Trouble

Today I'm sharing my post at mainewords -

According to Les Edgerton, author of Hooked, "All stories are about one thing: trouble. What does trouble create? The hope that we can do something to get out of it."

I saw this quote at Writer Unboxed, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Mostly because I was having some trouble with character motivation. Just that one little quote actually lent some new perspective to my dilemma, after which, I found more helpful quotes:

"What can I do about it anyway? Every squeak counts, if only in self-respect."

"The hour of consciousness doesn't mean cognition only, but understanding..."

"The search for justice is timeless, and courage isn't lack of fear but persisting despite our fear."

"There is just this, and it is everything."

Saturday night I had to do an errand after work, which was about the last thing I wanted to do. But as I drove past Sherman Marsh I smiled because the errand wasn't going to take too long, and it was a lovely, warm summer evening. The last of the sun was all golden, the wind was blowing through the car from the open windows, and my dog was happy to be doing something different. And I thought, yes, there is just this, and it is everything.

What's inspiring you this week? 

Sin and Syntax - how to craft wickedly effective prose (cont)

This week I'm sharing some bits with you from one of my favorite writing books: Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.

Today I'm going to finish up with Hale's chapter on adverbs...


The Bones: "Adverbs are more promiscuous than adjectives" Hale says, and "express either Time (immediately, now, soon), Place (here, there, and everywhere), Manner (boldly, nonchalantly, purposefully), or Degree (absolutely, quite, very). Adverbs tell the reader when, where, how, and how much.


The Flesh: Hale says "Adverbs are crashers in the syntax house party." Most of the time, they can be deleted...


Cardinal Sins: ...especially when all they do is repeat the meaning of the verb like "screeched loudly." 


Carnal Pleasures: Here Hale offers a witty bit of advertising from the Bonny Doon winery, promoting its Bloody Good Red:

"...astonishingly full-bodied, w/good, firm backbone yet still rather fleshy, esp. about the middle...great legs and a huge and utterly complete nose...excruciatingly long & dramatic finish...all in all I must admit that it really was bloody goo..."


There are many more chapters in the book, including Voice, Lyricism, Melody, and Rhythm, and every page is brimming with amazing examples of writers getting it right, and others failing in epic fashion. I return to this book every so often because not only is it a feast of words and lessons, it's a reminder that it's okay to break all those rules once you know them - as long as you do so brilliantly.


Do you have any writing books you turn to again and again?

Sin and Syntax - how to craft wickedly effective prose

This week I'm sharing some bits with you from one of my favorite writing books: Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.

Today I'm going share the chapter on adjectives.

The Bones: Hale calls adjectives consorts, "never attending a party alone, preferring to hook themselves on the arm of a sturdy noun." Think about that house we talked about earlier. Calling it a Gothic Manse makes it much more interesting but we can liven it up even more by using adjectives to make that Gothic manse more distinctive. Does it have a mansard roof perhaps?

The Flesh: I love Hale's example of how to make our adjectives work for us like our dynamic verbs. Why use yellow, she asks, "given the options: bamboo, butter, canary, chamois, dandelion, jonquil, lemon, maize, mimosa, mustard, ochre, old gold, popcorn, saffron, sauterne, turmeric, and yolk?" Why indeed.

Cardinal Sins: Here Hale warns us against adjectives, almost suggesting we heed Mark Twain's advice to kill all adjectives wherever we find them. But no, she amends, "...kill most of them - then the rest will be invaluable."

Carnal Pleasures: Hale finishes here with a reminder that while less is more in the case of adjectives, the right one can make all the difference, as in the case of Absolut Vodka and its "endless memorable permutations."

What's your take on adjectives? Do you follow the less is more rule?

Sin and Syntax - how to craft wickedly effective prose (cont)

This week I'm sharing some bits with you from one of my favorite writing books: Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.

Today I'm going to share with you the chapter on Verbs.

The Bones: According to Hale, "Verbs add drama to a random grouping of other words, producing an event, a happening, an exciting moment." (Don't you just love that? This is why this book was so much fun to read!) There are two major classes of verbs: Static and Dynamic. All those to be verbs are static and generally speaking, we should avoid them because...well, they generally don't produce anything exciting or eventful.


The Flesh: Hale says your choice of verb determines whether you're a wuss or a wiz. Beginners often rely on is and other static verbs, and even those of us who have been at it a while will discover upon revising that our entire first draft is riddled with passivity. Want to pick up the pace and liven up your prose? Use dynamic verbs like saunter, mount, shimmer, glower, hop, poke, punch, lurch...and get rid of as many to be verbs as possible.


Cardinal Sins: Hale cites "that bad, bad being" as one the cardinal sins, because most of the time it's used in error, and the rest of the time is probably not needed. An unfortunate example of this sin is this sentence: "It is a machine which I, being one of the few can operate." Can we say cumbersome?


Carnal Pleasures: As an example, Hale offers the reader the "imperative" which "lets the writer address the reader directly and powerfully." Here's a snippet from "Girl" written by Jamaica Kincaid in which she uses this literary device to perfection, with one gallactically long run-on sentence filled with commands (oh, it's waaay longer than this; I cut a lot for the sake of brevity though it truly is worth reading):

"'Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk bareheaded in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off...this is how to love a man, and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up...'"

Not many writers can do this but boy, Jamaica Kincaid sure can!

Do you find yourself using a lot of to be verbs? I used to, but I'm getting better :)

Sin and Syntax - how to create wickedly effective prose (cont)

This week I'm sharing some bits with you from one of my favorite writing books: Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.

Today I'm going to share with you the chapter on nouns...

The Bones:

The word noun derives from the Latin nomen, for name. This is why we have nouns, to name things like people, places, and things (both concrete things and intangible things).

The Flesh:

Most books on style advise using strong nouns that are familiar or standard rather than unusual, and as Hale says, this makes sense. "Who wouldn't take a kiss, any day, over a 'demonstration of affection'?"

Cardinal Sins:

According to Hale, there are "Seven Deadly Sins committed with nouns: Sloth, Gluttony, Fog, Pretense, Gobbledygook, Jargon, and Euphemism." I'm only going to share the first two (because really, you should read this book), Sloth and Gluttony.

Sloth is for hacks who can't be bothered to pick up a thesaurus. Sloths use cliches ("trite phrases blanched of all meaning by overuse") and grab the closest noun at hand. If you don't want to be a sloth, "go on thoughtful
searches for the right words."

Gluttony you can probably guess. Gluttons are writers who "use five words when one would do." Sort of like when the weatherman gives you all these meteorological terms that pretty much result in the fact that it's going to rain. The weatherman can do that. The writer cannot, unless she or he is extraordinarily brilliant - like Charles Dickens.


Carnal Pleasures:

Speaking of which, Charles Dickens could've just said Scrooge was a miserly old man. Lucky for us, he did not:

  "Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." - Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"
 

Sin and Syntax - how to craft wickedly effective prose

This week I'm going to share some bits with you from one of my favorite writing books: Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale.

The book is divided into three parts: Words, Sentences, and Music, and each chapter is broken into four sections:

The Bones, which reminds us of the keys to grammar. "Learn the sensible system, if only to know how to escape it in flights of creative fancy (it's more flexible than those English teachers would have you believe)."

The Flesh "shows how the parts of speech, the syntax of sentences, and the techniques of music give us the best stories."

Cardinal Sins "catalogs true transgressions...disaster that lurks in mangled syntax...[and] debunks those horrid myths that often substitute for a real understanding of the underpinnings of language."


Carnal Pleasures "shows how breaking the rules can lead to breakthrough prose."

What I loved about this book: It's easy and fun to read, it's witty, and it helps remind me of the rules and when to stick with them and when it's okay to put them aside.

Do you have a favorite book on grammar?

The Path Not Taken

Monday I mentioned the site Writer Unboxed, which I find extremely helpful, funny, inspiring, and probably one of my most favorite sites about the craft and business of fiction. I found this recent post exceptionally helpful: The Storyteller and the Roads Not Traveled. In it the author talks about the paths our characters can take and the questions we can ask to help determine which path is the best. Hint: It's never the easy one.

• Which path actually raises the stakes? Go with that one.
• Which path is going to take pressure off the main character? Avoid it.
• Which path is going to pull the narrative action away from the main characters that the reader is invested in? If possible, redirect so that the action belongs, more closely, to a main character.
• Which path is more visually compelling?
• Is your character pulling you hard down a certain path? This is important. Sometimes characters know why they need to do what they need to do long before you do.  A character telling you her story – voice – can carry a novel and truly make your decisions incredibly clear. Someone else is making them for you.
• Which path scares you? Fear is a positive indicator.
• Is there a path you’re dying to write? Prize that one. 

 

 Friday, I'll be back with more questions for you and your characters.

The hardest questions

Finally, there’s these, which will really make you (and me!) think:

1. What isn’t being seen?
2. What’s the most important question?
3. What’s dangerous in this world?
4. What problem (external conflict) does the external situation present? How can the protagonist eventually resolve that conflict?
5. List three obstacles that stand in the way of the protagonist resolving this conflict.
6. How will the protagonist grow because of confronting these obstacles?
7. What do you want to happen at the end of this book?
8. What will have to happen to the protagonist against his/her will to make your ending come about?

My answers:

1. This is another tough one for me, since it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. The end of the world is coming and things are going to bad, worse than they are, which is already bad. But. What I’ve discovered thus far is that sometimes secondary characters surprise you, and by digging into their motives, you can see things from a new and interesting perspective. I’ve got two characters like that and I’m still learning about them.
2. Ah, the most important question. For which I have no answer – yet!
3. Everything is dangerous in my world. The whole world has gone to hell and leaving the sanctuary of the designated safe towns (DSAs for designated safe areas in my story) would be extremely unsafe – not to say there’s any guarantee inside a DSA. After all, it is the apocalypse…
4. The apocalypse presents the main issue of survival. When the world ends, how does the government function? Can it? And how does everyone who’s left mange without the convenience of electricity, the local grocery store, heat, not to mention all the unpleasant people left who don’t care about getting along or working together. The problem is Seth can’t resolve the apocalypse or make it go away, he and everyone else are going to have to try to survive it.
5. I do have some obstacles in mind for Seth but I’m not going to reveal them since that would be a total spoiler. But this is an easy question for me. I can always think up bad things to do to my characters.
6. I’ve designed these obstacles to be growing experiences for Seth. I mean really, everything that happens has to change him, and hopefully those changes will enable him to survive.
7. That’s another one I won’t answer so not to spoil things. But I do have an answer!
8. Bloody Hell. Back to a tough one again. I have to admit, I often have a hard time with this question. One thing I do know, Seth is going to have to make some hard choices if he wants to live, the kind where something bad will happen no matter how he chooses.

Now it’s your turn and feel free to share as much or as little as you like.

The harder questions…

 As promised, I’ve got more questions to make you think about what you’re writing. This is all stuff I found elsewhere, either in books, on people’s blogs, or websites. They all make me think about what exactly I’m writing, and who my characters are. But, some of them are hard…

1. Does this character like himself/herself?
2. What if anything would he or she change about their life?
3. Strongest/weakest character traits
4. How can the flip side of the strong points be weaknesses and vise versa?
5. Talents?
6. How is the character ordinary or extraordinary?
7. How is the situation ordinary or extraordinary? 

As you can see these are harder questions, making you think more about your character than their name age, appearance, and basic back-story.

My answers:

1. Hmm, this is hard. I don’t think Seth likes himself, or maybe I should say he doesn’t think highly of himself.
2. Seth wishes his sister never died and he could’ve lived happily with the family he used to have.
3. Seth isn’t spontaneous. He thinks things through. And even though he’s in the ALT Ed program at school, he’s smarter than average, as evidenced by the tree house he built out of salvaged material. Seth’s weakness is that he feels weak, trapped first by his family situation and now by the absence of normality.
4. Maybe Seth thinks too much sometimes, I’m not sure. This is another tough question. Some character strengths and weakness can easily be reversed, others, not so much.
5. He’s good at figuring things out, solving problems, and even though he’s afraid sometimes, he plows through.
6. I think Seth is ordinary, after all, there’s lots of kids who have crappy home lives and attend the ALT Ed program.
7. I’m hoping that the situation (the apocalypse), which is extraordinary, will also make Seth extraordinary. We’ll see.

Now it’s your turn. Feel free to share in the comments!

And now for something completely different…

Okay, maybe not completely, ie, we’re still going to be talking about writing this week, but I want to try something to see if it will make you all think. Some of these things I have trouble with and some I find easy. But let’s start at the beginning shall we?

In the comments, tell us what you’re working on:

1. Working Title if it has one
2. Genre
3. Intended Age group
4. The main character, or if multiple, the one you thought of first. Tell us something about him/her in one short paragraph.
5. Current word count
6. Where are your characters right now? What are they doing?
7. Do you know how it all ends?
8. Plotter? Pantser? Somewhere in between?

My answers:

1. RUN
2. Apocalyptical
3. YA
4. Seth, age 17, lost his sister in an accident that ruined his family, mom somewhere unknown, dad a mean drunk, which led Seth to build a tree house in the woods near his house…
5. 38,697 (I’m a slow writer)
6. They’ve just attended a quasi town meeting in which Major Baldwin informed the townsfolk of the impending blackout, and holds up three of his men as heroes for bringing in much needed supplies. One of them is an especially unpleasant fellow Seth and Lola met earlier in the story. Lola decides to leave the safety of the town.
7. I do have the very last scene written (though it goes without saying it may change), but getting there is going to be an adventure.
8. Pantser with some plotting thrown in plus character questionnaires, and novel questions – more of which I’ll be sharing with you later in the week.

These are the easy questions, Wednesday I’ll have some harder questions for you :)

No info dumping on my reading

So the big thing that stood out from today's critique for me was the use of back-story in the opening scene of the manuscript.

As the author said:

"In it you'll see an area where I've explained the protagonist's background. Some people don't like it there, others say they wouldn't have liked the protagonist if it wasn't there. I'd love to know which way you feel."

I think it's a concern that's prevalent with authors of dubious or otherwise unlikable characters. So they dump a ton of sympathetic back-story right from the start, because really they just want the readers to like the characters as much as they do. 

Thing is though.... an info dump probably won't make people like your character. In fact, odds are that if the info dump takes place in the middle of something interesting (say a murder/theft/hit, since we're in dubious character mode) the reader will just skip until they get back to the interesting stuff. 

Or... well... they could stop reading if the info dump is done so clumsily that it stands out like an eye-sore. As they usually do. Best case, that's all they do. Worst case, they break the suspension of disbelief you've just established. So where would it leave your story then? 

Nope. Back-story dumps just aren't worth it. 

So what if the readers don't like the protagonists? you might ask.

Well... here's a bit of a shocking thing to know: Protagonists don't have to be all that likable. They only have to be interesting to be liked. Which means that if you start with the character doing something interesting (maybe adding a few sympathetic hints here and there) and keeping info dumps out of the opening, you're set for long enough to start bringing out the sympathetic aspects to the character. 

But I repeat, info dumps won't let you do this. 

Trust yourself, writer. If you know you have an awesome character, trust that you can keep the interest going long enough to make the character liked. I've done it for entire books without explaining the character's motivations, so I can tell you it's possible. 

And you know the best part about not info dumping all over my dubious character? He might not be likable, but he sure as hell is memorable. 

Technically Speaking

So I was just up in "The County" of Maine for about a week.

For those of you that don't know this is Aroostook County. Land of Potatoes. Get to Portland Maine and head about 4 hours North. Then. To get to where I was, head another hour further North. Lots of trees.

And Mosquitoes. CRAZY mosquitoes.

Anyway. The first night I was there was the 3rd of July, and my hometown does this celebration called Midnight Madness where all the local businesses stay open till Midnight and serve free stuff, games in the streets for the kids, bands playing...all sorts of fun stuff! So I went to that. And I didn't get to my parent's house till maybe 11:30pm or so. Long after they'd gone to bed.

Much too late to wake them up to ask them for the password for the Wi-fi. Crap.

Now. For most of you this may not be a problem. But I, thinking I was being all clever! SOOOO clever! Stored what I was working on at the moment on google docs cloud. (I HATE hatehatehate Word...but we'll get into that later) Thinking I could just access it all week and then zip it back into scrivener when I got home.

Bam!

Nope. Need the wi-fi's to do that. Damn you google doc's!

So that night I just took the night off from writing and read...(poor me.)

Then I got to thinking...I was REALLY dedicated, used my Drive App on my phone. As annoying as it would have been.

Which got me thinking about how much I use my smartphone for my writing craft.

Which made me remember a blog post I read a while ago someone had posted asking what apps people use that pertain to their writing craft.

So I'm curious!

How low or high tech do you go? Are you a notebook and pencil kind of person? Or do you have a laptop/computer that you'd be lost without? Are you constantly scribbling notes and ideas on slips of paper? Or do you have an app on your phone for that? Or are you like me and kinda somewhere in between?

The next day I asked my dad for the wi-fi password. He said, "I gave that to you the last time you were here! You don't remember it!"

"Dad. I haven't been here for over a year. You haven't changed your password since then?" (Stalling cause no I didn't remember it...)

"Of course I have! Let me check..."
Yah...he'd forgotten the password too...

cunning craft

 

Here's what another of my favorites has to say about characters: "Begin with a character who wants something, and you're off to a good start."*

Think about that for a second and then consider a few characters you know. Like Harry Potter. What did he want? Wasn't it his wanting that made the whole story? Or think about Frodo wanting to get rid of the ring, or Kvothe wanting to learn the name of the wind. This is where stories begin, with characters wanting something. It might be as simple as getting out of their boring town and away from their boring lives or as difficult and complex as defeating the Dark Lord who murdered their parents.

Now, think about your characters. Think about what they want more than anything and how they plan on getting it. Then think about how you're going to make it difficult for them to achieve their goal. What obstacles will they have to overcome? What sacrifices will they have to make? And will it all be worth it in the end?




* from By Cunning & Craft, by Peter Selgin.

critical factors

I was reading my Writer's Digest Magazine last night, and once again came across a superb article about why some novels become successful and others don't. Culprit number one, according to Donald Maass, is timid voices. "A snappy premise and meaty plot can hook us and keep us reading but cannot by themselves work that magic. It takes something extra: voice." Further, "voice in a novel is not the author's thoughts or vocabulary but the sum total of what her characters observe, think, feel and express in their own unique ways."

The fix is easy. Write your characters with strong voices. Let them speak in their own words and tell the story.

(Which is exactly what I've been doing with my latest wip! I know, great minds think alike, right? Me and Don? We are so on the same page when it comes to characters. It's scary.)

Anyway. Moving on. Culprit number two, according to Maass, is untested characters. If they don't do anything then what was the point? How compelling is it to read about a character who doesn't react? The best characters act bravely even though they're scared, jump to defend their principles and rise to face their deepest fears. They come out the other side, changed different, and so do we for reading about them.

But the last and best is culprit number three (Overly Interior or Exterior stories), which really hit home: "Certain story patterns are pretty much guaranteed to lead to fiction of underwhelming force," especially novels heavy with "delay, suffering, and being stuck." Fiction of underwhelming force is, of course, the last thing we want. The way to rectify this, Maass says, is to give interior stories "more dramatic outward events; by the same token, dramatic outward events need to create a more devastating interior impact."

Yeah. I had to underline that last part. Brilliant, right? Especially the devastating part.

And if that doesn't get you all fired up to write something then I'll give you a last gem I found, a question to ponder. Ask yourself, what's the biggest thing your protagonist could possibly do, but can't? By the end of the story, have her do it.

Hmm. I think I might.

Oh dear...

I'm afraid no one sent me a first page. Which means I have to post something useful.

Well, how about this: I'll tell you how I plotted and finished my last novel. Keep in mind that actually finishing a book, is quite a feat. Lots of people try and fail. I tried a number of times before succeeding. But...I have to say it ended up being easier and quicker doing it the way I did it this last time, the new way, which involved plotting before pantsting.

For me this meant figuring out what would happen in each and every chapter. Not necessarily every little thing (because I haven't quite given up pantsting altogether), but the major event that moves the story along.

Of course plot gets you nowhere without characters, and this massive questionnaire I got from K.M. Weiland proved to be invaluable.

For example, in addition to the usual questions about my character's physical attributes, this questionnaire asked things like this (my answers are in italics):

Current address and phone number: at the start of the story she doesn’t remember.
 

Strongest/weakest character traits: her impulsivity which gets her into trouble but also makes her brave.

Talents: A sense of direction – and it is this which keeps confirming the way to go. It takes her a little while to recognize it but her internal compass is telling her the right way to go, however much she doubts. 

These are just a few of the many questions that helped make my main character more complex, and more real. The interesting thing was that simply by answering those questions I came up up with more questions as well as scenes, backstory, reasons, goals, etc. These in turn helped flesh out the chapters, which made it easier to write. I won't tell you how many revisions later it is but I will say this method allowed me to finish in a little over a year. 

I like my new method so much I'm employing it with my next work.

What's your method? What works for you, helps you finish?

Voice lessons for the writer

How unfair is it that one of the most important skills a writer can have is also one of the most vague? VOICE. It seems like almost every agent is looking for "voice" and if you've ever been told you need "more" or "better" voice, you might be feeling kind of....huh? Some people believe that "voice" can't be taught, and that's sort of true. In many ways, good voice is synonymous with good writing and natural talent does play a part. But I believe that people can "find" or enhance their innate writing voice. And here are a few ideas:

1) Think of your character's voice, not your voice - So does "voice" mean the voice of the character or the voice of the writer? Well, really it's both. But a good writer can alter their "voice" based on the chosen character POV, genre and age-level they're writing in, flavor of the novel, and so forth. Different novels may have different voice, even if it's the same writer. So to simplify things, when thinking of voice, think of the voice of your character and the particular project you're working on.


2) Write in multiple POV - If you write your novel from more than one character's point of view, it forces you to make the voice of each section distinctive (at least it should!). Unless you're writing in an omniscient distant POV (which I don't recommend) each character's section should have word choice and personality specific to that character. If you don't write multiple POV, you can do this as an exercise by writing "deleted scenes" from another character's POV or trying suggestion #3.

3) Rewrite scenes from another perspective - Take a scene in your novel and write it from another POV. When you're done, the scene should be more than different in content, it should really feel like it's from another character's perspective. Each character should speak, act, think, and view the world slightly differently.

4) Don't make yourself the MC - In both of my major manuscripts, I have started writing from the perspective of the leading lady and both times I decided to switch to the perspective of the leading man. And when I did, it was almost magical how much my writing improved. Does this mean I'm secretly a dude living inside a woman's body? I'm not sure, but I'm going to go with no. I think it works because I'm writing as someone different than myself. At least for me, writing as someone whose voice is not like mine, makes it easier for me to notice it and make it stand out.

5) Exaggerate voice - This would only be for a voice exercise, not for your final draft MS, but if you're shaky on voice, try going over the top to flex your muscles. It might make for ridiculous writing, but it will help you discover what voice is and how to make it work.

6) Write as a crazy character - This is similar to #5. Choose the most wacky, over-the-top, exaggerated character in your novel and practice writing some scenes from their perspective. Or create a character just for the exercise. Again, choose someone absolutely nothing like you.

7) Turn off your internal editor - This one was important for me personally. In my first attempt at a novel, I was so insanely focused about following rules like not using passive voice and using active verbs that I basically edited out my voice. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't follow good writing practices, but try writing your first draft like you've never heard of these rules. It may help to lower your inhibitions and let your voice shine. You can always edit later.

8) Check your work - Write two scenes with the voice of different characters, and make sure you remove any obvious give-aways, and have someone who knows your novel guess whose voice is whose.

or

Use two scenes from your novel with the voice of different characters and have someone who doesn't know anything about your novel tell you what they think are the characteristics of each speaker.

9) Be yourself - I've been telling you this whole time to be your character, so what I mean by this is, is loosen up. Like when you're going out on a first date and someone tells you to "just be yourself". Voice is the FUN part of writing. It's the creative, artistic part. And that's what we're good at right?  Don't try to write like anyone else. Be fearless and trust yourself. If necessary, write a few scenes drunk. I'm only half-joking. Obviously if you're under 21 or a recovering alcoholic, don't try this at home. But if recreational drinking is something you do anyway, try writing a scene a two with a buzz. I've done this before with a sex scene I was nervous to write. I obviously had to do some editing later sober, but I think the fearlessness still shined through.

10) Make sure you understand what "voice" is - So maybe this shouldn't be number #10, because it's pretty important, but this section takes up a lot of space, so I put it down here. :)

Here is my definition:

Voice is the personality of the writing.

Types of voice:

Voice is like snowflakes or cow's spots, no two are alike, but to give you a general sense, here are some broad categories of voice:

-Humorous
-Serious/dark
-Poetic/flowery
-Romantic
-Formal
-Casual
-Age specific (writing for MG, YA, NA, etc.)
-Technical/scientific
-Medieval
-Modern
-Sarcastic
-Genre specific (literary, commercial, romance, etc.)

Example:

Okay, so I'm going to be a little egocentric here and use my own writing as an example of voice. :) Mainly because it's easiest for me and it's mine to use. Here is a somewhat random excerpt from my forthcoming novel, THE CHARGE.

With voice:

It was 5am and still good and dark, so he couldn’t determine the weirdness level of California just yet.  The highway was extra smooth from recent repair and they had new U.S. green highway signs alongside the old Texas Empire blue ones.  Eventually he had to pee, so made his first stop on Texas Empire soil.  The gas station sold guns and liquor, plus a lot of Texas Empire themed knick knacks which were either to entice tourists or frighten them into turning around.  One T-shirt had the entire North American continent colored in with the Texas flag and said “We’re coming for you.”   Another one said simply, “Screw you, America.”  Other than being verbally abused by T-shirts, peeing at a Texas Empire gas station wasn’t that different from peeing in an American one.  They had M&Ms and Doritos and Coca-Cola and Purell dispensers in the restroom. 

With less voice:

It was 5am and still dark, so he couldn't tell what California was like yet. The highway was extra smooth from recent repair and they had new U.S. green highway signs alongside the old Texas Empire blue ones. He needed a bathroom break, so he made his first stop in the Texas Empire. The gas station was different because it sold guns and liquor and Texas Empire themed souvenirs. One T-shirt had the entire North American continent colored in with the Texas flag and said “We’re coming for you.”   Another one said, “Screw you, America.” Other than the different T-shirt messages, the Texas Empire gas station wasn't that different from an American one. They had the same types of snacks and sodas.

Check my work as I suggest in #8. From the first excerpt, what can you tell me about my main character and novel from this section alone? How old is he? What time period does he live in? What is his world like? What is he like? How do you know? What do you learn from the voice example that you wouldn't learn from the less-voice example?

Vocal exercises and definitions from other people:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2010/07/what-is-writers-voice/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_voice_in_creative_writing
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/understanding-voice-and-tone-in-writing.aspx
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/glossary/g/voice.htm
http://theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/what-is-writers-voice-creative-writing-tips/
http://www.write101.com/lethamfind.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer's_voice

Description - The Dome

"From two-thousand feet, where Claudette Saunders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester's Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down. Cars trundled along Main Street, flashing up winks of sun. The steeple of the Congo Church looked sharp enough to pierce the unblemished sky. The sun raced along the surface of the Prestile Stream as the Seneca V overflew it, both plane and water cutting the  town on the same diagonal course."

I love the comparison of the town to something gleaming and "freshly made" and how the first sentence immediately suggests to me that our narrator may be hinting at something... interesting. Either the town is indeed like something "freshly made and just set down," or, it is not. And really, where do cars trundle? Probably ONLY in Chester Mills. Some mythical small town in some northwest corner of  Maine - my fair state.

It also happens to be the home state of the author, Stephen King, and this first paragraph is from his novel, THE DOME. If you like Stephen King I'll wager you'll like this. Both as a writer and and a reader.