Guest: Jan Christensen with TRICKS OF THE TRADE

I'm delighted to host my old friend, Jan Christensen today! She not OLD, we've just known each other in cyberspace for quite a few years now. She's an excellent writer and she's revealing how she does some of her magic for us today. Pay close attention! (Links and bio are below.)

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

No, not that trade. The writing trade. I have a few tricks about writing novels to help you keep track of those pesky details. And some in particular for those who write series. Some of these hints can even work very well for short stories. Since Kaye and I write so many of those, I don’t want to leave them out. These tricks help me both save time and feel organized. I hope you’ll find at least some of them helpful for you, too.

The second thing I do after starting a new story, short or long, is to open another document for notes about that story. This has become a catchall for me. Here are some of the things I include, after first naming the document: “Title of Story notes.doc.” (I put my titles in caps for the story itself, and the notes document in small letters to tell them apart easily.) Here’s what I include in the notes doc:

·         If I don’t have what I consider a good title yet, I list as many as I can think of, adding to it until I’m done with the story unless something seems perfect before then.

·         I make a table for character names. The first column is for simple number. As I introduce a character, I put it in the table in order of when the character showed up in the manuscript so I can find it more easily later, if I’ve resorted the table. The other headers include First Name, Last Name, Age, Description, Car (but I don’t bother with that column for short stories), and Notes. When I first introduce a character, I take a minutes to fill in the info in the character table. That way I don’t have to look for it when I need it again and don’t remember what page it was on in the document. Also I can sort by when introduced, and by first or last name to make sure I don’t have a lot of characters whose names begin with the same letter.

·         Next, for novels, I have another table that I use as an outline after I write each chapter. Obviously, this won’t be needed for a short story unless it’s very long and involved. In this table the headers are: Chapter #, Day (of week) (if exact date is needed, can put that here), Time, Where, and Events. When I finish each chapter, I fill this out. This way I never get caught up with timeline problems. I’ve had timeline problems in the past, and it can be horrible to fix.

·         Underneath that table, I put in research. Often, I find something on-line I can just copy and paste there. I admit, I don’t do a lot of research, so this might not work for everyone. I make big, bolded headers for each piece of research so I can find it easily in the document. Of course, I can use the search feature to find it, too.

·         Last, I put in ideas for plot points after I’m about a quarter of the way through a novel. I don’t plot before starting to write, so by the time I’ve reached that point, I need to take a break and lay out some ideas of what can happen from that point on. I add to these as I think of them, and when I start to feel blocked, I go to that list and see if there’s something I can use.

So, that takes care of the notes file when I’m writing the story. After it’s finished, though, I continue to use that file. I now list all kinds of things at the top of it. Date of publication, where pubbed, if it’s a short story, ISBN numbers, links to it for on-line bookstores, the zine where it was published, and so forth. Anything I think will come in handy down the road.

For short stories I have yet another table to input where I sent the story. The headers for that form are: Where, Date Sent, Date Back, Time Frame, and Comments. In comments I note accepted or rejected. If I get a personal rejection, I might copy and paste the comments right in the table, if they’re not too long. If they are long, I put them underneath.

All this works tremendously for writing series. You can go back to any notes file to find out details about a character you’ve used before, or some research you did, or to jog your memory about exactly what happened when in an earlier book. If you’re more comfortable with printed material, you can make a notebook with each note’s file to flip through when you need it.

It can be odd what turns up. For example, I use a character in the Tina Tales, Professional Organizer books, who loves to use odd, funny words and clichés. I have two pages of funny words in my note file. For that one, I copy and paste it for each new note file so can quickly find one when needed. Words like cattywampus, gobbledygook, higgledy-piggledy, and kerfuffle. Words that even spell checker doesn’t like.

I think if you’re an author who does a lot of research you might find a better way than my way of dumping it all into the notes file. But I do think it’s great to have everything else in that one file. Easy to find, all available with the click of a key or two on your keyboard.

That said, I’m always open to other systems, and would love to read any hints anyone has in the comments. Happy writing! And organizing.

BIO: Jan Christensen’s published novels are: Sara’s Search, Revelations, Organized to Death, Perfect Victim, Blackout, and most recently, Buried Under Clutter. She's had over sixty short stories appear in various places over the last dozen years, two of which were nominated for a Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society, where she was just elected President. She also writes a series of short stories about Artie, a NY burglar who gets into some very strange situations while on the job.

CONTACTS:

Website: www.janchristensen.com

Amazon author pages: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Christensen/e/B004XTXSYO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jan.christensen.9275

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/463095.Jan_Christensen

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanSChristensen

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/janchristensena/

Are You a Procrastinator?

Well, I can be. Never with work, of course…well, hardly ever. But sometimes, when the Muse isn’t pounding down my door with ideas for stories, blogs, articles, etc, I do find it easy to be distracted when I’m sitting at my computer. It’s not just a quick game of Mahjong or Free Cell any more. There are many interesting sites on the web – if you’re interested in tennis, skiing, baseball, horses, flying, cooking – you name it, there’s a site you can find with all kinds of info and some have training videos available – fifteen minutes have disappeared in a blink while you learned how to follow through on your golf swing!

And, of course, those sites often have links to their Facebook page, Twitter, YahooGroups discussion groups. Before you know it, a quick little glance at how to make angel food cake has you signed up for online cooking lessons and you’re fifteen posts into a discussion on the merits of butter cream versus cream cheese frosting.

It’s fine to say, just apply willpower and get to work on that review you’ve promised, the blog that’s waiting to be posted, the first three chapters you told your crit partner you’d have to her last week. Then that email alarm sounds and you see someone has said the only real frosting for a cake is their grandmother’s seven-minute frosting. How can you not look at that recipe?

Here are a couple of suggestions on how to work through the procrastination.

1 – I can write whatever I want on the assignment hanging over my head. I can write the love scene I know is coming up in my WIP, even if my characters aren’t there yet, or the beginning of an article on squirrels or the first paragraph of my column. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it doesn’t even have to be something I’ll end up sending out, but it does get me writing.

2 – I can online browse at a specific time, but not before. That can be tough because you can find yourself watching the time.

3 – This one is a bit of an oddity, but it can work. Tell yourself you’re NOT allowed to write until a specific time. By the time the designated hour arrives, say 7:37 pm, you could be chomping at the bit to get those ideas onto your hard drive.

So…what gets your fingers moving when you’re procrastinating?

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
libby@libbymckinmer.com
Also on Facebook, Twitter & Good Reads

Transitions

By Mark W. Danielson

People read books because stories offer escapes. Some prefer fantasy, others like Westerns, still others love mysteries and horror. But as different as these genre are, every novel shares the same fundamentals of writing. Words must define the story, keep them interested, and define who is speaking. Smooth transitions are of the essence, but they don’t come without experience.

Transitions occur in many ways. Commas, paragraphs, and chapters are all examples. In good writing, the reader will barely notice as they read, but bad transitions are like skunks in the middle of the road. Our job as authors is to avoid the stinkers and keep things rolling.

In writing, sentences and paragraphs may look fine as your fingers hammer the keyboard, but when you read them aloud, they don’t always flow. This is where editing comes in. Somehow, you must find a means of melting everything together so it sounds as smooth on audiotape as it reads.

As a general rule, each chapter should begin anew and end as a cliffhanger. Think of chapter endings as commercial breaks in TV shows and you’re on the right track. Give the reader a reason to come back after the break.

When you have several characters talking, it’s easy to get into the “he said, she said” mode. Sometimes it’s necessary to use the “said” word, but you can generally avoid it with description preceding paragraph that identifies who is speaking. Having that person identify who they are speaking to can eliminate another “said” word. When you think you’re finished, do a word search to see how well you did. He said, she said may be fine for children’s books, but it should be avoided in adult novels. Enough said.

Editors will agree that volumes can be written on this subject, but applying these basic principles will make yours smile.

Adding reality to mystery by Vivian Zabel

As a mystery/suspense writer myself, I want to make my books as believable as possible. I've read magazines, online, and books to learn how others write, for material to use, and to add to my knowledge. I attended workshops, clinics, and workshops for over 30 years.

Perhaps some the methods I've found that help me might help others who write mysteries, suspense, thrillers, and/or detective stories and books.

My first mystery/suspense novel, which came out last fall, Midnight Hours takes place in Oklahoma City, and three of the main characters are members of the OKC police department. Much what I wrote about the police department came from my imagination and from my experiences mainly with the country sheriff's department. I realize now that I needed a resource inside the department in order to be sure the details add to the believability of the plot if and when someone who "knows" reads the book. I can at least have that information for the next book in the series.

Ways to discover facts and possibilities to help with writing any type of mystery (including the sub-genres) are many.

Have a resource person in a police department. I now have one in the OKC department. If I decide to use another city or county entity, I will contact them and ask for help.

Join email groups in the crime/mystery genre. I'm a member of Sister in Crime (http://sistersincrime.org} and their Yahoo email group, as well as the crimescenewriters Yahoo email group. Many experts, including police and forensics experts, are parts of each group and answer questions posed about material needed for plots, deaths, discovery, and procedures. I started printing many pages of responses for my mystery file. I have at least three new possible ways to commit murder, investigate them, and solve them.

Read, read, read. Read mysteries of all kinds. Note which plots, characters, and details work and which don't. Analyze why or why not.

Read writing magazines, and articles which cover writing different types of mysteries.

Attend conferences with mystery sessions. I have two conferences on my wish list: Scene of the Crime, held in Wichita, Kansas, and Telling Your Story hosted by Mystery author William Bernhardt, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Muse Online Writing Conference last year had a complete list of forums, authors, and editors dealing with mystery. Wonder what they will have this year (next month)?

The more prepared we are, the better chance our mystery will have details and information that will make our stories and novels believable.

My novel Midnight Hours started as a novella entered in a contest on Writing.Com. The novel and long short story have a few things in common, but the novel expands and changes some of the characters and plot. However, I did my best to make characters, plot, and setting as realistic and believable as possible.

Vivian Zabel

Odds 'n Ends of Advice from Mystery Experts - by Vivian Zabel

I read writing magazines, blogs written by writers and writing experts, and articles about writing. Usually each thing I read gives me at least one nugget of golden advice. Here are a few of my favorites bits and pieces or “odds ‘n ends” of advice.

1. Clive Cussler, The Writer March 1979: Lead readers on and on by ending chapters on a note of mystery. Cut out deadwood. If it isn’t necessary, cut it.

I’m not always consistent about following the advice to end chapters on note of mystery, but I’m getting better.

2. I really like this bit of advice from James Scott Bell, Writer’s Digest March/April 2009, and I use it often: “Relive your scenes. Not rewrite. Relive.” Imagine yourself as the characters living the scene.

3. In the March 2009 The Writer, Staton Rabin writes: “Handle exposition delicately.” He states, “We must never know we are having things explained to us.”

4. Going back almost as far in The Writer history as the Clive Cussler article is the 1985 article by Randall Silvis, who wrote that dialogue draws the reader closer to the action, intensifying it.

5. Nancy Lamb wrote in a Writer’s Workbook, Writer’s Digest March/April 2009, and I’m going to quote the whole paragraph: “Never let the truth get in the way of your story. Creative writing is just that: creative. If the truth prevents you from telling your fictional story effectively, get rid of the facts and invent something that makes the story work.” Wonderful words of wisdom for fiction.

6. According to Gary Braver, The Writer April 2009, “give your hero two quests,” a personal and a public quest.

7. Jessica Page Morrell’s title, Writer’s Digest July/August 2009, is excellent advice: “Keep your story moving at the right pace.”

8. In the February 2009 The Writer, Mary E. DeMuth writes, “Translate your emotional experiences,” and “Get out in the world.”

I’ve given only eight tips out of the hundreds available, but each one gives an author much useful advice. Yes, they are some of my favorite odds ‘n ends of mystery writing advice.

Vivian Zabel
Brain Cells & Bubble Wrap

Don't Get Blogged Down

Nowadays a great deal of authors, in any genre, especially those who are still trying to make it big and are not yet a household name, are bloggers as well. I know I blog a lot. A whole lot. There are many advantages to having a well read popular blog. It is a great way to build up a readership and following. It provides a discipline, if you take it seriously, of writing on a regular basis. If you have more than one blog or one that covers more than one topic it broadens your writing abilities. It also is an effective medium for getting immediate feedback on how well your writing is received. More so than the book, a blog is a quick, lively, and continuous interaction with your readers. It also, when done well, helps you sell more books, and that is after all what we as authors are trying to do - sell books!

But like anything else, blogging can become too much of a ... hmm, do I dare say - addiction? Yes, addiction. I was going to say passion, but addiction is more on the point I'm so tediously slow in getting to. As a passion, which it is to me now, it can be a healthy, and as I explained above, valuable for many reasons and lucrative part of the writer's work schedule. But taken too far and not kept in balance, it can hinder the progress of those most important WIP's, and, taken to the extreme, it can consume one like a deadly narcotic. I'm a full time writer, so I have more liberty to devote hours and hours every week to blogging than the writer who holds down a full time job, but even so I've had to come to grips with my passion for it and put it in its place.

I came to this conclusion, about needing to get a grip on my running out of control blogging habit, at the end of a month-long blogging binge, the consummation of a desolate period of my life. My rampant run amok blogging had ruined me. I had lost my wife, my family's respect, my WIP's had mildew on them, the house and car had been repossessed, I was drinking myself to death with cheap bourbon during the day and Pepsi at night, and so broke I was having to dance at a strip bar to make the money I needed to keep my cable internet going so I could write one more blog. Didn't need food. Just my blogs.

My publisher, in a fit of outrage, hunted me down, pissed with me for having missed my last deadline again, and saved my life by having me committed to a BA (Blogaholics Anonymous) Rehab clinic. It was there, when I finally got sober and realized how far I had fallen, that in a fit enlightened inspiration I penned this poem that I wish to share with you all today. Enjoy, take serious note, and then please share your thoughts in the comments afterward.

Ode to the Blogaholic
(You Know Who You Are)

I thought it best to start out my day-
Working on manuscripts when,
In a fit of addictive behavior I must say,
All did I was just blog instead.

By noon, I resolved, I would certainly have-
A thousand words WIP penned,
But I swear I didn't know the time had all passed ...
By the time I finished blogging again.

Mid afternoon certainly productive must be-
Occupied with writing, swore I then,
But great god almighty and good golly gee ...
By four I had only blogged again!

At dinner I ate quickly and did firmly resolve-
Early eve not one email to send.
In this I can say I was able - but not proud,
For though no emails, I did blog ... shan't pretend.

As midnight approached my manuscripts did so vie-
For attention from me before bed.
But try as I might, and Lord knows I did try,
Before sleep I had blogged once again.

I now lay me down to sleep with a prayer-
For all my good bloggers and friends.
That their days be not lost as mine in thin err-
Whilst blogging o'er and o'er with no end.

***

Writing Tips from other Writers by Vivian Zabel

I take and read several writing magazines: The Writer, WRITERS' Journal, and Writer's Digest. All of them give me ideas and advice that helps me be a better writer. As I read some of the current issues, I realized that some of the articles included suggestions that definitely apply to writing mysteries, thrillers,crime, and/or suspense novels and/or stories.

Some of the suggestions apply to any writing; some perhaps more to the mystery genres. However, all are usable to us. At the end of this article, I'll give the sources for the information I'm using. I highly recommend that everyone read all the articles.

Create believable and distinctive characters. Have you ever read more than one book where at least one character could be dropped into more than one story, even if the names aren't the same, and no one notice? I mean other than in a series or a sequel that contains the same characters.

Some ways to make characters believable and distinctive are several, but a few include to have characters not be predictable, to make them three-dimensional rather than stereotypical or all good or all bad, to "show" their personalities and characters rather than "tell" the reader what kind of person they are. An antagonist shouldn't be a "flat" all bad, evil person. A protagonist shouldn't be all good without any faults or short comings.

Include the four elements. Every well-written novel or story needs to have a strong hook at the beginning to grab the readers attention and keep it.

Conflict is necessary to have a plot, a story. Of course without conflict, we would have only a narrative, and we wouldn't have anything to interest a reader.

Conflict leads to a struggle, according to Diane E. Robertson, both internal and external. The ups and downs of the struggle make the plot move forward to the resolution, the end of the story. Authors need to be sure that that end is not a false finish. The end must make sense and satisfy the reader. A surprise ending should still be credible.

Make sure the plot is plausible to the reader. Often, coincidences are thrown in to surprise a reader, but if credibility is stretched too far, the reader won't accept it. Hallie Ephron states, "... never, ever, ever make a coincident integral to the solution.

Don't conceal clues from the reader. The reader should know all the clues as soon as the mystery solver or detective does.

I gave a few of the many tips found in three articles and a bit of my own knowledge mixed in. I'll add to the list later.

Sources, besides the information I've accumulated over the years:

The Writer, Hallie Ephron,October 2008 page 26-29; Paola Carso, December 2008 page 28-29.
WRITERS' Journal, Diane E. Robertson, January/February 2009 page 46-47.


Vivian Zabel
Brain Cells & Bubble Wrap
Vivian's Mysteries
Midnight Hours