Insecure Writers Support Group. Continuing my previous post on 'Be Your Own Structural Editor'.

Hello there!

Following last month's post, I promised to continue this topic. As many authors are publishing e-books, some good, some bad, some riddled with spelling, grammar and structural mistakes, I thought it was timely as self-pubbed authors don't have access to all the editorial help available to those who are lucky/unlucky (depending on your experience) enough to go the traditional route.

My first post talked about writing the first draft, putting it away for a week, month, whatever, then getting it out again and seeing what is to be done. According to the structural editor I conferred with recently at Queensland Writers Centre, the first stage of the editing process is structural, i.e. seeing how the larger elements of your work fit together.

A good idea is to start with a chapter breakdown (you may have done one in the planning stage, but quite likely it has changed during the first draft) before you begin your structural analysis. This provides a skeleton structure of your ms and is useful for analysing plot lines and characters' story arcs. Maybe you'll find a key plotline fades out before it should, or a character you meant to be key throughout the novel vanishes altogether in an early chapter.

Structural analysis is hard work. It's best to break it down through a series of questions for - CHARACTERISATION, NARRATIVE VOICE/POV, PLOT, STRUCTURE.

This post will look at CHARACTERISATION. I'll look at the others in future posts if this post appears helpful.

CHARACTERISATION - questions to ask yourself:

• Does your story have a clear main character with a developed story arc?
• Do you know what the secondary characters are contributing to the story? What is their function?
• Do your characters DO things, or are they passive?
• Do you know why your significant characters act the way they do (their motivation)?
• Are there too many characters? Could you merge minor characters that fulfil the same function, or remove characters without a clear role?
• Is there a balance of narrative text and dialogue, i.e., are you letting your characters speak?

(These dot point courtesy of Nicola O'Shea, freelance editor for a wide range of Australian publishers/authors. Go to www.nicolaoshea.com for more...)

Further points:

At a recent Toolkit for Writers workshop it was stated that your antagonist wants to be the protagonist. Is your antagonist strong enough to have his/her desire met?

I read a related article at KM Weiland's Helping Writers Become Authors, where she states your mc needs not one, but at least two conflicts. Another thing to think about when you're being your own editor.

• I hope this was a helpful post for IWSG. The purpose of Alex J Cavanaugh's group is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Go here for more participants...

A word before I go. RomanticFridayWriters' next challenge is Being the Perfect Ex. 400 words of prose or poetry. Open to all writers. You can learn more here...

#RomanticFridayWriters - Challenge No 37- My Monologue, Yes, no, oh alright then!

RomanticFridayWriters is a fortnightly blogfest of flash fiction under 400 words, whether prose or poetry. It has some romantic element, but not necessarily a HEA. It's a way to experiment with different styles of writing, different genres, different voices. Feedback is given which will help you expand your ideas if you wish to polish your entry for publication. Full critique is available if you request it. Add your name to the linky here if you want to experiment with us...Further suggestions are on our Challenges Page.

Occasionally I experiment with monologue. My Writing Class today was on 'person', so here is a combination of first and the devilishly-tricky second...

You can approach this prompt any way you choose. The overall theme is of course indecision. I've interspersed the words of the prompt throughout. They're in a different colour and large type...

Yes, well it’s nearly winter, so I’m in a bad mood, how about you? Okay, I know winter can be a cosy time of year. After all, what could be better than snuggling up with a lover in a warm bed? Not much, that is, if you had a lover. And that’s the problem you see. I have no lover, no one to warm my bed. Well, that’s not strictly true. I have Pusska, my Russian Blue Siamese who loves me well. Well, he’s not exactly human but oh he makes a good leg warmer. He gets right in under the covers and lies on my poor cold feet. Alright then, that’s not all he does. He also sits beside me as I look out the window, searching for my lost lover who obviously isn’t coming back. Aren't I the fool then? I shiver and dream of my soft bed but I pull my shawl closer and worry the bright beads around my neck while I peer into the night. I’m rather an obsessive type who doesn’t like to let go as you've already figured out. But I should, shouldn't I? I murmur endearments to Pusska that I used to whisper to Vallen when he was in a mind to be loved. Pusska loved him too and I can tell he misses the way Vallen used to toss him off the recliner chair before the fire. Pusska had a habit of sneaking onto the master’s chair until Vallen got home but I notice poor kitty just sits beside it now and looks up suspiciously, as if he thinks Vallen might come back if his chair's not taken. I used to make do with the radiant heat, or whatever was left over after Vallen and Pusska warmed up. I was happy with whatever I could get, pitiful me. But I want that old life back don't I? I’m desperate. I’m lonely. I’m sick of just daydreaming about Vallen. Sure, he could be cruel but that’s all I’ve ever known in my lifetime. I’ve read in books how heroes are chivalrous, kind, thoughtful, well, that’s a laugh isn't it? My heroes have all been in the Vallen mode – nasty and brutish. But just when you think you can take no more, these brutes do something beautiful, move your chair closer to the fire, bring home some trinket you’ve lusted after, bring you a cat to keep you warm when they’re planning on doing a runner, leaving you all alone to face winter...

Yes, well, it's officially the first day of Winter in Australia today. Autumn and Winter are my two favourite seasons over here. Just right. Glorious sunshine, not too hot. It's nice to get those boots out for a couple of wearings before it's too hot again. And brush up that winter coat for going out at night. Sadly, I have no fire to recline before, but yes, we do have fireplaces in Australia in some cold places, just not very common in Queensland which is semi-tropical.

• So I was inspired by the season and my writing class today. What do you think? Did you think Vallen was another cat? Yes, I thought so too when I was writing it, but no, I decided to make him an ugly human instead, lol!

WORD COUNT: 392
FCA

Click on the links below to read more stories...

Lover's Cove - Challenge #1

Hi.

I'm adding my lines to Simran Kaur's for Andy David's Lovers' Cove Challenge. He was #15, I am link #16.

MY LINE:

"My perpetual allegiance belongs to you and no other. Believe my words of truth." 

Word count: 14. (The challenge is 15 words or less...)

Good luck #17.


Find out more of what is going on and do participate and join in the fun here at -http://apd-loverscove.blogspot.com.  

Write about what you know? Did Hemingway, Joyce, Forster?

This is what I know

Hi my friends!

I know blogging is a bit of a scattergun approach and you may/may not have noticed that I'm keeping my posts down to about one a week. This allows me to write a more considered post and to leave it up long enough for it to be found by you. Welcome! Fewer posts mean I have more time to write my stories, more time to social network and more time to visit you when you leave a comment. Did I forget more time for real life? That's probably the MOST important thing. We bloggers can live in a surreal world, missing out on the beauties of the outdoors (and the outdoors are at their best at this time of year in Australia - a few days from Winter) and 'real' live people which is sort of relevant to my topic today...

A recent novel workshop reminded me of the adage, 'Write What You Know.' I've always disagreed with this advice and have subscribed to the opposite - 'Write About What You Don't Know But Want To Find Out'. A bit like those diagrams we teachers use to assist school students get started with their research for a history project.

At first I was resistant to the idea but decided to give it some thought. Maybe my idea was that the advice meant you must write autobiographally. Further reading showed me that as writers we may not have first-hand knowledge of something but we know a lot intuitively. Hemingway never had a son returning from war, but he was able to write convincingly in his 'Soldier's Home'. Hemingway was no stranger to disillusionment and apathy so he was able to use these emotions and his own first-hand experience as a war correspondent. Oh the pathos:

 By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over. 

Most of us don't see the value in our own lives, but Flannery O'Conner said: '...anyone who has survived childhood has enough to write about for a dozen years.' When I did my BLOGGERS WERE CHILDREN TOO! series for the A-Z Challenge, some of the comments were saying they'd like to hear more of my childhood in the wild, free and horsey Queensland bush.

Back to Hemingway who I think is far more interesting than I am. He is one of the mythical figures of literature who believed passionately in the value of violent and intense personal experience. He chose a life revolving around war, big game hunting, deep sea fishing, bullfighting, drinking and so on...It was intense and desperate. So despairing was he that he shot himself. However Hemingway also wrote, drawing directly on his own experience. His 'Nick Adams' stories, for example.

James Joyce lived as an expatriate, yet his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (click to read the ebook) covers his outwardly uneventful youth until he leaves university. What was so endearing about Joyce's Portrait? He experimented with a variety of styles which capture the exact feeling of each period of his youth. His Dubliners is a series of sketches of the city he both loved and hated.

So to wrap up, I'll remind you of the literary giant, E.M. Forster, and his attempt to write about what he didn't know - the lower class - in Howard's End. He tries to show the divide between social classes and how to bridge this chasm. So he included a character from the Working Classes! He had one tentative stab at it in the form of Leonard Bast, insurance clerk. Anyone familiar with this character will recognise that despite his good intentions Forster failed dismally as he concentrated on having Bast 'improve himself' by reading and attending classical concerts. Forster didn't 'know' this type of character and ended up just making poor Leonard a figure of fun.

There is a goldmine of fiction that uses the writer's early life. Here are just a few that come to mind:

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Empire of the Sun - J G Ballard
Indian Camp, The Killers and A Day's Wait - all by Ernest Hemingway, all spare, shocking about a small boy learning the hard way about the ugly facts of life in Thirties America.

A COUPLE OF EXERCISES IN WRITING ABOUT YOUR LIFE

Describe some of the things (you could confine yourself to your own house) which you regard with particular affection, or loathing. Try to avoid telling the reader directly how you feel about them, letting your emotions come through instead in the way you describe the objects.

Minutely describe the sounds you hear going to sleep late at night, or in a fever. Try to capture the sense of drifting into sleep as you describe what you hear.

With thanks to Julian Birkett, Word Power for some of the inspiration for my post and for these exercises.

• So what do you think? Do you write about what you know, or what you want to find out?
• Will you try the writing exercises? I often find doing this type of work leaves me with the essence of a short fiction piece.

My favourite websites for writers - Creative, Agents and Online Writing Communities and just added, free books!!

Hi all! I hope you managed to click on a couple of the participants in the RFW A-Z Appreciating the Zealotry challenge. Next post down if you'd like to have a read...

Now onto today's post which is all about links. I do a lot of web surfing while sitting in cafes or libraries with my netbook while I procrastinate about which project to work on out of my myriad of projects. I thought it was about time I shared the results of some of my searching for writing edification.


STOP PRESS: Kiru Taye just sent me a link to a Beach Book Blast. There are free excellent kindle books to be had from 23-25 May. I just bought myself some...

Here are 10 of my favourite web hang outs:

1. Easy Street Prompts - first of the creative sites for when your writer's brain needs a boost. You can troll through photos and video-based writing prompts. Somewhere in there you'll find inspiration for sure. I'm amazed at how many short stories I've written based on a prompt or a first sentence.
2. The Story Starter - There are over a billion opening lines here, more than enough to keep you writing for a few lifetimes. Great if you write short stories, especially.
3. Story Starter for Kids - If you teach writing to school students as I do, or if you just want to get your kids to write, here is a junior Story Starter. (This one only had 2,360 story starters when last I checked).
4. Pub Rants - Moving onto some agents' sites. This is a great site for when you're knocking your ms into shape - everything you ever wanted to know about publishing and submitting. There are big-time authors sharing advice and there are real query letters to learn from.
5. Rachelle Gardner - Writer's Digest gives Rachelle's site the 'Best of the Best' agent's award. Great questions and answers about writing and publishing, great discussions in the comments. Always something to learn/think about, and hopefully eventually do something about when you finish your coffee. Here's a cracker of a post I loved on 7 Bad Habits of Successful Authors.
6. Absolute Write - moving on to online writing communities. This one offers forums where you can get advice from real people who have experience in the world of fiction, freelancing, editing etc.
7. Backspace - A third of the members here are published/agented, well worth a look. You have to pay to participate in the forums but even nonmembers can lurk and read advice-filled articles.
8. National Novel Writing Month - one of my personal favourites. Join 250,000 writers who challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Lots of interaction if you like that sort of thing, lots of novel tracking which is exciting, but I join it just for the motivation and I never give up when I've set myself an achievable goal. I've written three novels in the past three years using NaNo as my inspiration. There is a follow up editing NaNo type thingy but I somehow manage to miss that! 
9. Writing.com - I'm sure you probably already visit this site on a regular basis. You can do a lot for free - share your work, enter contests, join writing circles - lots of writer-related activities.
10. Review Fuse - If you like writing reviews, you can get three reviews back for every four you write. You have to be a paid-up free (haha) member though to use this service. 

• Do you have any favourite sites to share?
• Would you like me to share more another time or would you rather just get back to your writing? 

PS. And talking of finding inspiration through prompts, keep your eyes open for the next RFW prompt on Friday June 1 - Yes, No, Oh, alright then! Write your 400 word story/poem using this prompt. (Sounds right up my alley). Go to the RomanticFridayWriters site for more info...We'd love you to join us. Open to all writers.