Reflecting on NaNo

 There were no questions for O'Abby today, so I thought I'd use this space today to go through some of the things that worked for me during this year's NaNo, and things that didn't.  Hopefully this will be useful for those of you who may not have ever attempted NaNo before, as well as those seasoned veterans.

Let's start with the things that did work...

1. Starting with a bang.  It was great that this year November 1 was a Sunday, because it meant I didn't have to try and fit writing in around the day job and all the other commitments we all juggle on weekdays.  I dedicated a few hours of the day to writing and managed to blitz just over 4,000 words on the first day. Having some extra words in the bank gave me some peace of mind on days when I only managed 500 or so words because of outside pressures.

2. Dedicated writing days.  I took one day off work each week during NaNo (and two days the first week) to dedicate to writing.  This was fantastic and I managed around 6K on each of these dedicated writing days, and because they were usually Friday, it was a great inspiration leading into the weekends where I had a few spare hours and generally managed to add another 4-5K.

3. A loose outline. Any of you who know me, know I don't tend to outline my books before I write them.  This time, because I was basing the book on Shakespeare, I had a basic structure to work from even without writing an outline.  I found this tremendously helpful with the fast drafting because I had a guide for where I needed to go next.

4. Music. This is something that works for some books and not for others.  Some books (like The Sidewalks Regrets) have a very specific soundtrack that I refer to and use throughout the writing process to get myself into the right mood and mindset to write individual scenes.  My NaNo book this year had a very distinct soundtrack that helped me find the mood and motivation and emotional tone for various parts of the story.

5. Writing forward and not stopping. This is a must when fast drafting.  Don't go back and rewrite anything, even when you know you took a wrong turn somewhere further back.  Leave yourself a note and move on.  You can fix those things later.  I made a whole lot of mistakes in the early part of my book this year, but I'll fix them later.  As I got to know my characters better through the writing process, things I wrote early on will no longer fit or make sense.  But that's okay.  That's what revision is for!

And things that didn't work...

1. Writing every day.  I wanted to, but there were days where I only managed 400 words because there just wasn't time to do anything more.  I tried not to beat myself up about it because I knew I had words in the bank to make up for those days, but it's hard not to.

2. Writing at home. My most productive writing days were at the library.  There are too many distractions at home, even when I turn off the internet to keep them to a minimum.  There's always cleaning that needs to be done, gardening, laundry and other chores that suddenly seem super urgent whenever I sit down to write.  Leaving the house and going somewhere else means that while the chores don't go away, I'm not so aware of them.

3. Two days off in a row. The first week of NaNo I took two days off to write.  They were both productive, but I found the second day much more of a struggle and wrote considerably less than on the first.  Possibly because my back was sore from sitting in the same chair for so many hours when I'm not used to sitting for long periods.  If I take two days off in a week again next year, I will try not to have them consecutive.

Hopefully these reflections are of use to you.  Do let us know how you got on with NaNo.  Did you 'win'?  Do you have anything that worked well for you while you were writing this month?

Beware of the Overuse of This Type of Word

Beware. Beware. Beware! Of the overuse of the I-N-G verb.

The technical term for this type of verb is present participle. For the sake of this blog post, I’m leaving out gerunds (ING verbs that act as a noun) and limiting this discussion to the present participle.

In many manuscripts, present participle use gets out of hand. While one can still say the language is active, adding the ING is akin to wrapping your trumpet in a towel—it muffles and muddies your once beautiful verb. To be clear, they are useful, but as with most things in life, moderation is key.

Consider the often-used dialogue tag modifier.

“That’s the ugliest sofa I’ve ever seen,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

This is a fine sentence. There’s nothing grammatically wrong with it. However, is there a better way to convey the same idea? As writers, we must be in a constant quest to refine our craft. Consider the following:

She wrinkled her nose. “That’s the ugliest sofa I’ve ever seen.”

Fewer words and we’ve conveyed the same idea but without the ING parasitically attached to our beautiful verb.

How about this pair:

She spent every Saturday cleaning her apartment and running errands.

Vs.

Every Saturday, she cleaned her apartment and ran errands.

Again, same idea, fewer words. So input “ing” into the search function in Microsoft Word, and see where you can strengthen your manuscript by removing the present participle. You might be surprised by how much you’ve overused them. 

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes fiction for young people and the young at heart. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada with her family. 

Understanding "Show Don't Tell"

Show don't tell is a mantra among writers. While the phrase is often said, it is seldom understood.

Telling feeds the reader information, while showing allows the reader to gain information through experiencing it themselves. Instead of telling the reader a character is sad, we show the sadness through the characters wrinkled brow and glassy eyes.  Instead of telling the read it's raining, we show the water droplets hitting the character's glasses and dripping onto her cheeks.

The reader wants to feel what the character is feeling. When we "tell," the reader may know what the character feels, but they don't feel it with her. We want to invite readers into the story, not as observers, but as participants. Telling creates narrative distance, while showing places the reader in the protagonist's shoes.

One easy way to tell if you're telling rather than showing is if you name a feeling.

Examples of telling:

The cast walked onto the stage and bowed as Angela clapped with excitement.

Clarence dug his shovel into the earth, exhaustion weighing him down.

In both cases, the feeling is named--excitement and exhaustion. We shouldn't have to tell the reader Angela is excited if she jumps out of her seat and claps and whistles. We know by the context that Angela is excited. In the same way, we can know Clarence is exhausted by the way he wipes the sweat off the back of his neck and how his muscles shake every time he plunges the shovel into the dirt. With that information, we know Clarence is exhausted because we experience the fatigue with him.

Go through your manuscript and find places where you've named the feeling and work toward eliminating those tells by showing the reader what your character is feeling.

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes YA and adult speculative fiction. When she's not writing, she's marketing books for Rebelight Publishing.

Two Easy-to-use Tools the will Dramatically Improve Your Dialogue

Have you considered dialogue tags lately?

I've been editing a piece I wrote almost five years ago. At the time, I'd only been writing for a couple of years, so I had a lot to learn (I still have a lot to learn and I've been at it for seven years). One of my rookie mistakes was too many dialogue tags. As I edit, I'm cutting about 90% of them.

Dialogue adds life and movement to your story, but right smack in the midst of great conversations are these little bits of telling rather than showing--the dialogue tag. The I-said, she-said, he-asked that all of us must inevitably include in our stories.

They may be inevitable, but I argue that they are grossly overused. While we don't want the reader confused, wondering who said what, there are better ways to convey who is speaking.

1.  Stage action--show us what the speaker is doing rather than telling us that she's saying it. This adds context to her speech and interest for the reader.

Clare started the car and rolled down the window. "Don't you dare think you you're going to get away with this."

Willis pulled the butcher knife from the drawer and sliced into the onion. "I don't appreciate your tone."

In both cases above, we know who is speaking because it's the person who is doing the action. 

2. Body language--they say body language conveys more than words, so use it in your writing. Show us the emotion and meaning behind the dialogue. The same piece of dialogue can take on new meaning through the use of body language.

Loretta swallowed hard and scratched her arm. "I'm ready to go."

Loretta hooked her hand on her hip. "I'm ready to go."

Again, we have a clear sense of who said what, but the dialogue is enriched by the emotion and meaning that the body language conveys.

There are places where dialogue tags will be needed. You won't be able to get rid of all of them, but like the dreaded adverb, use them sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes sci-fi and urban fantasy for teens and adults from her home in the great white north. 

Take Your Novel to the Next Level with Specifics

Carrie fidgeted with the cardboard sleeve on her black dark roast. It wasn't easy meeting new people, but she was pushing herself to interact with other writers. Laura, an urban fantasy writer, sat across from her, nursing a grande caramel frappuccino. Did she know how many calories were in that thing?

Their get-to-know-you coffee was going well. Laura finished her lengthy oration about how she got involved in writing and took a breath before asking, "how many brothers and sisters do you have?" Carrie wrapped her hands around the hot paper cup and squeezed. Why that question? "Um."Carrie's heart sped and her mouth went dry. "That's a damned personal question for our first coffee."

One of my favorite books on writing is Wired for Story by Lisa Cron. I'd read it a couple years ago and a particular chapter really stood out to me--chapter six, The Story is in the Specifics.

Last week, during my writers' group, this chapter came to mind as I listened to one of our members, Gabriele Goldstone, a historical fiction writer, read from her work-in-progress. If you haven't read one of Gabriele's books, you should. She's mastered this technique of bringing in specifics without bogging down her story.

The specifics can mean the difference between the reader just reading a story and living a story. Cron quotes neuroscientist V.S. Ramahandran,"Humans excel at visual imagery. Our brains evolved this ability to create an internal mental picture or model of the world in which we can rehearse forthcoming actions, without the risks or penalties of doing them in the real world."

Cron goes on to write, "Yet writers often tell entire stories in general, as if concepts alone are captivating or worse, because they've fallen prey the misconceived notion that it's the reader's job to fill in the specifics."

In the above example, Carrie didn't just fidget with her coffee cup, but with a specific type of coffee cup with a specific type of coffee. Laura is not just a writer, but a specific type of writer. What has the reader learned about these characters? By getting into the specifics, I've been able to convey information that creates a strong visual image for the reader, but also gives insight into the personality of the characters. We now know that Carrie is an uptight, controlled, and reserved person with a past. Laura, on the other hand, is more outgoing, light, and open. I've shown the reader those characteristics, without telling them.

While the specifics can make a story shine, they can also bog it down. Cron tells writers, "Your job is to filter out the details that don't matter a whit so you have plenty of space left for the ones that do." The writer must choose which items to get specific about and which to gloss over. How do you do that? Ask yourself if the specific description serves a purpose. Does it move the story forward? Does it tell us something important about the setting or characters? Does it engage one of the five senses to bring the story to life? Is the pacing in the scene conducive to providing details?

Take a look at one of your scenes. Are there places where you can tuck in brief details that will bring your story to life?

Any questions? Please post them in the comments.

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes speculative fiction for teens and adults. Her YA dystopian novel, Enslavement, has been nominated for multiple awards. She works as marketing director and aquisitions editor at Rebelight Publishing Inc. Learn more about her and her books at www.melindafriesen.com. 

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Collaborative Project: Rough Draft is Complete, So Now What?

Over the past few months, I've been working on a collaborative project with fellow author, Christine Steendam. We come from very different backgrounds in terms of our writing and styles--she writes western romances and historical novels, while I write speculative teen fiction.

We've now completed a rough draft of our top-secret project, a novella different from anything either of us has ever written. We did a little happy dance last week when the final chapter was completed on our rough draft.

But, now what? Do we go in and start editing each other's work? Both of us edit for others professionally, so we're on equal footing in that regards. But, as I stated, this is a rough draft. I really hate anyone seeing my rough drafts, which was probably the hardest part of this whole endeavor--knowing that she'll be reading that primordial ooze that passes for my rough draft.

After some discussion, we decided on our process:

1. We will go through the document and work on a second draft of our own passages. 
2. Once both of our passages are brought up to second draft status, we'll edit each other's work. 
3. After revisions, we'll send it off to an outside editor.
4. Once the editor's changes are employed, we will each take a turn doing a copy edit.
5. When we feel it's ready, it'll go into format and from there each of us will do a proofread.

Because of the novella's genre and target audience, we plan to independently publish it, which will be a new venture for me as well.

So far, working collaboratively with another author has been a ton of fun and a great experience. Once the project is complete, I'll share what I've learned.

Have you ever co-written a novel? What sorts of challenges did you face? Do you have any great advice for me? I'd love to hear it.

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Melinda Friesen writes novels for teens and is the marketing director at Rebelight Publishing Inc. Her YA dystopian novel, Enslavement has been shortlisted for a Willow Award. Enslavement's sequel, Subversion, is slated for a September launch.