Month: November 2009

Posted in Conflict, Dialogue, Scenes

Triangles-More Angles and Sharp Edges

Posted on by beckylevine

Geometry? I don’t think so. Triangles, in math, hold no appeal for me.

Triangles in fiction, though, are a whole different subject.

The picture book I’m working on has three characters. Okay, well, four, but one’s a surprise, and I’m not talking about that one yet. But the family–three members.

I knew what the son–the hero–was about. I knew what the father was about. And I knew there was/should be a mother. Even if I didn’t know, at all, what she was about.

I wanted that mother. Not just because, well…I wanted to be in the story. For one thing, I wanted my young hero to have two (albeit well-meaning) antagonists, so he really has to fight to come through the winner. But also because I just like triangles.

Pick a scene, any scene. You’ve got two people in that scene, interacting with each other. Those two people can have a conversation. Those two people can have an argument. Those two people can create some serious tension.

Three can do more.

If you’re reading a scene with two characters, you may get some surprises, but there is a pattern you–as the reader–will be following. It’s kind of like watching tennis or ping-pong. It’s not always back and forth–the server might double-fault, or the receiver get aced. But basically, you know who’s going to hit the ball next. In a scene, you know–basically–who’s going to speak next, or act/react next.

If you add a third character to that scene, all bets are off. You can’t know, as the reader, with any certainty, who’s up next in the rally. You can’t anticipate, for sure, who’s going to be arguing with whom, or when (even if) the third character will throw in their own two cents. You can’t guess, when the hero takes a punch at someone else in the room, whether he’ll hit his target or that other guy in the room.

And, honestly, there are plenty of times when the writer can’t predict any of this either.

So I’m keeping my mother. With the help of a critique from Susan Taylor Brown, I now have the spark of an idea of what the mother is about. I’ll play with that in the next draft and see what she gives back to me, to the story. To that triangle.

Posted in Holidays

Lazy Time/Holiday Thanks

Posted on by beckylevine

There is something about knowing that school is out for a few days, people will be visiting, and food will be cooked to just put me into an I-Don’t-Have-To-Do-Anything mood. Okay, yes, a bit of cleaning, yesterday’s massive grocery shopping, and some organization, but I have a low-tolerance for stress and a high-tolerance for break-time! So, a day early, here is what I’m feeling thankful for this year, over the next few weeks.

  • Having a husband who cooks and loves it. Turkey? He’s smoking it. Main course for big family gathering on Friday? He’s cooking the cabbage leaves and the stuffing, and I’ll just help roll everything together. It’ll be a big production, with lots of family/audience participation, and everyone will have a blast.
  • Having a son who makes times like this easy. Quiet Thanksgiving, Son. Great, Mom. Crowded, rowdy Day-After-Thanksgiving, Son. Great, Mom. How about you dump the brown-sugar on the yams and bake them, Son? Um, Mom… Would you rather do the turkey, Son? Yams–Great, Mom! 🙂
  • Having some of our family close enough that sometimes we don’t have to drive anywhere to share time and space with them, and that–when we do–it’s all in a day’s trip. Having family that is fine with whatever we cook, has no problem with paper plates, and will spread out to eat in our kitchen and/or living room wherever there’s room. Having family that believes in crashing on a futon or the camping cot or the floor for the night, and that makes it all work. And having family that, even when they’re farther away, take the time for a phone call when they see you’re awake and updating your Facebook status!
  • Libraries. Yes, I’m obviously thankful for that all year, but days like these–even more so. Knowing I have that extra reading time-because that’s one way in which I, my husband, and our son fill down time–just makes me more grateful than ever than I live in a place where I can walk in, browse shelves, and take away a stack of books for free.
  • Seeing the economy staaaarrrrt to perhaps turn around. No, I don’t believe in “The Recession is Over” line, but I do see more cars on the freeway, hear of less people out of work, and have hopes that the path is curving upward just a bit, instead of continuing that steep, downhill slide.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and may you eat loads of your favorite foods, while wearing pants comfortable enough to take it all!

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Progress

Progress: The Muddy Definition

Posted on by beckylevine

I didn’t do NaNo this year. I keep saying that someday I will, but November never shows up on my calendar as a one-project, one-focus month. Every year, though, I follow along on blogs and Facebook and Twitter and eavesdrop on the conversations about how everyone is doing.

And every year, at this time of the month, with turkeys on order at the grocery store and cranberry sauce gelling in the pot, I think…how must NaNo writers be feeling. Four or five days with kids out of school, family visiting, and tryptophan sending us into naptime…and how many more words left to write?

I find myself worrying a little about NaNo stress levels and hoping that nobody’s really beating themselves up about word count or having to write The End in concrete in a week. I find myself hoping that they know there are many different meanings to progress and knowing that they have already achieved some form of it.

Here are just a few things that qualify, on my tally sheet, as progress:

  • Discovering the true, important goal of your hero.
  • Figuring out why your antagonist is so mean.
  • Working out the elements of your world–whether that be an elven forest, a far planet, or a particular street corner in your neighborhood.
  • Writing five chapters in a row without knowing what you’re doing, then realizing the connection between these scenes and the story arc—even if  you put off the revision till later.
  • Writing a half-page of perfect dialogue.
  • Writing one chapter in third person, another in first, two in present-tense, and six in past. And being okay with the fact that you’re playing around and experimenting.

Whether you did NaNo or not this month, I’m betting you achieved one of these progress markers, or another with as much weight. Let’s face it–the best progress of NaNo is taking your writing so seriously, with utter commitment, for this one month. And realizing, out of that month, that–minus the sore wrists and the exhaustion–this is the commitment you want to feel about your writing all year long.

What’s your definition of progress? What did you do this month that makes you proud of yourself as a writer? Leave me a comment and share.

Then go out and buy another two pounds of yams and another can of whipped cream for that pumpkin pie!

Posted in Friday Five

Randomy Friday Five

Posted on by beckylevine

1. I’m guest blogging today at Killer Hobbies, filling in for my critique partner who’s off being incredibly creative and productive at a writing retreat. The rest of the Killer Hobbyists have been blogging about the writing craft all week–incredibly detailed information about technique. Stop by and leave a comment on any of the posts, and Terri & I will enter you for a chance to win a copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

2. I’m feeling pretty committed to working through the entire plot (at a basic level!) of my WIP. I’m also heading into plotting the middle, which is going to test that commitment in a big way. It’s good timing, though, with the holidays coming up–less time for sustained writing, plenty of time for sitting down at the computer and figuring out a few scene goals.

3. I got some early critique feedback & questions from Susan Taylor Brown yesterday on my picture book. Good stuff. Yes, the mom either has to step up to the plate and DO something, or she can just back slowly away from the story at all. I’m in favor of the first option; we’ll see what she and I can come up with.

4. The weather today is some of my favorite. Gray clouds overhead with a little breeze that, every few minutes, picks up and blows leaves around, makes the bark on the eucalyptus trees wave, and causes SOMETHING you can only hear to skitter across the road or roof. It’s incredibly cozy, calling for fleece and a fire, I think. Okay, maybe not till tonight!

5. I’m jumping all over the place on Pandora, looking for new music I can plot to. I can do a bit more lively with plot than I can with writing, in fact more energy helps. This morning, I’m listening to Spin Doctors radio, but I’m considering some reggae for later in the day.

Posted in Plot

Back to the Drawing Board

Posted on by beckylevine

Hi, I’m Becky, and I’m a control freak.

Just ask my son. (Okay, on second thought, don’t do that.)

I cannot do it. I tried. I really tried to write scenes out of order. To picture a moment that will happen (maybe? probably?) in my story and write about it. To let go of any structure and just watch the words flow (yeah, right!) onto the page. To put off until later my concerns about why my MC is doing x or y and why she would move on to the next scene to do y or z.

No. Can. Do.

Do you see this?

That’s right. I’m a bit green with jealousy of all you free-formers. Okay, not really. Well, just a little. There are many, many parts of my life where I’d like to be more relaxed, less about peering ahead to see what’s coming, more…okay, I’ll say it–mellow.

On the other hand, I know writing isn’t about doing it the way that works for everybody else. It’s about doing it the way that works for you. Or in this case, me. I hate those jigsaw puzzles that are either all the same color or the same shape. I need some hint of the picture that’s coming and some way of id’ing some of the pieces that will go into it. I need to be able to hold up two pieces and see that there’s a bump to fit in the right-shaped hole. Even if I know, once I start writing again, my muse is going to come along with a paintbrush or a pair of scissors and make big changes.

So I’m plotting again. I’ve got my picture book out to a first reader (Hi, Susan!), and I have this week free to say to Caro, “So what comes next. And why?” And to listen to what she says back.

And it’s making me, yes…a lot more mellow. 🙂

Posted in Blog Contest, Mysteries

Stop by Killer Hobbies & Enter to Win THE WRITING & CRITIQUE GROUP SURVIVAL GUIDE

Posted on by beckylevine

My friend Terri Thayer is having an incredibly, wonderfully busy month. She’s already been to one long-weekend writing workshop, a quilt workshop/retreat, and is off again to a writing retreat in the Southwest. So, when she asked me if I’d like to guest blog for her this week, I said, “Sure.” I also said, “Can’t you sneak me into a suitcase,” but that’s beside the point!

Anyway, the ladies over at Killer Hobbies, decided to make their posts this week all about writing. If you haven’t stopped by this blog before, it’s a group of six mystery writers who, as they say, “are dying to discuss the hobbies that drove us to murder.”

This week at Killer Hobbies is Writing Workshop week. Each blogger will talk about a different element of the writing craft, with me chiming in on Friday about critiquing. When I heard about the idea, I decided this would be a good time to start my plan (yes, a bit early) for 2010, which is to do guest blogs & interviews and get some copies of my own book out to readers.

So…the first contest! Leave a comment at Killer Hobbies this week, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide. Small caveat: if the winner wants  a print copy, they’ll be first on my list to send out once I HAVE those print copies! If the winner would like a PDF for your Kindle (or other e-reader if those take PDF!), I can get that to them shortly after the contest, because I already have that in my hot, little hand. Well…in my computer.

We’re keeping this simple, each commenter gets one copy of their name in the hat, no matter how many comments you leave. Stop by all week & check out the posts. These writers all know what they’re talking about!

Posted in Friday Five

Friday Five: Less Known Christie Detectives

Posted on by beckylevine

This was a busy week. Lots of running around, lots of company, and lots of fun. All good, but one sign that I was feeling just a bit of overload…I retreated to my Agatha Christie shelf. Comfort reading, remembering who’s guilt on page one, then tracking the puzzle Christie created to see how beautifully she knew her craft.

I didn’t pick up any Poirots and just one or two Miss Marples. Instead, I’ve been remembering how much I love a few of her less famous used investigators. And, so today, a quiz. I’m offering no concrete prizes, although if you score any points at all, pat yourself on the back and award yourself a virtual one of these:

crown

See if you can place each of these investigators with at least one of the book in which they appear. Extra jewels if you tell me which one was an investigator AND a villain.

1. Superintendent Battle

2. Ariadne Oliver

3. Dolly Bantry

4. Jimmy Thesiger

5. Lucy Eyelesbarrow

You have my blessing to go check the back covers of any Christie books for blurbs. Beyond that, well…if it gets you to reread some great books, I can’t call it cheating! Have fun and let me know how you do in the comments!

Posted in Critique Groups, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, Writing Groups

Contest Winner & a Few Links

Posted on by beckylevine

Last week, I interviewed Martha Engber about her book The Wind Thief and ran a contest for an ARC of the novel. Today, while my son lay on the couch with another book in hand and a cat on lap, he reached into the bowl for me and drew the winner’s name.

Tara Lazar, Come on Down! Email me at beckylevine at ymail dot com, and send me your snail mail address. I’ll pop the book in an envelope and send it on its way!

I admit it, I do like Google Alerts. I like think that I’m not too obsessive about it, but it’s fun when one of the alerts shows up in your email, even if some of those links do seem to end somewhere in never-never land with no real source. Ah, the magic of the Internet. Sometimes, though, they take you a fun place.

Like finding out your book is available for pre-order at the Writer’s Digest online shop! In print and PDF version.

One more cool thing, and I’ll leave you to get back to work. Don’t you all have a novel to write or 30 picture book ideas to come up with?! 🙂

This morning, I got an email from Jane Friedman, at Writer’s Digest, telling me about a promotion they’re doing for the book. Every now and then I get these notes, and usually it’s just pretty exciting to think about a company like Writer’s Digest out there working to market my book. This idea, though, was particularly fun to hear about, because it comes with a freebie.

Which is always good.

Anyway, Writer’s Digest is setting up a critique-group registry, and any group that completes their form will get a free digital copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

Really!

You can read about it here and, if you want, sign up your group.

Posted in Uncategorized

Mom Pride…Just a Bit

Posted on by beckylevine

For those of you who have been reading my blog or my tweets/FB updates for a while, you probably know that I have one son. On the one hand, I try not to talk TOO much about him out here, just because…well, this is a writing/critiquing blog, not a mom blog. On the other hand, he comes up in topics sometimes, because–frankly–he’s a great reader and critiquer and one of the best fans of my writing I could ask for.

Last night, the roles got switched, and I got to be a fan. And, what the heck, I’m going to blog about it.

The school district he’s in for middle school has a writing contest every year and picks one winner from each school in the district. Last year, my son’s teacher entered a story he’d written for her class, and he won for his school. And that was the first step of an incredible program that the district has created. Here’s what happened after that point:

  • He took a workshop and uploaded his book onto a website that lets you format and publish your book online or order it bound, hard copy. You can scan in illustrations, too, which he did.
  • The program coordinator came to his school to take an author photo.
  • We bought our copies of the book.
  • A reporter from the San Jose newspaper called him for an interview.
  • Last night, he and the other winners had a ceremony/book signing at the local Barnes & Noble.

And I just have to say, last night was amazing. Barnes & Noble was packed, with the kids, their families and friends, and SO many teachers and principals. Each kid was called up to say a few words about their book, and they were given certificates, blank journals, and a gift card for the store. Then each principal escorted each author to his or her signing table.

My son brought a pen he’d made by inserting the ink tube from a ball point pen into the base of a feather. 🙂

I’m not going to go into all the thoughts and feelings I had as I saw him up there, because sometimes he reads my blog, and he’s not going to want to see all that in print. Mostly, it was just amazement and awe at who he has become and who he is still becoming. It’s not about the writing, although, of course, I love that. It’s about seeing this young man creating himself, turning into the person he wants to be. And knowing that he will keep doing that for decades and that I’ll get to watch.

It’s been years since my husband and I made the decision to have a child. I know that it is one of the best decisions, if not the best, that we ever made, and I know, too, how lucky we are to get to feel that way. Life is a story, and you never know which way the plot and characters are going to go.

I’m liking our arc just fine.

Posted in Picture Books

Friday Five: Thoughts on Picture Books

Posted on by beckylevine

Before I get started on my Friday Five, don’t forget to stop by and read my interview with Martha Engber, author of The Wind Thief. Leave a comment at that past, and I’ll enter you in the drawing for an ARC of her novel.

I am writing a picture book. Honestly, I wasn’t sure, as a writer over the past few years, whether I would ever do this. There is a magic in this genre, and I–like most people–have been captured by a certain special books that have stayed with me (and on my shelves) all my life.

I’m the person who spent her graduate years studying Victorian novels. Hello? 700+ pages? And this was decades BEFORE Harry Potter. I love novels, I love trilogies, I love series because when you fall in love with a world, or with a set of characters, you get to stay with them. When I was twelve and finished The Hobbit and found out there was more…!!

But I went through the mother years of being surrounded by picture books, by rereading and rereading my son’s favorites and managing to get in a few rereads of my oldies & goodies, as well. And when I got started with my own kids’ writing, the picture book thoughts were there as possibilities–the ideas that were right for that genre, not right for a novel.

So November 1st, in tandem with NaNoWriMo and Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo, I dug out the one idea I’d really been thinking about, opened up Ann Whitford Paul’s new book, Writing Picture Books, and got started.

So, for this first week as a picture-book writer, here are five thoughts:

1. I love the rhythm that Ann talks about, and that Anastasia Suen also discusses in her book Picture Writing—the rhythm of the threes. It is a beautifully simple structure and, while I know I’d be crazy to assume that meant simple writing or a simple book, it’s something I can work with. My brain likes patterns, and I like the one I’m finding here.

2. I am learning, all over again, to focus on the hero as impacting his own life. A young child, or a young bunny rabbit, can’t always solve their own problems, but–in a picture book–we’d darn well better see them trying and making a serious difference in the way the plot goes. It’s not just a matter of pushing the adult characters into the background; it’s bringing the child into the foreground. Still working on that one!

3. This thing about leaving room for the illustrator’s ideas is tricky. Critical, I know, but tricky. My gut is that, for this first pass I’m doing, the effort is sort of “blanding” my story out more than I want. That’s okay. During revision, this is something I’ll look at, how to make the words sharp, crisp, and energetic, while still leaving space for the art.

4. Tesseract. Remember that–a wrinkle in time? Something of the sort goes on when I work on the picture book. Time twists in a strange way, reconnecting with word count from a whole new angle. It’s not a switch I can explain, but I feel it. Ten words, which fly from my fingers when I’m working on a novel, take longer for this book. I had some idea (fear?) that I would sit down on Day 1 of this month, shoot off the 500-600 words of the story, know they were bad, and then have no clue where to go next. Instead, I’m still somewhere around the 400 mark, know quite well that’s too many for where I am in the story, and am watching the same kinds of thoughts, questions, and reactions mull around in my brain as I do when I draft 3,000 words of a novel. Cue Twilight Zone music.

5. I’m finding a freedom, for me, in writing a picture book that I don’t always feel when I’m working on a novel. This freedom may mean that I still don’t quite believe I can/will do this, so its more of an experiment than a commitment. (Don’t worry, I’m trying very hard not to let it become that!) Or it may mean that picture books are not (still? yet?) my greatest love, so that I’m putting less pressure on myself than I do for the novels. Or maybe it’s just that, even with the time warpage, I can see the end of the first draft only a day or two away, with revision (which I love) being right around the corner.  Who knows? For this month, anyway, I’m just going with it.

What are your thoughts on picture books? Reading or writing?