Real Life Diagnostics: A New Start: Pacing and Hooking Readers in the Opening Scene

Real Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and I diagnose them on the blog. It’s part critique, part example, designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to Real Life Diagnostics, check out the page for guidelines.

Submissions currently in the queue: Three

This week’s questions:
Is this too slowly paced? Does it hook? And was I able to keep this firmly in Anna's head? (Third person-close)

Market/Genre: Fantasy 

Additional Note:  There's also a revision of an older post for those curious. An update for the snippet where the girl's parents are killed in the dark right in front of her that was asking about reactions and emotions. It's a great revision, and worth seeing how the author tweaked it.

On to the diagnosis…

Author, We Have a Problem: 4 Tips on Plotting Your Novel

Plot is just the events that make up your story. The same story can be told a million different ways because the plot can always be different. This is an important distinction, because it allows you the freedom to change your plot without feeling like you're losing your story. A good example here is how I re-wrote Blue Fire five times. The plot changed constantly, the story never did. To use my house analogy: You build a house once, but you redecorate it every year.

The house is story. Decorating is plot.

Some key things to remember when plotting:

Are You a Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror Fan? Then Come on Down to Fandomfest (and see me)

If you're looking for something fun to do the end of June, consider heading over to Lousiville, KY for Fandomfest. It's a convention within a convention within a convention, consisting of MID AMERICA COMICCON, FANDOMFEST AND FRIGHT NIGHT HORROR WEEKEND AND FILM FESTIVAL. Fandomfest is one of the Largest Multi-Genre Conventions in the region and I'm excited to be part of it this year.

I just got my panel schedule back for the convention, and I'm totally jazzed. I'm on six panels over the weekend, and I love my topics. I'm especially excited about the zombie apocalypse one. I also get to talk writing and books and all the things I find fun. I also get to hang with some author friends like James Tuck and Amber Evans, both who I've done panels with before.

Break it Down: Trimming Words From a Too-Long Manuscript

Cutting down a large manuscript can be a challenge, and one most writers would like to avoid. Even if you write sparse, odds are you'll face this at some point in your career. I've done several posts on trimming words, but what do you do if you need to cut large amounts of text? Tens of thousands of words instead of a few thousand.

This happened to me recently. My first draft was done, and way too large. During revisions I changed the plot a lot and it got even bigger. My first act was clocking in at 34K words, which meant my novel was going to likely end up about 140K words--about 50K more than it should be. Since I was aiming for the 80-90K word mark, I knew I had to get that first act down to around 20-23K words. Even 25K would be acceptable, as I could trim the rest after I was done.

Guest Author Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali: Four Ways to Take Your Character from Typical to Terrific

Finding ways to bring your characters to life are always in demand, and I'm happy to welcome Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali to the blog today to share four tips on how she adds life to otherwise normal characters.

Khaalidah was born in Rhode Island, the child of a U.S. Naval officer. She's been married to her husband for more than twenty years and has three amazingly intelligent and artistic children who outstrip her in every way possible. She works as an oncology nurse at a world renowned cancer center in Houston, Texas. Her greatest love, aspiration, and avocation is writing. She's a Muslim and she prays five times a day. She likes video games, anime/comics, reading, walking, Wii boxing, horror movies and zombies, and hanging out with her children. She sews and along with her husband, maintains a pretty spectacular organic garden in her backyard. Her first novel is An Unproductive Woman. You can find her at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Goodreads, and Shelfari.

Take it away Khaalidah...

Who's There? Introducing Characters in a Scene

Don't hide your characters

Have you ever walked into a room, thought you were alone, and then realized someone else was there? A little jarring, right? It's unexpected and totally throws you. Well, you can do the same thing to your reader if you forget to let them know there are other characters in the scene besides the narrator.

Readers expect authors to set the scene at the beginning of that scene and provide them with the necessary tools to understand what's going on. One element of that is to let them know who is in the scene.

Real Life Diagnostics: Say it Out Loud: Writing Dialog for the Stage

Real Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and I diagnose them on the blog. It’s part critique, part example, designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.

If you're interested in submitting to Real Life Diagnostics, check out the page for guidelines.

Submissions currently in the queue: Four

This week’s question:
Does this dialogue sound sincere?

Market/Genre: Stageplay (Musical)

Note: This is an interesting RLD today because I know next to nothing about scripts. But this question is about dialog, and that I can talk about. Any scriptwriters out there with some feedback are encouraged to chime in.

On to the diagnosis…

The Best Advice on Plotting I've Ever Heard: Two Tips That Will Make Plotting Easier

But wait, there's more!

I read a few pieces of plotting advice in the last few weeks I wish I'd written. They're nothing new, nothing ground-break, and things countless writers have said before (including me), but the way they're said is sheer genius. They're probably the most applicable and easiest plotting tips I've ever heard.

Of course, me being me instantly thought about ways to apply them to my work and how to break it down into neat little examples. I found no matter how awesome this advice is, it's also kinda easy to be led astray by it if you don't quite get it (like show don't tell).

Did I Just Say That? When Characters Say Dumb Things

There are moments in my life I wish I could take back. The kind where I opened my mouth and inserted my foot right up to my hip bone. They still haunt me even though it's been years and I'll never see those people again (it's worse for the ones I see all the time, ack).

And sometimes, a verbal slip got me into trouble I would have gotten out of if Id just kept my mouth shut. 

Characters can say stupid things too.

It's a lot easier for them to come up with the perfect zinger, or to carefully consider their words before they speak, but come on, who really does that every time in real life? 

Crossing Words Off Your List: Making the Most of Editing "What Not to Use" Lists

I'm a big fan of lists, especially list of red flag words that typically indicate trouble in a manuscript. Not only are they're great reminders of problem areas, they give me a place to start when I begin revisions. Recently I've read a few good posts about the subject, one on working past wordiness, another on shaping up flabby words, and one on using the search and find feature. They all suggest words to hunt down and kill (paraphrasing here) and they got me thinking.

It can be very easy as a new writer to see these lists and read this advice and think that every instance of every one of these words should be cut from your manuscript.

And that's not the case.