When Nothing Works . . . Walk

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I’m not going to say that yesterday was a bad day because that wouldn’t be true. I had yoga. Yoga days are good days. Saturday I baked chocolate banana bread. Yoga and yum! What more could I want?

I was supposed to get a query or three out. One agent said she took nonfiction for all ages so I had saved her name. According to Query Tracker she is only taking picture book nonfiction. The piece I’m sending out is early middle grade. Another agent on my list is no longer representing any work for young readers. Yet another . . . where did she go?

Since I’m playing around with the idea for a new project, I could just work on that. The problem is that I have a good feel for several of my characters. I know my setting. I even know some of the day-to-day problems my characters will face. But I don’t actually know what they are going to do.

Finally my husband turned away from his desk. “You could probably go do something else? I bet you’d feel better.”

Yeah, I was probably irritating him at that point but he wasn’t going to say so. Still he knows me well enough to know that a change of scenery is usually a good idea. I decided to get on the treadmill and walk. I’m watching Judy Blume’s MasterClass on writing for children.

She talked about the number of ideas that she gets in the shower or when she’s walking. She said that she really feels for people who have ear buds in and are listening to music or a podcast. “They’re missing their best thinking time!” That’s me paraphrasing Judy there.

She’d probably be really disappointed that I’m walking and watching her class. But really, she needn’t worry. Because at one point ideas started popping into my mind. I can set up a situation that is similar to “I don’t want a new baby in the family.” It isn’t that my character hates babies, he’s just happy the way things are. But then he ends up saving a baby and . . . new baby in the house!

Don’t panic. My character isn’t a person. My character doesn’t save a human baby. But the real story line is going to be parallel to this and I think it be something that is easy for young readers to identify with. After all, adults are always telling kids what to think. My character can empathize.

Poor, Judy! I know she kept on talking but I was busy figuring things out. I don’t have enough situations to outline the whole story, but I know what my character’s arc is going to be. Now I need to figure out what he thinks his arc is. Note: They will be two entirely different things.

All it took was a walk for me to get started!

–SueBE

Emotional Layers

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Does your story have the emotional depth that it needs to hold your reader’s attention?  This is something that Janice Hardy wrote about at Fiction University. You can read her post (click here).

Hardy writes about the fact that our characters should, like actual people, be feeling multiple things at once. First, there is the primary emotion that is driving the scene. If it is an action scene, the primary emotion might be anger or fear. If it is a scene with a character showing off to their friends, it might be confidence.

But Hardy points out that we almost never feel only one thing. Add to this the fact that it can make the story a lot more interesting if the character is feeling multiple things at once and those things are contradictory. So your confident character might be worried that they are going to flub a line in the school play. Maybe they got it wrong during rehearsal. Maybe someone suggests that they are going to get it wrong.

Or your character may have an altogether inappropriate emotion. Any one else have a tendency to laugh during tense times? Or sad times? That would be me. At my grandmother’s funeral, I thought of something cheeky she would have said during a particularly pompous sounding speech and had to fight to suppress the giggles.

Read Hardy’s post and you’ll hear about conflicting emotions, suppressed emotions, and more. When I worked my way through Darcy Pattison’s Novel Metamorphosis, I noted the various emotions displayed in each chapter by each character present. I was concerned that I hadn’t created the necessary depth. I wanted to make certain that I had changing circumstances in each chapter.  Did I shake things up enough for my characters?  I didn’t want one character to be the worried one and another to be the happy one, etc.

To verify that I had done it right, I went through the manuscript chapter by chapter noting characters, their starting emotions, and their final emotions. By laying in the various types of emotions that Hardy describes, it would guarantee a level of complexity that would be interesting for readers.

–SueBE

When Do You Stop Reading?

I think I made it to the end of Chapter 2. Then I dropped the book back into the library bag. I’ll return it unfinished on my next visit.

Did I give it 50 pages? Nope.

50 pages seems to be the advised minimum. It’s what a lot of people think you need to read to have a feel for the book. Maybe that’s what some people need, but with this book it just wasn’t necessary for me to keep reading.

I love cozy mysteries and I was really looking forward to this one. The detective wasn’t single but married. The book is set in Hawaii, someplace I find interesting but don’t know a lot about. I set this one aside for two weeks until I had time to savor it.

What was it that turned me off? One of the primary secondary characters speaks in in Hawaiian Pidgin. This is something that is really hard to pull off. You have to plant enough clues for the reader to still know what is going on. They may not know specifics but the broad strokes need to be clear. In this case, it just didn’t work.

I’ll admit, I have a number of things that land a book back in the library bag unread. In no particular order, they are:

• Dialect that I can’t understand or that sounds fake. For me, this includes “Southern” created by someone who wouldn’t know grits from polenta.
• Predictability. If a story feels predictable, I skip to the end. Am I right? Yes! Then the book goes into the library bag. No! Then I’ll keep reading.
• Whiny main characters.
• Casual racism, xenophobia, ageism, and misogyny.
• Pointless gore.
• I cannot under any circumstances be bored.

I think that’s about it. I actually read a wide variety of books including mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction of various kinds, and more. On my bedside table I have a book about geology, manga, a mystery, magical realism, and a book on chemistry. I’m a ready with wide ranging tastes but there are things I will not read. And I’ve actually quit reading 60 percent of the way through a book.

What makes you quit reading a book?

–SueBE

Favorite Childhood Books

If you normally read my blog or you’ve checked out my author’s page on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve probably figured out that I ‘m a total library fan girl. I’ve been a book lover since before I was a reader, so I have many fond memories of libraries and childhood book. Here are a few of my favorites. And yes, I mean a few. I was the kid who travelled with a suitcase of books because I couldn’t make up my mind.

Anyway, favorite books–

The Boxcar Children.  I discovered this one when I was 11.  I had just moved to a new school but I was hardly alone.  A new area had been pulled into our district and the administration bussed us hither and yon.  I spent a lot of time in the library and I can’t even tell you how often I read this particular book.  Not the series.  I’m not even sure that I knew there was a series.  I read the first book again and again.  What did I love about it?  That these kids took care of themselves without adult interference.  And they did it without any of that Lord of the Flies nonsense.  They found the boxcar and they furnished it on their own. Take a look around my home and you’re going to see a host of found items.  

This may be the book that I read the most but there were other favorites in my early reading life…

Everything by Marguerite Henry.  The first book of hers that I owned was either Black Gold or Mustangs.  I was truly a horse crazy kid and I devoured these books.  I begged for these books.  I drove my mother a bit batty with these books. I loved all things horse.

Recently I found a photo of my mother on horseback. It was taken when I was in the horse-book stage. This photo made it very clear that she was just barely tolerating the horse.

I loved that Henry’s books were often about real horses although the stories were made up.  My family has a strong Southern story telling tradition so even at a young age I got that link between fact on one hand and story on the other.

Jared’s Island by Marguerite De Angeli.  Yep. Another kid surviving without pesky adults book.  How much did I love this one?  Look at the title and you’re going to find my son’s name.

The crazy thing is that as I write this post, I think of book after book.  And as I think of each one, I think — ooo, that’s my favorite.  What else have I remembered?  The Little House books, The Tarzan books (yes the adult fantasy novels), Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Meg Mysteries, my grandfather’s Foxfire books, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, several books by Mark Twain including Connecticut Yankee. Yep. Not Tom Sawyer. Not Huck Finn. Connecticut Yankee.

Just as these books shaped me, they shape my writing in subtle ways.  I still love stories about kids who do for themselves. “Where are their parents?” ask my critique partners. And I still love the subtly offbeat. Foxfire? Really?

Now it’s your turn. What were your favorite books?

–SueBE

Modelling After a Mentor Text

Yesterday my latest book order arrived. I’d been waiting to buy the next two books in my favorite manga series and then I realized something. I needed the first Hank the Cowdog book. That’s the joy of being a writer. I don’t want the book. I need the book.

And I do. Because I’m using it as a mentor text.

I love mentor texts. When I started writing for the school library market, I had to ask for them. The guidelines for a series always say something about the book’s tone and the reading level. You’re told what type of vocabulary you should be using. But these things are always subjective. What I consider “knowledgeable but casual” might not sound casual to someone else. Because of that, it really helps to be able to see something that models what the editor or publisher wants to see. Now when the publisher sends out the guidelines, 9 times out of 10 I get a mentor text as well. Yay!

I have an idea for a new project. Because I definitely do NOT need something new to work on right now. But isn’t that always when something new is especially alluring? But I don’t generally write for the chapter book market. I know I can nail the reading level, I’m really good at that, but I’m less sure about the pacing.

Enter Hank the Cowdog. By studying another book, I’ll see how quickly I should be introducing new characters. I’ll be able to gauge how many I should introduce at a time. How many secondary characters should be in play? How much detail do I need to give when it comes to character description or setting? And how do you handle an animal main character who speaks directly to the reader? When do I need to hit the various major plot points?

This is where Hank comes in. By reading through this favorite, I can get a feel for pacing and how much details I should include. I won’t want to copy Hank, after all I’m not using the book as a template. But by looking at how another author does it, I have a convenient mentor text to help me find my way.

–SueBE

How to Write an Invoice

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I’m not sure why I hate invoicing as much as I do. Perhaps the problem is that I worry about not ticking all the right boxes. The problem is that you can’t just send the publisher a one line e-mail.

“You owe me $500 for activity writing.”

“Please pay me $1000 for writing that book.”

Instead, you need to give the accounting department enough information to know who they are paying and why. So what exactly do you need to include?

Here is my basic invoice in italics.

INVOICE  

From:   (Name)  
(Street Address)
(City, State and Zip)
(Phone)
(e-mail)
(SS #)

To:    (Publisher Name)  
(e-mail)

RE:  (Billing for what?)  Slip the book or article title or the contract number in here.

Description of what you did                                                  $XX.XX

Total Payable: $(Total)
Date of Invoice: (Month, Day, Year)

PAYABLE TO:
(Repeat of name and address, city, state zip)

Now for some explanation.  

From

This is obviously your information.  Be sure to include it and be sure it is correct.  Even if your publisher normally uses Paypal or Bill.com, they may decide to go back to paper checks. That happened to me about a year ago, and just last week they sent out another notice. Back to Bill.com we go.

To

Who are you billing?  Always include the name of the publisher. If it is a snail mail/hard copy,  I include the addy.  Normally the e-mail is enough.

RE

What is this bill for.  You don’t have to get really specific here.  I include the book or article title.  If I have a contract number that goes here as well. 

Description and $XX.XX

It is important to be as specific as possible about what this bill is for.  When I turn in something to Red Line, this line usually reads something like:

Evolution of Mammals Chapter 1, outline, working bibliography.  $XX.XX

If this is for a series of activities or sample passages, you will most likely have to list them individually. It is a pain but most publishers want more than “15 activities, $25.00/each. When I invoiced Education.com for a group of activities, it looked something like this:

Felt Heart activity and Photo                        $25.00

Hoop game and Photo                                    $25.00

Counting activity and 2 Photos                     $30.00

TOTAL                                                               

Be sure that you get this number right.

Obviously, if the publisher you are billing has different requirements, do what they say! But if they just ask for an invoice, this template will give you something to submit.

Last but not least, be sure to follow the instruction in your contract as to when to submit. Some publishers want the invoice when you have finished the project. Others pay some of the money when you submit the manuscript and the rest when the project is accepted. Some penalize you if you invoice too late. Follow their instructions so that you can be sure to be paid the full amount!

You want to be paid the full amount so be sure to follow instructions. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an invoice to write.

–SueBE

Muppet Me ala Microsoft 365 Designer

When I saw the Microsoft 365Designer Muppet that Amanda Jones made of herself, I had to give it a try. What do you think? It gave me two different versions. You can see Amanda’s post here.

The prompt that Amanda used to create her Muppet self was created by Rachel Lemansky. I’ll link to it here and then quote it:

3D render of a character in the style of The Muppets with a felt texture. The character is a happy female librarian with wavy silver lobbed hair, brown eyes, and black rectangle glasses. She is wearing a maroon turtleneck sweater that says “Let’s Read!” with a library background and Grover.

I adapted my prompt to read:

3D render of a character in the style of The Muppets with a felt texture. The character is a happy female librarian with a light red braid, hazel eyes, and tortoise shell rectangle glasses. She is wearing a black t-shirt that says “Let’s Read!” with a library background.

I think I make a pretty sharp Muppet. Yes, I have a deadline this week. Why do you ask?

The thing is that even when we have deadlines, perhaps especially when we have deadlines, it is vital that we take the time to play. And my life is pretty deadline heavy at the moment.

Last week, I turned in a revision on Monday, turned in a draft of a full book on Wednesday, turned in blog post for the Muffin that night, and then turned in an article for the WOW! May Markets newsletter on Friday. Friday, I also started working on the book that is due this coming Friday. It’s been pretty intense.

It is critical that we remember to relax and to take some time to play. I had way more fun generating images of fake me than I care to admit. I’ll be sharing some more of them in the future!

–SueBE

Begone Web Pirates!

Yesterday I was trying to get the source files together for my editor when I got a ping on one of my Facebook posts. Not only do I have my own account, I have my writing account, and I maintain the account for our church. That’s a lot of pings, but for some reason I looked down.

A notice had been affixed to an image on my author’s page. Someone was claiming ownership. I post a lot of book covers so I clicked through to see what was what. Sure enough, this was the cover of Naomi Shihab Nye’s Everything Comes Next. But this notice wasn’t from the Nye or the illustrator or the publisher. This was allegedly a sports media company. Hmm.

That smelled fishy so I did a quick Google search. Apparently infringement scams are a big deal on Facebook. Apparently someone will message you and offer to help you remove the warning that has been placed on your account. Of course, you will have to pay a fee which involves exchanging . . .

Do you see this coming?

. . . credit card info or banking info or something of that kind.

I haven’t been contacted for cash but I’ve also heard of scams that demand that you pay a fee for infringing on their copyright.

Generally publishers are happy for you to share their book covers, but I wanted it to be super clear that I took the photo on my post. So I deleted the old photo and took a photo of the cover of my advanced reader’s copy. Clearly visible in my bookmark, rose pink with an origami crane charm in stainless. My book in my possession. My bookmark in my possession. And I took the photo and emailed it to myself.

The best way to avoid phishing scams that claim you’ve infringed on someone’s copyright is to take your own photos. The photos that I take my be less wonderful that the cover photo created by the publisher but it is mine.

You can post this kind of photo to help market a book. Think BookTok, BookTube, and Booktwitter. But web pirates hope that they can spook you into giving them money or personal info.

Be sure you aren’t violating someone’s copyright and then just delete the phishing messages you get from web pirates. Don’t be their victims!

–SueBE

National Poetry Month and Themed Word Lists

Your theme may be carnivals or it may not.
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I have a post up today at The Muffin, Women on Writing’s blog. It is all about why non-poets need to study poetry. As I was working on this post, I clicked over to one of my own blog posts about using themed word lists. I hadn’t visited the site for some time where I access these lists so I clicked through.

What!

My browser flashed up a warning about unreliable content. A quick Google search revealed that others have had trouble with m-y-v-o-c-a-b-u-l-a-r-y(dot)c-o-m. Pfft. What a bother. So I went out in search of another source. Fortunately, Enchanted Learning has a great collection of word lists by theme. You can check them out here.

Why then would you want to use a themed word list? I’m glad that you asked.

Poetry

April is National Poetry Month. I may be many things — writer, blogger, teacher — but I am not a poet. That said, I periodically find myself playing with this form.

If you are taking part in a poetry challenge, you may find yourself having to write to a theme. Need to spin a poem on amphibians or biomes? Maybe your topic is cats. Poetry is a compact writing form. Each work has to have maximum impact. A themed word list can help you find just the right word.

Motion

In a picture book text I was working on, I needed a variety of words to describe animal movement.  The text was super brief so the words needed to be descriptive and very specific. What word best describes a ptarmigan strolling across the tundra? I knew it wasn’t strolling. I found my answer watching videos and scrolling through themed word lists for ideas.

Character POV

I have written about characters that knit, swim, and speak to wolves. Writing from my character’s unique POV requires a specialized vocabulary. I have to employ this vocabulary any time I look at the world through my character’s eyes. This means finding words that have to do with knitting or fiber, swimming or water, and wolves.

Digging Deep into the Details

A friend of mine wrote a book that involved treasure.  She wanted to strengthen this theme in the story so she used words associated with metal to describe various sounds throughout her book.

Any time that you are working with a theme or a character’s interest, using related words strengthens the relationship between the layers in your story.  When I go looking for themed words, I don’t always end up using the exact words that I find, but these found-words are usually good for nudging me along and helping me think of my own list of words.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some writing to do. I need to find words that have to do with “home.”

–SueBE

Cutting Words: What to do when you have way too many

I’ve blogged in the past about having to tighten my writing. After all, it is something most of us have to do at some point.

During this week’s revision, I realized that one chapter was about 33% too long. Basically, my limit was1000 words and I had written 1350. My first thought was that I couldn’t cut entire paragraphs because I needed the ideas. I just needed to express them in fewer words.  

But I wrote this particular chapter some time after I wrote the preceding chapter. So before I began my revision, I reread both. Ha! I had repeated information from chapter 1 in chapter 2. Two paragraphs delivered very little new information. I moved that new information to another paragraph and cut the rest.

Sometimes the easiest way to cut a large amount of text is to open a new file. Then I quickly reread a section, go to the new document, and write. I have the ideas in my mind but am ready to cut and cut deep. I write much shorter and tighter. It usually works.

In fact, it often works better than snipping a word here and a phrase there.  Why?

Because when I snip a bit here and a bit there, it reads like I’ve snipped a bit here and a bit there.  It feels patchy or clunky.  It definitely feels inelegant.

At one point in my writing career, I would have resisted going to an all new file.  It made me feel like I had wasted all that time.  And my words!  My precious words.

That was then. This is now. I realize a new file keeps me from fixating on what is.  It frees me to contemplate what needs to be.  In the long run, it’s a whole lot faster and less frustrating.

That said, I’m just as happy when I don’t have to draft a chapter more than once!

–SueBE