Write Early, Write Often…Write Something!

Teresa Fannin, reader, writer, gardener, chocolate fan & tea drinker

Author: teresafannin (Page 21 of 56)

Pay Myself First

09/11/2015 /

Just after I got my first job, my dad took me to see his accountant. Can’t remember much about him, except he and dad were in the Knights of Columbus together–dad had been treasurer of the Council of St. Francis Xavier Parish–both were fourth degree knights, not that that really matters. Anyway, Tony gave me an overall view of how to handle my money. True I was young, still at home and didn’t have expenses like rent, phone [no cells in those days], but no matter. Tony set up this box with index cards showing my expenses at the time, insurance and car were about the only ones. But there was room to expand as I needed. And there was one that was Savings. Before I had any money to spend on fun and games, I was expected to save. And, for the most part, this ‘pay myself first’ was what I practiced my whole life.

This is important because I still do that for my, our, money, same system but it’s electronic.

What I need is a box with index cards for time.  Maybe it’s because I’m not as busy as I was with home, children, job that I don’t give myself the time anymore. Or because there are so many possibilities for distraction. But I do need that box.

As a SCBWI Regional Advisor, I am a volunteer. It is my responsibility, along with the Carolinas ARA and the IC, to create programs-conferences, intensives, workshops, retreats, even online–for the region. That responsibility is also fiduciary, as a treasury is involved. What I get is tuition to the international conferences where regional team members are expected to assist in registration or hosting a speaker, etc.  And, I like this volunteer work, it’s important to me, and I’m good at it.

But as I work on my middle grade novels, one that I am shopping and one that I am revising, I realize that I should, no must, remember to pay myself first. To spend time on research for the YA nonfiction I am burning to write. To read and reread middle grade mysteries so that I have a good understanding of what is selling in the market place. To search and find that right paragraph, sentence, phrase, word that will make the internal and external story so much more coherent and publishable.

So. Here’s me, working on the fall conference, and yes there is a huge amount to do, but here’s me, thinking about the art and craft of my writing. Here’s me, looking at the index cards in that box and making sure that I pay myself first.

NEVERWHERE A book report

09/08/2015 /

On the jacket, at the bottom, is the AUTHOR’S PREFERRED TEXT. Underneath that is WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR AND A NEW NEVERWHERE STORY.

We, i.e., the reading public, is informed NEVERWHERE was first published in 1992,  a breakout novel for Mr. Gaiman. In the introduction Mr. Gaiman writes this is NOT the NEVERWHERE you read before, if you read Neverwhere before. It’s not the second NEVERWHERE either. And that it started as a TV series. But in his head it was always a book. And, this version, THE AUTHOR’S PREFERRED TEXT, is sorted from bits and pieces–drafts and the original UK text–and that redundancies have been removed. This is a definitive version.

Well.

This is the story of Richard Mayhew who is an okay looking guy, of undetermined age, dating a woman he feels is a step or two up from his social level and he is damn happy to be dating her. But he’s not really. She demands, she criticizes, she improves. All of which make Richard wonder why they are dating. Not that he’s not happy. But he’s not really.

A simple act of kindness–that of helping a young woman who is bleeding on the sidewalk–turns into a look at what life is like in Neverwhere. Neverwhere is not a nine to five job. It is not a steady paycheck. It is not finding a nice girl, settling down and having children who are only going to repeat the cycle. Neverwhere is some parts magic, some parts adventure, some parts psychotic. And it is not what life looked like for Richard just before his act of kindness–it is not dull.

There is a lot of running to and fro under London. Matter of fact, Richard learns there is a London Above and a London Below. There may just be the ability to move back and forth in time, but you don’t really know that–you do think it is possible. There are memorable characters,  places where death may be imminent, angels, rat-speakers, sword fights, escapes, cults, and some truly disgusting antagonists.

Yes, I liked it. Especially when Mr. Gaiman channeled Terry Pratchett: Richard looked at the key. The key looked back. Ah, good times with Twoflower and the pearwood Luggage. For me it was reminiscent of Katherine Marsh’s THE NIGHT TOURIST, [2007] without all the Latin and the searching for his mother, the Orpheus-Eurydice Myth recast according to readers on GoodReads. Sorry, Mr. Gaiman, I read Ms. Marsh’s book first otherwise I might just say that differently.

If you’ve read other Gaiman books—Coraline, The Graveyard Book–the writing, the voice, the tone, the sentiment, the descriptions, the hovering over the dark and mysterious will be familiar. I found the ending too easy to predict. Sigh. Once, just once…well, never mind. Read it, if you like endings tied up neatly.

Everything Takes Forever!

06/25/2015 /

It was a check. It was a bit more than what I normally deposit in checks but still. We’ve been dealing with this credit union for the ENTIRE time we have lived in the south–18 years. And yet! Yet! To deposit a check that was more than three figures before the dot I had to call and request they increase the cap by which we may make mobile deposits.

Here’s the forever part. I called the number. A pleasant recorded voice informed me I had at least a two minute wait. I can wait for two minutes. My mother was never on time for anything and as a result I have an ability to wait for more than two minutes verging on the half-hour if there is a deemed and worthy reason. Yes. Lucyle could be chronically late–we rarely used the term tardy, which can seem so transitory and temporary. Lucyle’s lateness was neither, but somehow ‘on time’ was a word that always appeared to be banished from her vocabulary.

So two minutes was okay. EXCEPT, it kept being two minutes. Not good.

There was an option to leave my number and they would return my call. I’ve used this quite successfully in contacting Apple [and with Apple, sigh, it was my fault–so my ‘yikes, you’re using up all my time’ factor was mitigated.] Thinking the best, I left my number. And soon a callback came with that pleasant recorded voice informing me that I next in line. And soon a pleasant live voice asked all the pertinent data to establish myself as me and then informed me I was signing in not as me but as my darling adorable. So. The pleasant live voice needed to talk to him–to verify with him, to successfully change the amount of money we do deposit via the mobile app.

Taking the phone downstairs I quickly told DA what was required. He nodded. As the pleasant live voice asked him questions, he answered, verifying himself as himself. Although, now I wonder if I should invest in a device that could change my voice and I can just become him. I know his information almost better than him. Actually, there are probably some places that wouldn’t recognize his signature. Ha!  Probably a voice adapter would be more than unnecessary.

After about ten minutes, DA says thank you and hangs up the phone. “They’ve upped the limit for one year,” he says.

“One year? What does that mean?” I ask.

DA shrugs. Of course he has no clue and why would he? Pleasant live voice probably didn’t explain. So there you have it. I wanted to deposit a check. Should have taken two seconds [okay, but it should have been quick.] Instead it took almost twenty five minutes between the extending two minutes wait, the call back, the trip downstairs so that DA could talk, the trip back up the stairs, and the actual deposit.

Yep! EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER!

 

Beta Readers

06/23/2015 /

Sigh. Another three months have gone by. Double Sigh. So. Where were we?

When I write I’m not exactly a pantser. But I’m not a plotter either. I know where the story is going. I know how I want it to end. Maybe I’m too willing to find a new character along the way. Or find a flaw in the main character. Or find out that the main character should be older, wiser–younger, sillier. Or even find a new ending.

So this led me to thinking about beta. Second letter of the Greek alphabet. β A pretty cool way to write the letter b. As in not Alpha? hmmm…and a beta reader.

Google says beta readers encompass things such as plot holes, problems with continuity, characterisation or believability; in fiction and non-fiction, the beta might also assist the author with fact-checking. Yes. That they do.

Does my critique group count as beta readers? Nah! I think not. Why? Because they saw too much. Know too much. And, in someways, like me, they are very vested in the story. It was time to send this story to someone. I knew it couldn’t be an agent/editor. Nah, again. Not ready. First off it was too long. Second, it rambled. I got that there was too much writing getting in the way of story. But I liked those vignettes, the way they fell into the storyline, they way they explained with out telling [I hope] a lot about the main character.

Then last year I received an offer I could just not refuse. An offer, by an accomplished writer and teacher of writing, to take my whole story and read it all the way through. New eyes. New attitudes. No clue as to where the story came from. No witness to the struggles. No understanding of the plot beyond the synopsis. Did I trust the person? Yes. Was I nervous. Yes.

And get feedback. Ah. Feedback. This is not the same as critique. Although my critique group is brutal…attacking the page not the person. But still!  So I sent. And I paced. And I paced. And I chewed a couple of fingers. Waited. Anticipated.

Then it came back. With comments. Not–this sentence should be shorter. Or you need to use this description. But something much more helpful. Four letters–E, T & B, C. E and T were good. B and C were bad. Emotional and tense. Boring and confusing. Doesn’t seem like much, does it?

Think about it! What holds you to the story? What takes you out of the story? Yes. Well.

So. Eighteen thousand words now on the cyber floor, a tighter narrative, a more accessible character.  I raise my glass to beta readers–those who are willing to spend the time and energy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

every story has a world

03/18/2015 /

Writing speculative fiction [as Orson Scott Card refers to the entire science fiction and fantasy genre] is a dream of mine. I’ve struggled with this world building concept and thought it applicable only to a couple of ideas I had about something outside the realm of contemporary or historical.

There have been a number of panels at SCBWI events on ‘world building‘. Why do I highlight that? Because most, no all, of the panel members were writers of speculative fiction. Sitting in the LA ballroom one year not too far back, I wondered. Why? Didn’t Jane Austin build a world in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? Didn’t Sue Grafton build a world and sustain it in every one of the Kinsey Millhone mystery stories? Ellen Raskin in THE WESTING GAME? Jay Asher in THIRTEEN REASONS WHY? Anthony Horowitz ALEX RIDER?

I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’s JOHN CARTER ON MARS, Fredrick Brown’s MARTIAN’S GO HOME, Asimov’s LUCKY STARR, moving on to the LOTR trilogy, The GORMANGHAST TRILOGY, anything Frank Herbert, or Robert Heinlen, Frederick Pohl, Phillip Dick… you get the picture. I’ve probably spent more of my time in other worlds cumulatively than I have anywhere else.

The question was–why was world building only thought of in speculative fiction, in those science fiction, fantasy, paranormal stories? So when a world building intensive was offered this year at the SCBWI MidWinter Conference [with authors Henry H. Neff and James Dashner]  I signed up and brought my contemporary murder mystery set in Boston. And, interestingly, I wasn’t the only one. Although there were speculative-fiction type manuscripts at the table, there was on on discrimination in the south using the ghost of Medgar Evers, [okay, so paranormal] and one on a transgender child navigating high school.

Here’s the bottom line….

EVERY STORY HAS A WORLD

Whether it takes place on another world, in outer space, in the apartment building down the block or in a time period long past, that story exists somewhere. This isn’t just setting–as in where an event takes place, the physical. A world is so much more–it’s who’s in charge, who’s friends with whom, what is the belief system, how do they communicate.  The better the somewhere is described, the better you are able to fit the character into that description, the better the story. Makes sense, right? And well it should. This intensive made me question what was unique about my world? What ways the world impacted my story? What ways the world impacted my characters? It also made me question whether or not the world was complete, was I describing the MC’s world well enough that you could understand her predicament, how much did I develop and how much did I assume the reader would know based on the contemporary setting?  What did I need to change?

These questions helped me to be certain I had clearly identified the theme of my story. It helped me to see any inconsistencies in the way the characters behaved. And, it helped me to achieve an ending to the story that was in keeping with the character’s behavior, and it helped me to find a solution to identifying the murderers that was consistent with her world.

So. THIS WORLD. The world of my story, the one that my main character roams around in each day, this world in some ways helps define her, is important. I had to build this world, I needed to make her world complete enough that when the last page of the story is turned, this world is something you remember.

Because every story has a world. Every single one!

 

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