My Writing Process

My writing methods are not complicated. It is not in my makeup to do extensive outlines and have it all plotted out ahead of time. Sometimes, I wish I could work that way, but I simply sit down and write the story in my head. I start at the beginning and end at the end.

Then, I go back and fix it. While I am fixing it, I fuss and grumble and tell myself I am going to buckle down and learn to plot things out ahead of time. Then, I wake up in the middle of the night and the beginning of the next story is rumbling around in my brain and I am off again on the next adventure.

I do massive editing. For the first four or five chapters, I will start each morning at the beginning and, edit as I read. Then, I will continue my story. When that begins to take too long, I start at the last chapter or two I have written. This gets me in the book's world and reminds me of what I need to do next. By the time I am at the end of the book, I would imagine the first chapter has been edited a hundred times. I work seven days a week, unless life intrudes. Sometimes for ten hours, sometimes for two.

I do eventually get around to organizing my plot. I found some great plotting help online at http://ticket2write.tripod.com/mysplot.html.

I found this when I was writing a Mystery and having a problem with plotting, but I find it works well for this Middle Grade Story also.  The Link is The Classic 12-Chapter Mystery Formula I am currently working on the plot for book two, as I am also writing it, from the start of my story.

More than anything, I love the adventure of writing. I love waking up in the middle of the night, with a great idea, and I love waking up in the morning, not knowing where the next adventure is heading. I love doing research and finding a new character, object or landmark, I just have to add to the book. I even loved the day I realized a character, that I was very fond of, would have to die and I sat there writing his life, with tears in my eyes.

Join PiBoIdMo

A wee bit off my usual genre here, but writing is writing, and given you do your homework and practice, practice, practice, you could turn your brain and fingers to Picture books.

This month PiBoIdMo is Here! « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them), has a neat challenge going. She is giving you you an inspirational idea every day, during November. Let your mind, wander, investigage and imagine and come up with an idea for a picture book.

It will get your juices flowing. There will be guest bloggers and give-a-ways. So, get busy, check it out and write.

What I did on my summer vacation

What have I done lately, to put off writing?

1. Gardening - always a demanding chore. Those pesky weeds will not stop growing. On June 11th, I was doing a no-no and bending over to pull up weeds instead of using my foam kneeling pad. I stood up and said, "Oh, that didn't feel too good." But, I continued weeding and then went in and on the computer for a good half hour. At which point, I needed to use the facilities (bathroom - water pills you know). Only, I found out I could not get up without intense pain. It was like the Rocky Horror Picture Show (to definitely date my age.) I "moved to the right," "moved to the left," one arm over leg, one leg over leg, the mixtures are endless.
2. I did finally get up, and went to the ER. Something about a swelling pressing on a nerve. I opted for Ibuprofen, rather than steroids, and Hydrocodone. Four days later, all I wanted to do was throw up, but my back hurt too much to move. I went to my G.P. Turns out that sixteen ibuprofen a day can do that to your stomach. I was sent home with steroids (could have done that to begin with) , a leg x-ray (he felt I was favoring one leg and hurting my back), and an appointment to see a stomach doctor and a bone doctor
3. Took mom to the ER on the 23rd. She has congestive heart failure and this is her third trip this year.
4. 29th, had my stomach scoped and now am on the worse pills in the world. Fourteen days of H-Pylori medicine: four amoxicillin capsules, two clarithromycin tables and two prevacid a day. It's a great diet; if you don't mind being nauseous.
5. Then there was the fourth of July. I was to take mom to a parade, a festival, a picnic and the fireworks. South Central Indiana had its own plans - RAIN! The parade must have consisted of six guys on motorcycles, but we didn't see it. All the rest was rained out and we drove to Indy and she found three recliners she has been wanting to buy.

If anyone wants to know how my book is coming, that explains the slow final edit.

However, in my never-ending quest of what works and what doesn't, I have found that listening to it is great. I write in Word, so I am highlighting portions and listening to the "convert text to speech." I would much rather hear Jim Dale read my book but guess I will have to wait until it is published. In the meantime, it is amazing how much you can catch with a computer voice reading your work.

Web Site Preparation for writers - page 7 - Titles and EMail contact

I don’t know about you, but I love to learn new computer programs and, in my first rush excitement to play with my new program, I have a tendency to think I can just jump in there and make a web page.

Yes, you can do that and I have. But, if you want to make the best page you can, some research time is well spent.

First is to decide who your target audience is. I have a tendency to spread myself off into too many directions. I am a painter, a potter/sculptor, a doll maker and a writer. Since 2003, my website has been targeted for selling my artwork from my home based studio. It was geared to show what work I could do and what work I had available for sale, and about visiting my studio.

When I started to redesign the website this time, I still had that in the back of my mind. It was research and Master’s Daughter, who pointed out where I was going wrong. After going over the initial design for my website (and I spent way too many hours on creating the page that was eventually declared to be going the wrong way), we decided that I was not focusing my site on what was important to me now. I had links to my painting and my pottery. Not only were they distracting, but they were taking up space that was better spent on telling about my writing experience and drumming up interest in my Young Adult Fantasy Series.

Research tells me that author’s seeking representation need to focus their site on themselves, first and foremost. I have a focus on marketing for my book, and I have decided to spread out my focus and cover my writing background, as well as generating some word of mouth, hopefully excitement for my book series.

SECOND: As Mike Cherim points out in Beast-Blog.com - Mike Cherim's Professional and Personal Web Log - Home Page, there are millions of websites out there. That means there are 999,999 + other websites, beside yours, for a viewer to click on. If you create a website that requires JavaScript, or large images to load, or “mystery meat navigation,” you are going to lose viewers. I am a dial-up user and no matter how much I want to view a site, I will close out of it if there are large images to load.

THE SEARCH: How will viewers find you? One essential element is the “title element” that is shown on the bar of your browser. It is the content title with the terms in it that users will search for. Each page of your website should have its own unique title. It is contained in carrots, at the top of your webpage. We are talking coding here in your WYSIWYG editor.

That would be the title for my first page, the INDEX page and a different one for each succeeding page. In my current webpage, I never thought about that fact that if you have twelve or six or more pages to your website. Each individual page should have its own title so that there are that many more titles to be found in a search. So, change that title for each page.

Also, it is important to NOT put your email address link on your site. Even supposedly secure ways of doing it will eventually be Spy Bot-ted. You do need a means of contact though. Use a secure contact form and we will get into that, just as soon as I have it all figured out. If you are in a hurry, Google it. This is from a person who has already had my domain email address harvested by SPY BOTS.

NEXT POST: Site Maps

"He struck Bob in the face." Holly advised

That little bug-a-boo of mine, (when was the last time you heard that phrase?) is the fight that begins my ending.

Action scenes can be so easily overdone, but I have found the advice of The Literary Assassin: Fiction by Holly Messinger "RULES OF ACTION SCENES", to keep me on track.

1. Fights are short. I know that a whole movie can seem to be one big action scene, but as Holly points out, a fight between experienced fighters, who are seriously trying to do each other in, will last minutes. If it is an experienced fighter and a novice, it can be seconds before your inept hero is lying in the ditch, groaning.

The important thing is writing the tension build-up, which leads up to the fight, extremely well.

2. Her next bullet point is extremely helpful to me.

“Use subject-verb-object construction as often as possible:”He struck Bob in the face.”

She goes on to point out that the pacing of your writing adds to a “punchy quality that shakes up the reader.”

SO, if you are in the midst of writing or editing, or just pondering your action scenes, please check her site out, because this is some seriously good advice.

How I spent my time off of writing.

I have been gone from writing for two whole weeks. That is probably the longest time I have gone without writing in two and a half years. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle line editing. I believe I left off on chapter twelve, but I will start from chapter eight, because I am now looking at it with a fresh eye.

My daughter, the teacher, has the first seven chapters to edit for grammar/punctuation/etc, so I don’t want to mess with that. I actually spent an evening/night, some Bailey’s Irish Crème and a lot of giggles with her the night of the wedding. We do not get to spend enough time together and she rented a motel room for us and mom. Mom was deep in sleep within minutes. I forced myself not to ask my daughter, the question, “How much do you hate it?” (meaning my book, and not her grandmother or her husband). I did not want to ruin the giggles.

I spent twelve hours behind the camera that day and, while I wanted to die by about 10:00 pm, I think I have discovered that, if I can spend twelve hours photographing a wedding, I can push exercise harder. My doctor will be so happy. Of course, it has taken me a few days to catch up.

I have also learned that twelve hours behind a camera equates to days and days and days of editing pictures; crop, color adjust, remove red eye, delete the pictures of the naughty Jr. bridesmaid who insisted on throwing her bouquet and making faces, etc. And, do a major adjust of the pictures in the Haunted Chapel. See here for explanation.
The Case of the Haunted Church « Savanvleck’s Weblog

I am sending off one full disc to the bride today because we took some pictures especially for her thank you cards and she is moving on the eleventh, and now I will take it a little easier with the other 2,143 mb of photos left. Let’s see, I sent 700 mb off—at two days of altering—that means I have like six days left. (That sound you hear is me groaning). But, they are not six full days.

A new mantra "I can do better."

It’s is important to have a goal in writing, as well as in life.

They say everyone should have a five year plan written down. It keeps you on a straight path and helps rid all the flotsam and jetsam that stumbles around the folds of our brains.

Your goal for writing should not be just “publish” oriented. The main goal should be “constant improvement,” which, in the end, just might lead you to the check that comes with being published. This means that you get up in the morning and say, “I can do better.”

With that in mind, sit back and look at the problems you have with your writing and start researching how to improve . Everyone learns in a different way. I learn best by reading so the internet is a great source of knowledge for me. If you are an auditory learner, take a course at your local community college, attend a conference and learn from an author you admire, or join a writer’s group and pick someone’s brain who you feel has expertise in the area you need to improve.

And, write, and write, and write again. And, if you lose it all one day, say hard drive failure, know that you wrote it once, you can write it again, and better.

Text to Speech reads my book

When no one is home, I will often read my story out loud to myself. It is really one of the best ways to test your writing. However, there are still those times when I will read what I am expecting to read and not catch the little mistakes that are there. Text to Speech, on your computer helps catch it all.

When others are here and the tv is blaring, I use Text to Speech in my Windows XP, to read my story to me. And, I know those of you with VISTA have this feature also as it is about the only thing in VISTA that actually works. JRockGuitarMan, youngest boy, has a writing disability and uses it to dictate his papers. You can go into Control Panel and set the speed at which he reads, and sometimes it is spooky.

I swear I have caught Text to Speech putting emotion in that was not accounted for by the punctuation. It has also, I swear, added a Scottish accent to one of my characters. Now, I did use “ye be going” type of speech but I only alter a few of the words because I do not like it when a lot of foreign speech is inserted in a book, but this little machine voice started speaking this characters work with an accent. Okay, so maybe it was late at night, but I swear it's true.

In any event, hearing your writing read aloud should be part of your final line edit. You need to listen to each sentence and analyze whether you have written the most visual sentence you can or is there a better way to say it; to keep your reader in your world. Remember, each and every sentence counts.

The Writer's Guide to Character Traits

One of the most valuable books on my writer’s bookshelf is The Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda N. Edelstein, Ph.D. Lately, I use it so much that it’s just sitting by my writing couch. I don’t think it has been reshelved in a month now.

Yes, currently I have a writing couch. It is necessary for me to spend time with my feet up. I never thought I would write in this position and it did take time for me to get used to it but that’s life and you get used to these things.

I originally purchased this book when I was working on Mysteries. Sections such as its analysis of Psychological Disorders can keep you on track with that murderer.

Currently I am using it for the chapter titled Child and Adolescent Types. Child Development, by age, is particularly helpful for Book #1 and two books down in my series I will be using Crises of Adolescence. Not that I don’t remember enough of that time in my life to get me through. It never hurts to brush up though.

Edelstein covers Love and Marriage, Physical Disorders, Occult Practices, Career Traits, Group Influences, Communication (verbal and nonverbal) and other Character traits.

And, beside all of this, you can finally find out just what is wrong with that weird nephew of yours in the chapter on Psychological Disorders.

In the Nick of Time - Before the End

Writing is my life saver. It keeps me sane and maybe it keeps me from packing a bag with my camera, sketchpad and pencils and hitting the road too. So, when my writing is not going as planned, it is really nice to find the perfect answer to the current problem.

I have said before, you need to be “open” to ideas to learn from them and for one to strike just the right note. This has been achieved, yet again, in an article by Cheryl Klein, in her blog Brooklyn Arden and in a speech she gave at the Terminus 2008 Potter Conference in Chicago, Illinois. It is also posted on-line at A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter and I thank, Ms. Klein, a thousand times over, for all of the help she has, unknowingly, given me over this past two year period.

Unlike other writing sites, which tell you that you MUST do this and you CANNOT do that, Ms. Klein tells you what is so fantastic about a multi-million dollar book and how to do it in your own way.

Then, she gives you approval, where all the other’s will tell what not to do, she tells you to write what you need to write. Do not write to the market. Write to please yourself first. You are a reader after all, or you would not be here.

So, if you want to know what is so good about a book opening, or how to make your reader fall in love with your characters, or why a YA novel can have an adult theme and how to do it, spend a day or, as I have, two years reading her advice.

I just needed a refresher, to remind me where I am going and what step I need to take now to get there. She puts theme and writer’s voice and plotting into perspective for me and so, now, I shall return to my writing.

I will take my first draft, with its multiple edits done already and I will outline the other four books of my proposed series, because how can I know how to end this book (my latest struggle) if I only have a vague idea of where this journey will take me?

ARRGGGrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

That’s as close as I can get to last night’s primal scream. I think I just need to take a break from writing for a few days. I am also coming down with something and am headachy, body achy and feel as if a huffalump has inhabited my body. So, that is probably not helping.

But, my head is ready to explode, because every time I think I am nearing, not perfection, but a well written book, I read someone’s blog on writing and find four more things I need to change and edit for.

I now have four alternate beginnings, two of which fit Author! Author! Author! Author! » Blog Archive » The scariest Halloween ever: submitting your first page to a bunch of agents for critique. This is actually a very interesting and informative blog. But, only two of my openings fit this Blog definition of what a beginning should be. I had dismissed both of these early on for --- I have no idea why. Do I go with my gut?

Okay, in Version one, the reasons are:
1. My protagonist is upset. Yes, this makes him human but does it make him weak? Would boys even read it if there are tears in the eyes of this boy??? This is a middle grade novel.

2. A damaged fairy appears. Fairies play a small part in this book, so I could rewrite it to be another creature, but the fact that a fairy is damaged is important to the story. Would a boy read it if a fairy was in it? Even a damaged fairy?

I’ve just got to stop doing research about writing. It’s driving me nuts. I want this to be the very best it can be, but trying to follow all of everyone's rules is driving me nuts.

I know the revisions are getting better, because both of these two earlier versions may be sound plot and interest wise, but boy they are not written near as well as I thought at the time.

But, am I being too much of a slave to internet advice?

When is your edit done?

I changed the header of my blog to include a sentence Anthony Bourdain used on No Reservations. I know I have heard it before, but it is like a professor/friend of mine said to me one day when I was extolling a painting I had passed dozens of times but the brilliance of it struck me that particular day.

“You were just ready to see it.” He said.

As I treat my writing, this time, in a professional manner, it is the journey of writing that is so important to me. The internet opens that journey for all of us and I am so ready to see it.

When I began my Mystery, oh so long ago, I purchased some books and, having read Mysteries for years, felt I had the skills to write a Mystery. I had some minor publishing credits and have written for years. I then received an excellent critique, at Of Dark and Stormy Nights in Chicago, from a published author. But, I always felt the plotting was faulty and I put my nearly complete, but not edited, Mystery aside.

In Wyoming I belonged to an eclectic writing critique group. There were rhyming poets, free verse poets, a romance writer who was currently specializing in gay romance, and myself. I received some wonderful critiquing and grew in my writing. I miss all these fine writers.

On my own again, in Indiana, I turn to the internet. You can find it all, except maybe for endings, you just have to be open to what you find AND you have to know when to quit searching the internet and finish the blasted thing. I'm ready for that now.

But, when are you done? One of my first painting instructors, during a discussion on how to tell if someone is a professional quality artist or not, said, “A hobbyist is someone who completes their work, steps back and thinks to themselves ‘look what I did.’ A professional completes their work, steps back and says, ‘I can do better.’

Sometimes you just have to let go. I tend to work paintings to death. Now, I may be working this book to death. I do not want to work the life out of it. I wonder if there is a search to be had for “knowing when you are done?” Because, I am ready for it.

Missing Plot Points

The sound you hear is me pulling my hair out. I have just discovered that I missed two steps in the 12-point plot. I was scrolling down and highlighting each of the steps, just because it is easier to do banal things like, highlighting all the plot points rather than writing that last chapter, when I discovered I had a huge block of my favorite chart without any plot points.

That doesn’t seem right?
Scroll up, scroll down, and, sure enough, right between 5. Protagonist engages, and 8. Point of no return-even, Is—nothing. Well, not quite. There are lots of scenes there but no plot point. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Stay tuned to see if the plot points fit without rewriting.

Why I started blogging

Blogging Start Group Writing Project Get Paid to Write Online is having a group writing project about how people get started in blogging, so here is my story.

The reason I started to blog was because I am nearing the end of two years of writing a Middle Grade Novel, and everything that I read says an author should have a blog and a web page. It’s that simple and please do not tell me authors are supposed to dig ditches to be published, as you will see me grabbing a shovel and running outside.

I had heard the term “blog” for a long time but it was something other people did. I had visions of chat rooms. I took a class one time that had chat room sessions and I hated it. Not the class, just the fact that people would come and go and interrupt everything to ask someone a personal question or tell you they were off to the bathroom, etc.

So, I started my first blog Savanvleck’s Weblog and had a great time. As it turned into a more personal blog, I decided to start a blog dedicated to Writing. You are reading it. I post to my personal blog daily and try to post every third day to my writing blog.

I’ve had a little more trouble bringing humor into this writing blog. I’ve been treating it more as a classroom lecture. Hope you will stick with me as I find the humor in this writing process and get my novel ready to send out into the world.

"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.”

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.

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.