Day Twenty-Two: Ten Interesting Articles for Writers

In my travels on the net this week, I've come across some interesting articles, tips, and fun things I thought I'd share. If you find yourself in need of a break from writing, check these out.

1. 7 Reasons Why Agents Stop Reading Your First Chapter - http://networkedblogs.com/p18729389

2. The Word(s) Is Independent Publishers - http://womensmemoirs.com/memoir-writing-book-business/the-word-is-independent-publishers/#more-2725

3. Why Length Matters When Submitting Your Stories and Poems for Publication - http://www.writersreliefblog.com/post/Why-Length-Matters.aspx

4. The Book Publishing Process (Mara Bergman of Walker Books takes us through the book publishing process) - http://essentialwriters.com/walker-books-4586.htm

5. 9 Ways to Overcome Too Many Ideas Syndrome - http://www.writersdigest.com/article/too-many-ideas-syndrome/

6. 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter - http://mashable.com/2009/05/08/twitter-authors/

7. Promo Branding Ideas - http://thewritingjungle.blogspot.com/2008/11/promo-branding-ideas.html

8. Writing Contests - http://helenginger.com/contests.htm

9. The Many Uses of "Up" - Editor Karen Reddick offers a fun article - http://theredpeneditor.com/blog/

10. Treasure Hunt - author Pat Bertram is hosting a treasure hunt based on her latest release, Daughter Am I. Hurry, though--contest ends November 30 - http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/treasure-hunt/

Day Eleven: Remembering Writers Who Served

On Veterans Day we take time out from our normal activities to pay homage to those who have performed military service for our country. Some have been career soldiers, some have served one or more tours of duty before returning to civilian life, and others have been "citizen soldiers"--those who take one weekend a month and two weeks a year away from their families and jobs, to train and serve in the National Guard. These men and women are doctors, lawyers, technicians, engineers, teachers, laborers...and authors. Those who are authors have sometimes used their military experiences as material for their writing, both fiction and non-fiction. Today, I would like to recognize some of them and share how they served.

Ambrose Bierce served during the American Civil War as a member of the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry Division, later as a topographical engineer, and fought at the battle of Shiloh. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was one of several stories he wrote based on what he had witnessed during the war.

Ernest Hemingway served as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy during World War I. He used autobiographical elements from wartime experiences in his novel, "A Farewell to Arms."

Edward L. Beach, Jr. served in various positions as a Navy Submarine officer during World War II, and earned many medals and citations. Drawing on his own experiences, he wrote the novel "Run Silent, Run Deep" which was later adapted to the big screen in 1958.

Joseph Heller served in the 12th Air Force during World War II. He later wrote about the insanity of war in "Catch-22."

Norman Mailer was drafted by the U.S. Army and served in the South Pacific with the 112th Cavalry during World War II. He drew on his military experiences when writing "The Naked and the Dead."

Leon Uris joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age seventeen and served as a radioman in the South Pacific during World War II. He wrote "Battle Cry" as a result, but is probably best known for his novel "Exodus."

Kurt Vonnegut was a U.S. infantry soldier in World War II who was captured in Germany and held as a prisoner of war, with several other soldiers, in the underground meat locker of a slaughterhouse in Dresden. Because of their location, they survived when Dresden was bombed. His used his experiences as a POW, and the horrors he witnessed in the aftermath of the bombing, to provide material for his novel "Slaughterhouse Five," as well as several of his other books.

Richard Hooker (the pen name of H. Richard Hornberger) was a physician who served with the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. In collaboration with W. C. Heinz, he wrote "M.A.S.H." and based one of the main characters, Hawkeye Pierce, on himself.

Ron Kovic served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the Marine Corps before being shot in combat. He sustained multiple injuries and was partially paralyzed. His book "Born on the Fourth of July" was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise as Kovic, and inspired Bruce Springsteen's song "Shut Out the Light" and Tom Paxton's song which was titled the same as Kovic's novel.

There are others, but these are representative of men who either became writers after their war experiences, or whose writing was influenced by them. They have shared their stories with us, and given their lives for us. The least we can do, on this Veterans Day, for them and all those who serve to protect our freedom, is to let them know we appreciate their sacrifices .

[Source for some of this information was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authors_in_war]

Day Six: Who's in Charge?

In my blog entry for Monday, November 2, I began by saying that, as an author, you are in control of the people in your story: "...who will populate it, who will visit your town and how they'll arrive, what kind of work people will do, whether or not they are married and have children -- and pets, who their friends are, and their relatives. You are in control of their waking and sleeping, their hopes, dreams, aspirations, and expirations. You decorate their houses, pick out their clothing, and even determine their personalities and character traits, and how they will talk. In short, you control everyone and everything in your book." Sounds logical, right? But writing is a creative process, and creativity isn't always logical. It's the old right brain/left brain conundrum.

So, is it possible to lose control over your story? What happens when a character does something you weren't expecting, or turns rogue and hijacks your plot completely? Do you reign them in, sit them down, and give them a thorough tongue-lashing? Or do you let your curiosity get the best of you and give them free reign to see where they'll lead?

In the novel I began during last year's NaNoWriMo, I thought I knew my plot and characters pretty well. I knew who was going to be killed, and who was going to do the deed, and when it all would happen. The intended victim, Grace, was home alone during a snowstorm while her husband was in town at a meeting. She'd stayed home because she hadn't been feeling well. The roads were bad, he was late, and she was becoming anxious. She looked out the window, then went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Suddenly, just as the tea kettle begins to shriek, she hears a noise, feels someone grab her, and falls to the floor, dead.

But hold on...that's not the killer bending over her, it's her husband. He'd arrived home, heard the tea kettle, and walked in the door just in time to catch Grace before she hit the floor. So, what just happened? Where's the killer? Did he run his car off an icy road so he couldn't get there before her husband did? Did he get the wrong house? Or did my characters just hijack my story? Maybe Grace decided she didn't want to get killed off. As it turned out, I liked Grace and was glad she hadn't died right then, so I developed a subplot for her and her husband and a different character emerged as the killer...someone nobody would have suspected. For that matter, I hadn't suspected them, either. The story took a completely different path from the one I had originally set out on. The basic plot didn't change, nor did the ending, but the route my characters traveled to get there did.

Sometimes, giving your characters the freedom to develop on their own can work for you. Other times, not. It's fine if you know what the characters are doing, where they're going, and if it all fits within the parameters of the story you want to tell. It's not so fine if they lead you into a muddle of events and subplots that turn your story into a chaotic, rambling, jumbled up mess with no way out short of resorting to deus ex machina, defined by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as "An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot." Nothing screams amateur like resorting to this device to make everything turn out right. If your characters and plot are starting to look more like a tangled mess than the beautiful tapestry you were weaving, do what knitters and weavers do: rip it out--at least back to where it veered off track--and start over.

Writing requires creativity, but it also requires discipline. When all is said and done, you're in charge. You can allow your characters to have input into the story, but don't let them get carried away. As the author, you are in charge and all final decisions about what happens, and to whom, are yours.