New Beginnings

We're back Boise!

Your Novel Orchard is back and alive again on the web, with new and exciting plans for the near and distant future.

What are these changes? You're reading one of them right here (twice weekly blog posts from a different board member). You want more changes? Stick around, and we'll tell you as they're implemented. Keep an eye out, you'll be able to spot some of them very quickly.

Now, writers, why don't you tell us what you're beginning is? Have a new story, or an old one with a new start? Or just something about your writing you want to share? Take the opportunity, and tell us and your fellow writers!

Exposition: Experts do it without getting caught

When it is done wrong exposition is called ‘info dump,’ boring, slow. Yet exposition is a must have for writers. So what is it and how can we do it without getting caught? Exposition is how information is given to the reader. That information can include description, back story and clues. Since movies and television start out as writing, you can easily switch reader for audience. Exposition is a movie/show giving the audience needed information. Many of the following examples are video clips because they are immediate but I have a few book references as well. In Carolyn Wheat’s How To Write Killer Fiction, she describes poorly written exposition this way,

“It’s the scene where our detective sits over coffee with her best friend and bounces ideas about the murder around, only they both agree on absolutely everything and are really just committing exposition on one another. It’s the scene where the spy gets his orders from MI5 and just stands there as we readers try to absorb a huge chunk of geopolitical backstory that is essential for our understanding of later events but bores us silly.”

If your characters are sitting and talking then you are info dumping. But here is an example that works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCDm14AHe6g
In the clip from The Sentinel a police detective and his partner are discussing a case (exposition) but there is movement, Jim is cleaning his gun, and they keep it brief. It also works because Blair (the partner) is the NEWBIE (more on that in a minute) and it is natural that they would share this information.
At the end of all Harry Potter novels, Dumbledore acts as a fountain of information and tells us all the answers (exposition). Why do we still read it even though it is several pages of talking and not action? It explains what happens, proving us right or wrong and it has little bits of quirky humor or emotional impact.
So all exposition (to be successful) should do three things: Tell us important stuff, reveal character, and entertain.

How?
Couple of useful techniques.
Use an exposition character.
The most popular exposition character is the GEEK. Examples include Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Erckel from Family Matters, Cliff Claven from Cheers, Spock from Star Trek. These characters are over the top and the information they give, though purposely not always essential, reveal how other characters respond to the subject or to other characters. Of course Spock will give statistical data on the likelihood of success. It’s Spock.
Another exposition character is the NEWBIE. Examples include Daryl Hannah’s character in Steel Magnolias, Harry in the Harry Potter books (new to Hogwarts), Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in 10 Things I Hate About You. Lots of stories start with a change. New kid in school or town. A new job. This gives the opportunity to reveal information in a ‘tour guide mode’.
In the following Die Hard 2 clip, Bruce Willis is giving the cop who is about to tow his car information, aka exposition for the audience. It very quickly tells us where he is and why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjRsuSss5_k

Eavesdropping.
Either a character, and thus the reader, is witness to other people talking or reads information that is given to the reader. The trap here is that it shouldn’t be coincidental. Make the eavesdropper struggle, plot, and swindle to get the eavesdropping chance. Then make the information misleading or hurtful to the character. Let there be a consequence. My favorite example is Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy cut her at the dance.

Introducing Characters and All Their Luggage

When working with character description it is tempting to give the reader too much information. Less is more. Allow the reader to see what they want, to use their imagination. Use pre built stereotypes to build characters. If you know a character is a FBI agent you immediately think that he wears a non-descript suit, has short hair and is fairly smart. The reader doesn’t need to be told these things.
Examples: Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
Character description for Ranger – “Sometimes I moonlight for a guy named Ranger who’s extremely bad in an incredibly good way. He’s a security expert, and a bounty hunter, and he moves like smoke. Ranger is milk chocolate on the outside…a delicious, tempting, forbidden pleasure. And no one knows what’s on the inside. Ranger keeps his own counsel…Ranger doesn’t often smile. Mostly he thinks about smiling, and this was one of those thinking-smile times.” Without them being described we know that Ranger is muscular, has had a tough life and has a secret.
FBI Agent Jules Cassidy in Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooter’s Series. “On a scale of one to ten in cuteness, Jules was a four million. He could have gone on an audition for a boy band and been signed without even singing a note.”
We also learn about the person who is providing the description. In Jules’ case it is his partner Alyssa Locke who loves him like a brother. The description should and does sound totally different in other books when Jules’ boss Max is describing him. Ranger’s description tells us about Stephanie Plum. It tells us that she is intrigued and attracted to Ranger. That she has a thing for chocolate and maybe even envies his grace.
Writers should use visual clues to inner assumptions. As the writer we chose what the reader sees. Jeans and a leather bomber jacket and the reader thinks bad ass. Glasses and enduring dimple and the reader thinks cute geek, extra smart. Blonde and trashy and the reader thinks dumb as dirt.
The following is a clip from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. It introduces all characters by name, their position on the ship and their relationships with each other. It is also very cool because it is a single camera shot.


Exercise:
Step 1. Describe a person while people-watching. Take five minutes and don't worry about grammar, only you will see your work. Work on using both physical attributes as well as things you ‘assume’ based on what they are doing or wearing.
Step 2. Now write a scene where you introduce a character that was abused as a child and is now a spy for the government or has a grave secret. Stick to one page. Use the description you wrote earlier as the model. Try it in first person as well as in omnipotent narrator. How does the point of view change the description?

Transcendence

Peanut Satay sauce and coconut milk make some sense together. I say only some because Satay Sauce already has a fair bit of coconut milk. But what about adding some egg to the mix, a little bit more ginger, some chili paste, and cubes of bread?

Sounds crazy right? Not really. This is merely a modification of a basic bread pudding recipe. It'll be savory, and a bit spicy, and definitely not reminiscent of the European origins of a bread pudding. And I skipped the raisins. I hate raisins.

Did it come out any good? It's in the oven right now. I don't know if it's any good yet. I'll share if it's tasty though.

Now, why am I writing about my crazy adventures in food land? It's not because I have a masochistic tendency to invite criticism of what I think might taste good (usually though, it does). I'm writing about savory Thai bread pudding because it's relevant to writing.

To make this, I took just a few simple ingredients and combined them in a new and interesting way. I added a few other seasonings to taste, and stuck it in the oven. I don't know if it will be any good. I'm somewhat afraid of the outcome to be honest. But I tried it anyway. And I told someone else (you, you're reading this) about the experiment. And I'll make my husband eat it.

Why not do the same with your writing? Step out of the normal boundaries of what makes you comfortable. Push the envelope. Combine elements that aren't traditionally seen together, and force them to play nice. Hunter S. Thompson did it with creative non-fiction. Patrick Rothfuss did it with The Name of the Wind, combining fantasy with literary fiction (at least, from what I understand. I haven't read it yet.

This trend of combining, transcending, and flat-out ignoring rules of genre isn't one that's going to stop. Why not give it a try today. Something small. Something simple. 500 words?

The Death of Fini

Our guest blogger this month is Phil. He's joined The 500 challenge, and regularly posts his pursuit of the challenge over at Tin Can Goat. Keeping himself honest to the task, he always posts his word count at the end of his blogs (and, it's always at least 500 words).

It amazes me what memories or specific instances stay with a person throughout their life; for me it was receiving a failing grade on a ninth-grade creative writing project.

I don’t believe my English teacher should have written me a failing grade and I’ve spent a whole lot of time these past years crushing on it. It was over one hundred pages long. It was my pride and joy. It was a creative writing project. Yeah, that’s right, a creative writing project. For crap’s sake, how does one fail a fourteen year-old kid on a creative writing project and still sleep at night?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know I spent a lot of time imagining and typing that story. Yep, typing. I typed it all; cover, content, and credits. Although the word processor existed in some form or another at the time, I didn’t own one due to a lack of parental sponsorship and financing. My mother insisted that I craft my story the way God and Hemingway intended; on that mechanical claptrap the typewriter. What a disservice to writers everywhere that machine was. If you’ve never written anything on a typewriter you’re missing out. It’s an experience like no other.

The whole process of typewriting is contrived. It starts with inspiration and ends in pain—bruised finger pads, sore knuckles, and bloody nicks and cuts. Typing with the keys is tough, like pressing your fingers into sun-baked Play-Doh. The type bars often stick to each other, or against the type guide and ribbon vibrator, and the feed roller is a vile piece of engineering with the sole purpose of catching long sleeves and fingertips.

The machine never had a delete key, only a backspace, which, when pressed, slowly reversed the carriage across the body of the typewriter. Another classic and overused feature of the backspace key allowed the ability to repeatedly darken letters or words—the vintage method of accentuating text in bold. Overall, my favorite function of the backspace key was its support in corrections and rewrites.

Corrections and rewrites followed the exact process of the bold function, but expanded the process by requiring that I hold a—shiny on one side, rough on the other—white tape against the incorrect word or phrase on the paper and with my other hand, hunt-and-peck the same sequence of incorrect letters across the keytop. The corrective process was never pretty when complete; the paper dotted with flakey white letters, marking the pages in dirty, white cirrus clouds against a darkening sky.

In the ninth grade I started thinking I was classically cool. I was classically cool and I wanted to share my classic cool with the world. So after I typed the final sentence of my manuscript, I pulled the carriage return lever twice more across my chest, tapped the space bar twenty-four times to center the type guide on the platen and typed “++ FINI ++”. Oh yeah, classically cool; just like they do it in those fancy Penguin paperbacks.

I ripped the paper from the machine and like Stephen J. Cannell, tossed the page in the air so that it would rock itself—as a floating feather—onto the manuscript pile; unfortunately I missed.

I straightened the pages, stapled it three times along the spine, and sealed it with a kiss.

I couldn’t wait to turn this masterpiece in. I was going to be the teacher’s hero, her Hercules sent to save the literary world. She’d fall in love with my manuscript and I’d be published within months.

I was wrong.

I read her note more than a few times, still shaking my head at the red letters across the page, and wondering how she failed to see my genius. “You can’t write a story in which the main character is the narrator and have that character die at the end,” her note on the paper read.

I’ve beaten myself up a lot over the years thinking of how I am right and she is wrong. I have driven myself to tears over it.

I’ve fabricated paths to fame and how I’d push it right back in her face. I’ve thought about how I’d take my fame and write a story in which the main narrator did indeed die at the end of the story and the book would sell millions. There is no way she was going to have the last word on that. I might even make the narrator die twice so she’d really get the point.

So far it hasn’t happened.

I think every writer experience instances such as this and I believe we all react in the same loathing attitude when it happens—some of us more than others. We may blame the person we feel wronged us, we may hate them for mauling our baby, but it’s not worth it.

We need to step back from our writing and view it objectively like others do. Sure it’s precious infant and needs protected, but often we’re overprotective and blinded by our internal visions of glory and grandeur.

When it comes to my own writing, it lightens my heart to say that those who criticize don’t know what they’re talking about, but I know I’m just being overprotective. I’ve found that if I keep and re-read critiques weeks, months, or years later, that I do gain insight from the reviewer’s comments. More often than I want to admit, even the harshest critics have helped me grow as a writer.

I’d like to end with words of advice that will reverberate in the reader’s minds; such as, the teacher was vehemently wrong—and she is—but nothing is coming to mind. Instead I will leave you with a phrase my mom was quite fond of and has contributed to the person I am today: “I didn’t gain weight until you were born.”

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

[994]

Want to be a guest blogger? Contact us and let us know.

Apocolypse Now (And Later)

Good morning Good Morning Five Hundredians. Awkward on the tongue, that. I'll have to think of something better. In the meantime, this is Sam finally chiming in. Those of you who know me know that I'm usually pretty quiet. When I do finally speak up, I usually don't shut up for a while, I tend to ramble and go on a lot of tangents; I'll try to keep tangents to a minimum this morning. Those are better for afternoon posts anyway.

So, how is everyone's 500 doing? Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? I've been working on a story lately, that takes place well after "The End Of The World", how far after isn't really important. But thinking about after the end of the world, makes you start thinking about the end of the world. Would you survive? Would you thrive? Are you one of the crazy people who has a miniature model of the modern world stored in your basement (a year plus of food for ten people, weapons, generators, fuel for same, etc you know the type).

As I was falling asleep last night, this is what I was thinking about. Both for my own interest and as research I picked up a book on surviving the end of the world as we know it. I got to thinking, in that hazy place between wake and sleep, that I would challenge all of you Five Hundredites (still awkward, oh well) to write about the end of the world this week. Specifically, to write a series of notes or letters or journal entries left behind by someone after the collapse of society.

Farewell for now Five Hundredese (nope, not that one either).

The 500

The 500 is a challenge to all writers everywhere, initiated by Boise's Novel Orchard.

It's as simple as this: write 500 words a day, every day, for a year.

Why so simple? Writers need to write, and, while it seems an oxymoron, writers have a hard time with butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard. BNO has noticed that challenges help to alleviate this issue. So, use this to hold yourself accountable and force yourself to spend time with words every day. Work on your craft in small, manageable chunks.

What can you write? As far as BNO is concerned, everything goes. Starting with working on a novel or short story to non-fiction to blogging and even good old fashioned journaling. It doesn't matter what it is, just write it for 500 words every day.

What doesn't count? In a word: editing. Adding a bunch of new words to something well under revision isn't writing so much as it is editing. Adding new sections or scenes to something undergoing the revision process is, however, more writing than editing.

How do you hold yourself accountable? You can use your own blog, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or anything else that will hold yourself accountable. Announce it to friends and family that you're doing this - they'll ask about it. Whatever you do, don't keep it to yourself. Your friends will be pivotal in holding you accountable to your 500.