Create Your Own Word Notebook – Day Two November 29, 2008

There are a ton of tools out there that will get you started on your Word Notebook, so let’s not recreate the wheel.

 

The first one I want to point to is Deanna Carlyle’s site. She has a great page with 1001 Verbs already split out for you by group HERE. This will give you a good start of finding words to add to your Word Notebook later.

 

Next I’m going to ask the hard question: Do you have a thesaurus. I’m not talking the free thesaurus.com online. I mean a really good thesaurus.  If you’ve been playing along at home, you know I strongly recommend (and so does the lovely Word Strumpet) Roget’s Thesaurus. What makes Roget’s so great? It isn’t the thesaurus you had in jr. high where you look up the word alphabetically and there’s a short list of words that mean roughly the same thing.

Instead, you look up the word in the index. It gives the word and all it’s possible connotations. You choose the connotation you want. When you turn to that page, it has the list of words by parts of speech. The best part is, if that wasn’t exactly what you were looking for, it’s surrounded by similar words instead of whatever word would come next alphabetically. Most times, just toying with a couple of pages finds you the best word.

 

Your next assignment is to sit down and make a list of your favorite authors or favorite books. Check out your shelves, if they aren’t there, get to the library and grab them. I’d suggest at least 5 different authors and/or genres.

 

Yup, your homework is reading books you love. Make sure you stop at the local office supply story and pick up little page flags like this:

You’re going to need those to mark pages not only later in your Word Notebook, but in the Fav Five you’re reading.

 

I’m not telling you not to enjoy the book, but this is work – so enjoy the work. Flag pages with words, phrases, unique turns of phrases, twists in cliches/words/phrases, movements you’ve not used, expressions (facial and verbal), interesting ways of looking at things, small one-liners that show you more than a page ever could. If you can bring yourself to do it (and it isn’t a library book) highlight the thing that grabbed your attention and write in the margins why you found it so brilliant. If you can’t, then put a post-it in there with the explanation.

 

Next, rent one of your favorite movies on DVD – BUT, make sure it has a director’s commentary on it. I’ve learned more about how my characters move listening to the director’s commentary on films and how they shot things or moved their actors than I have from any craft book. It will be the best 90 mins of non-writing/non-craft book activity I can offer you. Take notes as you listen.

 

We’re going to use all these in the next section. Enjoy your homework!

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up November 28, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Week. I hope you’re using the time off from work to write and edit!

 

I had decided to post Jessica Faust’s Anatomy of a Book Deal — a blog walking us through one of her deals from query to contract. But the next day she did a Market Up Date post — so I liked to both. As always, brilliantly worth checking out.

 

I’m hoping it’s a good thing that I’m just as appalled by the queries Janet Reid has been receiving as she is…Seriously, a Table of Contents for a Novel instead of sample pages??? Check out her list HERE and then check your submission package.

 

I love letters. I wish we had more of them floating around. When I was just a little bit of a thing (Ok, in college) not everyone had daily access to the internet and email was still not a given. One of my college boyfriends lived three hours away. I never knew when I’d see him, but each week a letter would arrive. He was a horrible writer. Used words wrong, spelled things in ways even my dyslexic mind couldn’t grasp, couldn’t put a sentence together, but he sat down at least once a week to write out his thoughts that always covered at least two pages and sometimes more. Over at NineteenTeen, they’re talking about letter writing and the gift it was pre-internet.

 

Short week = short blog. What did you see this week you think we should know?

Create Your Own Word Notebook – Day One November 24, 2008

So, did you make your lists? Did you check them twice? If not, go back and use Create Your Own Word Notebook – Pre-Work to get them together.

 

Let’s start with your overused words.  I ran HealaDoc on my pre-edited manuscript and here’s a sample of my words:

The first grouping was: The, To, Her, And, You, I, She, Of, His, and He.  Obviously articles and pronouns are going to be at the top.

 

Scanning down, the first words I found that were too high on the list were: Will, Do, Are, Then, Out, Back, Were, All, Know, Up, Eyes, Been, See, Here, Like, Turn, Said, Think, Around, Down, Than, Wish, Come, Never, Behind, Only, About, Even, Go, Thought, Little, Just, Upon, Perhaps, Should, Came, Still, Tell, Look, After, Beside, Long, Must, Told, Glanced, Moment, Nodded, Pulled, Small, Looked, Some, Much, Saw, Smiled, Toward, Believe, Felt, Many, Very, Began, While, Sat, Since, Seen, These, Nothing, Watched, Most, Stood, Off, Already, Good, Open, Past, Speak, Those, Such, Moved, Thing, Called, Hear, Going, Spoke, Low, Feel, Continued, It’s, Raised, Fell, Under, sit, Truly, Finally, Any, Which, Put, Tried, Seemed, Entered, Waited, Large, Passed, Started, Went, Laughed, Closer, Above, Gently, Suddenly, Quickly, Lovely, and Probably.

 

I know what you’re thinking: WOW! That’s a long list and she has a lot of bad, overused words. Keep a couple things in mind. (1) This is off my first draft – I write long, not clean. (2) Not all these words are at the top of the list. Some are nearing the bottom, but they aren’t strong words and deserve to be looked at regardless of where they fall. This is where you want to grab your words b/c this is how you WRITE. Editing is what makes you a writer

 

If you didn’t run the adverbs list, do that also. Remember, adverbs are a clue you need to strengthen your verbs. So, even if the adverb isn’t at the top, it’s good to highlight your adverbs and search.

 

So, you have your list, get another piece of paper and make sections for: Overused Words, Weak Verbs, Weak & Overused Actions.

So, for example, a short version of my list would be:

 

Overused words: Little, Perhaps, Moment, Thought

I put words like “thought” in there because typically when I use words like thought, saw, listened, etc it’s me pulling back out of POV and I need to just drop the “He saw” at the beginning to get back in.

Weak Verbs: Went, Called, Come,

Weak & Overused Actions: Turned, Nodded, Laughed, Smiled

 

Some of the words are going to be in more than one list. I’d recommend running the process for more than one manuscript to get a good cross section of your work.

What’s on your list? Huh? Huh? Huh? 

 

PART TWO

Who did the movement homework? (If you’re reading this months after it’s posted, play along anyway!)

I did, but need to keep going. Here’s a few I thought were things I’d never used before the activity — Ok, I’ll admit, some of these are from doing it this past summer. Don’t forget, they aren’t weird or surprising movements, although you should try to find some of those also. They’re just movements you don’t remember to write into your work.

• Rubbing lower back
• Pulling earlobe
• Cracking knuckles
• Cross and uncrossing legs
• Rub eyes
• Stand with one leg propped up like the Pilates stance
• Fans money and slaps it impatiently against other hand

Those are just a few I saw. I liked the last one. You can see it and hear it and KNOW the person is probably standing in a slow moving line getting agitated and trying not to say anything.

What did you find?

 

Wednesday, we’ll work on the lists that we separated out. Be ready!

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up November 21, 2008

First off, I WON I WON I WON. I really needed to win something lately. Check out my big win at YA Edge. Is it sad I’m the best procrastinator — I mean researcher! I picked my book and sent them my address (ok, a friends address since I think I’ll be traveling) and can’t wait!

 

There’s a wonderful post on getting book blurbs over at Red Room. Why am I point you here? Am I ready to start asking for them already? Sadly, no. But, it stress the professionalism I believe a writing career needs be centered around and it’s great information for the future. The future where we’ll need book blurbs!

 

Jessica Faust has a thoughtful post on when your own agent rejects your newest work. I’ve had this happen to a friend and watched the worry, agitation and heartache it can cause. Ms. Faust gives some great points to consider.

 

The idea of auditing “my” publisher is so foreign at this point, that I found this fascinating. Imagine being so lucrative that this was relevant. Interesting article at ereads.com.

 

A fun toy this week… Bria Quinlan may be an INFP, but Luv YA blog is an ISTP. Interesting. Get your blog’s Myers Briggs HERE.

Creating a Word Notebook – The Pre-Work November 20, 2008

Because everyone’s Word Notebook would be different, they aren’t something that can magically be reproduced for everyone, but everyone can reproduce one.

 

Today, we’re going to talk about pre-work.

 

The purpose of the Word Notebook is to be your own personal thesaurus, dictionary, writing and editing tool. Just creating the book will key you into your own mistakes, bad habits and overlooked editing issues.

 

Pre-Work Step 1

Download a writing analysis software – I highly recommend Healadoc.com

Upload several of your manuscripts.

Using the overused word function run through the list. Looking at the first manuscript, keep a running list of the overused words. Be prepared to make marks next to the words of if their over used in all your documents. Keep in mind that not all overused words will be at the very top of the list and not all words at the top of the list are overused.

For example, you need to throw away the articles at that top of the list (the, a, an) Obviously, you’re going to use those a lot. There are other words that may be fairly high that you don’t want to throw away. Names for example (although, it is common to overuse names where you don’t need them.) Or if you have a family based story where the theme of ‘family’ was discussed in dialogue and narrative, perhaps the word “family” might appear more often than in other stories. 

OR, you could have a word that only appears 2 or 3 times, but it’s overused. How many times in one book do you really think you can get away with effervescence?

 

So, you’ve made your lists. Sort them by word type: noun, verb, adjective, adverb. First off, adverbs and adjectives are a big clue to strengthen your nouns and verbs. Nouns can typically be strengthened by using proper or more specific nouns. Does he drive an old truck OR a rust-red ‘51 Chevy Pickup?  The two phrases draw very different pictures. The first one draws whatever picture the reader has in their own history. The second one draws YOUR picture.

Verbs, are typically strengthened by searching for your overused verbs or verbs partnered with adverbs.

Did he run fast? Or, did he sprint, race, jog, hurtle, plow, lunge, etc?

What constitutes a weak verb? You’re going to have to decide that most of the time for yourself, but watch for those adverbs. They’re you’re first clue.

 

The purpose of the word book is to find these overused words learn what you use, find them, and repair them,
To give yourself your own resource when your feeling wordless
To stop you from having to tote a thesaurus for words you find yourself looking up all the time
To save words and phrases you love and want to remember to play with

 

Single word issues aren’t the only thing we’re going to solve – how about those pesky phrases and actions.

 

I’ll be honest, if my characters turn any more in the first draft, their going to get dizzy and toss their biscuits. Also, they shrug, nod and smile way too much. Most of the overused actions will be found through your overused verb list as well. But watch for those low numbered ones also.

 

Pre-Work Step 2:

Relearning movement. This is so important. Most people struggle with mundane movement in their writing. Give us a battle scene or a ball and we can choreograph to our hearts content, but put people in a room having a discussion, and uh-oh.

I try to give each of my characters their own standard movements. If only one character nods it isn’t going to become as overused as if we let everyone nod.  But how do we find new, interesting, telling but easy to read over motions. WATCHING.

I’m giving you permission (Ok, actually, not permission, homework) to go peep on people. Find a  place where a lot of different types and ages of people will be and you can sit and watch. Your coffee shop may not be the best place if it only caters to one type of clientele. The mall is good. Public transportation is good. The line in the grocery story. The laundromat. At the movies. Watching the person next to you at the light. Out for your walk. Wherever there are people.

 

My best suggestion: Grab a friend who doesn’t write. Offer to buy her coffee and chocolate. Give her a notebook. Tell her only that you’re collecting body motions for your writing and could she record what she sees. Ask her to jot a note if the motion made a clear impression of an attitude or emotion. WHY A NON-WRITING FRIEND? They aren’t trying to figure out how best to say it, editing themselves. They’re just catching things fast and recording them. One of mine thought it was easier to draw quick pictures. She almost made little comics. She caught things I never would have seen because I was “expressing myself.”

 

So, that’s your homework: Make your list (not in your Word Notebook, we’ll do that later) and catch motions on paper.

Just let the Word Notebook sit there looking blank and helpful. We’ll start filling it up soon.

Make Your Own Word Notebook & Other Stuff November 18, 2008

The Word Notebook is gone and It is a tragedy after slowly accumulating all the info in there for years.  But, onward and upward. It was a great tool and so I’ll be making another one. I’m challenging you to make your own along with me.

 

HERE is a description of the notebook I used.  Sometimes they aren’t easy to find. I got another one at the Blue Tulip this weekend. Any little notebook that’s divided into 4 to 5 sections should work. I bought the medium size AND the large one. Why? Because I’m never losing that darn thing again and I need the medium one to travel around with me where I’m writing. So, grab some type of divided notebook – there’s tons out there, and come back Thursday for your first step in creating your own Word Notebook along with me.

 

I’m not a huge tools person. I’m that girl who always thinks they look like a lot of fun and then try to use them and never really learn anything. Some are good checks for if I’m on track, but really, the only tools I use are my Word Notebook and Edit Cards.

 

Which brings us to the Edit Cards.

Yes, I’m still working on them. I put them aside for a little while to finish a project I need to get done. Actually, 2 projects I need to get done. One isn’t even for me, so I need to get my butt in gear and finish it.

 

AND, Finally —- I WON! I WON!  I have proven over at YA Edge that I KNOW how to procrastinate. Sela was there, she watched it happened and basically laughed her butt of at me as all the chat newbies were like, “so you’re writing about a museum? No, a nymph? No, an artist? What the heck are you writing about????” Thanks to Sela for understanding that Research Is A Drug.  And thanks to YA Edge for appreciating my lack of focus… I mean, my Insane Researching Skills!

Writing Tragedy Strikes Luv YA November 17, 2008

My Word Notebook is gone — I feel lost with out it. 

 

Kind of ironic to be starting from scratch after just doing a whole thing on it and feeling so proud of my multi-colored organizing superpower *sigh*

 

Also lost in the tragedy: Favorite blue shirt, Favorite black sweater, 2 pens and my ugly purple backpack I’ve had since I was 14 and bought because it was super-on sale and I could afford it.

 

So, if anyone started their Word Notebooks or already had one…put your favorite page in the comments! Help me rebuild my book!

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up November 14, 2008

If you write, and you’re not living under a rock, you know that November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month — Please note, “Writing” is SO important, it gets 3 letters.)

 

And so, let’s see what those outside the rock did this week.

 

OK, so took another look and it seems to be: Election, Economy, Nano…. I’ll look again.

 

OK, back. Here’s what we’ve got

 

Jessica Faust at BookEnds never disappoints. Sometimes you want to send a specific blog post to a few authors you read and shout, “Listen up, people!”  This week Ms. Faust talked about one of my pet peeves: Unlikable characters. Thank you Ms. Faust for explaining that UNLIKABLE does not equal FLAWED and visa versa.

 

On November 3rd, Jonathan Lyons blog post in its entirety read like this:

I’m not sure how I feel about this. What’s your take?

People are still commenting. I have to say, I’m surprised at the depth of emotion attached to NaNo, especially from those who don’t do it. If you don’t do it, relax. No one cares. No need to work yourself up. If it works for you, more power to you. Congrats on finding a tool that gets you moving…. What are your thoughts?

 

How can you not jump into a letter to a publisher by an 8th grad boy that starts like this:

I am of that population segment that is constantly derided as “not reading anymore,” and is therefore treated by publishing companies as a vast, mysterious demographic that’s seemingly impossible to please. Kind of like the way teenage boys think of girls.

Go Max Leone! Wonder if he’s free to beta read Markbearer…..

 

Janet Reid linked to THIS BOOK TRAILER. She mentioned it didn’t use anything flashy, just the book, and that she was going to read it.  If you don’t want to read this book after watching the trailer, I’ll be shocked. Back to Basics really worked John Reisinger.

 

Everyone knows I consider Richard Curtis and A++ source of knowledge (No. I don’t know him. I just follow him around electronically.) Check out e-reads this week. So much going on, but this is the one that grabbed me (could it be b/c I’m in query mode?): The Book Stops Here – All About Bookstore Buyers

 

And of course the Word Strumpet has some great advice for writers over HERE.

 

But don’t miss this…Last not least type of thing…. Borders interviewed Stephen King about writing short stories v novels and other great stuff.

Free Workshop November 12, 2008

No matter what you write, Joanna Bourne has a great blog. She’s truly one of my favorite writer’s who blogs. It’s a combination of hardcore, nitty-gritty writing lessons and everyday peeks into a writers life.  She’s probably sick of me linking to her, but check her out HERE.

 

So Ms. Bourne is doing a workshop with a couple of my other absolute favorite authors. If they had blogs, you’d see them here!

 

On that note, she’s one of the ladies doing a FREE (favorite word) workshop over at Romance Divas (last month’s fantasy one was awesome. I mean, seriously awesome — as someone who writes Fantasy, it was very encouraging.)

So, you should check out the Fantasy Workshop in the archives and check out the Historical Romance.

 

I know you’re scratching your head and saying… but I write something else. Not only is it not historical, it isn’t romance!  OK, let’s take a quick look at what you can learn from a historical romance writer:

• WORLDBUILDING- yeah, they’re in our world, but they have to paint it very clearly for people not overly familiar with that time period. AND (just like most genres) play within a specific set of rules — actually, probably MORE than a lot of genres
• RESEARCH – Historical readers are tough. I was a BritLit major and I can very easily get ticked off by some mistakes I feel a good researcher wouldn’t have made. All things forbid I see something a BAD researcher would have made.
• CADENCE – The Queen of Cadence (that would be Ms. Bourne) is there. Seriously, if you’ve been following me since Purple Hearts, you know I feel cadence is as important (sometimes more) as word choice at creating your character, setting them apart from other characters, insinuating cultural differences. She’s a pro.

I’m just scratching the iceberg (I’m in a mixing metaphors mood) so check them out Nov 12-14th.

Who Else Is Nano’ing November 11, 2008

Every wonder who else is out there in the NaNoWriMo world? You might be surprised.

 

Both Kelly McClymer and Jennifer Echols blogged about it this week at Simon Pulse.

 

Maureen Johnson talks about surviving Nano…I think it’s surviving Nano. In other news, seeing someone else has notes like “make this funnier” is a really uplifter!

 

Barbara Caridad Ferrer is giving a day by day of her Nanoing — Not to mention she was brave enough to say how much the site sucked the first few days. But, dude, she’s BCF, she can say whatever she wants and that’s totally ok with me… AND she was right

 

Last report, Meg Cabot was on page 0. But, once again, she’s MEG CABOT. I seriously doubt she’s still on page zero.

Mind Nap – Wake Up & Rollover November 10, 2008

What happened to the Mind Nap? I’m getting a lot of that. I’ll tell you. My mind started dreaming while I was telling it to sleep a peaceful slumber….. Yeah. No such thing.

 

I’m excited to come out of this very brief Mind Nap with the idea that sent me racing into Nano (or, at least racing to catch up since I started more than a day late) with Secret Girlfriend.

 

Yeah. I hear you. If YOU have a better title, let me know. No. Seriously. Let me know.

 

So, the run down is as such:

1 boys soccer team
2 love triangles
3 rival girls
2 rival boys
1 deceased mother
1 absentee father
1 best friend away at sleep-away camp in a dead zone
and a FLOOD COMING!!!

 Off to Nano!

NaNo Insanity November 10, 2008

This is my first time doing NaNoWrIMo. That should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me since I’ve only been writing about 2 years at this point (not including all the writing years ago before the Great Fire that robbed me of all my work and the stuff I was looking over for friends — not the point).

 

So, what is the point? Oh yes, NaNo. I’m feeling a bit woozy b/c not only did I say, “Sure! I know I just fast drafted last month, but I’ll do Nano.” I said, “And I’ll write this little Rom Com in two weeks so I have the second two weeks to polish the first 50 and ship it off to the Golden Heart.”

 

Discuss my insanity amongst yourselves here.

 

But, here’s what I’m finding: This is Fast Draft for me —> 14 days to 65K first draft, so I know I CAN do it if my Two FD’s In A Row Brain doesn’t short circuit. But the really amazing thing is my NaNo buddies. I love having those little progress bars. When I’m sitting in Tubfia (where Tubfi is available) and thinking I can’t write one more word, I go update my Nano counter and peek at my buddies. I have two who are pacing pretty much the same as I am. When I glance at them and see they’re outpacing me so far I may not catch up, I think – Look at them go! If they can do it, I should be able to, too! Jolt of NaNo energy.

 

I’m so impressed with this Buddy Page that I wish I could have one for all my writing pals year round. The camaraderie of just KNOWING they’re plugging away too supports me in a way I hadn’t expected. I mean, you talk to them (and even Twitter them now!) so I know their working their little butts off, but I typically don’t see anything from my writing friends until they hit a rough spot or their done. Not so with NaNo buddies… Watch their little bar go! Be inspired! Share the encouragement!

 

Did you join the NaNo cult?

Fine – You All Win November 7, 2008

I suppose if I Twittered this would be the tweetythingamabob or whatever, but fine. You all win.

 

Bria shall twitter.

 

Why you ask: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=bria

 

Oh, an I especially love this one: http://twitter.com/gwenhayes/statuses/986805995

 

My first online review.

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up November 7, 2008

If you found a rock you fit under this week: Obama is the USA’s next President and Michael Crichton died — You choose the order of importance to your own life. OH, and NaNoWrMo started.

 

As always, even on election week, Jessica Faust didn’t let us down and had some great posts. On Thursday she did a really fun blog about over-the-top marketing some of her clients had done. Makes those bookmarks look a little tame.

 

In the From The Mouths Of Babes category – Julie the high school intern *Yes, I said HIGH SCHOOL* gives some of the best advice from her time working with Kristen Nelson. The advice is so good – she’s getting her own “Julie Intern Tag”

 

Caren Johnson did a two post blog on Query Etiquette. Must. Read: PART One and PART Two.

 

Christine Deriso at the Crowe’s Nest walked us through a talk with a newspaper report (namely HER in her twenties)— its worth the read for the giggle as much as for the great information about Making the Media Your BFF.

 

Moonrate over at Editorial Ass did an amazing blog walking through what’s going wrong with the publishing world economy-wise. He makes it all look so simple HERE. Go meet his challenge. Buy a book this weekend. Any book.

 

Comma splices *shutter* Quick, easy, simple examples and tips on spotting and fixing them over at Writing on the Wall HERE

 

I’m avoiding politics like the plague (aside: don’t we avoid anything else, and doesn’t that saying make look more like the plague avoids politics), but over at Deep Genre, Kate Elliot (who we all know I completely cyber-stalk and would love to lock in a room with my ms, me and a unlimited tape recorder) talks about Fantasy and Politics. It’s an amazing post even if you don’t write Fantasy. She challenges the idea of ‘lazy worldbuilding’ which, hey, happens outside Fantasy too.

Twitter November 6, 2008

OK, I got offline for two hours to take a NaNo break and run some errands and what do I return to?

 

A GET BRIA ON TWITTER Campaign.  Why? I have no idea. I can’t be the only person not on Twitter and I highly doubt I’m interesting enough or funny enough to warrant it.

 

So to Twitter or Not To Twitter – that is the literarilly ripped off question.

 

 Oh, and I need a reason WHY or WHY NOT I should be Twittering beyond “TubTwitter Rocks”