The First Five Pages: Subtlety

Okay, I can be subtle without using my words like a jackhammer. Really, I can. The biggest theme in this book at the moment seems to be: be confident as a writer and give the read some credit. Treat them with respect.

I think I do that.

At the same time, I have taken a seven page ‘excessive’ scene and made it, um, one and a half. Except now I have all this backstory and other details that I had stuffed into the scene that I have to shuffle around and disperse.

Grrr…

Does it ever end?

The First Five Pages: Hooks

I have to admit, I was savouring this chapter, sure that it would be the divine few pages that I would cherish. This would be that mystical writing key that would unlock agent’s doors.

Not.

Lukeman was surprisingly vague about how to create a good hook, what exactly can be considered as a hook and all those minor little nuances that a newbie wants. I want you to take that flowing water between your fingers and mold it into a nice solid box for me, thank you very much.

Anyway, his philosophy on hooks was interesting. For instance, a hook can be more than a traditional ‘hook’ at the beginning of the book. He expresses that it can be at the beginning of a page, chapter, etc. It can even be at the end. I like the ways he says that a writer has to use stamina to build up the hooks. Never let up as writing is cumulative.

Cool, huh?

I am trying. I really am.

On an aside, I find that I am reading slower now. I am absorbing stuff. (Yep, that elusive ‘stuff’. Very technical.) I am even finding flaws in timelines and things that could be done better in other people’s books. Now of course, I am re-reading books that I have already read several times over. To be able to do that with my own work, well good luck!

I am also finding that this week I can’t spell worth sh*t. Weird, huh?

I am thinking of entering a writing contest. (Even though I hate the idea of having to pay money to do so.) I looked at one of my pieces that I thought could do okay and as I was reading it, I came across a comparison that made me stop. (I haven’t touched this manuscript in about a month or two.)

Know what thought raced through my mind as I read that line? What writer has been in here messing with my work? I was a little peeved. Someone ELSE was improving MY work! My initial thought was that it couldn’t have been ME who wrote that. It was too perfect. It was just right. I loved it. It was EXACTLY what I thought! How did I do that? Mystical. Totally. Wow. But of course, nobody got on my laptop and messed with my first page. It was me. With some dead writer at the wheel, merely using my fingers to type.

You are welcome back anytime dead writer.

(I’m kidding about the dead writer at the wheel…I think.)

The First Five Pages: Characterization

This was an interesting chapter that reinforced some of the reasons why I have been doing some things with my characters. Now I have a sound reason to bolster myself into keeping it up. I’m on the right track! Some things, I am finding, I do because through experimentation, I have figured it out it works. Some things, I am finding, I do because I don’t know how to do them better. How to make them right. But now, I am learning. I’m getting learned. And it is a bit of a relief, really.

I love the way some of Lukeman’s examples that he has pulled from literature describes characters. They are beautiful and subtle and at the same time tell us so much about the viewpoint character, sometimes the climate even. It’s great! I feel like I will never read books the same way again. Okay, you got me, not totally true. I will get sucked in and forget and just read for the pleasure of reading, but hopefully, somewhere in the back of my mind there will be a little wheel streaming things into my memory and skill banks to make me a better writer.

I totally understand why I was having trouble with one of my opening scenes. It’s the friggin’ characterization. Others have mentioned this, but not specifically enough that it really triggered more than an ‘oh, how do I fix that anyway?’ sort of a thought. Now, I think I have the tools. I have to develop the character more as I thrust her into all this action. And the way I am describing the other character, yack. That has got to go!

So, off I go to work on that. Unless this caramel rice cake loaded with peanut butter and honey gets in my way…. It’s January in Canada and we’re in a cold snap, I need the insulation. Hell, it’s so cold my car won’t even start. (-28C / -18F with a wind chill, bringing it to somewhere around -40C (which is coincidentally where the metric and imperial thermometers meet in ‘wow, that’s frickin’ brrr’. And yes, this is warmer than yesterday. And yes, this is the warmest part of the day. But thankfully, yes, this is the coldest part of the year.)

The First Five Pages: Viewpoint and Narration

January 29th, 2008–The First Five Pages: Viewpoint and Narration
This chapter, for whatever reason seems to have stalled me out. I don’t think it was this chapter, specifically, rather just events unfolding and taking a cumulative effect.

You know you’ve stalled when you find more amusement in watching the garbage truck trying to dive through huge drifts of snow than think about your writing. Or, you know, going and meeting your husband’s cousin who happens to be on the ‘disowned’ side of the family.

Anyway, I did go out and study other viewpoints for narration like Lukeman suggests. This in fact, is part of what has distracted me for at least five days. And you know what I discovered? I discovered that the authors that are my (Chick Lit) heroes write in <gasp> first person, present tense! Eeeek! Call the writing police! They are making bestsellers and breaking a forbid rule. (Then again, the rule says you have to be a really good writer to get away with it, which evidently they are.)

But can I? Well, time will only tell, of course. But it has bolstered me enough to not go and change all my manuscripts away from first person present tense. (That and the kind words of other writers on this site.)

So, I will ignore the plows and garbage trucks and the fact that it was really fun popping our little car through big snow drifts so my hubby could get to work, and get down to work myself.

After I have some more tea. And maybe check my email.

Later…Okay, I did the exercise where you change the narration in your story. I changed a scene from first person to third, just to see what it was like. It was interesting. I may use it someday. Although, it felt like I was giving too much to the reader. I could be so definitive–that was a refreshing and interesting change. Yet, there was no real room for interpretation as I could just jump into each character and explain them. Less work for the reader. Less work for the writer. Although, I suppose once you are talented at third person, you can leave little hints and clues for the read instead of hitting them over the head.

On a totally separate vein…I saw the CBC show last night, ‘The Week The Women Left Town’. Cool premise. It appealed to the sociologist in me.

Look, Stare, Peer, Gaze, Gape. Turn Those Eyes.

I am working through my 110,000 word manuscript, trying to beef up my verbs and eliminate excess adjectives and adverbs like I did with the first page after reading the adjective/adverb chapter in “The First Five Pages” by Lukeman. It feels like this edit is taking forever–but that could be because I keep letting my mind wander off to check email, poke friends on Facebook and make some more tea.

Or it could be that I have to use my thesaurus a lot more. One of the exercises that Lukeman suggested was to take all the verbs out of your first page. Then look at your list and replace some of them with stronger ones and that sort of thing. And I noticed that I use the word ‘look’ an awful lot. Okay, not an awful lot, but maybe over the whole manuscript, a bit excessively.

Therefore, I am spending my time finding synonyms for ‘look’ as well as ways to work around everyone looking at each other all the time. It’s kind of fun. But then again, I am only halfway through the manuscript. I may think differently in a day or two.