What's your muse?

It's always interesting to me to hear how writers view the act of writing. Given we all spend much more time than any sane person ever would, thinking up similes and metaphors, we tend to anthropomorphize or animate just about everything, including whatever it is that empowers, enables, forces, etc. us to write.

Traditionally muses were women, often young and beautiful, which makes sense given the derivation of the word. Stephen King described his muse as a guy who sits in an armchair smoking cigars. The more regular Mr. King was in his writing schedule, the more likely his muse would show up and keep him company.

For me each story has its own kind of muse, and they're all wild, mythical, never before seen animals. For me, the challenge is harnessing them without killing them. If I'm too heavy handed, they become too tame and the resulting story might have some technical merit, but that's about it. So when I'm writing, I go through phases. In the early phases, I try to find the form and shape of the muse. For that I write a TON of verbiage that I will later throw away. Only when I feel confident that I know what kind of beast this is do I move in aggressively. The ideal result for me is to have the muse all hitched up to drive the story, without it being so tied up that it can't take off running and pull the reader through the pages.

What's your muse look like?

ARRRGH! Happy 1/2 Birthday to US!

Well, here we be, six months to the day since we laid claim to this cove, and I'll be blowed if we haven't got ourselves a fine crew and plenty of fellow voyagers tied up at the dock!

Fer yer entertainment, I'd like to spotlight just a few of our top-comment-garnerin' posts from the past six months:

The Power in a Word by Jonene Ficklin

Revisions, Why Art Thou So Hard by Susan Kaye Quinn

How NOT to Pitch to an Editor by Leisha Maw

Been a pleasure sailin' with ye, and I be lookin' forward to many fine adventures to come.

Scrivener as a Writing Tool

Around the first of the year, I asked for suggestions for plotting techniques and writing software, as I was toying with my Shiny New Idea.

Well, I didn't get too far with the new idea, but I did learn a lot about Scrivener and outlining.

I HIGHLY recommend Scrivener for Windows (the Mac version has more features, but the Windows version has the basic functionality that makes it such a useful tool). It's free in beta-mode until the official version comes out. Scrivener is not a plotting technique so much as tool to organize all kinds of writing activities.

While I was reading McKee's Story, I took detailed notes in Scrivener. Because of the organizational structure of the files, I can quickly access my notes about say, the Inciting Incident or Crisis/Climax/Resolution.

Then I copied my entire MG MS into Scrivener, chapter by chapter, because I wanted to re-write the opening. Because I had all my McKee notes in the same story project, it was easy to flip back and forth between my notes, make new notes about ideas for the rewrite, and eventually to use the corkboard to diagnose and redesign my opening. It looks something like this (the different cork pins are different POVs):

Now that I'm starting Draft 4 of my YA novel, I'm once again using Scrivener to organize my thoughts, analyze the plot structure, and embark on the rewrite. Scrivener makes this gargantuan task very manageable.

By the time I get back to Shiny New Idea, I'm going to be a Scrivener Pro, and it will be well worth the $40 when it is released (and will hopefully have more of the Mac-Scrivener features as well).

The one thing I wouldn't recommend using Scrivener for is actual writing.

The word processor in Scrivener is not very powerful, and I like having my entire MS in one document (although breaking it into chapter-file-chunks for reorganizing/rewriting was very instructive). Even though I was designing the rewrite in Scrivener, I did all my actual writing in Word.

Once I get back to Shiny New Idea and work on plotting from scratch, I'll report back on which plotting methods (Snowflake, etc.) I end up using, and how that works out!

If you'd like to get information about more awesome tools for writers, check out this blog post on INSTRKTIV.

How to Tell When You're Done?

So last week I was all on fire to get my first draft written out to the end.

But how do I know when I've reached the end?

Sure, the action climax is over. The main character made all his important decisions. The consequences fell. The last bits of tension are resolving. Confessions are being made. Details are being cleared up. Happily-ever-after (or at least happily-until-the-sequel) looms on the horizon.

But I love these characters. I love this setting. I keep thinking up more scenes. How will I know when to stop?

I mean, if I'm not careful, I'm going to end up writing half-way into the next book.

Gaggle of Contests

I'm running a bunch of contests over at Ink Spells in the next couple weeks! Hop over and enter for free books, candy, and a critique!

300th Follower Readers are Smart Contest - Win a book of your choice or a 20 page critique from yours truly

Omnific Publishing's Looking for Love Web Hunt - Win the entire Omnific collection of books!

Season of Love Giveaway - Win a copy of my book, Life, Liberty, and Pursuit and some candy for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day!

Telling or Showing

The other day, in the library, during recess, one of my friends shoved a book into my hands and said, "I recommend this book." Yes, that's exactly what she said.

I looked at the book in my hands. I was already scared. It was one of those young adult books that are black with blue or red or purple letters and have something to do with vampires or werewolves or something like that.

But, I believe in judging a book by what's inside it, not its cover. So, I opened it up to the first page. I can't remember it exactly, but I think it went something like this.

"I walked down the street. Then I walked up a hill. I stood there and waited a while. The boy and his dog were not there. This made me mad."

I shoved it back on the shelf. I was already falling asleep. Not only was the prose slightly clumsy, but it didn't show me a thing. I couldn't see the world. I couldn't connect with the character. Every word was telling. Even when something was happening. And it was BORING! I didn't care a bit.

However, there's another side to this.

I keep sneaking my mom's first draft of the book she's writing right now. It's really awesome. But if I didn't hear her talking about it all the time, I would be really confused. There's a whole lot of action happening, but nobody stops to explain to the main character what in the world is going on. I'm not lost. But that's because I already understand how the world works. Anyone who hasn't spent the last 15 years listening to my mom talk about the Society of Peregrines would probably be completely lost.

In Japanese, we had to do a project where we learned a Japanese dance and taught the class how to do it. Before the first group started, the teacher got up and said something important.

He told us that almost everyone in his first class failed the project because the first thing they did was talk for five minutes about the origin of the dance. Then he explained what he wanted. He said we needed to start by getting the class engaged. Asking them to stand up and do the first motion. Then we could stick facts in here and there while we taught the dance.

This can totally be used in writing. It's important to start off a story with action, not a lengthy explanation. Then, you have to keep showing, but at the same time, tell the reader enough that they understand what's going on. So the audience is neither bored nor confused.

So, how do you keep your showing and telling balanced?

Pass-Along Descriptions: Grief

It happened. She died. One of my main characters, that is. I've been putting this part off forever because there's so much riding on it.

My previous note says: She dies now.

Don't panic, I've expounded on that. Today I sat down and wrote the scene. Then I re-read it and rolled my eyes. It's very first draft and needs an arena-size bin of polish applied. I'm working on it now and, slowly, it's coming around.

You know, grief is complicated. There are five stages, which can happen in any order. There's no right or wrong, since everyone reacts in different ways. Now that's what makes writing these parts interesting.

And getting a fresh take is even more interesting. I'm excited to see what you come up with.

Soooo . . . if you're up to another one, how would you write a physical and/or emotional description of grief?