What Does Woke Mean?

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Current News, Manuscript, Personal, Work In Progress (WIP)

Milan Bolden-Morris 2017 Prom Dress, honoring Trayvon Martin #black lives matter (from her twitter post)

My new WIP tackles the subject of death due to police violence. This is something that has been discussed often in our home. My hubs, who is black, has white skin, so do my kids, but my mother-in-law (God rest her soul) is Creole–African-American mixed with other races, and light skinned. Because of this, my in-law family is a variety of colors and cultures.

When there was an increase of violence in the media about cops shooting minorities, it hit home in our family. We had to have conversations with our kids about what this meant for our loved ones. We tried to educate them, hoping that they are woke. Not just about this subject, but about all the injustices.

Recently, I’ve heard several people ask; What does woke mean? My favorite answer comes from Shonda Rhimes, producer of Grey’s Anatomy/Scandal, in a video by Essence. She defines it as “The world is not a simple place. That everything is not all equal. That justice has not happened yet for everyone. And that there is a lot of work to be done.” There’s a whole video on the subject, which you can see the video here.

I personally think it’s about being aware and for those who have the privilege of being able to ignore the problems-that you don’t. These problems are everyone’s issue and if we plan on making this world a better place, we need to address them in whatever way we can. Whether that’s protesting, educating ignorant or racist people, or just standing up for the right thing. It’s my hope that one day that we’re all woke and we won’t need that word.

Plotting

13 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Manuscript, Plot, Work In Progress (WIP)

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For quite awhile, I’ve been plotting my next WIP. By nature, I’m a pantster, but my last finished manuscript was the first one I plotted out, and the first draft was less of a hot mess than the other ones. So, I’m trying to recreate it. Except, I can’t seem to get past the 66% mark. I’m using K.M. Weiland’s books, Creating Character Arcs, and 5 Secrets of Story Structure. They’re extremely helpful, but all I do is keep adding more detail to the same chapters. It was so bad on Friday that I cleaned my house and did several loads of laundry. My excuse was that it would allow my brain to free think. It didn’t work. So here I am today staring at my notes, and have I added anything? Nope.

5 Secrets of Story Structure by K.M. Weiland

What do you do to get past the plotting block?

Overactive Imagination

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Manuscript, Personal

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At the gym today, I found a flash drive in the parking lot, next to the door of my car. I picked it up, and turned it in, but on the way home, my writer brain wouldn’t shut up with all of the possibilities of what could be on it. Most of them were conspiracy theories that had to deal with death and mayhem. I even came up with the bare bones of a plot, which I might use down the road for a short story. It was a lot of fun, and a good reminder of why I love to write.

Lately, it hasn’t been so fun. Two weeks ago, due to a glitch I lost a hundred pages of edits, and then the next day, lost the whole darn manuscript. Needless, to say I was tad upset and depressed. It took several days of reconstructing it with old drafts, and in one case, a partial found on the C: drive. To stop this from happening again, I’ve taken precautions, and am looking at writing on Google Docs. But the whole situation zapped the joy out of it, but thanks to that flash drive, I’m back to loving it.

Writing Books

23 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Book Review, Characters, Conferences, Feedback, Manuscript

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After looking at my last post, I realized that I’m reading a lot of writing books. It must be the new year and the desire to write better. Except it might not be that as I’m always looking for ways to improve. My latest read is Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft Of Fiction: How To Write The Story Beneath The Surface.

The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by [Maass, Donald]

I had the pleasure of meeting him when I sat at his dinner table during my first writer’s conference. He’s a very nice man and I cold-pitched my first manuscript without realizing I had until he called me out on it. Needless to say I was embarrassed and elated after he requested fifty pages. Ultimately, he passed on it, and rightly so, but his letter is one I’ve kept over the years because he was so honest with me about why he rejected my manuscript. Two paragraphs of all the things he did not like with one sentence of what he liked. Did I cry? You bet, but his remarks were accurate. Isn’t 20/20 hindsight awesome.

At the same conference, I also attended a workshop where he spoke about putting the fire in the fiction. It was helpful and insightful. Since then, I’ve always bought his books because I want his guidance still, even if it is only in the written form. His most recent one is about putting emotion in the story and I think anyone can benefit from it.

Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

“Great storytellers…make the emotional life of characters the focus rather than the sideshow. They make familiar emotions fresh and small feelings large.”

“True emotional engagement happens when a reader isn’t just enjoying a character’s patter, but when she cannot avoid self reflection, whether she’s aware of it happening or not.”

“Skillful authors play against expected feelings. They go down several emotional layers in order to bring up emotions that will catch readers by surprise.”

“What gets readers going are feelings that are fresh and unexpected.”

“The first is to report what characters are feeling so effectively that readers feel something too. This is inner mode, the telling of emotions….The second is to provoke in readers what characters may be feeling by implying their inner state through external action. This is outer mode, the showing of emotions….The third method is to cause readers to feel something that a story’s characters do not themselves feel. This is the other mode, an emotional dialogue between author and reader.”

Aren’t they wonderful? I’m sure if you read it, you’ll find even more helpful tips and writing exercises.

Objective Correlatives

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Characters, Manuscript, Work In Progress (WIP), Writing, Writing Resources, Writing Tip

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As usual, last week I went to visit my grandpa at the nursing home. They had a huge sign that warned the unit was sick with Gastroenteritis and to not visit unless absolutely necessary. I turned to go away, but one of the staff stopped me to ask me about something my grandpa received. Against my better judgement, I followed them onto the unit, solved the problem, and decided since I was already there to go ahead and visit my grandpa. Bad decision! I ended up sick for three days and passed it on to my six-year-old daughter, who was also ill for three days. Knock on wood, so far we’re the only two out of the family that came down with this horrible bug.

There are things you don’t want to share, like the nasty disease above and then there are things you do want to share. Cindy Baldwin’s blog is something I found that has been helpful while I’m plotting my next manuscript and that is something I want to share. She doesn’t write often, but she has several nuggets of helpful writing advice in between her personal stories. My favorite is the topic of objective correlatives. If you’re like me and clueless as to what that means, Cindy does an excellent job of explaining it in detail here. Basically, it’s a “grand-scale metaphor” that is throughout a story. The Phoenix in Harry Potter is an example–that I swiped from her post–and she explains it in detail if your curious about it. So, long story short, I’m trying to figure out how to get this into my next WIP.

Have you heard of this? If so, have you used it in your writing or have you read it in a novel?

*cover art original U.K. edition

Self-Publishing Teen

28 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Current News, Manuscript

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I read an article about a 16-year-old girl who self published her manuscript. I’m impressed for several reasons. First, it appears that she went about it in the right way–editing, a decent cover, and a knowledge of what she wanted to do with her writing career for now. It’s the last one that amazes me. There’s no way I would’ve had the self confidence to show another person what I’d written at that age, let alone self-publish it for the world to see. She says in the article that she didn’t want validation from someone else about its worth because she already knew that it was special. I think my mouth fell open when I read that because don’t most of us want validation about our work. This teenager seems to be special and I wonder what her parents did to help nourish that in her as I would love to replicate it in my own children.

Were you self-confident at the age of 16?

First Time Author Woes

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Manuscript, Writing, Writing Tip

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The other day a writer friend of mine told me that writer’s whose debut novels come out to critical claim and big advances always struggle with their sophomore novel. She cited several friends she knew and quoted them as saying that they wished their first book wasn’t such a hit because of all the pressure to repeat it. Marie Claire published an article by such an author who wrote a piece that reiterated my friend. So to my writer friends who are not published, yet, be careful what you wish for.

Here’s the article. *Be aware there is some cussing.

Likable Main Characters

19 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Main Character (MC), Manuscript, Writing, Writing Resources

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It’s hard to write main characters that are strong and likable. Agent Linda Epstein’s blog had a recent guest post who addressed this particular problem and it struck a chord with me. I’m sharing the part of the post that I liked down below. For the rest of the article, you can read it here. (Highlights are my own.)

“According to the Transitive Property of Reader-Character Relations, readers will echo the reactions of characters they already know and like and/or trust, and oppose the reactions of characters they don’t like or trust. Consider the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The Dursley family is shown to be amusingly small-minded and aggressively normal, so we readers enjoy feeling superior to them. But we also learn the Dursleys hate the Potter family for being so different, and since we dislike the Dursleys, we automatically like the Potters—a useful first step in making readers sympathize with Harry. Think about how your character math works as you introduce new figures into your book.

You can also use supporting characters to create more dimension in a character who thus far has had only one identity.

In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale. I feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my pace quickening. . . . The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile. . . .

“Hey, Catnip,” says Gale.

—The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

In the first six pages of The Hunger Games, we see that Katniss loves her family, but she’s not a particularly kind, enthusiastic, or pleasant person. Then she goes to meet Gale in the woods, and this happens: She relaxes. She smiles. She experiences pleasure in someone else’s presence, and Gale likes her as well, which confirms Katniss must have some warmth we haven’t seen yet. That affirms our own interest in her and maybe even warms it up to affection, and that makes us extremely invested in her when she volunteers for the games at the end of the chapter.

A corollary to the Transitive Property: Readers like characters who are liked by other people. They are suspicious of characters who aren’t liked by other people. If you’re writing premise-driven fiction, consider giving your protagonist friends right away, because the friends provide an instant affirmation of the worthiness of the reader’s interest in the protagonist. With that interest confirmed, you can get right on with the plot.”

Best Mother’s Day Gift

09 Monday May 2016

Posted by Rachael Dahl in Editing, Editor, Manuscript, Personal, Writing

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This week, I received feedback from an agent on a full manuscript submission. She shredded it mostly due to errors that if I was willing to have it professionally edited she’d take another look. The high note was she loved the premise! Yay for that. The letter hit me hard as I have two critique partners edit my manuscript and because I try to send out my best work. Always.

My wonderful hubs and I talked about it. We discussed that maybe I needed the extra help because I don’t know what mistakes I’m making and neither do my CP’s. But I knew the cost would be out of our normal budget and so I didn’t even ask if I should pursue that avenue. Imagine my surprise on Mother’s Day when he gave me money to get my manuscript edited. Yes, I cried and gave him a big hug and smooch. He’s so supportive and I feel lucky to have been married to him for the last eighteen years.

I hope all Mothers had a wonderful day yesterday.