That's what friends are for

Originally posted on 11/29/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.



I thought I’d use this article to explain what I’m thankful for. After all, it is Thanksgiving weekend, the time of year where we pause and think on our blessings and good fortune.

There are a lot of things I could write at length about. My family, friends, work, house, pets and even the material things I enjoy. I could go on about faith and various religious terms, but this blog isn’t really for any of those things.

This is a writer’s blog and on it I’d like to mention my gratitude to other writers and readers. See, while we as writers have imagination and the means to use that imagination to create, we need others to create for.

Sure, you could write for yourself and many do. This site, however, is for people trying to perfect the writing craft. To improve on your writing, you need someone outside your head to read your stuff and call BS on it. Someone who will see the good for good and the bad for bad.

I’m so very grateful for them. Some of these people are reading this right now (Michelle and Kim, I’m looking at you!) while others have no clue I’m put this article up.

From Jeff, the 6th grade teacher who agreed to check out my rough draft (feel sorry for him) all the way to Rick at work who is reading my 2nd book, every one of you have shaped my novels and ideas into something better. I’m grateful to all of you. It was hard to listen sometimes, but it has always been worth it.

I’m also grateful for this site. Writing my articles here has given me the opportunity to force my butt down and write. They say you learn by teaching and that has certainly been true for me.

Thanks guys, and keep on writing!

--
A little addendum from 11/26/10
As you readers know, I originally wrote this article two years ago for a writing blog.
My gratitude to my past beta readers still hold true. I'd like to add to the list. I'm grateful to Cheri for forming the Tooele division of the League of Utah Writers and to the various members for their support. I'm also grateful to Mr Kelly and Bryant for letting me speak in their classes and to Jennifer, the best editor in the world, for showing me the light.

As always, I'm grateful to my children and my wife. Her support is the light in my soul, without it I could not function.
Beyond all that, I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the talent to write.

I Wanna Talk About Me

Originally posted on 10/18/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.


Ever have a chance to talk to others about your books? It seems us authors can’t get enough of that. We simply won’t shut up. Well, I guess I’m glossing over the legions of people who might feel differently. I’m sorry if you’re one of them. It’s just that I haven’t met any of you.

I have, however, met many writers who, once they get started, can’t stop themselves when describing this great scene or that cool new character. They were wrestling with a dilemma in their story and something clicked. My family, friends , beta readers and critique partners would testify of how they labored over my constant jawing about Annabelle.

I’ve labored to control myself here and only pepper my articles with my novel info. I’ll continue to do so. The reason I’m going on about this is one simple fact. We like to share our worlds, concepts and ideas with everyone. Why else would we try to be published?

Ok, this being said, have any of you thought of taking this desire to the next level? Sure, it’s easy to babble on to one or two people in person about your stories, but have you ever tried a group?

I’m talking about speaking engagements. Yes. Scheduling a time and place to stand up in front of several eyes and speak about writing, your journey as a writer and yes, your book. Not rambling on at your long suffering spouse about how character A can’t get to place B without item C and it’s driving you insane. I mean calling up a book store, library or school and scheduling a time to stand before others and share with them.

Several of you live in a different universe than me. Many of you are published and attend speaking engagements on a regular occasion. Maybe next weekend you’ll be at the Lone Pine Mall, signing copies of your book. If so, all the power to you and I long for those days.

Speaking as a first time author with no agent or publisher, I can still attest to the power of public speaking. I’ve had the privilege to speak in front of two 6th grade classes and two 8th grade classes. Last Friday I spoke to my daughter’s 8th grade history class.

Was I scared? Of course! A small sea of eyes looked up at me, expecting knowledge mixed with mild entertainment. I don’t like being under the spot light. My daughter laughed later and told me how nervous I looked. She would know. She sees me all the time and knew I seemed a little tense. I didn’t let the others onto it, though. I focused on a select few faces and continued on. Sure, I could’ve done it better, but they did like it.

The teacher had a Smart Board. I knew this ahead of time so I brought various images of my characters and the historical settings. I explained the story and main characters and then sat down and read a few pages. I wrapped it up with questions from the audience. It was an afternoon class so the kids were awake and full of questions.

Sure, I got the “when will it be published” question and had to explain how it’s in the editing stages but I hope to get it out there in a couple years. Sure, some were disappointed, but they did enjoy the presentation and I could tell by their eyes they wanted more. If I never get published, at least I inspired future writers today.

You can inspire others to write, or just get them excited about your book. We newbies can use all the well wishes we can get. Have a teacher read your book in class. It’s possible. It happened to me. Sure, you can’t put their positive feedback in a query letter, but it’ll lift you up during the down times and show others that writing can be fun and productive. They learn that if they might just reach those dreams.

Turn The Beat Around

Originally posted on 10/4/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.



This last week and a half I’ve found myself caught up in my day job. I’m a CAD drafter and our company has been under a dreaded deadline. With last minute changes and tiring efforts, my brain has turned to mush.

Now as a budding writer, I know my time is precious. When I have a few moments to myself I should write. The problem is that I feel too exhausted to think let alone let the muse play.

Up to this point my articles have tried to give encouragement and next time I plan to do the same. This week, however, I’d like to turn the tables a bit.

I know those of you reading this have experienced times like this. What have you done to push away the brain-dead exhaustion and put pen to paper? What methods have you employed to get your butt into the chair and write something instead of troll Twitter?

Discuss.

Workin’ It Out

Originally posted on 9/20/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.


The other day I found myself alone on my day off. This is very rare in the Roberts household, I can assure you. We have in our home seven pets. We’ve got three dogs, three cats and one quiet rabbit. I decided that a morning alone was the perfect time to clean the rabbit’s cage.


Now to properly do this task, I needed to tie the bunny to the fence so she didn’t escape into unknown dangers abroad. Then I would take the cage to the curb to hose and scrub it clean. Yes, it was a vile job but the underlings (children) were at school.

The challenge wasn’t the hosing process. No, the true challenge of that morning had nothing to do with Hazel’s abode. We recently added to our six pets. We gained a new, annoying, puppy (hence the count of seven animals).Yes, we’re outnumbered.

While the other animals have enough knowledge to stay out of the street in most situations, Lily the pup didn’t. So while I lean over the curb, washing the cage, she wanted to run pass me into the street.

I couldn’t have that so I had to put her on the dog-run. Now I should mention that the difference between a relaxed adult rabbit and a nervous puppy is that one is content to party in the family garden near the fence (whoops!) while the other makes more ear-splitting noise than a cat in a washing machine.

The cleaning process isn’t very long. She would remain tied for perhaps ten minutes. If you happened to be strolling up my street at that moment, you would have sworn I was beating the puppy within an inch of her life. She whined and tugged at the strap with desperation.

If she could’ve understood that at after a short ten minutes she’d be frolicking in the house, terrorizing the cats or chewing on something important, she wouldn’t whine. It should be noted that when it comes to waiting for things, there is a strange chrono- spatial warp present. If you are the one waiting, ten minutes becomes an hour. This warp elongates with time. If you’re a writer waiting on that expected rejection letter, it could take years (months).

We whine too. I’m a big whiner. Ask my friends and family. They have stood by me during this whole writing dream and they’ve suffered with my frustrations. I’m tied to a fence, waiting (i.e. editing, revising, submitting and then start all over after enough ample servings of rejection). One day I’ll be chasing cats in the air-conditioned living room (published). Sure, it wont be Heaven. Everything I read informs me of all the challenges a published author goes through, but where I sit it would be better than wondering if I’ll ever get there.

Instead of whining about rejections and further revisions, wondering if we’ll ever be published, we could work on other books, send more queries, revise yet again and improve our web platforms.

If we could look at our situation from an outsider’s point of view from the future, we might learn that yes, we did get that agent and publishing contract. Unfortunately we can’t. We have to struggle and learn the hard way. And by doing that, we learn the things we need for that future time. Patience and faith. They’re hard to comprehend sometimes, but it’s worth it.

Go The Distance

Originally posted on 9/6/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.


Whoops.

It appears I posted my article a week early. Ah well. This gives me the chance to pen a quick letter of encouragement.


Dear Frustrated Author;

I understand you’ve had it rough. Word has filtered to me that you’re ready to throw in the towel.

I realize you’re tired of finding mistakes in your manuscript that previously were invisible. That you can’t believe the betas and the critique group members found something so obvious while you overlooked it for the last seventeen read throughs.

And then there were those constant rejections. You wonder if there is a single lit agent in the world who hasn’t passed on your masterpiece. It’s so easy for them, huh? You pour your life blood into this work and they don’t have the decency to look at it. Or maybe they did ask for pages and now you know they saw the glaring errors your betas pointed out. Ouch!



I need you to realize something. These problems are normal, they will happen again and even get replaced with other challenges. I don’t need to tell you that this is life.

What I do want you to do is think back. Remember when you got the notion for this book? Remember why you wanted to be a writer? Think on that. Remember the positive things your betas and critique group members said? It wasn’t all bad, was it?

Why would you build a wooden rocking horse for a child? Because you love her and want to see her smile and laugh. There is an end result you’re looking for. So you begin and work every day on it. Tiny slivers cut into your hands and you wince with pain (the smallest cuts seem to hurt the most). Do you quit?


How about when that child comes over on Saturday and asks, “Is my horsey almost done, Uncle Author?” What do you say?

You suck the tiny sliver spots on your hands and get back to work. You persevere. At some point you’re finished and she laughs and smiles and rocks the heck out of that beautiful rocking horse.

My point? When were down, we don’t know the future, keep at it. There is a certain period of time between painful creation and happy finished work. When I say “finished” I don’t mean rough draft stage or 5th revision, I mean the end of the road. For you and I that means published.

The gap between start and true finished is a long one involving many pratfalls. We have to remember our goals, reevaluate our plans and jump back into the work. Everyone has a reason to write. Focus on your end destination (like the happy child in my example) and push to that goal.

You’ve made it this far, why stop now?

More classic Charge of the Write Brigade articles

Hey guys,

Like always, I'm behind in my postings.

I'm going to schedule the rest of my articles from the Charge of the Write Brigade. http://writebrigade.blogspot.com/

Hopefully you'll like them.

Don’t you forget about me

Originally posted on 8/30/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.


Stephenie Meyer woke up after a strange dream about a love struck vampire and a mortal girl in a meadow. She quickly wrote down the dream as best as she could remember. JK Rowling pictured her main character while riding a commuter train and took no time to jot the ideas and concepts down on any paper she could find.

Like them or not, you can’t deny the impact both authors have had on the industry. If either one blew off their flashes of idea, where would their fans be now? Both introduced people to the world of books during an age of TV, video games and other visual forms of entertainment.

Writers have a gift. We have the talent for seeing interesting characters, places and situations where others see only what’s in front of them. Last time I wrote about the effect of music on inspiration but today I’d like to focus on what you should do once that inspiration strikes.

Ideas come from everywhere. A quiet campsite, a bubbling brook, a crowded city, the view from a plane window, a vivid dream, or even other’s creations can all bring ideas. We watch a show or read a book and a thought strikes us: “That’s all well and good but what if…”

If and when these ideas strike there is one thing and only one thing you should do. As quick as possible, before anything or anyone stops you, write it down and keep it. I don’t care if you prefer to write long hand on paper, napkins, flesh or toilet paper. I don’t care if you choose to keep folders of scribbles that only you or a team of trained code breakers could understand. I don’t care if you prefer to keep electronic files full of notes. All that matters is that you write down, record or even video any idea for later.

I personally like a loose outline. Many don’t. In fact the writers’ website known as Absolute Write has that very question in their members profile info. Outline or no outline? Ultimately it matters not as long as you have a system that works.

Here is my system:

1) Idea pops into my head.

2) I use whatever is available to write it down (if nothing is available, I keep the idea in the back of my head until I get something to write it down).

3) Once home I transfer the idea into my notes, i.e. my “Who’s Who” or “Timeline”. Save file.

4) Refer back to notes when I reach that character or scene.

Simple, no?










Let me explain the “Who’s Who” and “Timeline”.

For me, the term “Who’s Who” comes from DC Comics. Back in the ‘80s they published their “Who’s Who” over a twelve month period. Each issue featured their various characters. There was information on their full names, birth dates, death dates, eye & hair color, height & weight, history, powers & abilities and anything else that mattered. Marvel comics did the same thing but called it The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.


In my Annabelle’s Who’s Who, I don’t go into all that detail unless that stuff is worked out. I do include any information that is important to my stories. This might be their history, motivations, relationships or passions. When an idea for a new character or changes to an existing character strikes me I open the file and put it in.


My Timeline is a list of every major event in the lives of Annabelle and Roland from 1687 AD to the current time.

I’m writing a YA historical vampire fantasy fiction series. One of the reasons I placed Ann’s origins three-hundred years in the past was to have fun with history. As far as I can tell, every vampire story begins with a human from now-a-days meeting a vampire. The vamp isn’t the MC because we can’t relate with someone who lived forever. I beg to differ. Sure, I could be wrong but why not go with the dream?

So instead of beginning now and have my vamps say “Remember when the Salem jail was packed with dirty innocent people and we had to rescue that real witch?” I show them doing events in order of when they actually experience them. So the famous witch trails are touched upon in the first book, pirates and post-fire London in the second, and so on.

With this plan, I need a comprehensive list of where they were during the last three-hundred years. When a character or setting pops into my head, I add it to my Timeline. When I come across a particularly juicy piece of history, I put it in my Timeline.

When I actually write the stories, I copy and paste the notes needed into my actual story, then write through as the inspiration takes me, including the notes where they fit into the story.


This system works for me. What systems do you use to catch inspiration and bottle it up until you need it?

Play That Funky Music

Originally posted on 8/16/09 for the Charge of the Write Brigade.



The theme to “Edward Scissorhands” by Danny Elfman begins. My mind instantly travels to a dark Fall night. Eliza Pratchet walks purposefully with two children in red cloaks following behind. She’s taking them through the small colonial settlement for another lesson. Annabelle’s undead pulse quickens with excitement. Will they finally learn how to become bats?

At the point of the song marked 02:08 the soft eerie tempo starts to wave, like small bat wings. Ann and her brother flutter under the moonlight. Then around 02:59 the quirky march slows off to become a gentle ballad and I see her. I can’t help it. Her flowing red curls, the gleam of happiness in her crimson eyes, the gentle billowing of her blue dress and red cloak in the wind as she floats ten feet in the air. Annabelle’s inner peace, joy and love all moves through my soul.

That is what I see every time that song is played. Heck, even if we’re watching the movie, I see it. That theme will forever be linked in my mind as “Annabelle’s Theme”. If I could choose a composer for a Night Children movie it would be Danny Elfman, hands down.

Music inspires me. I can’t help it. Heck, I wouldn’t want to. It doesn’t matter if there are lyrics, or what style the music is. Certain songs send me off to other worlds.

My main antagonist, Dominic, commands attention as I listen to “The Kraken” from the “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

“Love Song For A Vampire” by Annie Lennox puts me straight into Eliza’s mind as she cares for the dying children, ready to change them forever rather than let them die so young.

The list goes on and on. Some songs provide me with actual scenes from my series, like “Carpe Noctem” from the Dance of the Vampires soundtrack, “Journey to Transylvania” from the Van Helsing soundtrack by Alan Silvestri, the “Poltergeist” theme, “Libra Me” and the “Davy Jones” theme from that same Pirates movie.

Other songs create characters. “Original Sin” from the Dance of the Vampires soundtrack, “Moon Over Bourbon Street” by Sting, “Taste of Blood” by Mazzy Star, “Lucretia My Reflection” by Sisters of Mercy and “Transylvanian Concubine” by Rasputina have all created very interesting cast members.

Then there are those songs that simply put me in a vampire mood. “Cry Little Sister” by Gerard McMann, “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse, “Go All The Way (Into The Twilight)” by Perry Farrell, “Bela Lugosi's Dead” by Bauhaus, “Bloodletting” by Concrete Blonde and of course the mack daddy of all vampire songs, “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach .









I’ve used enough quotation marks to allow this post to fly but I think I’ve made my point. Music can be a powerful tool for writers. Ever watch a movie and catch yourself leaning forward in your chair, not because of what’s going on, but because the music is telling you something bad is about to happen? Once again, the power of music.

It can show you the gentle parts of your story or the fast paced action sequence. Characters, settings and entire plots and subplots form in your mind as the songs continue. If you haven’t tried to use music before, give it a chance.

Think of the kinds of music you would expect to hear if your story was a movie. What songs really cover your theme? Then while listening to them, close your eyes and picture the scenes in your novel.

Not everyone is inspired by the same things, but if this works for you I’d suggest creating folder of music for your music player of choice. A soundtrack if you will. Then when you’re feeling writers block, play it and watch the scenes grow.


Sometimes when I need to be inspired, I’ll play the Vampire Folder on my media player.

I feel sorry for my coworkers. I have no clue why they haven’t yelled at me. Maybe because I turn it down? At home I have no fear. My wife and children support my dreams. My children are easily warped. I put on Scissorhands and they shout “It’s the Annabelle theme!

Happy writing.

Edits, agents and stuff

Well, lesson learned. I tried to post this at lunch from my new cell phone but lost the post. Ah well. I'll try again someday, to post here from my cell. We'll see if I can save it in chunks or something.

Anyway, tons of news. 1st things 1st.

Edits;
Wow. Jennifer was the most amazing editor. I suppose I should say IS the most amazing. She's still alive and ready to help you, fellow writers. I guess I said "was" because I'm all finished. She gave me my 3rd edits and I went through them, accepted most of her changes and made a few myself. Had to tweak some stuff that she pointed out.

So it's "finished". Next step...

Agents;
The two agents I spoke with at the conference? Well they got back in touch with me. I emailed them and told them of the 3rd and final edits. One wanted a few chapters and the other wanted the entire manuscript! I'm excited, scared and curious. I'll keep in touch. This is the first time this book with these changes and this flow has ever been seen.

So there you are. My update. I'll post again as things develop.