Keeping Your Book Fresh When You Aren't Writing

On deck right now:
--Six articles to write
--6-8 storyboard scripts to complete
--One freelance book proofing project to wrap up
--One gratis article about the recent flood

I'm not listing this out to be a look-at-how-busy-I-am whine, because I think most writers and creative types end up with a lot going on. But it's more to point out that there's one thing missing on this list. Do you see it? Yeah. My book. Where is that?

Like the half bag of lettuce that got stuck in the back of the produce drawer, it's wilting beneath the other projects. Good projects. Needed projects. Welcome projects, even. But my favorite thing to do is work on that book, and time has not been in abundance.

So how can I ensure my manuscript stays fresh? How can I keep my characters from, as Stephen King put it, "going stale" until I can dive back into their world?

I once heard a writer say in an interview that if the only time you spend with your characters is when you face the written page, then you don't know them well enough. So, in the midst of other writing demands, I'm trying spend some time with my characters.

How would they react to the traffic I'm sitting in?
If I had lunch with one of them, what would it be like? What would they order?
At this time of year, what kind of clothes would they be wearing? Where would they shop?
Would they have let that man cut in front of them?

All kinds of little things. Frankly, when I get far away from my work in progress I start to forget sub-plots and the sequence of clues and timelines and all those other really important things that you shouldn't lose track of. Fortunately, I've got those written down for reference. But it's the voices of the characters I don't want to lose. So I try to spend time some quality time with them in my head until I get to sit down with them once again.

What do you do to keep a project fresh when you can't get to it?

Herding Characters To and Fro

Straight out of college I worked as a staff editor for a small publishing company. We put out a bimonthly women's magazine, which usually had a short fiction feature. One thing I remember being a major pain in editing those stories was how an author (who was often just dipping her toe into fiction writing) felt the need to explain everything her character was doing.


For example:
Mary got up from the breakfast table, opened the front door, and walked down her sidewalk, admiring the new pansies. She reached her mailbox and opened it but found nothing but bills. She walked back up the sidewalk to her house....


Unless Mary met the love of her life on that sidewalk or encountered a dead body, it's not necessary to put all that information in there. Yes, there is a certain amount of setting that is needed to ground a character, but sometimes less is more. Often a few brushstrokes are all that is needed to convey an action. 


Example: Mary checked her mail. Bills, again.


I'm especially sensitive to this at the moment because I'm eyeball deep in editing my novel. To my horror, I'm guilty as well. For example, consider this passage where I'm trying to describe my main character entering an old library:


A plain wooden door with no handle was open. Ana walked through it into a small vestibule that had another glass door that she pushed through.


Frankly, that's pretty clunky and doesn't make a lot of sense. Trying again:


Ana pushed open the wooden door and found herself in a small vestibule.


Not terrific but certainly easier to read. The reason the first take was so convoluted was because I had an actual library in my head and envisioned how Ana would walk into it. But I need to be careful that I'm not insulting my reader. They know that to get into a room you have to walk into it. I don't have to spell that out for them every single time. 


I'm curious if other writers run into this also? What are your fixes?

If Snow White Wrote a To Do List (or Why Your Character Needs One, Too)

When I'm stuck in my writing, when a character has drifted into the doldrums, and when I'm not sure of anyone's motivation anymore, I find making my characters write a "To Do" list is a great prompt to get things back on track. Not only does it give me a course for what needs to happen next with the plot, it can also help flesh out the character as a whole. The fact that my heroine is out of tea bags might not need to be in the final novel, but I now have a greater sense of her character just by peeking at her list and seeing her preferences (she likes Tetley, for the record).

To Do lists are helpful for villains and secondary characters that have a tendency to become cliched or lifeless. They can reveal their motivations and ensure everyone in the manuscript has an agenda.

For example, let's look at the simple story of Snow White & the Seven Dwarves.

Snow White's To Do List:
-Disinfectant
-Laundry detergent
-Facial moisturizer
-Ensure I stay hidden from evil stepmom
-Continue kindness to strangers on my doorstep

Evil Queen's To Do List:
-Research poisons (apples viable option? check)
-Brush up on disguises
-Buy new mirror

Handsome Prince's To Do List:
-Give the horse a run
-Look for beautiful maidens to rescue (forest might be good? check)

I'll save you from each Dwarf's individual list, but you get the idea. Character To Do lists are especially helpful if I've just ended a big scene, or I've reached that dreaded spot where I have no idea where to go next. Just a little tip to help keep things rolling along. Happy writing!

Fixing Characters Who Cry (AKA The Tough Love Edit)

I'm about two-thirds of the way through my first big editing round on the first draft of my novel. At this point, I'm only interested in the bigger picture of if the plot holds together. Despite this plot-centric focus, though, something keeps cropping up that I can't ignore.

My main character cries. A lot.

Granted, if I were in her shoes I would cry a lot, too. It is a mystery I'm writing. She doesn't have an easy row to hoe, so to speak. But good grief, this woman is a waterworks. I went back and did a Find in Word on how many times the word "cry" appeared in the entire manuscript. I'm not going to confess to the number here.

The thing is, I would never describe my character as a weepy kind of gal. I consider her pretty resilient, all things considered. That, however, is the problem. Her resiliency still exists in my head; it never quite made it to the page. So while I'm going ahead with the plot edits, I'm flagging the script every time this gal falls apart. Sometimes I'll let her, but most of the time she's just going to have to take a deep breath and get on with it.

This little exercise, though, has heightened my awareness of other annoying character traits. My police sergeant sighs quite a bit. I meant to show that he was tired or frustrated, but it's coming off as exasperated. Flag, flag, flag, cut, cut, cut.

I also have several characters tapping pens, drumming fingers, and thumping a staccato beat on every piece of furniture that exists. That particular action was meant to convey that a character was thinking, mulling over, or sorting through clues mentally. There are better ways to show that, so I held a mini lottery. Only one character gets to drum his fingers against a desk, and he only gets to do it once.

I'm now on hyper alert for excessive shrugging, smiling, eyebrow raising, and chewing. We won't go into how many cups of tea are made. It is set in Scotland, after all, and it's cold there. My characters need their tea.

In the end, I hope this will make for a much stronger manuscript. Otherwise, you'll probably find me over here crying, sighing, and tapping my pen.