Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Okay, here’s the situation. I’ve just come back from a fun, but busy, weekend out of town. I returned to a bunch of laundry, suitcases to unpack, school forms to sign and return, a child with a nasty cold, a Monday morning doctor checkup…oh, and I pulled my neck somehow when unloading the car. Sigh. BUT–amazingly enough I was able to scrape together a page of my manuscript yesterday.

The reason yesterday’s writing was easy was because I already knew what I was going to write. I was actually in the middle of the denouement scene (no, I’m not done with the book. But I knew how I wanted it to end.). Because I knew where I was picking up and what was going to happen in the scene (I could see the action happening in my head), it made it much easier to write. I had a roadmap for writing that day.

Here’s one way I’ve found to easily hop into your writing with no delay on a day where you might not have time to figure out which scene you need to work on.

First of all, I have a folder in “My Documents” labeled with my book’s name. Inside that folder, I have many different saved documents. You can plan ahead the scenes you’ll need to write in the future. With a genre mystery (cozy, police procedural, etc), this is pretty easy. You know you need a scene where the first body is discovered. You know you need a scene where each of the 4 or 5 suspects is interviewed about their opportunity and possible motive (that’s 4 or 5 separate scenes right there). You know you need to plant clues and red herrings. You know you may need a scene where a second body is discovered. Possibly a scene where your protagonist is in danger and a scene where the killer is apprehended. You see what I mean.

I’ve already named and explored the character of each of my five suspects. So one day I created five separate Word documents. Each one had the name of my sleuth (Myrtle) and “interviews ________(suspect’s name).”

On a day where you just need to jump right into your manuscript and write it, having your book divided into its components makes it easy. You can even print out the document if you’re on the go and take it with you to scribble on while you’re out. You can write at the top of the page some notes for yourself on what you want to accomplish with the scene (“have suspect lie about their alibi” or “have suspect implicate another character”, etc.)

Later you can assemble your book into one manuscript by copy/pasting it in to approximately the right place. Once you print it and read it through, it’s easy to add scene transitions, segues, etc.

There was an interesting post at the Editorial Ass blog recently that you can read here:

Editorial Ass: how does a stay-at-home mom go about creating a platform?

Want to build a name for yourself (especially online) and make yourself and your manuscript more interesting to potential agents and editors? Moonrat explains how to go about getting some serious writing credibility, especially if you’re new to the game. 

Some of her recommendations: blog, submit stories to your local newspaper (then the state newspaper), write for online magazines (webzines), then to national magazines, become an expert on a subject and write about it.

There are lots of good ideas there.  And it sure beats “I’ve always loved reading and am so excited to have finally written my first book” on your query letter.

I love Agatha Christie stories for lots of reasons:  the familiar sleuths (Miss Marple , Tommy and Tuppence, Hercule Poirot), I love the coziness of the locations (the small village, the large country house), and…I love the chapter where Agatha Christie spent several paragraphs introducing each suspect.

The characters were all conveniently located in one place.  If you forgot who someone was, you could easily flip back and reference it. In many of Christie’s books, she even thoughtfully provided a cast of characters with the name and a brief explanation of their role in the novel. 

With too many books these days, I lose track of characters.  I’ve even gotten close to the end of a book, read a character name and gone “Who the heck is that?!”.  Either the author created too many people for me to keep up with, the characters’ names sound too much alike, or…let’s be honest…I’ve been interrupted so many times when reading that I can’t remember who’s who. 

I can’t help but think there are other readers like me out there–scatterbrained folks who love a good read but don’t want to keep up with too many names.  Maybe they’re moms or other busy people who just want to keep it simple.  I can usually read just 20 minutes at a time before I’m running up to take laundry out of the dryer, dashing out the door for a carpool, falling asleep after a long day, or hearing “the doctor will see you now.”

I’m making a conscious effort to limit the number of murder suspects for my books.  Five is really a good number–not so many that you lose track of them, but not so few that you don’t have any sense of surprise when the killer is revealed. 

I came across an interesting blog entry today, courtesy of the Renegade Writer Blog, that referenced ten common excuses for putting off writing. The author of the original piece is Gina Hiatt, Ph.D., president of Academic Writing Club and Academic Ladder. Here is Hiatt’s list of procrastinating thoughts and her rebuttals to them:

Thought: I need to warm up first by writing some email.

Rebuttal: You can warm up by starting the work slowly, making a list of what you will do, reading over your notes or writing from yesterday

Thought: I’m not in a good mood and I don’t write well when I’m not in a good mood – I’ll do it later when I feel better.

Rebuttal: Nothing will make you feel as good as getting something done. The main reason for your bad mood is that you don’t really want to do this task, so getting it out of the way will feel great.

Thought: Life is so hard – I can’t believe I have to do this unpleasant task. I’ll even it out by doing something more fun first.

Rebuttal: Yes, life is hard, and it’s terrible that you have to do this task. That’s why you will reward yourself after you do the task. Otherwise you’re applying backwards conditioning, which doesn’t work. And don’t forget to plan enough fun and relaxation time into your schedule.

Thought: I’ll definitely do it, in a minute or so.

Rebuttal: Set a timer, or that minute could last two hours. When the timer goes off, do the task. Even better, do it now!

Thought: After this bad thing is over in my life (midterms, meeting, in-law visit, etc.) my life will seem easier and I’ll be able to do my task on a daily basis. So I’ll wait until then.

Rebuttal: Life is always like this. You can afford to do 15 minutes of work today, can’t you? This is the one small act you can do to make your life a little better.

Thought: I just don’t feel like it.

Rebuttal: So what? Do it anyway! If you wait until you feel like it, the task will get done in 10 years if you’re lucky. They only way to make yourself feel like it is to get started and get into the flow of the work.

Thought: Why do just a little today – I’ll do double tomorrow – I work better when I feel pressure anyway.

Rebuttal: It’s a fallacy that you work better under pressure. It’s not true, because anxiety reduces creativity and clear thinking. And doing double the next day will backfire. You will feel less like doing it tomorrow because you’ve decided you must do double the work, and it will seem more overwhelming and less appealing, so you’re even more likely to put it off until the next day.

Thought: I can only work in one place (the library, a café, my office) and that place isn’t available or I can’t get there – so there’s no point in working at all.

Rebuttal: You’d be surprised how much work you can get done no matter where you are. Even if you don’t have your laptop with you, you can pull out a scrap of paper and write down a few notes on what you’d like to accomplish in the section you’ve been working on. Try it!

Thought: I’m not sure how to do this – I don’t know how sitting down and writing will enable me to do it — it’s just hopeless so why even start?

Rebuttal: If you’re not clear enough on what to do, writing may be the only way to get you out of this state. If you truly need help from someone else on this problem, you need to write down the questions clearly. The process of writing them down may clarify the issue for you.

Thought: I didn’t write well yesterday, so today will be terrible.

Rebuttal: Often bad writing days are followed by better ones. The reason to write daily is that your brain is still plugging away on it while you’re doing other things or sleeping. So you may surprise yourself today!

I agreed with Dr. Hiatt’s rebuttals and the “get it done” attitude. There’s no way you’re going to be on the same wavelength as your muse most days. It’s been just to make a date with your manuscript every day for at least a few minutes and put something on the page. You can always go back later and add some polish to your text.

At the Mysterious Matters blog , a mystery editor shed light on common reasons for manuscript rejection.  Apparently at their office, they keep a database of all the works they turn down.  On reviewing this database, this editor realized that there were certain words  used over and over again in their in-house comments on these rejected manuscripts.   Be sure to read the article, which explores each word in depth, but here is an overview:   Pretentious, derivative, self-indulgent, slow, forced, ho-hum, inane, depressing, amoral, dull.  

The ho-hum was a little disturbing to me.  The editor commented: 6. HO-HUM.  A ho-hum manuscript might actually be a good book if you were stranded on a deserted island with nothing to read but pulp fiction.  It has all the right elements but doesn’t manage to rise above the everyday formula.  Sadly, a competent, ho-hum  manuscript won’t make it in this cutthroat era.  If we can’t get excited about it, we’re not going to be able to get readers excited about it, either.

It just goes to show you really do have to go the extra mile with your manuscript.  Even if it’s good, it has to be great to pass an editor’s requirements these days.