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Your First 250 Words

Why are the first 250 words of your manuscript so important?

Why do many agents not read beyond that point?

Why do readers pick up a book in bookstore, only read the first page, and then put the book back on the shelf?

Why does Amazon offer a sneak peak at the first page of many books?

...

ANSWER: Because if you can't capture a reader's interest in the first 16 lines, first page, or first 250 words, chances are ... you're not going to do it later on in the story either.

...

According to one of my favorite websites Flogging the Quill:

"[the first page] ... includes each of these ingredients ... The one vital ingredient not listed is professional-caliber writing because that is a must for every page, a given.
•Story questions
•Tension (in the reader, not the just characters)
•Voice
•Clarity
•Scene-setting
•Character"

According to one of my favorite literary agents Suzie Townsend:
Stand out from the slush!

As soon as possible:
1. Establish your character and voice
2. Establish the conflict and move the story forward
3. Establish the tone
4. Establish an indication of setting
5. Catch the reader off guard - to grab them and keep them reading

Goals of first two pages:
1. Create interest in the character and the plot
2. Create intrigue
3. Create investment

...
What do you think? Do you think it's necessary or POSSIBLE to accomplish these things in your first 250 words?

The Beginning and The End

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Have you ever evaluated how the beginning and ending of your manuscript are related? What about the beginning and ending of each chapter? Each scene?

Other than the obvious facts that these are related by plot and characters, consider the following comments from successful people in the industry:

"The opening image is also an opportunity to give us the starting point of the hero. It gives us a moment to see a "before" snapshot ... there will also be an "after" snapshot to show how things have changed. ... The opening and final images should be opposites ... showing a change so dramatic it documents the emotional upheaval ..." (Blake Snyder, SAVE THE CAT, pp. 72-73).

And, Donald Maass spends pages discussing the topic as well. "Does it matter what is the last line of your scene, or the first? Apparently, many authors do not think it does. ... That's a shame. Like a handshake, an opening and closing line can create impressions and expectations. They can set a tone. They can signal where we're going, or what we've done, or serve any number of other useful story purposes. ... Creating them deliberately, is a discipline worth developing. ... Suppose you did a first line / last line draft, doing nothing but honing the bookends of every scene in your manuscript. Would those little changes give your story a bigger and more effective shape?" (Donald Maass, THE FIRE IN FICTION, pp. 69-73).

What do you think?

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Should every scene, chapter, and story have their "bookends" related in some fashion?

High School Speech & Debate Competitions

Man. Oh. Man.

I absolutely LOVE judging high school speech and debate competitions.

I spent 12 hours Friday and 12 hours Saturday (I kid you not!), with only a 7 hour night's rest in between, judging competitions. I am STILL exhausted!

While I did get to judge three rounds of speech competitions, I mostly judged debate ... and with that, mostly POLICY debate. Holy smokes. Those people talk (aka SPEW) so fast, it's ridiculous, and they have worked so hard researching, it blows my mind!

But, I thought I would share with you a few of the funny things I overheard teenagers say during the competition (two of these were said in speeches, and two were said in the hallways ... can you tell which is which?) ...


"Hey! Girlfriend. Hold my earrings while I take this mother down."


"Oh. Yeah. We did pickle juice shots when she stayed at my house that night, but she thought our pickle juice didn't taste right because it wasn't Kosher."


"You can't hurt me. I have a black belt in Jesus."


"Yeah. I had a pet cow when I was a little kid. My friends didn't believe me. So, one day when they were over at my house, they said they wanted to see my pet cow. I said sure and led them to the back of the house. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I opened the freezer and introduced them to Moo-Moo, my pet cow."
...

I love spending time with young adults ... well most of them. I did kick three girls out of the audience during a policy debate round because they were talking and giggling and texting ... AND disrupting the debate. I'm sure they had a few choice words to say about me out in the hallway. And, during another policy debate round, I interrupted because the AFF side refused to provide their evidence to the NEG side, and I quoted debate code to them. You should have heard the rude things they said! Oh. My. Gosh. I told them right then and there they'd lost the round for speaking to me that way, and they could either leave immediately or stay and finish the round. Surprisingly, they stayed and finished. But they still lost, and I made note on their ballot as to why.

And, yet, I still love judging! The time and effort these teenagers put into their preparation and the competitions is remarkable.

So, from the above four overheard comments, can you tell which ones happened casually out in the hallways and which ones were parts of prepared speeches?

Book Review: EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I can't help it ... I just LOVE Janet Evanovich!




Sure, Stephanie Plum is predictable; and sure, the plots aren't rocket science; but holy smokes ... if you can make me laugh out loud on one page and drop my jaw on another while reading your book ... well then, I guess I love you.

No, this wasn't my favorite Plum book, but I did enjoy it. It made me laugh, and it was a fun easy-to-read-escape-for-awhile book.

Here are the three reasons this book did not earn five stars from me:

1. I don't want Stephanie sleeping with two different guys. PICK ONE!

2. I can handle a few cuss words ... but there were a lot more than that in this book!

3. Rats. I don't really like reading about RATS! YIKES!! Eek.

I am REALLY looking forward to the first movie coming out this month, and I hope more movies with Stephanie Plum will follow! (And, I'm super happy with the PG-13 rating (not R)! YAY!)

View all my reviews

What book are you reading right now?

Book Review: WAVE ME GOODBYE

Wave Me Goodbye by Jura Maclean Sherwood


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Hmm.


I have mixed feelings about this book.


What I loved:

1. This story told a great bit of history I'd never heard of before: children evacuated from Britain during WWII - - sent across the ocean and attacked by the Germans. I just can't imagine sending my children across the ocean during wartime.

2. The writing was clean (structurally and content-wise).


What I did not like:

1. The majority of the characters were not well developed. Many secondary characters were contrived and stereotypical.

2. Writing dialect in dialogue is a challenge, and it was a burden to read in this story.

3. I wanted the story to be more about the journey of the children, but it focused on the love story between a woman assigned to care for the children and the soldier she loved.

4. Certain plot elements were frustrating. For example, the main character is nearly raped in a brutal manner, but her soldier stops the attack "just in time" ... BUT THEN he turns around and asks the attacker to take good care of her if he dies. WHAT? It's just brushed off like it's no big deal and didn't even happen.

5. A copy of the book was too hard to find to read. If you don't mind reading it on your computer, you can purchase a copy from Whiskey Creek Press for $5.99. Or you can purchase a bound copy directly from the author's website for $18. Luckily, I was able to borrow a copy from a friend to read.

View all my reviews

**Do you struggle to write a review when you didn't really care for a book?
 
**Or do you always just find something nice to say about it?
 
**Do you sugar coat your book reviews??

CRAFT: Word Choice Pt II

Right ... so ... more on the topic of revising. (Can you tell where my mind has been lately?)

The other day, I grabbed my handy-dandy copy of THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE and flipped through my highlighted and tabbed pages. I wanted to make this the best revision of this ms possible! Page 73 reads:

"Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty -- these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words."


Yikes.

So, I used the "find" feature in MS Word and searched for these words. Holy Smokes! I thought I knew better than to use the word "very" in my writing. But there it was. Over and over AGAIN.

I did decide to leave the word "very" every once in a while in dialogue, but I deleted it from everywhere else. I almost didn't search for the word "pretty" because I thought I never used the word. Imagine my surprise when it showed up over and over AGAIN in my ms.

I think sometimes our mind becomes blind to certain words. Unnecessary words.

What do you think?

Do you think rather, very, little, and pretty are the "leeches" of prose?

CRAFT: Word Choices

*sigh*

I thought I'd be extra efficient with my ms revisions and use the "find" feature in MS Word ... just to make sure I wasn't using certain words too many times.

I think I used the word AGAIN 247 times. Hmm. So, then, I thought okay, I can change or delete some of those! I went through and changed some to "once more" and others to "another time" and so on.

Here's how crazy I am: I didn't sleep well that night because I worried I had altered the "voice" of the character by changing all those words. ACK! Next morning I did the search again, only I searched for "once more" and really read the paragraph to make sure the change fit or if I really preferred the word "again" there. I did the same for "another time" ... sheesh. Talk about spending a lot of time accomplishing nothing.

Have you used the find feature and been shocked with your word choices?

What word do you use AGAIN and AGAIN?

CRAFT: Character Development Pt IV

Great post on Darth Vader here: http://geoffreywebb.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/what-darth-vader-taught-me-about-people/

On Monday's post, Belle commented:
"I also think bad people changing is true in life and interesting in books. I will never forget the shock I felt when Darth Vader changed for the good in Star Wars. To see he had good feelings inside made his character more real."

Belle hit on a point that I absolutely LOVE: villains who have good traits.

"There's no villain so scary as one who is right." -- Donald Maass (THE FIRE IN FICTION, p.48)

YIKES!!

Have you worked on making your villain (or antagonist) likeable?

Think about the villain in your WIP and ask these questions:
1. What goodness does he have inside of him?
2. What does he say that is true?
3. Is your villain redeemable, like Darth Vader? Why or why not?

How about you?
Who is your favorite villain?

Great Blogfest Coming Up!!

Oh! We interrupt the regularly scheduled series on character development for this great announcement:

Click here: Critique My Blog Blogfest for the complete details! Come on! All the cool kids are doing it ... well ... okay, maybe not the "cool kids" but writerly geeks like me are doing it ... SO COME ON! Join in. :)

CRAFT: Character Development Pt III

And here's another great comment from Monday's post:

L.G. Smith over at Bards and Prophets blog wrote:
"A plot shouldn't just be a bunch of connected incidents and actions but a vehicle for the character's growth as a person."

Ah ... really? YES!!

David Baboulene over at Baboulene.com wrote (in THE STORY BOOK, p.120):
"Note that it is not the event which reveals a protagonist's character, but his reaction to the event. The action he takes defines his character. Similarly, it is not the event which drives the plot (as you might expect), but the action taken by the character that defines the event, and drives the plot."

Select a scene or chapter or event in your WIP and ask these questions:
1. What action does your character take to initiate this event?
2. How does your character react to the aftermath of this event?
3. How does your character change because of this event?

Do you agree with L.G. Smith that a plot is a vehicle for a character's growth?

CRAFT: Character Development Pt II

WOW. Really great comments on yesterday's post. I had intended to go a certain direction with the followup posts on character development, but because of the comments, I've decided to do something different.

Let's focus on some of the great things you had to say.

Jennifer Shirk over at Me, My Muse, and I blog said:
"Well, for me I usually outline and start with each main character and ask, "What "lie" does he/she believe about her/himself or life in general?"

This is awesome! Why? Read it again. By acknowledging a LIE your character believes, you have instant conflict and tension.

Donald Maass over at Writer Unboxed wrote:
"... What is it that you—yes, you—least want to accept, refuse to feel, fear is true, find unbearable, feel angriest about, or avoid at any cost? What do you see around you that makes you sick? What in yourself makes you terrified?

Go further: What’s the truth that underlies all things? What principle guides human behavior? What’s the greatest insight you’ve even had about yourself? Or even just this: What do you know about anything that nobody else does?

Give any of the above to your protagonist and share the rest around with your other characters. ... " (to read the entire post, click link above for Writer Unboxed)

Building extreme conflicting emotions into your characters provides a wonderful road for them to travel throughout your manuscript.
 
 

 
Take a look at the characters in your WIP, and ask these three specific questions:
1. What lie does your character believe?
2. What will your character avoid at any cost?
3. What does your character know that no one else does?
 
 
What other tips do you have for developing a character?

CRAFT: Character Development

I've been reading a lot of great books lately on the craft of writing, and I've been working hard revising two very different manuscripts. So ... ideas for improvements keep bouncing around in my head.

Today, I'm thinking about character development:

"Every single character ... must change in the course of your story. The only characters who don't change are the bad guys. But the hero and his friends change a lot" (Snyder, SAVE THE CAT, p.134).

"One of the top three factors in great stories is a clear progression of character growth across the course of the story. Someone, somewhere in your story must change and grow ..." (Baboulene, THE STORY BOOK, p.136).

How do you accomplish this? Do you simply write your story, give it to a beta reader, and ask if the mission has been achieved? Or do you need to map it out precisely and make sure that there is ENOUGH growth for each character? And, what constitutes "enough" growth? What tools and techniques can you utilize to accomplish this goal?

Well, instead of writing a huge long post today, I've decided to cover these questions in a series of posts over the coming week.

But for today, do you agree with Snyder above when he says, "EVERY SINGLE character ... must change ..." ??? Really ??? Every single one ???

IWSG: Appearing Foolish & Weak



 Why are writers insecure? I dunno, but I feel it necessary to belong to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can join, too, at: IWSG

According to the purpose of the group: "Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak."

*sigh*

After my FAFSA goof up yesterday, I am certainly feeling foolish.

And, here's 2012 ... yay ... right?

Here are my doubts and concerns:
1. What if my house is never clean?
2. What if I should just trash my current revision project, even though I love it?
3. What if my children need therapy and blame me for all of their problems?
4. What if I can never lose weight?
5. What if I can't master grammar rules? Or improve my plot designs?

Again *sigh* ... really ... this doesn't make me appear foolish or weak?

Well, if I resign to do something about those doubts and concerns, maybe not.

Solutions (numbers correspond to list above):
1. Hire a cleaning service and/or close doors to dirty rooms.
2. Try out new revision strategies on WIP and find new beta reader.
3. Eat more chocolate.
4. Eat more chocolate and wear bigger pajamas.
5. Read more books. Write more stories.

YAY! 2012! A new year with new possibilites.

It's all good.

FAFSA Stupidity

Oh. My. Gosh.

Am I the stupidest person on the face of the earth? I feel like it right now.

I have two boys that are high school seniors this year, and so I must figure out all the college stuff and FAFSA (federal financial aid). *sigh*

So, today I googled FAFSA and clicked on the link for fafsa.com.

Big mistake.

But I didn't figure it out until I'd entered ALL our personal information (son's, mine, and husband's) social security numbers, birthdates, bank account balances, and so much more. It wasn't until I got to the final screen, where it asked for a credit card number, when I sat back and thought, WHAT?? (They wanted $79.99 to process the application.)

I scrolled down and read the teeny-tiny print at the bottom of the website. It said they were not affliated with the Department of Education and linked to the correct FAFSA website.

SHEESH!!

I clicked over to the correct site: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and started over. Interestingly enough, the application took a fraction of the time and asked for a fraction of the information the other site did. Oh. My. Gosh.

Did I mention how stupid I feel? Is that other site going to steal our identities? I did go back to the other site and alter our information (changing it all to john doe and generic numbers). It wouldn't let me delete the account I had created.