Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Perfect Ending

I have put off writing the climax and closure of my YA novel. I have notes. I always have copious notes. I have my Scene chart, with its column of things to follow-up on. I began several pages ahead of where I knew I needed work, as I always do. This puts me in the atmosphere of my story. I found that I had begun my final confrontation, so was able to do an edit of that scene. Then, I was stuck.

I had more notes. I had ideas. But, what exactly should I include? I never like to presume I know the answers, plus someone might say that magic thing that strikes a chord. I have studied and taken classes for a long time, for a lot of things. I could be a lifetime student. But, in all those years, this is the first time I have made the decision to treat this, writing, as a profession and I want to get it right. I turned to my trusty computer and googled endings.

It did not seem to matter the words, or order of words, I searched for. It was one of the least productive searches I have done. However, I did find six sites with information. The most helpful one was ENDINGS by Lori Handeland.

It is scary to put the finish on twenty-four months of work. You’ve worked so hard on it and you want the ending to memorable. You want that sigh when they set the book down. You want them to look at the cover, remember your name and wait for your next one.

I am not going to paraphrase Ms. Handeland’s page here. Go take a look for yourself. I’ve found it extremely helpful.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Butterfly Garden


I have just read an incredible book. It is The Butterfly Garden, a Memoir by Chip St. Clair.

As a child, Chip was raised by abusive parents. I am not going to give any of the stories away, but it is abuse by a man who was evil and sadistic and, in my opinion, a mentally ill mother.

That he survived at all, is a miracle, and he has shared his story with the world, as well as his break-through recovery.

This is a special cause for me, as I find abuse in my own family. I am now raising, well they are almost raised at 21, 19 and 16, three abused boys. I see, on a daily basis, how this background haunts them. They struggle with many things the rest of us take for granted. They are seeing a clinical psychologist, and have all had flashbacks from Post Traumatic Stress.

They were robbed of their childhood and education, and they hold a constant fear as to what is happening to their siblings. They sit and reminisce about being locked in closets and beaten with horse cinches. I am hoping that, Mr. St. Clair’s book can help them learn how to recover and I recommend it as a must read by everyone.

How many times have you said to yourself, “I wonder what goes on in that home?” Don’t just say it. Become informed. Go to some of the websites Chip lists as resources. Get involved. Do not sit back and wait for someone else to report it. It’s hard enough to get anything done about it; believe me, I know.

Children are too precious to ignore.
P.S. I want to thank http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/ for the give-away I won this book on. It will mean a lot to my family

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Make your Character Come Alive

I have charts for all my characters. Okay, not all of them yet, but the ones who live in my first book. I have five books planned for this story. I have three, CO-Protagonists. They are brothers. The youngest, Alexander, is the main protagonist for the first book and the series. His two brothers each take turns at playing a larger role in some of the books than others.

As always, I searched books and the internet for character development ideas. I started out with one idea after another s to a list of questions that needs to be answered. I have come to the conclusion that, as with most things, I must work with a chart/list that works for me. Each of my characters usually has several items in their chart that another character might not have. The reason is that I need something different from each one of them.

I have approximately forty character charts filled out for this book. Some are minor "one-line type of characters." The charts are in varying degrees of completeness and I was hoping to copy one into this post but the chart itself did not show up. Below, is basically my chart, sans chart, for a character named Cecil Wurtzel. He is a friend to my protagonist and takes a pivotal role in the series.

Italics are my comments to you

SD 3 CECIL WURTZEL == ASK Why Everything (This is a reminder to myself)

Cecil believes in his fear and self-consciousness. He is a good friend and a good person but he doesn’t realize it. He has no self-confidence. He stands by his friends, only finally accomplishing his tasks when a friend is in need.

Name: Cecil Wurtzel: Cecil=blind -- Wurtzel= beaten (I like word meanings)
JOB IN STORY= Kindness, gentleness, forgiving, vulnerable, Friend to Alexander and Emily
Favorite Saying =“Oh Man —!” usually when he spills his milk (This is a trait shared with my brother, who spilt his milk every single dinner.)
Appearance = Short of stature. He is self-conscious about the burns on his arms and scars on his chest. These add to his uncertainty of his worth.
Behavior = spills milk, tips chairs due to a nervousness about how he will be treated/received
Traits: = He is extremely intelligent and well read. This comes from his hiding in books.
He is also fearful, tense, feels worthless, embarrassed, and lacks confidence
How does he change? = He helps Alexander with knowledge and Alexander gives him confidence by showing him how easy it is to not be afraid of living. Not being afraid of jumping in water or climbing tall trees comes naturally to Alex. Book learning does not, but is easy for Cecil.

As their friendship develops, Cecil learns that you must give people a chance and that most of them will not hurt you.

What does he want = Not to be afraid
What or who is standing in his way? = His own fear.
How does this location affect him?= He is at home here, but has never forgotten the myth he has built up of his mother, nor the abuse by his father.
What shaped his view of world? = Mother died when he was three. Father turned to drink and began burning him with cigarettes and abusing him when drunk.

NOTE TO MYSELF: Ragged Red Fiber is what disease sounds like that causes people to appear or be clumsy - I'm not sure if I will use that in the book at all. But, if I need that information, I know where to find it.

There are a lot of really good character chart ideas on the net and in books. Look at all of them and start with what seems the most complete to you. Then you can pick what you need to develop your character. Just remember, he must have strengths and frailties. He has to have a past and a future. He has to become as real to your world as you are to this one.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dream big and start Marketing

I firmly believe it is better to have dreamed and be let down at the end, than never to have had that dream. I'm a "glass is full" kind of person. So, I move ahead with the final edit of my YA novel, with the thought in my mind. My daughter, the teacher, is to do a final, final edit for anything, like five hundred commas too many and then it goes out on it's journey. I will find an agent and a publisher. So, I am getting marketing ideas in order.

I am updating my website, a much needed task but a bit more fun now, but I am still undecided which way to go. And, I have two blogs. Blogger is my “official” writing blog and WordPress is my family fun blog. There really isn’t anything on Word Press that should offend anyone, but you never know. I do have a cause: child abuse, so I did rant and rave when the FLDS in Texas were in the news. The worse that would probably happen is an agent telling me a couple of posts to delete.

Listening to the three boys who live with me, joke and laugh together about things such as being locked in closets for a month and beaten with a horse cinch, tear my heart out. I hope someday to find a way to be an activist for this cause. Lest I get started on that, again, I will move on.

One of my favorite marketing sites is Shrinking Violet Promotions with Robin LaFevers and Mary Hershey. There is a great blog Shrinking Violet Promotions: Marketing Task Recap. It lays out what needs to be done, in cooperation with your publisher, starting 9-12 months out from publication. There is a lot of other information on their site too.

One thing they mention is a fear of public speaking and how it may be helpful to join Toastmasters. Since I have spent years teaching art, including a short stint as an Adjunct at Casper College in Wyoming, I'm not terrified by the prospect of readings or book signings, but it won't hurt to brush up anyway.

For those of us who are not into things like FaceBook and MySpace, it’s a must read. Okay, so I dated myself there, but I just started Blogging this year, so give me time to catch up, while I dream.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett


I am so excited by THE BEST mystery I have ever read; and believe me, I started with A and went to Z in Mysteries, at the Lake County Public Library, in Indiana. It’s a research library and it’s hugely wonderful. This is The Chemistry of Death, by Simon Beckett. I am not the best reviewer in the world, but gosh this book is so good, I can’t wait to read his second book. His web site is www.simonbeckett.com.

I do my treadmill each morning. I do not find this a particularly fascinating pastime and I’m at a slow pace yet, so I read to pass the time. This is not the easiest thing to do on the Body for Life Program, as you increase and decrease speeds constantly. I try to reserve the book for the treadmill, thereby: 1. Having something to read each day and 2. Forcing me to work on my own YA Novel and not sit all day and read someone else’s book.

First day, with The Chemistry of Death, I did my time, pulled the plug and stood on the machine for another fifteen minutes, reading. I finally had to sit down and forced myself to leave the book on the machine. Day two, FORGET THAT, I read on the treadmill and took the book with me, when I was done. I spent the rest of the day, feet up, reading the most wonderful Mystery writing I have encountered in a long time, maybe ever.

This is Simon Beckett’s first novel. I first wrote a line here about his words being poetry, but when I turned his book over to view the reviews on the back jacket, Tess Gerritsen said that already. She also said, what I also found out, that she “couldn’t put it down.” His words just suck you in to the story. You walk the same path as the protagonist; getting drenched with water, falling in love with the people in the town and hating others. He is as mislead as you are.

But, oh how he handles all of it. You think you know who the Antagonist is; oh no, it must be this fellow, no it could be that guy, and soon you just forget trying to guess, because you are enjoying the journey so much. The end is the same way. No spoiler here because this book is just too good to do that to you. It will surprise you at the end. In fact, it will do this more than once.

Even if you are not “into” mysteries, this is a must read book.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

"My aunt wrote a book too." He said.

In the beginning of my art career, www.VanVleckStudio.com, I paid my dues by doing art fairs. They seemed like a fun thing to do, to a lot of people, when someone else is doing them. Trust me though, they are a ton of hot, dirty work.

Nothing is so miserable as sitting in downtown Chicago, in August heat, on asphalt with cars zooming by, even with your fancy expensive, scissor fold up, tent. Then, there is the answering of the same set of questions you answered at the art fair last weekend:

“How long did it take you to paint this painting?”
They are trying to figure out how much you make an hour, considering you are asking $1,200 for the painting they are looking at. I could clue them in that I had hash marks on the stretcher bars of some of these paintings, to help figure up what I should charge. But, that was just one factor in pricing.

They did not ask how much the supplies cost, the hours it took me to photograph people, the money the film cost (before digital folks) and the number of frames I have put on it since I have had to take the thing to art fairs, which have a virus that eats frames.

They did not ask about the fact that you might sell one $300 painting this weekend when you paid $350 just to sit on the asphalt for twenty hours, set up for four hours and drive for countless hours.

The correct answer is: “forty-six years” or however many fingers you are that year, as every experience of your life, every art book you read, every teacher you studied with and every painting you paint has contributed to that very painting. And, we’re not even including the cost of that education either.

The other correct answer is: "I paint every day from ten a.m. to ten p.m. and I do paperwork, to market my art from eight a.m. to ten a.m. and, since I may have three paintings in process at any one time, it's hard to say."

There is also the dreaded, “What does this mean?”
“Ah, it’s a woman playing her guitar, with her cat watching and sunlight streaming in the window. I painted it because I love to paint sunlight streaming in the window and shadows.”

The correct answer is: “This woman is playing to ease the pain in her soul as her lover has passed away. The cat is included as a representation of the number of lives he used up with alcohol, jail time and affairs. The light is streaming to represent his salvation and the shadows are the possibilities that await us if we do not mend our ways.”

At this point, they walk away happy that they have made you work for your money and you feel happy that the student loan, from the prestigious art school is not money wasted, because if you learned nothing else at the school, you learned to tell a good story.

And, finally, my personal favorite.“My aunt paints portraits too.”
Whereupon they pull out their wallet and show me the painting their eight year old aunt did. She had to be eight because, I’m sorry (And I know they love her and are proud of it) but it sucks. It always sucks. I think maybe once in fifteen years, I was wowed by one of these photographs.

But, I always smile and say, “How nice.” and that is the correct answer.

To wit: I end up with very sore cheeks, both sets, after sitting at an art fair.

People tend to have many misconceptions about art; whether it is music, painting or writing. They always want that fairy to come along, with that magic wand, and twang. They can write a symphony, paint a million dollar painting or write a New York Times bestseller. They don’t want to pay their dues.

They think that J.K. Rowling just sat down in a café one day and wrote all those multi-million dollar books. Probably each one took a week, right?They ignore the fact that she worked on it for years before she even began writing the story itself and she has enough notes to literally cover her front room floor. And, that she has written stories since she was a kid.

So, whether you are a painter, or a musician, or a writer, you have to practice your scales until the day comes when people will come up to you and say, “My aunt wrote a book too.”

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Final edits and Scenes

The “almost” final edit lives on. I am beginning to think this is my way of putting off submitting anything. Although, in fairness, I do the same thing with painting.

When I finish a painting, I hang it in the dining room. Where I often get up, in the middle of a meal, to go and fix or change some aspect of said painting. It’s a great diet plan actually, but this is often how I end up overworking a painting and that is not a good thing; with a painting or a novel. The important thing is, you find the method that works for you.

Right now, I am stuck on my listing of scenes. I found an error, so I must go back and check every scene. This may seem like a throw-back to the Obsessive Compulsive gene that runs in my family; however, since I found other errors, it’s just a good move.

Early in this book, I was dividing scenes off and was doing it fairly well but I could not have given you a definition. Now, I understand, a bit better, what I am doing. (Always a good thing.)

The first two definitions are “time and place.” If you shift place, you have shifted to a new scene. If time jumps (it was Monday and now it is Friday) you are in a new scene.

Another important aspect is that “something must change.”

In checking the purpose of each of my scenes, I have found a scene that serves no purpose to my plot. I like the scene. But, it is a “moral lesson” type of scene and children don’t want to read lessons in their spare time. It would be iffy even if it had a purpose to the book. So, I have copied the scene out of the book and saved it to its own file. Maybe I can find a purpose for it in a future book and reword it. If not, it will hurt less to delete it a year from now, when it is not so close to being my baby.

There must be a reason for a scene to happen, or it is just taking up space and possibly, and you do not want this, boring your reader. So, go and make a chart (yes, the chart thing again) and divide your scenes to one row for each scene. Some scenes are half a page at most, some are several pages.

Again, see Beverly Brandt’s plotting, at: http://www.beverlybrandt.com/spreadsheet.htm
And my Blog of 08-07-17 Keeping track of facts in your novel.

You want that work to be the best it can be, so chart it out and really look at those scenes. After you know what your scenes are, and you can do this by printing your work out and drawing a line at the end of every scene. What is right, is whatever works for you.

But, they must:
Do they take place in one time and place?
Do they fulfill a purpose?

Each scene is a miniature story:
Does each scene have a beginning and a finish?
Is each scene absolutely necessary?
I am off now, to find more scenes to edit or cut. It may hurt, but it will make my book that much better.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Keeping track of facts in your novel

I am an organizer. You would not believe it if you visited me right now, but in my working environment, I want everything in it's place and, I want the elements of working on my novel to be organized so I can go right to what file I need, when I need it, to check a fact. I have created files and charts, by the dozens, in an effort to find a method that works.

Now, I'm in what is turning out to be my second, but not last, final edit of my young adult novel. In looking for more reassurance on plotting (I have a fear of plotting that transcends all rationality), I have found Beverly Brandt's 12 steps to Plotting; which I highly recommend. http://www.beverlybrandt.com/spreadsheet.htm and which I will go over, as how it pertains to me, in a future post.

Beverly Brandt got me thinking about this whole spread sheet thing as a way to organize my novel. I now have a six column chart, in MS Word, that is my salvation to organization. I do realize that a spreadsheet might actually make more sense, but my comfort zone is in word processing. I would not even begin to try to count how many files and charts I have started and found too cumbersome to track my work. But, this one does what I need, at this time.

Column one is for Scene: I put the chapter number/the scene number (that would be 2/13 - as in chapter 2/scene 13, then the chapter title and the page the scene starts on. Because. I am focusing on scene, in this edit, to ensure that every scene has a purpose, knowing what page a scene starts on is a real time saver.

Column two is for the date and day this scene takes place. A word here about scene: It takes place in one location, in one time. So, when the day ends, you move on to another scene. When they change locations, you move on to another scene. It's just life-little chunks of life on paper. And, in creating this chart, I have found dates out of order and even foggy winter breathing in July.

Column three is for Plot Category: is it part of your main plot or a sub-plot and which one?

Column four is for Scene Description. At 60,000 words plus, I need reminders.

Column five is for Purpose of the scene. It MUST have a purpose. Today, I cut out a scene I really wanted but, in examining it, it served no purpose.

Column six is for things I have to follow-up on: foreshadowing, explaining, don't forget to wrap all those lose ends up. As I am nearing the end of the book, I am going back and striking out those things that are wrapped up.

AND, I have also added a row every time I have hit one of Beverly's twelve Plot Points. I was proud to be right on until Plot Point 9, when I had to add to a scene to hit that point. It has made the book much better, and now I'm back on track. YIPEEE!

This chart has been a great help to my not-so final edit. It takes a lot of the fear of failure out of the equation when you are able to see that it is all coming together

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

An inherited love for words


A few black and white photos of my maternal grandmother, pictured here=Ethel Leah Stetson-DeWitt, make up my memory of her. The things I know, from my mother, are these. My grandmother was a writer and an excellent seamstress. She always regretted that she could not complete school, since her own mother died when she was perhaps ten years old and, since she was the oldest daughter, she stayed home to care for the other children.

The last sight she remembered, of her own mother, was seeing the winter’s steam rise from her arms as she hung the new baby’s diapers on the line.
I imagine this was more like bringing in diaper icicles than a pile of fluffy white diapers. However, her mother, my great grandmother, ended up with pneumonia and died. The two youngest babies were said to be given to neighbors to care for. In actuality, one had also died near the same time, and one was given to another family, to care for.

My grandmother wrote stories, when she wasn’t baking bread to sell and cooking meals for six children and three adults. I understand one story survives, but I have never seen it. Her daughter, my mother, writes poetry. She does not sew, her mom did it for her, but she has her mother’s love of words. She likes the way they roll off her tongue. Her earliest memory involves her toddler self, repeating a string of word/sounds to her brother and her brother saying, "Mom, she said it again."

I may have inherited a love for the written word, but what I put down is a reflection of myself. My love is for the story and, I have a desire to tell a story so the reader will be anxious to enter a world I have imagined and stay for a while.
I will get back to writing now. It can only happen by doing it, not dreaming it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

What Constitutes Offensive Blogging?

I have been struggling all morning, trying to write something on my new blog for writers. This used to be easier, but I have been lead astray by the likes of BrainDebris and Pollyanna.

I originally entered the world of Blogging because I am a writer and I want to be an author (meaning someone actually pays me for writing one of my books), not just once in a while for an article. Since I am at the nearing completion of my twenty billionth edit of my current work-in-progress, I am doing research on agents, editors and marketing. I am an optimistic person.

I have found that writers are supposed to have Web Pages and Blogs. The Web Page I have is to sell my artwork. It’s sorely in need of maintenance anyway, as I have barely touched it in three years. So, I’m working on a total update, to reflect my writing. The Blog is a whole other world.

March of this year is the first time I even read a Blog, let alone posted to one. Never one to shrink from progress, I opened my Blog and I Blogged. Some days, I blogged and then edited twelve times. I began getting the hang it, relaxed and began to enjoy Blogging.

Four months pass and I read that you cannot have things on your blog that an editor/agent might take offense to. Whoops!!!

“Offense” is a very general term. A word may be offensive to one person and not to another. An opinion on a news story may cause an agent or editor to take pause. In this great journey, I hope that I can find an agent and editor who believe in my work and my vision and know that if I do write something they disagree with, it is just my opinion and I am not stupid enough to insult my agent at lunch. Editorial Ass: How Important Is Your Book, or, Top Ten Ways to Blow a Book Deal #4.

July 14, 2008
Today, I read a post on, http://shrinkingvioletpromotions.blogspot.com/ . In it she states that you should not say anything in your blog that you would not say at a podium. I think that straightens it out for me. It makes sense also. Especially when your work is for a young adult market.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Truth of Plotting

Plotting can strike terror in a writer’s heart. It is one factor that kept my Mystery from being sent out into the world. I knew something was wrong but, no matter how many books I read, I just could not quite figure out if I was doing it right or not.

It is estimated there are only twenty plots, yet plotting can be one of the most difficult concepts for a writer to deal with. In my not-so final, final edit, of my YA novel, I am using Beverly Brandt’s 12 step plot. See: ttp://www.beverlybrandt.com/spreadsheet.htm.

Somehow, I have apparently absorbed more about plotting than I knew, as my plot was dead on until I got to Plot step 9, which is when the worse thing happens to your character. It has to shake up his world and cause him to feel like he will never recover. I have a feeling, when I go back and review my Mystery, that this will be the same spot I bogged down in it. It was an easy fix because I did have things happening, I just needed to up the stakes.

Another article I have found helpful is by Kathye Quick on AuthorsDen. Plotting the Romance Novel (article) by Kathye Quick on AuthorsDen. Kathye points out that Plot is not an object. It is a concept that "touches every word we write". It actually organizes our writing. This is a great article, so take a look.

I highly recommend you stop on over to Beverly Brandt's site, as well as read Kathye Quick's on AuthorsDen. It doesn't matter what type of fiction you work on, Plot is still Plot.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

If a seer told me I would never succeed---

Nathan Bransford -Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent - asked a question on his blog recently. To paraphrase: He wanted to know, if a seer told you that you would never be published, would you still write?

I always begin to respond to Nathan's blogs, but then notice there are 271 responses and there isn't much point. No matter what I respond, it must have already been said. After reading through a number of responses, however, I think perhaps I do have my answer.

If a seer had told me that my Young Adult Fantasy novel would never, ever, ever be published, would I actually spend twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for two and a half years writing it?

"Heck NO! I gotta earn a living man. "

This is my third book. Well, two novels and a picture book. I have never put the picture book out there. The Mystery was written as I was going stir crazy after flipping a house. Flipping a house can make you stir crazy in and of itself, but waiting for a flipped house to sell is insane. So, after reading a bazzilion Mysteries, I did the logical thing and began research and I wrote a Mystery. And, I loved doing it.

You see, my name is Sheryl Adair VanVleck, and I am a resesarch addict. I really am. Now, with the internet, it's even better. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I type in those Google search terms.

I'm an artist, so I wrote about an artist, but she is weak and I want a strong protagonist; who is funny and likeable, so even though a published author critiqued it highly and gave me the name of her editor, it's not right, and it also needs work on it's plot.

Maybe, what I should have answered to Nathan, was that an artist is never finished, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is always another painting to be created. A sculpture to be sculpted and a novel to be written.

If my current Young Adult Fantasy Novel is never accepted, and I am currently editing line by line to try to ensure that it will be. I will be happy to know that I have completed it. I have learned a lot in the commission of this work. And, yes, Great Seer, I guess I will keep writing.

I can always work in the evening.

New to Blogger

Thank you for stopping by. I just opened this blog late last night and I'm still figuring my way around Blogger.

I'm a writer, finishing up my Young Adult novel, and I'm an artist. This blog will be dedicated to that side of my life.

You might want to check out my older Blog at http://savanvleck.wordpress.com/. Wordpress is more about the personal side of my life. I get obsessed with my fight against child abuse there, as I am raising three boys who were abused in their home, and I tell all about growing up in a ziplock. I post nearly daily on this blog and hope to do so here too.

I dream big. Shouldn't we all?

Thanks for your patience.