Reading to write

I have seen a lot of advice lately about reading to improve your writing. I have also seen a lot of advice about reading books in the specific genre you want to write. I agree, but I've taken this advice a little farther.

I believe reading outside of my genre for specific elements and writing devices is also useful. For example: I have certain action scenes that require imagery involving guns and the mechanics of shooting guns. So, I picked up a couple Tom Clancy novels to see how he approaches these elements. I am not writing about covert operatives on top secret missions, but I can apply some of their expertise to my characters in my crime novel.

I plan on reading a few popular western novels to help me characterize a present day sheriff in my story. I don't have a romantic element (yet) but, if one arises, I will surely pick up at least one good romance novel for reference.

I hope that by reading and learning from experts in their specific genre's, I will be able to strengthen all the various elements in my story. As for the advice about reading to improve writing, I think this is very solid advice for developing your writing style and voice.

Read, read, and read some more. Write, write, and write better.

~t

Character names, Time to write, and story ideas

A while back I decided to take a sack lunch to work and write during my lunch break in my truck. As it turned out, the only adequate shade in "Small Town" Texas was in the local cemetery. No problem. It was peaceful, quiet, and I actually have relatives resting there.

There was an unexpected benefit I found in my new creative environment. Names, lots and lots of names.

Just glancing at the grave markers, I was bombarded with character names for my stories. I wasn't taking complete names directly from the markers, but combining first names here, last names there, last names for first names, and first names for last names to create unique character names.

I also realized that paying attention to the dates on the markers, you can determine what common names were for certain time periods.

In addition to the plethora of character names, I came up with two more story ideas based solely on some of the unique names.

~t

The dreaded "B" word: Backstory

Ok, after reading some very informative discussions the other day at Romance University about backstory, I realized I had a very important scene in my story that was going to be backstory. So, following some of the advice I read to eliminate backstory, I decided to make this scene the actual opening scene (where it's supposed to be, duh me. I thought).

As a result, I have a great opening scene that I wrote straight through start to finish without any notes or my beloved index cards I have been ranting about. In doing so, I also eliminated some dreaded backstory. I love it when a burst of raw writing shows up ad spits out about 400 words worth of story line.

All was good (so I thought) until I read: The Black Sheep of Fiction Writing at Pub Rants by guest blogger Carolyn Jewel . The cloud of confusion surrounding backstory was back. Have I improved my story by eliminating some backstory and creating a strong opening or have I just turned the backstory into a prologue? Hmmm...guess I'll have to figure it out later as the story develops.

I guess the lesson I'm taking away from this is, use backstory very carefully if you have to use it. Don't use it as a crutch or a substitute for creativity. If it is key to the story and moves it forward, use it. If it stops momentum and doesn't add value, don't use it.

Still wishing I could type,

~t

The Index Card saga continues....

When we last left our little wannabe writer, he had discovered a new and mysterious template that could possibly be used as an indispensable writing tool. We join him once again after a few days, and some long nights, trying out the usefulness of his new discovery....

Ok, after a few days of test driving the Index Card app for google doc's, I must say I am finding it very useful. First I transferred about 19 hand written scene cards to this template and saved it to a folder in my google doc's along with a copy of the manuscript (in progress) itself. Now everything is in one spot that is easily accessible from anywhere.

Then I downloaded the template from google docs in .ppt format to my laptop. Opened and edited it with no problems using Open Office.org Impress. In an effort to become less dependant on Microsoft software, I don't use Power Point and cannot say if it works as well with that program. I guess that it should work just fine.

So now, once I get all of my scene card created, I can edit and arrange them as needed to line out my story. Then I can print them out by scene or chapter and start writing. Well, it all sounds good in theory. We shall see.

Did I mention this cuts down on using real paper index cards. Gotta save the trees (for firewood).

Join us next time as wannabe writer boy uses the index card template to create his character cards.

~t

Google Documents and index cards

 In an effort to organize and centrally locate all of my writing "paraphernalia", I've been using Google Documents as sort of my catch all for notes, copies of manuscripts, ideas, etc...Anyway, I came across this neat little index card template for Google Documents if anyone is interested:

http://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0AQ1tTk-hkwjdZGQ4bm45N21fMTI1ZDlxanZzY3A&mode=public

Or if anyone is all ready using it, I would love to hear what you think about it. I plan on transferring all of my real index cards to virtual ones to see if I can better manage my mess and maybe save a few trees along the way (trees are better suited as firewood to bar-be-que dead animals).

~t