Friday Book Pick: Two Brides Too Many by Mona Hodgson

Friday is here! Finally -- right? Are you looking for a great way to relax this weekend? Try Mona Hodgson's new book, Two Brides Too Many. It's a fun read about two Eastern girls who answer ads for mail order brides and arrive in Colorado only to find their expected husbands are missing. Finding their place in this frontier town takes courage and the two young women rise to the challenge. Mona Hodgson, a highly succesful children's author (with such titles as Real Girls of the Bible, The Princess Twins and Bedtime in the Southwest) shows her flexibility and talent with this first foray into women's fiction. The first of the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series is a fun read that will encourage you to look deep within yourself for the strength that you need to succeed.

The second book of the series, Too Rich for a Bride is due out in the Fall of 2010. I'm looking forward to it!

Common Writing Mistakes: Couch Potato Characters

Welcome back to my series: Common Mistakes Made By New Writers (Like Me). This is part four: Couch Potato Characters or Characters Who Never Move. Feel free to read back through previous posts to read about information dumps, battling backstory and characters who talk to themselves. It's not necessary to read these posts in any paticular order, but I hope you find them useful in your own writing.

Today we're going to grapple with couch potato characters. One problem that I have seen other new writers (and myself) make is that we focus exclusively on what our characters are thinking and often neglect what they are doing. Sometimes we will write long sections of dialogue or interior monologue and forget that our character has a body that is taking up physical space. A bit of physical action can be even more useful in showing our character's true colors.

I remember reading Bryan Davis' novel, Raising Dragons to my kids. In the very first chapter he describes his main character -- a teen boy -- coming down the stairs to breakfast.

Billy rubbed the purring cat one more time and then bounded down the stairs, jackhammering every second stair on the way down. With a long-legged leap, he skipped the last four steps, bringing his tennis shoes in for a slap landing against the wood floor.

The author could have spent pages describing him and telling us how he was an average teen (except for a disturbing fire-breathing ability), but instead he used Billy's physical motion to show us his boy-inside-the-man character.

So, your assignment is to examine your own characters. Look for sections where you have delved too deeply into your character's head, but left her body sitting on the couch staring blankly, perhaps with a bead of drool on her lip. Get him or her moving -- even if it is slight. Have her twirl her hair or have him bouce his knee. Anything! As your characters burn a few calories, they may even thank you. Ah, I needed that -- I was starting to stiffen up!

Fly Little Bird, FLY!

There will be no Friday Book Pick for this week, because I've been busy putting the last spit and polish on my manuscript before it heads out into the big, cruel world. Now that it's ready to fly, I feel like taking a walk down memory lane. I hope these pictures bring you a smile or a laugh. Whichever.  

First . . . Winning my first (and only) writer's contest in the fourth grade with an essay about fire safety. Okay, it's not the Genesis contest or a Christy award, but I'll claim it. Besides, I think it's funny how shell-shocked I looked being dragged up in front of the whole school.

Next, my first magazine publication, 2004 in Ladybug Magazine. A little less shocked this time.

And finally... today! The finished manuscript of Shaken -- all cleaned up and ready to hit the town. Or at least the post office and the email out-box. Fly little bird, Fly!

Here's hoping that the next photo will be me holding a published copy. I can't wait for THAT day! I imagine I will be looking pretty shell-shocked once more.

Common Writing Mistakes: Talking to Youself

This is part three in my "Common Mistakes Made By New Writers (like me)" series. Part one discussed information dumps and part two talked about battling backstory. Feel free to check out those posts as well, but it is not necessary to read them in any paticular order.

Today we will tackle another common problem: talking to yourself. Any writer will tell you that they frequently talk to themselves. I think that's actually the sign of a creative mind. The problem is when your characters begin talking to themselves.

At the 2010 Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, I attended a wonderful workshop taught by Beth Adams, an editor with Guidepost Books. She mentioned that characters who spend too much time talking to themselves is a sign that a writer is being lazy. Don't make the mistake of telling (see upcoming post on "telling") the reader everything a character is thinking or feeling.

Now, a touch of this is acceptable. But it is much more effective to show the reader a character's thoughts by their physical reactions, their dialogue with others and by the choices that they make.

Here are two examples. Which one do you think is more powerful?

"That Jakob is such an arrogant jerk," Maggie muttered under her breath.
or
Hearing Jakob's words, Maggie flushed -- the heat creeping all the way to her clenched jaw.

I've struggled with this in Shaken, because it is written in first-person. It seems natural to write from the inside of my character's head. I have gone through and removed many of her thoughts and words, replacing them with her reactions and decisions. I am pleased with the difference. It makes my character feel more authentic. I actually feel like readers will be more "inside her head" because they will be feeling along with her, instead of her just telling them everything.

So, your assignment? Look at a piece of your writing. How often do your characters talk to themselves? Rather than sending them off to the loony bin, see if you can find a better way to show their thought process. Good luck!

Common Writing Mistakes: Battling Backstory

Last week, I started a series about mistakes commonly made by new writers (like me). The first entry focused on "information dumps." Today, I'm going to discuss a related topic -- backstory.

Every character has history and we try often try to share every detail of it in the first chapter. You must know that she was born on a stormy night in late December to parents who met while they were backpacking through Europe and that her father was abusive and her mother and alcoholic... Get the picture?

This has been a struggle for me and many others. How much of this information is actually important and how much should be included up front? Too much will slow down your story. And the first chapter is NOT the place to slow down.

Author Brandilyn Collins, at the Mount Hermon Christian Writer's Conference, taught that successful backstory raises more questions than it answers. Weave in tiny snippets to catch the reader's interest instead of just throwing it all out there. Use backstory to create mystery.  

It clicked for me recently while endulging in my favorite guilty pleasure -- Grey's Anatomy. First, the intern/doctor gives a run-down of the patient's situation. "Twenty-five year old female, multiple gunshots to the abdomen..." No narrator informing us WHY she was shot or how she grew up, etc. Those details come out as the show progresses.

In one scene, the doctor asked a question, the patient answered and then there was a "look" that passed between the patient and the person she was with (out of sight of the doctor). That look raised questions in my mind. What was that? What are they NOT telling us? I wanted to know, so I kept watching. No backstory. Not even dialogue. Brilliant.

So, get out your gardening gloves and start weeding out those first chapters of your story. Cut sections where you tell us  the character's history (see upcoming post about "telling"). Put them in a seperate word file so you can refer to them later. Now, read the section again. How can you "tease" bits of this information so that it catches a reader's curiousity?

Don't cut out the heart of your character. Put it back in her chest where it belongs -- not on her sleeve for the whole world to see.

Friday Book Pick: A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin

We're heading into a new weekend and I hope that some of you can find a few hours to pick up a new book. Don't miss this new title, A Distant Melody, by debut author, Sarah Sundin. At the risk of sounding like a complete romantic sap, I have to tell you that am head over heels for this achingly beautiful story.

Here is the description from Sarah Sundin's website: Never pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother, Allie will do anything to gain her approval--even marry a man she doesn't love. Lt. Walter Novak--fearless in the cockpit but hopeless with women--takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas. Walt and Allie meet at a wedding and their love of music draws them together, prompting them to begin a correspondence that will change their lives. As letters fly between Walt's muddy bomber base in England and Allie's mansion in an orange grove, their friendship binds them together. But can they untangle the secrets, commitments, and expectations that keep them apart?

A Distant Melody is a story rich in romance and historical detail and laced with the amazing sacrifice and courage of those fought in WWII and of those left behind. It is the first book of the Wings of Glory series put out by Revell. A Memory Between Us is scheduled for September of 2010 and Till Blue Skys Return (working title) for the Fall of 2011.

The only question for me is -- how am I ever going to wait that long?

Common Writing Mistakes: Back up the Dump Truck...

Over the next few weeks, I am going to post about some of the common mistakes that new writers make and how you can avoid them in your writing. Please send me any writing questions that you have and maybe I can direct a post toward your area of interest. These are not in any paticular order of importance, I'm just writing them as I struggle with various issues.

The first common mistake is a big one for me: the "information dump." That's when a writer backs up the truck and dumps in facts, research or backstory (a post for another day). I think historical writers are very prone to this, but it can show up in any genre. I've done all this amazing research -- my readers WANT to know all this stuff. Right? So, I find ways to sneak it in, like a mom disguising vegetables in sweet tasting muffins. Unfortunately, most readers are too smart for this tactic. It  kills your tension and slows down your story.

In my WIP (work in progress), Shaken, I wanted the readers to know some facts about the earthquake and the destruction it was causing in other portions of the city, away from where my character is located. So, I was very sneaky and had her overhearing conversations of people walking by on the street. Convenient for me, the writer, but a bit obvious to any discriminating reader.

A critiquer pointed it out to me first. "Interesting info, but it doesn't move your story along. Cut it." I looked at it, but didn't have the heart to cut it at that time. Last week, at Mount Hermon, the topic came up in two different writing classes. Beth Adams of Guideposts Books called it the "Rainman Syndrome." If you remember the movie Rainman, the main character (because of his mental condition) had the endearing trait of spouting off with bits of useless information. Brandilyn Collins, in my fiction mentoring workship, called it S.H.I.R. for "See How I Researched." Neither of them were directing these comments at me, but I felt myself sinking low in my chair, regardless.

So, today I'm going through my manuscript, Shaken, with a fine-toothed comb. If you want every historical detail about the San Francisco earthquake, you're going to have to read a history book. Unless my character directly experienced something, it's going into the trash can. Or maybe I can file it away for another book.

Have a great day, and watch out for those information dumps!