Rewriting Rule #2

A popular post from January 2008

by Annette Lyon

Right up there with what is probably the most touted rule about writing, "Show, don't tell" is another rule, one that pretty much drove me crazy when I was a young writer.

You'll remember this one: "Write what you know."

This is such an ingrained rule that my university creative writing professor even had us write down a list of 100 things we knew and could therefore write about.

My list had things like braces, camping, and growing up with three siblngs.

Oooooh. Exciting stuff.

Here I was, staring at my list as an aspiring writer, thinking that—crap—I didn't know enough of anything to write. I had a bit of panic as I looked over my list of 100 things. I had wanted to write since second grade. Maybe I just wasn't cut out for it, because, well, I lacked the interesting life, the angst, that came with being a writer.

I came from a family with two parents that were still married. I wasn't abused. No one I knew was drug-addicted or homeless or otherwise having a more "interesting" life.

What in the world could I write about when I knew about nothing?

Fortunately, I tossed my list into the trash just as soon as I could. That teacher, despite being a great writer himself, didn't have the slightest idea how to teach writing.

I've read far too many early novels from beginning writers that are nothing more than memoirs in disguise—all because they were trying to write what they "knew."

I've since learned to tweak that all-knowing rule. It should say:

Write what you're willing to learn about.

Isn't that freeing? Suddenly an entire new universe of writing possibilities opens up.

Writers are by nature a creative lot, which is in our best interest. We read up on weird things that may appear later in our work, or we seek out topics that we need to educate ourselves on so we can write about them.

Here are a few of many things I've written about that I didn't know before but researched so I could write about them:

• Profiling criminals
• Poisons
• Weapons
• The history of denim
• Horse illnesses
• Flora and Fauna in Arizona
• Boot styles in the late 1800s
• printing press history
• Early rock quarry tools
• Blacksmithing
• Police procedure
• International laws on restraining orders
• and much more

What would have happened if I had decided that gee darn, oh well, but I can't write about a house burning down because I've never been in a burning house? I wouldn't have written what became my break-out novel in my market.
Toss out "Write what you know" and pick up "Write what you're willing to learn about."
You'll be a better writer for it. Your work will thank you.

Increasing Your Funny Quotient

A popular post from January 2008

by Annette Lyon

Humor in writing is tough to get right. It's all too easy for a joke to go just slightly off the mark and miss the laugh.

I think many writers do manage to be funny to a degree, but their problem is that they don't take it to the next level, the unexpected place where the laugh comes at you from the side so that you can't help but wipe away tears.

One great way of taking your humor to the next level is to analyze the laugh you're trying to make. What's the obvious joke (even if it's a funny one)?

Now, how can you take that joke one step (or even better, two steps) further?

An example:

In a recent essay I read, the author described a soul-sucking job and the manager she worked for. A good comparison (and a funny laugh) would have been to say her boss was a vampire, sucking the life out of her employees.

But this author took it a step further:

"[S]even years later, I voluntarily left a good-paying, soul-sucking, part time job as the records clerk for an office of remarkable neurosurgeons and one prickly office manager (who I am still convinced has no reflection in a mirror) to take a position at a veterinary hospital."

The reader deduces that she's a vampire without the writer ever saying so. It's a classic case of show-don't-tell.

Chandler from the sitcom Friends is another terrific example of taking the humor past the obvious. Take, for example, the time when he and Joey try to determine the identity of two babies, one of which belongs to Ross. One baby has clothing with ducks on it, and the other has clowns.

Joey decides to flip a coin about it, saying that the baby with ducks on its clothes will win if the coin lands on heads because ducks have heads.

It would have been funny enough had Chandler said, "What, and clowns don't have heads?"

But in a sense, that's what the audience is already thinking (and already laughing) about.

Chandler instead comes out with something that uses the first joke (clowns have heads too) and creates a second laugh by planting a comical image in our minds:

"What kind of freak clowns did you have at your birthday parties?"

Bull's eye.

Show-don't-tell is powerful no matter what kind of writing you're doing. Learn the skill well.

Then learn to take the humor past the obvious joke. Find out how far you can take it to create funny, fresh, and unexpected images.

It helps to read books, essays, and columns by some of the best funny men and women we have writing today. Also, watch comedians. Pay attention to how they craft their jokes, how the punch line flips the joke on its head and makes you laugh. Notice how jokes often come full circle later in the book/sketch/essay and take on new meaning the second time.

Starting Your Book

A popular post from August 2009

By Heather Moore

When I meet writers who are looking to get published, they often ask me how I decide where to start my story, who the characters will be, and how I plot.

So as I’m preparing to write my next book, I thought I’d give you some insight into my process.

1. Thinking. Maybe mulling is the more correct word. I have to have the main character pretty well defined in my mind before starting to write. The secondary characters come into the story to support the main character—and sometimes they surprise even me.

2. Creating a schedule. Writing, of course, is not always controlled by that effervescent muse (Annette—I’m probably using effervescent wrong). Writing is part creativity, and part science. Editing definitely falls into the science category, as well as actually completing a book. Like any writer, I’m constantly pulled in different directions. But once I decide on a book, I need to create the schedule to get it completed, and limit any other stories in my head that are trying to derail priority number 1. For example, if I decide to turn in a book on December 1st to my publisher and I start on August 1st, I divide the word count by the number of writing days. And I leave a couple of weeks in for editing. August: 25,000 words (average 1,000 words a day, 5 days/week). September: 25,000 words, October: 25,000 words, November: 10,000 (2 weeks), 2 weeks of edits.

3. Character sketching. This is an evolving process and changes and grows as I get further into the writing process. For instance, when I write my first draft, my character motivations aren’t usually ironed out. I’m writing mostly plot and dialog. About half-way through draft 1, I’ve had to make solid decisions about my characters, so I’m adding information to my character sketches as I go. So during the 2nd draft, I’m inserting more characterization to the beginning of the book.

4. Point of view & tense: I take into consideration who my audience will be and who the most important characters are. Will the story happen in real time (present tense) or past tense? Will my characters speak in first person (ideal for YA), or third person? It’s a lot of work to change this part of the process, so doing your research beforehand will save you a lot of time later.

5. Conflict. This goes hand in hand with character sketching. I have to ask myself what is the main conflict of the book, and of each character.

6. Beginning. Now that I have some basics going and I actually sit down to write, I usually concentrate on where I want the story to begin. Not to say that the first chapter I write will be the actual first chapter of the book, but I start pretty near the beginning. Before I start a chapter/scene, I ask myself: “What is the point of the chapter? What will be accomplished? What will it show that may/may not be relevant to the story as a whole?”

7. Creating a scene. I create scenes in several phases. Phase 1: writing and not caring too much about “fleshing out” the characters or the description, but I am nailing down the direction of the scene. Phase 2: revising the scene and inserting more description, making more concrete decisions about the character. Phase 3: this will happen when the whole book is drafted and maybe new developments have happened along the way. So I now have to go back through each scene to make sure the story is properly directed. As you can see, creativity has just been replaced by careful analysis (science).

Okay, looking over this list makes me wonder why I even start a new book. Every writer has what works for them. My style might be convoluted, but you never know, it might work for you as well.

Ideas and Playtime

A popular post from October 2009

by Annette Lyon

(with a bit by her daughter)

One of the most common questions writers get is this one:

Where do you get your ideas?

Most writers don't have much of a problem with this. We get ideas from everywhere.

For example, I had a character show up after I listened to a radio show. The entire concept of another book showed up after a brief conversation with my cop brother. Others appear after reading an article or a news story. The more I read, watch the news, pay attention to the world around me and ask, “What if?” the more ideas flow.

Granted, not all ideas are gems. Most aren’t, for that matter. But you need a constant flow of ideas, like a river, so that when the real gems float by, you can recognize them, grab hold, and hang onto them for all they’re worth.

My 12-year-old daughter was recently planning a lesson to teach to the writing club at the junior high. "Coming up with ideas" was her topic.

She had great notes, so I’m stealing them today, because what she planned for her lesson is applicable to all of us. And frankly, she had some awesome notes.

Earlier, I’d told her the genesis of a few books I knew about, and she wrote them into her notes, so they’re below as well. (I love how she refers to me by my full name one second and then as “my mom” the next.)

Coming up with ideas, by Lyon Child #2

All books have to start with an idea from some idea. Some of ideas that became published books:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: He was driving up a canyon and imagined seeing fighter planes and wondered how would you teach pilots to fight in space when there is no up, no down, or side to side. All the rules of strategy would change. The book is much more than that, but that was the first idea.

House of Secrets by Jeffrey S. Savage. He read a column in a newspaper about the day a woman went to her grandmother’s house after she died. Jeff wondered what would happen if you went to your grandmother's house after many years and you found a dead body in the bedroom.

House on the Hill by Annette Lyon, was reading a book with a lot of historical articles and one was about Indians that would sell their children to get money so there were a bunch of Indian children raised by white families in Utah. So she knew that one of her characters in that book would be an adopted Indian.

Then my mom told me about walking through graveyards and reading the names and other stuff on them. She found a group of stones that were children who died within days of each other. One said that the child died from cholera, so Mom figured the others most likely died from it too.

Then I started thinking what if everyone in a town got cholera and died except for one person that was like 20 and lived by themselves for years and then got cholera too, and was freaking out because there were no more people living and the human race would be extinct.

Another story I thought of after talking to my mom about a gravestone and the inscription on it was that what if there were these four people in college two boys and two girls that hated each other and one of the boys and one of the girls got married and so did the other two. So when the first couple got older they had a girl and when she was twenty she really liked this boy and he came over and they really liked him and thought that he was really nice and his parents thought the same about the girl, but what they didn’t know is that the boys’ parents were their enemies from college. Then at their wedding they find out who his parents are.

One way to find ideas is to go somewhere that’s noisy with lots of people. You can just watch people walk by and imagine what their life might be like.

Or play the “what if” game. Like:

What if penguins could fly?

What if cars ran on lemonade instead of gas?

What if cats were the dominant species?

What if mice could fly?

What if Mother Nature were a real person?

What if house flies were really the size of a house?

What if pigs really could fly?

What if dolls could walk and talk?

What if pictures moved like in Harry Potter?

What if we lived in the 60s?

What if cows could talk?

What if everyone in the world had a super power?

What if socks went on your hands and gloves on your feet?

What if we lived in a time with no technology?

What if there were such thing as flying carpets?

What if we walked on our hands?

What if cows could type?

What if chickens could talk?

What if it was always raining?

What if pencils were earrings?

[End of lesson notes]

All of this came from about half an hour of my seventh-grade daughter typing away with my AlphaSmart Neo. Somehow I think if she can come up with this many ideas in that short of a period (even the soap opera love story one), the rest of us adults don’t have any excuses.

As you drive on your commute or while running errands, turn off the radio and mentally play the “what if” game and take each story as far as you can. My good friend J. Scott Savage has been known to take it so far as he lies in bed that he's plotted out entire trilogies before he falls asleep.

Eye people in the cars next to you and pretend they’re characters. Come up with reasons for where they’re going and why. Or ask yourself why they're driving that make and model of car and how do they feel about it. Make up additional conflicts. It’s great fun.

Now for a dare based on my daughter's notes:

This week, go to a mall, grocery store, or other crowded place and observe. I did this some time ago. I bought myself a few pieces of my favorite See’s candy and sat back on a bench at a busy mall.

I watched high-powered business men scurry by, mothers with huge strollers, senior citizens going on power walks, and more. I came up with stories and characters surrounding them. I sat there for a good half hour or more, letting my mind go wild, taking notes when I felt like it, letting myself daydream when I didn’t . . . and eating chocolate in between.

Best of all, when you do this kind of thing, remember to eavesdrop. That's one of the best ways to get great characterization and storyline ideas. Late-night grocery runs are fantastic for this. Check out this blog post for an example of a recorded late-night grocery trip that I laughed myself silly reading.

The bottom line is that coming up with ideas and filling your creative bucket aren’t so different from one another. Remember the artist child inside you needs fun. Make sure you take him or her out to play every so often.

Oh, and remember to take my daughter’s advice. She may be young, but she knows what she’s talking about.

(That may have something to do with the fact that she’s been living with a writer since, oh, birth.)

A Few Things I've Learned

A popular post from November 2009

by Annette Lyon

1) While writing is a solitary act, you can't be successful alone.

I must have friends who write, who "get" the writing side of who I am, who can cheer me on, who can sympathize with rejections, and more.

2) I need solid feedback.

That means the good as well as the bad. That also means developing a thick skin, something that took years. But I've reached the point where sometimes I panic if I can't get a certain people's critiques because I just know I might be missing something big they could point out to help me improve.

3) Enjoy the journey.

I must. Because the journey is filled with ups as well as downs. There are fantastic highs and glorious vistas. But hideous lows and gaping valleys separate them, and when you're breathing hot dust and feeling blistering sunburns, it's hard to remember that you might be nearing the top of a beautiful peak again very soon . . . and that you've already had several.

4) Look back at how far you've come.

I used to think I hadn't learned much or advanced very far in my skills. Then I attended a conference where I kept hearing questions from attendees that I thought were so elementary and obvious I couldn't figure out why anyone was asking them. Then it dawned on me: I hadn't known the answers to those same questions five years previous. Maybe I had learned something. And the same thing happened when I suddenly started winning awards and getting a few articles published. And then I could look at another person's work and be able to not only know what worked or didn't but why. Give yourself credit for where you've been and how far you've come.

5) Don't discredit what you do.

If writing is important to you, it's important. It's matters. No, you might not ever win a Nobel for literature. So what? If you are pursuing whatever goals you've set for yourself (whether that's journaling for an audience of one, doing freelance articles, publishing novels, or something else), work toward that. And don't let anyone tell you it's silly.

6) Writer's block is real, but there's always a way around it.

The block is really mental warfare with your inner creative child. It's fear. It's anxiety. It's a bunch of things. Learn what works for you. Usually you can trick yourself out of being afraid or psyche yourself into working around the block using various tools. Sometimes that tool is time.

7) Talent is born within you, but skill is developed.

You cannot teach someone to have raw talent. That is something that you're either born with or you're not. But that talent must be honed into a skill. Someone with a small amount of talent can still develop a great amount of skill if they have enough drive. But there are a handful of people who have zero in-born talent. Those people will never develop the skill. They can't "get" it no matter how hard someone tries to teach them and no matter how big their drive is to learn.

8) Time isn't found; it's made.

Everyone has 24 hours in their day. It also appears that everyone has a book in them, and if they "just had the time," they'd write it. Well, time doesn't drop into my lap. I make time. Those wannabe writers will never get their book written. While they're watching TV (or filling their day with whatever else), I'm writing.

9) Ideas are everywhere.

If you worry that you'll run out of places to find ideas, you aren't really a writer. Watch. Look listen. Ideas are everywhere.

10) I love what I do.

I'm a mom and a writer. There's nothing else I'd rather be.

Consumption Vs. Production

A popular post from 2012

By: Josi Kilpack

A few months ago I was talking with some friends and explaining that I used to be able to watch TV or listen to music while I wrote, but lately I can't do it. My mind is split between the things going on and I end up frustrated. Marion Jensen put into words what I was getting to--that our brain has two modes, consumption and production, and while some people need background noise, or learn to drown out other things, most people can't do both at one time. At least not well.

This got me thinking about how this concept has worked for me. When my children were small, I could write with them running around my ankles, with Barney in the background, and giggles bouncing off the wall. It wasn't 'peaceful' writing and I only had short snippets of time but it was my only option and I was able to make it work. I wrote my first 8 books this way. As my kids have gotten older, I have gotten better at making quiet time to write in and apparently I've been amazingly successful at my goal to write peacefully because, other than plain piano music, I can no longer listen to music or watch TV while I write. While I used to be able to block out all kinds of things, I struggle to have many distractions this days and rarely write if I don't have at least 2 hours to put into it. The writing environment is very personal to each writer, but something worth evaluating on occasion.

However, the other part of this concept is the need to consume in order to produce when you have that time and place that best serves you. In order to give our best work, we need to be consuming information and ideas; processing the world at large so that we can put those things into our own work. I remember when I was breastfeeding and struggling to keep up with the demands of my baby. My midwife had to remind me that I had to eat and eat and eat and drink and drink or drink or my body could not produce enough for my baby. For her to consume what she needed, I had to do the same for production sake.

Not everyone consumes the same way. I have many friends who read 50 plus novels a year. I am in awe of it. I don't read nearly that much, but I watch a lot of TV and movies--while I'm cleaning or cooking or avoiding my writing :-). In the past I have tried to cut down on my TV watching and while I'm sure it's good for me to limit the time the TV is on in a lot of ways, it is stifling for my mind when it comes to creating plots. Over and over again something will happen in a show that will spark an idea for a character, or twist, or location.

I know people who feel the same awakening from music, that listening to certain types or certain artists helps their brain kick into gear. Other people listen to audio books when they don't have time to sit and read. Other's watch Movies, or favorite TV shows, and others people-watch in public places, or engage all different types of people in conversation. Different personalities will seek out different things, but the important thing is that every writer is consuming. We need to become sponges, soaking up information, learning about people, observing weirdos in their natural habitat, learning about occupations, time periods, cultures, illnesses, lifestyles, religions, and personality types. We need to keep our reserves full if we're going to pour truth into our words and make our stories feel real to our readers.

I'd love to hear what types of consumption allows you to write at your best. What have you learned? Where do you go for inspiration?

Pay Attention. Remember.

A popular post from September 2011

by Annette Lyon

One of your main jobs as a writer is to keep your eyes and ears open, all the time. You never know what random bit of information you gleaned from a newscast, documentary, conversation, novel, or something else entirely, will be just the bit you need for a story.

At various times, the following pieces of information have proven useful in my work (whether that's reading, editing, or writing), all of which I've learned from paying attention as my life moves along.

• Portuguese doesn't sound like Italian.
• Some houses can't have basements because of a high water table.
• You can't shoot the lock off a door.
• The typical length of a picture book is 32 pages.
• Bleeding arteries don't trickle or run; they pump in spurts.
• Many Southern California apartments don't have heating.
• In-N-Out Burgers has a minimal menu.
• In the Salt Lake City Airport, arriving passengers come down an escalator to meet family.
• Bruises turn yellow when they've almost healed.
• Almost anything can be poisonous in the right amount.
• If you break your nose, you may become nauseated from blood draining into your stomach.
• A canyon near my home has a great running trail, and in the fall, the trail is surrounded by gold leaves.
• The carpet in a local ICU has a swirly blue pattern.
• A small rock, when thrown, can cause a cut big enough to need stitches.
• A childhood friend's father used to sing silly songs in a voice mimicking Kermit the Frog.

I could go on and on. If you're a curious writer, you probably could too. That's a good thing.

As a writer, you should be constantly paying attention. An incomplete list of what that can mean:

• Eavesdropping on public conversations.
• Noticing smells.
• Paying attention to sounds, both indoors and outdoors.
• Taking note of colors: on the mountains, paint on the walls, clothing, hair, etc.
• Mentally cataloging quirks of speech.
• Thinking up ways to describe things (sights, sensations, etc.)
• Watching professionals as they work, including their behaviors, choices, and vocabulary.

And so on.

If you're the curious type, you likely run a Google search for random things at random times. You wonder "what if" and "why" and you aren't satisfied with generic answers. You look up one thing online and end up staying there for an hour, following links as you learn a bunch of new things.

Instead of apologizing for being "weird," embrace the idiosyncrasy and fill up the well of detail that's inside you.

Why? Because when you're sitting at the keyboard, getting ready write, you need a well to draw from. Of course you don't need to know everything when you sit down. Far from it. You can always leave blanks to research and fill in later. (I do that all the time.)

But if you have been actively filling up your well with vivid images, sounds, smells, and ideas, your writing will flow out of your fingers quicker and smoother than it would otherwise. You'll find yourself making connections you wouldn't have thought of otherwise. Your story will be richer.

If your well is empty, you'll have nothing to draw from.

So: Watch. Listen. Read.

Above all, pay attention and remember.

SOME FUN NEWS:

If you have heard about it yet, be sure to check out the newest writing podcast, specifically about middle-grade books. It's called Wordplay, and the three hosts are awesome: critique group member J. Scott Savage, New York Times best-selling writers James Dashner, and literary agent-turned novelist Nathan Bransford.

Drawing From Personal Experience

At a conference I attended in my early years as a writer, I heard an author say that when people chose to become writers, they chose to be witnesses to life rather than participants in life. He said that writers observe the world around them and silently record what they see. He said that by choosing writing, they choose to live outside of the world--in a sense.

I agree and disagree with this author. I am a chronic eavesdropper. I love to hear dialogue play out around me. I love to watch people interact together. I do watch life; I do silently record the events happening around me. Yet, I also participate. I do not allow the world to move around me and without me. In the name of research, I've learned all kinds of new things and traveled to all sorts of new places. I definitely participate in life. And much of that real life I live finds it way into my novels.

But how much real-life experience is too much in a novel?

They say to write what you know and I believe that sometimes writing your own personal experiences can be therapeutic, but sometimes novelizing your personal life can pose a problem. They say most first novels are autobiographical. If this is the case with your work in progress (and before hanging your laundry in front of the world) you should ask yourself some questions:

• Are you using information that is sensitive to someone else?
• Are you using information that may be the intellectual property of someone else?
• Will this come back and bite you in the backside at a later date?
• Does your personal story have significance to anyone outside your personal family (who is your audience)?

If a novel involves characters based on real people, you should contact those people and get permission to use their story. The last thing an author needs is to have their friends reading about themselves in a novel. This is a great way to lose friends and strain relationships among family members. If you don't want to ask for permission, you'd better change the character enough to not have it become a liability.

If the story or idea for the story is based on someone else's experience, you may want to get written consent to utilize the story rather than face a lawsuit later on. There are all sorts of different circumstances for this, but for the most part, there isn't a reason not receive permission beforehand in writing (always in writing).

Your story is interesting to you, but will it be to someone else? Why will readers want to willingly hand over their hard earned dollars on your book? What will they get from the story when they close the book?

I'd hate to think that authors might not live life, but merely be content to record it. But I'd also hate to think that a writer wrote a reality too closely lived. Be sure to really consider your motivation for writing personal experiences and make sure not to alienate the people you love in the process.

Research in Funny Places

by Annette Lyon

Good writers are big readers. They just are.

To paraphrase a friend of mine, fiction is a language, and to become fluent in it, you must study it a lot and regularly.

Read your genre of interest. Read classics. Read your market. Read outside your genre. Reread old favorites. Read bumper stickers and cereal boxes. Read everything.

Even if a book doesn't seem, at the outset, to be something that would benefit your work, consider cracking it open anyway. Be open for books (and other media) to feed your creative self in ways you wouldn't have come up with on your own.

Many times, non-fiction books I've read on topics that have nothing whatsoever to do with my current work in progress have later become great resources.

For example, A year or two ago I went on a Deborah Tannen kick. Tannen is a socio-linguist who studies conversational styles, and her books are fascinating. After reading several of them, I understood my own language style better, my family's style, and even my husband's.

But there were a couple of additional side benefits:

• I had a better grasp on how to write good, realistic dialogue that could have underlying meanings.
• I got smacked with a great idea for future characters and a storyline (that I'm now in the middle of)

I recently finished a book about body language, which I originally began just because I was curious (writers tend to be a curious lot). But as I read it, I couldn't help noticing gestures and behaviors described in it I could use to create perfect showing moments in my writing.

Maybe I could show this particular facial expression or gesture (ones I hadn't thought of before). New possibilities for showing instead of telling opened up for me.

Books on seemingly unrelated topics are always a great source for material, but I've also gotten all kinds of great ideas from random sources, including:

• A character that evolved from an Ann Landers column.
• Another character born after reading a scholarly paper from a university.
• The ability to accurately describe a fire in one book after my research for another one about police procedures (the police book happened to have a section on arson).
• An entire book concept that came to me while listening to a radio talk show.
• A key element in one book that struck me between the eyes after watching a TV drama.

I could go on, and I'm sure a lot of writers can look into things they've read, watched, or listened to and pinpoint where an idea came from.

Those ideas can't come to you unless you open the door for them.

Read. Watch. Listen. Always. The seemingly random things you're exposing yourself to are likely to be the things that fill up your creative well when you least expect it.

Respect Creative Needs

I met at a guy a couple of years ago at my day (or grave) job who likes to write and who was working on a novel. Naturally, this set us up to be good friends. Since we both worked graveyard shifts, we were both in need of methods to keep us awake. So we started playing instant messenger games. Kind of like "tag" with words.

He'd IM me a phrase, and I'd have to twist it to mean something else. He'd IM me the word "question" and I'd come up with an off the wall answer to which he would have to respond with the question that could lead to that answer.

These games were great for flexing creative muscles. He no longer works for my company but we still play word games on line. It keeps our creativity sharpened.

I mention this because I think it's important to respect those useful, albeit odd, ways of honing your own creativity.

Sometimes when I look inside myself to find creativity, I find nothing staring back at me. At those times I know it's time to dip my bucket into the creative well and fill it to overflowing.

Some methods I use--aside from my online word tag--are:

Art Galleries- It's amazing what kinds of stories come from staring at pictures. A couple of my most inventive novels started with a picture and ended in 80,000 plus words.

Online writer groups- Oddly enough, I've found most online writing groups to consist of very little talk about actual writing and a whole lot of "chat." But writers chat in a way that leads to inspiration. We can't help but view everything in a story format and even our chit chats create new avenues of expression.

Music- Give me symphony or give me death. Actually, I delve into all kinds of music depending on the mood. I have CD's from every music genre and use them as needed.

Discover Magazine and National Geographic- If you're having a hard time discovering anything new, go to those who are willing to make your discoveries for you. The world is an interesting place . . . learn about it.

The newspaper- I'm actually grounded from the newspaper. I tend to internalize bad news and carry it around with me long after it's considered yesterday's news. But a lot of people I know get ideas for new stories based on what's really happening out there today.

The Mall- sit in the foodcourt and eavesdrop. People do and say the quirkiest things. Go have a listen.

Writer's Digest- They have some great writing prompts, kind of like my IM tag. Writing prompts send your mind in directions you'd never take on your own.

Blogs- it's true. The blogging world is a creative well. So much can be found there: motivation, commiseration, nuts and bolts, ideas, life, language, humanity . . . and if nothing else, our writing should reflect the humanity that we are.

Sometimes I clean closets and drawers when I need to fill my well. It sounds lame, but I'm willing to bet my next contract that I'm not alone in obsessive housekeeping being used as a tool for creative needs.

If you look inside yourself and find nothing staring back at you, go get your bucket and lower into whatever well that will allow you to bring that bucket up full again. And whatever that well may be--make sure to respect it so it's available for the next time.

Fiction vs. Reality

by Annette Lyon

There's a reason Tom Clancy said, "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."

No kidding. I've heard many, many beginning writers go off on a tangent, demanding, "But that's how it really happened!"

So? That doesn't mean you should write it that way in your fiction. It's very easy to try "writing what you know" in the sense of recreating your own experiences in the pages of a novel. I think all beginning writers are guilty of that to some extent. And yes, it can work.

But here's where the problems creep in:

1) It becomes unbelievable.
This is the most common problem. A beginning writer recently complained that he entered his real war story into a contest, only to be told by the female judge that it was too unbelievable. He dismissed her comments because SHE WAS A WOMAN, so naturally wouldn't "get" a war story.

Hmmm. Maybe he should take a look at how he WROTE the story. I haven't read the piece, and I don't know the judge, so I'm just guessing here, but since I've judged enough of these things, I'm thinking I'm not too far off the mark: He probably didn't show what was going on, explain the situations, put the reader into the moment, make the motivations clear.

Your audience should be able to figure out, believe, and be immersed in your story regardless of gender. If he/she just can't buy it, the problem doesn't rest with the reader. It rests with YOU, the author. It's YOUR job to make the piece believable.

2) You're writing it like a journal entry.
In journals, we usually recount events. We don't recreate the scenes complete with dialogue and descriptions. If you've fallen into this trap, you're TELLING, not SHOWING, and the piece has turned into a boring sequence of events. (This happened and then this happened . . .)

Fiction must be propelled by motivation and conflict. Life isn't always like that. It USUALLY isn't like that. Stuff just happens. But in your story, events must be causally linked, and you must have conflict as the driving force.

If you're adapting a real story to fiction, you've got to be willing to hack it to pieces enough (taking out the boring parts, combining new elements) so that it becomes compelling to a reader and isn't just a bunch of journaled events.

Which leads to:

3) You won't adapt for the sake of the piece.
Sometimes a real-life story is a great springboard for fiction. But since we've established that you are writing FICTION, guess what? You can make it up. You don't have to stick with what really happened, even if you are basing the story on your first boyfriend who was such a jerk. Move things around. Change a plot point. Add a new conflict or subplot over there. Throw in a new minor character here. Clinging to "what really happened" when you're writing fiction is pointless and will result in a flat piece.


We all write from personal experience to some extent; it's inevitable. Just don't get so hung up on keeping what's "real" at the expense of what could be very good if you just shook it up a bit.

Selling Your Life Stories

I once heard about an author who wrote to Rudyard Kipling and said, “I’ve heard you receive payment of $5 per word for your writing. Enclosed is a five dollar bill. Send me a word.” Kipling sent back a sheet of paper that said, “Thanks.” Sometime later Kipling received another letter from the gentleman and a check for $100. The letter said, “I sold the story of your one-word reply to a magazine for $200. The enclosed check is your half.”

This type of story, called an anecdote, can be found in magazines, newspapers, and even in popular series such as Chicken Soup for the Soul. Online Dictionary.com defines the anecdote as: “A short account of an interesting or humorous incident.” A search on Google.com results in 5,710,000 hits for anecdotes, and Reader’s Digest Magazine has long known that their humor departments—All in a Day’s Work, Humor in Uniform, and Life in These United States—almost always finish one, two, and three in popularity.

Anyone can learn to write an anecdote if they know how to mine their own lives for the moment of humor or poignancy that will tickle the funny bone or touch the hearts of others. Ideas come from personal stories, those favorite tales we tell about our families, friends, workplace, vacations, and so on. Think about your childhood, school years, or tales your family tells about long-dead relatives. Perhaps these stories deserve to be heard by a bigger audience.

When you write your anecdote, begin by thinking about the ending. Does your story have a punch line? Every anecdote needs a powerful ending, something that will either make your audience laugh or allow them to feel the emotion of the moment. Once you have the end, find the beginning. Keep the anecdote short and on track. Tangents, even funny ones, will detract from your ending.

Most anecdotes run 300 words or less and markets often pay well for them. Reader’s Digest gives the following information on their website: “Everyone's got a funny story. What's yours? Believe it or not, we actually pay our readers to make us chuckle. Just send us your hilarious story, and if we publish it in Reader's Digest, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank. Here's how it works: We pay $300 for true, never-before-published stories we print in Life in These United States, All in a Day's Work, Humor in Uniform or Virtual Hilarity.” A simple online form allows readers to submit stories electronically.

So, think about your life stories. Is there something there that you might be able to write into an anecdote? As you read newspapers and magazines this week, pay attention to the different kinds of anecdotes they use, then write one to submit. Maybe you’ll find yourself $300 richer when they buy your little slice-of-life.

Quotes from the vine (or Arthur Levine)

I'm quoting something I read several months ago that Arthur Levine (of Harry Potter fame) wrote. He said:

"People often ask me how I stay responsive to wonderful new manuscripts when
I read so many every week, every day. The good news and the bad news is that
the
really special ones stand out as distinctly as real flowers in a shop
full of
plastic imitations. And it's just like that really. The actual,
living flower,
has a smell. It isn't perfect, it's colors can be off a bit.
But it's REAL and
you know it. On the other hand, those plastic flowers
represent a syndrome that
results in nine out ten of the rejections I write
every week: let's call it
channeling. Channeling is a common problem to
writers of any sort of piece be it
poetry, fiction, or journalism, but it's
a particular hazard of the various
literary forms that make up the broad
category of children's books: picture
books, chapter books, middle grade
novels, Young Adult novels and nonfiction of
all levels. In most cases, I
believe channeling is not done intentionally. A
writer simply sits down at
his or her computer and sets out to write, let's say,
a picture book story.
Suddenly, that person is possessed by the spirit of Dr.
Seuss. Everything
comes out in rhymed, metered verse, with a plethora of made-up
words to help
make the lines work.”

I really like what he said and I really hate what he said. I like it because
I agree. I hate it because I am sometimes guilty of the "channeling" crime. I'm
going to be argumentative just because I'm about ten hours late posting this
blog and feel argumentative.

Channeling is not necessarily a bad thing if you do it well . I've thought about it a lot since
I read Arthur's article. I've pondered it because he deals in
children's literature and I write for a YA market--most of the time. I've
concluded that to a child nothing is cliche if it is well written. Think on how many retellings with new twists there have been with Cinderella. Though these author's have had to channel a little to get their stories out, they added their own flair and made the stories new again.

But I loved what he said about the real flowers versus the plastic ones. In every contest I've ever judged, the real flowers stood out among the plastic ones and I knew. I knew the winners, because they were the ones who'd taken the time to learn to write.

How Much Do I Research?

by Heather Moore

Whether you’re writing a historical novel, a contemporary novel, or a non-fiction how-to book, you need to do your research. You don’t need to be the expert, but you need to be as careful and as thorough as possible. Let someone else be the expert, and you can use their decades of research in your book.

Keep a list of sources, then cite them in your author notes. Some authors include resources in their acknowledgments. If you are writing historical fiction, you may need to include a bibliography. If you are writing non-fiction, you must include a bibliography. More and more contemporary novels have included resources in the author notes or the acknowledgments.

When I write historical fiction, I use a footnote system. Eventually I delete the footnotes and turn some of them into chapter notes. But I always keep the original version with the footnotes, so if I ever have to backtrack, or an editor questions the validity of a point, I can immediately locate my research. When I’m writing, I’ll highlight a word or a sentence that I need to follow-up with more research. That way, my writing isn’t slowed when I’m in the middle of a scene.

Some authors do all the research before they start to write the first sentence. And some might do just enough to get the story going. Researching can be two-fold. It can bog you down and eat up your writing time. Or it can inspire a plot, sub-plot or formulation of a scene. Find a balance. If you spend an hour on research, plan to spend the same amount of time on writing.

Using Free Research Tools

Writers need to do research, often from home, and usually about obscure details that most people wouldn’t know or think about needing to know. A plethora of free research tools are available to writers via the internet, but as many of you know, using search engines like Google can result in thousands, if not millions of hits, and you’re still not guaranteed the information you most need.

Let me point you to a few free research tools that might prove more fruitful, or at least help your find information from the deep web that a surface website like Google or Yahoo won’t know.

The state of Utah, in an effort to make deep web sources readily available to teachers and students, sponsors an organization called the Utah Education Network. One of the perks of using that site is free access to Pioneer, a multi-level research tool. http://pioneer.uen.org/k12/index.jsp

Pioneer takes you to a variety of resources in the General Reference Collection. These incude:
CultureGrams - Information on countries, the 50 United States and their cultures.
EBSCO - General reference and books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and encyclopedia resources.
eMedia - Search, preview and download educational videos and supporting media.
SIRS Discoverer Deluxe - General reference for elementary and middle schools.
SIRS Knowledge Source - General reference for high school and college researchers.
Visual Thesaurus - A 3-D interactive thesaurus and dictionary.
World Book Encyclopedia - Articles, pictures, maps, audio and video clips.

The special Utah Collection includes:
Deseret News Archives - Search articles from 1988. Also see today's Deseret News.
The Salt Lake Tribune (Today's Online Version.)
SURWEB - Search thousands of images from Utah as well as a media basket to build online presentations.
State of Utah Archives - A repository for Utah's government historical business records.
Utah Collections Multimedia Encyclopedia - Explore Utah video, audio, pictures, maps, text, charts, and graphs.
Utah Digital Newspaper Search old newspapers from various Utah communities.
Utah's Local Newspapers
Counties of Utah

Additional Library Resources available from this site include:
Spanish Resources/Recursos Españoles
MarcoPolo - National curriculum for teachers. Arts, Economics, Geography, Humanities, Mathematics, Reading and Language Arts, and Science.
ThinkQuest - Utah is a state partner for this student-centered, International project.
American Library Association Internet Resources
Library of Congress

So whether you’re in the middle of doing research or not, the Pioneer Library might be a fun place to go and look around. You never know what information you find there that might lead you to your next article, novel, or poetry.

If you have trouble accessing the library from home, the following information may be valuable to you: To access the K-12 Pioneer Library from home, go to: http://pioneer.uen.org.
Username: pioneer Password: cake

Generating Articles

by Annette Lyon

I've had a lot of success in recent months selling articles to magazines. In addition to hearing, "Congratulations," and "I'm jealous," I'm also hearing, "How do you get your article ideas?"

You can learn about ideas, finding angles, and writing what you know in writing magazines and books. I did all that for years and still couldn't seem to manage to come up with many concrete, specfic ideas.

But below, I'm about to spill what I finally learned about getting article ideas.

1) Read the ads, not the articles.
Contrary to what you might think, magazines make the bulk of their money from selling ad space, not from selling subscriptions. If you pitch an article that might sell them more ad space, you have a better chance of getting your foot in the door.

Several months ago I noticed that a magazine I subscribe to had a lot of ads from companies specializing in modest clothing like extra-long t-shirts and formal dresses with sleeves and low hemlines. I pitched an article on how to dress fashionably and while fully covered, complete with side bars that had resources for companies that carried such clothing. The magazine snatched it up. (And can you guess where they turned to for selling ads that month? Yep. My side bar contact information.)

2) Look months ahead.
Several magazines actually post their upcoming topics online. Such listings are a freelancer's goldmine. If an editor is looking for something about easy Halloween costumes for the October issue, by all means, send one in! Just be sure to read deadlines and note lead times. Magazines don't go by the typical calendar. When the rest of the population is thinking summer, editors are thinking winter or even spring.

3) Follow trends and twist them.
If you've followed a magazine for a while, you know what topics they've covered and what they like. Capitalize on that. Find a similar but untapped topic. If they recently ran an article about sending a child off to college, pitch one about how parents can keep in touch with that child once they're AT college.

4) Find what you know that's abnormal.
I recently threw together an article last minute that I thought was rather obvious and lame. The editor took it, I thought, because she needed to fill a space and was desperate. But I've had lots of people tell me they thought it was wonderful, and the editor has used me several times since then. Turns out that not everyone knows this stuff after all, and I can capitalize on that fact.

Everyone has knowledge that no one else does. The trick is finding out what you know that others don't. You might be surprised how much you know that you can share.


Use a few of these tips, and you could be selling some articles of your own. It's easier than you might think!

Getting Ideas

by Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

I attend a lot of conferences where published authors speak. Without fail, the most often asked question from the audience is: Where do your ideas come from? Although writers often have specific events that trigger a scene or an entire story, the most reliable answer to this question is everywhere!

Writers are people who pay attention. They watch for the small detail, snatch segments of interesting conversations, see how life itself fits neatly into the outline of a plot, get inspiration from their own life, the lives of others, things they see on television, in the movies, read in books, and on and on.

The difference between the author and anyone else is that the writer actually writes. Most people who say they would like to write just never take the time to do so, letting their ideas stagnate until they just fade away.

If you’d like to write, but think you don’t have any ideas, here are a few techniques that might get you started. Keep a journal to record your ideas.

• Free-writing is to write whatever pops into your head. Start with a word or topic like Christmas. Don’t worry about complete sentences or proper punctuation. Set a timer for ten minutes and don’t stop writing until the buzzer sounds, even if you have to keep writing the same word over and over.
• Brainstorming uses free association. Write a subject at the top of your paper, then list every idea that comes to your mind relating to that idea.
• Clustering, also known as webbing, uses this same principle, only you make word bubbles which connect ideas across your page.
• Asking questions is a technique used by news reporters. Ask: Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why. Although not every topic can answer every question, you’ll have plenty of raw material to write a rough draft.
• Use your senses. Most people rely on the sense of sight, but every second you’re awake your brain is taking in information from all five of your senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Even the most common places overflow with sensory detail if you just stop to notice them.
• What if questioning is a creative thinking technique which allows the writer to use cause and effect thinking. Author Stephen King sometimes uses this method. "What if you could bury something dead and it came back to life? What if a car had a personality and learned to love its owner? What if you could start a fire just by thinking about it?" If you’re a King fan, you will recognize the questions as some of his famous books.

As you go about your business this week, start acting like a writer. Look for ideas at home, at work, or during recreational activities. Jot these ideas in your writer’s notebook, then use one of these ideas to help you put together a story, essay, or a poem.

You’ll be amazed by how many new ideas will come into your head, and when a reader asks where your ideas come from, you’ll have the answer.