Category Archives: Writing

Addicted to Pinterest

Gah, yet another social media site to drag me away from writing. If you’ve haven’t visited this site, you might be frustrated when you do. It’s by invitation only. Granted, you simply apply and a few days later get the invite in the mail. The site will give you a sample, but, the waiting is hard to deal with.

Once you’re in, kiss at least three or four hours of life goodbye. (I was fortunate enough to have this happen while holed up in a cabin in the woods, so the time drain wasn’t nearly as detrimental.) The idea is this: remember all those amazing pictures you download from the internet and then stick in a file and forget? Pinterest lets you post and share them. You can comment and repin pics you see from friends. The topics are endless.

Most of the pinners seemed to concentrate on products and people. I guess folks find that time worthy. Me, I went to all the amazing art I’ve always loved, yet could never find a way to catalog. Illustrators, steampunk artists, comic book art, you name it. I also plan to add all those spelling and grammar goofs I constantly see, yet seems wasted when seen individually.

I suggest you check this site out, but be warned, you may never return the same.

Tim Kane

The Myth of Writing in a Cabin in the Woods

Jonny Depp from Secret Window

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Granted, my cabin was also full of other teachers and the whole place is surrounded by sixth graders. However, I do have certain conveniences you wouldn’t associate with cabin life: a constant stream of hot coffee, blistering hot showers, and wifi. So writing up a whole new novel should be a snap, right? Not so much.

I find that I’m a solitary person. I like to write alone. Blog posts and the like, sure, I can do that anywhere. Writing on a fiction manuscript, for that I need total concentration. It’s true, there were bits and times where I was completely alone in the cabin, and I could have worked it in. Yet those times were never reliable. What I mean is, you never know when a colleague will wander in and want to talk.

Add to this the lack of any kind of desk or table. Not too bad if you’re typing out a 250 word blog post. But if you intend on crunching 1000 or 2000 words, you’ll find that neck cramps ensue. Trust me, I know. I got them midweek just working on curriculum.

Finally, there’s the lack of structure. Sure I need to show up at meals and there’s a recess block to oversee, but between those my time is mine. Yay, more time equals more writing. Try it sometime. I think you’ll find it’s the opposite. At home, I can carve out one or maybe two hours a day. Always at the same time. Reliable. Both before and after are filled with things to do. It makes my writing charged because I know if I don’t get it done, then I’ll have to wait another day.

This is not to say I got nothing done. Since I could tell that formal words-on-page style writing was going to be a challenge, I tackled things that I typically have a hard time doing at home. Plotting. I plotted out the whole dang novel. Start to finish. Not every scene, but the milestones. Seeing it as a whole allowed me to fix some plot problems. One particularly pesky one dogged me for a while. I stepped into the cabin shower for forty minutes and worked out the solution in my head (without having to pay for the water bill).

So the next time you dream of being alone in a cabin in the woods, think again. It’s not the best environment for writing. Try writing every day. Repeat until the novel is complete.

Tim Kane

Day After Month After Year After Story After Book

The best thing I ever did as a writer was to move on.

I had struggled with the same manuscript for five years. It was my life. My master work (or so I thought). I couldn’t let go. I wrote a first draft and revised it. Then I joined a critique group and restarted the book again. The new version was even better. Then I went to the Big Sur Writing conference, I realized my protagonist had no backstory. No emotion. Back to page one.

I rewrote that manuscript again. From scratch. Entirely new plot. Things were going well. Both my critique groups grooved on it. Ten months later, I began revising. When I sent out queries, I received two requests for a full manuscript.

Then the hammer fell. One agent gave me a great critique. Trouble was, I agreed with it. My character was true. The premise worked. But the plot was convoluted and the story sagged in the middle.

I had a choice. I could revise that story yet again. I even had a plan for what to fix. But I asked myself: “Am I going to be the sort of writer that reworks the same story over and over again?”

No.

I’m done with this book. Let me write a better one.

And I did. When I finished that book, I was tempted again. This time with revisions to the new book. Now I’ve made the choice to move on again. Write another book.

It reminds me of a quote from Harlan Ellison:

The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer. Day after month after year after story after book.

I plan to live as a writer, and that means writing. Better and better books.

Tim Kane

Are You Insane Enough to Write Your Story Out of Order?

This is not for the faint of heart. The technique requires plenty of organization and structure. Those are things I’m typically got at. However, I’ve never tried this before, so the whole endeavor could blow up in my face.

Three Act Structure
To start, you need a firm grasp of the three act structure. Syd Field does an amazing job when he outlines screenplays. Going out of order makes sense with screenplays because most films are shot out of order. These are more for budgetary reasons than pure drama.

The basic structure looks like this:

Act I

  • Inciting Incident (what gets the story rolling.)
  • Plot Point 1 (a surprising event that forces the protagonist to make an important decision and typically enter a new world.)

Act II

  • Pinch 1 (This is a twist that reminds the reader of the central conflict in the story.)
  • Midpoint (A second major change where the protagonist must make an important decision. This may involve a reversal of fortune.)
  • Pinch 2 (A second twist that furthers the central conflict of the story)
  • Plot Point 2 (A reversal of fortune that forces the protagonist to come into direct conflict with the antagonist.)

Act III

  • Climax (the showdown between protagonist and antagonist)
  • Denouement (All the loose ends are tied up)

Writing Out of Order
The most important scenes in the story are outlined in the three act structure. What if, instead of starting from page one and trudging through page after page and scene after scene, we went about it in a different way? What about narrowing in on the most important scenes and writing them first.

The idea is that the minor scenes between these are often building to their major counterparts. As you begin Act II, your writing is building first to the pinch 1 and then to the midpoint. Everything else essentially boils down to transition scenes.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to have too many extra scenes. Ones that drag on with no clear cut goal. If I could get the main scenes down, then I could use them to drive the whole story.

Here what I propose to try (and we’ll see if it works). The Midpoint is the turning point for the whole story. There the protagonist makes a major decision that can affect the entire story. It’s the hardest to write because it’s stuck in the no man’s land of Act II.

Homing in on the Center

  • Write the climax first. It’s the most exciting bit of fiction anyway. Get  it out of your system. Plus, you can revise later
  • Next, write Plot Point 1. This ends ACT I and leads to a major change for the protagonist.
    (NOTE: Usually I already have the inciting incident stuck in my head. If not, I’d probably write it here.)
  • Follow with Plot Point 2. This leads up to the climax (which you’ve already written) in Act III
  • Write pinch 1. This drives the action toward the midpoint.
  • Write pinch 2. This is the aftermath of the midpoint decision.
  • Finally write the midpoint. You have all the dramatic baggage assembled. By now, if you haven’t totally figured out your character, you never will.

It seems easy, but I’m sure it will be shocking as I go through. Of course to make this work, you need to have the entire story outlined (all the major points in the three act structure), as well as all the major characters and conflicts worked out.

Will you try writing out of order? Are you prepared to take the leap into insanity?

Tim Kane

SDSU Writer’s Conference: Agentpalooza

Okay, it really needs to be agent and editorpalooza. This conference is crazy cool. If you’ve never attended, you can sign up for a speed dating session where you get ten-minutes to meet agents and editors to pitch your manuscript. The first time I did this, in 2008, I was nervous as all get out. I felt that if they said no, then I would be crushed and they didn’t like me.

Well, I’ve grown a bit as a writer. After plenty of critiques and hundreds of thrown out pages, I’m coming from a different place. My goal was still to pitch my manuscript, but I also wanted information and to feel the vibe of each agent and editor. I’ve known too many writers who got hooked up with the wrong agent.

Fortunately, all of the professionals I met today were stupendous. Here’s the breakdown (with links in case you want to check them out).

Kat Brzozowski Assistant Editor at St. Martin’s Press
She was my very first conference (as in run from the keynote to the Catalina room). She was great and gave me very specific feedback.

Michelle Wolfson from Wolfson Literary Agency
I’ve followed her on Twitter for a while now. She always offers excellent advice. I sat with her today at lunch and she broke down the simultaneous versus exclusive submission (I’ll blog about it next week).

Dawn Michelle Frederick from Red Sofa Literary
Dawn and I clicked early on our love of all things Goth and Darren Shan books. We met up later at the wine and cheese where the conversation at the table quickly disintegrated to throwbacks to the 80s and antique typewriters.

Melissa Frain Associate Editor at Tor Books
It was awesome to meet with Melissa. I was under the impression (probably with others) that Tor was only about SciFi. So wrong. They have a thriving YA section. We chatted about how some YA books can be bogged down in the dreary and depressing.

Taylor Martindale from Full Circle Literary
Taylor was impressive with the level of her critique, quoting specific pages and offering great advice at line tightening. Bonus, I also found her on Literary Rambles (my go to site for agents).

My most favorite workshop of the day had to be Genius Plotting by Louella Nelson. In the fifty minutes I was there, I was able to plot out my recent novel. Amazing workshop.

I’ll meet another agent tomorrow as well as attend more workshops.

Tim Kane