Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Somewhere in the Southeast I am being unusually low tech. And probably feeling a little anxious.

I’m on the Christmas tour—seeing friends and family before heading back home for the big day.

My cell phone? It’s broken. Verizon Wireless has ordered a part for it. I won’t be able to get this part until Christmas Eve. I have a feeling that the Verizon Wireless store is going to be nuts on Christmas Eve, but I will be there, broken cell phone in hand.

I hate phones. But I love texting. I’m much better with words than I am in conversation…and texting means that I’ve avoided having a phone conversation.

On my Christmas tour I will frequently be internet-free.

It’ll be an adjustment. :)

It’s amazing how quickly technology has become important to me. I still remember the old typewriter days (I typed papers in college, even.)

Writing can be low-tech. That’s the amazing thing about it. You can write on old notebooks or even receipts (I’ve done that when really desperate before.)

But high-tech stuff for writers is fun, too. My favorite tools for writing:

Google: I love Google. I may love Google too much—I can get distracted when researching something. Nowadays I just mark the spot in my manuscript that needs researching and keep on writing.

Check out the Google Guide. Here are some of the more-useful search tips (excerpted right from the guide):

salsa –dance
the word salsa but NOT the word dance (that’s a minus sign before the ‘dance.’)

castle ~glossary
glossaries about castles, as well as dictionaries, lists of terms, terminology

define:imbroglio
definitions of the word imbroglio (or whatever word you’re looking up) from the Web

site:
Search only one website or domain.
Halloween site:www.census.gov
(Search for information on Halloween gathered by the US Census Bureau.)

link:
Find linked pages, i.e., show pages that point to the URL.
link:warriorlibrarian.com
(Find pages that link to Warrior Librarian‘s website.)

phonebook:
Show all phonebook listings.
phonebook: Disney CA
(Search for Disney’s phone numbers in California – CA.)

info:
(or id:)
Find info about a page.
info:www.theonion.com
(Find information about The Onion website.)

related:
List web pages that are similar or related to the URL.
related:www.healthfinder.gov
(Find websites related to the Healthfinder website.)

intitle:
The terms must appear in the title of the page.
movies comedy intitle:top ten
(Search for pages with the words movie and comedy that include top ten in the title of the page.)

I also am a big Microsoft Word fan. Their word processing program beats the typewriter all to pieces.

Need some shortcuts to work through your manuscript quicker?

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Word:

CTRL N :quickly opens a new document (great for those times you want to jot down a note, but keep writing on your current scene.)

CTRL end :moves the cursor to the end of a document (when you suddenly want to change your ending)

CTRL home :moves the cursor to the beginning of a document (when you suddenly want to change your beginning.)

CTRL E :Center a paragraph

CTRL Z : Undo (I use that one a LOT.)

CTRL 2 : Double space lines
CTRL 1 : Single space

These are shortcuts that I find the most useful for me, but there are many more. If you’re interested, there’s a shortcut list for Word and one for Windows in general. If you’re on a Mac, their website lists some helpful shortcuts, too.

Do you go through technology withdrawal? Have any techie tips and tricks for us?

I’d promised my daughter I’d take her to the mall, one of her favorite places. I wonder sometimes if the stork brought me the wrong baby; she and I are so different.

I only intended to buy one or two things for the couple of people I had left on my Christmas list. But then…

It was all so…pretty… in the mall. The lights sparkled, it was cheerful and happy. Everyone was loaded down with bags. The mall played determinedly cheerful Christmas music. My bags multiplied. My daughter told me, “It was the glamour! Deadly glamour.”

It was a setting that meant business. The mall owners had gotten their setting perfect. You felt like spending money at South Park Mall. And the mall owners wouldn’t have it any other way.

Since I’m not a setting fanatic, I’ve always been interested in prêt-à-porter, ready to wear settings.

Anytime I tell my children a fairy tale and the characters go into the woods, there are certain expectations. Nothing good ever happens in the woods in fairy tales. We have witches with houses made of candy, wolves who eat grannies and children, and bears who dislike trespassers.

So that type of thing is fun and easy. Readers have certain expectations regarding dark basements in spooky houses, amusement parks, church sanctuaries, graveyards, etc.

It’s also fun and fairly easy to turn the expectations around.

The happy meadow in Bambi is also the ideal place for hunters to take clear aim at deer, for instance.

You can take your reader’s expectations about a setting and turn them upside down—introduce the element of danger to a safe place. A depressing setting (crack house?) could be the location for a life-changing epiphany for your protagonist.

Maybe the next time we go into the woods, things will be a little different there.

I’m always looking for something for my 7th grade son to read. He gobbles books up instead of savoring them. And—he’s a picky reader. He’ll read 30 pages and, if he isn’t grabbed, he’ll look for something else to read.

I was relieved to discover there was a popular fantasy series, Discworld. And that there were 37 of these books (which are extremely popular in the UK.)

I decided to pick up the first title at the library to make sure my son liked it before investing a lot of money in the series.

It took a little while to work through the library system, but I picked up a copy a couple of days ago, told him I’d heard rave reviews, stuck it in his backpack, and sent him off to middle school with it.

He came home and said (only half-jokingly), “Did you want me to be laughed at all day in school?”

The book’s cover? It was pink.

This wasn’t something I’d even noticed, of course. But it was—hot pink. That might not bother a secure guy in college…but a 12 year old boy?

Which made me wonder. Why would a publisher’s art department sign off on a cover that would turn-off one segment of readers automatically? Aren’t many fantasy readers young men?

Looking online, I found other editions of the first title in the series in non-pink colors. :) I’m planning on getting one.

Authors don’t really have a say in their covers. I’ve felt really appreciative when I was asked my opinion on my last couple of covers. It’s a nice courtesy. And, fortunately, they were great.

No, we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But do we? Are we influenced as buyers and library patrons by book covers? If we see a really standout cover, is there something inside us that assumes the story must be just as good?

And, Discworld fans—don’t worry. I know how awesome that series is supposed to be. He’ll try the book again.

Wednesday afternoon, my daughter finished her math homework, started her spelling, then completely lost her focus. I decided she could take a one hour play break (she’s only eight) before picking it back up again.

Halfway through her allotted hour of play, she came downstairs. “I decided to reorganize my bookcase, instead.” I’m thinking that she must be Type A like me.

Since I’d just that afternoon done housework for an hour to clear my head, I totally understood. When her hour was up, she completed her spelling happily and then worked on memorizing her multiplication tables.

Her room? It was a disaster. Half of her bookcase was stacked neatly by size and half of it was on the floor of her room.

The same thing happens for me when I try cleaning out a closet. It always looks worse before it looks better.

First drafts? They’re like that for me, too. They’re disasters. I have Post-It notes all over the house and car with bits of ideas on them.

I have 15 or 20 different Word files in my WIPs folder. They’ll have random ideas, character names, plot sketches, and what-if scenarios on them.

I also have out of order chapters that I wrote when I couldn’t move in a linear fashion through my first draft.

It’s a mess.

Then it gets even worse.

Then, with the second draft, it’s finally better—both aesthetically and content-wise.

I put in chapter breaks. I don’t do that when I write a first draft.

I do “find” search for any asterisks. *** marks spots where I couldn’t think of the appropriate word, needed to research a particular point, or felt like I’d written something that needed a rewrite later.

I put a header on each page with my name, the project name, and the word count. It looks official then and a bit more professional. It freaks me out when I do it for a first draft, though.

I review all my random ideas from the Post-It notes and Word files. Which ones didn’t I incorporate? Why didn’t I? Are they any good? If they are, I’ll work them in. If they work better than the current text, I’ll delete the old and paste in the new.

I look at the big picture. Did I tie up loose ends? Can I sum the plot up in a couple of sentences? Does the story itself make sense?

I work on some no-brainer edits. I look at “to be” verbs (is, are, was, etc.) and slash most of them. I look for modifiers like “very” and “really” and “almost.” I look for my favorite words “just” and “sighed.” I look for “thats.” I remove many of them.

Then I’m ready for the serious revising: looking at individual scenes. Reading each page through a dozen or more times.

I can handle the serious revising because it looks better already. It’s the point when you’re still cleaning out the closet…but you’ve gone ahead and taken a load of old clothes to the Good Will. You’ve gotten some of the clutter out of the way and can move on with the project.

It’s Thursday! Pop over to the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen if you’d like a piece of cranberry cake. I’m Riley there.

I think that mystery writers must have a very carefully suppressed criminal mind.

Apparently I look like a really innocuous person. Plus, maybe, a little foggy. I’ve ordinarily got my mind on other things as I’m wandering around.

I’m amazed at the number of times a stranger will get me to hold something for them or watch something for them while they hurry off to do something else. “Do you mind standing here with the car while I load it?” And their car is running while they run in the store to get whatever heavy item it is. And I think, “Wow. I could just drive right off with this car.” (I also wonder what the heck I’m supposed to do if a bad guy does come up to the car. It’s not like I’m armed or anything. I’d probably just let them take the thing.)

The number of open cash tills I’ve witnessed while clerks find managers to help them with a register problem is truly amazing. I could just reach in, grab wads of cash, and walk right out the store door.

My husband’s car hates me. His car alarm went off while I was driving. A policeman pulled me over, came to my window and then lazily said, “You certainly don’t look like a car thief to me. Do you know how to disable that alarm, ma’am? It’s distracting for other drivers. Do you have your manual with you?” I could have been driving a stolen car.

One set of denim-clad legs looks very much like another when you’re two years old. I was at Target some months ago, hurrying out the door, through the parking lot, clutching a bunch of shopping bags. I was loading up the trunk area of the mini van when I felt a set of arms go around my leg. I was horrified, as was the toddler who’d followed me out the Target, to my car. “We’ve got to find your Mommy!” I said, looking for whoever at the Target looked like she might be having a heart attack. All I needed for my Wednesday morning was to be locked away as a kidnapper.

As I swung around, there was a panicky mom just coming out of the Target. She saw me and relaxed, then hurried over. She said, “I’m so sorry! I guess she just thought you were me.”

I could have been a kidnapper. I could have been a really horrible person.

But I’m not. But I concoct really horrible people… easily. That’s because I can see the dark side of any situation and I’m always thinking ahead to the next mystery.

And now I’m thinking that I need to create a bad guy who looks and acts like me. :) She’ll completely escape detection.

I’m not sure how many other people go about their day thinking about possible criminal activities or motives for murder. I have a feeling that I’m in the minority among regular non-criminal citizens.

Do you find, as a writer, that you look at the world in a different way? How?