SCWC: World Building for Speculative/Paranormal Fiction

-        How deviant from reality is this going to be?  The more different it is, the more you will have to explain.  Obliterating the usual “rules” can be fascinating but hard to follow

-        How similar to us is an alien culture?

-        Human systems are founded on religious beliefs (magic, gods, goddesses, God).  What role does religion play in the fictional society?  How is moral development affected?  What is the foundation of the society?  How do ideologies affect how they react to or treat other people?

-        Map-making can be helpful in creating a new world (town, city, country).  Spatial understanding of where people are to the natural world.

-        Different/skewed versions of well-known stories/fairy tales

-        Logic flaws make unhappy readers (ex: how does a sparkly vampire impregnate a girl if he doesn’t even have blood flow to get it up).

-        “It works, because…”  Make it believable.  Explain why it’s possible.

-        Nature is full of bizarre, fascinating things—good source for inspiration/ideas

-        Environment is a huge determinant of people’s behavior (ex: more crime during heat, less crime/violence when women and children are present).

-        Get inspiration from real news stories/feeds.

-        Novel-writing tips: http://storyfix.com/

-        Author/reader networking: http://redroom.com/

-        Write FIRST, edit later.  Don’t edit while you’re writing.  Go back to edit after you’redone.

-        Nowadays sci-fi fans demand technical accuracy.

-        Only explain enough to take away questions (have someone else read it and find out if they feel distracted from the story because they’re wondering how something works).

-        No one ever explains how a flux capacitor actually works, but just the mention of it is enough to ground the story

-        When you’re making up names/words, stay consistent with the structure of the language

-        Tactile experiences give things more credibility (acting out a story to a friend as opposed to just telling it to them).

-        Don’t do a big information dump—“tease” it out a little at a time.

SCWC: Why Some Authors Get Published—and Some Don’t

-        Strive to write every day even if you don’t get around to it.  Set writing goals.

-        Read a lot (of good stuff).  If you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have time to write.

-        Read widely within your genre for inspiration

-        Publishers don’t have time to deal with high-maintenance authors.  Do the work they ask for.

-        Try to look at your work with an objective/dispassionate eye when self-editing.

-        Setting/style/period/subject can be what sets your work above the rest

-        Stay focused on your strengths and what’s unique about you and your story when marketing/making your pitch

-        The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: http://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-Julia-Cameron/dp/1585421472/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1  “Bring life in.”

-        Do research to cover a universal theme.  Every nonfiction book is an argument

-        Don’t give up!!!  If something isn’t working, take time to re-assess.  It’s okay to send a query letter to the same agent if you indicate you’ve spent some time researching, revising, improving, etc

-        Online writing groups (Salon, RedRoom, She Writes)

-        San Diego Writers’ Ink, Scribd

-        Community support and interaction is important

-        Editors’ guilds

SCWC: Tweaking - Making the Difference Between Good and Published

-        Build to power.  Always end your sentences with the strongest/most powerful word.

-        Change the order of words in sentences/move sentences around.  Save “what happens” for last.

-        Make material visually attractive.  Hard nowadays to distract people from their busy lives.

-        Paragraphing accentuates dynamic/pivotal points.  Put sentences in their own paragraphs to demonstrate their importance.

-        Use punctuation “tricks” to add drama.

-        Don’t be afraid of sentence fragments or one-word sentences.

-        Ellipses imply the character’s thoughts are trailing off.  A surprise sentence ending.

-        Don’t be afraid of short and/or long sentences.

-        Use prepositions to add more sentence variety.

-        Make dialogue unusual/brilliant

-        The best writing is fast writing—spontaneity creates a better story/flows better

-        Take out dialogue introductions, use “shortcuts.”

-        Most of us are pretty dull most of the time; make the character more interesting than you.  We don’t want boring conversation, we want the best of what we say.

-        Use action tags for dialogue—carefully and sparingly

-        Can characterize people through the words/actions of other characters

-        Pause for reaction time.

-        Make your dramatic scenes long (and longer).  Inject heart-stopping events

SCWC: Show, Don’t Tell

-        Learn the balance between showing and telling

-        Good writing reveals, boring writing explains

-        Use senses to reveal, “telling” comes from the head.

-        Experience/feel with the character instead of listing facts

-        Don’t use abstract subjective terms to convey moments.  Be more sensory/visual/tangible (SHOW)

-        Adjectives tell, verbs show.  Use precise verbs first.  Turn your adjectives into verbs.  Verbs contain the energy of the sentence.  Make a long list of verbs!  Verbs pump us up.  Make more active.

-        The Thesaurus is your friend!

-        Write from the senses.  Readers want to smell, touch, taste the world you’ve created.  We read to escape, experience other realities

-        Be the story as you’re writing it; be your character, experience their world vicariously.

-        Do the writing first, do research after

-        “I remember (sense)ing…” exercise in keeping you in touch with your senses.  Makes you pay attention to mundane sensations.  I remember tasting, hearing, smelling, etc.  “Sense inventory.”

-        Physical reactions to senses, involuntary sensory details, memories provoked, emotion from memories, and then action.

-        Metaphors/similes make writing poetic.  Easier to remember, connects on a deeper emotional level.  “The cancer ate her like horse piss eats deep snow.”

-        Observe the weather/sky and write it down.  Generalities are boring.  Take notes on observations so you remember them better later.

-        The key to description is selectivity.  In each sentence use at least one striking, provoking word.

-        Don’t be nice all the time.  Give them an image that’s hard to forget.  The truth is in the detail.

-        Choose the most powerful details during rewrites.  Also notice where details need to be added or strengthened.

-        http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Senses-Diane-Ackerman/dp/0679735666

-        Have a “commonplace” book—jot down phrases and words you read and like (look up “commonplace” website)

-        Scenes/mini-scenes: enter one way, exit another way.  Emotional transition during a scene. Important moment occurs within a scene.  “Telling” is the transition/summary between scenes.  Scene allows reader to experience the situation with the character.

SCWC: Package Submission

This is in regards to when you’re ready to submit your manuscript to an agent.

Package Submission

-        Query letters/synopsis for submission to agents

-        A good query letter should be brief—sell yourself and sell your book

-        Do your research and adhere to the requested format!

-        Need to capture reviewer right at the start, then elaborate a little further on stories/characters

-        Explain why you’re qualified to right this book (your bio should be relevant to the story)

-        Don’t copy a generic submission template

-        You’re applying for a job—be pleasant and business-like.  Present yourself as someone your agent/publisher would want to work with.  Your bio is your resume.

-        Agent website/blogs tell what they require and some talk about what they like/don’t like to see in query letters.

-        Synopsis—sample of your writing skills.  1, 3, and 5 page overview of story.  Don’t leave cliffhangers/surprises.  Tell it all.  Touch on major characters, conflict, resolution, key story element.  Start with 5 pages, then cut down to 3 pages, then cut down to 1 (working backwards is easier to get the meat of the story down to a one-page synopsis for submission).

-        Follow agent’s directions for initial story submissions (first 3 chapters, first 50 pages etc).

-        You have to be really damn good in order to break the rules.

-        Looking for an agent: http://pred-ed.com/ and http://aaronline.org/

-        http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/free/ - newsletter, see which publishers are selling/popular/good ratings

-        http://duotrope.com/ - search publishers by genre, etc

-        “Submishmash” - http://www.submittable.com/ - manage submissions

-        Send multiple submissions at a time

-        The bigger the agent the better, but relationship with agent is important too (may find that a smaller agency is more agreeable).

-        http://www.shewrites.com/

-        An agent is good to have so they can fight your publishing/publisher battles for you.

SCWC: Making Sex Scenes Sexy

Needless to say, I was very eager to attend this one, lol >_<

Making Sex Scenes Sexy

-        pleasure is about sensory exploration, preserving memories

-        subjective—can be sexy to one but repulsive to another.  Write what’s appealing to you, because you’re never going to be able to write sex in a way that appeals to everyone.

-        ritualistic; admittance is key

-        Good sex is hard to come by.  “Sex and death go together.”  Can enliven us or undo us.  Can destroy the moment/story

-        What is the message you’re trying to get across from the scene?

-        Bad Sex Awards done by a British literary review

-        Small moments

-        Every adult is a sexual being and will respond to their sexuality differently throughout their lives

-        Important in helping define a character’s core

-        Anything can be made “sexy,” even if it’s not about sex.

-        What is the goal of the scene?  What the purpose of the characters getting together?

-        Does the sex serve to magnify the character’s personality or to expose something new (a truth/secret)?  Creating a bond, breaking a bond?

-        Don’t be too clinical or use too many euphemisms (“throbbing manhood”).  Keep the vocabulary in context with the character.  The language can be filthy if the characters are filthy/foul-mouthed anyway.

-        Submerse the reader/seduce them.  Don’t alienate them with out-of-character/context imagery/word choices.

-        Keep focus narrowed—focus on a single sensation, emotion, etc

-        Find relevant metaphors

-        Why is this happening?  Why is it important?  Make the emotional connections so the reader can relate.

-        It doesn’t take a lot to get the point across (less is sometimes more).

-        Why is it beautiful?  If it’s not meant to be beautiful, then why is it ugly?

-        Write for yourself, write honestly, don’t censor yourself.  It may end up being better than you expect.  You can always change it later if it doesn’t fit.

-        “Nastiness” is a reality.  People get nasty with each other.  There’s no reason to tame it down.

SCWC: Defining the Difference Between Plot and Story

-        outline not required, know personality type and writing style, no “right” way to write

-        have the story first; the plot is how you tell the story

-        know how it ends

-        Impulse by Frederick Ramsay

-        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_device

-        speculate different outcomes/cause and effect

-        spine art on the published book is important too

-        bridge not only within book, but across books if there is a series

-        know your characters like your family members

-        know where you’re going.  “If you can’t taste it, don’t drink it.”

-        Know exactly who the characters are so they don’t do things they wouldn’t normally do.

-        Trust the characters – they will write the story for you

-        How do you solve problems?  Your book is your problem, solve it.  Write your book the way you solve problems.

-        It’s okay to stop writing to think about stuff.

-        Literary fiction—internal.  Genre fiction—not a lot of time in the characters’ heads

-        Good description can be done in a sentence or two (context will allow readers to draw inferences without needing excessive descriptions)

-        The movie versions always suck because the version in your head is better

-        learn how to write dialogue, no one wants to be in a character’s head for excessive period of time

-        Don’t do the reader’s work for them; don’t tell them how to think and what to look for

-        what kind of “bridge” do you want to build?  (how to determine plot)

-        Go with what you know.  If you don’t know it, don’t write it, because someone will catch it.  “The devil is in the details.”  Get your details right or people will give you crap.

-        Asking reader to suspend disbelief (in the case of fiction) doesn’t mean you can get away with unrealistic stuff

-        Don’t write about stuff no one cares about (don’t overdo details).  Don’t show off expertise.

-        Don’t overuse adverbs and exclamation points

-        Can get a lot of work done with dialogue/conversation.

-        Add textures: smells, sounds etc (not by description but by settings)

-        Get the story down first, then write the book (go back and add the important details)

-        “Tight” writing: http://leechild.com/  (no wasted words, no useless descriptions)

-        Don’t put it in if it doesn’t move the story forward

SCWC: Creating Microtension

-        It’s important to be compelling nowadays because people are constantly busy and easily distracted.  You have to hook them.

-        Conflict reveals/exposes/evolves character, threatens change

-        Plot—how you raise the questions in the reader’s mind and the way they’re answered.

-        Information/exposition/low tension is boring

-        Using microtension helps during the lulls

-        7 psychological triggers that get our attention: alarm and mystique

-        We want questions answers and riddles solved.  Our brain is not built to handle ambiguities.

-        Find points of emotional friction, opposing impulses

-        Microtension has to be rooted in the Protagonist’s POV

-        Dialogue—find points of emotional friction.  Conflicting attitudes/agendas

-        Information Dump: make more gripping by introducing skepticism by a char.  Forces other char to test and defend ideas.

-        Sexual tension!!!  Egos, personalities, biases, prejudice, conflicting ideas, etc

-        Pay attention to your own life and your interactions with other people

-        Projecting/externalizing internal conflicts (weather, environment changes)

-        Don’t rehash/describe repeatedly unless something has changed dramatically

-        Scene-building.  Every scene has to have drive, builds up to shift/action.  It has to have a point.

-        Recycling ideas: dig deeper into the character.  Find a new/different angle, add complexity

-        The first ideas that come to you are often the most cliché and superficial, break down/storyboard and look carefully at the details/emotions and dismiss them so you’re forced to come up with more original ideas

-        Make backstory suspenseful—impending consequences?  Use backstory to shape present conflict.

-        Foreshadowing—can be a surprise or can be a subtle detail that reader won’t recall until later

-        External dialogue conflicts with internal thoughts/feelings

Here is the exercise I did for the Microtension class. We had to write about our lunch break, lol…

My lunch was revolting.  It was supposed to be a “chipotle chicken wrap.”  Where was the chipotle?  No idea.  It was disgusting and dry, and packed with shredded lettuce.  No one buys a wrap for the goddamn lettuce.

I was sitting in the lobby eating when a girl approached.

“Is anyone sitting here?” she asked, gesturing to a nearby chair.

“Nope!” I said.  I moved my bag out of the way for her.  I continued to stuff my face and surf the internet on my netbook.  The girl sat down and proceeded to feast on a bag of Skittles.

Well, I considered.  Skittles would probably be better than this shitty wrap.  In fact, I began to covet her Skittles.  I began to wonder what a Skittles Chicken Wrap might taste like.  And then I wondered what Chipotle Skittles would taste like.

Gross.

“Hey,” I nodded at her.  ”I’ll trade you some of your Skittles for a couple of my barbecue chips.”  A smart, even exchange.  I was willing to sacrifice a couple delicious barbecue nuggets in return for sweet, happy divinity.

Only then could my lunch be redeemed.  Those Skittles held the lunch-time magic I was so desperately seeking.