Outlining vs Writing by discovery

One of the blogs I follows is Miss Snark's First Victim.
AT: http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/ .
Apparently, she received some advice that her book would be better if she did a detailed outline first. Puul-Leaseeee! I appreciated her response, which was to tell her what is wrong with her book but do not tell her how she has to write it.

When I began Moon Tree Brother, I tried to force myself to outline. I tried graphs, index cards, organizational charts, standing on my head (not really, that would not be a pretty - or safe- sight). But, I tried.

What I discovered was that it did not work for me. What works for me is writing by discovery. I start to do research on one thing and bump into something that I just have to include in the book. It may not make the final cut, as my beloved Roma (gypsy) scene did not make it, but it keeps me going.

My manuscript for book one, Moon Tree Brothers, is winging it's way back home from my personal editor, my beautiful sixth grade teacher daughter, as I write. I cannot wait to get onto my final edit before sending it out. In the meantime, I am working on book two.

With a working title of Moon Tree Madness, I am having a blast. Things are getting crazy in the Moon Tree and I only slightly hyperventilate that I have no idea where this will end before I remember that I had no idea where book one would end for a very long time. It actually has had two different endings. This is a lot better than the twenty-seven different openings it has had.

The thing is, we each have our own process. I do not think my book would work near as well if I tried to force it into an outline I did before I had discovered all the wonderful things that happened along the way.

More power to you, if you outline. It's all about what works for you.

Three things to get ready during your final edit

Master’s daughter and I are up to Chapter five in the final edit. In between the twenty other jobs she has at any one time, I am working ahead as the end of the book was less edited, by me, than the first half. And, when I take a break from that I read editor’s and agent’s blogs.

I am focusing on blogs that detail things like:

Writing the perfect Query letter- my favorite is Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: Query Letter Mad Lib. He has several posts on writing a query.


The real chore for me is how to do write a synopsis. Author! Author! » Synopses is a good place to look. It is a blog that meandures a bit, but has a wealth of information for writers.


Putting together two writer's biographies. Author! Author! » Author bio has several blogs on writing your bio. They lay it out in a very simple manner.

A writer’s biography is something I had not thought a lot about. I have always had resumes and artist’s resumes. I had just not thought about needing to have your writer’s bio polished up and ready for submitting immediately. I guess I was thinking, you get an agent, you get a publisher, and somewhere along the way they say, “We need a bio for your flap copy, oh, in a few months.” Not so!!!

You need to have two ready. One for the agent to help sell you and one, shorter one, for your book flap. We are using positive reinforcement here.


I have noticed a change in author’s biographies. I am seeing more and more that represent the author’s writing, rather than just dryly saying, “He graduated from no-name college and lives in Nevada with his wife and three children.”

It is a great trend. It makes the author a real person and gives you insight into what his writing is like. My problem though, is I really think I am much funnier with my biography, than I am in my book. It is good I can see the humor in my life but is it going to give someone a false sense of the humor, which may not be there, in my book? I do not want to disappoint.

I'll be back later today

I am trying to post every three days here on Blogger. I am also trying to be more entertaining here. I think my first few posts were dry as sap. No, make that wheat toast without Brummels & Brown or Jam. Sap probably is not dry. It's smooth.

I post daily, almost, on Savanvleck’s Weblog. I usually post first thing in the morning, on both blogs.

Okay, so not exactly first thing. There is a little matter of feeding the rabbit, or she throws her ceramic dish around and makes a fierce racket. And, Irritating little Chihuahua, or she sits and looks at me and pouts. But, blogs are next. Well, unless I get distracted by other people's blogs and then lunch will be next before I get back to mine. (And, I wonder why I'm not finishing my YA edit. Oh, yes, this week it is back to YA and not Middle Grade.)

So, the whole point to this is that tomorrow morning, I am off to take my mother for her protime blood work (that's to find out if the Warfarin is making her blood too thin). This means that I will show up at her apartment, and she will get ready to go and then want to stop for breakfast and then go to the hospital for her test. Then, we will go to WalMart and/or the grocery store. And, then I will fix things that are wrong on her computer and take her garbage out and do all those little things and maybe get home around three.

Okay, so you could have just read the Title of the blog to learn that I'll be back later. But, be honest, that would not have been near as much fun now, would it?

A "Just for Fun" Post, and now I shall hide.

This is the first time I am posting an identical post on this blog and on my personal blog: Savanvleck’s Weblog

Master’s daughter always gives the greatest gifts. I have received a Japanese tea set, a miniature Stonehenge (we’re still waiting for a Scottish fellow to time travel through), a circular knitting sock kit, complete with a neat bag, and “The Aspiring Writer’s Journal.”

Too bad she can’t give me a better memory, because I know there are more neat gifts, but I cannot remember them at this moment. They are always a delight and a complete surprise, and will be again when I find what I have done with them.

So, my inspiration for today, (“Ahem! Ahem!” She cleared her throat, commanding attention.) is a page in the Writer’s Journal, she gave me.

The assignment is:— Make up a story beginning with the following quotation-
“When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she is almost fifty years old.”

I have changed the opening line, but the premise is there.

(Okay, I cannot believe I am going to embarrass myself this way, but what the heck? Here it is, complete with errors in punctuation and dangling participles.)
~~~~~~~~~~~

Sleeping Beauty woke from her near eternal sleep and gasped for air. My, how tight my corset doth feel. Hands above her head, she stretched—and screamed.

“Spots! What are these spots! There are brown spots on my hands and arms?”

Blankets flew as she surged to the mirror, her body half bent over.

“Kricky!” she said, being a fan of British blogs. “Oh my aching back! Heads will roll for not removing the peas under my mattress and, speaking of pees, I do believeth I am damp. What, in blazes, goeth on?”

Lines stared back from the mirror. These were the final insult as Sleeping Beauty, who was all of eighteen when she fell into her near eternal sleep, ‘twas now fifty. She lay sobbing into her pillow, for no handsome Prince would search for a wrinkled Sleeping Beauty, she feared.

In a far distant land by the sea, gallant Lord Viggo, some years younger but no longer a youth, lived. He could feel her sorrow and confusion.

“Hark!” He called. “I shall scry for the sound of sorrow I hear.”

And, scry, he did.

“She ‘tis a vision of loveliness to me.” He said as he peered into the water. “A woman of wisdom and experience. No petulant youth need I put up with. And, her smile sets my heart free.”

‘Twas but a journey half way cross the land, to the woods where the beauty lay sleeping and where he dried her tears and they lay on the swing of her porch and watched the stars for a near eternal life.
THE END

I shall go and hideth my head under the pillow now.

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.

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.

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.