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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
When I read writing rules posts, they usually remind me of the old grammar rules.  You know, like: i before e, except after c…but there are exceptions.  

There are exceptions.  If we know the writing rules and just choose to ignore them, then we might well be doing something innovative.  Of course, if we don’t know the rules and break them, then we might well be in trouble.

But this post by James Scott Bell, entitled “The Three Rules for Writing a Novel,” was different.  In fact, he could really just have written a post called “The One Rule for Writing a Novel” and it would have been just as good because of the “rule” he listed first:

Don’t bore the reader. 

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

RULE # 1 – DON’T BORE THE READER

Can anyone disagree with that? Doesn’t it make sense that this should be emblazoned across the writer’s creative consciousness as the most foundational of all rules?

If you bore the reader, you don’t sell the book. Or, at least, if the reader does manage to make it to the end, you don’t sell your next book.

It’s a rule. In fact, it’s a law, just like gravity.

                **********

I’d hate it if readers skimmed through large portions of my book because it was boring.  I’d hate it even more if they didn’t finish the book or if they skipped buying my next book.

What makes a boring book?  Some of that answer is going to be subjective.  Or related to genre.  Or related to personal preference.  I think most of us would agree that a big backstory dump full of set-up information is going to be boring.  On the more subjective level, for me, I can be bored by really elegantly worded, descriptive passages.  I can be impressed by them—but ultimately disinterested. 
 
What’s boring? I think this is another one of those instances where it’s helpful to be very familiar with the genre we’re reading—what’s the pace of these books?  What’s normal for the genre?

In most stories…something has to happen.  That may sound really obvious, but there are plenty of books out there (and I’ve started reading a ton of them), where either nothing much happens, or nothing much happens in the first half of the book.

I’m currently writing a book that I’m very consciously working at not making boring.  It’s a country house murder—you know the set-up…remote location, cut off by weather, limited suspects, limited setting. 

It’s the kind of plot that could get boring if it’s not approached well. I brainstormed a list of ideas for keeping a fast pace and increasing the tension in the country house.  There are different ways to hook your reader or keep your reader hooked.  For me, my list ranged from minor irritants like losing electricity during the ice storm, to dead bodies.  :)  It’s basically just making the reader curious about what happens next.

Ingredients that can help spice up a story:

Tension
Conflict (internal and external)
Humor
Characters that pop on the page
Characters that are dynamic and change during the course of the story
Subplots
Complex antagonists
Romance/sex (depending on the story/genre)
Increased stakes and challenges for our characters
Protagonists that don’t take a backseat role in their own adventure
Setting  (If it’s really done right and when it’s almost serving as a character in the book.)

What can you add to the list?  What makes books interesting to you?  What are your favorite elements to add to your own books?

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The last few years, I’ve kept a very strict writing schedule—mostly because of the deadlines that I had from the two imprints I was working for, Penguin NAL/Obsidian and Penguin Berkley Prime Crime.

Some of the time the deadlines got really close to each other (which no one wanted—not me, my agent, nor my editors), but it just happened that way with the production schedules. 

Sometimes I had hurry-up-and-wait scenarios, sometimes I was editing a book with one series and drafting one for another and promoting something that had just released with one of the series. 

But it was all pretty much laid out for me—outline due to this editor by X date.  Manuscript due to that editor by X date.  Revisions back by X date. Pass pages approved by X date.

I’ve finished two books in late-spring/early summer that will come out in in February and July of next year. Now I’m working on a book that’s due in February and will release in 2014.  In between, I wrote a book for self-publishing, which I’ll put out in November.

After that—I’m not sure what I’ll have on my plate because I’ll be out of contract.  What usually happens is that the publishers like to look at sales of book 2 with the series to see if they want 2 or 3 more books after the 3rd book comes out.  With the Memphis Barbeque series, they watched sales on book 2 and 3 and decided to contract me to a 4th book. 

Hopefully, after February’s release, the numbers will be good and my editor for the quilting mysteries will ask for 2-3 more books to follow the one coming out in 2014…that would extend my work with Penguin into 2016 or 2017.

But that’s totally out of my hands.  If I try to plan for more Memphis books or more quilting mysteries…there’s just no point.  I could sketch out proposals for the next books (sometimes they’ll ask for that in the editorial meetings when they discuss extending the series with the publisher.)  But there’s no way I’m going to make the assumption the series will continue and write the next books….it’s not like I can just change the character names and use the books some other way.  The books are definitely branded to those series.

So…there’s no point in trying to figure out what’s going on in late 2013 and 2014.  Looking ahead, in that respect, does no good at all.  That’s like counting chickens before they hatch. 

But planning ahead for stuff we can control makes a lot of sense.  I’m eager to write more Myrtle Clover books.  Demand for the series is up, sales are going well, and I’m the one who ultimately decides the future of that series.  So my plans, post-February are for right now and unless I find out differently, to write two Myrtle Clover books from March—December 2013 and edit the 3rd quilting book for Penguin for its 2014 release.

Keeping busy by working on new projects is one of the best ways to survive the snail-like pace of the publishing schedule—whether you’re querying, waiting for revisions, or waiting for your book to release.  Not only does it keep your skills sharp and keep you busy, but it can result in more stories to query or self-publish.

Why I like coming up with my own production plan for the next year (although I know it might be subject to change):

Deadlines help me stay motivated.  I found with the self-pub book I just finished that it’s better if I apply a deadline for it like the ones I get from my publisher.

Seeing my plan in writing helps me approach the year in a more organized way—and I can even have a tentative budget in place for costs and possible earnings.

It gives me information/updates to post on my website.  I’ve been actually, pleasantly, surprised that readers actually do seem to want to know what I’m working on.  I noticed other writers putting their production schedules up on their websites and decided to give it a go.  I’ve had nice feedback on that and a decrease in the number of emails I’d gotten asking when there would be a release for one of the series.

If you’re interested in making your own production plan for the next year (or even a five-year plan…I’ll include that link, too), here are some great posts to help you think it through:

Dean Wesley Smith’s: Think Like A Publisher: Production and Scheduling

This is D.D. Scott’s (a successful self-pubbed author’s) production plan for this year: The Indie Epub Journey: Ebook Production Schedules 101

Another example of a production schedule, with the addition of a business plan, from author Denise Grover Swank:  A Business Plan for Self-Pubbed Authors.

Susan Kaye Quinn recommends we develop a five-year plan for our writing career in her post, The Incredible Lightness of Being Indie.

How are you approaching your writing and goals?  Have you ever considered a production plan?  Do you ever commit your goals to writing?  

Image: MorgueFile: mensatic

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Every time I read a great post on cliffhangers, I feel a little sorry that I don’t write too many of them.  It can make for a thrilling chapter ending, if the device isn’t overused. 

I don’t actually spend very much time thinking about my chapter breaks. I write the books straight through with no chapter breaks at all, then insert the breaks before I hand the book over to my editor.

My chapter breaks were inserted fairly haphazardly until a couple of readers  mentioned them….one in a review and one in an email. These folks wanted shorter chapters to accommodate their busy schedules and short amount of reading time.

Most of my chapters averaged 18 pages at the time that I got that reader feedback.  Not really feeling very strongly about chapter breaks one way or the other, I decided to accommodate the readers and write shorter chapters…I started inserting chapter breaks about every 10-12 pages.  I found that it did affect the pace of my books—it made the books read a bit faster….which is nice, for my genre.

What I generally do is look for a spot where there’s a good place for a break.  Occasionally, there’s a spot that’s perfect for a break because there’ll be a dead body discovered. :)  In that case, I rework the chapter breaks around that one to fit it in. 

One thing that I try not to do is to close a chapter at the point when my character turns in for the night.  I’d heard this wasn’t good because the reader would put the book down for the night, too.  So I’ll usually just put a scene break, not a chapter break, there.

Some areas make great spots to put chapter breaks in.  Every 10-12 pages, I look for interesting bits of dialogue (maybe the sleuth asks a suspect a leading question), someone making an announcement of some sort, a strong scene ending, a question the protagonist has posed or worried over, a moment of tension…and, sure, the typical cliffhanger moment: the moment the protagonist realizes someone is breaking into her house, the discovery of the dead body, the moment the killer confronts the sleuth…you know.

As a reader…yes, sometimes I do enjoy a good cliffhanger of a chapter ending.  If it’s used at the end of every chapter, then I feel like it’s totally contrived.  But sure—I love that moment where I decide that I just have to read the next chapter. 

And I ran across a nice post on cliffhangers on the Moody Writing blog by Mooderino:  Cliffhangers For Unscrupulous Writers.  :) It lists eleven types of cliffhangers to use.

Do you use cliffhangers often?  How long are your chapters or do they vary a lot in length?  Where are your favorite spots to insert chapter breaks?

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
The other night, I watched a mystery on television.  The actors were good, the puzzle itself was good,  and the setting—a boarding school— was interesting.

The problem that I absolutely couldn’t get past was that a horrible murder had occurred at this boarding school—and life at the school continued as usual, apart from the presence of the investigating officers.
As a parent, I’ve seen a phenomenon play out over the years, rightly or wrongly,  where parents descend on a school en masse to retrieve their kids….for just about any reason.

Ice storm predicted to commence?  They’re coming.  A teacher somewhere at the school suffered a fatal heart attack on the grounds?  They’re coming. Power outage in part of the school? They’re on their way.  Crazed murderer stalking students on campus….oh, they’re SO there.

But in this production, classes resumed as usual (where are the guidance counselors and the child psychologists?), giving the killer another shot at a murder a couple of days after the first one—which, of course, the killer took advantage of.

I understood why the screenwriters set it up that way—they couldn’t shut down the murderer.  The writers had an objective to accomplish. But once I fell into this plot hole, I couldn’t climb out of it…it bothered me that much.  It simply wasn’t realistic at all.

What probably would have worked well is if they’d written in a short scene with concerned parents at the school, and the school administration and police calming down everyone and insisting that the school was safe.  They needed to address the plot problem straight on.  If they didn’t want to write that scene, they could even have shot a short scene in the dean’s office where he’s frantically fussing over the number of phone calls and meetings he’s had with parents to persuade them to keep their children at the school.

I’m well-acquainted with plot holes.  Unfortunately, I sometimes write them into my own manuscripts.   In the last editorial letter I got from my editor for the quilting mysteries, my editor pointed out that my elderly sleuth’s daughter would surely be more interfering than she was…especially considering the circumstances I’d put the sleuth in.  She suggested an easy fix—temporarily distract the daughter by a huge task that she’s trying to undertake.   Easy enough.  The daughter wasn’t a cold-hearted person, but her lack of involvement came across to my editor that way.

The best way I’ve found to fix these issues is to address them head-on and early in the book.  We usually create these problems purely because of plot convenience.  Most of the time we can keep our set-up as long as we acknowledge the unbelievable part early and somehow offer an explanation.  It’s not hard to do and it can prevent us from losing a reader.

Do you ever run into these kinds of plot problems as a reader, viewer, or writer?

Photo: Señalética Patricia, Flickr