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I’ve just ordered a book by face reader (or Face Pattern Recognition Expert) Naomi Tickle that I think will help me professionally as a writer, to make my characters even more believable, full, and complete, and also help me as a person navigating through the world. I think her books are great tools for writers to add more richness, depth, and credibility to our novels (or screenplays or plays for the stage).

Naomi does what the characters on the TV show Lie To Me do–read faces to know when people are lying or telling the truth, to predict their personality, behavior, and innate abilities just from their facial features. And she was actually interviewed for that show as an expert! She can tell from how fine your hair is whether you’re sensitive to noises and emotions, and from the curve of your forehead how creative you are. Her face readings are based on soft science first developed by Edward Jones, a judge, in the 1930s, and have a 92% accuracy level for personality assessment. I find it utterly fascinating!!

Naomi has several books, and I have a feeling I’ll be ordering many of them over time. For now, I chose What Makes People Tick and Why.

If you order a book directly from Naomi’s website, you get a free mini-reading.I did, and I loved what she said; she got so many things about me so accurately that I wouldn’t have thought people could see just from my face. It really impressed me! And it was also validating. (And no, I don’t get anything out of telling you that–I’m just passing along info that I think could help you.)

I’m excited to read her book, and am so looking forward to it! I think Naomi’s book will be an incredible tool as a writer and person.

You can also listen to an interview with Naomi, interviewed by Angela Treat Lyon.

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Check out my guest post today on The Other Side Of the Story: Bringing Tension & Conflict to Your Novels. I include examples from SCARS and HUNTED, and some concrete ways to increase the tension and conflict in your writing.

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Do you write fiction? If you do, you may want to check out these five free videos on writing by Ray Bradbury, Penelope Lively, and Clive Cussler. I love technology! How cool is it that we can watch master writers talk about craft–for free?

Found via MediaBistro.

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I like this writing tip by Kim Harrington on not stopping the flow of your writing by using a code when you come to something like a name you don’t know, something you need to research, etc. I do this, too, when I’m writing, and it helps. Only I never thought of it so formally; usually I just put a blank link, or some stars, to come back to what I need to work on. I don’t always use the same marker (and maybe I should! This is getting me to think about it) but I’ve found the keep-going approach really helps me.

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When advising aspiring writers, I always suggest that they find a way to get feedback on their work. There’s only so far you can take your work all by yourself.
And better you deal with that adverb addiction or propensity for purple prose before your work goes to an editor or agent. They most likely won’t offer critique—they’ll just say no.
You may be tempted to send your manuscript to an author you admire and ask for feedback. But as I pointed out in a previous post, most authors simply cannot take this on.

That said, finding the right kind of feedback is easier said than done. First of all, you have to be honest with yourself about what it is you want. And then you and your critique partners need to be on the same page, so to speak. If you want somebody to tell you what a genius you are, well, there’s always Mom (you take after her, after all.)
If you want to improve as a writer, you’re looking for something a little more directive than that. Something that will let you know very clearly what is and isn’t working, without breaking your writer’s heart.
What is often overlooked is that critiquing other writers’ work and hearing other viewpoints and voices also helps you grow as a writer. One important lesson to learn, early on, is that readers bring their own tastes, skills, and sensibilities to the table. And that not everyone will connect with what you write.
More than that, writing is a lonely and potentially soul-shattering business. Spouses may be supportive, friends empathetic, but sometimes only another writer can understand what it’s like to receive a seven-page editorial letter on the novel it took you five years to write. Or have your heart’s work rejected for the sixteenth time. Or have an agent tell you, “I didn’t love it.”
They can answer those questions that begin with, “Is it just me or…?”
Only another writer knows that your troubles aren’t over when you find an agent; when you find a publisher; when your first book is successful.
Other writers can help you recognize and celebrate your successes—even if that success is a personal note from an editor or agent scribbled on a rejection. Your spouse may say, “Um. But it’s still a rejection, right?” Your critique partners will know that it represents progress along the continuum to publication.

I used to belong to a critique group that had a little Snuffleupagus totem we passed around to the writer who’d received the most humiliating rejection that month. For example, it might be the one who had been rejected by the publisher with the lowest standards, had received the most impersonal, crooked, multiply-copied form letter or the most caustic scribbled remark. Like the newspaper editor who scrawled, “I DON’T THINK SO, MRS CHIMA!!!” across the article I’d submitted on spec. Or the editor who told my friend, “If it were possible to publish everything, we would have published yours.”


In a future post: where to find critique.

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I am a fiend with a digital camera. I come from the desperation school of photography—take enough photos, and a few are sure to come out. In the old days of film cameras, each decision to shoot was an economic one—how much do I really want a picture of Aunt Milly in the flower garden? So-called snapshots were rare. If you didn’t have time to actually frame and compose a photograph, you didn’t take it, because who wanted to pay to develop a blurred image of a roadrunner’s butt?
Now that I am free to shoot away, I do. I’ve taken photography classes several times, but find that many of the principles sieve through my mind like sand through a colander. Likely cameras, like cable television, are too sophisticated for me. But I’ve learned enough about my little digital camera to take some pleasing shots. Out of a hundred or so. Happy accidents that capture the truth of a place.
I use my camera as a substitute for my imperfect memory. I can remember things from childhood like the fifty states in alpha order or Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” But when writing in my journal, I find myself calling over to my long-suffering spouse, “What was it we did today?”
When I use a camera, it’s all about story telling. What photographs do I need to tell this story? How can I recapture the atmosphere, the light, the scents, the experience of being in Taos, NM.? Little things—what were those flowers along the river that smelled so good? Who were the innkeepers and what was their story? What were the colors that smacked my eyes—the browns, the oranges, the multiple shades of gray—so different from the greens of home?
The mountains are called the Sangre de Cristo Mountains—the blood of Christ. How do I capture that?
I take dozens of photographs, because I am acutely aware of the limitations of the camera lens compared to the human eye, with its filters of emotion and memory, the other senses layered onto the images it captures. I am always a little disappointed in my photographs. But it was better than that, I think. I can’t always get at the truth in a photograph. It doesn’t produce the same emotional experience as the real thing.

We saw the Georgia O’Keefe Abstraction exhibit at the O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. Quotes from O’Keefe annotated the paintings, most done early in her career. Much of what she said seemed to apply to writing, too.
One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.
I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it.
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.
Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting

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“Know your audience. Aim your writing at this specific group.” That advice has been around for decades, but it’s advice that gives me trouble when writing fiction. Last week someone left a comment about how difficult it was to write to an audience when telling a story.

If this is your feeling too, you’re in good company.

On Second Thought…

In the April issue of The Writer, Madeleine L’Engle (author of Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time) says to “give yourself the fun of plunging deeply into your story, and having your mind focused on that, and nothing else”–including audience.

She thinks about the characters, the story, and how it relates to herself and her personal journey. But what about keeping her audience in mind at all times? “While I am writing, I am not thinking of any audience at all,” she says. ”I am thinking about the book.”

That Nebulous Audience

I found that so refreshing! I’ve tried writing novels and stories while keeping the audience firmly in mind. Very difficult. I’ve even tried tricks like cutting photos of children the correct age from magazines and putting a collage of their faces by my keyboard to keep the reader in mind. I never did find anything that worked.

L’Engle said (and I agree) that it’s very inhibiting to have to keep an audience in mind. It takes a large piece of your mind off the story as it is unfolding. She also asserts that you’ll write a better story by NOT thinking about audience than when writing a “forcedly audience-centered story.”

What’s a Writer To Do?

Her advice? “Give yourself the pleasure of forgetting earnestly to remember your audience at all times, and give yourself the fun of plunging deeply into your story, and having your mind focused on that, and nothing else.” It certainly worked for her!

What’s your “take” on writing fiction (novels or short stories) and keeping a specific audience in mind? Does the practice help or hinder you? If you do this, do you have any “tricks” that work for you that you might share? Take a moment to leave a comment!

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My posts are often targeted at young writers—the ones that contact me most often with questions. But today I’m talking to writers of a certain age. Yes, you. You may not even be that old—but you’re old enough to ask yourself whether it’s too late to become a writer.
If this doesn’t apply to you—well, then, go write something!
All of my life I have been transforming myself, and each time I did, I asked myself, 'Am I too old to be doing this?'
Even when I was only 27, and thinking about going back to school to become a dietitian. I wondered--should I spend three years in school at MY age? And I thought to myself, in three years, you'll be thirty, whether you do this or not. And so I did it.
I began writing in third grade, and continued through high school. But I got away from the writing habit in college, when I was buried under school work and a nearly full time job. I wrote term papers and case studies and eventually papers for professional journals. But I left poetry and fiction behind.
I got back into writing as a working mother of young children. I was still busy, but I had something to say. I found out that I still had a lot to learn. So I made time to write and learn my craft.
Eventually, I became a fairly successful freelance writer. But I knew that freelance writing would always be a part-time gig, and I longed to go back to fiction. So about ten or twelve years ago, I made a conscious decision to focus on novels. Given that I also had a day job, it meant giving up some freelance work. And I asked myself, "Am I too old to be doing this?" But I did.
I published my first novel four years ago, and I’ve released a book a year since then. I have been a full time writer for two years now.
In my opinion, it’s never too late to transform yourself, if you focus on process instead of outcome. Writing isn’t like ballet--it’s never too late to begin. I intend to keep at it until they pry my cold, dead hands from the keyboard.
What you shouldn't do is wait until the perfect time to do it. There are easier seasons in your life to launch into a new endeavor, but there will never be a perfect time. So don't wait until you finish school, until you retire, until the children are all grown, until your life magically untangles itself. It takes time to become the best writer you can be. Start now.
On the one hand, I know I will never live long enough to write all my stories down. I regret that. On the other hand, maybe that’s how long it took to gain the skill and life experience I needed to be the writer I am.

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Young Writer Writes:
Why aren’t more successful writers willing to mentor others? I mean, no offense, but we could use some help.

No offense taken. I have been where you are. This is a heart-breaking, frustrating business.
I think most writers do mentor others in a way that allows them to meet their other obligations. But what they can do may not match up with what another writer needs, wants, or expects.
I'm fortunate enough to be a full time writer (finally.) Believe me, I AM SO FRICKING HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO MAKE A LIVING AT THIS. Most writers—even published writers—have day jobs and many have families. For my first twenty-three years as a writer, I had a day job. I got up at 4 in the morning and fell asleep with my face on the keyboard at night. And then I used to hike three miles in my flip-flops through waist-high snow to the mailbox to mail off my manuscripts. Only to be blown off by publishers and agents alike. Year after year after year. With no guarantee that I would ever make any money.
I did get some help from other writers along the way, but it was mostly a reciprocal kind of thing—through critique groups, conferences, and blogs. I gave, and I got, and we all learned together. Participating in the community of writers is extremely important, if only because you will finally fit in.
I have learned the most from reading other writers’ books. That’s the best kind of mentorship. Reading really good books is like taking a workshop with a master—for free (if you get the book at the library.) But you have to learn to read like a writer, which is very different from pleasure reading.
I also read many, many books on craft. I have a shelf-full over my desk and still refer to them from time to time.
Many aspiring writers believe that published writers have more power than we do. My opinion is just that—one opinion, one set of biases. I’m not an editor—I’m a writer. Editing is a very different skill, believe me. In my one editing gig, it was always easier for me to rewrite something than to edit someone else’s work. That is not the kind of help you need.
I still work seven days a week (I’m trying to change that) but I do try to give back., while protecting my writing time. I blog on writing technique, teach writing workshops, do school visits, and try to answer emails from writers, either directly or through the blogs. I belong to three critique groups, one online, the other two in person. That’s what I can do, and meet my deadlines, and give my honey a hug now and then.
What most writers can’t do—for a multitude of reasons, legal and otherwise—is read your manuscript, edit it, and get you an editor or an agent. We can’t give you the magical shortcut to publishing success. Trust me—If I knew what that was, I would have used it myself.

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Anyone who’s serious about writing fiction has read those books on how to write a novel—the ones that say we should sit down and create character profiles and answer 25 questions about our characters including physical description, religious affiliation, rents or owns, home décor, pets, early riser or late sleeper, favorite color, prejudices, commonly used swear words, tea or coffee, regular or decaf. We need to know what they would carry in their pockets and what they are afraid of.
After that, we’re supposed to write a chapter outline, or at least a synopsis, including opening, major conflict, crisis, and resolution.
I’ve tried it that way. It doesn’t work for me. By the time I’m done with all that, the juice has been wrung out of the story. It’s like an old piece of tough meat I’ve chewed on for too long.
When I began writing The Warrior Heir, I had no idea what would happen. After five years of revision, it barely resembled the work I’d started with. The Wizard Heir process was similar, though a bit more efficient, because I’d already built a world and a magical system.
This is so unlike me. I am very much a planner. I don’t even like to go shopping without a plan in mind. I mean, I was the kind that always did the index cards for the term paper.
I can’t stand the idea of Wasting Time, backing out of blind alleys, cutting chapters, undoing and redoing. It’s just so inefficient—all that grumbling and gnashing of teeth. “Well, if I’d known this was going to happen, then back at the beginning I would have….”
But I’ve had to accept the fact that, when it comes to fiction, I am very much a plunger. I have to keep writing in order to find out what happens. Connections, motivations, and relationships surface that I never anticipated.
Characters? My characters reveal themselves as the story unfolds. I do keep character tables, with descriptions, etc. so my brown-eyed person doesn’t turn blue-eyed in the third book of a series. But I do it after the fact.
Full disclosure: there is a character who has different colored eyes in each of the Heir books. Unintentionally.
When I began to write The Seven Realms series, my agent wanted to sell it as a three-book deal. It was the first time he tried to sell books that I hadn’t written yet.
I gave him forty pages. My agent said, great, now just give me an outline of each of the three books. And I’m like HAHAHAHAHAHA as I see the taillights of the three-book contract dwindling in the distance. And he said, well, how about a paragraph for each book? And I said, Do I have to stick with what I write? And he said, No once we get the money, do whatever you like.
I love my agent.
So he made the deal and I launched into the three books, and now, finally, at the opening of the third book, I’m using the forty pages I submitted.
I often ask writers I meet—do you outline ahead of time? And most don’t. In an extremely unscientific poll on an e-list I’m on, I asked accomplished writers if they outlined ahead. After I sorted their answers, out of eight, only one described herself as an Outliner, though she referred to it as a plot skeleton. Four were middle-of-the-roaders—they had some kind of framework, even if it was notes written on a matchbook cover. Three were total plungers.
There are exceptions. I heard Bruce Coville say at a conference that since he began outlining, he has fewer unfinished books. And James Patterson apparently outlines his books and hands them to a stable of co-writers to complete.
For me—no outline. Yes, it’s messy. Yes, it requires a lot of revision. (Shrugs.)
Do you need to know how it all ends before you begin? I usually do, but not everyone agrees. E.L. Doctorow famously said of writing, “It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
Well, maybe. But you still have to have a destination in mind. I usually know where I’m going. I ju

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Young Writer Writes,
I recently started writing about a year ago. All my friends say i have really good ideas but I keep hitting a wall. I plan everything out but for some odd reason at like 35- 50 pages i run out of ideas....It is very frustrating... :/ Do you have any advice?

Dear YW,
This malady is common in writers, old and young, and it may happen for several different reasons. You may find my earlier post on Writer’s Block helpful.
If you run out of plot before your novel is of publishable length, you may be writing a short story. There may not be enough characters and conflict to warrant a novel-length work.
If you want to write a novel, you will need to introduce more conflict, characters, and subplots. New writers tend to be very linear in their thinking. This is the character, this is the problem, and this is what happens. It doesn’t take much space to deliver that kind of story. In writing a first draft, allow your mind the freedom to create connections and conflicts that you hadn’t anticipated or planned at the front end.
Play the “what-if” game. What if, in addition to being besieged by wizards at home, Raisa’s mother plans to marry her off as soon as she turns 16 to a suitor who might cause a civil war? Plus, the young soldier Raisa is in love with is ignoring her, and the ambitious prince of a neighboring country is threatening to invade?
What if Jack’s aunt actually turns out to be….
Consider yourself—your life is full of dramas, big and small. Consider your friends. They all have their own agendas, relationships, conflicts, and desires.
Layer those other conflicts and subplots onto your skeleton of story in order to flesh it out.
Here are some examples:
In addition to being the last of a guild of magical warriors being hunted by wizards to play in a magical tournament to the death, Jack’s girlfriend just broke up with him and the town bully is out to get him, and he doesn’t get along with the principal at the high school, and he doesn’t know if he’s going to make the soccer team. –The Warrior Heir
Not only is Seph a wizard who can’t control his powers, he’s been booted out of every school he’s attended, he’s an orphan who has recently lost his foster mother, and he’s responsible for the death of a friend. –The Wizard Heir
Madison Moss wants to be an artist, but there’s no money for college and her mother is flighty and irresponsible, leaving Madison to care for her younger siblings. A local coal company wants to force her off the mountain she loves. Plus Madison is thought to be a witch in her home town. –The Wizard Heir
More on this topic in my next post.

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As a writer, sometimes I get impatient with people who say, I want to write, but I can’t think of anything. I want to tell them to go home and take up scrapbooking. Or classical guitar.
Writing is more about craft than concept. If you’re a writer, stories are everywhere. You just have to recognize them when they bite you on the…um…toe.
Perhaps they are setting their standards too high.Imperfect stories can be compelling, too.
I like to take walks around my subdivision in the afternoons. It’s not exactly your colorful city neighborhood, peopled with diverse characters, exploding with gritty drama, but it has its moments.
Take yesterday, for example. As I walked between the manicured lawns, I saw two boys crouching on the devil strip, their attention focused on the ground. As I got closer, I saw they were corralling two half-grown chickens.
I said, just to be sure, “What are those?”
“Chickens,” one boy said, looking up over his shoulder and rolling his eyes. “This one’s a hen, that one’s a rooster.”
Chickens in the ‘burbs. “Oh,” I said. “What are they doing here?”
“Well,” the boy said, “Mostly eating, sleeping, and pooping.”
I guess that falls into the ‘ask a silly question’ category. But what I meant, was: What’s the story? Several possibilities had already popped into my head.
Later, I saw a young girl approaching me on a mini bike—a very small, motorized bike. She was gangly—almost too big for it, her long legs nearly dragging on the ground. If I had to guess, I’d say she was about eleven. She wore a camouflage shirt and pants, and what looked like a combat helmet, though maybe it was a stand-in for a bike helmet. Over her shoulder was slung a toy machine gun, the business end pointed at the sky. She buzzed past me and on up the street, a solemn, combat-weary expression on her freckled face.
There’s a story there, I’m sure of it. I just don’t know what it is.
But I can make up a dozen or more.

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Hey, it’s been a week or so since I last posted. How did the time slip by?

By my being completely immersed in a FANTASTIC writing course by Margie Lawson–Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist. If you’re a writer, or someone you care about is a writer, Margie’s courses are a wonderful gift and a great spur forward into better writing and editing.

Margie’s a psychologist, and she knows a LOT about what works in fiction, what doesn’t, and why, as well as body language. Her courses (and lecture packets) are PACKED with useful information, techniques, and examples from bestsellers. The courses take a big time commitment, with a LOT of info and assignments coming at you, so if you don’t have the time, pick up one of her packets. I think you’ll get a lot out of it.

Margie has all her courses available as lecture packets online for only $20 each. These courses are extensive, with more than 280 pages of information for each course, delving into very helpful editing techniques, body language info, and more. Or, if you’re lucky enough to take her online course (she only teaches those once a year) or even more lucky to see her in person, you’re in for a real treat! Her online courses are only $30–an incredible deal for the amount of information, wisdom, insight, and good feedback you get. I highly recommend her!

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Summer is here and the time is ripe for…
Author Events!

Hope to see you at one of the following events:

Northwest Akron Branch Library
Teen Writing Workshop
Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 3-5 p.m.
1720 Shatto Avenue, Akron, Ohio 44313
330-836-1081

Way Library, Perrysburg, OH
Teen Writing Workshop
Friday, June 26, 2009, 2 p.m.
101 E Indiana Ave
Perrysburg, OH 43551
419-874-3135

Wadsworth Public Library, Wadsworth, OH
Introductory Spellcasting--Writing and Publishing Young Adult Fantasy
Tuesday, July 7, 7 to 9 p.m.
132 Broad St., Wadsworth, OH 44281-1897
For more information, visit http://www.wadsworthlibrary.com/teens/index.cfm

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What can be better than a FREE Writers’ Conference? Free is often a helpful thing, especially for writers, who often don’t have much money. And when the FREE conference is an online writers’ conference, where there is no expense for traveling or where to stay, AND there’s the added bonus that publishers and agents will be on hand to take pitches from writers, it sounds pretty amazing.

It sounds like the conference is open to all writers (so that’s one thing that’s missing for me–I like children’s/YA specific writing conferences, or genre specific). But good writing is writing, and we can all learn from it.

The 2009 online conferrence will take place on October 12-18, 2009.

Registration for the conference is now open.

DEADLINE for registering is AUGUST 1, 2009.

For more information, check out www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com

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Did you read and enjoy Donald Maas book Writing the Breakout Novel? I did. So I was inerested to see that the blog Type M for Murder has an excerpt from Maas’ new book, The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great. The excerpt discusses the importance of secondary characters. Head on over to read the excerpt.

If you write, do you find secondary characters easy to make interesting and memorable? Or hard? Do your secondary characters start to take the spotlight?

If you read, what books have stood out to you that have secondary characters that aren’t flat?

I just finished Tamora Pierce’s Bloodhound, and I think her secondary characters work well.

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