Intense and Marketable Novels? A Simple How-to - by Jennifer Slattery

Writing Intense and Marketable Novels

by Jennifer Slattery

Does the following make you cringe?

“Your story’s too heavy.”

“Too dark.”

“Readers are looking to escape reality, not read about tough issues.”

It was 2009, my first large writers’ conference, and quite a shock to my newbie ego. I came pumped and a bit over confident, one of those naïve storytellers who knew just enough craft to elevate my pride but not enough to justify such an elevation.

Needless to say, I left with a more accurate view of myself and my abilities. Unfortunately, I also began to question not only what I wrote, but who I am. Appointment after appointment, I heard that my writing was too intense. One solution was offered, again and again: Write something light, more humorous, to get your foot in the door.

Everything in me said, “No!” Because although I can enjoy light reading, I don’t feel called to write it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t called to write or that I’d never be published.

It did mean I had a lot to learn about writing intense stories effectively.

You see, it’s not that there isn’t a market for the intense. I can think of numerous, very popular novels that deal with some very dark issues, such as Mary Connealy’s Calico Canyon, Kathi Macias’ Freedom Series, the Hunger Games, Maze Runner (all books I LOVED).

The issue was, I needed to learn HOW to write about intense or heavy issues without overloading or depressing my reader. Because here’s the deal—we all want real, and real can be tough; intense. But reality is handled best when it’s peppered with lots of humor and tact and sprinkled with a heavy dose of hope.

When writing about intense issues, consider:

1. Adding humor at strategic points throughout the novel. Some novelists will create an eccentric character specifically for this purpose. I’ve done this, but more often, I like to bring out the goofy in my main characters. Because we all have silly, less-than-brilliant moments inherent to our personalities. Find ways to exploit and expose those quirky traits, most especially following tense or dark scenes.

2. Know the whys behind the boundary lines, and when pushing them, your whys for doing so. Does your why have purpose enough to override the whys of the boundary lines? A dark or intense novel with graphic violence or vulgarity might be pushing things too far. To find the reader-gripping balance, one must constantly keep their reader and their emotions in mind.  

3. Continually remind the reader of hope. The darker the scene, the more necessary this will be. This can be done numerous ways such as showing the determined inner strength of a character, by showing a possible solution, or the help and support of a community.

The more I write, the more I realize there aren’t very many set rules in the CBA market, and even those are changing. It really comes down to knowing the craft, writing with skill, and always considering the effect each scene and the story as a whole will have on your reader.

Jennifer Slattery writes intense, intensely funny, and heart-pattering sweet missional romance for New Hope Publishers. Her debut novel, Beyond I Do, will release in the fall of 2014. She also writes for Crosswalk.com, Internet Café Devotions, is part of a jibillion blogs (according to her handsome railroader) and has a slight obsession with Facebook. When she’s not writing or gabbing, she enjoys going for long, leisurely walks with her husband and giggly shopping dates with her hilariously sarcastic teenage daughter. You can visit her online at http://jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Jenslattery.

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Sibella Giorello ~ Hotel Writing

Sibella Giorello grew up in the mountains of Alaska admiring the beauty and nature that surrounded her. She majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts hoping to learn more about the landscape she loved back home. From there Sibella followed a winding path, much like the motorcycle ride she took across the country, which led to her true love, journalism. 

She found herself in Seattle writing for rock-n-roll magazine and earned a journalism degree from the University of Washington before heading south to the land of great stories. In Virginia, Sibella became a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was there she also met her husband and would hear Jesus whispering her name at a tent revival.

Sibella started writing about Raleigh Harmon as a way to keep her love of story-telling alive while staying at home with her young sons. As a journalist and author, her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. The Stones Cry Out, the first Raleigh Harmon novel, won a Christy award for debut novel in 2008. Sibella now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.

Her latest release is The Stars Shine Bright. Learn more about the Raleigh Harmon series here. 

Visit Sibella Giorello and at  Facebook or Twitter. 

Hotel Writing

Like most women writers, I've got a long list of obligations that bump writing into last place.

Writing -- and getting a haircut. Both tied for last place.

First place goes to wife and mom, quickly followed by cook/chauffeur/maid/
Marine Corps drill instructor.

I'm not complaining because despite the totem pole that puts writing at ground level, I managed to publish five novels in about as many years. Remember what Ginger Rogers said about doing everything Fred Astaire did only backwards and in high heels?

And she was the better dancer for it.

The same goes with women writers. We learn field-tested tactics. One of my best  writing strategies was rising before dawn and churning out as many words as possible before people (read: guys) started asking about breakfast and clean socks.

That system worked. And it's still my daily routine.

But recently I discovered another powerful tactic: Hotels.

With blessings from my sainted husband and sons, I booked a room at a favorite hotel ninety-minutes from home. The distance seemed ideal: Far enough to get away, close enough that if the whole experiment blew up I could zip home and re-set the alarm clock for 4 a.m.

But the experiment worked.

And how.

In four days of hotel writing, I produced with 40,000 words.

That number is not a typo. I double-and-triple checked the word-count, since that's normally what I produce in one month. This will come as a huge shock to everyone everywhere, but your productivity really rises when you're not doing laundry, cooking, or yelling to the second floor, "Your lacrosse uniform is in the second drawer on the left side in the other bureau!"

If you need to get some words on the page, I highly recommend getting away to write -- but would add some caveats. Looking back, these things were crucial for the trip's success:
 

1. Pick some place that's nice but boring. For one thing, your subconscious can relax with safety and familiarity. For another, you're less tempted to shop or ride roller coasters.

2. Don't stay at a dump even if you're trying to save money. That plan will probably backfire because fear ruins creativity. What you want is a place where you are encouraged to feel pleasantly irresponsible for what goes on outside your hotel room.

3. Upon arrival, kick the inner nag to the curb. Self-doubt is creative suicide. You're a writer--don't doubt it. Say it loud, say it proud, and refuse to listen to any interior criticisms.

4. When it comes to your productivity, don't be picky. How did 40,000 words appear in four days? I lowered the bar. My mission wasn't to produce stellar prose. It was to produce a story—warts and all—and return home for editing. Don't judge your work. Just write.

5. Place that “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob and don't remove it until you check-out. Yes, I know, after three days the maids were looking at me like I was the Unibomber's sister. But other than fresh towels, that room was for reserved for uninterrupted time pacing the carpet, talking out loud to myself and hammering on the keyboard.

6. Stock the in-room fridge with your favorite foods. Mine are black tea and brie. Whatever snacks help you write, eat them. Now is not the time to get healthy. You're not visiting a spa; you're in writing boot camp.

7. End each day with a reward. It will help motivate you for the next day's work. After writing for 12 hours, I would go a long run followed by a glorious dinner and glass of red wine at a restaurant that was all but deserted by the time I arrived. This last part was crucial because . . . .

8. You want to stay away from people. Writer Saul Bellow used to come into my aunt's restaurant in Chicago. He was always by himself. I used to think he was lonely, but now that I'm a novelist, I understand. Bellow already had too much company -- inside his head. As a fiction writer you carry around a waking dream and the nice people who feel like chatting can kill it. Be polite, but be firm. No new friends. You have good work to do.

9. If you get claustrophobic, move around the place. Mezzanines, balconies, poolside if you can write amid noise. Ask the front desk about a quiet spot. I found a cubby on the mezzanine where nobody could see me but I could see them. Ideal for describing characters taken from real life.

10. Pray. Really, this point should be at the top and bottom of the list. We're not in charge of our circumstances (though, like characters in novels, we tend to believe otherwise). Don't be afraid to ask for divine guidance. You have a lot to say and limited time to say it. And when all else fails, there's usually a Gideon's in the bedside drawer.

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7 Steps to Writing a Story in Scenes

Thanks to WordserveWater Cooler for permission to repost 

 Janalyn Voigt writes with a lyrical style, creating worlds of beauty and danger. Her Tales of Faeraven, epic fantasy series will release in 2012 with Harbourlight Books. In addition, she's working on a western historical romance. Her affiliations include NCWA and ACFW. She lives with her family in a beautiful corner of the Pacific Northwest. In her leisure time, she gardens, reads and explores the natural settings around her.

7 Steps to Writing a Story in Scenes

You’ll notice I didn’t include the word “easy” in the title of this post. There are not seven “easy” steps to writing a story in scenes. It takes hard work. I suspect that's why so many writers substitute narrative summary for scenes.

Of course, when you're not sure of the components that make up a scene, it's harder to write one. If your writing seems flat or passive and you don’t know why, you may have omitted one or more of the following:

Real Time: Even if you’re writing in third person using past-tense verbs, lay out actions in sequential order. As a rule, especially in the beginning of your novel, don’t jump backward or forward in the story. If you do, you’ll interrupt the flow of time and disconcert your reader. For an unusual perspective on time flow in fiction, read Teach Your Writing Voice to Sing.

Characters: This element may seem like a “no-brainer.” (Of course a scene will have characters.) But hear me out. Let’s say you’re writing about a lynch mob ready to hang an outlaw. You could state the bald fact, or you could pick faces from the crowd. Maybe the outlaw killed Jack’s brother, robbed Otis’s store, and held a gun to Chet’s face just for fun. Having these fellows call out their grievances, even as minor characters, makes the incident personal and, therefore, more immediate. For an unique and efficient perspective on creating characters, read Dianne Christner’s Creating Characters With Personality.

Showing: A well-written scene evokes the reader’s senses. You experience the world through your senses. Similarly, for readers to enter your written world, you must draw them through their senses. Labeling emotions is telling. It’s also lazy writing. Instead of stating that Mary is sad, show her reasons for sadness, and then have her react physically and perhaps with introspection. Just don’t do this in a clichéd manner. Maybe she doesn’t weep but instead grows quiet or withdraws. David is angry but rather than punch a hole in the wall he exterminates every weed in his yard. For more tips, watch my video: 5 Ways to Show Rather Than Tell in Fiction Writing.

Setting: New writers often neglect this essential element that should ground every scene in place and time. Using too much or not enough description is a common mistake. With too few setting details the reader will feel curiously weightless, like an astronaut floating in a zero-gravity chamber. Characters will seem like “talking heads” lost somewhere in space. If you overload your reader with description, you’ll weigh them down so badly they’ll barely make progress through the scene. Finding a happy balance takes practice. It helps to have feedback from great critique partners. Sarah Baughman tackles the topic of How To Balance Dialogue and Description.

Action: Something physical happens, with or without dialogue. When actions accompany dialogue, some writers call them “beats.” Using beats instead of tags to identify speakers helps you bring a scene to life. For tips on writing dynamic action scenes, Bryan Thomas Schmidt has you covered with his Write Tip: 10 Tips For Writing Good Action Scenes.

Dialogue: Too many writers neglect dialogue, which is a shame. It’s a vital tool for characterization and for imparting information (provided you don’t try to shoehorn it into your reader). You can even use dialogue to give glimpses of back story in a realistic way that doesn’t disrupt your story’s flow. For more on dialogue, read Sharon Lavy’s Do You Hear The Voices?

Purpose: Every scene must further your plot in some way. If a scene exists merely to dump information on the unsuspecting reader, it has no real purpose and will seem aimless. Cut all such scenes from your plot and work only the information your reader needs to know into the story when your reader needs to know it. Jody Hedlund offers great advice on strategically selecting scenes in How To Make Your Book Play Out Like a Movie.

Telling a cohesive story through scenes is an art that, once mastered, will breathe life into your writing.

What tips do you have to make you scenes even stronger?

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Timeless Advice from Mark Twain on the Art and Craft of Writing ~ Suzanne Woods Fisher

Suzanne Woods Fisher is a bestselling author of Amish fiction and non-fiction, the host of a weekly radio program called Amish Wisdom and a columnist for Christian Post. She has twenty-one books under contract with Revell–eight published, thirteen to come…she’s contracted all the way into 2016. The Waiting was a finalist for a 2011 Christy Award. The Choice was finalist for a 2011 Carol Award. Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World and Amish Proverbs: Words of Wisdom from the Simple Life were both finalists for the ECPA Book of the Year (2010, 2011).

Her interest in the Amish began with her grandfather, W.D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. She has many, many Plain relatives living in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and travels back to Pennsylvania, as well as to Ohio, a couple of times each year for research.

Suzanne has a great admiration for the Plain people and believes they provide wonderful examples to the world. In both her fiction and non-fiction books, she has an underlying theme: You don’t have to “go Amish” to incorporate many of their principles–simplicity, living with less, appreciating nature, forgiving others more readily–into your life.

When Suzanne isn’t writing or bragging to her friends about her first grandbaby, she is raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Keep up on Suzanne’s latest news on Facebook, Twitter and on her blog!

Timeless Advice from Mark Twain on the Art and Craft of Writing by Suzanne Woods Fisher

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Mark Twain
 
Can you call up a Mark Twain quote from memory? Bet you can, even if you might not realize he had coined it: “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” or “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” or “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

See? You know more than you think you know.

Even in 2012, Mark Twain is just as relevant as in 1884, when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (considered his masterpiece) was first published. Mark Twain has been credited for transforming American literature into something purely American by his original use of language, setting, and colorful characters.

But were you aware that Mark Twain was sought after for his advice on the art and craft of writing? Here are a few memorable suggestions he offered—some serious, some not—that are just as timeless today as they were in the 1800s. (Note: Whenever possible, I cited the quote’s source.)  

The Best Time to Start Writing: 

“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.” 

“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.” -Mark Twain's Notebook, 1902-1903 

Finding the Right Word: 

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."  

“Use the right word, not its second cousin.”  

“To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself. . . . Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.” -Letter to Emeline Beach, February 1868 

On Verbosity:  

“The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.”  

“As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.” -Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894 

“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice." -Letter to D. W. Bowser, March 1880 

On Revising: 

“You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.” - Letter to Orion Clemens, 23 March 1878 

Mind your Grammar:

“There is no such thing as the Queen's English. The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares.” -Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

“Great books are weighed and measured by their style and matter, and not the trimmings and shadings of their grammar.” -Speech at the Annual Reunion of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, April 1887 

“I like the exact word, and clarity of statement, and here and there a touch of good grammar for picturesqueness.” -The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1924 

“I am almost sure by witness of my ear, but cannot be positive, for I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules. A generation ago I knew the rules--knew them by heart, word for word, though not their meanings--and I still know one of them: the one which says--but never mind, it will come back to me presently.” -The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1924  

The Importance of Reading Good Books: 

“Let us guess that whenever we read a sentence & like it, we unconsciously store it away in our model-chamber; & it goes, with the myriad of its fellows, to the building, brick by brick, of the eventual edifice which we call our style.” - Letter to George Bainton, 15 Oct 1888  

“The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” 

The Writer’s Life:   
 
“Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.” 

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