Category Archives: Nancy Greene

Okay, before you can go to the conventions and use your elevator pitch like we talked about last month, you have to write the story. This month we’re going to focus on the craft aspect of writing. Because it’s February, and for some reason this month bring about images of mostly naked babies holding bows. we’re going to focus on relationships. Don’t groan – we aren’t going to spend the entire month talking romance, although it will be a topic this month.

Think about the stories you love. What made you love it? Not the plot. Not even the special effects. It’s the characters and their journey that takes a story from like to love. Some of the all time most loved stories include Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte’s Web, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Action adventure movies can be loved, but it seems to me that only happens when there’s something extraordinary about the character dynamics. Well loved stories, regardless of genre, all have one thing in common – characters that stay with us long after we close the book.

I’m going to use one of my favorite books – The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle – as an example of what I mean. Each of the characters, even the unicorn, is flawed. Schmendrick the Magician (and I didn’t have to look up how to spell his name even though my spelling is atrocious) can’t actually work magic. He’s the incompetent fool, the disappointment and the failure. He can’t touch the unicorn. He joins her quest to benefit himself, not because it’s the right thing to do. Yet, he still finds the strength to get up each morning and try to be a true magician. Molly Grue lives with bandits. She’s brash and a bit crude. Yet, her heart is pure enough to see a unicorn. King Haggard has everything, but can’t feel joy or love. The unicorn is immortal, but she doesn’t know love or regret. A misfired (or not) spell robs her of her immortality. Over the course of the story all four of these character (and Prince Lir) confront who they are. All are searching for something more than themselves. All but one changes.

Why is this one of my favorite books? Because of the depth and beauty of the characters and their interactions. Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place is also on my most favored books list for the same reason. I wanted the good guys to win. I wanted the bad guy to get his comeuppance.

How did Peter Beagle and all those other writers create such memorable characters?

Well, that’s what we’re talking about this month.

This month we’ll look at creating a complete characters, the “good” bad guy, and believable character interactions. We’ll spend some time on Romance in deference to St. Valentine’s holiday. But also platonic relationships between the characters and conflict in general. Please check out posts over the month, and remember it’s not too late to get that box of chocolates.

Novel Rewriting Workshop and Other Dave Wolverton Semimars

January 29, 2013

Nancy

Conventions First Drafts Giveaways Nancy Greene Rewriting Superstars Writing Seminars The Writing Life 5 Comments

Did you every have one of those stories that you know “missed it by that much”? I did. While there were some obvious fixes I knew I needed (like beefing up my descriptions), there was a fundamental flaw in the story that I couldn’t get my hands around. The story was sick and needed help. So, I took my baby to a professional.

Let me back up for a second, the story I’m talking about is my trunk novel. I’ve been picking at it for far too long. The first draft was well over 300,000 words. I know. I know. So, I broke it into three books. The problem was that the first book’s story arc was high on the Character quotient of Orson Scott Card’s MICE scale. For those who don’t know, I’m going to vastly oversimplify this. Card broke stories down to four archetypes – Milieu (setting), Issue, Character, and Event. A character story is mostly concerned with the character’s internal journey. So, the book ended when my main character transitioned from spoiled, self-centered twit to taking responsibility for the greater community, and before the promised big battle. A lot of the comments I received was that “nothing happened” in the story. So, books one and two became book 1. But I still had what I called a “pacing” problem. I didn’t know how to fix it. Hence, the trip to the book doctor.

The book doctor of choice and the stated course of therapy? David Farland’s Novel Rewriting Seminar. Dave is a New York Times Bestselling writer who has been translated into many languages and trained a number of #1 New York Times bestsellers, like Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, and Stephenie Meyer. His latest novel, NIGHTINGALE, has won eight awards. So, the ability to hear him speak, much less take a class from him, is an amazing opportunity.

This seminar focuses on editing. In order to attend, you have to submit a sample to Dave and be accepted. You’re committing to a lot of homework, both before and during the workshop. We had a reading list which ensured all participants were starting with the same base knowledge.

All participants send in the first 100 pages and a synopsis of their stories. Part of the pre-seminar homework is to read the first 20 pages and synopsis of the other workshop stories. Getting to read and critique other stories, when you do so honestly, is a learning experience. What do I mean by “critiquing honestly”? I mean not cutting down a story just to cut it down. Your plan should always be to help the writer improve the story. realizing that your comments are just your opinion and you’re not any smarter or better than any other writer. Use critiquing as a way to help someone, but also as a means of seeing what you are doing that might be hurting your own writing.

The work doesn’t end when you get to the workshop. This isn’t a seminar where you can sit back and zone out. Each day, we went over two or more of the workshop stories, discussed story structure and elements, and were given homework that applied the topics discussed. We each left with 10 other perspectives on our story. Another fabulous excercise we did was disecting the story-telling elements in The Hunger Games movie. Many of the workshop participants would go out to lunch or dinner together. We built a community there.

Each participant meets with Dave to go over his comments on the first 100 pages of your novel. I have to say the time spent with Dave was worth far more than the price of admission. Not only is he a genuinely wonderful person, but he has so much insight and experience over the entire entertainment industry. I could have spent hours talking to him about everything from game design to movie making to publishing, and barely dipped my toes in the well of information and experience that he has. Dave pointed out some of the things I knew needed work – my descriptions of places and people were thin. But he also articulated the bigger problem I was having, and a way to address it.

What was the best thing about the workshop? That’s a hard question. The people I met there are wonderful. The knowledge I gained was invaluable. But, I have to say the best thing about the workshop was leaving knowing what I had to do, and that I could accomplish it.

Dave has a workshop for whereever you are in your writing career. He has a host of new writing classes scheduled for 2013 available at www.davidfarland.com/writing workshops. These range from his new Short Fiction Master’s Class, to his Million-Dollar Outlines, Novel Revision class, and Fiction Mastery Class. While there is some overlap between the seminars, each focuses on a different aspect of the craft of writing. I can’t wait to attend some of the other ones.

As if the workshops weren’t cool enough, if you go to to any of his workshops and mention that “I heard about it through the Fictorians,” Dave will buy you a free dinner with him (if time allows), or he’ll give you $20.

If you have the choice between dinner with Dave or $20, take the dinner. Every time.

So please check out his workshops here.

Finding the Right Writing Seminar for You.

January 9, 2013

Nancy

Conventions Nancy Greene The Writing Life 6 Comments

Deciding what writing seminar to go to is a daunting task. If you Google or Bing search “writing seminars fiction” or “writing conferences fiction” you’ll get well over million hits between the two. For simplicity I’m going to use the terms seminar, conference and convention interchangeably. Even when you factor in duplicate or out of date entries and wrong responses, there are thousands of writing conventions you could attend on a local, state, national or international level every year. Add to the vast array of choices the necessary limitations of time and money, and you’re faced with a conundrum. Whether you are only attending one or five conventions that year, you still need to winnow down your choices to the “best” convention.

Since all of us here at Fictorians are setting up our convention schedules, we thought we’d address this very important topic. All month we’re going to be featuring posts on particular convention to help you make the “right” decision. There are many factors that make a convention “right” for you. A lot of it, though, comes down to what your goals are.

So, here are some of the factors I take into account when I’m planning out my conference attendance for the year.

1. Time, Money and the Intangible Costs. All conventions are trade-offs. Most of us have families we leave when we attend a convention. Non-writing jobs limit our available time. Limited funds may dictate that certain conventions are out of reach, for now. Even when writing is your full time jobs, the time at the convention takes hours away from your ability to write. Recognizing the trade-offs will give you one measure of whether the cost of attending the convention is more than you are willing to pay.

I’m a mommy, writer, and lawyer. When I make decisions about most courses of action, I balance the time away from my family, and work with the benefit of the proposed action. Would I love to attend a seminar a month? Yes. Is it feasible? Heck no. Remember, we all have multiple demands on our time and attention. Don’t (knowingly or unknowingly) sacrifice more than you are willing in one area of your life for another.

2. Take into account the convention’s focus and your needs. Each convention has its own personality, and focus. Some conventions are skills-based, some are industry-based and some are fan-based. My first seminar was skills-based. At the time I had a mess of a manuscript, but at least it was finished. The focus of the convention was how show lawyers how they too could be the next Gresham and write legal thrillers. While I was writing fantasy, the basic skills being taught applied to every type of writing. Other seminars focus on the networking opportunities, while still others focus on the costumes and pageantry of a fan convention.

Assess where you are in your career and what you want to get from the convention. For fun, there are some great conventions. A word of caution though, keep in mind if you are attending as a fan, you may not watch to pitch your dream editor while you are wearing a superhero outfit.

If you are starting out your writing career, my suggestion would be to focus on the general skills-based seminars for your first conference. As your writing skills increase, there are seminars that focus on particular elements of the writing process like outlining, editing and pitching your story to agents and editors. Seminars like Superstars will also give you a lot of insight as to how the industry works and what it means to be a professional writer.

When you have a work looking for a home, you’ll want to focus on conventions that will give you the opportunity to meet agents, editors and publishers. At this point, you make also want to go to some of the genre specific conventions like Romance Writers of America, World Fantasy Convention, ThrillerFest and the like.

3. Who else is going? Pay attention to the speakers and attendees, if the list is available. Attending with friends is a good safety net. Having people to be with can help bolster your confidence. A friend can prod you to go back and talk to that editor who’s looking for the same type of stories you write. Just remember not to pack up to the exclusion of new connections.

More importantly, if your dream agent is on a panel or attending at a particular conference, that conference is one that should be high on your list. This is where doing your homework before the conference comes in. Research the convention speakers. Find out if they write, edit or publish in your genre. Knowing who is speaking may help you winnow down your choices.

4. Is the Content Useful? Know what sessions will be offered, and if they sound helpful to your furthering your writing career.

There’s a caveat here. For the World Fantasy Convention and several other genre specific seminars, you will often need to sign up months, if not a year, before the sessions are announced. The keynote speaker and often some of the other speakers or award recipients are often announced when the registration process starts. While this might be all right for the premiere genre seminars like WFC or ThrillerFest, since if you’ll want to attend them if you write in those genres, but try to avoid signing up for a conference when you don’t know what will be presented. It might be that that fine sounding seminar actually isn’t what you needed when you learn the details.

5. Ask. If you’re reading this blog, you’ve already taken a positive step. You’re connecting with others in the industry. If you know Jane went to WorldCon, but Pete went to World Fantasy and you’re trying to decide between the two, ask Jane and Pete about their experiences. Contrary to the stereotype, writers tend to be a fairly gregarious bunch when we’re not at the keyboard. We’re happy to share insights and swap war stories. Asking people who have been what they liked or didn’t like and whether the seminar was useful is a great way to narrow the options to a manageable grouping.

6. Have Faith. Even after you’ve winnowed down the list by doing the above, you’re likely to have more choices than you can realistically attend. At that point, take a deep breath and pick the one that appeals most to you. With the right mindset, every convention can be a great one for you. And, you can always attend a different convention next year.

A final word on this subject: regardless of what type of convention you choose, you MUST network. The friendships you make are priceless.

And the character ran away with the story (or, my story wandered off track). . .

December 28, 2012

Nancy

Craft & Skills First Drafts Nancy Greene Rewriting The Writing Life 5 Comments

Hey diddle diddle

the cat and the fiddle

the cow jumped over the moon

the little dog laughed to see such a sport and

the dish ran away with the spoon

Okay, it’s all fun and games when the dish runs away with the spoon, but not so much when it’s your character who’s running off with your story. Or at least what you thought was your story.

As a discovery writer, I tend to have my stories overtaken by events. I’ve had a character yell at me that while he could be a cold blooded killer, there was no way he was going to kill that girl for that reason. When he refused, it changed everything. I have to say he was right when I looked at it, but still, what do you do?

Moments like that when my characters talk to me, heck, when they rebel are part of the reason I’m a discovery writer. For the most part, I let them take me for the ride and then see what I ended up with in editing. But sometimes the tangent the characters want to travel down isn’t one they should. Or, as often happens to me, my short story becomes a novella, becomes a novel, becomes a trilogy. Sigh. I’m in the middle of that now with New Bohemia: Just One Night. When I started that story, it was a short that kept interrupting my ability to work on a novel. So, I figured what the heck, I’ll write the short and get it out of my system. That was months ago. At 60,000 words, the story isn’t so short anymore because I decided I needed to kill off my main character’s parents in a way she’s going to feel responsible for the deaths. The story didn’t derail so much as I added a twist to make my characters’ break-up make sense.

As I see it, the trick is knowing when the diversion adds to or deepens the story and when it doesn’t. If in Chapter 12, Rafe is suppose to have a have a fight with the love of his life and the relationship is supposed to look like it’s over, but, instead, if Rafe decides to go hunting with the guys and finds a magic sword that happens to be Excalibur, you might have a problem or, at least, be writing a different story than you thought you were.

If you’re an outliner, you probably know almost immediately when your characters stray and can assess whether in the overall plot arc if the diversion is a complication that should stay or navel gazing that needs to be cut. It’s a bit harder for us discovery writers. After all, we often don’t know where the story is going. (Yes, I acknowledge that this is the way to madness for some.) It could be that the first 100 pages is wrong and not the “diversion”. Been there, done that and it stinks.

So, you have a couple of choices when the characters try to run the show.

1. Go with it. Since the characters are only the writer’s unconscious mind, they might be on to something.

2. Assess the detour and see if it’s a path the story should travel. If not, stop or see #5 below.

3. If it’s a main character mutiny, write it and worry about whether it works in rewrite. This is often what I do.

4. If it’s a minor character, cut, paste and save the “new” story for a sequel or related story.

5. Cut, paste and save in another document, and keep on your plan or outline.

Sometimes when your characters decide to turn left instead of right, you discover wonders. Sometimes it results in the never ending story. The latter isn’t good. You must finish the story. Any story. Every story.

Remember, you need to choose what’s important for your story. If the track your character wanders onto doesn’t advance the story you want to tell, stop, hold a character intervention and get back to the plot line you want. If the path through the forest isn’t well defined, don’t be afraid to leave it and smell the flowers along the way. Just watch out for the big bad wolf, and Hades.