So different from the British cover and so eerie!
I love them both.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
And Here's The Cover for the dead & the gone from Harcourt!
So different from the British cover and so eerie!
I love them both.
Shaping Your Story
In my career, I've been taught four lessons that have served me well. Today I'm going to discuss two of them, holding the other two in reserve. How many lessons can my beloved slowly gained readership take in one day, after all.
Back to today's two lessons. The first came from an editor I worked with on my book The Year Without Michael. She taught me the following:
Start your stories as close to the middle of the action as possible.
Impressive looking, isn't it. And kind of basic. But it was something I needed to be taught, since my manuscripts tended to start with lengthy expositions of how it was my characters happened to be where they were before the action ever started.
If there were money to be earned writing case histories, I would have been a happy person.
To feed the Google Alert monster, I'm going to demonstrate how to start stories with Life As We Knew It and the dead & the gone.
With LAWKI, I had decided to violate the Start The Stories rule just a bit, because I felt it was important for the readers to see Miranda's world before things turned upside down. While my editor didn't disagree, she did make me cut the beginning section. In spite of her editing and mine, I have read criticisms that the beginning drags a bit. Bad, wicked criticisms, but criticisms just the same.
Still, I knew the beginning had to have a grabber first sentence, and I decided on:
Lisa is pregnant.
That way the readers get to wonder who Lisa is and why it's important that she's pregnant. It also leads to a snapshot of Miranda's family. Lisa's pregnancy is big enough news that Miranda can think about her father, stepmother, mother and two brothers, all in the opening diary entry. So even though I didn't start as close to the middle of the action as I could have, the beginning accomplished what I needed it to. And it's definitely better than ten pages of Complete Family History with charts and x-rays.
the dead & the gone on the other hand starts very close to the middle of the action:
At the moment when life as he had known it changed forever, Alex Morales was behind the counter at Joey's Pizza, slicing a spinach pesto pie into eight roughly equal pieces.
I love this opening sentence, in no small part because of all the information it conveys. Something huge is about to happen in the life of Alex Morales, a boy old enough to be working at a pizza parlor. He probably isn't rich, because he's working at the pizza parlor, not ordering the pizza himself. But it's the kind of neighborhood where people eat spinach pesto pizzas. And I've echoed the title of Life As We Knew It, so readers can see a continuum.
Before I forget, let me recommend the book Truffaut/Hitchcock, which taught me enormous amounts about storytelling, including the fact that if you want to show Character A go from one place to another, you just cut from one place to the other and don't waste time showing him actually getting there.
Back to lessons learned from editors. This next one, I learned from the editor I worked with on Kid Power. She pointed out that I had several chapters where the characters just talked.
I figured since all I ever did was talk, that's what my characters should do as well. But my editor said no, characters actually had to do things. And she taught me the following trick:
Take a piece of paper and write, line by line, the number of chapters in your book. Then write a single piece of action for each chapter. I'm going to do a quick demonstration with the Gang vs. Baseball story of a few entries ago. This isn't going to come easy for me, since that's not a story I'll ever write. But here goes:
1 First day of school for M. He is lonely and uncomfortable.
2 M sees guys practicing baseball and asks if he can work out with them.
3 M joins his cousin and his gang friends for an afternoon frolic.
4
5 M plays his first ballgame with his new team.
6
7 Maybe something about team friends. Maybe they're not warm and cuddly.
8 M's cousin urges M to join gang. M agrees to go along for an evening frolic.
9 Crime committed by gang leader. M and cousin witness it.
10 Cousin arrested. M wants to tell cops everything but cousin says no, it'll put family in jeopardy.
11 M figures out solution.
No doubt you've noticed a couple of the numbers are just sitting there, minding their own business. If I were actually going to write The Story Of M, I'd fill those chapters in. My basic rule is when in doubt throw a party, so probably there'd be a party scene, which might be a good way to have M's cousin interact with M's team. If I give M a girl friend, I could use her for a chapter or two. Or maybe I'd have M get a phone call from back home that for some reason upsets him and pushes him into that gang evening frolic. And I'd certainly know what M's solution is before I ever began writing.
What the chapter outline does is show me where I need to beef up the action. It's the best outlining system I've ever been taught, and I pass it along to you free of charge.
Next time, I'll teach you the two other lessons I've learned and throw in anything else that probably should be mentioned. Be prepared. After all, one of us should be.
Back to today's two lessons. The first came from an editor I worked with on my book The Year Without Michael. She taught me the following:
Start your stories as close to the middle of the action as possible.
Impressive looking, isn't it. And kind of basic. But it was something I needed to be taught, since my manuscripts tended to start with lengthy expositions of how it was my characters happened to be where they were before the action ever started.
If there were money to be earned writing case histories, I would have been a happy person.
To feed the Google Alert monster, I'm going to demonstrate how to start stories with Life As We Knew It and the dead & the gone.
With LAWKI, I had decided to violate the Start The Stories rule just a bit, because I felt it was important for the readers to see Miranda's world before things turned upside down. While my editor didn't disagree, she did make me cut the beginning section. In spite of her editing and mine, I have read criticisms that the beginning drags a bit. Bad, wicked criticisms, but criticisms just the same.
Still, I knew the beginning had to have a grabber first sentence, and I decided on:
Lisa is pregnant.
That way the readers get to wonder who Lisa is and why it's important that she's pregnant. It also leads to a snapshot of Miranda's family. Lisa's pregnancy is big enough news that Miranda can think about her father, stepmother, mother and two brothers, all in the opening diary entry. So even though I didn't start as close to the middle of the action as I could have, the beginning accomplished what I needed it to. And it's definitely better than ten pages of Complete Family History with charts and x-rays.
the dead & the gone on the other hand starts very close to the middle of the action:
At the moment when life as he had known it changed forever, Alex Morales was behind the counter at Joey's Pizza, slicing a spinach pesto pie into eight roughly equal pieces.
I love this opening sentence, in no small part because of all the information it conveys. Something huge is about to happen in the life of Alex Morales, a boy old enough to be working at a pizza parlor. He probably isn't rich, because he's working at the pizza parlor, not ordering the pizza himself. But it's the kind of neighborhood where people eat spinach pesto pizzas. And I've echoed the title of Life As We Knew It, so readers can see a continuum.
Before I forget, let me recommend the book Truffaut/Hitchcock, which taught me enormous amounts about storytelling, including the fact that if you want to show Character A go from one place to another, you just cut from one place to the other and don't waste time showing him actually getting there.
Back to lessons learned from editors. This next one, I learned from the editor I worked with on Kid Power. She pointed out that I had several chapters where the characters just talked.
I figured since all I ever did was talk, that's what my characters should do as well. But my editor said no, characters actually had to do things. And she taught me the following trick:
Take a piece of paper and write, line by line, the number of chapters in your book. Then write a single piece of action for each chapter. I'm going to do a quick demonstration with the Gang vs. Baseball story of a few entries ago. This isn't going to come easy for me, since that's not a story I'll ever write. But here goes:
1 First day of school for M. He is lonely and uncomfortable.
2 M sees guys practicing baseball and asks if he can work out with them.
3 M joins his cousin and his gang friends for an afternoon frolic.
4
5 M plays his first ballgame with his new team.
6
7 Maybe something about team friends. Maybe they're not warm and cuddly.
8 M's cousin urges M to join gang. M agrees to go along for an evening frolic.
9 Crime committed by gang leader. M and cousin witness it.
10 Cousin arrested. M wants to tell cops everything but cousin says no, it'll put family in jeopardy.
11 M figures out solution.
No doubt you've noticed a couple of the numbers are just sitting there, minding their own business. If I were actually going to write The Story Of M, I'd fill those chapters in. My basic rule is when in doubt throw a party, so probably there'd be a party scene, which might be a good way to have M's cousin interact with M's team. If I give M a girl friend, I could use her for a chapter or two. Or maybe I'd have M get a phone call from back home that for some reason upsets him and pushes him into that gang evening frolic. And I'd certainly know what M's solution is before I ever began writing.
What the chapter outline does is show me where I need to beef up the action. It's the best outlining system I've ever been taught, and I pass it along to you free of charge.
Next time, I'll teach you the two other lessons I've learned and throw in anything else that probably should be mentioned. Be prepared. After all, one of us should be.
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Long National Nightmare Is Over
Okay, it wasn't so long and it wasn't national, but it cost me 2 sleeping pills and 1 Yankee game (I'd been planning to go today), so as far as I'm concerned, it was quite the nightmare.
Thanks to wonderful Mr. Cavin and wonderful Marci and her equally wonderful daughter Sara, not only are things back to normal at my beloved blog, but there's been an addition of the British cover for The Dead And The Gone.
Meanwhile, I found a number of important e-mails hidden away as junk over at Lycos, so I will answer all of them today. I apologize for not having thought to check what Lycos thinks of as junk mail. I will now go there obsessively and sift for gold.
Since I refuse to imagine that anything so wonderful or so terrible that it would merit a blog entry will happen between today and tomorrow, my next entry will be about outlining a story. I promise.
But now I'm off to see if I can find a "Joba Rules" tee shirt to order over the net. Shopping for one was my real reason for going to the Yankee game today.
Thank you again,Mr. Cavin, Marci and Sara.
Thanks to wonderful Mr. Cavin and wonderful Marci and her equally wonderful daughter Sara, not only are things back to normal at my beloved blog, but there's been an addition of the British cover for The Dead And The Gone.
Meanwhile, I found a number of important e-mails hidden away as junk over at Lycos, so I will answer all of them today. I apologize for not having thought to check what Lycos thinks of as junk mail. I will now go there obsessively and sift for gold.
Since I refuse to imagine that anything so wonderful or so terrible that it would merit a blog entry will happen between today and tomorrow, my next entry will be about outlining a story. I promise.
But now I'm off to see if I can find a "Joba Rules" tee shirt to order over the net. Shopping for one was my real reason for going to the Yankee game today.
Thank you again,Mr. Cavin, Marci and Sara.
I AM A SLEEPWALKING IDIOT
I still haven't figured out how to get all your wonderful comments back, but I located the missing e-mails. And there were several. A lot of you nice people wanted to sell me Viagra, and a few promised me a longer penis, and at least one of you wanted me to know I'd won a giant lottery.
I am very grateful.
But in admidst these junk e-mails were actual ones sent by actual people. I will read them at length tomorrow when I'm not sleepwalking. And maybe by then someone will have let me know how to return the comments to their rightful entries, and all will be right with the world, except for the part George Bush runs.
It's 1:51 in the morning. I really think I should go to bed.
I am very grateful.
But in admidst these junk e-mails were actual ones sent by actual people. I will read them at length tomorrow when I'm not sleepwalking. And maybe by then someone will have let me know how to return the comments to their rightful entries, and all will be right with the world, except for the part George Bush runs.
It's 1:51 in the morning. I really think I should go to bed.
I AM AN IDIOT
In a ridiculous effort to learn how many people actually read my blog, I registered over at Haloscan (Never, Never trust an angel), and I did everything right, and as a result, I lost all the comments I've been cherishing from you people. And in my extended effort to try to regain them, I seem to have completely changed the way my blog looks, and the comments are still gone.
It is now 1:19 in the morning and I took a sleeping pill over an hour ago, so I'm clearly not at my best.
I really hope your comments magically reappear. I miss them...
Okzy, I got the blog looking the way it used to and that's something. But your comments, your comments...What is a blog without comments!
My generation was not brought up to edit Html. We were brought up to listen to rock n roll music and end the war in Vietnam.
You may not believe this but once I dyed my hair blonde and wore false eyelashes. The things I did to get the boys home safely.
I think I'd better go to sleep now, before I get a little too confessional. But let me throw myself on the mercy of my rapidly disdainful readership. I want your comments back. If you know how I can get them, please please let me know.
It is now 1:19 in the morning and I took a sleeping pill over an hour ago, so I'm clearly not at my best.
I really hope your comments magically reappear. I miss them...
Okzy, I got the blog looking the way it used to and that's something. But your comments, your comments...What is a blog without comments!
My generation was not brought up to edit Html. We were brought up to listen to rock n roll music and end the war in Vietnam.
You may not believe this but once I dyed my hair blonde and wore false eyelashes. The things I did to get the boys home safely.
I think I'd better go to sleep now, before I get a little too confessional. But let me throw myself on the mercy of my rapidly disdainful readership. I want your comments back. If you know how I can get them, please please let me know.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
E-Mails
A couple of people have mentioned sending me e-mails that I don't seem to have received.
I don't get that many e-mails, and trust me, I have no life. If you haven't heard back from me in, say, 36 hours, you should probably assume the e-mail has vanished into the ether, and if you so choose, please send it to me again.
Sorry about this. I love getting your e-mails, and I hate the thought of of missing any of them.
I don't get that many e-mails, and trust me, I have no life. If you haven't heard back from me in, say, 36 hours, you should probably assume the e-mail has vanished into the ether, and if you so choose, please send it to me again.
Sorry about this. I love getting your e-mails, and I hate the thought of of missing any of them.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Whoo Hoo! Here's The British Cover For The Dead And The Gone!!!
Actually it looks even better than this, because the words Dead, Gone and unlucky sometimes look red and sometimes look black, depending on the light. And the little figure to the right kind of looks like a penguin from a distance, but really looks like a boy close up (which is how people will see it when they pick up the book). And right next to the picture of LAWKI, it says: The terrifying follow-up to Life As We Knew It.
And I posted it all on my very own. A new personal achievement.
I am so excited. But you knew that!
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