Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

A couple of days ago, I was busily clearing out the weeds and grass that encroached on the kids’ sandbox in the backyard. “What are you doing?” asked my son.

I frowned at him in confusion. It was pretty obvious what I was doing—I had yard clothes on, ugly gloves, and was yanking up weeds by their roots. “I’m weeding around the sandbox. Then I’m thinking about putting flat pavers around it to help keep the grass and weeds out. I’m going to get some hanging baskets of flowers to put on the fence here, too.”

I kept working and he said, “Mom? Do you think Sister and I still need a sandbox?” He said it hesitantly like he didn’t really want to burst my bubble. I sat back on my heels. Oh! The 13 year old doesn’t need a sandbox. Why didn’t I realize this? “Well, but Sister does,” I said. “She’s just eight.”

“But for how long, Mom? Maybe you shouldn’t put too much time in it.” He looked sadly at me as if he were telling me the truth about Santa. Children grow up, Mom. Don’t turn the sandbox into a major landscaping project.

It got me thinking about my different manuscripts and the times I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Especially for the first couple of books, there were so many times where I was picking apart the grammar, spelling, the pace, the style, my voice—but didn’t look at whether the plot worked.

The Big Picture:

Is the plot logical?
Are there plot holes?
Is there enough conflict?
Is it boring?
Had I obviously manipulated the plot at any point?

Is the story good?

How do you alternate between looking at the big picture and the smaller ones?

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Please join me tomorrow when author Stephen D. Rogers will be guest posting on “Making a Long Story Short.”

Y’all have caught me at a bad time—I’m really feeling the need to do some spring cleaning (it’s very springy here now in North Carolina), but I’m smack dab up against a huge deadline. Actually, make that 2 deadlines.

So I have cleaning on the brain. :)

There are certain kinds of messes that drive me crazy. If the laundry or the dishes aren’t done, I’m not going to be able to focus on anything until I’ve started a load.

Paper? It can wait a little while. But when it becomes a smallish stack, it starts bothering me, too. Plus I won’t remember to take action on whatever is on the paper if I’ve got it covered up with something else.

The writers that I know all seem to have a paper entourage. Maybe paper realizes it has a safer haven with us.

So this, for what it’s worth, is my method for dealing with paper (and remembering the importance of whatever was on the slip to begin with):

Act on paper as soon as it comes into the house: RSVP, write the date on the calendar, pay the bill, write the check for the school yearbook, etc.

Write down all the information off the paper onto the calendar or another central location and then throw the piece of paper away.

Open the mail over the recycling bin.

My reminders go in at least one place—sometimes two. I’ve been known to lose my day planner. :)

My writing papers are gathered up at the end of each day and transcribed onto the computer.

I go as paper-free as possible. I unsubscribed myself from the junk mail people, I’ve opted for electronic bills and statements when possible, etc.

I keep only a few back issues of magazines. I can usually find the articles that interest me out of the magazines online when I need them.

Do you have a good clutter-management solution? Please share them with me! :)

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While I have housekeeping on the brain, here’s some quick blog housekeeping. I’m trying to keep updated—if you’re a Mystery Writing is Murder reader, your blog should be in my sidebar–are you there? Also, I’m open on Fridays for guest posts on the ‘writing process.’ I’m currently booking for April 30, May, and June. For more information, please check the post: http://tinyurl.com/ybm3s58

My children are both in Scouts. It’s been a great experience for them—they get to try new things and build self-confidence and self-reliance.

The only thing I dislike about it? The selling.

I’m sure the other parents out there know what I mean. In October, my son sells barbeque for his troop. And in January/February, my daughter sells Girl Scout cookies for hers.

And they have a mom who absolutely hates selling things.

This means that I end up buying whatever they’ve got to sell. Yes, I will buy $100 worth of BBQ and $100 worth of Girl Scout cookies just to keep from hovering anxiously behind my children as they sell door to door.

This, however, isn’t such a great idea for books. We’d go broke pretty fast if I had to buy every book I’ve got out, or coming out, on the market.

Tips for the Shy Seller:

Virtual promotion is designed for you. Make sure you’re professional about it. If you’re going to go on a blog tour, have a headshot, pithy bio, and a book description of various lengths (50 words, 100 words, etc.)
Try a variety of different approaches on your blog tour: interview your character, throw a contest, post on the writing craft, and do a straight-forward interview. Try to mix it up online if you’re going to lots of different sites.

You’ll need to have more of an online presence than someone who does lots of touring. A website is the bare minimum—also consider a blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

You need materials to mail out—bookmarks and postcards are best. Postcards can be sent to libraries and bookstores. Bookmarks can be left at libraries and bookstores (get their permission first).

Have a business card that speaks for you when someone asks what you’ve written. Practice a brief synopsis of your book that you can say in a confident way.

Promote in groups. I belong to a promotional group here in Charlotte that does signings and panels and workshops together. It helps me out tremendously.

If you’re part of a group, contribute to donations for raffled baskets for conferences. Many writing conferences raffle off baskets filled with donated books, bookmarks, etc. from different authors.

If you’re tour-challenged (a mother of small children, or have any mobility issues), consider an author appearance via Skype. They’re getting more popular and you may be more comfortable giving a talk while you’re in your own home.

Now if I can set up a virtual method of selling Scout stuff, I’ll be set… :)

My husband is a computer whiz. He does something so complicated at work that I don’t even understand it enough to explain it.

I’m pretty good on computers. I’m much better than many people, but I know only a tiny fraction of what my husband knows.

But I can open up a computer control panel and make changes. I pull up the run box and type commands and paths in. I know different things to type in at a C prompt. I can get into a system folder.

Basically, I know enough to completely destroy a computer…unintentionally.

I’ve always believed is that knowledge is power. So I read a lot online—different writing links, mainly.

But I’m good at writing, unlike computers. And I’m practiced at writing—I’ve been doing it for a while now. I take snippets of different writing approaches from one post and tips from another and I mull over my plot and run little experiments.

On Twitter, I tweet the posts I find interesting. I don’t add any opinions on the tweet, I just summarize the post and put the truncated link on there.

I’m not endorsing the approach in the link. In my mind, I’m saying, “Here it is. See what you think. Maybe it will help you.” If I see something I think is absolutely wrongheaded (pointing writers to a scam, or giving incorrect industry advice, etc.), I’d never tweet it.

I got a direct message on Twitter yesterday from a publisher regarding one of the tweets I’d sent.

She was concerned (and she was very polite in her exchange with me) that one of the articles I’d linked to could be troublesome.

The article covered book openings and gave tips for hooking readers (or agents and editors) in the first paragraph.

The publisher implied that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing. That there are writers who are not experienced and will take the advice too literally—and too far. They’ll take the tips one by one and stick them in their WIP until it’s a gimmicky mess. They’ll diligently follow a checklist…and it won’t work.

I did see her point. I’m sure she gets an incredible number of bad manuscripts dumped on her desk and probably a fair amount of it results from formulaic writing.

But—there has to be a mistake-making period for writers to learn. There has to be a period of time where we read up on techniques…and fail miserably while using them. There needs to be a learning curve.

I think the important thing is recognizing when we’re not ready to submit yet.

The dangers of a little knowledge:

Not adapting the advice to fit your writing style or WIP
Being too formulaic in our approach
Information overload (which sometimes results in paralysis)
Overconfidence

The dangers of too little knowledge:

Lack of growth.
Longer period of time to improve our writing (we’d be improving it on practice alone.)
Fewer ideas on handling problem areas of manuscripts

I still believe that the more we know, the better we get. But the publisher was right to inject a note of caution—take writing advice with a grain of salt. Adapt the ideas, don’t just follow them like a checklist. Trust our gut, practice, and know when we’re not ready to submit our work.

One day I might be a computer whiz, too. I’ll just have to mess up a whole lot of computers to get there.

I’m sure that everyone reading this blog has been affected in some way by the hobbled global economy.

Whether it’s a friend or family member who’s lost a job, benefit cutbacks due to employers’ economizing, or a difficult time selling a house—it’s likely hit home.

I’ve read about the different issues people have faced and shaken my head at the craziness.

Then our county started messing with the libraries.

Last week, out of the blue they decided to close 12 out of the 24 local libraries in our county.

Really? Really, now. There’s no waste anywhere else? No county commission lunches on the taxpayer dime? No little bits of foolishness that could be cut back? It’s come down to libraries?!

My own Matthews branch is one of the lucky 12 that will be left open..for now. But they’re talking about closing all the libraries this summer. And they were sneaky about this—I’d have spoken at the board meeting. I’d have taken on an email or letter writing campaign. It just boggles my mind. And Charlotte is a successful city.

I can easily drive to an open branch. In fact, I live close to the county line and can drive over to another county in ten minutes. But—how many people can do such a thing? How many kids won’t have books to read over the summer? How many adults who don’t have computers won’t be able to look for jobs at the library?

So I’ve now donated money to the library system and am on their email list of folks to call if they discover things might get worse. Usually I’m just wandering around in my own happy little creative haze…now I’ve been mobilized! This particular economic hardship has come up and bitten me in the rear.

It should be that way with our characters, too. They’ve had something major happen to them—if they haven’t,then where’s the conflict? How do they react to it—are they passive? Does the conflict happen to them? Are they victimized? Or are they empowered? Do they become stronger characters and find ways to fight back when the conflict hits home?

I have a guest at the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen today–fellow Midnight Ink writer Beth Groundwater will give us a delicious mixed drink recipe…and tell us how to put together a gift basket for a mystery loving friend.