Author Life ABCs - C

Happy Wednesday again, everyone! So, for your second post today, I'm back on my Author Life ABCs with the letter C. Today's topic is appropriate, I feel, because it's also Valentine's Day. We're out there spreading the love so our friends and family have an amazing day. What I want to know is what you're doing for yourself today. Let's chat about my word and the topic a bit. Ready? Hold on to your desk, and let's get going!

Today's word is:

Crossfit

/ˈkrôsˌfit/
noun - trademark
noun: CrossFit; noun: Cross Fit
A high-intensity fitness program incorporating elements from several sports and types of exercise.

Stay with me! I'm not talking about Crossfit for your body, so let's rename it to CrossCT (Cross Creative Training).

That's right, a one-hour exercise program for writers to keep our brains engaged and active. I hope y'all try this! I'm gonna! Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!

• 5 minutes of hard and fast writing only dialogue
• 10 minutes, new characters, describing scene
• 5 minutes, same characters, short world-building in a genre other than your own
• 5 minutes learning the definition of a new word by randomly flipping open the dictionary and popping your finger down
• 10 minutes, four new characters telling the reader their first impressions of one another
• 5 minutes of micro-plotting
• 5 minutes of speed editing the first dialogue you wrote
• 10 minutes of prose with no dialogue using the word you just learned
• 5 minutes of typing out a conversation with one of your characters

And you're done! That seems fun, right? Anyway, what I'm trying to get to here is that you should take terms and things you're familiar with and apply them to your writing. Have some fun. Flex your muscles!

Never stop learning how to write, market, and do. This is your career.

What do you think? You gonna give it a whirl?

I'll post my results sometime next week. Should be fun!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Friday Funday Part Four

Happy Friday, everyone! So, I used to do this awesome thing called Friday Funday. It's all about authorly word games or writing games you can play alone or with friends and family. If you'd like to check out past posts, click these links: Friday Funday, Friday Funday Part Two, Friday Funday Part Three. Keeping with the theme, I'm gonna do one today! These are all about observation to revise your work in progress. Get your brain ready, and let's get going!

Game #1 - Acting Crazy for Revisions (3+ players)
Use your phone or computer camera. Set it up so it can capture the area and hit record. Pick a scene from your work in progress, and read it aloud while the other people in the room act it out. You now have a live visual to draw description from. Pay attention to facial expressions and movements when you're revising the scene. You can also just do it for fun with a book you've read to see if other people picture it the same way you do. Costumes are optional, but fun.

Game #2 - What Happens Next? (3+ players)
Pick a scene from a book and read the first part. Players in the room act out what they think happens next. Whichever one is correct wins candy (or some other little prize). Who knows? If you're the author, you may revise the scene to make it fit what they acted out rather than what you've written. *grin*

Game #3 - Where am I? (2+ players)
Again, choose a scene (or two) and leave out any location details. Read the scene aloud, and let the other person/people guess where you might be. Have them tell you what they think the location looks like. This one can get pretty fun if you have imaginative friends.

Game #4 - Internet Meme Search (1+ players)
I find this one fun because you can do it yourself. Take a 2-4 word phrase from a book, add the words "meme" and your first name to the end, and type it in the search bar of your favorite engine. Choose image, and have fun laughing. In a group, whoever comes up with the funniest one wins a small prize.

I hope these provide you with a ton of laughs this weekend.

If you try any, come leave me a note to let me know how it goes!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Atmosphere Feels - Helping Readers Feel the Characters and Setting

Happy Friday, everyone! Holy cow, what a week, huh? It's been blazing trails here on my desk. Huge edit, schedules for bloggers, handling the radio show, and blogging every day have me so confuddled, I'm not sure whether to scratch my watch or wind my butt. But! Today, I'm all about the writing tip! I had a discussion with Teal Haviland, creator of the awesome website My Endless Endings (it's like a smashup of Facebook and Goodreads), and she suggested a post on atmosphere and feels. So, we'll be talking atmosphere and all the feels your character can get from their surroundings (and how to communicate that to the reader). Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

So, your character is on their journey, and they walk into a room. Let's do this via examples. My character will be named Teal, and she's going to her grandmother's house.

     Teal stepped into the room and plopped down on a sofa, putting her feet on the coffee table. A teapot was sitting nearby, and she snagged a cup, filling it with the hot liquid. She took a sip, and relaxed as she waited for her grandmother to come downstairs.
     After waiting for half an hour, Teal wondered what was taking Grandma so long. Something felt off. She usually made an appearance within five minutes or so, and Teal was getting worried. Carefully, she put down the cup, rose to her feet, and walked back to the foyer to look up the stairs.

Okay, there's Teal in her environment. You all know I'm not one of those writers that goes into a ton of description. However, there's a time and a place for everything. You need tension in this scene, so description and engagement of the five senses will help. Remember this post. Yeah, only this time we're talking about how the environment impacts the character's feels. If you have your Feelings Workbook, pull it out now. Let's edit!

     Teal stepped over the threshold to a dimly lit foyer. Shivers ran down her spine when she inhaled and the musky scent of the house assaulted her. Moving to the living room, she sat on the flower-print couch, wondering where the plastic cover went, and put her feet on the antique coffee table. A silver tray with a porcelain teapot and cups was nearby, and she tossed a sugar cube in one of the cups before pouring over the liquid. She took a sip, wrinkling her nose at the bitterness of the drink, being careful not to burn her tongue, and sat back as her eyes scanned the room and she waited for her grandmother to come downstairs.
     Time ticked by, increasing the unease Teal felt when she entered. Where was Grandma? She always arrived within five minutes to spread the latest gossip from the other blue-haired ladies in the neighborhood.
     Teal's shoes clicked on the floor when she put her feet down. In the absolute still, it was like a gunshot. She winced, carefully put down the cup, and removed her shoes. Holding the slingbacks by their straps, she rose and tip-toed back to the foyer. Her heart pounded in her chest and echoed in her ears.
     One of the floorboards in the ancient wood creaked, and she paused, ticking back her ears. Dread slammed into her, and she let her gaze float up the stairs, tracking the fresh boot prints on the beige carpet.

In the first passage, you understand something's not quite right at Grandma's house. In the second, you feel like it's something sinister. Smell, sight, sounds, touch, and taste are all engaged.

Why? What's the difference?

In the first passage, there's little to no description of the environment or how it's impacting the character. If the surroundings don't have a feeling, your reader won't feel. Sure, you can tell them, but they want to feel it, too. You have to show in this case. If you noticed, from the content of passage two, we're now aware plastic is missing, the lights are dim, the tea is hot, it's too quiet in the house, and there are fresh boot prints on the carpet.

What do you think Teal will find based on the first passage? How about the second?

What do you feel when you read each one?

We can bring a lot out by describing the atmosphere of the character's environment, and it'll translate to the reader. I do ask that you use this tactic sparingly. Pages and pages of description will bog your reader (and your story) down.

Now you try it. Start with a passive scene, and make it an active scene.

Let's see your results. Don't be scared to share!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Creating Feelings Workbooks

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! It's writing tip day, and I've got some great exercises that'll keep you on the edge of your seat, and they'll keep you writing; that's the most important thing. If you've read my post titled "Indescribable, and Why it Cannot Work for a Writer," you'll be one step into this process already. So, grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Have you ever been in a rut? One of the ones that have you pulling your hair out and wishing you could meet that deadline with great words instead of mediocre ones you slapped on the page out of haste?

Sometimes, all you need is a little muse push. This exercise can help you frame your writing for drawing on later.

What the heck do I mean?

Stay with me.

If you're feeling something, anything, that's a great place for any novel to grow. Even if you're overwhelmed by the size and pressure of the task ahead.

Here's what I want you to do:

• Open a new document
• Center your cursor at the top
• Think about how you're feeling in the moment
• Type that word in
• Hit enter
• Left flush your cursor and use a cliche (angry = mad as a mashed cat)
• Now hit enter again
• Highlight those two lines (the one with the cliche and the blank one) and click numbered list
• Create more than twenty-five sentences that tell how angry feels
• Save the document as: Feelings_YourEmotionHere so you can find it when you need it later

I know what you're thinking. Twenty-five, Jo? Twenty-frikkin-five! You must be smoking crack.

But I'm not. Plus, I asked for more than twenty-five. *grin* If you stick with it, expand upon your few word descriptions to great phrases. I'll get to when and where this will come in handy in a few minutes. I think it goes without saying that I don't want you to worry about being grammatically correct. Just let it flow.

Let me go with depressed as an example.

1. Empty nest
2. Wrapped in a shroud
3. In a dark place
4. If the world explodes, I'll be one lucky bastard
5. Rocks in my stomach
6. Lead weights on my shoulders
7. Fog obscuring my every thought
8. Windows blackened so I can't see daylight
9. As though a bat has wrapped me in leathery wings, stealing my breath
10. Tiny and insignificant
11. If I weren't around, no one would notice or care
12. Numb all over
13. Brain in a cloud that prevents me from thinking happy thoughts, as though I'll never find joy again
14. Everyone is out to get me because I'm like the buzzing fly puking my acid on their food so I can slurp it up in my misery of short life
15. Desire to step out of my mortal shell and walk where I might get a glimpse of the light my heart craves but has been denied for so long
16. Scum on the top of a pond that only exists to be feasted on by parasitic insects determined to suck every ounce of nourishment out of me to feed themselves
17. Hands shaking, brain racing, heart dead and unfeeling
18. Life sucked out of me through a hole in my heart made, ripped, and gaping because of the cruelty of the people in my life
19. A dark cloak descending from the sky, fluttering down delicately, inviting me in, promising me warmth and safety, only to choke me when I accepted its black embrace that siphoned the will to live
20. Blank stares filled with thoughts of everything lost throughout the years is all my mind can focus on
21. Tingles rushing through my fingers, up my arms, twining around my heart as they beg me to let go of my own soul; to free my spirit so it can glide away through the ether, leaving me in peaceful nothingness
22. Weight pressing down on me, and a twenty-ton monkey on my back who insists on dragging me the wrong way--away from the success, happiness, and assurance I crave
23. Back cramps that slowly make their way around my ribs, creating pressure on my abdomen I can't release, suffocating me as my breath is stolen and my lung capacity closing down inch by inch
24. Heat in my head threatening to burst forth from my eyes in the form of tears I'm convinced will be crimson if allowed to flow
25. No desire to move, breathe, or think as my senses shut down, one by one, leaving me bereft
26. Every reflection of myself making me want to lash out at the person on the other side, because I know she's worth nothing

You don't have to stop there. Keep going until you can't. This is just to show you it can be done. It only took me about twenty minutes, so it's not a terribly time-consuming exercise. Yeah, I'm feeling a little depressed right now. Why? Because I had to step into it to make it come out. What I'm asking you to do is write about it when you're feeling it. You can probably see the progression above, yeah?

Now, I bet you're wondering how this can help you in your writing, huh?

This is the awesome part. If you ever need a way to describe how a depressed character is feeling, you just created more than twenty-five descriptions of depression you can copy and paste into your manuscript. Never just say your character was feeling depressed. Use what you know to bring that feeling to life on the page for your reader.

It can also help you by becoming an outlet, like a journal, where you know you can write stuff down honestly. If you get it out, it'll help you deal with those feelings in a positive manner.

Don't just write about being sad, depressed, or overwhelmed. Be sure you're sitting down to fill out pages for happiness, excitement, or curiosity. You need everything in your writing arsenal.

What do you think? Do you use methods like this to help your writing? Tell me, and other readers, how you do it and how it helps!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Writing Exercise - Word Fun

Happy Hump-Day, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm gonna give you a writing exercise. Don't worry, it'll be fun. This is to expand your writerly vocabulary and get you thinking about the words you use on the page to craft your prose. So, grab those pens and printers and let's get going!

Start by printing out the four pages linked to below.

We're gonna use some common cliches for this exercise:
Babe in the woods.
The whole ball of wax.
By the book.
Same old song and dance.

Got those? No? Well, print them. I made them just for you!

Now, take a look at what you have in front of you. Try coming up with alternate endings so your cliches aren't. Step outside the box. Think harder. Fill out column A.

Remember to be engaging, outrageous, and contradictory when filling out columns B and C.

When you're done, fill out the bottom.

I'd be willing to bet you can do it in less than fifteen minutes.

Can't come up with that many? Try using MS Word's synonym tool.

• Open MS Word.
• Type in woods.
• Right click.
• Go to synonyms and see what you have.
• Write them all down on your blanks.
• Choose another word you came up with and do that one, too!

Make your own sheets and do this exercise often. You can find a list of common cliches easily if you do a Google search.

What do you think? Was today fun?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo