Author Panel Gets to the Heart of What Makes a Good Book

On October 10 I attended a panel discussion by well-known Northwest authors. It was held at an indie bookstore and sponsored by the Women's National Book Association as part of National Reading Group Month. There were seven authors on the panel (Robert Dugoni, Kit Bakke, Erica Bauermeister, Kevin Desinger, Jonathan Evison, Robin Hobb, and Indu Sundaresan). Their writing covers the gamut, including literary, historical, fantasy and science fiction, thriller, suspense and middle grade/YA. The topic: what makes for a good 'bookclub' book? Book clubs are a major venue for booksellers, marketers and authors to focus on, as they have become a strong force in sales. And of course they are of personal interest to many readers.

The panel discussion quickly moved into authors' processes, as it became obvious that what makes for a good bookclub book is the same thing as what makes for a good book: one that changes the question from "what happens next" to " who am I?"  


Two points were made that stood out for me, because they spoke loudly to my own recent experiences in both writing my novel and doing final revisions (I have another two days worth of work, then I'm done!)

1. the authors agreed that at some point in the writing, usually about a third to half way through the book, the writing gets a lot easier because they start caring deeply about their character(s) in a way that drives the narrative forward. They care more about their characters than anything else at this point, and just want to do right by them, to give them a life that is worth living, and one that becomes, at the same time, separate from the author. It becomes the characters' story.

2.  the ending is not necessarily what you think it's going to be. As an author, you need to be open to letting the ending unfold as it needs to.

Both of these things are necessary to making a good book.

Before you protest that you don't write without first knowing the ending (I'm raising my hand), listen to this discussion among these authors: Someone said, "Have you ever noticed how many books you read that are great until you get to the ending, and you're thinking 'I hate that ending.' Everyone agreed. Then Bob Dugoni (thriller writer) mentioned that on his last novel, he got about 80% of the way through, knew he hadn't thought about the ending satisfactorily yet, and went back and read the whole manuscript over again. He got to the same point and got stuck again, so went back and read it all again. Only then did new thoughts begin to form for him so he could write the ending. Five of the other authors were nodding in agreement, and Jonathan Evison (literary), said something along the lines of "That makes sense to me. You have to be open at the end, because you have to accomplish the paradox: the ending has to be surprising, and at the same time, it has to be inevitable."

This was an important moment to me. It resonated so strongly with what I'd just been through in my revisions that I nearly jumped out of my seat. It sounded like a huge undertaking, to make sure the ending is both surprising and inevitable, but I realized that it might be a small thing that does that. It's all about the character. Whatever the structural ending of the book, how the character changes is the key to whether you get that surprising but inevitable, and therefore totally satisfying, ending. It is not necessarily what you think it's going to be, and not necessarily a big, sweeping change. You've given the character life. Instead of giving her the clever, but likely, next step at the end that might lead to future books for her, let her tell you who she's become. Let her accept all that's happened, and grow from somewhere deep, even if the change is more focused on the personal than on potential action. When it's that authentic, you can be sure that readers will find your ending compelling, and are likely to want more. Why? Because you've changed the question from "what happens next?" to "who am I?"


~ Linda 

Last Line Critiques...

For our readers, by our readers... 

We had many incredible last line entries for critique this week—Thank you all for participating—But it’s impossible to critique everyone’s last line in one setting, so I’ve randomly picked three. But Lorelei, Carrie, Kristen, and lbDiamond, I am saving yours and will post them in next month for review. Stay tuned.

Today, we would like all our readers to provide constructive critiques for our participants.

Below are three last lines from Anna, Elaine, and Allison. Thank you ladies for sharing your work. Next Friday, the Heather, Linda and I will provide our critiques.

Anna:

Set up: YA Contemporary. Ruby, 18, is a fangirl in a certain graphic novel fandom. She and a friend post an amateur video on their website that goes viral. Ruby has just watched the video (again) after learning the success of the film.

Last line: A shift has taken place and if I’m ready or not, that fan video represents the nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds that changed my life.

Elaine Lowe:

Ok, this is the last line of the first chapter of a book I've been struggling with one and off for 18 months, while finishing 3 other books.

It's 1888, Emelia has left her family home in Maui to start a bakery on the Big Island in the cowtown of Waimea. The first man she meets has charmed the socks off of her. (but it's complicated...)

last line of Chapter 1:

"Emelia had never thought she would be married. That a man would really choose to spend his life with her. There were so many other beautiful, exciting, exotic women in Hawaii. Felipe was all she could have asked for, and more than she ever expected."

Allison Duke:

I'll give it a shot. YA fantasy: Taniya works in the royal stables where her stepfather Daret is the master. Her mother is ill, so Taniya rides her mother's horse in the annual festival parade. Throughout the parade and festival, she is torn between worrying over her mother, drooling over the handsome prince, Kanar, and dreaming of one day being one of the King's mounted warriors.

Last line of chapter one:

As Taniya made her way back to the pavilion that had been set up for the horses, Daret’s groom came running toward her. “Taniya!” he cried. “Come quick. A messenger came for you and Daret. Your mother is worse, and she needs you!”

Thanks to our readers for your participation. 

XOX Karlene

Spreading Yourself Too Thin

There is so much more to writing than actually writing, that the extra things can become too much of a distraction at times. Between platform building, social media, and marketing your novel, the most important part~the writing~can sometimes be shoved to the side. If any of you have followed the journey of the self-published, self-made millionaire, Amanda Hocking, then you know despite her achievements on her own, she signed with a major publisher. If I ever find myself in her position I'm not sure I'd make the same decision she did, but I understand why she made it.

Even after you've built a great platform, there is a lot of work that remains to be done. Marketing is a never ending monster that must be fed, and that's even with a traditional publisher. Somehow you have to find the balance between all the things associated with being an author, and writing your novels. There are times we all spread ourselves too thin, get caught up in the excitement and going on's of social media, and inadvertently put our writing aside.

It's vital that writing remain the most important ingredient in being an author. That may mean less frequent blog posts, less Twitter or Facebook time, and more dedicated writing time. You don't have to give up any of those things, just use them in moderation and be sure you write more often than you do social media. The balance will tip from time to time and that's okay. Just try to be aware of it and make sure you tip it back to writing. Speaking of tipping, what tips do you have to achieve balance in your own writing lives?

~Heather

Last Lines, and The Versatile Blogger Award

Today I  finally have the chance to properly thank the Lovely Lady Gwen, who awarded us the Versatile Blogger Award a few weeks ago. Thank you so much, Gwen! Click on the green Versatile Blogger Award box on our right sidebar to be whisked to Gwen's blog, where you can read amusing anecdotes about her adventures and mishaps with writing YA and with running, her two passions.

The rules of the Versatile Blogger Award are:

Thank the person who gave it to you and link back to them.
Share seven things about yourself.
Pass the award along to other, recently discovered blogs and let them know about it.

As the responder for CSC on this one, I am about to complete all that, but first, a break to bring you an important announcement and request:


Check out Karlene's blog post from Friday (just scroll down) announcing October's critique session here on CSC. Send us the last sentence of one of your favorite chapters via the comments box on that post, and let us talk about how it affects us and what we think it does for your forward momentum in your manuscript. It's fun and painless to play, HONEST! If you'd like to see how we roll here on CSC with critiques, go back to the First Sentence Critiques from August (August 24 Blog Post), and the First Paragraph Critiques from September (September 19 Blog Post). Thank you!


Now back to the Versatile Blogger Award and moi! I just love talking about myself! So here are seven things about me:
~ I spent years in the advertising world (aka the salt mines) in New York
~ Before that I spent other years in the pharmaceutical industry in New York
~ I have an educational background in consumer economics and health care policy
~ I have lived in Idaho, upstate New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, New York City, London, St. Louis, and Seattle
~ I love cats, and am afraid that someday, in my dotage, I will be the neighborhood cat lady, with stacks of old newspapers in the hallway and lounging cats strewn here and strewn there over my belongings
~ I am, however, currently catless for the first time in 21 years, as my last old kitty has recently gone to kitty heaven, leaving me quite bereaved
~ Which leads me to writing, always my savior in times of sadness. Also my pleasure in times of joy.

And now, here are some wonderful bloggers I've recently discovered:

Kristen Lamb, at Kristen Lamb's Blog

Juliet Greenwood, at Juliet Greenwood Author 

Nicole Basaraba, at Uni-Verse-City

Gunnar, at Mysteries and Histories

Dawnall, at Write On

Congratulations to each of you. I am so glad that I've found you and am enjoying reading your blogs and expanding my knowledge through you. Thank you!

~Linda

Last Line of the Chapter Critiques

Critique Time Again

The Month of October we’re going to be critiquing the last sentence of a chapter.

What makes an excellent last sentence of a chapter? Like a last sentence of a paragraph, it must leave a question that the reader feels compelled to have answered. It must entice the reader to read the next paragraph, turn the page, and begin the next chapter.

What makes a book a page-turner?

Answer: The last line.

While it's important throughout your work to craft each line so that it pulls the reader to the next paragraph, there is nothing more powerful than a last line of a chapter that leaves the reader longing to find out what happens next. More than a want, it’s a need. It becomes a necessity to turn that page to the next chapter and read more.

As Linda mentioned last month, “we are all so close to our own writing it's hard to be objective, no matter how good we are at offering critiques to others. Getting insightful perspectives from experienced outside readers is invaluable, and that's what we hope to provide you here.”

Please tell us a little about the story. The situation. Then share your last line. I’ll go first with a book I’m reading.

WINGS A Novel of World War II FlyGirls  by Karl Friedrich. 

Eighteen-year-old Sally escapes the abuse of her alcoholic father. She’s flying an open-air fabric-wing bi-plane with the two loves of her life—her soul mate and his plane. They have just crashed.

“She lay on the ground and watched the flames consume the cockpits. And she screamed and screamed, as all that she loved vanished forever from the universe.”

I was hooked. Pull me to chapter two. I want to find out what happens to Sally now that her world has been destroyed. What will she do? Where will she go? How will she survive? Will she ever fly again? I'm hooked and want to learn more.

Now your turn. Please post your sentence below.

If necessary we’ll use Random.org to randomly select three of the entries, and next Friday I’ll post them here, and we'll open the comments up for constructive feedback. The ensuing Friday I'll post the same sentences with feedback from each critique sister.

Thank you for participating.  And remember...

Enjoy the journey.

XOX Karlene

Fall Events and Awards

Leaves have turned an array of reds, browns, and yellows, the air is crisp with the promise of chilly weather, and the mornings are eerily quiet as the kids are all nestled in their classrooms. Don't you just love fall? Everything about it is conducive to a writing atmosphere. It makes me want to sit down with a cup of hot tea at my computer and get in touch with my characters. Which I'll be doing as soon as I'm done chatting with you fine peeps.

To add to the writing spirit of fall, NaNoWriMo is approaching! If you aren't sure what that is you've got to check this link out. It is a massive organization of writers who have come together to dedicate an entire month to writing without guilt. The acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month and they mean it. Many people who participate actually complete 50,000 words, which for many middle grade and young adult authors, can be an entire novel. You're allowed to outline but you can't start before November and you can't go back and edit until the end of the month. It is a fun exercise in writing freedom that I highly recommend if you've never done it.

Me, I don't like to rush so I won't be participating but I'll be cheering on all my friends who are. In other writing news I'd love to thank Tina Moss for passing this award on to the Critique Sisters. We are honored and of course wish to share the cake with others so I'd love to pass it along to three of our new sweet blogger followers:

Angela Orlowski-Peart

Brenda Sills

Tara

~Heather

NaNoWriMo—Help!

To all of you who have done NaNoWriMo in the past, or have thought about it seriously, I'm sending heartfelt pleadings for insights. I'd love to participate, have wanted to since I first heard about it, but always seem to be in the middle of a project at the beginning of November. This year I might have a shot at putting everything else aside for the month of November and getting into the game. Since there is a whole month, almost, until the opening bell rings, it seems like the perfect time to ask if all you experienced and knowledgeable folks out there would be willing to share what you've learned about what works best for you :-)

I do realize it is different for different types of writers. I've heard, for example, two starkly different approaches to previous NaNoWriMos. One, from a dedicated outliner, was that the best way by far is to do a detailed, scene-by-scene outline of the entire book you want to write before November, so that you know the story inside out. Then, you will never have writer's block in the process, and will be able to easily assess the worthiness of any unexpected ideas that might crop up along the way about character or plot development. This writer's objective is to actually write a whole, finished, quality first draft of a novel during NaNoWriMo.

The other approach came from someone who's never met an outline he likes, and is more into the fun and excitement of the writing process. His idea is to pick a subject and a protagonist that are broadly defined and free flowing, so that you can just write about the protag getting into a particular situation or situations and let the reactions and dramas and characters develop from there. His objective is also to write something that can be turned into a fine first draft, maybe just not by the end of November.

I'm in awe of both of these approaches, but my gut is telling me my style is somewhere in between. Some outlining, some free flow.

What works for you? Do you get stuck in tangents if you don't know where you're going before you begin? Do you get stuck in the doldrums if it's all laid out ahead of time? Any insights from your experiences would be most appreciated! Thanks.

~ Linda