Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Halloween!

The streetlights are on, but the night is dark. Obscured by the clouds, the moon offers little light. Your character has gone out to meet his friend for trick or treating. He only had to go a short way, but somehow he finds himself lost and confused by the darkness. Describe the setting. Is he in a city or a suburb? Are other people around, or is he the only one in sight? What sounds does he hear?

Now decide what you want your character to do. Will he press onward, looking for his destination, or will he try to turn back? Whatever he chooses, does he find something along the way? Does his discovery open up a whole new plotline for your story? Is it a projection of his own fear or is it really there? What is his physical reaction to the situation? What is he going to do? How is the tension complicated by the fact that it is Halloween night?

If your character is an adult, have him think back on a time when this happened. What emotions does it bring to mind now? Did it ruin his view of the holiday, or leave him always wondering about that place? Perhaps have him return to the scene, or encounter a reminder that begins a new journey.

Keep the Reader Reading — Disclosing Information at the Right Time

Providing the right information at just the right time is an essential part of crafting a good story. You want to make sure not to give away to much, to create tension and suspense, and provide a payoff for your reader among many other things. But in order to do all of these things well, one element to keep in mind is the idea of when, how, and how often you provide information that your reader needs to know.

For my current revision process, this is something that has been on my mind. I moved a scene up to make sure the reader has enough information to keep him interested. I studied my order of scenes to make sure each scene laid the foundations for the ones to come. But because my first revision mandated that I delete so many of my initial pages that essentially served as backstory rather than action, in earlier revisions, I really tried to analyze where information was introduced to make sure that the reader knew just enough of what she needed to know, when she needed to know it, so that she would remain engaged and wanting to move forward with the story.

As the story then progresses, however, it is equally important to make sure that while you provide the necessary information for your story, you also are not repeating the same information again and again. Of course, you want to make sure to give your reader all the necessary clues and reminders so that the story remains understandable and fluid, but repeating information can also become redundant. Even though certain characters might not know what your reader might already know, it is important to be aware that to simply restate the information for the sake of an unknowing character can negatively affect the reader's experience of your novel — because they already know.

This was something that my mentor brought to my attention for my current revision. Because my protagonist is keeping a secret from many people, as he begins to reveal the truth, I need to be continually conscious of both the way in which he does it —meaning word choice and the analogies he uses — as well as how much information is revealed, and potentially repeated, each time. The more I thought about this, the more I realized he was right. Of course while I was writing I thought it was important to make sure my protagonist explained things to the important people in his life. But with the reader standing in a place of dramatic irony, these conversations or revelations need to be abridged, or perhaps portrayed through indirect dialogue rather than a repetition of what has already been said.

Essentially, what I am saying is this: You don't want to sacrifice your reader for the good of a character. The reader is the one who must stay engaged. She is the one you want to make turn the page, and she is the one who you don't want to bore with your over description or constant reminders of what she already knows.

Much like my last post about keeping a reader emotionally engaged, you also want to respect the reader's intelligence and ability to make connections and remember what has already occurred. Sometimes, as the writer, it is hard to see it from the reader's perspective or as someone reading it with fresh eyes. We already know the whole story. But in this part of the revision stage, it is important to really look at your manuscript as if you'd never seen it before. However hard that may be, it is important to constructing the reading experience you want your audience to have.

But being aware of what's already been said will only serve to make your novel stronger. You want your manuscript to be as interesting as possible. And information that someone already knows doesn't have have the same appeal as the new information that can be found on the next page. One of the most important things for us authors is to keep your reader reading. And if taking out a repeated section of dialogue, or extracting information that's already been established will do that, then by all means, take it out!

Disclosing information in the right places can be like a balancing act — making sure there is just enough over here to balance a lack of something over there. But it will all be worth it in the end. When you're reader keeps turning the page, and there is no boredom to be found, then the tinkering and the revising will all be worth it. So ask someone to read your work. Or pretend you're a first time reader and see what you find. I can guarantee your novel will be better for it!

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Costumes

Halloween is just around the corner and your character needs to come up with a costume. First, think about where he is going: a friend's party, trick-or-treating, a work event, a family tradition, etc. How do the group dynamics of the event factor into the decision? Is your character reluctant to participate, or just dying to go? Will he be going as part of a group costume, or as an individual costume? Is figuring out a costume high on his priority list, or something he will have to throw together at the last minute?

Think about what other things are going on in your character's life, and how that affects his attitude toward the party.  What does the costume say about your character's personality? How can you use the costume to reveal something you don't want to explicitly state?

Update!

I've updated my "Books" page to reflect my almost fully revised work in progress. An upper middle-grade, realistic fiction novel, I am excited to see how far I've come in the last couple months and for the final revisions to take place. So thanks for all of you who have asked about it and encouraged me along the way. It is not done yet, but the finish line is in sight! Check it out the brief synopsis!

Tracing the Emotions — Keeping Your Reader Emotionally Involved

As of this past week, I have completed my third round of revision on my manuscript and am about to begin my fourth. It's amazing to see just how much the novel has come along. It's definitely been a lot of hard work, especially with each revision is on such a tight schedule. But, while I am slightly exhausted to be sure, it's nice to be able to see the fruits of the work paying off!

This week, in my letter from my editor, one element that he highlighted for the next revision is to make sure to track the reader's emotional involvement with certain characters. In essence, I need to take a careful look at the emotional progression of certain characters, but also begin to consider the way in which readers will respond to those characters.

For instance, one of my characters, Tate, is the best friend of my protagonist. For the majority of the novel, however, Tate is angry at Carter for something he's done, and struggles to believe Carter's professed reason for why he did it. Now, I know this doesn't give you lots of insight into the greater situation or the dynamic between the characters, but it provides a good example this type of revision. Throughout the novel, Tate's anger manifests itself in a variety of ways. So as the novel progresses, and his anger changes, I need to make sure that his emotions are consistent and relative to the situations playing out around him.

Going through the scenes in which he appears, cataloging a list of his actions, and listing his emotional responses are all part of creating the emotional map for any character. Of course, I know people do this in a variety of different ways, including color coding, using index cards, or creating extensive outlines. But really whatever works for you is great, as long as you are making sure to carefully go through all of the places in which your character appears since even the smallest of actions can convey a world of emotion. You want to gather as full a picture as you can of the emotional life of your character.

But tracking a character emotionally is not only about following their emotions, but also being aware of how the reader responds to their emotional progression. One of the things my mentor said about Tate was that in a few instances, he has begun to come across as mean. And if he comes across as mean, then the reader loses sympathy for him, which in turn, lessens their sympathy toward my protagonist. Evaluating reader response to your character's emotional lives is just as important as the character's emotions themselves. Of course, it is not always about making your character likable, but instead, about remembering their emotions go beyond just the characters themselves.

Sometimes we become so caught up in moving the plot along and ensuring the value of each scene, and even each sentence, it can become easy to forget your reader's response. For my character, I didn't necessarily have a problem with Tate acting mean, but I do want to make sure to protect the reader's connection with him, and thus don't want his meanness to break the bond that has hopefully formed.

Because this type of revision shifts some of the focus away from the story itself as it exists on the page and onto the response of the reader, it is definitely a revision that should come later in your process. In the case of flat characters, who never really change or only make a cameo in one scene, there role doesn't merit this type of scrutiny. But all the other characters who play a main role in the action or even in the development of your protagonist can be evaluated in this way.

Secondary characters' emotions can often be just as important as the emotions of your protagonist. Like the real world, all of our characters exist in an interpersonal web of relationships. And, this web includes your readers' relationship with the characters. One of the best parts of the reading experience is that you get to lose yourself in a whole new world of friends and action and fantasy. So you want to make sure to keep your reader connected. Their emotions matter, too!

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Politics

Think about the political situation taking place in your character's world. How does the government system within your setting affect the life of your character? How does it affect those around him in an immediate way? Where does your character fall in terms of political involvement? Perhaps they are closely aligned with one side of the political situations, or maybe they are indifferent. Is your character in a place of power and prosperity, or is she in need or suffering at the hands of a ruling power?

If your character is a child, imagine the political situation from their vantage point. Or, if your character lives in a fantasy world, or in a time set in the past, think about what specific differences you need to explain and explore to better allow your reader to understand the greater setting. Creating a larger problem to frame your story can add depth, authenticity, and tension.

Don't Rush, but Hurry Up — The Importance of Pacing

Yesterday, my friend recounted a story to me in which someone said to her, "Now don't rush, but hurry up!" The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how perfect this statement is. This is exactly what you want to do with you a novel. You want to hurry yourself to the action; to the real meat of the story. But you don't want to rush getting there, or leave out any of the crucial parts.

Pacing is a complex problem that will come with every novel. Of course, we all go into a novel with a certain plan, knowing roughly how much time we are looking to cover, and how we want the narrative voice to read. But the difficulty of figuring out the level of detail that you want to describe, how to do so in an interesting manner, and then keeping this consistent throughout can sometimes prove challenging — particularly when you want your pacing to keep the reader engaged, and always wondering what will happen next.

This is something I've been thinking a lot about over the past two weeks while working on my third round of revision for my manuscript. My mentor instructed me to go back through every scene, and really evaluate how I could tighten things up, or if I really needed a scene at all. This type of evaluation was really aimed at the questions, "Do your readers really need to know this?" and "How does the exposition/dialogue/event further the story?"

As I went through my manuscript line by line, I realized there were three main areas were I could enhance and contribute to the pace of my story. First, I looked for material that I could cut. These sections were in some way unnecessary. This could be a description of a place or person that just doesn't need to be in the story, or a conversation that doesn't further reveal or build character, or maybe just a statement of the obvious that the reader can glean for herself. Perhaps it' two lines, or two paragraphs, or two pages, but cutting unnecessary material can increase the pacing significantly.

Next, I really looked at dialogue. Dialogue is something that can help the reader get a lot of information in short spurts, and deepens character. But because you want the dialogue to have a quick movement, longer monologues and lengthy conversations are often something to avoid. This was particularly important for me because of the age of my character. Thirteen year old boys are not often very verbose, so I tried to pare down my character's words particularly when it came to any type of repetition.

The third area I looked at was exposition. In my first draft I had tons of exposition to start the story. Now, most of it is gone, and the action of my story starts right when you read the very first page. This meant that I had to figure out ways for information to come through a variety of sources as the novel continued, but not in such away that it slowed down the action. Good exposition can be one or two lines, so I tried to focus on key pieces of information, rather than general descriptions.

While this is something to be aware of in the first draft, I think pacing is an element that needs to be looked at in revision, when you've gotten everything you wanted down on the page and can then see the whole scope of what you're working with. And just as pacing for each of your projects will be different, so, too, will your revisions. But the key thing is that for each of your manuscripts, you only want to include what's necessary. You want to plunge your reader into the action and keep them steadily wanting more and not feel as though they are plodding through or digging for some buried treasure. You want to remove the debris from the path and provide a clear line toward the destination, all while not take too long to get there.

So like following any treasure map, creating the right pacing may not be easy, but it certainly can be done.

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Carnival

Take your character to the carnival. What does she see? Who does she notice? Create a sensory image, focusing on the sounds, smells and sights around her.

Now imagine she's uncomfortable. Why is she uncomfortable? Is there a way to make her feel relaxed, or is her discomfort part of a larger problem? How can she interact with the setting around her? Is she there alone, or does she have company? Did she want to come to the carnival? Why or why not?

Choosing Your Next Project — Writing for Others, and for Yourself

Yesterday, I had coffee with my good friend and fellow writer Heather Demetrios to catch up on life and talk about all things writerly. And while all of our conversation was truly fun and enriching, one thing I kept thinking about after I left is the balance between current projects and future projects. Or perhaps more precisely, choosing what project you want to pursue next, and how to know that that's the one you should go with.

For me, this subject has been on my mind because while I still have a long way to go in the revision of my current novel, the deadline for my spring mentorship proposal is fast approaching. The way that my MFA program at Simmons works, this year, my second and final year of the degree, consists of two intensive mentorships in which you work on two different manuscripts during the two respective semesters. Thus, the need to be aware of what I am going to do next, and to select what I feel is the "best" project from my list of potential ideas, has definitely been a real pressure that I've felt over the past few months.

Similarly for Heather, who is completing her MFA at VCFA, she, too, must choose a project to work on next. And, as a 2014 debut author with her YA novel Streaming, feels the even added pressure of wanting to produce a great second novel that will be a strong follow up to her first. Of course, I am confident that she will absolutely succeed in this, but I completely understand the stress that comes with choosing your next project. The endeavor of writing a novel mandates a large amount of time and commitment. And while some people can balance writing several things at once, the reality of doing that with working in a full-time (or even part-time), and doing that well, becomes a real challenge. Never mind the fact that when you have a list of projects you want to pursue, you want to take into account the market and what you think will most likely sell, especially as a yet unpublished or debut author.

So as we talked about all our worries yesterday, and as I left to return home to my work, I realized that this pressure, this uncertainty, is something we will probably always have to deal with. No one knows for sure that one book will sell over the next. Or that this project should take precedent over that one. And it is this decision making process that will probably always keep our minds spinning as we consider our upcoming works. But, this is not something that necessarily has to hold us back, or paralyze us from producing good work. If handled the right way, it is something that can only make us better.

See, I think Heather and I both come from the camp of "write more, and write more, now!" For better or for worse, we will probably always be the overachieving sort who go for the things we want and never want to quit anything, no matter how hard something might become, and then move onto the next one. And productivity wise, this can be a great quality, but emotionally, sometimes it is simply exhausting. So ultimately, like most things, choosing what to work on next must come down to a balance. On one hand, it is good to write with an eye toward the market — considering what is out there and what isn't, what holes you can fill, and what audience you're after. But at the same time, you need to go with what you feel most passionate about, or the story you know in your heart you need to write, regardless of the trends of what you think is likely to get bought.

The writing we do has to come from us. And even though I know I so desperately want my writing to be read and to affect other people, my writing will always need to be not just from me, but for me, too. We need to write for ourselves; for the love we have of literature and for the stories that we are just dying to tell. We need to write knowing that one manuscript might not go anywhere, but that we'll still keep on writing anyway. Maybe your first, or second, or third or fourth book doesn't get a lot of attention, or maybe doesn't even get bought. For all of us, that is a slight scary reality. So you want to make sure that especially now, as a newer or even more established author, each project you work on is a project you're really invested in, not just one you think will get you ahead.

The hard truth is that there are no guarantees. Being a writer is not a path for someone who is looking for security and certainty. As as someone who likes to plan out everything, I can say, it can be totally hard. So choosing the book you really want to write is something that will help sustain you on the long journey of writing.

We ultimately do this because we love this, right? And loving your book will help you want to keep going — in this project and in the next.  And having some good writer-friends by your side, to work through your worries and your ideas, definitely won't hurt, either!

Wednesday's Writing Prompt — Rain

Imagine it is raining outside and your character has to get from one place to another. As he hurries through the rain, your character notices a flyer swirling towards the drain on the street corner. Something about it peeks his interest, and he runs over to retrieve it before it gets lost in the sewer. Have your character pick it up and look at it. What is the flyer for? What does it say? Is there something else written on it? How does it affect your protagonist? Now choose what your character will do in response to the flyer? Will he discard it and pretend he never saw it? Or will he take action? Does this one flyer change the whole plot of your story?

Now decide if you will reveal what the flyer says. How would your story change if you kept it a secret from the reader, allowing only your character to know what he has just read?