Tag Archives: Writer

Faber Session 10 – Story Vs Plot

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Ok, well today, you do get a picture of last nights cake!

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Lemon, rosemary & olive oil cake! Oh how I will miss you once the Faber course is over *sighs whistfully* But enough of the cake porn, lets get down to the nitty gritty 🙂

Tonight, the discussion centered around what the difference is between story and plot. The simplest way to show the difference is by using the example given by Nigel Watts in his excellent book Write A Novel where he says:

The King died and then the Queen died. Is a story.
The King died and then the Queen died of grief. Is a plot.

Causality distinguishes story from plot. Does that make sense?

In it’s basic terms it boils down to:
character=choices=causality

Its basically the choices, that lead to consequences, which then becomes the plot.

We talked about Christopher Bookers 7 Basic Plots and why they work.

Then talked about plot bombs and how to keep the plot moving.

A very interesting session where my critique of last week was used as an example, as what we shouldn’t be doing, i.e. throwing everything at our reader in the first 5,000 words…whoops! *snigger* 🙂

So do you agree? Are there only 7 Basic plots or would you say there are more? And if you have another theory on the definition of a plot, I’d love to hear it 🙂

The To Do List 3rd To 9th December

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Firstly a huge thank you to Bridget Whelan for looking after my blog these last couple of days. I feel like I’ve had a mini holiday! Lol 😉

I hope you’ve found Bridget’s tips useful, I know I have. My advice is to print them off and stick them in your notebook, that’s what I’ll be doing 🙂

The 3rd and final part of Bridget’s Editing Series will be on her blog today. So do pop over to Bridget’s Blog to read the final part – Six Tips To Help You Get Your Nano Novel Ready For A Reader

Ok, now lets crack on….

It’s been a funny old week, I’ve found it hard to focus. Too much spinning round my head I guess from the Faber Critique last Monday. So the to do list was neglected 😦

1. Print out rest of Sorrento Sunrise and start padding. Nope! Didn’t touch it, but, to be fair, my printer cartridges only arrived on Friday lol

2. Read BN’s manuscript (a friends Nano story). Halfway through, I am a bad Beta reader 😦

3. Sort out notes from critique of But Not Forgotten. Ha ha ha, what notes? I didn’t make any!

4. Read next Faber critique piece. Done!

5. Continue with Richard Skinners book. Done!

6. Start an ideas notebook for But Not Forgotten. Done! I have made some notes, got some ideas, will share later 😉

7. Print off and file Nano short stories. Nope! Due to printer having no ink and being lazy lol

So not a very productive week this week 😦 My only excuse is not being mentally 100% with it. Which means there will be some stuff carried forward 😉

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1. Print out Sorrento Sunrise and file (for editing at a later date).

2. Finish BN’s manuscript – Beta reading.

3. Faber homework.

4. Do a review of Richard Skinners book and Start Nigel Watts one!

5. Continue making notes on new version of But Not Forgotten. Need to decide on POV etc. if it goes well, make a start!

6. Print off and file Nano short stories.

Also, I’ll be going back to writing my daily prompts in my notebook, which I’m actually looking forward to 🙂

so what are you up to this week?

After NaNoWriMo – Editing Part 2

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Part 2 of the guest post by Bridget Whelan which I’ll be making much use of this month 😉

After NaNoWriMo
Three bite-size guides to editing and revising your NaNoWriMo novel.

PART Two

Put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it – Collette

Five ways of editing that first rough draft

1) Cut and cut again. Be brutal. You thought you’d written 50,000 words of your NaNoWriMo novel? The harsh truth is that you probably need to ditch 20,000 of those words. You’ve got a copy of the original so you can chuck everything away knowing you have the freedom to change your mind. In fact, keep a copy of every major revision. It gives you confidence knowing that nothing is lost, and that every major change can be undone. The reality is that once paragraphs, pages and chapters have been deleted you’ll wonder how they ever had a home in your manuscript.

2) Remember that adjectives don’t get lonely: they do not have to travel around in pairs – the kind and pleasant man; the warm, dry day. Every time you see two together ask yourself which one you really, really need. Or if you need any.

3) Take a long, hard look at any descriptive passages, especially the ones you like the best. Samuel Johnson said that if he you ever come across a sentence he had written that struck him as being particularly elegant and finely crafted then he knew he had to cut it. It was probably written for his own enjoyment rather than because it helped the reader to understand what was going on.

4) Have you started in the right place? Classic advice is to start a story in MEDIAS RES – in the middle – in other words dive in. Have you chosen to start your NaNoWriMo novel a long time before the big event occurs? Why? If the answer is because it’s a good introduction or it sets the stage, then cut. Sometimes we write a beginning more for ourselves than the reader. We are working our way into the story, getting a feel for the characters and their take on the world. You might need that introduction to get you started, the reader doesn’t. So, write it if it helps you to launch a story and cut it out at the editing stage – which is now.

4) Show don’t tell is the command burnt into the heart of every creative writing student, but sometimes it’s ok to tell. The reader can’t live through every moment. Use dialogue to dramatise the big scenes, or the moments where important elements of character are revealed. It is not for the ordinary do-you-want-a-cup-of-tea exchanges (or boring small talk at parties unless it propels the narrative in some way.)
5) Don’t introduce all the characters at once. Do it one at a time with a little physical description or back story so we can remember them. (For example: Cara tucked a strand of her sand coloured behind her ear and swore softly, her previous career as an advertising writer meant she knew how to make words work for her.) Ask yourself if you have to give a name to all the minor characters. Remember that a name may be the least interesting thing about them. They could appear as their job or the function they carry out in the story. For example: the teacher said…. the neighbour smiled…

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Courtesy of Carlos Porto freedigitalphotos

Coming up in PART THREE six tips that will help you get your NaNoWriMo novel ready for a reader. But if you want to read that post, you’ll have to pop over to Bridget’s blog tomorrow 😉

Please leave a comment for Bridget with your thoughts and opinions, or pop over to Bridget’s Blog to say Hi

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After NaNoWrimo – Editing Part 1

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So how we all feeling this morning? Any Wrimo’s take it to the wire last night? We had one lady on the Kent FaceBook group who finally hit the 50k at just before 11.30pm (UK time). I couldn’t go to bed before she’d finished and validated.

So that’s it, my official ML duties are over! Awwwww, it’s been fun, but now this is where the real work starts. We have our 50,000 words, so now what? The theme this month on the old blog will be editing, and to start us off, a guest post by Bridget Whelan who teaches Creative Writing. I think this will be very handy 😉

After NaNoWriMo
Three bite-size guides to editing and revising your NaNoWriMo novel.

PART ONE

Write drunk, edit sober – Ernest Hemingway

The relief is wonderful. Nanowrimo is over, done and dusted for another year. You have so much freedom and so much time to do other things. Some of you may even have a NanNoWriMo certificate to prove you took the challenge and won and – as long as you didn’t write your name over and over again – you should be proud of yourself. Very proud.
​Of course, some of us didn’t mange 50,000 words, but as long as you have more words written now than you did on November 1st you’ve made an important step in your development as a writer. And you know that yourself until a small steely voice sounds in your head and says, it’s all rubbish. And the bits that aren’t rubbish have been done before.
​That’s the voice that stops you writing. That’s the voice that NaNoWriMo silences with a frenzy of activity. That’s the voice of an editor. It’s a mean-spirited companion, dismissive of hard work and effort. It won’t offer any rewards for sticking with it, reaching goals and staying up late. All it cares about is what’s on the page and when you come to look at what you’ve written during NaNoWriMo, that’s all you should be care about too. Even when it means blood on the floor.
​
Three things to do before you pick up a red pen or press delete

1) Rest and Recover. You wrote in a fever. You need the story to settle in your mind and you also need to create some distance if you’re going to listen to that editor’s voice. How long? At least two weeks.
2) Read. Anything except your NaNoWriMo novel. Read poetry for the language. Read cheap trashy novels you hate to learn what not to do. Read cheap trashy novels you love to learn how they captured you. Read action novels for pace and crime fiction for suspense. Read horror and speculative fiction for imagination and fairy tales for permission to push the boundaries (A brother and sister abandoned by their parents and enslaved by a female cannibal? Did you go as wild during NaNoWriMo as Hansel and Gretel?)
3) Watch the video of Kurt Vonnegut describing how to plot a best seller. It will have you laughing and thinking.

Four things to do when you read your NaNoWriMo novel again

1) Breath deeply. Dive in. If you can, try to read all the way through in one sitting. Ignore your emotions: horror, embarrassment, mild pleasure, surprise. Read with a pen in your hand and summarise every chapter (or five thousands words if it isn’t broken down into chapters yet). No one will see these notes so they can be as clunky as you like. Stick to about 100 words for each summary – these are working notes and shouldn’t take up too much of your writing time
2) Imagine you are being interviewed on radio. How would you describe your main character? What does your main character want? No waffle: be specific. The radio audience won’t like vague phrases about rites of passage or someone finding themselves.
3) Even if you have written The End in big bold letters and drawn a line underneath it, consider possible alternative ways of resolving the issues in your NaNoWriMo novel.
4) Ask yourself if you want to spend a lot of time living with this story and the people who inhabit it. Vikki described herself as being haunted by the story she was trying to tell in first Nanowrimo writing. That’s a very good place for a writer to be.

Coming up in PART TWO (tomorrow) five ways of editing that first rough draft.

A great article Bridget, I will definitely be following your advice 🙂

Please leave a comment for Bridget with your thoughts and opinions, or pop over to Bridget’s Blog to say Hi

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NaNoWriMo – The Last Day

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Today is the last day of Nano (so should that be YAY or SOB ? lol) So if you haven’t hit the 50,000 words by now you have approximately 22 hours (in the UK from the time this post went live) to pull your finger out and write!

It’s been a funny old month for me. Full of highs and lows. My first year as an official ML has been great fun. Elizabeth asked me a couple of days ago if I’d do it again next year, of course I would! 🙂

I’ve met a few Wrimo’s I didn’t know before who have now become FaceBook friends and learnt that I can write 9,000 words in a day. I went on a writing retreat (which was fantastic) and discovered that Mills & Boon books are much harder to write than you think they’ll be. I also learnt that my netbook cannot be trusted and have decided that he will retire from service before next year 😉

So what’s next? What do we now do with all those words? You have to edit *shudders* 😉

The lovely Bridget Whelan who teaches Creative Writing, has written a series of 3 blog posts for me, all about editing. See me, I never really know where to start when it comes to editing, so I’m hoping Bridget can sort me out. You’ll find part 1 and part 2 here over the next couple of days and then part 3 will be posted to Bridget’s blog, but I’ll give you the link 😉

So all that remains is for me to say CONGRATULATIONS! it doesn’t matter if you only wrote 10 words or 75,000 (yes, I do know someone who wrote that much and she has a baby and toddler!). Everyone who takes part in Nano and wrote something is a winner as far as I’m concerned.

So now it’s time to Party!

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Courtesy of Simon Howden freedigitalphotos.net

Do try to get to a TGIO Party if you can. We have ours tomorrow, I’m looking forward to it 🙂

Me? I finished up with just over 55,000 words which is more than 2011 but less than 2010…..and the less said about those 65,000 words the better 😉

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Sharing The Love :o)

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Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind words yesterday.

The lovely LindaC over at Excuse Me While I Note That Down has nominated me for the Top Commentors Award. Thank you so much Linda! 🙂

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As this is the second time I’ve received this award recently, my top commenters haven’t changed. Is that good or bad? 😉

So I won’t be able to nominate anyone specifically for this award, and will just say, if you haven’t had this award already, yourself, please feel free to pass it on to your own top commenters. It really makes the people who consistently comment feel appreciated.

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Give a little love today guys, say thank you to your top commenters 🙂

Tell me who your top commenter is and give me a link in the comments so we can all go and pay them a visit. 🙂

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But Not Forgotten Needs Forgetting

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Ok, what can I say about the critique *laughs hysterically*

If I just say that it looks like 65,000 words will be going in the bin within the next couple of days does that indicate what they thought? 😉 (a metaphorical bin of course!)

Seriously, I knew it was a mess, which was why I decided to use that piece. I just didn’t realise how much of a mess it was 😦

I knew I’d tied myself up in knots, I knew that was why I hadn’t been able to come up with an ending, but, what I was hoping was that I could tinker with it, make it better. What I didn’t expect was to find that the general consensus is/was to start from scratch!

A different angle, a different POV, don’t start with the suicide, in fact, don’t kill him off….WOAH! Concentrate on one aspect of the story and forget the rest! OMFG!!!!!!! I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT!

So now what? Complete restructuring that’s what! A completely new novel really, only using the same characters and only part of the original plot line *slumps*

I don’t know if I have the energy!

Don’t get me wrong, everyone was helpful and sympathetic, but I came away thinking perhaps I’m not cut out for this, and what the hell am I doing in this class? Be prepared for a major self pity trip post on IWSD next month, honestly 🙂

I went for a Spa day today. I was going to cancel because all I wanted to do was sit in my jim jams, drink hot chocolate and sulk lol. But, I made the effort, went, and had my nails painted. I went for a walk and contemplated stuff. It was a nice day 🙂

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I’m signing out with Edwin Collins

I need to think……

Faber Session 9 – Dialogue

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Ok, well coffee and cake was enjoyed at The British Museum last night. Lemon drizzle which was rather nice. So I sat for an hour, reading my book, nursing a latte and looking at this view 🙂

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Tonight’s class was all about dialogue…some of my notes:

Limit speech tags to the minimum.

Pinter went on bus rides and recorded conversations.

It has to serve a purpose: move the plot along, raise a question or show something about the character.

What isn’t said is very important. Use silence and remember its often what’s not said that gives more away.

Give your characters verbal ticks to make them more realistic.

Remember to use body language. A character could be saying one thing verbally, but their body language saying the complete opposite.

We then had to do 3 exercises (writing dialogue) which were very interesting, and bloody hard! Lol

It’s funny because Stephen King said that dialogue is written best by writers who enjoy talking and listening to others. Do you agree? Do you enjoy writing dialogue? It seems to be something writers either love or hate!

Will post tomorrow about my critique when I’ve recovered and had chance to absorb it all lol. I’m off to a Spa Day today 🙂

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The To Do List 26th November to 2nd December

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I’m sorry I’m so behind with reading and commenting on Blogs. Will try to catch up today.

Today I will be attending my Faber class, as I do every Monday, but, today, they will be critiquing the first 4,500 words of ‘But Not Forgotten’ *gulp* I will tell you all about it in a separate post. Think of me, I am so bloody nervous! Lol

Let’s get back to the list. Last week, this is what happened…

1. Finish Nano by Friday (23rd) Done! I finished on the 22nd 😉

2. Upload words to Nano. Done! And I have a purple line and certificate to prove it!

3. Print off Sorrento Sunrise and start padding lol. Hmmmm, I only managed to print out 25 pages….because….my printer ran out of ink. I’ve got some on order and it should arrive by Tuesday at the latest. It’s a real pain as I can’t even print off the piece they’ll be critiquing in class tonight…Grrrrr 😦

4. Start new book….an eBook. I did start something, but only got a little way in 😦

5. Continue reading Richard Skinners book. I’m still reading it lol

6. Print off But Not Forgotten and READ IT! Couldn’t do it, because of the printer 😦

So this weeks list:

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1. Print out rest of Sorrento Sunrise and start padding.

2. Read BN’s manuscript (a friends Nano story).

3. Sort out notes from critique of But Not Forgotten.

4. Read next Faber critique piece.

5. Continue with Richard Skinners book.

6. Start an ideas notebook for But Not Forgotten.

7. Print off and file Nano short stories.

So what plans do you have for the week?

Today’s The Day People

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Sorry for the lateness of today’s blog pst (and yesterday’s) but I’ve not been at home, back now though 😉

So today the Nanowrimo Verification system kicks in. Yep, that means that all of you who have reached the 50K mark can now upload your words and have them verified, and be officially classed a winner 🙂

I’ve just done mine, so I am officially a winner!

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I feel a little bit guilty though, I didn’t do Nano this year the way it should be done. Some of you already know, but for those of you who don’t I ended up finishing my Mills & Boon experiment at 20,000 words. I briefly thought about giving up, but I wanted to complete the challenge. So the next 30,000 words were short stories.

But I tell you what….it was is probably the most enjoyable Nano I’ve participated in. To the point where I’m considering, next year, to do a short story a day for November. I guess it goes back to me being an ideas person. I love creating characters, creating crap to throw at them, and then, I kinda get bored. But I don’t consider myself a good short story writer. My endings suck lol. I can come up with the scenarios, the characters, but then I don’t know how to resolve the story, in a satisfying manner. I don’t resort to “and then he/she woke up” as a final line, but I’ve been tempted lol.

So congratulations to all the Nano winners, it’s been a blast! And those of you who haven’t finished yet,GO FOR IT you have 5 days!

So now that we have all these extra words that we didn’t have last month What’s the plan? What will you be doing with your Nano Words? Me, I’ll be fiddling with Sorrento Sunrise and trying to find 30,000 words to pad it out with lol 😉