Category: writing

Categories
inspiring writing

My Interview with K. M. Weiland

K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the award-winning and internationally-published author of Outlining Your Novel, Structuring Your Novel, and Creating Character Arcs. A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and speculative fiction and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

K. M. Weiland answered five questions for me. Here they are:

1. You have written both nonfiction and fiction. Does your success with nonfiction books like Outlining your Novel and Structuring Your Novel help you as a fiction writer? Does it carry some cons, too?

Definitely helps. My teachings on writing have all grown out of my own journey of developing and deepening my technique for writing my own novels. Writing articles and books about those techniques has forced me to solidify my understanding of concepts in ways I doubt I would have done without the opportunity of teaching others. If it creates any cons, it’s probably just the pressure of trying to live up to my advice!

2. How do you balance personal life with your consistent social media presence  and writing? Let me elaborate. Social media and writing are addicting. (especially for moms like me–I have three little ones at home), how do you compartmentalize your life?

I am adamant about not allowing technology—specifically, the Internet—to rule my life. It’s a necessary, and often wonderful tool, but it can easily become a harsh master. Still, that’s easier said than done.

I start by scheduling the time I spend reading or communicating on social media. Then two particular tricks I use to control how much I’m on the Internet are:

  • I turn the Internet off at night and leave it off throughout the morning, which is my writing time.
  • I keep my phone in a different room and turn it off when I’m trying to concentrate.

3. What about writing do you find as most challenging?

Uh, everything? 🙂 But, seriously, a major Achilles’ heel I continually struggle with is creating authentic antagonistic motivations. Since this is what drives the conflict and the plot, it can cause me no end of trouble. I’ve gotten much better at it, but feel like I have a long way to go.

4. In your experience, what’s the most common mistake new authors make?

I hesitate to call it a mistake, since I think it’s something we all have to learn as we go, but I’d say not recognizing that sound story structure is what makes a story run—especially when you use it to not just construct your plot, but to harmonize character arcs and theme.

5. What’s the coolest thing about calling Nebraska a home? 🙂

I’m actually in Missouri right now. But I miss the West a lot. Right now, what I miss the most, is probably the summers with no humidity. 🙂

K.M. WEILAND
Historical & Speculative Novelist | Helping Writers Become Authors http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com | http://www.kmweiland.com

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Categories
non-fiction Opinion writing

When Fireworks Light the Sky

At the #10mincon, word got around that fireworks will light the sky if the Reds win the game. But when the fireworks crackled over the John A Roeblin Suspension Bridge, we were no longer sure if Reds won the game or not. We certainly had won. That was clear.

For greater part of my life, I remained away from Facebook. Because the people I loved were right in front of my eyes. In 2015, I violated my cardinal rule and joined Facebook with solitary intention of meeting fellow writers like me, better writers than me.

And, here I was. The year was 2018.

Irony called my life happened.

While three of my books collected electronic dust itching to smell paper of a bound book, I attended my very first writers conference, #10mincon, organized by a Facebook group called #10minutenovelists (founded by Katherine Grubb)  🙂

That morning, I kissed goodbyes to my little ones, and off I went on vacation (from all the joys of parenthood) to Covington, KY. It was a happy journey clouded by a nightmare from the night before where I was unable to hand out business cards to a single person in the entire conference. Studded amidst the rolling green hills, appeared Cincinnati, Ohio separated from Kentucky by Ohio River. I bridged the distance from Ohio to Kentucky in a minute to arrive at the Embassy Suites hotel.

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What followed was unprecedented. I met people who were just like me, eager to mingle and eager to share their knowledge. But I did not know that when I arrived.

When I first entered the room, I carried in me a lonely heart of a mother who missed the laughter of her little ones and stared at the countless heads of strangers from the back of the room. I found an empty row when Pam Humphrey and Glenda Thompson signaled me to join them instead.

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With Glenda and Pam

The lectures that followed from Katherine Grubb, James Scott Bell, Donald Maass, and Janice Hardy require thought and many more blogs to capture. It was intense, and it was worth every penny I spent to get there.

I would like to thank the entire team of #10mincon who made it possible, who put their heart in every little detail from inspiring speeches to getting the highest quality speakers to us to the boxed lunch souvenirs on the day of the departure.

I even won a free book from my new friend, Pam Humphrey called the Blue Rebozo! Not a coincidence.

Fireworks crackled that night befitting the emotions of all present in the conference. It was not an end but a new beginning.

I returned richer, bolder and purposeful. Not only did I bring back new lessons but new friends as well who had shared personal stories over the span of two days.IMG_9782With my new writer friends (Gretchen Grey-Hatton next to me) and Donald Maass –  the author that first inspired and influenced my writing through the “Breakout Novelist” book.

To the 10 Minute Novelist team, Bravo!

Categories
editing Nanowrimo writing

Organizing the Editing of Your First Draft

Let’s face it. First drafts are messy and choppy. Their only merit is one of being finished. I am a NanoWrimo writer. That means I have written four first drafts in literally four weeks each. Here are some tips that I have learnt while editing your own work:

1. If writing first draft is fast in NanoWrimo, editing is slow
Different part of your brain is utilized when on auto pilot and when focusing and thinking slow. Editing is a slow process, it requires focus on detail like drawing a sketch. Edit slow.

2. Putting away the first draft is as important as editing
To be a true change agent (of your own manuscript,) it is important to detach emotion. It is a key attribute of a great feedback whether critiquing others’ work or your own. And, why would you not put in your best frame of mind for yourself? The detachment needs time after you have spent weeks with the characters, loving and hating them all along. Detachment fosters fresh perspective.

Have you noticed that it is easier to see flaws in another’s writing than your own? If so, bring the distance that exists when critiquing another’s work to your own by putting it away for a period of time.

3. Read a manuscript completely before making an editing plan
First revisions involve cutting unnecessary scenes or moving scenes around. In order to do so, it is important to get a holistic view of the big picture.

So, read through before coming up with a plan. But when you read, highlight the areas you want to focus on. When you read, challenge yourself on the value each section adds to the book.

4. Make plot and flow revisions first
Plot revisions are first because these involve massive chopping. Why edit a section that could be chopped? Plot revisions are first because it also involves moving scenes around, heightening conflict, adding and removing from the story in general. Once the plot is in place, you can focus on the little edits.

Few points to look for as a detached reader of your own work are:

a. Does the writing invoke emotions in you such as fear, sadness, joy, worry?
b. Do you evoke all the five senses of smell, sight, touch, sound or taste?
c. Is there a common thread of a goal through all the sections in your writing? A written work must have a message. Never lose sight of the message.
d. Are there segments that make you want to put the book down and not read on?

5. Put the manuscript away in between editing
Attachment is a sneaky emotion. It comes unannounced and settles unnoticed. Even during editing, attachment to characters, lines, etc. happens. So, space out editing by constant doses of detachment. Detachment fosters neutral opinion.

When spending time away from your book, read. Read other books. Read books on improving your writing. I recommend reading “Structuring your novel” by K.M. Weiland and “Don’t Murder Your Mystery” by Chris Roerden.

6. Work on characters and plot via exercises
Perform specific editing to:

a. Deepen characters / deepen conflict / deepen value
b. Ground settings and time
c. Heighten conflicts / Escalate stakes
d. Add tension
e. Planting questions / hooks to add mystery

There are several exercises I recommend furthering these editing concerns:

a. People watch – spend an hour at a busy location like a café or the city park or the train station and observe the dialect of people, their attire and mannerisms. See if that inspires your writing.
b. Research timelines and facts in your book.
c. Perform activities prescribed by experts such as activities from Donald Maass’s “The Breakout Novelist.”

 

7. Dialogue editing
Do a special round of editing for dialogues. Keep your characters honest to their own voice through the course of your book. Make sure your dialogues are not circular but believable. Make sure to add action beats to your dialogues and sprinkle it with adequate emotion.

8. Look out for overly-used words as well as vague words
Now, you are at a stage where your plot has been hammered, characters have been fleshed out, and the end is on the horizon. Previous rounds of editing would have given you an idea on words you tend to overuse. Hopefully, they are highlighted at this point. Do a word count on them and see if those can be mixed up. Other commonly used words to edit are:

a. Was / were / are
b. That / this
c. Something / thing
d. Stuff
e. Adverbs such as *ly (very, really, slowly…)
f. Then (Lines of your book are happening in chronological order. “Then” should be sparsely used to emphasize.)
g. Seemed
h. Felt

 

Also, check if there are some negatives that can turn into positives as positives tend to read better.

9. Edit on different platforms
Grammar and line level edits have a way of disappearing. There are tricks to catch them in the flow of reading.

Try reading your manuscript on a different device like a phone, a tablet, a big monitor screen. Changing environment is notorious for highlighting the mistakes (that word processor skips.) Print out the manuscript and edit with a red pen. Have your word editor read out the manuscript for you. Microsoft Word has a read aloud feature.

10. Lastly, edit from last chapter to first.
Ties into the previous point, is one of the tricks to catching more errors in your own writing. Want to force detachment to your story? Edit last chapter first and make your way in. This will prevent you from getting swept into your story where you start to read fast to know what happens next versus reading slow and hard.

 

Writing is hard work. Let yourself be your first critique but be careful while editing if you tend to be too harsh on yourself. When making notes on what to edit, also write down what you like in the writing that you wish not to change.

Happy editing and wish you the world’s best luck for all the steps that follow from editing to seeing your book on the bookshelf of a major retailer.

Categories
Nanowrimo non-fiction writing

How Nanowrimo Changed my Life?

My life changed November of 2016. I read Chris Baty’s book called, “No Plot? No Problem.” It taught how to write a book in a month. I would spit out a short story in six months if I got lucky.

“Must be too good to be true,” I suspected.

It was one of the twenty books stashed on my desk in hope of bettering my writing and making a storyteller out of a struggling writer. I was littered with comments such as, “English is not your first language, right?”

Truth of the matter remained English was the only language I knew from the time I started beading words into raw emotions. My fellow classmates in India were masters in grammar in three languages, English included. I struggled in all languages in the nineties and now after spending years in America. Being fascinated by words was insufficient to fix my grammar issues. I still butcher my grammar, but a key fundamental transformed with Chris Baty’s book.

Months prior to November, I had struggled producing five thousand words for a fiction writing workshop. Chris Baty’s book held my hand each week providing therapy for negative feelings inside my heart as I wrote without a solid plot and only a meager outline. Each week, the book prescribed exercises to get the creative juices flowing.

And I, a no body, with broken command of the language, wrote.

I, the world’s sorest writer, wrote.

“I” wrote.

The book taught me to FINISH. I hold completing projects you start an utmost priority. Did my first draft suck? It sure did. It bled plethora of complicated tribulations on my computer screen. Did it hide my grammar problem? It highlighted it. But I walked away from the experience, feeling accomplished.

It used to be a dream to make a living doing something I cherished. I no longer care for the money.

Although, I am unpublished on a steady path of rejections as I compete with multitude of manuscripts from far superior authors with better command of the language who never get to hear, “English is your second language?” type of a feedback, I am still a proud author of three books (besides being a mother of three,) unpublished but manuscripts completed with satisfaction.

And all this became possible because of Nanowrimo. I am indebted to it for life.

 

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