Blog Chain - Multitasking All The Way!!

Back on the blog chain. We have several new members joining us so I'd like to give a huge welcome to Amanda Bonilla, Sarah Bromley, Shaun David Hutchinson, Rebecca Knight, and Bonny Anderson. We are so excited to have you guys with us!!

This round's topic was chosen by our wonderful Terri. She wanted to know:

Do you focus on one project at a time, or do you have many irons in the fire at any given moment?

Bonny answered this question before me and Shaun is up next so be sure to visit their blogs to hear their take on this question.

As for me, well, if you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m one of those “many irons in the fire” type girls. I will get on a roll sometimes, with one project or another, and focus specifically on one thing for a few days, weeks, or even months at a time. But for the last several months at least I’ve had at least two projects going on at all times; my YA Urban Fantasy, and my non-fiction book.

Because fiction and non-fiction belong in such completely different worlds, switching back and forth presents no problems for me. What I’m working on at any given moment is mostly dictated by my children. I don’t need to concentrate as much with my non-fiction. It comes much easier. So I be on the computer working on it while my kids are running around screaming and climbing all over me. If I’m going to work on fiction while the kids are awake, I write by hand. They don’t bug me as much and I can follow them from room to room (or outside) scribbling away while they play.

It is also nice to have more than one project going because if I get stuck on one, I switch to the other. Focusing my mind on something different usually frees it up and the answer for whatever had me stuck very often comes to me while working on something else.

If I’m stuck on everything, I either do research for a project or I take a break from novels and textbooks and write a children’s picture book. I love doing these. I can do them quickly and they are so much fun to do. My kids and I will often write them together, so it’s something writing related that I can do and still include them, and at the end of the day, I’ve got a completed creative project…whether it’s my main project or not.

I don’t know if I could have two projects of the same genre going at the same time. Probably not…I have enough trouble staying in the right character’s voice at any given time without mixing in more than one main character. I definitely have ideas for several same-genre projects going on at the same time. This is where that research comes in – if I’m stuck on one thing, I’ll research either info I need for a current project, or something that will go straight in my idea file.

Having more than one project is actually kind of relaxing for me. I know I always have something to work on. If I finish something or get stuck on something, I know there is always something else I can work on. That way, none of my time is wasted because no matter what I’m doing, it is accomplishing something, be it for current or future projects.

Friday Funnies

Get the facts first. You can distort them later.

~Mark Twain

I like talking to a brick wall, it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me.
(Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892) ~Oscar Wilde

Whatever you do...avoid piles.

~T.S. Eliot (on the occupational hazards of being a writer)

A Few of My Favorites

Please forgive the short post, but I am in the middle of non-fiction chapter chaos. So I thought I would share a few of my favorite quotes about writing.

Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.
~Natalie Goldberg

It is the deepest desire of every writer, the one we never admit or even dare to speak of: to write a book we can leave as a legacy. And although it is sometimes easy to forget, wanting to be a writer is not about reviews or advances or how many copies are printed or sold. It is much simpler than that, and much more passionate. If you do it right, and if they publish it, you may actually leave something behind that can last forever.
~Alice Hoffman

To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon crazy heads. I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories – science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

~Ray Bradbury

WIP Wednesday

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and am barreling ahead as fast as I can....well as fast as I can still doing the best work I can do, of course :D I have several more chapters finished. I now have only 5 chapters left in my non-fiction book, so it is 79% done. Woohoo!!

Well, that is unless I add another chapter I have been thinking of adding. And the intro... LOL still awfully close to being done though ;D

I am about half way through Rebel Angels by Libba Bray also - hopefully I can add that one to my reading list next week.

And once this non-fiction book is done, I will focus the vast majority of my energies on major edits for my YA before that too goes off to my agent in the hopes she'll want to represent my fiction as well as my non-fiction (can we say nervous!!!)

All in all a very good week :D How is everyone else doing?

I just have to post this for everyone - seriously a wonderful article. I laughed and nodded in agreement the whole way through. It's a definite must read (I even printed it out. Give them the finger! is my new motto) ;-D

The Writer's Middle Finger by A.S. King

How To Show Instead of Tell

Quote of the Day:

Don't say the old lady screamed -- bring her on and let her scream.
~Mark Twain

Okay, this is something I posted a while back, but my poor crit buddies have been hammering me on this lately, and rightly so! My current manuscript is FULL of scenes with way too much telling. Which frankly I find both ironic and hilarious considering the fact that the entire premise of my non-fiction book is the fact that people learn better if you show them how to do something rather than just telling them. Go figure :D

In any case, when it comes to my fiction at least, I need to start SHOWING. So I thought it would be a good time to remind myself of exactly how to do that :D

One of the “rules” I hear all the time is to show not tell. The first time I heard that I thought, “What does that mean, anyways?

Well, TELLING means you are just, umm, telling the reader what is going on. SHOWING means you show them :D Seems easy, huh? Not always. It is ridiculously easy to fall into the habit of telling.

As this is something I still to do….A LOT …it is the problem area I have been working on the most lately. Which again, is why I searched through my files to find this post – I knew I had spent some time on this in the not too distant past and it is obviously time for a refresher course for me!!

When you are writing, you want to draw the reader in as much as possible. Action and dialogue are two elements that really help to keep the story moving, that draw the reader in, make the story exciting, and all that other fun stuff.

So, if you have a scene where your main character is angry, just telling the reader, “Eric was mad,” is okay…but probably won’t be nearly as good as, “Eric’s eyes flashed and the big vein in his forehead throbbed like it was about to burst from his skin.” Don’t tell the reader he’s mad…show him.

In my first book, Treasured Lies, my main character, Min, was irritated that she had fallen in a puddle and made a fool of herself. I had her storming up the stairs to her room with the description, “Min was freezing in her wet clothes and annoyed that she had yet again made a fool of herself.” (Or something to that affect…it’s been a while) :D

One of my fabulous critique buddies pointed out that this was “telling.” She said that I should show my readers that Min was irritated, instead of just telling them. So, the passage was changed to: “Shivers ran through her chilled body as she climbed the stairs. She huffed and kicked at the muddy skirts that tangled around her legs, irritated that she had managed to disgrace herself once again.”

I do tell you WHY she was irritated, but I also show that she is freezing, and show her annoyance with her actions (huffing and kicking skirts). Yes, it takes longer, uses more words, but the result is much more effective.

Now, are there occasions when you should tell rather than show? Definitely. Physical descriptions are pretty difficult to “show.” If someone has blue eyes, it is perfectly acceptable to just say they have blue eyes. And instances like in the above sentence, when you need to explain why someone is acting as they are.

Show the emotion, tell the reason. Show me that your main character is sad by describing her face, her tears, her sobs. Don’t tell me she’s crying…show me: “Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook.” (as this is just an example, I won’t stress over the fact that I used the word ‘her’ six times in two sentences – but you get the point of the showing over telling). :D

Then you can tell me why she is crying. “Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook. She just couldn’t believe her mother had forgotten her birthday again.”

As you can see, the sentences “Eric was mad,” “Min was freezing and annoyed,” “Laura cried,” tell us what is going on, but there is no action, they aren’t exciting, they don’t connect you to what is going on.

The new sentences:

“Eric’s eyes flashed and the big vein in his forehead throbbed like it was about to burst from his skin.”

“Shivers ran through her chilled body as she climbed the stairs. She huffed and kicked at the muddy skirts that tangled around her legs, irritated that she had managed to disgrace herself once again.”

and

“Laura sat on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her tears fell unheeded down her face as her shoulders shook.”

These make me care, they are exciting to read, there is something going on. I don’t necessarily care if someone cries…I do care if they are curled around themselves with uncontrollably shaking shoulders.

Dialogue is another great way to change a telling passage into a showing extravaganza.

For example:

(telling) David and Tony argued back and forth about who was right. = blah

(showing) “You did too!” David shouted, his face growing redder by the minute.
“Oh whatever. I did not and I have witnesses,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, well I have witnesses too.”
“Liar.”
“You’re the liar! Just admit you’re wrong and get it over with.”
“No way.”
“Yes way!”

= oooo, action, dialogue, something’s going on!! :D

So, bottom line – if it is possible to show something rather than tell it, do so :) But don’t stress over the occasions when telling is necessary, because they will come up. For the most part though, try adding some action or dialogue to really help show the reader what is going on instead of just telling them.

How does everyone else do with this? Is this something you struggle with? What are some things you do to keep from telling too much of your story rather than showing it?

How does your writing process work?

Quote of the Day:

It’s like making a movie: All sorts of accidental things will happen after you’ve set up the cameras. So you get lucky. Something will happen at the edge of the set and perhaps you start to go with that; you get some footage of that. You come into it accidentally. You set the story in motion, and as you’re watching this thing begin, all these opportunities will show up. ~Kurt Vonnegut

For my first novel, I wrote in order (with a few exceptions). I started as close to the beginning as I could and worked forward. For my second novel, I just wrote as the scenes took me. I started somewhere in the middle, wrote forward and backward and sideways. If I got stuck, I moved on to another scene. Then I filled in the holes. It worked really well for me.

My mother thought my writing process was both interesting, funny, and totally confusing. I brought her my notebooks on our recent visit so I could show her how the book started out. She was amazed I could write like that. Yet, I know many authors who skip around.

I also know quite a few that outline their books. This isn’t something I’ve ever been able to do. Even when I try, things turn out differently anyways, so there really isn’t a point to it in my mind. For me at least.

However, my new project (brand spanking new, not much more than an idea right now) is one that, due to the nature of it, I will have to outline. And it’s torture for me. I know there will be some additions that won’t be outlined, but for the most part, I simply HAVE to know what will be going in the book. I need to know what each chapter will contain, in detail, or this project is never going to work.

I don’t want to say that this has taken the enjoyment out of it for me, because it hasn’t. This project is sort of a mix between fiction and non-fiction, so the preliminary research and outlining is necessary, interesting, and fun in it’s own way. But it isn’t the type of free “let-the-muse-take-me-where-it-will” kind of writing I usually immerse myself in. Once I start writing, I hope that part will come, but for now, it feels more like work than fun.

While I think this project will suck me in just as much as any other I’ve done, *sigh* I just don’t like the outlining which I actually find sort of funny. In real life, I’m a list type person. I go shopping, I have a list. We go on a trip, I make a list of what we need to do before we go, what needs to be packed, etc. My non-fiction book, I have my Table of Contents in front of me at all times and check off the chapters as they are completed.

But fiction…that is the one area of my life that ISN’T planned out ahead. I have the idea, of course, the basic storyline, characters, plot twists…but I like to fly by the seat of my pants and let things just happen. So it’s weird to try and enforce a structure where there previously hasn’t been one. I’m sort of interested to see how I handle this ;-D

How about everyone else? How do you write? Do you outline? Just let your fingers fly and see what they come up with? If you write different genres, do you handle them differently?

End Game by David Toft

A writer friend of mine has his first book coming out today. It is available in print or as an ebook. Everyone head over to Wings ePress, Inc and check out End Game by David Toft. Congrats David!!!!