All posts by Jordan

Writing Life

Belated accountability

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Sooo I normally do this on the first Friday of the month, but the launch of Spy Noon and then the sale the next week threw me off. The last Monday is close enough, right?

GoalsJanuary accountability

  • Get Spy Another Day #3 ready for critique group & take it to them—I did this! It was so much work, though! I really have to be better about this. The problem with my last two novels is that I’ve taken the extremely rough first draft and polished it to about the third or fourth draft state in one pass. I’ve been working way too hard!
  • Polish up that novella I wrote in September—Check! “Polish up” was my conservative way to say “get this ready and publish.” Which I did.
  • Write enough to stay sane—Aside from the new words I put into SAD #3, I didn’t write anything. No comment on the sanity.
  • Start gathering materials for my next Writing Craft book—I . . . can’t remember when I did this. But I did it!

Whew! It was a busy month. And Feburary’s kept up that pace.

February goals

Okay, the month’s almost over, I know, but fortunately I did write down what I wanted to get done this month.

  • Launch Spy Noon.
  • Prep the second half of Spy Another Day #3 and take it to critique group.
  • Finish gathering materials for my next writing craft book, and write new materials to fill in the gaps.
  • Send next writing craft book to beta readers.
  • Get covers for my next two writing craft books.
  • Gather materials for next-next writing craft book.
  • Write enough to stay sane.
  • Start reading for Whitney Awards.
  • Prep for a family gathering for a big milestone for my son!

That looks like a lot. I should always write my goals out in the last week of the month. Oy.

I’ll let you know how I did next week. I’m sure the suspense is killing you!

What have you accomplished so far this year? How is your writing process or workflow going?

Photo by Celestine Chua

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Writing Life

Is writing fast a valid career plan for you?

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Every year around NaNoWriMo, the same articles start springing up: how to write faster. Why I’m not doing Nano. Why I am doing Nano. Nano is anathema to real writers. Writing fast can only produce schlock. Writing fast is not a valid career plan.

I disagree. But I’m biased. Of my last five novels, four were written in a month or less (a piece), some during NaNoWriMo, some not. So far I’ve published two of those novels—one fast one, and the slowest novel I’ve ever written. Both were finalists for an award.

There is the general idea out there that something done fast is shoddy, as if someone who writes a manuscript quickly is required to throw it up on Amazon the next week. But that just isn’t the case.

I see no reason at all why anyone can claim that writing fast isn’t a valid career plan. (There are authors out there who write fast, publish quickly, and rake in the dough. Sounds like a career plan to me, though it isn’t quite mine.)

But writing fast isn’t for everyone. How do you know if writing fast is a good idea for you? Here are five factors to consider.

107/365 [Flying Fingers]

This ain’t your first rodeo

Writing a first novel this quickly is probably not a great idea. (Okay, I did write my first “novel” in about four weeks, but it ended up being pretty short. I also wrote it longhand. You don’t have to be like me.) It takes practice to develop the necessary storytelling skills and basic writing skills to come out of a fast draft with something workable, or even the beginnings of something workable.

Once you’ve established your writing skills and storytelling skills, you can tap into those strengths to help you write faster and come out with something that’s just as coherent as most “slow” first drafts.

You love the immersive experience of writing

I love getting lost in my own story. When I’m drafting, I live and breathe my characters’ lives. I imagine new scenes all the time. I practice dialogue. I research, I design, I plot.

If you live and breathe your stories while drafting, writing faster and writing more makes that experience even more immersive. You’re really living your characters’ story, perhaps almost in real time.

Plus, once you’ve made it through those few weeks, you can get the house clean and caught up on laundry (ha!).

You can make connections

One of the big advantages of writing a book in two or three weeks is that you’ve lived all the events in your recent memory. You might not be able to hold every detail in your short term memory, but your subconscious sometimes hangs on to important symbols, characters, events and story threads that you might forget otherwise, and have to come and weave in later. If you’re good at making these kinds of connections, writing fast could make you even better.

You can shut up the inner editor

You can’t write quickly if you’re rewriting every sentence five times. (If you type and think fast, you might be able to get away with rewriting the occasional sentence 2-3 times. Not that I’ve done that. . . .) But no matter how fast or slow you write, during drafting you should usually turn off the inner editor—not the “subject-verb agreement” portion of your brain, but the nagging self-doubts that can shut down your creativity.

You’re willing to put in the time to edit AFTER drafting

Only a Sith deals in absolutes, but I’m going to go to the dark side for a minute: ALL FIRST DRAFTS NEED EDITING. Whether you labored over your first draft for three years or three weeks, there are things you’ll have to go back and fix. (In fact, I’d argue that if it’s been three years since you began your novel, you might not even remember some pretty important pieces, and you might need some serious rewriting.) Most of my fast books have required medium-to-major rewrites. All of my slow books have required medium-to-major rewrites.

In my experience, the quality of a manuscript isn’t necessarily correlated with the speed at which it was written. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask Arthur Conan Doyle (A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes’s premiere), Alexandre Dumas (The Knight of the Red House), Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Stephen King (The Running Man), Jack Kerouac (On the Road), Fyodor Dostoyevskiy (The Gambler—while also writing ) or Robert Louis Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). These books, many of them bestsellers and/or classics, were written in anywhere from 66 hours to 4 weeks.

Maybe writing fast will work for you; maybe it won’t. But it’s definitely a viable career plan, and I enjoy writing that way (most of the time), so I see no reason to stop, NaNo or no.

What do you think? Do you write fast? Have you ever tried it?

Photo by The Hamster Factor

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Technique

Could Frozen be even better?

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I have little kids. I get to go see Disney movies without any shame. I even get to go to the sing along version. (And be the loudest person in the theater. No shame.) We all really liked Frozen (except for my three-year-old, who’s still upset that Elsa told Anna to go away). The story, the characters, the songs, even the plot twists—we loved it.

Elsa-and-Anna-Wallpapers-frozen-35894707-1600-1200But the more I’ve pondered the story and especially the ending, I’ve wondered if it couldn’t be a little stronger. This has nothing to do with the cute reprises of “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?” popping up on YouTube.

SPOILERS!

If you haven’t seen it, the movie revolves around a pair of princess sisters, Elsa and Anna. After an accident in their childhood where Anna is badly hurt, Elsa must hide her magical ice powers from her younger sister. Afraid she’ll hurt her sister again, Elsa shuts her out completely. They spend the better part of their lives separated, even after their parents die, and Elsa’s secret powers continue to grow beyond her control.

On the day of Elsa’s coronation, after a fight with Anna, Elsa accidentally reveals her powers to the whole kingdom. Elsa flees in fear, setting off an eternal winter in their kingdom. Anna goes to find her sister and convince her to come back, but Elsa freaks out when she finds out what happened in their kingdom. In her fear, she again accidentally freezes her sister’s heart.

Anna leaves, and discovers that she will die without an act of true love. At the climax of the movie, Anna has a choice to kiss her true love or save her sister’s life. As she blocks the death blow of the villain’s sword, Anna turns to solid ice. Elsa is devastated.

In a Disney reversal, Anna’s selfless sacrifice is an act of true love, and it thaws her frozen heart (and body). Elsa realizes that the answer to her out-of-control powers is love. She’s able to harness her magic and end the premature winter.

Okay, super cute, heartwarming, etc., right? It is. But after a while, you look back at that conclusion and wonder . . . didn’t Elsa always love her sister?

It was Elsa’s love of her sister that led to her fear, led to Elsa shutting her out. So why was love all of a sudden the answer?

Completing the character arc

Although the movie does revolve around Anna and her actions, it’s Elsa that has the biggest character arc. At the beginning of the movie, she’s warned that fear will be her enemy, which she (and her parents) take to mean that others will fear her powers and possibly hurt her. This inciting incident sets up her character arc to grow from a place of fear.

Throughout the course of the story, her own fear rules her life. She cuts herself off from everyone but her parents—and eventually won’t even let them touch her because she’s afraid she’ll hurt them. When she’s afraid and upset, her powers rage out of control, and hurt the people she cares about.

The final image of the movie, Elsa, Anna and their subjects playing with her magic, shows that Elsa has successfully learned her lesson and integrated it into her life. But before that, when she says what she’s learned, she only says, “Love! Of course!”

Again, she’s always loved her sister. That isn’t how she’s grown or changed. What she actually learned was a lesson about not letting her fear overrule her love for her sister and her subjects. I think that expressing that, tying the character arc back to the growth that she’s seen throughout the film and the lesson she learned, would have made the movie just a little bit stronger.

How could we express that better? One or two sentences of dialogue would have been enough, since the positive results of her character arc are already shown well through her actions. The line that keeps springing to my mind is straight out of the Bible: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear.” She’d let her fears override that love (not completely destroy it). When she realizes that she needs to show her love for her sister and receive her love in return, she’s able to overcome those fears and control her powers.

The answer isn’t just love. If we dig a little deeper, we see that the real theme is that love can conquer fear.

A big musical number to that effect wouldn’t have hurt either 😉 .

I still love it

In all, I do still love Frozen. I’m a writer, and I analyze things—and you’d think I wrote a book on Character Arcs or something. As I was telling Jami Gold in her post analyzing another way Frozen might have been a little better, these criticisms and analysis of the movie are actually a positive thing. I think it says a lot for any story to inspire craft discussion!

What do you think? Did you like the ending of Frozen, or could it be better?

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Works, News & Contests

Find great reads on sale this Valentine’s Day

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Apparently there’s a holiday this week? Hm. Also—book sale!

Whether you’re in love, looking for love, or most decidedly NOT, you can find 99¢ clean romance books here to help you celebrate Valentine’s Day Singles Awareness Day.

Hope you have a fun Valentine’s Day!

99¢ price effective 2/10/14 through 2/14/14

Last week of the launch sale!
Spy Noon by Jordan McCollum
Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and JordanMcCollum.com!

Canada’s the last place you’d expect to find an American spy, but CIA operative Talia Reynolds has problems piling up higher than a Canadian snowbank. When Elliott Monteith, her ridiculously handsome new coworker, shows up, Talia decides it’s game on. She’ll be the first to track down a dangerous counter-spy, and she’ll give Elliott an unforgettable souvenir of his time in Ottawa: some humble pie.

Her plans don’t work as well as she expects, though. Elliott’s over-the-top flirting dredges up too many painful memories for Talia and undermines the confidence she’s worked hard to regain. To do her job and keep her integrity intact, she’ll have to keep her personal feelings at bay. Now Talia must find a way to work alongside Elliott—and maybe even trust him—to outsmart the enemy

And more great reads, all 99¢!


This Very Moment by Rachel Ann Nunes – Click here to purchase

Bill Dubrey is a sought-after plastic surgeon for LA’s prestigious and wealthy, and an equally sought-after bachelor. On the surface it appears he has it all—money, respect, and fame. Yet behind his aloof exterior lurks a tragic past that prevents him from finding lasting happiness.
All that changes on the day Kylee Stewart reenters his life. She alone knows Bill’s secret agony, and she is determined to help him face his past. During the years they’ve been apart, Kylee’s own life has been far from easy, but unlike Bill, she has turned to God in her need, finding a faith to which she desperately clings.
The tentative friendship they begin has Bill rethinking his stark future, yet he keeps his heart in check—afraid to commit, afraid to lose again. During Kylee’s darkest moment, when she needs him most, will he be there for her?

Tomorrow and Always by Rachel Ann Nunes

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Anyone would think that Karissa and Malcolm have the perfect life. Young and successful, they’ve built their dream home on beautiful Kodiak Island in Alaska. But behind closed doors it’s a much different story. Unable to have children and inactive in their religion, Karissa and Malcolm’s marriage is beginning to fall apart.

When Jesse and Brionney Hergarter move to Kodiak, Karissa senses a kindred spirit. With Brionney’s friendship and support, Karissa feels a growing desire to return to activity at church. But this means confessing the one sin that has haunted her for years—the one sin that could drive Malcolm away forever.


A Portrait for Toni by Annette Lyon – Click here to purchase

Toni has no idea what she’d do without her best friend, Carter. Who else would she be able to vent to about her parents, her job at the dance studio, or her latest relationship woes? When Toni’s father lands in the hospital, Carter, as always, is there for her.

That is, until he starts questioning Toni, saying he thinks she has an eating disorder. Then she starts dating Clint, the hot new guy at the studio, and somehow that puts a deeper wedge between her and Carter. When she’s hospitalized after an on-stage collapse, and Carter stupidly starts in with advice about food and weight, she sends him away—then instantly regrets it.

One night after a performance, Toni tries to mend the hurt between them. Instead of finding Carter, she stumbles onto proof that he has feelings for her that go way beyond those of a friend. Toni is left with the very real prospect of losing Carter forever, unless somehow she can return his feelings—but that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

A New Dance by Lucy McConnell

Click here to purchase

For most people, letting go of a “what if” can be difficult – for Kiley Roberts it’s almost impossible. As her final semester of college begins, a past relationship prevents her from fully opening her heart to Brandon, her almost fiance. When TJ unexpectedly drops back into her life as an assigned dance partner, Kiley’s sure that it’s a sign. Only she’s not sure if it means she should put their past behind her or try for a future with the man with the broken heart.


Snowed Inn by Heather Horrocks – Click here to purchase

Mystery buff Vicki Butler plans to kill someone this weekend. Nothing personal, just business.

The killer grand opening weekend at her new Who-Dun-Him Inn is all fun and games—until an unplanned dead body makes an appearance.

With a murderer running loose, young widowed mom Vicki is forced to keep her family, guests, and actors safe while searching for clues. Her author guests, also the prime suspects, try their hand at solving this real-life whodunit, in the process hindering the investigation by local law enforcement officers. Things really go downhill when her twin Liz shows up, trailed by flamboyant Grandma Ross, who announces she’s seeking a boy toy among the suspects. When both a local younger man and an out-of-town newshound start sniffing around the inn—and her—Vicki realizes she’s got more than just a murderer to worry about. Can she solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will this case of opening-night jitters prove to be terminal?


Bah, Humbug! by Heather Horrocks – Click here for a free copy

Lexi Anderson is an up-and-coming, Martha Stewart-type TV hostess whose two kids love the Jared Strong adventure novels, which happen to be written by their new neighbor, Kyle Miller. For the first time in his writing career, Kyle has writer’s block–until he sees the snowman on his lawn and realizes it’s the perfect solution to his plot problem. He digs in and discovers two things: one, his villain’s weapon will fit inside a snowman’s body, and two, this particular snowman was supposed to be the backdrop for Lexi’s next show. From this improbable beginning comes friendship, but can there be a happy ending for a woman who is afraid to get close again and a man who has shadows from his childhood? Families join together and hearts are healed as this couple goes walking in a winter wonderland.

Confessions of a 16-Year-Old Virgin Lips by Cindy M. Hogan

Click here to purchase

VL. Virgin Lips. You may not have heard of it, but where I live, it’s a thing with a card, even if it is a figurative card. I was Brooklyn Hamlin, certified virgin lips, and I planned on clinging to that figurative card with all I had–while dating as many of the hottest guys at school as I could.

Maybe that’s a bit strange. I mean, what teenage girl isn’t interested in kissing? Locking lips definitely interested me, but the drama that came with it didn’t. No kissing, no drama. Simple.

But on my sixteenth birthday, on my first real date even, the drama found me. His name was Luke Graham–cute, funny, and bad news for the whole female race.

The Princess Problem by Diane Darcy – Click here to purchase

In real life, she’s given up on the fairy tale ending…

After having her heart broken twice, Alicia Dayne has sworn off men, decided to concentrate on her career, and is delighted to win a lucrative contract to make a commercial for Highborn Mattresses.

She could make the most awesome fairy tale commercial ever–except for Jonas Highborn, who isn’t exactly thrilled with her Princess and the Pea ideas, and really doesn’t want a prince in tights representing his company.

Though he’s trying to keep his grieving mother happy by letting her have charge of the commercial shoot, and though Alicia’s trying to keep in mind that this annoying guy is her boss for the moment, they can’t seem to keep from clashing.

Throw in an overly-handsome prince, a matchmaking mama, and a stunning rose garden, and maybe, just maybe, Alicia can be convinced they have a chance at something real.

Because while she might not be a real princess, sometimes an ordinary girl’s got to take a chance, even when it seems too good to be true.

When did Happily Ever After become so complicated?

Steal His Heart by Diane Darcy – Click here to purchase

What if keeping your job depended on keeping a secret?

Daisy Manning has been testing security by shoplifting in Worthingtons Department store for five months. Not once in that entire time has she been caught by security personnel. Until today.

Kent Whitaker is disgusted by the beautiful thief he’s caught red-handed, and even more disgusted by his attraction to her. While he won’t allow himself to become romantically involved with a thief, he can certainly help out a friend by curing his daughter of bad habits.

They both fight their growing attraction, Kent because dishonesty is the one trait he cannot tolerate, and Daisy because Kent is directly interfering with her long-range career goals.

But when an unskilled matchmaker tries his hand at getting them together, the unexpected happens to them both as Kent gets distracted and Daisy steals his heart!

Gifts and Consequences by Daniel Coleman

Click here to purchase

Jonathan decides to honor the wish of his dying wife – that he give away his fortune – but his methods are dangerously unconventional. He takes extreme measures to witness human struggle and watch the discovery of hidden strength. But when Jonathan goes too far, he faces consequences of his own.


The Colony by Cami Checketts – Click here to purchase
To protect her sons from the mistakes of her past, Brinlee Trapper escapes to a secluded mountain home. But there are dangers lurking in the mountains she has never encountered. The little family is saved from injury by Jed, a mysterious hunter. Brinlee is drawn to him, but she worries about his involvement with a peaceful commune hidden deep in the mountains behind her property.

Lance, Brinlee’s attentive neighbor, has his own troubled history. Between his obvious attraction to Brinlee and his developing love for her children, Brinlee finds it more than difficult to guard her heart against this tender intrusion.

While Jed offers a life of excitement and freedom, Lance holds the key to the family Brinlee always wanted. When it comes time to choose, she learns that both men have secrets that could shatter her fledgling trust in men and the wrong decision could leave more than her heart exposed to danger.

Blog This by Cami Checketts – Click here to purchase

Will protecting children throughout the world cost Natasha her own family?

Devastated by the loss of her brother, Natasha Senecot works to expose the dangers of Matthew Chrysler’s violent video games, succeeding in bankrupting and humiliating him.

Chrysler retaliates and sends a hit man after her. Natasha is forced to fake her own death to protect her children, but after witnessing another tragedy, Natasha won’t hide any longer.

In a race against time, can Natasha expose Matthew Chrysler before his assassin murders her family and shatters her world?

All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon – Click here to purchase

Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down . . .

That simple rhyme turns negotiator Claire Michaels’ current hostage situation into an international incident. Claire just wants to help get everyone out safely, but as the crisis escalates she realizes she’s dealing with an al-Qaeda operative who has the means to become another bin Laden—with the potential to attack America. Claire has her own personal reasons for wanting to stop al-Qaeda, but time is slipping away as negotiations break down. Can she overcome her scars of the past in order to get the hostage out alive and possibly stop an assault on U.S. national security?

Navy SEAL Rafe Kelly is on leave to recover from a knee injury he suffered during his tour in Afghanistan and he doesn’t expect to be fighting terrorists on his home turf. But when he is taken hostage and his brother is kidnapped, Rafe teams up with a hostage negotiator in order to stay alive and get his brother back. The terrorist is always one step ahead of them, however, and the situation quickly turns from desperate to deadly. Will Rafe be able to save himself and his country without anyone he loves getting caught in the crossfire?

The Reluctant Bachelorette by Rachael Anderson – Click here to purchase

Luke Carney has no idea what possessed him to move back to Shelter Springs, Colorado, to set up his veterinarian practice. His parents had long since left, the small farming community is on the brink of extinction, and only one close friend from his childhood remains–Taycee Emerson, his best friend’s little sister, who isn’t so little anymore. Then there’s the matter of Shelter’s Bachelorette, an online reality dating show created to raise some much needed funds for the town.

Unknowingly cast as the bachelorette for her town’s charity event, Taycee Emerson wants out. Especially when she discovers her old teenage crush, Luke Carney, is one of the bachelors and it’s up to the viewers–not her–to decide which bachelors stay or go. Coerced into participating, Taycee does what any self-preserving girl would do. She launches a subtle attack on Luke’s good name with the hope of getting him voted off the show. Unfortunately, Luke’s an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy, and when he discovers what she’s up to, it means revenge.

Fair Catch by Cindy Roland Anderson – Click here to purchase

Ellie Garrett never planned on being a divorced, single mother—she also never planned to get married again. Ever. Her ordinary life changes when the house across the street is sold. The new owner is Nick Coulter—quarterback and MVP for the Sacramento Defenders. Oh yeah, he’s also one of People magazine’s top 100 most beautiful people and America’s most eligible bachelor. So why would she pick him to have her first crush on since her divorce?

Recently retired from the NFL, Nick is more than ready to find a wife and start a family. He’s tired of his high-profile lifestyle and moves to Pleasant Wood, Colorado, hoping to finally settle down and focus on his foundation Kids Come First. It would just feel nice to be a normal guy. Of course being rebuffed by Ellie the first few times he meets her makes him feel a little too normal.

As Nick and Ellie become acquainted, their mutual attraction is hard to ignore. But Ellie’s been hurt before by her womanizing ex-husband. She’s not sure that Nick has left behind his playboy reputation. Can she risk falling in love with the celebrity football player or will she miss her chance at scoring big in the game of love?

Romance Through the Ages (7 Book Romance Boxed Set) – Click here to purchase

The price will jump to $9.99 on Thursday or Friday, so snap up your deal while it lasts!

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  • RUNNING BAREFOOT by NY Times & USA Today bestselling author Amy Harmon! *Over 260 4 & 5 star reviews*
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  • SHE OWNS THE KNIGHT by Diane Darcy, Amazon Bestseller! *Over 50 4 & 5 star reviews on Amazon*
  • HEART OF THE OCEAN by Heather B. Moore, Amazon Bestseller!

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Technique

Finding your weaknesses

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

When we first start writing, we often have . . . well, delusions of grandeur, to put it gently. We think our prose is the most mind-blowing thing to happen to books since Gutenberg.

Yeeeah, probably not. And that’s okay. When you’re first starting out, you often need that kind of enthusiasm and even pride to get going. It has its place—but it’s only useful if you can get past it.

WEAKDiscovering that you’re not, actually, the next Shakespeare is the first step. Once you really want to improve, you have to figure out where you need to work on next. Assessing your own weaknesses can be a challenge, but it’s an important part of becoming a better writer.

Reading

A writer should be a reader. Can you imagine a premiere chef who ate the same dinner—spaghettios and bagged salad—every night? That sounds ridiculous! We all recognize that a chef must cultivate his or her palate.

Reading functions a lot like eating for writers, and not just that we might die without either of them 😉 . There are other good reasons—you can identify tropes, trends and clichés;s, you can tell what you like and don’t in techniques, you can get great ideas. But possibly the most important reason a writer needs to read is to cultivate a literary “palate.”

We must learn to recognize good, “strong” writing and storytelling. At the very least, this is what I described on Janice Hardy’s blog last month as “technically solid writing that engages your emotions, tells a well-structured story, and doesn’t get in the way of connecting with the characters.” To understand this, you need to see good writing in action.

Another bonus: filling your head with other characters and plot lines and words can help to move your words out of the short- and medium-term memory banks, giving you fresh eyes for your own words again.

Time

First and foremost, you need to take time away from your writing. I know I often need to forget parts of a story, or the aspects of a character, or the individual words and sentences I crafted to create that story before I can look at them objectively. Some writers recommend weeks away from a story; others say months.

The exact time limit depends on you, and how well you already know your story. If you pounded it out in a matter of days (no judgments there!), and set it aside for two weeks, that might already be long enough. If you labored over it for six months, I’m guessing there may be some pieces in there you’ve already forgotten, but a good rest of a couple months or more will help give you fresh eyes.

Longer than six months drafting? Get started on your next draft and come back to this one when you’re done.

Eventually, with practice, you might learn to be less attached to your plot lines and characters, and you can judge their weaknesses more quickly.

Outside eyes

Possibly the biggest help would have to be good beta readers and critique partners. As far more impartial readers who want to help you make your story better (we hope), they have a vested interest in helping you eliminate all the weaknesses. They aren’t as attached to your story and your characters, so they are better at identifying places that don’t do much to move the story forward—the parts where their attention starts wandering. (Also helpful: the parts where they don’t know what you’re talking about.)

More writing

I love this example author Michelle Davidson Argyle shared here last year. Once, early in her career, her skill level seemed to be stagnant, despite working hard to improve and edit her work. Eventually, she decided to write a new manuscript, and she realized that was exactly what she needed to do to get better. She concluded (emphasis mine):

I’ve found that the more novels I complete, the more I learn and the better I get. The longer I spend on one novel doesn’t seem to get me nearly as far. I am not expanding my mind to different ways of thinking, different characters, different viewpoints, and different ways of experimenting with structure and telling a story. For me, at least, only new projects have been able to do that.

Amen!

An objective, complete read

Once I’ve taken the time to regain some objectivity, finally, one of the most important editing techniques I use is to give a draft—and hopefully each draft—an objective (you know, kinda), complete read, from start to finish.

This may work a bit differently for you, but when I do this, I also forbid myself to change things as I read. I’m allowed to fix typos and make notes (comments in Word), but I’m not allowed to get bogged down in fixing a problem I see right now. I make a note of it and move on, keeping up the momentum so I can get a better view of the manuscript as a whole.

As you read, you’ll begin to notice patterns—in your writing, in your critique partners’ comments. Do you tell and then show, or vice versa? Do you tend to use summary to move things along? Do you have characters that sound the same? Do your emotions need more depth, your plot need more twists, your characters need more conflict and growth? Where does your writing fall short of what you’ve learned is “good” from cultivating your palate?

You found a weakness. Now you know where to grow!

Check out my tips to becoming a better writer—and be sure to join my email newsletter, where we’ll take this tip to the next level this week!

Photo credit: Brooke Novak

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Works, News & Contests

(Clever title about Spy Noon) (I got nuthin)

It’s the last day of the blog tour for Spy Noon, and all my cute stories and things are at the last tour stops today:

I Love to Read and Review Books with a review & giveaway!

The Stubby Pencil with Mary Ann Dennis

Spy pickup lines at Tressa’s Wishful Endings, another giveaway and a review!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the blog tour! Back to our regularly scheduled writing programming tomorrow.

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Works

The true story (sorta) of Spy Noon

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Every story borrows something from real life. Spy Noon borrows a little bit from mine. I’ve never had to work with a super-flirty coworker, but I did once know someone who reminded me just a little bit of Elliott.

Once upon a time, a guy asked me out on a date. His name was Ryan. He invited me to go hiking. In November. In the Utah mountains. Not being one to back down from a challenge (or a friend, as Ryan was), I accepted the invitation.

I didn’t own boots (yes, I lived without boots in Utah—still do), so I ended up wearing tennis shoes. Ryan picked me up in his truck, then stopped by his brother’s apartment to pick up . . . his brother Sean. We headed to a sandwich shop, and I think Ryan was offering to get me something, but I’d packed a lunch at home.

Sean, left, and Ryan, brothers.
Sean, left, and Ryan. See the resemblance?
At this point, I’m sure Ryan felt the date was going reeeally well. (When I asked his permission to post this, Ryan said, “I don’t know why you insist this was a date.” Yep, really well.)

It only got better.

We drove up in the canyon and stopped at a recreational area. Ryan, who loved camping, hiking, and all that, was very prepared. Sean had just recently moved to Utah, and yet he was still better prepared for hiking than I was. In the knee-deep snow. In tennis shoes.

Again, I do not back down from a challenge easily, so we went forth. Ryan broke the trail, I walked in his footsteps, and Sean played caboose. After a little while, Ryan was a few feet ahead, and Sean reached up to knock me over sideways.

Apparently still being about nine years old, Sean found this hilarious. I remembered the schoolyard lesson that you should ignore your tormentors, and I wouldn’t let Sean get the best of me, so I popped up as quick as I could.

This delighted Sean to no end because he realized he could bug me without me whining about it. So every ten or twenty feet—while we are still hiking in the snow and snow is slipping into my shoes with every step—Sean would knock me over. I wouldn’t acknowledge him and got up before Ryan saw.

But Ryan knew something was happening with the devilish delight in his little brother’s grin. After a while, we turned back and headed to the car to enjoy our sandwiches. Now that he couldn’t knock me over, Sean found other ways to bother me.

It took a long time, but at some point, I’d had enough of Sean. I don’t remember exactly what he did to push me over the edge, but eventually I’d had enough. He did one more thing to bug me, and I turned to him and said, “Shut up, Sean!”

I think one reason I’d held back for so long was that I was worried I’d offend him, and in the split second after I’d finally had it, I really didn’t know how Sean would react.

But I didn’t need to worry. A slow smile grew across his face, like all he’d wanted all along was to get a rise out of me.

I wished I’d told him to shut up sooner.

But it was then I realized that Sean was the brother I’d never had. And never wanted. (When I told him that, he was a little offended, I think.)

That worked out perfectly in the end—because I married Ryan. (And he did give me permission to post this.)

weddingphotos
Diptych from our wedding reception: Look at how excited I am for my turn. To that point in his life, no one could have ever been so excited to get a hug from Sean. Until, of course, he ripped out my veil. (He maintains this was an accident.) (Okay, it actually was an accident.)

Oh, and I know you’re wondering: yes, that is my husband in a kilt.

Today’s tour stops

Read the scene inspired by this story at Getting Your Read On, and find out three of my guilty pleasures (gulp) with Lisa Swinton, Queen of Random, and (I think) find out what Cami Checketts thought of Spy Noon!

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Writing Life, Works

Why novellas rock

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I’ll be honest: even at 99¢, my novella never sold as well as my novels. (At free, of course, it soundly beats them in numbers.) While lots of people out there are very excited about the apparent revival of shorter or mid-length fiction in the e-reader revolution, I’m still MrNiceSpy_CVR_LRGskeptical. I wrote my first novella because I wanted to be able to launch with more than one book, and because I wanted to be able to give away a freebie.

Um, that sounds pretty mercenary of me.

It’s worked, however—to an extent. I’ve given away thousands of copies of Mr. Nice Spy. Obviously I don’t know how many of those free books have actually been read, and what fraction of those readers went on to buy my novels, but . . . it hasn’t seemed like a ton have.

So why did I bother writing another novella?

I almost didn’t.

But the story really intrigued me. As soon as I knew what type of circumstances Elliott and Talia met under, I wanted to know the full story. Because it sounded like fun. I desperately needed fun.

SpyNoon_CVR_LRGSo I blocked out some time—crazy short time— and sat down. And the story just flowed.

I’m a plotter by nature, but I went really really loose for this outline. Like, “In chapter 4, we have a chase of some kind. Or not.” And yet with such a short piece, the threads came together really quickly. Within just a few days, I had a really solid first draft—and possibly my best-ever spy plot.

Another advantage? Editing is so fast. You can change major story elements just by editing a few scenes. You can hold the whole story in your head really easily and jump around as needed. Beta readers get back to you super fast. Proofreading takes one morning.

As an indie publisher, I get to set my production schedule, and I set the bar too high last year (and quite possibly again this year). And yet I still managed to squeeze in this story in a day here and a weekend there.

Will I write another novella? I have one more prequel novella bouncing around in my brain, and now I think it really needs to be shared. But only if I can have fun with it 😉 .

What do you think? Have you ever written a novella? Why or why not?

Today’s Tour Stops

Go visit Jae Randall & Rebecca Shelley!

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