The Who, What, Where, Why and When of Writing - Part 6 – HOW? by Diane Bator

Now what???

Thank you for sticking with me through this labor of love as I’ve explored the five Ws of writing:

Who – as in Who are YOU as a writer?

What – for What do you want to write?

Where – location, location, location.

Why – what drives you?

When – what the best time to write?

But I often here one more question that I’d like to address.

How do I get started?

I actually saw a post on a writing site where someone asked, “I want to be a writer. What do I write about?” As usual, trolls bashed the person. To me, it seemed like an odd question because I’ve always just written. Words come out. I turn them into stories. I’ve never stopped to think about what to write or even how.

In the beginning…

Like me, some people are struck by inspiration continuously. I have binders of ideas waiting for when I’m finished my current work in progress. But how do you get started? One of the best ways I’ve found is to get a book of writing prompts or use Google to search for “writing prompts.” When I started in the writing group there was a standard list of writing prompts for starting writers, “What I remember is…”, “What I forgot was…”, “Why I want to write.”

A Few Guidelines

We all need a plan, so I’ve included a brief outline of things to think about in order to get started.

·       Find a nurturing writing environment.

·       Schedule writing time – even a half hour a day in a hectic day can help.

·       Create an outline of what you want to do, or just write!

·       Focus on writing your book one chapter at a time, even if you write chapter one then chapter twenty then go back to fill in the rest.

·       Maintain focus. Get that book done!

·       Deal with writing distractions before they get out of hand. Put your phone face down. Ask your family to respect your writing time. Sit somewhere alone with everything you need to write.

·       Start writing…Keep writing…don’t give up!!

Keeping the Motivation

Life throws us distractions. That’s a fact. We get sick. Kids get sick. We have to work overtime at work. All of these throw off our plans for writing. As a mom of three who wrote from the time they were little, fitting a little me-time in the day wasn’t always easy. But I did it. My first book was published when my kids were still young. Plus I worked two part-time jobs.

I wrote because I loved to write. Because it kept me sane when life sometimes spun out of my control. To sneak in writing time, I carried a small notebook everywhere I went. I wrote on napkins when I didn’t have paper. I also wrote while I ate lunch and before the kids got up in the mornings.

Finishing Your Book

I know so many people who have started short stories, started novels and have yet to finish them many years later. One quote I found somewhere was “what makes you an author is the ability not to start a project, but to complete one.”

Anyone can be a writer. All you have to do is write.

Starting something – pretty much anything – is easy. You need to find the tenacity to sit and finish your story or your book. Whether you give yourself a daily or weekly word count, have a beta reader who will expect to see a chapter on certain dates, or hold yourself accountable by giving yourself a gold star or some other reward for each day you write. Whatever keeps you going back to work on that next page.

One thing not many people will tell you is to expect negative feedback. Even the biggest name writers get trolls and others who say things that are hurtful. Don’t take these seriously. If you get nine out of ten readers repeating the same criticisms (i.e. typos or unbelievable storyline or characters) do listen and see if those are things you can change in your next book.

Think of Book One as your first child. You don’t have things 100% figured out. There will be mistakes or things you could have done better. Let it be a learning experience. Listen to the suggestions and take the ones you think will make your next book even stronger.

Before you publish, it’s very important to have your book edited by someone who knows what they’re doing! Not your Aunt Jenny, unless she’s a professional editor. Editors are great for giving advice and pointing out things that you won’t see because it’s your baby. Just like with raising kids, when we read our own books, we see what we want to see and ignore the bad stuff. To us, it’s perfect.

Once you’ve written that book and had it thoroughly edited, you have two things left to do.

1.     Find a publisher, either traditional or the many self-publishers who are out there. Just be wary of the vanity presses. Those are the ones who ask you to pay thousands of dollars upfront in order to create your work. Many of these are scams and you could get stuck with a garage full of books. DO ready their websites very carefully to find out what genres they publish, what they require for submissions, and who you need to submit your work to.

2.     Write your next book.

Good luck!!

Diane Bator

Author of Wild Blue Mysteries, Gilda Wright Mysteries and Glitter Bay Mysteries

Mom of 3 boys and 2 cats and one less mouse... He’s been evicted.

You can find me at:  http://bookswelove.net/authors/bator-diane-mystery/

 

Show, Don't Tell, Session One - Avoiding Adverbs

Over the next four months, I'm going to write about Showing, Not Telling a story. I've been reading a lot lately, and wow, I'm amazed at how many writers tell a story, rather than show it.  A recent series I've read, the author actually told step by step how he made dinner. Seriously. Something like this: and then he turned on the stove. Then he put the broth in a bowl. Then he added flour. Then he mixed it. Then he added it to the pan to make a gravy.  I'm not kidding. It went on and on. He even told how he set the table from taking the dishes out of the cupboard and silverware out of the drawer. Now don't get me wrong, the dishes he made sounded delicious, but there's a way to give a recipe without step by step. Besides, he never said how much of anything he added.So today, I'm starting with Avoiding Adverbs.Session 1- Avoiding Adverbs –.Writing without adverbs??? Then how do we describe people, tone of voice? Some writers think adverbs are the only way to add description to a story.Wrong – the use and over use of adverbs distracts from your story.  It puts YOU, the AUTHOR, in the story.  And we never (one of the few nevers in writing) want the author in the story.There are better ways to add description.  Let’s take this sentence for example:  Roy walked leisurely down the street.  - Okay you, the author, just TOLD us how Roy walked – you interfered with the story.   How much better if you would have showed us how Roy walked –Example:Roy strolled down the street. (Notice how just changing the verb and taking out the adverb shows us how Roy walked.Roy is not in a hurry -strolled implies leisurely without the author saying so. But let’s take it one step farther the author can show more. Roy breathed in the spring air. He loved this time of year with the trees budding, especially the smell of fresh cut grass. He stopped and looked at the sky.Now the author hasn’t even told us that Roy strolled. We know Roy’s not in a hurry because he notices everything around him.  People in a hurry don’t take the time to notice the buds on the trees. They wouldn’t stop to look at the sky.  The author has showed us something about Roy besides the fact that he’s not in a hurry.  Roy loves spring and he loves nature. Other people wouldn't necessarily notice the buds on the trees, even when they’re not in a hurry. People react in different ways to show us they aren't in a hurry.  Maybe they'd lollygag along, watching the traffic, or kids playing. That shows us something different about them.  People see different things and so should our characters.Adverbs can never replace strong verbs. As in the above example, strolled is a much stronger verb then walked in showing us how someone went on his way. Yet, there’s still a better way to show without telling us he strolled. It shows Roy doing something and tells us something about him. We always want to show our characters. If Roy was a grumpy old man, he wouldn’t have noticed the same things Roy, the nature lover, noticed. More than likely, he’d notice something negative, litter on the street or kids yelling while they play, which annoys him. Think about your character before you write. Know him inside out. Know everything about him, his hobbies, occupation, even his favorite color. Make a character worksheet, listing not just his physical characteristics, but his occupation, hobbies, favorite things. I’ve shown example after this lesson.Adverbs combined with strong verbs – He ran quickly – are repetitive.  We already know he ran, that tells us he’s moving fast, why repeat it.  The adverb has the same meaning as the verb.  By adding the adverb we weaken the verb and the sentence, and it shows us nothing. Avoid the use of adverbs whenever possible.  When you feel tempted to add an adverb, stop and think about what you want the reader to know. Is there another way to say it?  Usually there is. Adverbs to describe how someone speaks are also interfering.Example: “Stop, just stop,” John shouted angrily. Well, I don’t know about you but if someone is shouting that usually means he’s angry. Why not show us the anger with an action.  “Stop! Just stop.” John slammed a cupboard door.Now that shows us he’s angry much better than the adverb angrily? And we didn’t have to use the tag line he shouted.  We can say, he shouted and slammed the cupboard door, but does that reinforce the anger? Not really. The action works better alone.Now don’t get me wrong – there are places to use adverbs, but the key is to use them sparingly.  Readers want detail, they want to see and hear the story. They don’t want someone to tell them what happened. They want to feel the anger, sadness, happiness, laughter, and tears.  Readers want to feel our character's emotion.  Characters who display emotion are strong characters.  And readers remember them. They become real, believable. And if we have believable characters, readers will remember us.So next time you write, she hurried quickly down the street, STOP!! Reread what you just wrote.  Do you really want to repeat that she was in a hurry?  Hurried already implies she was going quickly.And next time you write – “I can’t do this anymore,” John said sadly.  Rethink it – is there a better way to show John sad?  “I can’t do this anymore.” John wiped the tears from his eyes. Notice I didn’t say John said as he wiped the tears. You can also eliminate the he said/she said tags and insert an action tag that shows us more of what’s happening. By saying John said sadly, we know John is sad – but we don’t know he’s crying. In fact we don’t know anything about John.  We add so much more to the story by eliminating needless adverbs.  We all enjoy reading strong stories, why not write them.
   Below is a character worksheet I use for my characters before I start writing. I like to know them inside out.CHARACTER WORKSHEET

1. Name – Nickname

1. Age – Birthday

1. General info – Hair color, eyes; height; weight

1. Favorites – color, sport; food

1. Hobbies

1. What do you think of when you first see him/her – phrase or word to describe. Thin fit, tall, short, muscular, flabby

1. First physical impression. Sloppy distinguished, snobby; sophisticated

1. What do you sense from his/her personality? Shy;confident;bold; loud

1. What type of clothes does he/she wear at work? At home?

1. What is his/her voice like? Rough, raspy, soft, smooth, shrill, Is there an accent?

1. Where does he/she live? Why? His/her choice? Necessity?(job school)

1. Where was he/she born? Describe his/ her background. (family life etc.)

1. Who most influenced his/her life?

1. What’s are his/her priorities? Daydreams, fantasies

1. What motivates him/her?

1. What are his/her conflicts? Does he/she settle them him/herself? Or does she have help?

1. What are his/her goals? How far would they go to achieve them?

1. What are his/her fears? Does it keep her/him from achieving their goals?

1. How important is it for him/her to win?

1. How does he/she react to children? Animals? How do you know?

1. How does he/she interact with others in the story?

1. How does he/she shape the plot

1. What are his/her undesirable characteristics? Faults? Quick tempered/impatient?

1. What are his/her quirks? Special talents?

1. What does he/she do for a living?

1. Why does the reader care what happens to him/her?

BWL Publishing Inc. New Releases and Free Read for September, 2019 - http://bookswelove.net

http://bookswelove.netSeptember new releases are listed below.  Visit http://bookswelove.net and find each of these covers hyperlinked to the author page where you can read descriptions, reviews and purchase information from all your favorite etailers.




AND A SPECIAL TREAT FOR SEPTEMBER, MULTI-PUBLISHED BWL BEST SELLING AUTHOR JANET LANE WALTERS' "ROMANCING THE NURSE" IS FREE FOR YOUR DOWNLOADING PLEASURE.  VISIT JANET'S BWL AUTHOR PAGE, AND CLICK THE COVER ON HER PAGE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY.  ALL BWL AUTHORS ARE LISTED IN THE INDEX ON http://bookswelove.net 

To plot or not by Priscilla Brown

As I began Billie's contemporary romance story,

 I  knew only that she's a car mechanic with her own business in a small town. 

A stranger walks in...or have they met before?

https://bookswelove/net/authors/brown-priscilla-romance 

I am not a story plotter, and not for me the structure of the work planned before I begin Chapter One. In my real every day life, I am an organised person, and I used to wonder why I couldn't transfer this inclination to my contemporary romance novels. I'm what is styled among some fiction authors as a 'seat-of-the-pants' writer, not knowing at the start of a story how it would progress; having said that, however, in romance it's accepted that the two protagonists finally get together, so my challenge is to guide them on their journey.

This not-knowing, making it up as I go, is for me part of the enjoyment or writing. I've attended workshops where the intended outcome was a complete plot outline, after which I've tried unsuccessfully to train myself into this. Attempts at constructing a plot before starting a novel ended in confusion and abandonment. While I would still like to be able to do this before I burrow into the story, I've settled into being a 'pantser'.

Writing a novel in this way means that new characters and situations will emerge. I enjoy meeting these personalities and ensuring they have a valid reason for being in the story. Such people and the baggage they bring introduce different elements into the way the story is shaping. My 'pantsing' usually reveals plot holes, places where something in the sequence of events and/or developing relationships between characters doesn't quite make sense. I need to fill these, foreshadowing by dialogue or narrative and/or more research, so the reader doesn't shake her head and mutter "Why did that happen? How did these characters get to this point?" I construct a timeline of the story events as I write; such gaps will often show up, and demand my immediate attention. To  keep matters under control, I make notes of actions and episodes with their consequences, and it's frequently necessary to read back over several scenes.

 Fixing the holes and dealing with other necessary amendments as I find them makes me a slow writer. And when the first draft of this 'seat-of-the-pants' work reaches THE END, it's time  to go back to the beginning with a thorough edit. Does it all hang together?

Enjoy your reading. Priscilla.

https://bwlpublishing.ca

https://priscillabrownauthor.com

What a Difference a Day Makes by Margaret Hanna

 Click this link for details and purchase information from Margaret's BWL Author Page

Authors who write historical fiction know they have to ensure that things such as attitudes, clothing and language are appropriate to the time. Sometimes, even the day of the week matters.

For example:

My current venture into historical fiction, or, as I call it, semi-fictionalized family history, is the story of my maternal grandparents who (independently) came to Canada from different parts of England a hundred years ago. Rather than writing the chapters sequentially, I am hop-scotching around, picking a year or event at random. This year, being the 50^th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon and Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, I decided to work on 1969. What would my then 80-year-old grandfather and his buddies have thought of this event?

Grandpa Higham drank and smoked so I decided to situate him and his friends in the beer parlour watching the event unfold late that evening on the beer parlour’s little black-and-white TV.

Bear in mind: In Saskatchewan in 1969, there were no pubs or sports bars, only beer parlours. If you wanted to drink “up-scale,” you went to cocktail lounges and licenced dining rooms. All were strictly regulated. No one under 21 allowed. Ever!

Beer parlours were dark, dingy and smoke-filled, almost entirely populated with men; no self-respecting “lady” would be caught dead in a beer parlour! Beer choices were limited – no craft beer in those days. Draft beer cost 21 cents a glass. If you wanted to move to another table, you had to ask the waiter to move your beer for you. Beer parlours closed for “supper hour.”

But back to the Apollo 11 landing.

Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. I was curious as to what day of the week that was, so I called up a 1969 calendar on the internet. July 20 was a Sunday.

Oops!

In 1969, in Saskatchewan, any place that sold any kind of alcohol in any form was closed up tighter than a drum on Sunday. All day Sunday. Every Sunday. No exceptions. There went the story I had just crafted. Time to hit the Delete button and start over.

Grandpa Higham and his buddies are now discussing the event over breakfast in the café Monday morning.

                                                                          * * *

My first venture into semi-fictionalized family history was “Our Bull’s Loose in Town!” Tales from the Homestead, the story of my paternal grandparents, Abe and Addie Hanna. I didn’t have to worry about what day of the week it was with their story – they were affirmed teetotalers and staunch believers in prohibition.

The Intimate Mozart

Click here to view and purchase all Juliet Waldron's novels including The Intimate Mozart

Sadly, the book with the perfect title, Mozart's Wife, has had to be issued with a new name, owing to shenanigans on the part of a monstrously large retailer whose name I shall not speak. I wrote this book quite some years ago, now in the last century.  

What began for me as a Mozart obsession soon became entangled with the story of the women who lived with a genius for nine short years, and who took his Viennese rocket ride to fame and fortune and crashed into poverty beside him. This little woman, who was even more diminutive than her vertically challenged husband, saw our hero at his best and at his worst. Her name was Constanze, or, using the German spelling: Konstanze. In his letters, Mozart often called her "Stanzi" or "Stanzerl" when he wasn't teasing her about her "Needle Nose."

It began with a romance, as this least favored of the Weber daughters married her big sister's erstwhile boyfriend, a young fellow who'd been a wunderkind and who was now attempting to be taken seriously as an adult musician. It appears that Mozart suffered from all the familiar problems of a child star attempting to bridge the gap. Accustomed as he had been to fame and adulation from his earliest years, this was made supremely difficult, not only because of Mozart’s own high opinion of himself, but because of the understandable resentment of older musicians who believed they had achieved official appointments “the hard way.”

I found that many of Mozart’s biographers had no love for Constanze. They either belittled her as someone who abandoned her man when the going got rough—as things certainly did in the later years in Vienna—or they dismissed her as a silly young woman from an insignificant family who’d married a genius she was ill-prepared to handle. I immediately doubted the “insignificant” part, at least in terms of the Weber family’s musicianship. Constanze’s two older sisters became famous singers, performing the most demanding vocal music of the day—some of it written specifically for them by their brilliant brother-in-law.

Mozart’s largest problem in finding financial security was that upon voluntarily leaving the Archbishop of Salzburg’s service, he became the first freelance musician (of any stature) in Europe. With an almost impenetrable class system in 18th Century Europe, he paid a high price for his daring. No nobleman could allow such an insult to pass, because in those days, "inferior"  was what musicians, no matter how brilliant, were. (Every great musician who came after him, even the fiercely proud and independent Beethoven, would carry the image of Mozart’s rebellion like a banner.)

It is a modern axiom that “anonymous was a woman,” and so it proved to be as I searched for facts about Constanze among a host of biographies. In the second volume of The Mozart Family Letters,* I found many written by Mozart himself, most sent from Vienna to his father in Salzburg. They make good reading, for Wolfgang was a witty observer. These letters may be the horse’s mouth in one sense, however, we must also bear in mind that they were also carefully tailored to soothe the recipient, the stern and possessive Leopold.

Leopold Mozart had not spent his life schooling and grooming Wolfgang for the pure pleasure of the exercise. He always hoped that his son would receive a good appointment at an important Court and would then be able to support his parents in high style. An early marriage—to anyone, much less to a penniless girl with no useful social connections—was not his plan.

When Mozart began to lodge with the Weber’s, tongues began to wag. Despite the expense, slowness, and difficulty of communication in the late 18^th Century, Leopold Mozart seems to have had a network of informants who were only too happy to supply him with information that the proud old man would find disagreeable.  And by simply looking the other way, it was easy enough for the recently widowed Mama, Cecelia Weber, to allow Mozart to compromise Constanze. What amounts to a shotgun wedding was eventually forced with connivance between the widow and a court-appointed guardian.  

 “But who is the object of my love? Again, do not be horrified, I beg of you! Not one of the Webers? Yes, eine Weberische—Constanze, the middle one...my dear good Constanze, she ….is the best of them all. She makes herself responsible for the whole household, and yet she can never do right! …One thing more I must tell you, which is that I was not in love at the time of my resignation. It was born of her tender care and service when I lodged in their house…” 

Stanzi wanted to escape her domineering and critical mother; Mozart hoped to take a wife and have a safe and comfortable home to return to after his battles with the world. He looked forward to having his supper fixed, his clothes cleaned, pressed and mended. He seems to have not thought much about the expenses of a family, nor about the inevitability of children nor any of the difficulties of marriage.

The Mozart’s union took a classic form—young people wanting to escape from restrictions and injustices at home. Wolfgang and his Constanze jumped out of the frying pan of parental domination into the fire.

 Another feature of Constanze’s life is rarely mentioned by Wolfgang’s biographers, one I came to believe that this was the key to her story. Frau Mozart was pregnant or convalescent from childbirth for six years out of the nine she was married to Wolfgang. The longest interval between pregnancies was seventeen months, the shortest (on two occasions) six months. In 1789 she was bedridden. Her legs swelled, she had intermittent fevers and a terrible pain in her legs and abdomen throughout the entire pregnancy. The daughter she bore that year died at birth and very nearly took her mother with her.

From the letters, and from what I’ve read to research the symptoms, it would appear that Constanze nearly died of puerperal fever on two separate occasions. Childbirth and the resulting illnesses brought doctors, midwives, wet-nurses, and prescriptions--and expense. It would be difficult, even today, to keep a woman with such an obstetrical record “in good general health.” 

All large European cities were dirty. There were backhouses behind crowded apartment buildings. What this meant for the summer water supply is not hard to guess. The brief life of four of Mozart’s children and the illnesses of the parents were not unusual. However, it can only be imagined how difficult the birth and death of four infants in such a short space of time was for a young mother.

“My dear wife….will make a full recovery from her confinement. From the condition of her breasts I am rather afraid of milk-fever. And now the child has been given to a foster-nurse against my will, or rather, at my wish! For I was quite determined that whether she should be able to do so or not, my wife was never to feed her child. Yet I was equally determined that my child was never to take the milk of a stranger! I wanted the child to be brought up on water, like my sister and myself. However, the midwife, my mother-in-law ... have begged and implored me not to allow it, if only for the reason that most children here who are brought up on water do not survive as the people here don’t know how to give it properly. That induced me to give in, for I should not like to have anything to reproach myself with.”

It was a good thing that Mama Cecelia, tactful for once, managed to persuade Mozart that babies cannot live on sugar water, whatever wicked nonsense Leopold had retailed! The wet nurse system being what it was, women took on more babies than they could feed in return for the pittance they were paid. The more I learned, the less surprised I was that only two of the six Mozart babies Stanzi bore in the nine years of their marriage survived to adulthood. 

This letter changed my focus once and for all. All I could see was Stanzi, no doubt ill-prepared and injured by the rigors of childbirth, now ordered not to nurse her child--and being sickened with milk fever as a result--by a man who apparently lived in a dream world. Genius or not, my musical hero had feet of clay. Sisterhood is Powerful!

The emotional toll of so many births and deaths had to be great.  I cannot imagine that Constanze ever felt very well—or was able to function efficiently on any level—while her husband’s moods swung from despair to elation and back again. Their sixth child, Franz Wolfgang, was born at the very nadir of Mozart’s fortune. He survived—perhaps, as I wrote, because the family was now so destitute that his mother was forced to feed him herself. 

After Leopold Mozart, a demanding correspondent, died, the picture of the Mozart’s family life becomes less clear. The other reason we know less is because Constanze, like other wives of famous men,* destroyed many letters written by her to Mozart and most of the letters he wrote to her when she was at the spa or times when he was touring. Those that survive are filled with names that she carefully blacked out during the long years that remained to her after Mozart’s death.

Was she protecting her own reputation? Or was she protecting the reputations of people who were then still alive—and still powerful? Was she covering up something? A few bits of gossip remain.

 “Mozart,” it was said, loved his wife tenderly, although he was sometimes unfaithful to her. His fancies had such a hold over him that he could not resist them.”*

While Mozart was probably no Don Giovanni, he was a profoundly talented man working in a profession full of beautiful, talented women. These artists shone the glory of his creation back upon him—a most seductive mirror. Or, perhaps, as has been suggested: “Mozart disguised his own hyper sensitivity by expressing himself through women.”*

The end of the story, culminating in the mystery of Mozart’s death, was created from hints in a multitude of diaries and letters. In the end, I was forced to trust the characters to tell me what had taken place. Whether it is fact or fiction, I allowed the last few chapters of The Intimate Mozart to unfold exactly as my characters explained. 

We women know how much we bring to the table and yet how little we are still regarded. I began by wanting to write a novel which would center on a great man. I ended by depicting an 18th Century wife's world, complete with all the challenges, the successes and failures, the light and joy as well as the sorrows and shadows.

~~Juliet Waldron

*Mozart, by Marcia Davenport, 
*The Mozart Family Letters, translated by Emily Anderson
*Jean-Baptiste-Antione Suard in his Anecdotes of Mozart, 1804
*Martha Washington and Elizabeth Hamilton are known to have destroyed letters "too personal"
* The Mozart Brothers, Swedish film, 1986