SIPPING COCKTAILS ON THE BACK PORCH WATCHING THE SUN SET OVER THE
MAY RIVER
This is where I NEED my mind to be for the next five days!
REVISIONS
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wandering Mind
I'm going home, folks, for three weeks. Starting next Wednesday, this is where my mind will be for nineteen straight days:
SIPPING COCKTAILS ON THE BACK PORCH WATCHING THE SUN SET OVER THE
MAY RIVER
This is where my mind is now:
PACKING
This is where I NEED my mind to be for the next five days!
REVISIONS
Yeah . . . just yeah!
SIPPING COCKTAILS ON THE BACK PORCH WATCHING THE SUN SET OVER THE
MAY RIVER
This is where I NEED my mind to be for the next five days!
REVISIONS
Monday, March 26, 2012
Ground Your MC
It has been awhile since I have unleashed on of my snarky rants. But it's Monday . . . and . . . well it's Monday. Now before you read further, please remember that this is READER TRISHA not WRITER TRISHA who is expressing her opinions here.
I love layers in my characters. I love writers who get that people/ characters don't exist in a neatly sealed box, that their past and present always collide, forcing them to make some horrendous decisions. I love mystery and action. In fact I crave it, need some something to propel me to turn that page and exclaim holy crap. I thoroughly appreciate the need to set seeds and thrive on a good game of literary connect-the-dots.
What I hate is getting it all at once!
I don't want nor do I need to be introduced to thread after thread in the first twenty pages. No matter how well written, no matter how important you think those ten pieces of back-story, those five extra characters and those twelve tiny hints are to your plot, if you toss that at me all in the first two chapter, then and suffice it to say I'll get confused. (and a tad bit pissy)
It's not good if I am two chapters in and still wondering if your MC is dreaming, awake, high, or just one fucked up human being. I don't want to have to guess if your plot is set in the present or the future. I don't want to have to remember seven character names in the first five pages or try and keep their back-stories straight. And I sure as hell don't want be guessing at the gender of your MC.
As a reader, I need you to ground your MC. I need a firm grip on setting. I don't mean I want an elaborate description of the color of the falling leaves or the missing shutter on the third window from the left. What I mean is a concrete sense of time, place AND tone. Start there, then add the threads. You have 250 some odd pages to develop your character. Use it all.
I love layers in my characters. I love writers who get that people/ characters don't exist in a neatly sealed box, that their past and present always collide, forcing them to make some horrendous decisions. I love mystery and action. In fact I crave it, need some something to propel me to turn that page and exclaim holy crap. I thoroughly appreciate the need to set seeds and thrive on a good game of literary connect-the-dots.
What I hate is getting it all at once!
I don't want nor do I need to be introduced to thread after thread in the first twenty pages. No matter how well written, no matter how important you think those ten pieces of back-story, those five extra characters and those twelve tiny hints are to your plot, if you toss that at me all in the first two chapter, then and suffice it to say I'll get confused. (and a tad bit pissy)
It's not good if I am two chapters in and still wondering if your MC is dreaming, awake, high, or just one fucked up human being. I don't want to have to guess if your plot is set in the present or the future. I don't want to have to remember seven character names in the first five pages or try and keep their back-stories straight. And I sure as hell don't want be guessing at the gender of your MC.
As a reader, I need you to ground your MC. I need a firm grip on setting. I don't mean I want an elaborate description of the color of the falling leaves or the missing shutter on the third window from the left. What I mean is a concrete sense of time, place AND tone. Start there, then add the threads. You have 250 some odd pages to develop your character. Use it all.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
That One Perfect Line!
We all have our favorite lines -- ones that encapsulates the entire theme of the book into one fantastically written sentence. If you are like me, then you find them rattling around in your head for weeks, months, even years after you've read the book.
“Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes … blotting out the future.” ~Sarah Dressen, JUST LISTEN
“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ~Cormac McCarthy, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." ~George Orwell, 1984
“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” ~John Green, LOOKING FOR ALASKA
It's easy to point to these out in other people's work. As writers we appreciate, even savor that truly awe-inspiring sentence and find ourselves dumbfounded by the profound depth they convey. What I challenge you to do is look at your own work and find that one sentence that brings your character, your tone, your entire manuscript to life. I guarantee it's in there, that awe-inspiring sentence that has you saying "Shit . . I wrote that?" Then share it here for the rest of us to marvel over! And as encouragement, I wil throw myself out there with some of my own lines.
"The darkness would've scared me years ago, but not anymore. If you couldn't see it, then you didn't know it was there to be afraid of." ~SILO
"I knew that look in his eyes, knew it had nothing to do with pity or even anger. It was haunted hope -- that shaky belief that I'd be alright when every experience he'd ever had screamed otherwise." ~ INSIDE OUT
"It took me a few minutes, but I finally grasped what this tiny dark room actually was – one fucked up way of sending a naughty child into the corner, complete with locks and sensory deprivation." ~LEAVING EDEN
“Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes … blotting out the future.” ~Sarah Dressen, JUST LISTEN
“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ~Cormac McCarthy, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." ~George Orwell, 1984
“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” ~John Green, LOOKING FOR ALASKA
It's easy to point to these out in other people's work. As writers we appreciate, even savor that truly awe-inspiring sentence and find ourselves dumbfounded by the profound depth they convey. What I challenge you to do is look at your own work and find that one sentence that brings your character, your tone, your entire manuscript to life. I guarantee it's in there, that awe-inspiring sentence that has you saying "Shit . . I wrote that?" Then share it here for the rest of us to marvel over! And as encouragement, I wil throw myself out there with some of my own lines.
"The darkness would've scared me years ago, but not anymore. If you couldn't see it, then you didn't know it was there to be afraid of." ~SILO
"I knew that look in his eyes, knew it had nothing to do with pity or even anger. It was haunted hope -- that shaky belief that I'd be alright when every experience he'd ever had screamed otherwise." ~ INSIDE OUT
"It took me a few minutes, but I finally grasped what this tiny dark room actually was – one fucked up way of sending a naughty child into the corner, complete with locks and sensory deprivation." ~LEAVING EDEN
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
My Shiny New Toy
Here is is. The shiny new toy I have been waiting weeks to play with. It is nothing more then a stack of blank paper clipped together, but it has been calling to me for weeks, begging me to scribble on it.
With all my current WIP's in their requisite places, I can now pull out that empty, white sheet of paper and start tossing out dialogue, themes, character names, everything I will need to create my next YA contemporary.
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