Hark! Here come the Foreshadows!

I think next to conflict, the way to keep your readers interested in your story is with foreshadowing. Those little hints we writers give to tease and entice our audience. What did Mrs. Smith mean when she said ‘Maybe?’ Is something bad going to happen to little Billy? Oh No!

Done right, this technique can be a very powerful tool, but more and more I’m seeing writers blow their hard work by revealing too much when they foreshadow.

“Master, is something wrong?”

“Yes. We are going to be attacked by an evil presence, but there’s nothing we can do about it yet, so just be on your guard.”

Yeah, well, you get the idea.

Writers are told not to include great piles of backstory or info dumps when they begin a project, and I think, so I think in their excitement to get the story going, they inadvertently tell us too much. It happens, and I completely understand. The reason I’m writing about it, is because I’m hoping that if they see it here, then maybe they will see it in their own work, and correct it.

There are so many other ways to foreshadow. Strange weather (that seems to be my favourite), odd occurrences, tingling senses. It doesn’t have to be spoken. As a matter of fact, I think it works better if it isn’t told to us in dialogue.

Like other aspects of writing, foreshadowing is a skill that has to be learned, but I think it’s one of the easiest. When you come to that part in your story where you want to foreshadow, stop and think. Think about what is going to happen. Think about the seed you want to plant in your readers head. Maybe even chart out where you want drop these hints, say drop one half way through chapter two, and another one right near the end of three. Build up to it, draw the reader in.

After all, you’re a writer and that’s your job.

Dawning of a new day?

Have you seen this?

bookish.com/

It seems three of the Big Six are diving into the e-book trade, and there is curiosity, suspicion and excitement radiating around this endeavour. Naturally, everyone’s first instinct (mine included) was the Old Guard were finally admitting that digital publishing was a serious business, and a possible AND legitimate threat to them. I must admit, there would be nothing more exciting than seeing one of their company names etched on the cover of a future novel of mine, and I see possible scenario’s coming down the pipeline from this.

1.       This site will spawn more sites from Big Publishing, which will allow for mid-listers as well as genre specific novels to be published under a trusted brand name. People will know just by looking at the publishing name that the book their buying is properly written; proper grammar, spelling and the other mechanics of writing that tends to elude most self-published works.  

2.       If they’re smart, they’ll use the Amazon price model and keep e-books under 9.99. Pricing new authors on a lower scale to start off. I don’t think there will be any complaining about this, as new authors are already pricing themselves low on Amazon and Smashwords. 

3.       More authors will be picked up by Big Publishing because of the low overhead to produce their books. This scenario concerns me a little. If this were to happen, then it’s possible that Amazon and Smashwords would again be littered with poorly edited/written novels, and self-publishing would again be the stain on the publishing world.     

I do see a drawback as well.

1.       Big Publishing would again be the dominant factor in the publishing business, and again authors would be forced to jump through their hoops in order to have their books digitally printed. It was out of frustration that digital media exploded as it did, and that same frustration with the industry could return if the restrictions are just as tight.    

Whatever the future holds for the publishing industry, all I can say is that it’s a wonderful time to be a writer. What about you? What are your thoughts on this new enterprise?

You’re too emotional!

I hear that a lot. Not about my writing, but about myself in general. Yeah, it’s easy to make me cry, but it’s easier to piss me off.

Emotions are a tricky thing for me as a writer, especially when my character is confronted by something I have no base reference for. You always hear, “Write what you know”, but come on, how is anyone supposed to know the emotional state of someone being chased by a monster? I know that sounds a little far-fetched, and people will say, “Well, they’d be scared.” Would they? I mean seriously, if you saw a zombie staggering down the road outside of your house, would you run away screaming? Or would you stand there, shake your head and think, WTF? I know, that’s taking it to the extreme, but that’s how I think when confronted with that type of writing situation.

I think, this is where we writers of scifi and fantasy have a bit of a harder time than other genre’s. Literary fiction, and non-fiction have a base reference for emotions. We know how the characters are feeling during their conflicts because we can sympathize with them. We understand their emotions.  Even in a pirate book, we can sympathize with the situation because pirates and the terror they caused were real. It happened. With speculative fiction–not so much. How does one incite the terror of being chased by a monster? 

What about you? Do you find it difficult to express emotions in your work?

Swearing In Dialogue

[Short post today. Long weekends throw me right off.]

One thing people say about writing, is that you must have realistic dialogue. Or at least, realistic for your story. I’ve noticed that formal speech is usually used for fantasy (especially sword and sorcery), with science fiction being more technical. I suppose these are a given, so what about swearing? Do you think it make the dialogue more realistic?

I have two WIP’s I’m working on, one a YA (seventeen or so), the other a few characters are in their 20’s. Now for the teen one, my characters swear, some of it pretty bad, but I’m not going for shock. I remember what it was like when I was that age, and how I and my friends spoke. I used to hang with the ‘stoners’ and things could get pretty nasty. The ‘f-bomb’ was used frequently as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb (sometimes all in the same sentence).   

What about you? Do you use cuss words in your work? Do you find it realistic in dialogue, especially in YA? Remember, YA doesn’t mean young teenagers (that’s Middle Grade). Are you put off by a story because of swearing?  Inquiring minds (ME!) want to know

I’ve been thinking lately about the ages of characters. Not so much from a descriptive point of view, but just their age in general.
When I was a teen, I wrote about teens. When I was in my twenties, so were my characters, and now that I’m a parent, my characters are too, but I don’t see a lot of stories where the main character is over the age of thirty. Most of what I see are young, vibrant, and full of piss and vinegar. That’s fine, but can’t we bestow these same features to older characters? Why do people get excited about a young twenty-something kicking ass, but not a forty or fifty-year old? Trust me, just because they’re older, doesn’t mean they’re decrepit. Just look at Chuck Norris.

When did breaking the thirty or forty year milestone become taboo in writing? Why is it more exciting for a young person with no personal attachments to save the world, instead of an older person with a family? Yes, I know my story falls into the second category, that’s what made me think of this topic. A loner with no connection to family, wandering the world, is a sad, pathetic creature indeed. Why should he/she save the world, when they haven’t bothered to be a part of it?

I’m not complaining, far from it. I just want people to think. Older characters have a sense of inner peace about them. They’ve been through just about everything, and know how to pick and choose their battles. They know their limits and have enough sense not to rush into things. If forty is the new thirty in real life, why can’t it be the same in novels?

We’re at a point in publishing history where getting our stories out to the public is easier than ever. Let’s not fill potential libraries with copy-cat, cookie-cutter, personalities. Let’s try to give the readers characters worthy of their time.

Only one agent, please.

If you haven’t started querying agents yet, just a heads up. You’re going to see this quite a bit on agency websites.

With agent-tracking sites like Query Tracker and Agent Connect, it’s easier than ever to find agents who rep. your genre, and as agencies tend to have more than one agent, it’s only natural to want to query them all. More queries out, the better your chance, right?

Wrong. Agents DO talk to one another, more so if they work together. If they come across a proposal that doesn’t sound right for them, they could pass it on to their associate. Most times you’ll see ‘Please read over our agent bio’s to determine who would be the best fit for you’—do that. Why would you query James for your uber-epic space vampire saga, when he prefers pirates zombie romance? There is a chance he could pass it on to Penny, a co-worker who just loves space vampire saga’s, but why take the chance? Query Penny instead. I know this sounds like common sense, but if agencies are putting up these little notes, there has to be a reason.

When you start querying, write the name AND agency down. Query Tracker has a wonderful program for keeping track of agents for you, but you need to keep track of the agencies so you don’t send multiples. There are so many people out there who are in the same place as you. Don’t lessen your chance by breaking one of their requests

What I think it takes to be a successful writer.

I guess that depends on your definition of success. If you define success as just completing a story and you don’t care if anyone reads it or not, then your goals are easy to achieve, but if your define success as agented and published, well, that’s s whole other option. Especially in this day when everyone is racing to get a novel out.    

Everyone says that one must not quit if one wishes to be published, but that’s easier said than done. One way to learn how to become successful is by looking at those  who are already are.

Publishing is a business so why not look at the people who became millionaires in business.

So, what makes a business person successful?

·         Business people are always thinking of way to be successful. New projects, studying the landscape of a certain project idea. What about you? Are you thinking of the next project? Of the next two projects? Or do you focus on just one at a time?  

·         Business people are implementing ideas that will make them successful. Marketing is a big tool for business, you have to know the key demographics to target. What about you? What marketing tools do you use? I know there are many people who are uncomfortable with marketing themselves, and I understand that. It is kind of intimidating and I’m sure it borders on narcissism, but how can anyone purchase your product if they don’t know what it is, or what it’s about?     

·         Studying the market. You can’t be successful unless you do your homework. Is your project geared to the right market? Is there a market for your project? Are there other projects out there like yours? If there are, what is it about yours that makes it stand out from the noise?

·         Being professional in every aspect. With the internet such a popular social interaction tool, your online presence should be as professional as possible. Remember, you are a business and even though people can’t see you, they still ‘see’ you. Your online presence whether it be on a an interactive social site or not, should be carefully monitored. Mind your P’s and Q’s.

What do you think it takes to be successful?  

Whittling down the list.

Just like my main character—Amelia Saint, I’m finding my options for keeping my ‘children’ alive, are running out. Alive on the query roster, that is. As of today, I completed several list of possible agents that I found on Query Tracker, and a couple other sites. There were so many, all with different requests for when you submit, that I had to break it down into four categories.

·         Agents who rep. science fiction and fantasy and accept email queries

·         Agents who rep. only fantasy and accept email queries.

·         Agents who rep. science fiction and fantasy and accept only paper queries

·         Agents who rep. only fantasy and accept only paper queries.

Needless to say, options three and four could pose several problems for me, for reasons I’ve already blogged about, and option two, I discussed as well. Another concern I’ve been having; how do I know the agency received the letter, as some of them don’t respond if they’re not interested? On that note, I did ‘lose’ an email sub at the beginning of the month, and only discovered that the other day. I re-subbed this morning.

Sometimes when I think about not wanting to spend the time on queries, I hear this voice inside me belittling me for not putting enough of an effort into my career. That I’m taking the lazy way out by thinking about self-publishing. This isn’t a free ride and you only get out of it, what you put into it. Oddly enough, this voice sounds and looks like my ex-step-father. *punch*

Yet what do I do I do with it, if I can’t sell this novel? I’m working on other projects, but I really like this one. I’m at a stand-still. I don’t know where to go from here.

*sigh*                           

On the bright side, I did get a partial request and another agent said he would pass this on to a colleague. So it’s not all depressing.

Don’t be a ‘Grimey’.

I love the Simpsons. They are an odd reflection of life, aren’t they? Did you see the one where they hire a new guy named Frank Grimes, who despite all the bad things that happened in his life, he put himself through school and made it to the top of his class, and as a reward, they put him in the same sector as Homer. Poor guy, unlike the rest of us, he didn’t care for Homer’s laziness or lack of concern for safety, and in his bid to show everyone just how horrible Homer really was, he ended up dead.

Know anyone like that? Someone who’s so obsessed with how other people are doing, that they don’t see their own worth? I’ve heard stories of writers who are so busy checking out the competition that they lose sight of what’s really important; their own work. They only see what other people have, and gripe about why they don’t have the same success. So much energy focused on the wrong thing. It’s sad.

I know this career can be frustrating and it’s easy to rant about the other guy, it’s natural, but take some time and realize what you’re doing. Yes, that person has an agent, but they went through the same long query process that you’re going through now.  Yes, they’re story sold a lot of copies, but doesn’t mean there’s no room for your story.

Complaining or comparing yourself to other writers is a futile waste of time and energy. Instead of getting angry, be happy for them. Seriously! Don’t trash them because they’ve found some success, be happy they’ve accomplished their goals. After all, would you want to be trashed for finally realizing your dreams?

No. I didn’t think so. Don’t be a Grimey.         

Getting back into the swing.

I love the excitement that comes with beginning a new project. Especially as this new novel is scifi. It’s been a while since I started a new story, so much so, that I’m having difficulty getting back into the swing of 1k worth of words per day. If you don’t know by now, I have a schedule for just about everything I do concerning writing. First drafts-1k per day until done, revisions- 500 per day, for polish – two hours per day. This allows me to focus more on what needs to be done at each particular stage. I even bring out the calculator and find my daily total so I don’t go over. As much as I love to write, I generally have more than one project on the go that needs my attention, and this is the only way to keep everybody happy.

Yet it’s hard. I’m stuck in polish mode and focusing more on small details than the actual story. I don’t know if that’s good or not. I’ve never been one of those people who writes, revises, and edit a chapter before going on. I’ve always stated just the opposite; write the story out first, THEN worry about the other stuff. The first draft is the place you get the plot out, see what works and what doesn’t.

 I can’t be in this edit mindset and stick to my goal of having the first draft done by the end of May. To make matters worse, it’s now March Break and Sithboy is home. That means I don’t have to get up early.

I’m doomed.    

What about you? Do you have schedules to keep when you write? How do you make yourself stick to them when there are so many temptations all around? Now if you don’t mind, there are some Nazi Zombies that need taken care of.