My Process (or, why I suck at outlines)

Once upon a time I decided to write a book. I'd taken some creative writing classes in college, and I'd read thousands of books, so I had the basic idea down. I got out my computer, opened to a fresh document, and started typing.

That project was a bust. I stopped, thought of a new idea and started writing again.

That project was only marginally better. It got trunked, too.

Then I got this GREAT idea. SOO much better than the others. I devised a magic system. I built characters, backstory, and genealogies. I started right at the beginning of the conflict and off I went. My MC cried 5 times in the first three chapters. She was a total wimp. Still, the basic idea still seemed workable, so I did some tinkering and kept writing. It was amusing. It was fun to write.

At the end of chapter 4, I had no idea where to go from there. I'd written myself into a corner and couldn't get out. Just what did I want this book to be about, anyway?

So I tried outlining. Epic. Fail. How the heck was I supposed to know what happened next before I saw what my characters did with the last disaster I threw their way? Fuggedabout the WHOLE PLOT. Outlining was clearly not for me.

Then I read this great book by Evan Marshall called The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing. I made it my bible, developed an elaborate spreadsheet (yay spreadsheets!) and was finally moving forward. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. Now, I didn't follow the whole Plan in detail (sorry Evan). I filled out the section sheets in my spreadsheet, but I didn't go through the whole book before writing the first word. My favorite part about the Plan was the system of benchmarks--you set several benchmarks and drive your characters toward them. It totally worked. Still, even with the major plot benchmarks, I could never actually plan more than 2-3 sections ahead of where I was. If I tried, I ended up changing most of them when my characters refused to do the ridiculous things I was requiring of them (you would, too).

So that's how I got through the first draft of my very first WIP, but I keep hearing about these outline things. So many people swear by them. I do love organization....

In steps Aprilynne Pike, #1 NYT Bestselling author of WINGS, SPELLS, and the upcoming ILLUSIONS. I first met Aprilynne at LDStorymakers 2010, where she served as my bootcamp instructor. (Oh, yeah. I'm cool.) She absolutely murdered my chapters with her red pen, gave me tons of great advice on how to tighten everything, and was generally invaluable. Also completely funny, down-to-earth, with a dry wit and wonderful imagination--which shows in her books.

Aprilynne will be joining me on David Farland's Authors' Advisory tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 13, 2011, at 9:00 PM EDT. She will be telling us how to Outline. (Also, we might try to pry some details on ILLUSIONS out of her....) Please bring your outlining questions (I know you have them) and join the call. See the Authors' Advisory blog for call-in details. Talk to you then!

Why David Farland is my hero

This time last year, I didn't have a writing group. I live in an area with few writers--and almost no genre writers (that I'm aware of). I knew intellectually that a group would be good, but had no idea how to start one. I tried to get a friend to be a two-person group with me, but, well, he was a bigger slacker than I was. Our group was a major failure.

Last April I attended LDStorymakers. In preparation, I researched the many authors who would be presenting at the conference, including David Farland. My research uncovered his Daily Kick, a regular email of writing and industry advice. Naturally, I signed up. (You should, too--it's awesome.)

At the conference, I got to introduce myself to David, and heard his advice on a couple of panels. He knows so much!

After the conference, I went home, determined to Finish. My. Book. But I still didn't have a group.

Round about September, the Daily Kick announced the opening of David Farland's Writer's Groups. Oh-ho! I said. Just what I need! And it was.

I now have the BEST writer's group ever, even though I've only met about half of them IRL. They give excellent advice, tear my work to shreds, and manage to be awfully encouraging all the while.

Also, through Farland's Writers' Groups, I've been given the incredible opportunity to interview bestselling, up-and-coming, and all-around-awesome authors through Farland's Authors' Advisory conference calls. I'm one of two hosts (with Mike Shaffer) and I'm having a blast. We are, to my knowledge (and there's a sad lot that I don't know) the only podcast that allows callers anywhere in the world to call in with their questions in a voice format.

If you don't have a writer's group, check out the groups at David Farland's Writer's Groups. If you enjoy attending writing conventions (or if you've never attended before, or if you can't attend as much as you like), check out the advice on Farland's Authors' Advisory. (Last week I interviewed Dan Wells!)

This week, on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 9:00 PM EDT, David Farland, himself, will return and will talk to us about How to Sell Your Novel. Mike is interviewing him, but I'll be there, pushing shiny buttons. :) If you have ever had a question about how to sell a novel (and who hasn't?), bring it with you and ask the master. We take caller questions throughout the calls, so don't be shy!

Complete call-in intructions are at the top of the Farland's Authors' Advisory blog.

How to Build a Better Villain

If you haven't yet read Dan Wells's books I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, MR. MONSTER, and I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU--repent! (Okay, so I haven't read the last one--it isn't technically out in the US yet.) Not only are they spine-tingly fun, but they manage to accomplish the impossible: they make you love characters you would normally run screaming from.
In my day-job, I work closely with many of these "unlovable" types. These folks are often defined in society by the worst thing they've ever done. They cease to be husbands, mothers, brothers, and daughters, and become instead "rapists," "dealers," "robbers," and "murderers." Once that label is applied, it can be very, very difficult to convince ordinary citizens that there is still good in them. That their one (or two, or a dozen) horrible acts didn't eradicate the good people they can still become--and, often, still are. (Much like my chronic laziness, snap judgments, and occasional holier-than-thou complexes don't make me a horrible person.)

One of the hardest labels to overcome is that of "sociopath." Hardly anyone can come up with anything good to say about someone diagnosed as a sociopath. We think of them as knife-wielding bush-hiders, as suave serial rapists, and as slick salesmen who will take our grandmothers' fortunes with a wink and a smile and suffer nary a pang of conscience. They are as foreign to our experience as all our messy emotions are to them.

Until now.

In I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, John Wayne Cleaver, the protagonist of Dan Wells' books, is a diagnosed sociopath who is, inconveniently, named after two serial killers and a murder weapon (his father's name is Sam). He's also fifteen, lives in a mortuary with his mother, the mortician, knows everything there is to know about serial killers... and has decided NOT to become one. He has an elaborate system of rules in place to keep himself from following his more disturbing instincts (like "no stalking people"). He's bright enough to have seen his destiny and to have designed a way to thwart it. He is intelligent, humorous, and as loving as a sociopath can be (more than you'd expect, not enough to satisfy his mother).

Then, as in all good stories with this sort of set-up, a serial killer starts killing people in John's town. John decides that, as the ultimate serial killer profiler, he has the best chance of anyone at catching the killer unscathed. He's right... and wrong. To catch the killer, John must break his own rules (like "no stalking people") and consequently grapples with the monster inside himself, who likes being out of his box.The killer's identity (discovered rather shockingly about halfway through the novel) is a surprise not just because of what he is, or who he is, but because, like all good villains, he is the perfect foil for the hero. Who is, as I've mentioned, a sociopath.

Most shocking (which is saying something about a book that opens with a graphic account of a particularly messy embalming) is how utterly lovable the killer is. The killer, in fact, understands love, compassion, and devotion much, much more than John ever will. This operates to make the reader not quite sure who to root for--and creates an ending that has a sad sort of triumph.

I've been crushing on John Cleaver since April of last year, when, out of all the books at the LDS Storymakers conference I wanted, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER was the one I decided I couldn't live without. I was SOOO right.

Dan Wells accomplished what so many authors try--and fail--to do: he created a fully-rounded antagonist. An antagonist whose admittedly evil actions were nevertheless understandable. An antagonist who could have been the hero of a different sort of story--a hero whose actions we might have regretted, but whose goal we can't help but support.

How did he do that? I'm pleased to announce that I will be interviewing Dan tomorrow night for David Farland's Authors' Advisory Conference Calls. Our topic will be (you guessed it): Monsters, Sociopaths, and Other Sympathetic Characters. For a full hour, we will pick his brain on how we can make our villains slightly less stereotypically (read: boringly) villainous. How we can remember--and help our readers remember--that our villains are also sons and daughters, parents and siblings, friends and neighbors. Please join us, bring your questions, and learn about writing villains from the master. Full call-in instructions are on the Authors' Advisory blog.

Update: Dan's call was awesome (no surprise) and the recording is now available here.

For the Record....

This sounds sort of strange, because I consider her to be a friend, and I hope she'll forgive me for being presumptuous (and oh-so-wierd)... but I want to BE Brodi Ashton. The girl isn't even officially published yet, but already I know great things are in store for her, and I want to go on the record by saying that I knew it first. Well, close to first. I think her husband and her writer's group must have suspected it before I even had a chance.

I'm dating my own fan-dom from April 16, 2010. I had been following her blog for months (I was among her first 100 followers, so nyah-nyah), and so was already in the habit of avidly stopping by three times a week. She'd given a few teaser lines of the book now called EVERNEATH back in November of 2009, but on April 16, 2010, she posted a longer teaser. I'm not at all ashamed to say that I was completely hooked. Not just hooked, but addicted. I literally read the teaser at least ten times and, every few months since, I stop back to get my fix. Go read it--but be warned: you'll want more, and you'll want it now, but you won't get it for another 18 months. CORRECTION: it turns out that "Winter of 2012" also encompasses January 2012. January 3rd, be exact. Which shall be known as The Frabjous Day.

Winter of 2012 can't come fast enough--I'm so SO eager to read the rest! It's not just the interesting premise or the skillful writing: in just that short clip, I could feel what it was like to go away for 100 years, come back 6 months later, be completely changed, and want nothing more than to not hurt (again) the guy I love... even knowing that hurting him was probably inevitable. Not a good feeling, friends--and that feeling has been festering, unresolved in my gut, for almost a year now. If I can achieve half that amount of emotion in twice the word count Brodi does it in, I'll know I'm doing well.

Brodi knows of my obsession and is handling it admirably. She and most of her awesome writer's group, The Six, allowed me and my college roomie, Susan Jensen, to go to dinner with them and hang out at the LDSSM conference last year, where Brodi very deservedly trounced me (and everyone else) in the First Chapter contest. (Had I known she had entered, I would have known I had no chance, rather than just suspecting it). She let me interview her writer's group for Authors' Advisory. She puts up with my not-at-all-infrequent attempts to trick her into sending me the unpublished-and-still-in-revisions manuscript, finally promising me an ARC, just to shut me up. (I'd say I won't hold her to that, but I haven't the strength.)

If you don't want to take my word for it, read what her agent wrote. Who wouldn't want an agent saying that about them?

Someday, when Brodi is widely known as the next Stephenie Meyer and is beating off legions of fans with a stick, I will be able to point out that I said it first. That should earn me a trip to the front of the signing line, methinks. Really, though, a little resolution would be awesome. Nikki and Jack need to figure out how to free her from the Everneath. They need to be free to love each other. Most importantly, I need to know how it all works out.

Hurry, 2012. Hurry, hurry.

Top 2010... 10

2010 was actually a bit of a banner year for me. (What does that mean, anyway? Banner year? Anyway, it was pretty cool.) It's hard to prioritize all the awesome things that have made this year one of the best ever, but here's the list anyway, in no particular order.

1. Finished writing my first full novel. Yes, I can write over 102,000 words on the same story—and most of those words were written this year. It’s still really bad and needs major surgery to make it really live, but it sure is cool to see all the bones, blood, and guts lying there, waiting to be stitched together.
2. Went to my first writer’s conference (LDS Story Makers) in April, where I met a ton of really cool authors, including Dan Wells, James Dashner, and Aprilynne Pike. Jessica Day George was also there, and, though I’d met her before, it was still awesome to see her.
3. Reunited with Susan Kennedy Jensen, my college roommate. Susan, who now runs a mean book blog, flew to Utah from Arizona to attend LDSSM with me. It was cool to hang out with her there, since every aspiring author wants to talk to the book blogger in the room!
4. Met The Six. I’d been following Brodi Ashton’s blog religiously for a while and was thrilled when Brodi and four of her writer’s group agreed to meet Susan and me for dinner the evening before the LDSSM conference started. A funnier group of girls you’ll never meet. Then, in December, I also got to interview them for the Farland Authors’ Advisory.  I’m feeling a bit like the little sister that follows her older, cooler sisters around, but none of them have told me to get lost yet….
5. Lost the LDSSM First Chapter contest—which would normally be a low point, except Brodi so completely deserved to win and I loved, loved, loved the comments from my judges. Especially the judge that scored me the lowest: he/she said that I was a “very, very, good” writer, encouraged me to keep writing, and said my story was as good as Aprilynne Pike’s Wings.  How can I feel bad about that? Wings is an NYT Bestseller! I’ll take criticism like that any day.
6. Finally got a writer’s group. When David Farland announced on the Daily Kick that he was starting an online writer’s forum, I was thrilled! I immediately asked his brother, Jim Wolverton if I could help, wrote the Critique Guide, got to be Jim’s own group leader, and have been basking in the perfection that is the Pied Pipers ever since. They actually encouraged me to write crazy elaborate rules! I promise, many of them will be bestsellers soon, and everyone will be reading their books. Meanwhile, they’re willing to help me figure out and hone all the writing skills I’ve forgotten since I left college. I have no idea how anyone writes without a group. If you are not in a group yet, do yourself a favor and check out David Farland’s Writer’s Groups.
7. Got to host Farland’s Authors’ Advisory. When Jim announced they were getting bestselling authors to give us free writing advice in conference calls, I resisted raising my hand for, oh, a week? Then I oh-so-casually mentioned that I’d be happy to help out and Jim was nice enough to let me. My co-host, Mike Shaffer, is a talented hoot and a half and our minds work just opposite enough to make sure things should never be boring. I’m still a bit starry-eyed that I get to interview such great authors, even if it’s just by phone. So much fun!
8. I’ve read 138 books. Not counting the 5 full-length novels I critiqued or the books I started and didn’t quite finish. (Like the last half of my re-read of Breaking Dawn.) I’ve revisited old favorite authors, like Stephenie Meyer, Patricia Briggs, Robyn Carr, and Brandon Sanderson, and found new favorites like Gail Carriger, Dan Wells, and Janette Rallison. (I have too many favorites to list them all, truly.) If you ever need a book recommendation, I’m your girl.
9. I started a blog. This is more of a time commitment than a cause for celebration, but it becomes more wonderful when you consider that the design comes courtesy of my friend Devoney Wolf, who sent out a very timely email asking if anyone needed a web page designed, since she had to do a school project for her web design class. Um, yeah! I love her design. Isn’t it great? Then, of course, my awesome sister-in-law, Paula Weeks, took some pictures that make me look amazing. (If I do say so myself--and you would, too, if you could compare them to my normal appearance.)
10. My family is well. My brother John got married to a wonderful girl this summer, my sister Vanessa survived the wildfires in Utah with her house intact, and all my nieces and nephews are growing up—albeit too quickly—to be wonderful young men and women. My own children are growing and are such awesome kids. My husband continues to support me despite having no idea why I like books, and loves me even though he has to regularly turn my light out at night and take my book (or computer, as the case may be) away so I can get some sleep. He’ll never read what I write, but I couldn’t write anything if he didn’t make it possible. This year was our ten year anniversary and we still behave like newlyweds. My husband is always on my top ten list.

Oh, and I also lost 20 pounds! It can be done! Now I'll look so much better on my eventual book tours.... :) (See the last blog post about delusions....)

How was 2010 for you? Think 2011 can top it?