Networking, Stupid questions and Line Edits

In the beginning, I really did not see the benefit from so many social sites on the net; especially for a 'loner' writer. But, it is all coming clear.

At first it takes a long time to set up and get familiar with the various sites: Twitter, FaceBook, etc, but soon it is all clear and before you know it, you get the point. And, I am probably just talking to the older population here. If you are under ? what 40? you already know this stuff.

I was able to figure out and join my first Twitter Chat: (see it at Read Write Believe: Transcript of the Twitter Chat Between Me and My Editor, Cheryl Klein) the other day. It was between editor Cheryl Klein and Sara Lewis Holmes, the author of Operation Yes, Amazon.com: Operation Yes (9780545107952): Sara Lewis Holmes: Books an awesome sounding Middle Grade Novel. I can't wait to read it.

So, the benefits of things like Twitter are that you get to ask your favorite editor a really stupid question. However, since I have always told my students, "There are no stupid questions. Asking is how you learn." I just plunged in and asked: "What is a line edit?"

Ms Klein's answer: @sadairvanvleck Yes, line-by-line review saying "I don't understand this," "right word?" "cut this, redundant," "Love this," etc. #YESchat

So, now I know, and you do too.

It takes less time and you can learn a ton by just charging in and doing it. Loner or no loner.

Instead of writing here, or on my WordPress Blog, Savanvleck’s Weblog, I have spent my last week creating a Book Map Outline. It is yet another thing I have learned from Cheryl Klein’s Blog. Brooklyn Arden

I have spent countless hours finding a way to keep track of my book and, for some reason, this one is the one that works for me. I have added a bit to it, and I will get into how I use her Map Outline below the graph, but I have added a number system to keep track of the tension in my plot. 1 is the least tension and 10 is highest.

Now, one chapter I had going from 6 to 1, which I did not work into my graph above but it is always a good waste of my time to learn how to do something new and I have never made a graph before in Word.

This graph is for the first nine chapters of my book.

I start off with some tension, Chapter 1 is #5. This is my world set-up, what life is like for my protagonist and his two brothers, and it is the incident that moves my plot line along.
Chapter 2, a #6, is the external conflict which rises as life is thrown off course. (Hmmm,! Sort of like getting a $500 cell phone bill one day and a $1,200 propane bill the next)

I drop down to a #4 in tension for Chapter 3, for a bit of relief and then jump up to a #7 in tension. My goal here is increasing tension and relief. This is the final outline. The first one showed me that I had to go into a couple of chapters to increase the tension in the right amount.

And, about the Book Map; I am not sure how Ms. Klein exactly formats hers but table obssessed as I am, I created a table. It is just two columns but a varying number of rows. I have nine charts so far, one for each of the first nine chapters. Below the chapter title, I put my tension number.

The left column's are: Key Action, Plot Point, Protagonist development, (I have added one for Characters, to keep track of what chapters they are in. This is good to keep track of things like that someone important has not been mentioned lately.) Key Thoughts, Key Lines, Clues, Foreshadow, Red Herring. Some of these are things I have added and I have actually deleted one you might find strange.

I am not using the Plot Point. There again, Ms. Klein had excellent help on this with Brooklyn Arden: A Character-Based View of Plot. So, I am using the Protagonist development as a plot line.

We shall see.

My Book Map progress

I have been ignoring all of you lately. But, other than the foot of snow that had our car trapped for six days, and school cancelled for four days, and the flu that I just cannot seem to shake, and my mother's birthday and my birthday, other than those, I have a good reason to ignore you. I am outlining my book.

There has to be a reason I am having a problem writing, also known as putting off, the ending of my book. So, I am taking Brooklyn Arden: Search results for Book Map advice and creating a Book Map. That was a link to what I found with my search for Book Map. I did not find the post on doing the Book Map, but there was a neat blog about the artwork she has made in her own apartment. Tres Cool!

I am up to chapter 10, which is on its way out. Yes, a whole chapter is just taking up valued word space, and it is redundant to a future chapter (which is much more important) and, like all things I take out, I save a copy in its own file. I have deleted many of these files later and I may this one or I may put it in a future book, but for this book, it is history.

There is one little section, which will be worked into the next chapter. But, I feel as though I am getting somewhere already, even though I have yet to go back through the Book Map and really look at what is going on in the book.

This is also giving Master’s Daughter a break from editing as she has a lot on her plate right now and could use a break.

So, I sit here with the flu now turned into something that is settling in my chest, and move on to Chapter eleven, with ten nine more to go.

Sunshine on snow; through closed eyelids.

The sun is shining and the world looks a lot better in central Indiana. Chihuahua can about see over the snow we received, since it has settled down some. We did have close to a foot of snow. But, we only lost power momentarily that night so we are really lucky. Our stomachs, on the other hand, are not.

Monday night, I think it was, all these "school's cancelled" days have me confused, but whatever night it was saw me emptying my stomach in the bathroom for about ten hours and today, sun or no sun, all I want to do yet, is sleep. At least, I am working again, a little at a time. Sorry for the absence.

I really want my new website up and running and was working hard to complete it for the first of February, but I will try for week two now. One thing that I did do yesterday is a new opening for my book. I really should have kept count. This has to be close to a dozen different openings.

I love the help I have gotten at Talking Books, from Cheryl Klein. With the help of her 'Rules of Engagement," I may have an opening that fits the bill. It has to simmer in the stew for a while yetbefore I know for sure . My next assignment, beside the web page, is to make out a Book Map. It is the first editing thing she does and I think it is going to help me a great deal, so I will let you know how that goes.

The car is still stuck in the drive but life is cancelled/closed for the day in Brown County anyway, so no need to go anywhere. Maybe I will take another nap first. Stay warm, if you can.

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?