Crockpot Oatmeal and Writing

I have been meaning to do this for some time and it wasn't until last night that I finally took the plunge and did it. Others had talked about how great it was to cook your oatmeal in the the crock pot. Before you go to bed in the evening, you prep that crock pot and wake to something warm and delicious. I have to say, I am now hooked. It only took one time, but this is indeed the way to go. 

What made it so great? Obviously the flavor wasn't different. In the end, oatmeal is oatmeal. What made it though was the fact that, after a few minutes in the evening, taking the time to just do that prep work, made the morning go by so much faster. I didn't have to prep breakfast. I didn't grab and "eat and go" meal for the ease. I didn't just get "something to get by." I had a great breakfast.

So what does this have to do with writing? You know that I am a big fan of plotting. I know there are a lot of you out there that complain over and over again that plotting ruins your creativity, it ruins your voice. In all honesty, I think these are nothing more than excuses. You don't want to change what you are doing. I get it! Change is tough. But the benefits so out weight the negatives.

One of my clients just signed her first contract. Up until now, we have been lingering over stories. We get to the project when we get to it. She is also someone who was always writing from that pantster approach. She just let the story evolve. But now that approach might have to go out the door. With the deadlines of new projects on the horizon, waiting to see what will happen next in her story isn't going to work. 

During this transition from pantster to plotter, we talked about her upcoming projects. As we "plotted the story" she saw how meeting that deadline wasn't going to be an issue. Please understand that by plotting, we did nothing more than identify a premise, create a beginning middle and end, and really work out what the conflict in the story would be. That was it. We weren't outlining chapter by chapter. We weren't creating story boards. We just needed a vision of where to go with the story.

The other benefit to prepping the story in advance, is the time it saves having to go back and edit again. Those writers who did the NaNoWriMo are probably feeling that as they are sorting through a huge mess of a story. Seeing that project before they started writing would have saved them a lot of time.

Look, I can't tell people what to do. Like the oatmeal, people have told me the great benefits but I always complained that "I didn't have the time in the evening" or "But what if I wanted something else in the morning." But I tried it. I took the plunge. And it worked.

Now, will I have oatmeal every day? Probably not. Will there be days when I wake up and think I want an Egg McMuffin instead? Probably. But that doesn't mean the benefits of that oatmeal are not there. 

I dare you non-plotters. Try it. You might like it.

Understanding Complications vs Conflict

Conflict is the element that drives the story. It is that battle we want to see the characters over-come in the story to get us to that happily ever after. For many authors, however, stories completely lack a conflict an are only fillied with complications. The end result, unfortunately, is the story ends up having no point.

Let me explain it this way. Once I see the hero and the heroine and I hear their problems, I want to see how perfect they are but really question how on earth they can and will ever get together. I don't want to see that easy solution at the end of the first 10-20 pages. For example: he wants to get married after returning home from military duties over-seas. She wants to get married now that she has gotten her graduate work done and her business is established. Now they find out they are neighbors with the same interests. Ta Da! No conflict.

But here is what the inexperienced writers would do. The would then fill their story with mindless complications that do nothing more than stretch the length of the story. They give him PTSD. They have her business suddenly going bankrupt. They bring in some random pscyho killer. He had to deal with an ex-wife that is her best friend. They have the military call him back for "special services". The list goes on and on.

The problem with complications is that these pesky little things are the common everyday occurances in eacy of our lives. We don't have conflict in our life. We have complications. The care breaks down, or your run out of milk. For your stories, the only thing you did was make the complication worse by adding melodramatics. Instead of the milk running out, you have it containing some hidden disease that no one knows about that when chilled slowly releases a chemical in the air that turns people in the kitchen into were-puppies.

The key with conflict is to understand from the beginning what would be keeping the hero and heroine together. This is where internal and external conflict comes into play. To make the story successful, we don't want to simply see the problem being an outside force. There needs to be something inside the characters also holding them back. Those two elements should be intertwined to really add the development. For example. The lawyer is arguing for the death penalty for the heroine's brother (not that this would happen since it would be a conflict of interest but you get the idea). It is clear the brother deserves it. the evidence points in that direction but now he has to make a huge decision between the girl and his job. She wants him to drop the charges which he cannot do. He could leave the job, but that would mean he loses his career. If he prosecutes, he loses her. That is conflict.

Remember I said to start from the beginning? Did you do that with your last WIP? Did you establish a true conflict or was it a complication?

Scott

Writing With A Purpose

If you don't know where you are going, you will end up some place you don't want to be. I heard this from a motivational speaker and, I am sure, like many of you, there were doubts. I honestly thought that "maybe I will end up in a really cool place", or "maybe because I don't have a planned route, I will see things I might have missed." And then it hit me... MAYBE.

As a writer, you have to know where you are going to with your story. While I am a big fan of simply writing each day, if you are working on your actual manuscript, you have to have a plan.

I am bringing this up because a friend of mine is particpating in the Write a Novel In a Month program, or whatever that acronym is. She is so excited about this program because she now has deadlines to get the material finished. When I talked to her about it, she openly said that yes, she may well end up with 50+ K of pure drivel in the end, and yes, she will likely have a huge amount of editing to do with this.

And there lies the problem.

If she is taking 1 month to write the story and then will take the next 4-5 months fixing the huge problems with the story, this is the problem. This is really an issue when she could have done the whole thing in 2 months shorter and done it right the first time.

I have told my son the same thing. I ask him to clean his room and he just shoves things under the bed. When I send my 4 year old up to clean out the mess under his bed (she calls it exploring) he gets really frustrated because he has to clean the room "again". As I tell him, if he would have done it right the first time, we wouldn't have to do this again.

Look, I am not going to tell everyone to 100% outline the entire book chapter by chapter. What I will tell you is that you better know the beginning, middle and the end. You better know the major points throughout the story. You need to know the conflicts internally for the characters and externally for the plot, and more importantly, how the characters are going to fix it.

Daily, you need to know what the goal of that piece of writing is. No, word count is not it. What is going to be accomplished in the story by the end of your writing time.

Do this and you won't have to backtrack.

Scott

When to start the next book.

So here is the question for Monday morning?

When do you start your next book. No, I am not talking about the sequel to that first book you are writing, but simply the next book that needs to be written?

For many authors, they don't do anything until the first book is completely finished. Now, when I say they don't do anything, I really do mean it. They don't have a concept, they don't have a premise, they don't have a character. Nada, nothing. And, frankly, I have to say, this is a method I would strongly discourage.

The problem with doing the "one book at a time" method, is that when #1 is done, you find yourself in a lag time before diving into #2. Sure, you might be thinking about things, but getting warmed up enough to really get writing is going to hurt. You have to find a way to be ready to get typing on that next project on the day after you wrap up that first project.

How do you do it? It's actually really easy. Keep a list going of future projects. When you are sitting in the car (and someone else is driving) jot down some ideas. If you have a great scene, write it. If you stumble across a great article about something that happened in history that you think would make a great story, print it and make some notes. This way, when an editor or agent asks you about other projects, you have a list already.

This method is very important for those of you wishing to write for a category line. The editors here really want to build your readership in that category (not genre here for those of you who are non-romance writers). They want your readers to always know what to expect when one of your books come out. It is for this reason that I require people who submit to me for a category line to provide (along with their regular submission package) 3-5 additional 1 paragraph blurbs of future projects in that category. It is amazing how, when I ask for that, many of these writers are unable to produce the blurbs. They simply haven't thought about it.

Your homework today? Think about those future projects. By the time you go to bed, you should have enough projects to last you 1 year.

Scott

Think before you write

VERSUS




For anyone who has followed any of my thoughts on writing, you have likely heard me ramble on and on extensively about the plotter vs pantster argument. You know exactly what I am in terms of my beliefs. You should plot.

I don't care how much you do. I don't care if you are a full outline person, or someone like Cherry Adair that uses post-it notes (which personally I love but just can't swing it myself), or you simply create a huge list of the major events in the story, you need to plan.

Let me go into this a bit further...

One thing I always hear writers complain about is the lack of time to write. They love that afternoon when there are no interruptions and they can get something done. Many writers spend their life balancing their work, their kids and the up-keep of a house (including spouses) and their writing. This means that the time you have to write is just a precious as the time you spend with your family. We're talking quality vs. quantity time.

A motivational speaker once said, "You have to know where you are going. If you don't you will end up in some place you might not want to be." This is so true when it comes to writing.

I have seen a lot of manuscripts come across my desk that writers have clearly spent a lot of time on. Many have spent months and even years, and frankly, I read that and figure that is time they will never get back again. And it was a waste. I can clearly see that the writer simply did not sit down and plot, or in many cases, think about what this story was about or why this story was happening.

A writer needs to think before they write. If you think about your story, is it truly marketable? Do the characters really belong together? Will anyone really want the story? Look writing something new and original is fine, but if it is something no editor would ever want to read, or an agent could never market, is a complete waste of time, energy and money.

So, your project today. Before you sit down to write, think about your story. Figure out first of all if the story is really ever going to sell. Be realistic here. I don't care how much fun the story was to write, is it something that can honestly sell? If you really don't know, then stop what you are doing and start researching. You have to have an idea of the market you are writing in. That was part of the whole discussion of category vs single title that I ranted on and on about. People just don't get it.

Figure out where you want to go today...

Scott

And by the way... if your writing group is interested in learning more about this, have them get in touch with me. I might be able to help out at your meeting or at a small conference.