Tag: books

NaNoWriMo or no…

~ Meg ~ 71 Comments

I am considering participating in National Novel Writing Month this year. Why on earth would I want to subject myself to that torture? Well, here’s why…

I HAVE BOOK FIVE OF MY SERIES FULLY PLOTTED OUT AND I HAVEN’T WRITTEN A BLOODY WORD SINCE FEBRUARY BECAUSE I CAN’T SEEM TO GET OFF THIS STUPID BLOG WRITING CAROUSEL!!!!!

There. I feel better. The truth is I’ve been more caught up in “Here Lies a Soldier” than the novel universe. But I also feel like in being a series writer, the books need to appear in semi-regular fashion if they are going to keep the audience’s attention. Which is why I thought signing up for NaNoWriMo might force me to pick up the thread of the next  Bucks County Novel episode. If I succeed in vomiting out 50,000 words over the 30 days of November, I can edit and proof read in December, get it to the beta readers on January first, and barring any glaring problems with the manuscript, do the final edit and publish before the end of February. Sounds like a good plan.

On the other hand, what that means for blogging is that I will have to drastically cut down on the time I spend here. In fact I was thinking of just hanging in with Lula for drinking adventurously and making that my one and only weekly contribution. And maybe just a quick hello in the comments of your lovely posts as best I can.

I’m still wavering. NaNo is a HUGE commitment. I absolutely despise deadlines. The time constraints might have the opposite effect from what I intend and I’ll just get mad and frustrated. So I don’t know…

Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo? And if you are, care to twist my arm?

Books, how I love thee.

~ Meg ~ 77 Comments

Writers, if you are not a lover of books, you need to have your heads examined. Seriously, you cannot, CANNOT be a good writer if you do not read. I have always loved books. As an only child, I grew up reading – making fictional friends to take the place of siblings. The first books I clearly remember reading were Richard Scarry’s picture books. Then it was Ramona Quimby and her big sister Beezus. Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women….

I was a book nerd in high school, too. When other kids goofed off in free periods, I’d go bother the librarian. My high school librarian Mrs. Long, was a big, intimidating lady, but oh, she had great taste in books. She introduced me to Tolkien, Frank Herbert, Jules Verne, Douglas Adams…

And honestly, how can one pick a favorite? I’ve read the complete Sherlock Holmes collection and not just because of the TV series, either. (Although, I could listen to Benedict Cumberbatch reading a deli menu. That voice…) Other favorites include: Robinson Crusoe, The Count of Monte Cristo, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. More contemporary favorites are Tom Clancy’s: The Hunt For Red October, John Grisham’s: A Time To Kill, Khaled Hosseini’s: The Kite Runner and Sara Gruen’s: Water For Elephants.

Anthony Trollope asked, “What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book and a cup of coffee?” I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps I would add to that: a rainy or snowy day and a cozy blanket to wrap around your shoulders. To be forced by the weather to stay inside and curl up with a book? Heaven! And to have one with some heft, too, be it paper or electrons. As far as I’m concerned, a good story can go on forever. Lord of the Rings? Bring it on. Red Mars? But wait, there’s a trilogy.

I read many different genres and enjoy them all: mystery, thriller, romance, science fiction, espionage, historical fiction, biography… It’s been said that you can know a person by the type of books he (or she) reads. What does that say about me? Am I unknowable? Hmm. Perhaps just multi-faceted. Let’s go with that; it sounds so deep and sophisticated! *Snort*

Lately, I’ve been reading lots of history and non-fiction for research purposes. Beyond that, I just completed Graham Greene’s The End Of the Affair.  I am halfway through a biography of WB Yeats. I’m also working my way through the short stories of the Marquis de Sade. So what are you currently reading? Tell me what books you love. And what’s on your to-read list? If you like, join me on Goodreads. Winter is coming, let’s all curl up with a good book.

Coincidence? I think not!

~ Meg ~ 44 Comments

“But while I advise you to embellish, I forbid you to depart from what is plausible. The reader has every right to feel aggrieved when he realizes that too much is being asked of him. He feels that the author is trying to deceive him, his pride suffers and he simply stops believing the moment he suspects he is being misled.” An Essay On Novels – The Marquis de Sade

Isn’t that great advice? Whether you write by the seat of your pants (pantser) or you meticulously plot out your story (plotter), you eventually will come to a point where you write yourself into a corner or your plot hits a wall. You have a couple options: scrap it and start over from the point you got yourself into that mess, or write yourself out of it. If you choose the latter, the challenge is writing a solution without taking the shortcut of using coincidences to bail yourself out. I read this advice from Emma Coates –one of Pixar’s story artists– years ago, and I never forgot it: “coincidences to get your characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it is cheating.” Not only that, like the Marquis said, it asks too much of the reader. image

Nevertheless, good storytelling depends on the element of surprise. No one wants to have the ending figured out in chapter three. The writer’s approach may be to:  1) slowly reveal clues that gradually build to a logical conclusion, or 2) misdirect us with spurious information, or 3) obfuscate the story so that at the climax, the truth is dropped like a bomb on the reader. The trick is to reveal the truth -as shocking as it may be- in a way that the reader think to himself, “of course!” because finally it all makes sense. The worst thing in the world is to leave the reader scratching his head at the end, wondering how the hell he got from there to here in 100,000 words, and regretting buying it on Amazon.

Header image via the poisoned pencil, David Tenant image via Pinterest.