Tag Archives: Fiction

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Writing Tip #107

Feeling ‘trapped’ when penning a sequel. A fellow writer, Betsy Arnold, sparked a very interesting discussion on my FB page today. She said — with regard to penning a “companion book” to a novel:

“I keep having to go back and check the facts from my first book which were throwaways at the time. Now they are parameters with which I’m stuck. Is that true for you?…I keep having to consult my maps and timelines. Ugh. I want to change a few things in the first book, but can’t. It’s a strange feeling.”

Indeed, it is. And she is totally right. In a sequel, or companion book, you are confined by the “throwaways” (good word!) that you created in the first book — your character was born here, in a place and time that you provided for him, whether purposefully or arbitrarily (it makes you realize how very important every decision you make in your novel is!). As I told Betsy, you can always have a character dye his hair or decide he doesn’t like mashed potatoes anymore. But it’s true that that character has to be born where you decided he was born in the first book — unless, of course, the entire first book was a hallucination or dream (Bobby Ewing, anyone?). Although the novel I’m working on now, In the Red, is a stand-alone, my next book will be a sequel to my first novel, Baby Grand. I’ve started working on it a bit, and already I’m experiencing the things Betsy mentions: Having to check back to the first book to make sure I’m being consistent so that fans of the first book won’t be standing outside my house with pitchforks demanding a public apology or a new edition.

Yes, it can feel confining, but remember that only those starting points have to remain the same (character names, descriptions, etc.). Characters can move, change their minds, denounce their families, find a time machine and do just about anything they want to do. Although some things may be etched in stone, the rest is a wonderfully blank canvas.

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Writing Tip #95

Don’t sweat the small stuff now. Just write. I had lunch this week with a colleague who is interested in writing fiction. During our chat, she had all kinds of questions:

  • How do you know, when you’re writing dialogue, when to say “she said” or when not to say “she said”? What if the reader doesn’t know who is talking?
  • How do you know, if you’re writing YA, that your voice sounds really like a young adult?
  • How can I have my main character have a younger brother when I don’t know what it’s like to have a younger brother?

I found that most of my answers to her questions was this: Don’t worry about that now. Just start writing.

Sometimes new writers get caught up in all these worries. Me included. I’m reminded of an incident I discuss in Writing Tip #83 when I was in grad school and I was so worried about getting the police investigation right in Baby Grand that I became totally blocked and couldn’t write the first chapter introducing Detective Sergeant Mark Nurberg, one of my main characters. It was my professor’s waving me off with a nonchalant (irritated?) “just write it,” like she was waving away a mosquito, that pushed me to go home and, as she suggested, just plunge in and do it.

What separates the writers from the non-writers is that writers push those worries aside and “just write” and see what happens. What comes out might suck. It might not. But it might. The thing is, you won’t know until you try — as trite as that sounds. And, anyway, if it sucks, that’s what editing is for.

So if there’s a scene that is giving you trouble or that you’ve been avoiding, my advice is to — right now — open that Word document and start typing. Write a paragraph. Or a page. Just write. I have a hunch that, when you’re done, however good or bad you think that writing is, you’ll be glad you did.

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Real vs. Fictional Locations

Last week, at a meeting of the Long Island Writers Group, I spoke about my experiences as a self-published author for my debut novel Baby Grand, and one of my writer-friends asked how I go about describing places that actually exist. Do I feel like I have to stay true to what is real and visitable? How can I make things up about places people know well?

All good questions.

And I would think the answer is different for every fiction writer.

For me, and I wonder if my journalism background has influenced me, I like to depict a “real” location, such as Bryant Park in New York City or the Executive Mansion in Albany, New York, as accurately as possible (keep in mind, however, that this means as accurately as possible from my viewpoint). I like to provide an authentic flavor to the place so that anyone who has been there may recognize it or anyone who has yet to go there will one day recognize it. That’s why I drove up to Albany in May 2010 and took a tour of the Executive Mansion — an important setting for Baby Grand. I wanted to get a feel for what the place looked and felt like. And some of those details, I think, help to tell the story visually.

However, keep in mind, I also throw in all sorts of fictitious details about those “real” places, just for fun. Plus, I have absolutely no qualms about creating totally fictitious locations or settings as well, such as an Albany diner/dessert place named Taryn’s, in order to suit the needs of my novel. Could I have used a real diner in Albany? Sure, I guess I could have. But I didn’t feel the need to. Or want to. I don’t feel any pressure to be accurate. I mean, the governor of New York in Baby Grand, after all, is named Phillip Grand, not Andrew Cuomo (although I do mention Mario Cuomo — that’s the fun of writing fiction!).

It’s the mixing of fact and fiction that makes writing and reading fiction exciting to me, which probably explains why I’m drawn to books like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and authors like Michael Crichton (recreating dinosaurs from the sucked-blood of ancient mosquitoes? sounds good to me!) and why The Da Vinci Code is one of my all-time favorite books — a book that may read like careful, accurate research, but really is chock full of fallacies.

But isn’t that part of the fun? The very notion of “artistic license” is allowing writers of fiction to take all sorts of liberties with fact. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, my author-friend Jeb Ladouceur doesn’t visit any of the places he describes in his thrillers. He just makes stuff up. He doesn’t want the realities of those places to stifle his creativity in any way.

Good for him.

However, my inner journalist won’t let me play that way. At least, not all the time.

How do you go about writing “real” places? Do you feel comfortable taking some artistic license?

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Meet Ethan Dreilinger

We’re mixing things up a little today. I’d been meaning to feature my friend and colleague Ethan Dreilinger on this blog to discuss his first novel, Out of the Dust, which he self-published last June. But that wascally wabbit went ahead and published his second novel in October, before I had the chance, making him, technically, ineligible to be featured here. So we’re working around that minor detail today by showing my interview with Ethan for “The Writer’s Dream,” which aired last fall — before he published his second book. Enjoy!

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The Results Are In! Your Favorite Genre Fiction Is…

Fantasy, baby!

According to our informal little survey, where we asked you to vote for your favorite genre fiction, Fantasy led the way with 23 percent of votes. All week long, Fantasy and Science Fiction were neck and neck until Fantasy pulled ahead in the final days of the week-long poll. The complete results are as follows:

Fantasy: 23%

Science Fiction: 18%

Crime/Thriller: 14%

Literary Fiction: 13%

Mystery: 10%

Action/Adventure: 8%

Romance: 6%

Detective: 5%

Horror: 2%

Western: 0%

Wow, nobody voted Western. Not even Clint Eastwood fans! And truth be told, I was surprised to see Fantasy top the list. I thought that Crime Fiction or Romance would be Number One. Very interesting. And thank you to everyone who took time to vote! :)

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Sometimes a Fantasy

Chatting with yesterday’s featured author Olivia Boler brought back a very vivid memory of graduate school.

Olivia told me, “I have an MA from the UC Davis Creative Writing Program, and we were pretty much told by our professors that genre fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, isn’t real literature.”

I suddenly remembered the dejected young woman sitting in my fiction class. This student had written a fun, chick lit-type book where her main character, as it turned out, was from another planet. Our professor totally didn’t get it – and was pretty vocal about it too. And it wasn’t like all everyone was writing was literary fiction. I had started writing a thriller. Another, a mystery. We were all doing our thing, which seemed to be accepted as credible, so why was the alien thing so… well, alien?

It was then that the student muttered under her breath something about fantasy fiction being ostracized by academia, and after only attending one or two classes, she didn’t return.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight became a crazy phenomenon. A book about vampires. And werewolves.

The moral of the story? Stick to your guns, people, and fight for your book. This business is soooo subjective and critical. And school is only the beginning. But also, and perhaps more importantly, listen to criticism. Had that student stayed, she might have learned a few things and made her book better and — who knows? — maybe even our professor a convert.

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August: Return to ‘Baby Grand’

Well, the craziness of July is behind me — vacations, home improvements, block parties and lots of freelance work — and now it’s time to focus once again on Baby Grand. The final edit. (At least I hope it’s the final edit.) As I mentioned yesterday on my Facebook page, I always get nervous knots in my belly when I’m about to read the manuscript again. What will I think? Will I like it, love it, like I did before? I’ve given myself the month of August to edit. I’m hoping that’s enough time, because I’m eager to finish Novel #2, which had to be put on the back burners in June, by the end of the year — edits and all. If I can do that, then I’m on schedule, and I can write the sequel to Baby Grand next year, as planned.

My 14-year-old son asked me yesterday why I put this kind of stress on myself, these self-imposed deadlines. My answer was simple: If I didn’t, nothing would get done.

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Writing Tip #42

What’s your point of view? I’m currently reading The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory, and the thing that struck me right away, on page one, was the author’s choice of narrative point of view: first person.

In writing, there are four narrative points of view:

    • First person or “I”: This tells the story from one character’s point of view. In the case of The Red Queen, that character is Margaret Beaufort.
    • Third person omniscient: Here, the author chooses to show the inner thoughts and motives of all characters in the story — at the same time.
    • Third person limited:The writer chooses one character’s point of view for the novel, chapter or section and writes in third person (he, she, etc.). Baby Grand is, for the most part, third person limited point of view.
    • Second person or “you”: This point of view is rarely used in fiction because the “you” would refer to the reader who, if she’s reading fiction, probably doesn’t really want to be involved in the story anyway.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I set out to write Baby Grand in any point of view at all. I just sat down at my laptop and started writing Chapter 1, and it came out as third person limited. I would assume that Philippa Gregory might say the same about The Red Queen, but I could be wrong. Perhaps there is a reason the story is being told not just from Margaret Beaufort, but from Margaret Beaufort in the first person (remember, Gregory could have also told the story from Margaret Beaufort’s viewpoint, but as a third person limited point of view).

Point of view is just a choice authors make. Think about what suits the purpose of your book. Baby Grand is a thriller. Third person omniscient doesn’t really work, because I need the characters and the readers not to know some things along the way, and first person didn’t interest me here because I knew I wanted to tell this story from the point of view of multiple characters.

Perhaps, after all, there was a part of me who knew exactly what I was doing when I chose third person limited as a way to tell the story of Baby Grand. It was, after all, the logical choice. But I truly feel as if I had nothing to do with it. I know that writers say that kind of thing all the time, about how they were “only the vessel” by which their stories are being told, and I’m not sure I always believe that, although there were times while writing my novel that I did feel as though things were happening without my input. But when it comes to “choosing” a point of view, there really was no choice. Believe it or not, and I’m not sure I do, Baby Grand chose for me.

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Meet Karen Bonnet

Although I officially met today’s featured debut author, Karen Bonnet, at Book Expo America in May, something tells me our paths may have crossed a year or so ago while I was attending an Arts in Education showcase on Long Island — I have a distinct memory of chatting with an author there about whale bones. :) Indeed, the PTA circuit is a viable venue for authors looking to promote age-appropriate books for kids, who get very excited when a “real-life” author comes to talk with them about writing and books and, yes, whale bones.

Name: Karen Bonnet

Name of book: Whale Island and the Mysterious Bones

Book genre: YA Fiction/Adventure

Date Published: January 2011

Publisher: Legwork Team Publishing, Hauppauge (self-published)

What is your day job? I am a public relations and marketing consultant with KLB Services, my own business.

What is your book about? Whale Island and the Mysterious Bones is an exciting adventure story for children 8 to 12 that encompasses two themes: the profound significance of communicating and co-existing with animals and ocean inhabitants, and understanding true courage after children confront their fears. The story begins with Katey and Will Longley, a sister and brother who journey to a remote island thousands of miles across the globe, after a storm capsizes their uncle’s boat near Cape Cod. They have the misfortune to meet Captain Sharkley, a shady individual who kidnaps them and uses them in his quest to find mystical whale bones on an island from which no one has returned alive. The children escape the captain’s ship, along with the captain’s nephew, Bartholomew, and a crew member. They reach Whale Island, a beautiful but dangerous island with unusual plant and animal life, and they uncover the island’s amazing secrets, including the ancient whale bones.

What was the most challenging part of the writing process? Developing the characters so that each one had their own voice and personality, and ensuring that I would be able to evoke emotion in the reader who identifies with a character.

What motivates you to write? I enjoy creative writing, as well as feature, human interest stories. Each of us has an interesting “story” if you dig a little deeper and get to know the person. Writing is almost therapeutic for me… While I’m writing, I’m pretty much focused on only that and shut everything else out. That’s when ideas flow.

Did you experience writer’s block? I did have writer’s block every now and then, but found the best way to avoid it was to have no distractions and to have a clear mind free of worry. Not always easy to do, but that worked for me.

How long did it take you to write this book? It took about five months to write and many years editing it – after each rejection letter came, I would edit it again and again.

Why did you decide to self-publish this book? I sent my manuscript to about eight traditional publishers (large and small) and two agents. After waiting six to nine months to get a response each time and then putting it on the “back burner” – because life sometimes gets in the way – I decided it was time to try a custom publishing company. I was tired of the endless waiting to hear back from the traditional publishers. Custom publishers like Legwork Team Publishing use the very same process as a traditional publisher in their editorial and graphic design styles, and they are thorough and professional as well. 

What is the biggest misconception about writing a book? There is so much involved even after the book is done and released. Marketing and promoting the book is so important and very time consuming for authors who are published traditionally and for those who choose self-publishing.

What was your favorite aspect of the writing process for this book? I loved when the ideas flowed and everything came together. It was always exciting when a new idea popped up that would complete a chapter or start a new one.

Is there another novel on the horizon? Yes, I would like to write a second novel, as Whale Island and the Mysterious Bones was written to be one in a series.

What tools/methods have you employed to promote your book? What advice would you give to writers regarding promotion? I designed all the marketing materials for my book which I use to promote it. I’ve done book talks at schools and book stores – all of this involved a great deal of phone calls. I also wrote a proposal for schools, which is where I’d like to continue presenting my book/workshop. The Nassau County Library System now has 8 to 10 of my books circulating at various libraries. I also went to the Nassau County PTA Showcase to promote my book to PTA representatives and have gone to various craft/spring festivals as a vendor. I had a book signing at the 2011 Book Expo at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan in May. Promoting your book is the most important thing you can do to spread the word to your audience.

Oprah has famously said that there is no such thing as luck, without preparation and a moment of opportunity. Would you agree or disagree with regard to your own success as a writer? Yes, I agree that if you are in the right place at the right time, and are prepared, it will bring you greater success. Since my book has only been released for the last six months, I feel that I’ve only reached “the tip of the iceberg” with the number of contacts. I hope to make a lot more and reach many readers.

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Meet Author Gareth L. Powell

Did first-time novelist Gareth Powell have a literary agent when he got a publishing deal with Solaris? What does he think about writer’s block? Does he consider Oprah a loon for once saying there’s no such thing as luck without preparation and a moment of opportunity? The answers to these burning questions — and many more — can be found in this week’s Debut Author Q&A.

Name: Gareth L. Powell

Name of book: The Recollection

Book genre: Science Fiction

Date Published: September 2011

Publisher: Solaris Books

What is your day job? I work two days a week as a public relations officer for a disabled children’s charity, and three days per week as a freelance copywriter. I am also a full-time father.

What is your book about? In a nutshell, the book is the story of four characters and the way their relationships play out over several centuries, and the way they pull together in the face of an ancient and unexpected threat.

What would you say is the most challenging part of writing a book? Writing the first line.

What motivates you to write? I don’t know. It’s just something I have to do. I don’t really have a choice. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I’ve always had that urge, and I can’t imagine a life in which I didn’t feel the compulsion to put words on paper.

Did you experience writer’s block? I think writer’s block is just a euphemism for indecision. If you can write about anything, sometimes it can be tough to narrow your choices down to one particular storyline. I have dry periods where I’ve not known what to write about, but I’ve found that constantly tinkering away with notes and ideas keeps the process fresh and alive in my head, so that even when I’m doing something else, part of my brain stays in writing mode.

How long did it take you to write this book? It took a year, although most of the main body of the book was written in a three month period.

Do you have an agent? I did something that most people will tell you is impossible: I sold my novel to Solaris without an agent, and before I’d finished writing it. They commissioned the book on the strength of the synopsis and first 40 pages. That may have had something to do with the reputation I’d already built up on the SF scene through the short stories I’d published in magazines and anthologies. But, if asked, I would definitely recommend that new writers try to get agency representation. I was lucky, but the market is so competitive that an agent can make all the difference. When an editor receives a manuscript from an agent, they know that the agent has read it and considers it of publishable quality.

What was your favorite aspect of the writing process for this book? When you get into a novel and the characters come alive in your mind, the words start flowing in a rush and the story takes on a life of its own. It’s a giddy feeling, like riding a high and beautiful wave, and it can carry you forward. I mentioned that I wrote most of this book in three months. As soon as I got the go-ahead from Solaris, I poured this book out onto the page, and loved every minute of it.

What advice would you give to writers regarding promotion? The best advice I can give is to be friendly and act professionally. Use social media to get to know people. Engage in conversations. Help people out. Offer encouragement. Support fellow writers and they will support you. Go along to conventions and shake hands with editors and agents. Be polite. Have confidence, but temper it with humility. Get as much of your work in print as possible, and make sure it’s the best you can possibly make it.

Any other novels on the horizon? I’m currently working on three books, but I don’t really like to reveal details of what I’m working on until it’s finished.

Oprah has famously said that there is no such thing as luck, without preparation and a moment of opportunity. Would you agree or disagree with regard to your own success as a writer? I think that’s a valid statement. Luck certainly plays a part. But you can increase your chances by writing a damn good book, and building a credible reputation. Don’t be arrogant. Be the kind of writer that editors want to work with. And write to the very best of your ability. Never settle for less than your very best work.