what we were looking for….”

The end of the Chapter (break) cannot be ignored in the critique. Transitioning from one chapter to the next is critical in determining whether the reader will continue and turn the next page. One of the things to evaluate in a critique is whether the chapter break was placed strategically. Was the tension high? Did the reader receive new information? Did something happen leaving the reader in suspense? Did you want to keep reading?

A thorough critique can be a time consuming process. To  help improve our methodology I recreated a checklist for our group to utilize as a reference tool. We use it as a reminder to be specific when critiquing fellow writers. You or your group may use a different process, but feel free to utilize the checklist on the link below.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about the checklist. I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

Critique a Novel

 

 

 

The Lovely Blog Award!

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

It is always nice to have someone recognize you. SeaWriteMedia has nominated me for The Lovely Blog Award.  It is one of the most creative blogs on writing I have seen in a long time and offers loads of great posts on writing. Please check it! A big thanks to you Elizabeth for the Lovely Blog Award Nomination. With award comes privilege of passing it on to others.

Here are the rules:

  1. Display the award logo somewhere on your blog.
  2. Link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.
  3. State seven things about yourself.
  4. Nominate other bloggers for the award and provide links to their blogs.

Seven things about me:

  1.  I am a retired Registered Nurse.
  2.  I have delivered babies and been a transplant coordinator with the American Red Cross.
  3. I have eight grandchildren.
  4.  I have never been out of the country, but it is on my bucket list.
  5.  I am afraid of heights.
  6.  I was a majorette and flag bearer in High school.
  7.  Swimming is my least favorite thing to do.

Blogs I follow that you may find interesting and helpful:
http://www.thewritepractice.com; Fiction Notes @ http://www.darcypattison.com; jemcogdell.blogspot.com;http://blog.janicehardy.com