The Step Back: A Wider Perspective

The library. For a reader or writer, it’s close to paradise. Imagine you’re in a new library for the first or second time, exploring the shelves that make up your favorite section or genre. You sidle past, one step at a time, eyes lingering on the covers and titles as your fingers trail along behind you. Every once in a while, when a title catches your eye, you pull the book from the shelf and read the summary, then place the tome either back on the shelf or on the stack you clutch to your chest.

                You near the end of the shelves, eyes still skimming across the beloved books. There are still so many books on the shelves. The load in your arms seems puny, by comparison. But the rejections keep coming. That one doesn’t look interesting to me. That one I’ve already read. I don’t like that author, usually. I’ve heard that book isn’t very good.

                Finally you reach the very end, and have a certain melancholic confidence that the books you’ve selected are the best ones on the shelves. They are the elite. The treasures. The rest are simply there to fill the shelves, or to supplement a less discerning reader, or one with different tastes.

                You curl up in one of the chairs provided, selecting one of your finds to begin reading. You glance over at the shelves…

                And spot a cover that catches your interest. And another, and another, and another. What is this? How did you miss them the first time? And why could you only notice them after taking a few steps back?

                The same thing happens in our writing. We’re caught up in a scene, or a character, or a train of thought that moves faster than your fingers can type. We’re excited! This is the best story we’ve ever written! Everything is so perfect!

                As any participant of NaNoWriMo can tell you, this feeling has the potential to carry you all the way to a ‘The End’. But after the ‘The End’, when you want to start the revision process and turn it into a work that other people can read without burning their eyes out of their skulls, this feeling can be very, very bad.

                Take a step back. Look at it the way you’d look at one of the books you pulled off a library shelf. Forget for a few seconds that you wrote this monster of awesomeness, and look at it from a calm, unbiased point of view. If you can’t get yourself into that mindset at the drop of a hat, then put the story away for a while, or work on something else. Then come back to it, but be careful to leave that step between yourself and the work.

                Read it. Just like you’d read any other book.

                Suddenly, our fantastic characters look fantastically flat. Their actions throughout the story don’t seem to have much purpose, and the world we made up is just one big cliché. Why didn’t we notice these things before? Why didn’t we notice how pointless this scene was, or how nonsensical our villains’ actions were?

                It’s okay. We can fix them. We just have to take a step back, see where we have problems, and then ask ourselves some questions.

What’s motivating our character? How is the setting affecting them, and what makes the setting interesting to the reader? How does a certain chain of events fit together? Which scenes were so fun to write that you dragged them out way longer than they deserved, and what are some ways we can close up that gaping plot hole that seems big enough to be a portal into Narnia?

Who knows? Maybe you’ll finally figure out how to tie things together perfectly in a place where you struggled the first time around.

Take the step back and look at your story from a wider perspective. You’ll be surprised what you might realize in the process.

So, readers. Have you ever finished a story only to notice a real ‘Duh’ moment? Do you find it hard to take that step back, or simple? Are you still having trouble realizing when a scene you write is less than perfect? Or maybe your problem is taking the step forward while writing, and you find it hard to forget about all your story’s problems. I’d love to know your thoughts.

((Btw, for those who are interested, I won Camp NaNoWriMo on the 15^th with 50,086 words. Since then, I’m… Taking a break? XD))

Problems with Passive Voice

                 Passive Voice versus Active Voice. It’s often talked about, but sometimes hard to understand. Even if you understand it, it can be hard to keep in mind while writing. So, what is passive voice? How about an example?

                The path through the forest was being traveled on by Little Red Riding Hood the day after she had received a letter that was written by her sick grandmother, asking her for some special cookies that were made by Little Red’s mother. Little Red had packed up the treats quickly and had started down the path toward the house that was owned by Little Red’s Grandmother, but halfway there she was stopped by a wolf that had been waiting by the path for hours!

                I wrote that in approximately thirty seconds. There are multiple problems with it, but hopefully one of the things you picked out was the little thing most often referred to as ‘Passive Voice.’ It’s kind of boring, not very gripping, and maybe even a little hard to follow in places.

Let’s try rewriting those sentences in a more active voice, and see if we can make it more exciting. See if you can pinpoint the difference.

Little Red Riding Hood skipped along the path through the forest, a day after her sick grandmother sent a letter asking for some of her daughter’s special cookies. The basket of treats swung against Little Red’s hip as she made her way toward her grandmother’s house. Just as she spotted her grandmother’s front gate, a snarling wolf loped onto the path in front of her, looking hungry. But his gleaming eyes weren’t focused on the basket of cookies.

Still not perfect, but I think we could all agree that it’s better than the first example. Not only does it have a little more action and a little more connection with the events taking place, but it also gives us more detail about what’s going on, even though it’s actually shorter than the first example.

And all I did was replace some of the passive voice with more descriptive words.

Many examples of passive voice follow this basic formula:

form of ‘to be’ + past participle = passive voice

In other words, something like:

                To put off working on my NaNoWriMo novel, I was forced to write a few blog posts.

                Was is the form of ‘to be’ (others include is, are, am, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, and being).

                And forced is my past participle (a form of a verb that usually ends in –ed).

                Now, passive voice isn’t technically wrong. Sometimes, you have no choice but to use it. In certain kinds of writing, it can even be preferred (science writing, reporting crimes, more ‘official’ things like that, or places where the person who’s carrying out an action isn’t all that important). Even in my example, there was one sentence that I left in a passive voice – “But his gleaming eyes weren’t focused on the basket of cookies.”

                But in fiction writing, you generally want to use a more active voice. Passive voice can be hard to understand, unclear, and even wordy. It’s harder for a reader to get into the action of your story.

                Personally, I noticed the other day that I use passive voice more than I should, which contributes a lot to my tendency of making everything I write long. Really long. T-T It’s a problem.

                Do you struggle with Passive Voice? Is there something I left out that you feel should be addressed? What other problems do you sometimes struggle with when writing?

               

Links to more information on Passive Voice, and sites that explain it better than I do:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm

By the way, for those of you who are interested...

Current JulNoWriMo wordcount: 30,424 words.

It's going rather well. ^^

Writing Conferences: The Splendor of Saturation

(There's another new post below this one, actually written more recently, outlining some of my shiny new goals for this blog, so if you haven't seen it you should check it out. ^^)

When my dad called me downstairs Monday afternoon, his tone filled me with dread.

                Oh, this does not bode well, I thought, hurrying downstairs. That’s his ‘My plans have gone askew’ voice.  I’m not going to visit Mom’s writing conference on Friday after all.

                Quite the opposite was true. I would be attending the local conference not just for one day, but for all four. Attending all the workshops, going to the Friday supper, and rubbing elbows with fellow writers all through the rest of the week…

                Unfortunately, I would be doing it all while taking the place of my mother, who would not be able to attend. Her grandma – my great-grandma, a woman in her 90s – had passed away, and my parents would be driving across state lines to go to the memorial service.

                Not the circumstances I would have picked, even though I’d wanted to go to the conference for more time.

                *sigh* Rest in peace, Great-grandma.

                Although I feel bad for my mom, who was disappointed to miss the conference on top of everything else, it has been a fantastic experience to be here, listening to information doled out by published authors, along with the furious scribbling of novice writers. Almost every conversation inevitably turns to “What do you like to write? What are your accomplishments so far?”

                While having this conversation with the woman sitting next to me on the first morning, she mentioned that she was a contributor on a blog.

“Which one?” I asked innocently, pen at the ready to jot down the url.

                “The Writer’s Alley,” she answered.

I laughed, and explained that I’d been following that blog for quite some time. And I had probably read things by her, even if none of them came immediately to mind (Angie, if you’re here checking out my blog, I’ll just say one more time that it was great to meet you in person. ^^)

The whole conference was especially interesting because I think I was one of the more ‘distinct’ attendees. Out of everyone there, I was…

·         The youngest, by far. I’m only a senior in high school, starting this fall, and I don’t think there was anyone from college present, aside from a few people who teach college.

·         One of the only fiction writers. A lot of the workshops were geared toward nonfiction, but still very informative and great for making me think more about ‘What can I publish now that will help me once I start trying to publish a book?’

·         One of the more prolific attendees. A lot of the people there (besides the speakers, of course) considered themselves novice writers, most experienced in small news articles, devotions, letters, etc. Little things in print, if anything. A few published books here and there. So I think some of them were more impressed than I deserve when I mentioned I had four or five rough drafts of novels completed, putting the emphasis on ‘rough’. XD Obviously, though, I don’t have anything published yet, so I still feel like a novice myself.

Even though I was in all these minorities, I didn’t feel out of place most of the time, even when discussions at the lunch table were about writing with kids in the house, or writing alongside your career, etc. Even though I was the youngest, the fiction writer, and (I think…) the only person crazy enough to have participated in NaNoWriMo, there was still a common bond that tied us together for the duration of the conference.

We were all writers. We are all writers. Whether it’s fantasy novels or nonfiction books, or devotionals or poetry, or lots and lots of letters, we all had the same invisible word pasted just below our nametags. One of the first things we did, just a few minutes in, was to say it out loud.

“I am a writer.”

And it felt fantastic.

You could feel the excitement growing with each revelation by the speakers. We listened to the workshops as if query letters and organizational techniques were a matter of life and death. I’m sure some of the newer writers used more notebook paper taking notes than they ever had writing a single project. And during every break, meal, and free time, we talked about writing. Our motivation bubbled over and filled the conference hall  to the brim.

During the first bathroom break, after the writing buzz had first started to kick in, I heard it. The words that perfectly expressed what we were all thinking.

“I feel saturated.”

 Perfect way to say it. What else can you expect from a roomful of writers? I heard that term over and over again. Saturated. Flooded with information, and enthusiasm, and ideas, and all the motivation that so often escapes us…

Bottom line, if you have the opportunity to go to a writers’ conference, do it. You won’t regret it, you’ll make a lot of connections with other writers (some novices, some experts), and by the end of it all, you’ll be saturated with information, and ready to pick up a pen.

Keep writing, folks.

I’ll see you when I get back from camp.

Have you been to a writer’s conference? What was your experience like?

P.S. The other cool thing was that we each had the opportunity to have consultations with some of the (published!) speakers there. I got some great suggestions for revising one of my novels, and some really positive feedback on a short story that I actually blogged about way back when I wrote it. One of them (Thank you, Shelly!) even suggested a magazine that she thought I might try to submit to. Sadly, from the looks of the website, they aren't accepting submissions and haven't been since November/December of 2010. *cries in a corner* Still, she's going to email me a list she's got of places that teens can submit to, so, yay! And I think it's a good sign that - after a little polishing - I might be ready to try and get something in a magazine or something... or something. *eyes repetition of vague words.* So yeah, anyway, that's mah sidenote/update on my writing ventures. And as you may have noticed, I figured out how to make text into links! 8D So, I'm sorry if all the blue was a little overwhelming. ;)

Revamped Pro(b)logue, Coming Soon

I have just returned from a wonderful place. A writing conference full of amazing insights by published authors, and enough creative energy to power a train made of rubber bands and old sinks.

More about that in the next (new!) post.

One of the sessions at this conference was about social media (Facebook, Twitter, and - of course - blogging). The biggest thing that I learned from that workshop was... basically... I had no idea what I was doing when I started this blog.

But now that I do have an idea of where I want to take this, there'll be some changes coming.

Exciting Things to Expect

• New posts. Yeah. Hopefully quite a few. They're gonna be here.

• Less rambling, more deliberate posts, more relevent to writing than just whatever I find interesting.
• More frequent, regularly posted posts.
• A focus on everyone on the journey toward publication. Not just me, who you don't care about. I think that my goal now is to make a place where other unpublished writers can come and feel at home, and we can all kind of work on the prologues of our writing careers... or something. Yeah. I've got to think it through some more. And of course, published authors would be welcomed to share their expertise, if they desire to do so.

 And... more things than that. Once I sit down and spend a leisurely afternoon planning things out.

Unfortunately, I leave tomorrow to spend a week at camp, away from a laptop and internet. Exactly where a recharged writer wants to be, huh? *sighs and shrugs*

So, a post about the conference might come tonight, or it might come when I get back, depending on how much I get done this evening and how much computer time I'll have before leaving tomorrow. Exciting things, readers! All six of you. XD

Another exciting thing: more participation for you!

What do you do when you want to spend time writing, but the everyday 'life' things make it impossible?

As far as my reply goes, I'll be bringing some pen and paper notebooks to camp. Somewhere between s'mores, sports, and singing around a campfire, maybe I'll get that chance to sit down and plan out the new direction for this blog.

 

 

Keep writing. You'll be hearing from me again, soon.

Impending Script Frenzy, Story Revision, and So On...

[obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section] I suck. [/obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section]
Moving on.

Revision on my novel has…slowed. Not stopped, mind you, but it has slowed. I blame manga and anime. Somehow I convinced myself that the crisis in Japan meant I should honor them by reading/watching their lovely (addictive) comics. And… Yeah.

Time I’ve spent revising has dwindled.

I start Script Frenzy (www.scriptfrenzy.org) in April. Brought to us by the lovely people who put on National Novel Writing Month every year, the goal is to write a 100-page script in thirty days. Taking formatting and everything into account, that doesn’t seem like a whole lot. Supposedly a page is equal to a minute of screen time. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot. I think I can do it. I’ve always been able to visualize my stories really well, so… writing a movie? No prob! I’ve got my idea, I’ve downloaded CeltX scriptwriting software…

I’d like to say I’ll be able to write my script and continue to revise my novel at the same time. But this is something new for me, so I really don’t know.

Plus, April looks like it’s going to be extremely busy. I take the ACTs in a little over two weeks, and prom is the weekend after that. Yes, I’m going to prom. By myself. Possibly with my sister and friends. And I’ve got all of this stuff going on that might interfere with my care-fully laid out half-baked plans.

Even when I’m actively revising, it’s a little depressing. Those ‘big changes’ I had in mind for the rewrite? So far, not so big. I feel like it’s no better this time around. I’m not changing things so drastically, which could mean that either A) the first part of my rough draft is better than I’d thought while reading through it, or B) I’m as bad at revision as I am at posting blog updates regularly.

It’s a little discouraging. I have so much I want to write. Old ideas, new ideas… But I want to get something ready to try and publish, ASAP. A girl in my class is self-publishing a book of poems and had one poem published in a legit magazine. My mom’s started looking around briefly for potential agents to send query letters to regarding a childrens’ book she wrote a few years ago.

She’s discouraged because it’s hard to know where to start.

I’m discouraged because I’m not even ready to start.

The thing about novels is that they take time. I can write something in a month, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be decent. In fact, it’s pretty much guaranteed to suck. And then you have to read through hundreds of pages, over and over again, before rewriting them and rereading those hundreds of pages, dozens of times.

After I get one book ready to go, there’s still no guarantee that it will be the book that gets published.

Should I be working on this book, or is it a waste of time?

Should I be working on a different novel instead?

Or should I seriously be studying for the ACTs?

*sigh* For now, all I can do is keep writing (and rewriting, and revising).

But while I’m doing that, I’d also love to be entering writing contests, winning cash and books for doing what I love, maybe getting published in a magazine or something if I’m lucky.

I haven’t been lucky, looking online for places to enter. If anyone knows of some legit, free-to-enter contests open to US teenagers, could you shoot me a link?

For now, I think I might try my hand at writing some Keys for Kids devotional things. I mean, twenty-five bucks to write things I’ve been hearing once a day for my entire life?! Win!



Anybody else doing Script Frenzy? Anyone know of some good writing contests/opportunities?



- Silent Pages

NaNoWriMo, Nerdfighters, and other Randomness

As I type these words, according to the NaNoWriMo countdown timer at nanowrimo.org, National Novel Writing Month will begin in one day, one hour, and thirty-seven minutes. That means that one hour and thirty-seven minutes after I post this, er, post... There will only be one day left until NaNoWriMo begins. This both excites and terrifies me (with the reason for my terror being elaborated on more fully in my last post).

I am prepared and unprepared in equal measure. A year or two ago I probably would've called myself a pantser, if I had learned the meaning of the term at that time. Now, I'd almost say that I lean more towards being a planner... I'm somewhere in the middle. Often I start with no idea what I'm writing, and then five pages later have the next three books in the series all figured out - at least in general idea form.

For this year's NaNo-Novel(s) I have my basic plan worked out. One moreso than the other. Ice Ambassadors is pretty much planned, and I'm rather excited about it, while Inherited Destiny is sort of... Half-planned. With LOTS of empty space in the middle. But hopefully I can work with that. In any case, I'm calling Inherited Destiny my SECOND novel (as opposed to my first) which means that - while I'd be extremely psyched if I COULD make the full 50,000 words on it - it won't be the end of the world if it dies mid-month. I  have a significant number of pages of world info. I have Word documents with my essential plot points (as well as pictures stolen, I mean, borrowed from DA, Google, and Getty images. I've made an image on GIMP for Ice Ambassadors, and have a half-done one for Inherited Destiny (which suck, but I'm still proud of them). I have a flash drive prepared for novel-holding (so I can work on it from any computer in my home) and I have blatantly bragged about what I'm going to be attempting to everyone around me, whether they care or not. I have also intimidated my mother (who I'll be competing against) with talk of my obvious superiority, reminding her that I've won the 1/2 pound candy bar wager every year we've done it.

However, there are still things I SHOULD be doing, which I MIGHT do tomorrow, if I have time/motivation. I should be preparing a spreadsheet to keep track of word counts, goals, and green/red surplus/missing word calculations. I should be organizing playlists so that I don't have to stop writing to switch forward to a good song. I should be reminding a classmate of mine who supposedly writes but hasn't managed to finish a single chapter that this is his opportunity to get motivated! He's less than excited.

So how did I spend the day? I finished a Nancy Drew computer game (Trail of the Twister! Can't wait to do Shadow at Water's Edge - JAPANESE STUFF FTW - but sadly, I shall have to. Just until after NaNo). I watched some of the shows that our DVR taped for me on Friday while I was at a Relient K concert (Generator Rex - Love it. Ben Ten, Ultimate Alien - Have a few problems with the plot/dialogue sometimes, but it's a'ight. Symbionic Titan - Love the story - and Lance - though it can be awkward in some places and the art's alternately amazing and... Different. Quirky). I finished a book. I'm trying to excuse this by telling myself that I'm savoring my last few bits of time wasting before two NaNo novels eat me during November.

The book I finished was The Girl Who Could Fly, by Victoria Forester. I bought it a while back, but haven't had time to read it since I've been distracted by library books. This happens a lot with things I own. Anyway, I made the decision to read books I own during November so I won't have to worry about finishing them and getting them back to the library on time. But, wouldn't ya' know it, I finished this one in two days.

Mostly attracted by the cover art, I expected it to be cute, but a little lame, and written for a much lower age group. And it was cute. And it was written for younger people. But it was SO not lame, and I think people of all ages could enjoy it. It's about a girl named Piper McCloud, who lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere, where her neighbors and family don't seem to appreciate the fact that she can fly. She's taken to a facility filled with exceptional kids like her - kids with telekinesis, and X-ray vision, and superspeed - but soon finds out that the facility isn't as wonderful as it first appears.

The writing was actually really great, filled with the kind of humor I love. The plot was amazing, and it kept me wondering even though there were a few things I did successfully predict. There are still some questions left unanswered at the end, so I'm assuming there will be a sequel sometime(?). Hope so. I'd definitely reccomend this book...

Even if Stephanie Meyer was the one quoted on the cover. XP

Let's see... NaNo, books... What else was there... Ah, yes. Nerdfighters.

The other day a friend of mine posted a link to the NaNoWriMo song.



Clicking NaNo-related videos once that AWESOME video was over (the song's been stuck in my head ever since I watched it. I've been singing it in public), I discovered the Vlog Brothers. John and Hank Green, two brothers (obviously) who send each other videos back and forth in lieu of texting each other. To quote one of them very roughly, pulling from my faulty memory, "A lot of people seem to find it funny." With good reason. These guys are so awesome.

Nerdy. Funny. Very little swearing (though some awkwardness is occasionally present. If this scares you, DO NOT watch the giraffe love video). Contains some deep content, some eco-geeking, and a whole lot of awesome. I'm currently watching their videos in reverse order.

Oh, look! Another way to put off NaNo prep!

Their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers?blend=1&ob=4#p/u
Their website: http://www.nerdfighters.com/

I recommend the "Making Adorable Music" video.

ALSO, don't tell anyone, but on nanowrimo.org my username is horse_chic11. Keep an eye on my wordcount. ;)

P.S. Counting The Girl Who Could Fly, I just realized that I own five books related to flying children. XD I should find a way to organize my bookshelf accordingly.

One day, fifty-one minutes! *squeals*

“I Don’t Suffer From Insanity...”

I enjoy every minute of it.
Except for about right now, when NaNoWriMo is (*goes to check timer on nanowrimo.org*) as I write this, four days, seven hours, three minutes away and I’m just starting to comprehend how utterly impossible it’s going to be for me to meet my goal.
Because a few months ago, I decided I wasn’t going to be satisfied with the usual 50,000 words in thirty days.
“I wrote 76,817 words last year!” I thought. “I got to 50,000 words in fifteen days… Why not try for 100,000 words?!”
Poor, poor, silly little girl.

To make matters worse, I’m not just writing a 100,000 word novel. That would be too easy. Oh, no… I’m writing TWO novels, 50,000 words each.
And I’m not just writing one 50,000 word novel and then the other one. That would be boring… I – being the egotistical young fool that I am – am going to write them simultaneously. 1,667 words in a novel one day, and then switching over to the other document and writing another 1,667 words.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
But now I’ve barely had time to breathe lately, balancing homework, play practice, family outings, etc. etc. etc. I don’t know how I’m going to survive in November. November 5 is my play, so that will be over soon, but mid-month Speech starts, and since I’m trying out for that this year… T-T

And even with all this going on… I’ve started working a little on a comic I may possibly upload online if I can find time to work on it. Yeah. That’ll probably die once NaNo starts.
I’m hoping that once National Novel Writing Month actually starts, I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the accumulation of scraps of free time I can scrounge up. But at this point, that’s just a hope.
What about you? Are you doing NaNo? Have you done it before? What are your goals for this year’s NaNoWriMo? Are you suffering from anxiety/insanity?