Writing a Novel - Keep Going!

How long have you been writing a novel? I mean, how long have you been writing that same novel? Do you change gears, start up new stories with broken promises of how you will some day return to your first when "the time is right" or when the next part "becomes clear"?

Stop it.

Whatever novel you are working on right now, KEEP GOING! Keep writing and writing and writing until you reach the finish line. Not the "perfect" finish line, but A finish line.

Here's the deal. I made a huge mistake when reading various author's advice about finishing. I thought they meant taking your story through to the public and seeing it where it takes you. I even wrote an entire blog post about my own fight to that finish. However, the other night, while I was on StumbleUpon, I fell upon a number of different sites on writing (as usual). As I read through page after page of different tidbits, I kept reading "finish it" over and over again. Then it hit me.

I had.

I had finished my first novel. I had that sweet feeling that all these writers were all talking about. I had been through all of the torture of not understanding how my characters got into the situations they did, how they were going to get out of those situations and how all these things were going to play into my plot. I had experienced the times of terror, when it felt like everything had jumped the shark, and I had fought my way back to verisimilitude with nothing more than my imagination.

What I did when I wrote my first novel was simple. I kept going. For that I can thank NaNoWriMo and Scrivener. If Scrivener hadn't offered a huge discount to winners of the 2011 NaNoWriMo, when I was beyond broke (cute how I put that in the past tense, as if things have changed), I'm not sure I would have felt desperate enough to fight for the finish.

It took me a little over a month to get to the finish. In On Writing Stephen King says it should take no more than three months to get through a first draft (he doesn't like it to extend past a season). I think he's right. I am beginning to think that if we don't keep going when writing a novel, then we just end up stalling and getting in our own way.

My thoughts: Stop trying to find the perfect ending, just get your story out, as sloppy as it is, from beginning to end and leave the editing and rewriting until later. In other words, for now, in your beginning stages, just keep going!

"Keep Going!" From Some Writers You May Know:

Neil Gaiman

Stephen King

Henry Miller

 Joss Whedon

I don't think there's much more I can add to that. So you know that novel your avoid right now by reading blogs? Get back to it, and no matter what happens next - KEEP GOING!!

Thanks for reading!

What types of things come up in your writing that stop you?

What techniques do you have for writing through the hard parts?

Writing A Novel - Editing

After you think you are done writing your novel, when you first reach "The End", you can sit back, relax and brace yourself for the real work ahead of you: EDITING. Depending on who you talk to, this is either the most exciting part of the writing process, or the most dreaded. I fall somewhere in the middle. I am well aware that this is my least practiced skill (so therein lies the dread), but when I have successfully worked on editing short pieces I have felt more fulfilled than ever before.

Since I have much to learn about the process of editing a novel and feel ill-equipped to advise on the topic, I instead offer you some notes I've picked up along the way.

On The Terror of Editing

When you are faced with the decision to cut out words and sentences that you created it feels that brutal. Your novel - every sentence, word and piece of punctuation - is personal and a piece of you. To admit that some of those don't belong, or are "wrong" can be painful. (This is also why it can be difficult to hear even the best intended criticism of these words!). Here are a couple of thoughts from authors reflecting the terror of editing:

• "To make the piece work, it's essential to murder on demand." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 103
•  "...what's left out may haunt you as much as what gets included." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 102
• "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts." Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott p. 25

On Why Editing is Necessary

In short, Anne Lamott's terrifying statement above - that all good writing begins terribly - is why editing is a necessary evil.   However, to get an idea where the "terrible" comes from, here are a few more notes on the topic:

• "It's not volume we need. It's precision aimed at illustrating your unique point of view, and that's what editing is all about."- The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p.105
•  "The difference between a word and the 'right' word is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. " - Mark Twain
• "The effect of judicious cutting is immediate and often amazing -- literary Viagra." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 223
•  "What the Formula taught me is that every story is collapsible to some degree." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 223

On How Editing Is Done

It's feared. It must be done. Everyone has their own method (I'm still developing mine!). Here are  tips on how to edit your novel from some seasoned veterans:

• "Pencil in hand, touch each word in every sentence, make hard decisions." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 108
• "If you find yourself skimming a sentence or paragraph thinking the reader will enjoy herself later, forget it." - The Memoir Project, Marion Roach Smith p. 109
• "Toss it even if you love it." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 197
• "Your job during or just after  the first draft is to decide what something or somethings [your book] is about. Your job in the second draft -- one of them, anyway -- is to make that something even more clear." On Writing, Stephen King p. 201
• "2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%. Good Luck." - On Writing, Stephen King (in quoting an editor's note from a submission to Ellery Quenn's Mystery Magazine) p. 222
• "The story always comes first." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 231
• "...take your story through at least two drafts; the one with the door closed and the one you do with it open." - On Writing, Stephen King p. 209
• "It's a good idea to wait awhile before your reread your writing." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 205

On Dulling The Pain Of Editing

Natalie Goldberg's book Writing Down the Bones is just about one of the best reads for the insecure writer. She has a wonderful way of freeing writers from fear and bring joy back to every part of the writing process - even editing. Here are some soothing words to end off on, to remind you that editing is something every writer goes through and that it can be just as creatively fulfilling as putting together your first draft:

• "See revision as 'envisioning again'." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 209
• "Often you might read page after page in your notebooks and only come upon one, two, or three good lines. Don't be discouraged." - Writing Down The Bones, Natalie Goldberg, p. 210

More Guidance On Editing

If these wise words are not enough for you (and I do realize they only scratch the surface) , them I highly recommend you read the books they come from.

 

In the meantime, here are some click-able resources:

11 Resources to Make Editing Your Novel Easier

Editing Your First Novel: 7 Things You Need to Know

 How To Edit Your Book In 4 Steps

How to Edit a Novel Manuscript

Writing A Novel - Dialogue

Writing good dialogue is a tricky business. Even though we spend most of our waking hours listening to and participating in the act, the art of capturing it for the page is not as easy as one would suspect. If we write dialogue exactly as we hear it, we are likely to bore our readers right off the page, however, if we don't pay attention to the reality of dialogue, then our characters will be two-dimensional and lacking voice. In the end, we have to fall somewhere in between keeping a delicate balance throughout our novels.

Listening To Dialogue

To fully engage readers, dialogue has to fall somewhere in between realistic and entertaining. Adding in every hesitation, "um" or staggering thought a person utters while engaged in a conversation will easily get distracting and dull for a reader. In their article How To Write Dialogue That Works, Creative Writing Now presents a perfect example of how a fictional phone conversation ends versus a real one:

Something I've noticed in TV shows and movies is that people hang up on each other a lot.
"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
Click.

I don't know about you, but my phone calls tend to end more like this:
"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
"You will? Great."
"Yeah, well, I'll try."
"Okay, great, thanks a lot. Appreciate it."
"Anyway, I should get back to making dinner."
"Okay, then, talk to you later. And good luck with the police."
"Thanks, I'll need it. All right. Got to go."
"See you."
"Right, on Saturday."
"That's right. We'll be there at six."
"Okay, see you then."
"Hm..."
"What's that?" [...]

Let me stop there before you stop reading my blog! I personally cracked up when I read this article, because I had just got off the phone with my best friend, and our farewell was oddly similar. The fact is, our real conversations have so much nonsense in them that isn't necessary.

So what do we listen for when we are listening to dialogue for realism?

David Corbett, author of Devil's Redhead (New Blood) and Done for a Dime wrote a guest post for The Bookshelf Muse today that answers that very question. He offers up five different characteristics of real dialogue that can safely included in written dialogue without fear of boring our readers, They are:

1. Giving unsolicited advice.
2. Topping the other person’s story.
3. Finishing the other character’s sentences.
4. Interpreting what the other character is saying.
5. Asking a question, then not listening to the answer.

Hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to read the entire article, called Communication Breakdown, to read the full power of each of these characteristics in defining both your character and his/her voice.

Reading Dialogue

After grabbing the tools from real dialogue that are appropriate for your prose, the next step is to see how to fictionalize dialogue to be pleasing to your readers.  Think back to Creative Writing Now's TV dialogue example:

"I think the police are onto Scotty."
"I'll take care of it."
Click. 

It's short, to the point, and moves the story forward. Now we know that the police has figured out Scotty's scheme. It's going to be taken care of; the drama is about to begin! Of course, since this is TV dialogue and not from a novel, there is a glaring omission. Who said these things? it is in reading dialogue that we learn about the importance of dialogue tags.

Dialogue tags are a tricky business. After reading Stephen King's On Writing , quite frankly I was terrified of them. In the first pages of my first draft of Dear 302, I had a half-page long conversation that looked exactly like the TV conversation above - there were no dialogue tags! Bad idalogue tags King warned me about (page 126 of On Writing):

• Swifties (named for Tom Swift) adding adverbs for description, like "Tom cried bravely"
• Shooting the verb attribution full of steroids like "Jekyll grated", "Shayna gasped", and "Bill jerked out"

 Creative Writing Now adds to the list of dialogue tag don'ts, with these gems:

• Don't get too colorful with the dialogue tags.
• Don't feel obligated to add a tag to every bit of dialogue.
• Don't let your reader get disoriented.

After all this it almost feels like all you can do is write tag-less dialogue! So what's left? He said, she said, Joe said and Mary said are really not as boring as they sound when placed into your writing. They are clear, to the point and, above all, not distracting to your reader.

The Continuing Conversation on Dialogue

There is so much to talk about dialogue, I could probably complete and entire A to Z Challenge with Dialogue as its theme. For now, I will end off with these tips and send you over to David Corbett's article on The Bookshelf Muse as well as Creative Writing Now's two articles on dialogue, How to Write Dialogue That Works and More On Writing Dialogue for a deeper education on the topic.

thanks for reading!

Do you have any tips or "dos" and "don'ts" for writing dialogue?

How about further references to learn about writing dialogue? 

______

UPDATE: Here are a couple more resources for writing dialogue that I forgot to add into the article:

• A NaNoWriMo Worksheet on Writing Dialogue (includes a list of "Tags Other Than 'Said'")
• Top 8 Tips on Writing Dialogue from About.com's Fiction Writing

Writing A Novel - Beta Readers (and Alpha Readers, too!)

When you are writing a novel you are immersed in a world of your own. Everything plays out in your mind and, if you are writing fiction, you exist in a completely different universe than the one you breathe in. Within the confines of your imagination everything begins to makes sense, the characters are all vividly alive and the details are clear. You sit down to a computer, or with a notebook and do your best to explain that which exists in your mind. Alpha and beta readers are those wonderful people that help you make sure you've done your best job before sending your words out into the public arena.

What is an Alpha Reader?

In his book On Writing, Stephen King says that writing is a form of telepathy. He sets a scene, describes the details and then asks, "Do we see the same thing?" This is the first question all writers ask.  The problem is, when we first write there is no unbiased audience to answer. This is where we employ the use of Alpha Readers. King follows up his question with, "We'd have to get together to compare notes to make absolutely sure," and while I must admit that Mr. King and I never had that sit-down, you can be sure he had that conversation with some other people. The first person he spoke to  was his alpha reader.

Your alpha reader is the first person you show your writing to. You don't waste their time. They are there to check for readability. Ask them to read your first sentence, then see if they want to proceed. Leave it up to them. The point is to see if someone else wants to enter your fictional world, to see if your story is intriguing enough. Jason R. Peters does an excellent job of explaining the alpha reading process on his blog, and offers up this graphic:

The alpha reader must be brutally honest and let you know when it just isn't worth it to go on. Once you've perfected the writing to a point where the entire story is fleshed out and clear, you move on to your Beta Reader.

What is a Beta Reader?

The term "beta" should not be new to those who try to be on the cutting edge of the tech world. Oftentimes when new software is released, or before a new website is launched, companies look for beta testers to be their first users. These people are granted early access to the programming under the agreement that they will report glitches, comment on their experience(s) and, in general, help the company perfect the material before it's public launch. This is exactly what a beta reader is for writers.
 
WISE GEEK defines a beta reader as follows:

A beta reader is someone who agrees to look over a piece of fiction for spelling, grammar, characterization, and continuity errors. Unlike a true editor, a beta reader is typically unpaid, and he or she sees the work at a very rough state. Many authors like to use beta readers to improve the quality of their work before they submit it for professional editing and critique, and beta readers are usually profusely thanked in acknowledgments, in recognition of the time and energy which they invested in the work.

The difference between the beta reader and the alpha reader is the detail. Your beta reader goes beyond story and helps you find where you need semicolons, spell checks and the such. Your beta readers are your last stop before heading out to the professionals. They help you spit shine your writing for its greatest shine.

How Do You Find Alpha and Beta Readers?

Alpha and beta readers are wonderful, giving people. They are not paid for their services and they could be the most important people on your path to success. Where are they hiding? They're not. They are just waiting for you to brave enough to ask!

I had my best luck finding readers without leaving the comfort of my desk chair.

My Alpha Readers

Since alpha readers see my writing at its rawest stage, I haven't been too brave in my endeavors. I have one alpha reader. He is my husband. Now, I happen to be lucky enough that I am married to a high school English teacher that loves to read, but that doesn't mean you are out of luck if you are not.

I would suggest that you find a friend or family member who is an avid reader. Don't ask grandma if she only watches "her programs" and hasn't picked up a book since grade school - you need a reader. You also need to be able to accept honest responses from them and they need to be able to give them. Be clear when you ask them to read for you that (in this particular situation) you are not looking for that unconditional, blind encouragement and praise they normally offer up; you need the truth. Explain to them that should stop reading whenever they feel like they want to and that you are willing to listen to why they made that decision.

My Beta Readers

After going through the alpha process, I am a little more brave. This is when I send my words out to strangers. There are two places I have found great success, however, in both instances, I have made the agreement to be a beta readers as well. When you are willing to help others plenty of doors of opportunity open wide for you.

1. Twitter If you are a writer and you are not on Twitter, then you are seriously missing out. There are tons of writer chats and groups supporting one another. I found a beta reader in the #NaNoPals community (great NaNoPals Blog) and have tons of buddies in the #StoryDam (chats on Thursdays at 8pm EST) community.
2. Figment.com This website is a ton of fun for both readers and writers. It's a great place for authors to connect with their audience. If you are a writer yourself, you can upload your own writing to the site for readers to check out, review and give hearts to. I've put some of my writing out there and, I have joined a couple of critique groups that have been fun and friendly.

Beyond the Internet, there is also the wonderful world of face-to-face writer groups. I am happy to say that a new one has cropped up locally for me that I will be going to meet with on Saturday for the first time. If you are looking for a local writing group of your own, check your local library and, of course, Meetup.com, where, if you can't find one, you can create one!

Thanks for reading!

Have you used beta readers yet for your writing?

Where have you found your beta buddies?

Who would you choose to be your alpha reader, and why?

Writing A Novel - Now I Understand

Until recently, the thought of seeing the deleted scenes from a finished movie meant only one thing to me: lots of laughs! I would look to these clips for the bloopers, the pranks, the sneak peeks of the actors I admired behaving out of character and maybe, just maybe, a little more like themselves. It was with this expectation that I entered into viewing the deleted scenes of The Muppets about a month ago. I was not ready for the incredible writer's "A-Ha! Moment" I would receive from watching all that did not make it into one of my favorite movies of 2011.

It goes without saying that many of the scenes were funny and that some were bloopers (human and muppet alike!), however, having sat through every single scene on the "Play All" feature right after watching the full length film, I was surprised by how many of the scenes had nothing to do with the movie at all! Let me rephrase that, they could have had something to do with the movie, but not the way it turned out. These scenes were not just cut from the film, their omission either resulted in, or from, a major rewrite of the script.

O-M-G!

I know, I know, you're reading this and saying, "Duh, Nicole! What's the big deal?!"

The big deal is that it was that Muppet moment, for some reason, that my rose-tinted glasses were finally smashed. Slowly some thoughts crept into the corners of my mind,  

When Jason Segel and Nick Stoller wrote "The Muppets," they didn't think it was perfect, was the first thought...

Then slowly (sometimes I'm a bit dense...), They must've looked at it and thought that the only way it could be fixed was if they rewrote pieces...

And then here's where the BIG connect comes in, I bet if I rewrite pieces of my novel I can fix it!

Having read Stephen King, Anne Lamott and Marion Roach Smith's books on writing since finishing my first draft, as well as being a part of writing communities and chatting it up with numerous new writing friends, this is a fact I knew, but (I can now see) did not understand. There is an enormous gap between knowing something and understanding something; I am incredibly grateful that I have finally bridged it.

Here is what I understand: 

• I understand that it is not my weakness as a writer or my amateur status in this role that accounts for the state my novel is in; it is the fact that it has not been cared for since first being splashed on the page.
• I understand that getting the story out is only part of the work and that the other part, the editing part, is much more than correcting typos, spelling, grammar and fluidity of sentences.
• I understand that I will have to "kill my darlings" even though there is no death scene in my novel, nor shall there be cause for one.
• I understand that writing is an art, in the same way my teaching was: a beautiful, fun effortless-looking output from countless unspoken sleepless nights spent researching, creating, rewriting, perfecting but filled with giddy excitement every step of the way.
• I understand that I am new to this, that I am learning, but I can do this.

I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead. While I've been extra sick as of late (thank you very much stealthy kidney stone no one asked for!), I am hoping the worst of it is behind me and that I can bumble back to my sloth-like existence of pseudo-healthy (two chronic diseases I can handle!) and truly hit the books. I'm taking part in a Savvy Authors online workshop on constructive criticism that I hope will help me in my own writing as well as my participation in the StoryDam community. It should be fun (read: *absolutely terrifying*) to share some of my chapters with people in my class to get constructive criticism on them: WISH ME LUCK!

Hoping everyone else in ROW80 is doing well with their writing goals this round.
 

Carrie by Stephen King

The following post is taken directly from my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Carrie by Stephen King
A frightening tale of a girl who would be bullied no more. As a Stephen King fan, I was not surprised that I was completely immersed from page one. I, personally, found Carrie's mother more frightening than Carrie herself. I was, at first, confused by this book on a student reading list, but perhaps it gives insight to those who create painful school times for students like Carrie.

Dated: 08/21/02

I have gained a greater understanding of reading lists since reading this book, but at the time I only had my own experience (catholic school) to compare it to.
Do you have a perception of what types of books should be on student reading lists?
Was Carrie, or any book like it, on your student reading lists?

Classroom Connections

"Hey Miss, I didn't know you wanted to write," this echoes in my head in the voices of a thousand students in my memory.

Why would they?

Why would anyone?

For over a decade there were no clues, no signs, no thoughts cast in the direction of my writing. I was creative, I couldn't help myself there, but the journals lay dormant and the "Writing" files on my floppy discs and hard drives stayed closed. I had stopped writing.

Over the last year I have truly wondered why this was the case. Now that I have released my words and allowed them to walk the world again, they (and I) keep asking, "Why were we stifled for so long?"

I imagined it was the teaching, but felt, in the depths of my soul that must've been some sorry excuse to cover up something else I could not fully comprehend. Last night, while reading Stephen King's On Writing for the Write on Edge book club, Read on Edge, I found my answer. It seems that one of my greatest writing heroes had exactly the same problem as I did. In his own words,

...for the first time in my life, writing was hard. The problem was the teaching. I liked my coworkers and loved the kids -- even the Beavis and Butt-Head types in Living with English could be interesting -- but by most Friday afternoons I felt as if I'd spent the week with jumper cables clamped to my brain. If I ever came close to despairing about my future as a writer, it was then. [Stephen King, On Writing, page 73]

The one distinct difference between Mr. King and myself is that I did not despair about my future as a writer, I simply gave it up. I chose teaching - heart, body and soul.

No regrets there.

Never a one.

However, life has taken me down a very strange path in recent years and teaching is off the table. Leave this girl alone long enough and her words will surely surface. I've decided there's no use in denying it, just like there's no use in trying to hide my cowlicks. I roll with it instead -- spiky haircut is back and, while I have to acclimate myself to these waters I abandoned so long ago, I'm writing again.

I don't know what will come of it, but I promised Stephen King as I continued to read his book today that I would "not come lightly to the blank page."

I'm here, Mr. King, and I hope you are enjoying your Friday afternoons however they find you these days because, whether you intended to or not, you're still teaching me.