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30 03, 2012

Fifty point CHAPTER BREAKS

By judythemorgan|2024-03-02T18:01:39-06:00March 30th, 2012|Friday Free Day, Uncategorized|4 Comments

We LOVE to play Scrabble at our house. Play it all the time. My husband and writing partner is the current fifty-point word champion. That’s him with the scorepad and board to prove it!

We’ve played online at the official Scrabble website. If I had an iPhone, I could download a Scrabble APP and play on my phone.

To score fifty points, you have to have the right tiles, the perfect fit to play on the board, and the RIGHT word.

Hooks in chapter breaks are the fifty-point tool of the writer.

Back in the dark ages (1914 to be exact), a silent movie series titled The Perils of Pauline starred Pearl White as Pauline, the damsel in distress menaced by assorted villains, pirates, and Native Americans. In each episode the audience was convinced poor, pitiful Pauline’s situation would surelyresult in her imminent death until at the last minute she was rescued or otherwise escaped the danger. The damsel in distress and cliffhanger endings kept moviegoers returning.

According to Wikipedia, in 2008, The Perils of Pauline was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Successful writers need compelling characters like Pauline and strong chapter breaks to keep their readers satisfied. How do we write our fifty-point chapter endings to score hits like the screenwriters did with The Perils of Pauline?

I ran across two great blogs with answers to the question. Both bloggers agreed the key to powerful chapter breaks is raising the reader’s curiosity.

K.M. Weiland suggests these ten ways to raise questions in the readers’ minds.

1. Promise of conflict to come.

2. A secret kept.

3. A major decision or vow.

4. An announcement of a shocking event.

5. A moment of high emotion.

6. A reversal or surprise that turns the story upside down.

7. A new idea.

8. An unanswered question.

9. A portentous metaphor.

10. A plot turning point.

Weiland warns “Not every chapter needs to end with a cliffhanger, but they do need to encompass a question powerful enough to make the reader crazy to know the answer.” If you read her blog here, she elaborates on how to use all ten ideas she suggested.

In the other blog, NY Times bestselling author Laura Griffin identifies characteristics of poor chapter hooks —

The sleepy time chapter end – letting your heroine end her action-packed scene by going to bed

Disaster averted – ending the chapter when the crisis is resolved

The threepeat – Using Pauline-in-peril gimmicks repeatedly. Unlike the silent movie success, overused in writing can turn your reader off

Lacking punch words – not ending the last sentence of your chapter with a punch word at the end.

Check out Laura’s blog at Romance University here for fixes to the problems she points out.

Whether you’re a Scrabble player or not, as a writer you play with words. You have to “scrabble” ways that keep the reader hooked into turning the pages.

YOUR TURN: What’s your 50-point strategy for chapter endings?

20 03, 2012

The Attack of the Lucky 7 Meme

By judythemorgan|2012-03-20T15:39:27-05:00March 20th, 2012|Uncategorized|14 Comments

It appears the Lucky 7 Meme zombie virus for writer-bloggers has arrived on my front porch via Cora Ramos!

I thought I might escape being in lurker mode and all. Not so…Cora found me.

Unfamiliar with The Lucky Meme virus?

These are the rules:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

Game on

My Seven Lines:

Annie bit her lip. Two cots barely fit in the room. The shower looked like an RV bath. Still it had a floor, no dirt, and a door, not a piece of cloth, and there was even plenty of bottled water beneath the bedside table. “Thank you, Mr. Welds.” And, thank you, Aunt Gerry.

“Please. It’s Fred. See you at the house.”

A short time later, they gathered around the table in the tiled dining area. Martha served fried plantains and a vegetable salad with a pitcher of fruit water.

“I’d go easy on the sauce. It takes some getting used to,” Fred warned.

Erin began to cough, grabbed her glass and chug-a-lugged all the liquid. “Ya say?”

The laughter that followed drained some of the tension from Annie’s shoulders. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Annie’s not talking about playing Lucky 7 Meme, but I have to agree this virus isn’t so bad!

Rule #3 was easy.

Rule #4, a bit harder. I’m hoping they’ll join the fun! Even if they don’t check out their websites.

In case they decline…

YOUR TURN: Join the fun and post a Lucky 7 Meme from your novel/WIP in the comments.

7 03, 2012

ARE YOU A PIDDLER?

By judythemorgan|2012-03-07T08:15:29-06:00March 7th, 2012|one word Wednesday, Uncategorized|7 Comments

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY and today’s word is PIDDLE. No not what puppies and kittens and small children do. Piddling is spending time in a trifling, or ineffective way according to Dictionary.com

Some call it dawdling. The dictionary defines it as wasteful. I’m not so sure about that wasteful part. I think we all need piddle time.

Southerners are said to have fine-tuned the act of passing time, without waste or regret into a fine art. The whole idea of piddling is to kill time, but without any great effort or much meaning, according to Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. He claims it’s a cause worthy of lifelong study in his February 2012 Southern Living essay column, The Fine Art of Piddling.

Piddling is not a necessity. In fact in most circles, it’s frowned upon. In Western pragmatism, we have to do most of the time. I’m a diehard multi-tasker. I loathe just sitting and doing nothing. Though you will find me stopping to smell the roses, not for long! The one exception–I can easily lose myself in a good book for hours until I come to THE END. Much like Rick Bragg described his wife, I piddle with purpose.

But sometimes, piddling’s a forced condition. My latest piddling was neither planned nor welcomed, an unfortunate necessity. A torn rotator cuff took me down. I’ve had no choice but to kill time waiting to regain full use of my repaired shoulder muscles. Weeks in an immobilizing sling, now Attila the Hun physical therapy.

I’ve whittled away the hours sleeping with my guard dogs at my side.Or we watched movies. Turner and Hallmark movie channels mostly. I learned a lot about plotting and story development from those so I guess technically it wasn’t wasted time.

We also found some fascinating History channel offerings like Pawn Stars and American Restoration. Toby, Buster and I learned a lot! I really missed my daytime soap operas. Made me mad all over again that CBS canceled Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

Timing was the pits too. Two weeks into Kristen Lamb’s Social Media class. Wore me out typing one handed to get in my tweets, FB, and blog out there.I’ll be out of the sling soon and up to speed on the keyboard. But I’m thinking I’m gonna miss the piddling. Ironically, it’s been relaxing, refreshing and renewing. I’m thinking I’ll keep at least some piddling a part of every day.

Sentence Game Time: Dictionary.com suggests He wasted the day piddling around.

YOUR TURN: Have a sentence to share? Or a comment about your piddle habits or a time you were forced into piddling?

5 03, 2012

COLLOQUIALISMS and WEASEL WORDS

By judythemorgan|2012-03-05T09:00:29-06:00March 5th, 2012|Uncategorized|6 Comments

When I shared a recent chapter with my critique partners, one of them called me for this sentence, “He found himself in deep water.”

She didn’t understand that my POV character’s internal thought meant he found himself in trouble. She thought I put him in a swimming pool and forgot to put that detail on the page. Another problem I have… getting what’s playing in my head accurately portrayed on the page. But that’s a topic for another blog.

Her stumbling over the phrase led to a discussion of colloquial language and how words, phrases, and even clichés vary from one geographical area to another.

Being from Texas, we have a whole slew of regional words. I just used another one—slew, meaning a whole bunch. We’re always y’all-ing and gonna and fixin’ when we talk. Foreigners sometimes need an interpreter. Consider these colloquial phrases I’ve been known to use verbally and in my writing:

hot as tin toilet seat – in Texas we know that’s HOT
screaming bloody murder or screaming banshee– used to stop the pleasant sound coming from a kid or grandkid
grumpy as an old sitting hen – gives a more vivid image than grumpy old men
bone tired – yep, been there
slow as molasses – can’t you just see that black syrup oozing out of the jar?
keep your pants on – meaning not what you think, but to be patient!

Besides colloquialisms that slip into my first drafts, I have “favorite” words that pop up when I’m being lazy with my writing or rushing. Words like: had, that, could, was, felt, knew, thought, saw, walked, come.

“Weasel words” Margie Lawson, editing guru, calls these words and colloquial phrases. I learned in her deep editing class, The EDITS System, to keep a WEASEL WORD CHART listing phrases, overused word, throw-away words, clichés and opinion words. The chart is easy to populate. The words we overuse stand out like sore thumbs. (Sorry, Margie had to use a cliché to make my point.)

Then, during the revision stages, I use the chart with my word processor’s search and replace function to eliminate them.

BUT sometimes using colloquial language fits characterization. Sometimes it has a function in dialogue especially if the protagonist is a Texan or the piece is written about Texas.

Throwing such informal colloquialism into novel narrative, on the other hand, can be a stumbling block for readers by pulling them from the story. And, then they do what no writer wants—quit reading!

If using colloquialisms is your writer’s voice, okay. I caution you to be sure your reader can understand from the scene context what you’re saying.

REMEMBER: Our writer’s responsibility is to always make sure in the battle of words that story reigns.

What did I do with my CP’s suggestion? Eliminate the phrase or not?

In this case, I believed the reader could discern the meaning from the rest of the scene and left the phrase “deep water.”

Your turn:

What are your favorite colloquialisms and weasel words? Do they slip into your writing?

2 03, 2012

It’s FRIDAY FREE DAY – Being a PURPLE COW writer

By judythemorgan|2012-03-02T08:10:01-06:00March 2nd, 2012|Friday Free Day, Gelett Burgess, Kristin Lamb, poetry, Purple Cow, Uncategorized, writer|6 Comments

Friday blog days will be silly or stream of consciousness or who knows what will strike my fancy. The idea comes from the years I taught elementary school physical education classes. Great job compared to my years of teaching reading and language arts with all those papers to grade. LOL

I wore shorts to school and lesson plans were easy because every Friday’s plan read Free Day. The other P.E. teacher and I put out assorted equipment and allowed the kids to have supervised free time during class. Things may have changed as far as teaching P.E. goes, who knows? But Friday’s on the blog will be free, crazy, and definitely fun.

Today’s topic is purple cows. I’m also testing a principal I learned from Kristin Lamb’s WANA class on social media–a snappy subject line. Did it grab your attention???

Why a purple cow blog? Because I’ve always been intrigued by the work of Gelett Burgess and especially his poem about the purple cow.

Burgess, a fascinating Bohemian, wrote other whimsical, nonsense poetry, but THE PURPLE COW is by far the most famous. I know I’ve quoted it a gazillion times. Though, like most people, I leave off the second line of the title: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least. Pity too because that’s where the essence lies. Here’s the original the poem as published in 1895.

Purple cow is a metaphor for something that is out of the ordinary, something remarkable. Maybe Bugress didn’t personally want to be considered different. In reality he was. Some say his works inspired Dr. Seuss. The Gelett Burgess Center for creative expression, organized to honor his creativity, gives The Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Awards yearly. It’s not the Caldecott, but still a prestigious honor for a children’s book.

Too many people do not want to take chances and be that Purple Cow, to stand out from the rest. To conform is to be comfortable, and many of us like to feel comfortable. But, is comfortable the place to be if you are a writer?

I say no. Not with the publishing paradigm shift which allows anyone and everyone to become a published writer.

We have to be Purple cows. Different. Willing to stand out from the rest.Our stories need to be remarkable. Exceptional. After all, does the world need another ordinary writer, another ordinary story? I don’t think so.

Purple cow writers must be different at the same time consummate professionals. With the new reader-driven paradigm in publishing, we struggle to be noticed, to stand out in the pack. Often, we’re not traditionally published because our stories don’t fit the Big Six genre boxes. Agents scratch their heads trying to pigeonhole our work. Which makes us half purple. To be a realio, trulio Purple Cow writer, we have to

create rich, absorbing stories with emotional impact to grab the reader
know craft rules then break the ones that benefit our story
never stop learning
view every writing project as a stepping stone to something better
be devoted to KL’s social media theory for getting our name and our work noticed

What about you? Are you a PURPLE COW? Do you dare to step out of your comfort?