Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

As writers, we spend a lot of time getting to know our characters and developing them. We learn how they’d react in different situations. We know people who remind us of our characters. We want to get to the point where we know instinctively how the character would respond to conflict.

But how much of this information do we actually need to share with our readers?

At the start of every school year, the parents at my children’s schools are requested to send a letter to their child’s teacher, telling about their child in a way that would help the teacher get some insights into working with him.

My middle school son’s letter is in a Word file. I sent almost exactly the same letter to his 8th grade teachers that I sent to his first grade teacher. I tweak it a little bit each year and send it off. He’s industrious, cheerful, smart, funny, popular. He tells me everything that’s on his mind (I don’t know how much longer that could last, since he’s now a teen.) Basically, he’s an open book.

I also have a letter for my daughter’s teacher in Word. Every year I open it up and squint at it—looking for ideas from the previous year. I spend a lot of time on my daughter’s letter each year, but most of the time I end up with, “She’s a mass of contradictions. She’s artistic and complex. I love her, but don’t understand what makes her tick. If you get any insights, please let me know!”

I think we need open book characters, such as my son. But then I think that enigmatic characters—inscrutable characters that the reader can’t quite figure out—can be entertaining, too. As a reader, I’ve enjoyed tons of characters who weren’t easily figured-out. Many times, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

I think that there still would need to be some consistency there, so the character wouldn’t be too frustrating for the reader. When I read inconsistent characters, I just wonder if the author even had a handle on the character.

Clues along the way are important. Clues to what motivates them, what makes particular conflicts difficult for them. I think the readers need to feel like they’re making progress in learning what makes them tick. It’s nice if there are small insights (rewards) for the reader to discover all along the way.

I think the majority of enigmatic characters that I’ve read have been secondary, or supporting characters. Writing an enigmatic protagonist would be a special challenge.

In your writing, do you have any characters who are difficult to figure out or understand? As a reader, do you enjoy reading enigmatic characters?

I’ve had a couple of writers email me lately, looking for help with crafting a query letter.

I’m always hesitant about offering help, myself, in that area. My agent queries never did get off the ground, although my query for Pretty is as Pretty Dies netted me at least one publisher. :)

To me, it’s just sort of a chore—eliminate unnecessary words, fit in the word count and genre, give an interesting summation of your plot, and tell a little about yourself. The idea is really just to tempt the agent or editor into asking for more.

I have, though, come across some really useful information lately that I think would help writers who are looking for some querying help.

There have been blog posts recently, stating that the best time of year to query an agent is January. So what better time to brush up your querying skills?

At the top of my list is a series Writer’s Digest editor Jane Friedman is running— “The Ultimate Guide to Novel Queries””: http://tinyurl.com/3ye2u3m

An agent with querying tips: http://dld.bz/8vQN

9 tips for querying: http://dld.bz/8vPW

An agent on what *not* to do during the query process: http://dld.bz/7xUm

Your Query Submission Checklist: http://dld.bz/7xTU

An Agent on Addressing Your Query: http://dld.bz/6tzv

Smart Querying for Unagented Writers: http://dld.bz/6mah

An agent on seeing the words “utterly original” in a query: http://dld.bz/3BK8

This Query Sucks (or how to fail and still succeed): http://dld.bz/zzaj

Elements of a query letter: http://dld.bz/yDEu

Good luck with your querying!

Twice in the last week, I’ve read posts by parents who want to write more, but have real obstacles in their way.

These lovable obstacles are their children. :)

As my children have gotten older, my approach has definitely changed.

And I want to say that squeezing writing in isn’t for everyone. It’s not particularly enjoyable to write that way. But it was something I felt really driven to do (before I was published), and then deadlines made it necessary after I was published.

For what it’s worth, here’s how I do it…and my children don’t seem too warped (yet) by my approach. And, yes, I was at home. Moms who work out of the home will have to scrunch their time in even more. Some ideas: write during your commute (using a voice recorder if you drive or use a pocket notebook if you’re on public transportation), write more on weekends, write really early in the morning, write late at night.

We’re talking about 10-30 minutes a day. You can write a book in just minutes a day—I promise. I’ve done it. It helps if you know what you’re going to write that day.

(This plan was built when my daughter was a baby—I didn’t write regularly when my son was that little.)

When I had an infant: Naptime was writing time. Was this relaxing for me? Probably not. :) Maybe I should have been napping or vacuuming or something, instead. But I was able to write then.

When I had a cruiser/young toddler: I put board books within her reach so that after naptime, she could “read” to herself for an extra 10 minutes. Yes, she ate the books half the time and threw them against the wall the other half—but I had those extra 10 minutes. So then I could do housework/rest and write.

When I had an older toddler: Well…there was Teletubbies or Sesame Street. I know what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about little ones and TV. But I haven’t yet noticed any permanent damage from the 20-25 minutes that she watched TV while I wrote.

When I had a preschooler: Some of those preschool hours were spent writing. Sometimes I’d do all my writing on preschool days, keeping the non-preschool days writing-free (and all about her.)

I also made little deals with my preschooler. If she would give me 25 minutes with no interruptions, then I’d play Old Maid with her (or any game of her choice.) I’d set a timer and I’d keep my promise. I told her that she only needed to interrupt me if it was an emergency (and we talked a long time about what constituted an emergency. Spilled yogurt? Not an emergency. Feeling sick? That’s an emergency.)

School-age: This is where I am now. :) I plan my writing the day before (not an outline, but some bullet points as far as what I plan on writing.) I have notebooks in my car for dead time in the carpool line.

I’m flexible with my writing—but I’ll plan on writing early to make sure I get it in. Because sometimes life gets in the way of writing—I’ll get a bunch of phone calls or I need to get promo done, or the plumber needs to make a house call, or one of the children ends up sick. Instead of writing off the writing day, I’ll flip my schedule around so that I’m writing at night, instead.

A special note about the after-school hours and summer vacation: Playdates. Lots of playdates. If each child has a friend over, everything goes wonderfully. And I’m happy to take the children and their friends on activities. I’ve taken kids skating, bowling, swimming, and to free summer movies with my notebook and pencil and laptop in hand. Usually it goes really well and no one gets bored.

One thing that I’ve tried to do…and haven’t always accomplished, but have tried really hard to do…is to be fully present with my children when I’m with them and it’s not my writing time. I don’t think about my story when they’re talking to me. I don’t check my emails or look at my Facebook or Twitter if they’re telling me about something that happened at school, etc.

And it’s always my plan to get everything done while they’re at school. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s my goal.

As I mentioned, if you’re really missing writing and feel like you really need to write—this plan works well. If it makes you feel stressed out (and I had my days) or if squeezing in writing makes you dislike the writing, then don’t do it. Children get older and time frees up!

But if you’re frustrated by not being able to write or can’t see how to fit it in…give it a go.

Oh, and one more point—please set attainable goals. Maybe start out with 10 minutes of writing/brainstorming time each day. Then move up to a page a day (double-spaced). My personal writing goal was a page a day for a long time—a target I knew I could hit if I wrote a few minutes every morning and a few more minutes each evening.

What are your time management challenges and your tips for how to work around them?

Through the years, we’ve had a strange sort of holiday tradition where I put up a Christmas wreath on the door and Christmas candles in the windows and call the outdoor part of the decorating done—and the children ask for a Light Show Spectacular.

This has gone on for the last 10 years.  Each year, I’ve said, “We’re really not the outdoor lights sort of people.”  And each year the kids have grumbled under their breath.

This year, my 13 year old son called me on it.  “What does that mean?” he asked.  “ ‘Not the outdoor lights sort of people.’ ?”

It means that we’re the sort of people whose blood pressure goes up with tangled lights cords.  It means that we’re the sort of people who don’t have enough extension cords.  It means we’re the sort of people who worry about fire hazards.

But…this year I felt pressured into giving it a go.  And it was exactly the sort of disorganized headache I thought it would be:

I went to Walmart (a headache in itself)

I got ten boxes of lights

That wasn’t enough lights.

My son and I put net lights on the bushes. They tangled.

When we plugged them in, we’ found I’d gotten 2 different colors.

We discovered that we could only light the bushes on one side of the house.  I ran out and bought an extension cord at a hardware store.

I went back to Walmart and they were out of the kind of light we had most of.

I drove 30 minutes to another store. They were also out.

I decided to light only the bushes directly in front of the house.

I discovered that several of my usual decorating standbys, the Christmas candles, were broken.

The store I drove to didn’t have any left.

The second store I drove to had a different kind than the one I had.

I called the third store, across town.  They said they had them and I drove there…but the clerk had misunderstood. They didn’t have them.

I drove 35 minutes to another store that said they had them. They didn’t have enough of them—and they were way too expensive.  I bought them anyway.

They actually weren’t the right kind.

You can see why I told my children that we weren’t lights people.

For me, research is like lights.  I go to many different places, looking for a very specific, particular thing.  Sometimes I can’t find it, sometimes I think I’ve found the right information, but it’s actually not what I need.

And—it’s time-consuming.  And frustrating.

This is why, if at all possible, I put off research until after I’ve written my story.  I’ll put notes to myself in my margins in Word’s Track Changes that I need procedural information, etc.  Then I’ll rewrite those parts in the second draft.

I also have tried to find as many primary sources as possible.  Sort of like one-stop shopping.   If I can call and ask a source directly, then just verify that information, it does save a lot of time.

I’ve got a new project to work on and it requires a good deal of research.  I think, though, if I research while I’m writing the mystery, then I’m going to get that crazy, stressed-out, time-consumed  feeling that I got from driving all over town looking for Christmas lights. 

I know, though, that a lot of writers have made peace with research and like to research while working on their book—and some genres, like the historical genre, it would be hard to piece together even a basic plot without research.

What’s your research technique?  Save it until the first draft is over?  Research as you go?  If you do research as you go, how do you quickly find the information you need—without getting distracted or going off on tangents? 

Somehow, upcoming releases seem a lot more real when you have a cover to go with them! I love this one. :) Thanks to the art department at Penguin’s Berkley Prime Crime. They did a fantastic job of depicting a typical Southern barbeque restaurant—minus the gun, of course!

This is the second book in the Memphis Barbeque series and its release date is set for June 7, 2011. I had a great time writing this book…particularly the final scenes, which take place at Graceland (Memphis, Tennessee). I had to contact the staff at Graceland several times to make sure I had my facts straight and they were always extremely helpful.

Murder once again strikes close to Lulu’s barbeque restaurant after a food critic is murdered—and his body is discovered by Lulu’s granddaughters. When friends are suspected of the crime, Lulu investigates to clear the names of the people she loves. http://tinyurl.com/2votpjh