Conflict: It's What's for Dinner

...if you're a writer, that is. Conflict is our bread and butter. Conflict between characters keeps the plot going, it keeps the tension simmering, and it pushes your characters to do things they might not normally do.

If you've ever listened to a kid who's around 4-6 years old tell a story, you've probably heard a story without conflict. I've heard plenty over my years of parenting and working with other people's children, and let me tell you, stories without conflict tend to be boring. Without stakes, tension, or momentum, there's just not much to engage a reader's (or listener's) attention.

Pretending To Listen GIFfrom Pretending To Listen GIFs

When Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, the authors of one of my absolute favorite resources, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, announced that they were releasing a new entry in their thesaurus series all about conflict, I was genuinely excited to sign up for their promo team. Every time they release a book they do something epic and fun to celebrate, and I get to tell you all about it! I recommend several of their thesaurii to writers I do edits for all the time, because the books are great for all levels of writers. They explain the basic concept of each book, why it's important, and how to implement it in your novel, all in one inexpensive, easy-to-navigate, guide. What's not to love?

So if you want to learn more about how to improve your use of conflict in your writing, I definitely recommend that you check out The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 1)

You're probably curious about this book, so let me break it down. The Conflict Thesaurus is set up like the other books in their series: part how-to, part thesaurus. This guide shows writers how to maximize conflict and use it to build tension, drive the plot, reveal your character's inner layers, and most importantly, keep readers glued to the page.

It's packed with conflict scenarios like Moral Dilemmas, Ticking Clocks, Obstacles, No-Win Scenarios, Temptations and more. It can help you nail down your plot and character arc, so check it out!

Now, speaking of conflict, I have a BIG question for you. Remember that epic fun I mentioned earlier? It's time for a game!

Can You Survive Danger as Well as Your Favorite Protagonist?

You're probably pretty good at throwing problems at your characters and making life difficult for them. After all, that's part of being a writer. But do you ever think about how you'd do if you had to face the same situations? If you were the protagonist, would you hold up to the pressure? Would you make good decisions and succeed, or screw up and fail?

Let's find out.

Introducing...The Conflict Challenge

Become the protagonist in a story Angela & Becca created using scenarios found in the Conflict Thesaurus to see if you've got what it takes to win.

The Conflict Challenge is fun, campy, and will put your wits and instincts to the test.

And if you survive, you will win some cool stuff!

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

While you’re checking out the Conflict Challenge at Writers Helping Writers, make sure to also enter their Conflict Thesaurus release day giveaway, too. But hurry – it ends October 15th.

So, take the Conflict Challenge…if you dare. And don’t forget to come back and let me know how you did against Camp Deadwood!

Synopsis-es? Synopses? Synopsipodes???

Does the plural of synopsis being synopses ever look wrong to anyone else? No? Just me?
Oh well.

ahem. I've fielded quite a few questions from various writer friends across my social media lately on how to write the dreaded synopsis.

Here's the secret: it doesn't have to be that bad.

I've got some advice for you, together with my favorite posts on how to write and format your synopsis, to ease the pain.
1. Remember that the synopsis does not have to be dry and boring. It can be used to showcase your novel's voice and style. Now, if you are dealing with A Very Serious Agent, you may want to see if they have a preference for tone in their synopsis. Given how much material agents and editors have to read every day, I'd think most would be happy to read a synopsis with some voice. BUT. That doesn't mean gimmicky and over the top zany. It's still a business interaction, after all.
2. Remember that not every event or character will make it into your synopsis. Your synopsis is the string of events that lead your character from point A to point Z. Figure out which incidents are pivot points in the novel, changing the character's emotional or literal journey. Those ones are important. Knowing that he stopped for cookies at Aunt Sally's before fighting the dreaded dragon? Not so important, unless the hero receives the magical amulet of awesomeness there.
Once I have a workable synopsis with what I think are the main events, I send it to a friend who hasn't read the story before or heard me raving about it in detail. That way they can read the synopsis and tell me if they can follow the events, the causes and effects, as I've laid them out.
3. Remember that the query's job is to hook someone's interest, and the synopsis' job is to lay out the bare bones of the story so an outsider can see if it makes sense. Most agents ask for them to make sure you don't have a nasty surprise ending that will infuriate your readers. You know, like all those TV shows with miserable finales that everyone rants about for years after? That's the biggest reason an agent will ask for a synopsis. So it doesn't have to be perfect. Grammar matters, and it needs to make sense. But they aren't expecting the most beautiful, engaging prose. Try reading synopses of TV shows or books online. They're a bit boring, and that's okay.

Now, my personal trick for writing a synopsis is simple. There are two steps.
1. I keep in my my character's emotional journey as I write, because I want to show that growth along with the events. Personally, I think that helps to make a synopsis more interesting and more compelling.
2. I take my plot chart, and turn the bullet points into sentences. Then I add in the transitions between them as needed. Ta da! It's a synopsis!

(I suppose there really are three steps, because then I revise. Always revise and edit and proofread everything. But hopefully that's a given.)
I like to use the four-act plotting system I learned from Rebecca Petruck. She teaches plotting webinars, and you can find out more about Rebecca and her classes at https://www.rebeccapetruck.com/. Since she charges for her workshops, I'm not going to go into detail on her method, but I will tell you that I love it. And I'm a pantser. I use her method to plot my manuscripts after I've written a first draft, to reorganize and restructure the story properly. Her method is simple and easy to use.
It has a lot in common with all the other plotting methods out there, so whichever plotting method you personally like, you can give this a try. Take your major plot points, and use them to form the bones of your synopsis. You've already done all the work, you just need to move it from your plot chart to your synopsis.

And as promised, here are some other synopsis-writing resources that I'm fond of. These all boil down to the same thing, but different ways of explaining it and different methods for approaching the synopsis all make sense to different people. Hopefully one of these will work for YOU.

http://pitchwars.org/writing-perfect-synopsis-pintip-dunn-release-day-plus-giveaway-girl-verge
https://aprildavila.com/in-praise-of-the-synopsis
https://www.janefriedman.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis
http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/secret-formula-for-creating-short.html
http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/04/17/how-to-write-a-1-page-synopsis
http://writersrelief.com/blog/2008/01/how-to-write-a-synopsis-for-a-novel
http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/15/clear-the-dread-from-the-dreaded-synopsis

Good luck!

Maelstrom

I've been feeling a little off lately, and it's been bad for my writing and revising. I have depression, which I'm pretty open about. It's an ongoing fact of life for me. So I decided to try to put some of that feeling into words, in poetry. Maybe it will resonate with someone else out there too.

maelstrom

She stands on the edge,
her feet submerged in grainy darkness.
Waves crash;
her shoulders sag under the weight of
the fears
the sorrows
the guilts
the failures
the mistakes
that drown her silent voice.
She cries so loud no one can hear her.
Her tears echo in the waves that break against her back.

But she stands.
She throws back her shoulders.
She shakes off the darkness --
the fears sorrows guilts failures mistakes --
and she pours them out into the whirling darkness that laps at her feet.

Drip
Drop
Slips them in gently, without a sound.
Lets them slide off her back
and into the gaping black hole that dogs her footsteps.
And she is Light.
Free.

With her pains and her sorrows
behind her,
in the black hole.
So greedy, it slurps the poison in.

And she turns her face to the sun,
One step away from the darkness.

Yet.

The black hole grows.
Swelling quietly behind her back,
beneath her feet.
Until it grows so large that it crests its horizon.

And it laps around her ankles,
dark waves caressing her tired feet.

And she slumps, and turns her face from the sun.
And the wave slowly pulls her
Back.
Into the darkness.

Leaving her with a lingering memory of light.

Until

One pitch, two pitch, me pitch, you pitch

So the writing community's version of March Madness is all set for the hosting round. For most of us who entered, we've been benched and get to watch the rest of the action from the sidelines. But just like any other talent, you can choose how you want to use that time. Do you sit on the bench and sulk, wallowing in your misery?

You can. It's your choice. Personally, I think suppressing all your disappointment and sadness isn't healthy. But don't waste all your time on it. Give yourself a day, or a week, to indulge your feelings a little. Acknowledge them, take a little time for self-care, and then pull yourself up and get ready to work.

Because your other choice is to watch the winning team and learn from them. Read their pitches, once the agent round begins. Look for others in your age category and genre; see what they're doing that works, and apply those techniques to your own manuscript. Admitting that your writing is flawed is HARD, people! Our stories are so often personal, a snippet of our souls, that sharing them and then facing rejection can feel devastating.

Finding out that your truth wasn't quite good enough? That can be even harder.

But it's all fixable, if you stick with it. Don't take yourself out of the game. Google everything. Read about how to pitch online, in person, and via Twitter. They're all different. Read about comma usage, if that's where you struggle. Read about how to use beat sheets if you struggle with pacing. Try the if/then method. Fill out character worksheets until you know each character, no matter how minor, better than you know your own family. Read up on settings, historical eras, poisonous plants, futuristic technology, whatever your story needs to make sure it's believable.

Then go out and look on Amazon for all the top-selling books in your age category and genre. Read as many as you can get your hands on, and start with the most recent ones. You want to know what sells right now. Read the reviews people have written of those books, dissecting them. What did people like, and why? What bothered readers?

And find yourself a small crew of critique partners and beta readers to work with. You don't need that many, although some people like having several at a time. For me, I have one tried and true CP who reads all my work after a couple drafts. She is amazing and thorough and puts me under a microscope. I have a few other new ones, and we're still testing out our relationships to see if we'll work well together. Finding your people can take time, but it is so incredibly worth it. These are the people you'll thank in your acknowledgements. They're the ones you'll want to call when you finally get that offer of rep, when that contract comes your way. And they'll keep you sane in the meantime.

I keep forgetting to add this: Critique for other people. If you can start reading other people's writing more consciously, looking for errors deeper than basic grammar, figuring out what you liked/disliked and why, you start to develop those skills to apply to your own stories. I have a much easier time analyzing other people's work than my own. And sometimes I can come off too harsh, unfortunately, so I'm working on honing my own critiquing skills. But the more you do it, the better you get at breaking things down and seeing the nuts and bolts of how a story ought to work.

So...ahem. On to something slightly more concrete. My pitch for Pitch Madness was not great. I didn't put as much time into it as I needed to. But during the reading round, I had time to sit down and (again) read over advice from the pros on pitching, and I hope what I crafted is going to land me some requests. I had to entirely scrap the way I had been structuring my 35 word pitch and start over again. As much as that sucked, sometimes it's necessary.

Here's the pitch I entered:

Seventeen-year-old Emily has two weeks to write a novella or she’ll flunk English and lose her full-ride scholarship. Then her characters start arguing with her—unless she’s losing her mind. And that’s her worst nightmare.

It's not awful. It identifies the MC right away, without spending too many words on her. I found, after feedback, that readers needed Emily's age to know whether she's a college or high school student. So that's the WHO. WHO your pitch is about needs to be clear, but sometimes we get too wrapped up in wanting to tell about how cool our MC is that we waste space on extra details. Keep the WHO slim.

WHAT is next. That's the challenge, your MC's main obstacle. In my case, it's having to write the novella or flunk and lose her scholarship. So I've laid out both the obstacle and the stakes (why she has to overcome that particular challenge).

HOW is last. HOW is tricky. And it's part of where I think I failed in this pitch. HOW is more subtle - which path is she going to take, and why, and how does it affect her ability to overcome this obstacle? (You don't have to answer all of those questions at once, but those are the kind of things at play here.) Without some reason here, you end up with "My character is going to rob a bank today because I said so." Instead of "My character is going to rob a bank today because he's been out of work for eight months and he's already sold everything he can, including a kidney, and he's out of options because the bank dropped off a foreclosure notice that morning." It's why any of this matters, and why it should matter to the rest of us.

Here's my newly drafted version, after I spent half an hour trimming it from about 50 words down to 35:

Emily dreams of curing the disease that took her mom, but school’s too expensive. When an eccentric teacher’s magical typewriter triggers her fear of inheriting dementia, she must face her fears or lose her scholarship.

I'll admit, I still don't think it's perfect, but it's getting better. We still have the WHO up front, but I decided to eliminate the age. I think it gives a rough impression of her age, especially since it's YA. It's enough to go on.

You'll notice I backtracked on the WHAT here. (This is the part I'm not sure about yet.) The premise of having to write a novella or lose her scholarship is downplayed, but I'm hoping with the addition of WHY, it will work out.

HOW/WHY is given much more space in here. WHY should you care about this story? Because it's about invisible illness. WHY does Emily want to go to med school? Because of her dead mom. WHY does the magical typewriter freak her out so badly? As a person with a family history of dementia, I can tell you first hand that it gets to you. Forgetting things, mis-remembering things, feeling confused...it's not a pleasant worry to have hanging over your head. Anyhow. All this makes Emily a much more sympathetic, and interesting character. Her plight becomes more interesting, more nuanced, as well. The connection from A to B to C isn't as clear as I'd like it, but it feels stronger to me.

As always, if you have thoughts, comment away! If you want to hit me up on Twitter and talk about pitching, you know where to find me. @ me, or DM me if we follow each other.

Part 3 of Contest Wisdom

As the team reveal for Pitch Madness approaches, I thought I'd post about etiquette and self-care for that part. A lot of this, I didn't know a year ago. I probably would have made some serious missteps if it hadn't been for other competitors and mentors passing along gentle reminders. Don't tell my kids, but I'm not *really* all-knowing. I've just been around the block a little by now.

(I wish I had half of Carla's sass)

THE BIG REVEAL

1. BE CONSIDERATE

I’ve been on both sides of the competition. I’ve been selected, and not. Not getting picked can be devastating. And it’s OKAY to feel that! It’s normal! But…don’t take it out on anyone else. Don’t dump on the mentors and trash them for not picking you. (Word gets around. Anybody else who entered PitchWars 2016 remember the crazy jerky older guy? He's not going to be getting a publishing deal anytime soon after demonstrating that he's unwilling to work with anyone or take advice. Don't be that guy!) Try to keep your disappointment off the hashtag. Vent privately if you need to, offline, to a trusted friend or family member.

More like this:

And less like this:

On the flip side, if you ARE chosen, congrats! But remember that only a tiny percentage of entries are selected. You’re going to feel giddy, exploding with excitement.

Celebrate! But again, save most of it for in private. DM your best CP friend who got in with you. Talk to your spouse, your parents, your BFF, your pet hamster. If you go on and on about yourself online, on the hashtag, think of how hurtful that is to all the people who didn’t make it in. So if you get picked, limit yourself to one or two tweets on the hashtag. We like to see that you know you’ve won, after all. Last year, those of us who were in NoQS created our own separate hashtags, so that we could talk and find our teammates without rubbing everyone else’s noses in it. A little politeness and consideration go a long way.

2. MAKE 2 PLANS BEFOREHAND

Decide what you’re going to do if you win. Pick a way to reward yourself. The road to publishing is filled with tiny victories, and they’re important to celebrate, because the constant stream of rejection will drag you down if you don’t actively take time to notice the positive.

Also decide what you’re going to do if you lose. Set a time limit for how long you are allowed to sulk, if you think that’s something you’re going to need. Step away from your story for a week, if you have to. Don’t obsess over the feed, or why you “lost” and someone else won. Indulge your hurt feelings for that short period of time, then get up and keep on going. Sometimes the mentors will do blog posts or Twitter threads on trends they saw that people need to fix. Read them! Apply their strategies to your novel. You can get out of a contest as much or as little as you want to. I’ll tell you right now that I’m a much better writer now than I was a year ago, and it’s due to the resources I found online through these contests. I started reading everything more critically and writing more consciously, and it shows.

If you win, be gracious. If you lose, be gracious. And either way, you’re in for a lot of hard work and revisions.

More words of wisdom from yer old Auntie B

The fun thing about having been around the Twitter writing circle for a little bit now is I'm starting to feel old. Plus, I know lots of authors with published novels, who are significantly younger than I am. Mid 30s are the new 60, apparently!

But with age comes wisdom. So here is post #2 about writing contests.

DURING THE CONTEST

1. MAKE NEW FRIENDS!

This is the best part of contests. Everyone involved can make new connections in the writing community. And since a lot of us are introverts, meeting new writer friends online is less intimidating, and it fills a void. Knowing there are other people out there just as crazy as you is empowering. Find new critique partners and beta readers, and cool people you just want to keep in touch with. This business is hard, and having friends along the way makes it so much easier to take the rejections.

And don’t just make friends with the other contestants. Get to know the mentors, readers, and judges. Most of them are just a few steps further along in their writing career, and they remember exactly how hard it is to be querying. Many of them host blogs with great writing tips—free learning resources with solid techniques on how to improve your own writing. Because whatever you’re doing wrong, chances are someone else out there has done it too.

Author confession: Every time a mentor follows me back, I squee a little.

The flipside of that is, do also respect that these are busy authors. Ask them questions when you need help, but try to find the answer yourself first. Don’t ask silly questions you could find out the answer to in 5 seconds on Google. They’re glad to help, but if you’re constantly asking things that are already answered on the contest FAQs and directions, they’re going to start questioning your reading comprehension skills.

2. PARTICIPATE ON THE HASHTAGS!

It’s fun! And playing all these games, where you describe your character in 3 words or come up with comps or whatever are actually useful. The games help you define your novel. The more concise you can be, the easier it is to pitch. And if someone asks what your MC likes to eat, and you can’t answer…maybe you need to get inside his/her head a little more. If you can’t picture your setting, have you given it enough thought and description in your story? So use the hashtags to have fun, make friends, and figure out your own strengths and weaknesses.

3. TRY NOT TO OBSESS

We all do it. But you have to figure out what your personal mental health limits are. The first time I entered, I think I was on the hashtag almost all day long. Bad me. This time, I’m checking in a few times a day. I’m relaxing over it. Part of that comes with experience, but it’s also a choice. Remember, if you don’t get in, it’s not the end of the world. Most writers don’t find their agent through competitions.

Stay tuned for part 3!

A little contest wisdom (Or, I get by with a little help from my friends)

Hey you! Yes, you. A year ago, I was in your shoes. Sitting in front of my laptop, scanning the Twitter feed during a contest, crossing my fingers and hoping that my entry would get picked. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

For this past year, I’ve made a concerted effort to learn, improve my writing, and get published. I’m obviously not there yet, because I’m still querying and entering competitions along with you, but I HAVE learned a lot along the way, and I figured it’s time to share the love. So here are some words of wisdom, based off my contest and pitching experiences of the past year. I'll be doing a series of posts since I ended up with a lot more info than I thought I would. But I am known for rambling on and on and on...whoops.

(In case you were wondering: My 1st #pitchmadness entry made it onto one team’s shortlist, but not onto the final. I entered a different MS into #PitchWars, had absolutely no requests, but did get amazing advice on how to rework the story into something 100 times better. I labored over that MS for months, revising it until I couldn’t stand the story any longer, and then entered it into Nightmare on Query Street. I got in! I got a few requests! But…no agent. So here I am, back at #pitchmadness again.)

BEFORE A CONTEST:
1. ALWAYS READ THE RULES.
Make sure you’re eligible. Make sure you’re in the right age group, pitching the right category of book. Make sure that if you’ve won a different contest, you aren’t DQ’d from this one. And please, for everyone’s sake, NEVER EVER EVER enter a contest with a manuscript that hasn’t been revised and beta read at the very least; for the love of all that is holy, don’t enter an unfinished manuscript.

It will show. The judges will notice. And word might get around that you are wasting people’s time, trying to skip the process. None of us are geniuses who put out perfect stories on the first try. Not even the magical Brenda Drake. Remember, publishing is a looooong game; there will be other contests, other pitch days, and plenty of time for you to find an agent.

2. ALWAYS DOUBLE/TRIPLE CHECK YOUR FORMATTING
This is a pet peeve of about every slush reader and mentor I’ve ever seen, and agents too. If it’s a minor detail, they’ll probably let it slide. But if your entire MS is in Comic Sans, single spaced, and purple lettering…you’re more likely to end up in the trash.

Following the boring, technical formatting details shows that you’re serious. You can read and follow directions, which means you’re more likely to take instruction. So if an editor comes back to you and points out something that needs to get changed, you’re more likely to listen. That’s the impression you want to give. Writing is creative, but it’s still a profession. If a contest decision comes down to two amazing manuscripts, one who followed all the rules and one who didn’t, who do you think would get chosen?

3. INVESTIGATE
Check out the contest. Look for past successes—not to say that new contests are horrible, there was a great new one last year—but make sure you’re not being sucked into a scam.

Also, take a look at the readers, hosts, and agents. Follow them on Twitter. For some competitions, you’ll have to select which mentors to submit to. Read their books and blogs and follow them on social media to get a sense of what they write, what their style is, and if it would be a match for you. Don’t sub to someone just because you think they’re cool. It’s tempting, I know, but you’re better off finding someone who actually likes your genre. If a mentor has a specific list of triggers they don’t read, respect it.

Always check out any agent or publisher as well. Most agents and publishers out there are legit. But there are always presses who try to take advantage of the fact that we are dreamers getting constant rejections in a disheartening business. If someone is asking you to put up your own money to publish a book, run. If they’re offering you a shortcut, check it out. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So vet them online as well. Check out Publishers Weekly, Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write. Google them. Does their website look like my preschooler put it together? Bad sign. Ask around. The writing community is pretty tight knit. If a publisher is shady, chances are someone else has run into them before and can steer you clear.

Lastly, take a look at the contest itself. What’s the prize? Is it something you want? Will it advance your career? And are you willing to put in the time and effort it takes, if it’s a mentoring opportunity? If you’re convinced your story is word-for-word perfect and aren’t open to suggestions, then do everyone a favor and don’t take a mentored spot someone else is dying to have.

Next, I'll tackle what to do during the contest to make the most of your experience. And if you have any words of wisdom to add, please comment! This is just based off my own experience and I'm sure there are other people with more ideas to share.

Help me find a genre!

I'm neck deep in revisions on my YA story, ONCE UPON A TYPEWRITER, but I've been thinking ahead to marketing. And I realized that I still have the same problem I found during Pitch Wars. Thankfully I've straightened out the age category issue, but I'm still not sure what genre to market it as.

For anyone who hasn't read snippets of the story yet, the premise of the story is that 17-year-old Emily has to write a novella in 2 weeks to make up for missing her English final, or she'll flunk out of the class and won't graduate on time. As she's writing, the characters in her story begin talking back to her, making her question her sanity. She and the characters argue over what direction the story should go in, along with all sorts of silly little points as well. The outer, real-world arc, centers on Emily's worries about her mental health and her relationships with her family. The inner fairytale arc focuses on a woefully unprepared party and their quest to save the kingdom from a plague of giant insects.

To me, Emily's outer arc feels like contemporary magical realism. There's just a touch of magic in the typewriter--assuming she isn't actually losing her mind like her mom did.

The inner arc is an old-fashioned medieval fantasy story; Emily uses the story to poke fun at some tropes along the way. There are dragons, a wicked witch, a bumbling wizard, and a curse. So their story is high fantasy.

Overall, the entire novel is split fairly evenly between the two stories if you look just at word count. It all comes down to Emily, her sanity, and her relationship with her sister; the inner story starts to mirror the outer story and push it along as well. So of the two storylines, Emily's is the dominant one.

SO...do I market it as magical realism for online competitions that allow you to only check one? I worry that someone might like MR but not fantasy, and be disappointed when they get to that part. And in a query letter, do I explain that it's both, or do I leave that for the agent/publisher to discover?

Help a fellow writer out, and comment with your thoughts below! TIA.

Third time's the charm

...I hope.

I've rewritten the opening scene of this particular story so many times I've lost track. I started with a basic setup and rewrote that first version over and over. Changed the main character's age. Changed the POV of the entire story. Then decided to drastically chop the opening scene after lots of feedback pointing to the story starting too soon.

Of course I swung too far the other direction. At least I only went through one really horrible version of that intro. Unfortunately, that was the intro I used to enter a contest. In some ways it worked out anyway, though, because that contest let me know that I had really screwed up the beginning quickly so I didn't waste as much time on it.

On to the third try, and I think I've struck the balance I need. I've resigned myself to the fact that this particular story doesn't lend itself to starting off with a bang; it's advice I've heard before, but I hadn't consciously realized that I was trying so hard to start with a bang. For Emily's story to work, the reader has to get inside her head a little more before her world starts to fall apart around her. It's more subtle. Starting with a huge action scene is great for some stories, but sometimes it's okay to take a step back. If the reader is investing in a character more than a series of dramatic events, then the reader has to get to know that character and start to care about her/him first. So that's where my story starts now, and I'm loving it.

Hopefully other people will too. Here's the first page of Emily's story:

I knocked on the door to Room 113, but no one answered. Just to make sure, I rapped harder. Still nothing.

I wiped my clammy hands on my jeans before grabbing the bronze doorknob, half-hoping it would be locked.

No such luck. It gave easily, and the door swung inward without a sound.

“Ms. Briggs? You asked me to meet you after school…” My voice trailed off as I saw that the classroom was empty.

Well, except for the antiquated beast sitting on top of my desk. Curious, I stepped inside.

A note stuck out of the machine, addressed to me in sweeping blue cursive.

“Emily, I’ve decided what to do about your uncharacteristically irresponsible behavior on Monday. You have one chance to make up your final exam. You have until the 15^th to write a complete novella of at least 30,000 words, or you will fail the final and the class. As part of your punishment, you must use this typewriter instead of your computer to write the story. I hope you will find the creative experience illuminating, perhaps even enjoyable.”

I eyed the metal monstrosity. A typewriter? Writing a novella in two weeks was going to be hard enough, but using a typewriter? Ms. Briggs must have been more upset with me than she’d let on.

My muscles groaned as I scooped up the bulky machine. Once I found my balance I made my way to the bus stop, lurching through the halls like something out of an old horror flick.

The story of Bob, Billy Bob Joe, and the infamous Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers

In my efforts to help Oldest enjoy writing more, I sometimes sit down with her and my other girls and have them help me brainstorm short stories. We'll use story dice when we get stuck, or sometimes we'll even roll them at the beginning and pick random ones to incorporate into the story. Their school teaches them the basics of story structure and character, so they're pretty good at coming up with a coherent narrative consisting of at least one main character, a problem of some sort, and a resolution. I'll transcribe for them to remove the mechanical issues of spelling and physically writing, so those don't set up roadblocks for Oldest's brain.
This is our favorite collaborative story. I think they were probably 5&7, or 6&8 when we wrote this one. (You should know that for some reason, my girls think the name Bob is freaking hilarious. They use it whenever possible.)

Once upon a time, there was a jumping clown. He liked to ride his unicycle and make funny faces at crying children and actors.
One day an actor named Bob came to town. He was sad because lightning had burned down his house and now he didn't have any place to live. Lightning was the name of his pet bird. He burned the house down on accident--he was a phoenix.
The jumping clown was also having a rough day. He jumped all the time because he was scared of his shadow and didn't want to touch it. And THEN he found out he had to be a shadow monster for Halloween, because his Mommy said so.
Bob and the jumping clown (whose name was Billy Bob Joe) met in the grocery store. They were both there to buy fish, but there was only one left. The authors proceeded to argue about who should get the fish. Then they decided neither of them should get the fish. Instead, Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers bought the fish and Bob took Billy Bob Joe fishing.
First, they caught a boat.
Second, they caught an apple.
Third, they caught a book about famous libraries.
And lastly, they caught Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers.
Bob and Billy Bob Joe decided to go home and eat grilled salad sandwiches instead.
Bob told Billy Bob Joe about how Lightning had burned his house down. "I have nowhere to live!" he moaned. And he cried a little--okay, a lot.
Billy Bob Joe told Bob about his fear of shadows and how his Mother insisted he had to dress up like a shadow monster for Halloween. "And I don't want to!" he sobbed. "I'm terrified! And I'm terrified of jumping all the time."
"I've got it!" said Bob. "We could switch places! I'm not scared of shadows, and I need a place to live. And I happen to know of a play that needs an actor to play the part of a kangaroo!"
Billy Bob Joe agreed to Bob's plan. He became the most famous jumping actor in the land.
Bob loved his new home.
And he got rid of Lightning--just in case.

Grimmerye

Grimmerye is a project I've been working on for the past two years, so it's near and dear to my heart. In Grimmerye, I played with the backstory for two Grimm villainesses. I wanted to discover what else could be under the surface, to find the human side of the women who did these terrible things with seemingly no provocation. The challenge I posed to myself was, under what circumstances could their murderous, thieving, kidnapping ways not only be justified, but in the traditional hero(ine)'s best interest?

Note that I'm not telling you which stories I based mine on, because it's not meant to be evident at first. Discovering which story you're in as a reader is part of the fun.
I had the opportunity to run the first few pages and query by an agent recently, and got some interesting advice. He said that it was good, but because it's a series of stories, it would be a hard sell for a first time author. I had to agree--short story collections are a hard sell unless big-name authors are involved, and that's what Grimmerye currently is at its lowest level.
Enter the advice of my best critique partners: find a way to take the two stories and unite them into a coherent single narrative. So while one of my other manuscripts is being looked over by Pitch Wars mentors (check out for info on Pitch Wars if you don't know what it is), I'm working on finding a way to loosely tie the first two stories together with a third. I have a crazy idea up my sleeve that just might do the trick, and it will be challenging to write. Exciting!

Anywhooo...Here's the first 213 words of the first story. I throw you right into the story with a bang on this one, appropriate to this particular antiheroine's narrative.

I lay awake in my bed, unable to sleep, dreading the morrow.
My birthday. My stomach churned at the thought of it.
For as long as I could remember, the Woman had celebrated all of our birthdays—and there were many of us—in the same fashion. She would wake the unfortunate child in the morning with a clawed hand grasping the poor girl’s throat, screaming in her face, spittle dripping like venom from Her lips as she recounted Her story. The Woman had no use for boy-children; they were sent away to their fathers as soon as they could be weaned. She kept those of us who were unfortunate enough to be girls and paid just enough attention to us to make sure we didn’t die—at least, not until after She’d discovered if we would prove useful to Her schemes or not. After that, She didn’t care about our fates; most of the older girls had been dragged off in the night by nameless village men whose faces blended into one dark, leering grimace that haunted my sleep. On occasion, girls simply vanished, and if one of us dared to ask the Woman where they had gone, She merely shrugged indifferently.
None of us would have dreamed of calling Her “Mother”.

A Little Something New

Along with book reviews, I'm going to start posting snippets of my personal works-in-progress (WIPs) on this page. It should go without saying, but please don't post any of my writing anyplace else online without my permission. If you like something and want to share it via Twitter or Facebook (or any other online platform), I'll probably love that idea. Just message me and check in first. Thanks!