Day 3: The Celebration Contest Continues (and is not boring)!

Look at how expressive Debbie's illustrations are! This is the most fun looking bored kid ever. Don't you wish you could give this book to a bored kid in school?

If you win our giveaway contest, you can give I'M BORED to that kid suffering through long division. Or keep it for yourself, which is what I'd probably do. I mean, school is such a unique combination of boredom and enforced sitting and staring. Who'd want their kid to miss that feeling?

Things to do in school when you're bored and you're short so the teacher makes you sit up front:

1. Draw scribbles while you look at teacher. Make scribbles into portraits when your teacher looks away. Someday you may be as good as Debbie!

2. Recite the states in your head, along with what you'd rather be doing in them. Alabama: eat barbecue. Alaska: see a glacier. Don't forget to eat a potato in Idaho.

3. Give your teacher a potato name. Like Mr. Russett Spuds or Ms. Frenchie Eyesprout. Uh, keep it to yourself.

Unlike the news about our giveaway contest. Spread that everywhere like magically non-caloric butter on a baked you-know-what!

Just comment and you're entered for a free copy of I'M BORED, written by celebrity author Michael Ian Black. Tweet about the contest and tell us in your comment, and your entry counts double.

So check out I'M BORED on Debbie's website...
Or follow her on Twitter at @inkyelbows...
Or read about her in Publisher's Weekly...

I promise, you won't be bored. Congratulations, Debbie and Michael!!

Pixar's Rules of Storytelling

There is a graphic representation of Pixar's Rules of Storytelling going around "teh Intertubes," courtesy of Beau Chavassus, which I will insert here and hope you can enlarge it. These supposed rules were created for screenplay writing, but I think some of them are immensely important for novel writing. My alter ego (no, actually just me, editing as www.fallingforwords.com) reads manuscript submissions for Rhemalda Publishing. I can tell you which rules took me years to understand, and now  as a reader bother me the most. I can sum up rules 1, 4, 6, 13, 16, and especially 21 with one phrase: I have to care about what happens to your main character before you put him or her in mortal danger.

Writers are often told to start with action. This is early writing advice, to get you past beginnings on the first day of school, as someone wakes up, staring into a mirror, recounting family history, etc. But  you can't swing too far on the pendulum. Start me off with a plane crash where only your main character survives, and I'll mourn the dead. Start me off with your main character's actual life (with movement toward goals, which may be a better term than action) and then I might care more about him or her than the other passengers on the plane.

I would say don't start with Michael Bay, exploding things action (unless you're writing Transformers 7). Start with forward momentum. Start with building tension. Start with Harry Potter trying to get out of the cupboard under the stairs, Mrs. Frisbee feeling her son's forehead for fever, the rabbits in Watership Down staring at a man-made sign and wondering what it foretells. Then move to Hagrid's Apparition, Mrs. Frisbee's desperate appeal to Rats of NIMH, and the bulldozers destroying the rabbit warrens. Analyze the beginnings of your favorite novels and movies. There's a very good reason FINDING NEMO doesn't open with Nemo's disappearance.

I'm not sure if these are actually Pixar's rules, but they're great guidelines anyway. Once upon a time, _____. Every day, _____. Then one day, _____. Don't skip the "Every day" part. As I've heard it phrased before, tell me what makes your main character different from everyone else. That's the first question that should be answered, in my opinion. 

-- Kate

Review Time! Punctuating Dialog Tags

In addition to being a writer, I'm also an editor. In the last few books I've edited or copyedited, I've noticed that the biggest grammar/punctuation issue newer authors struggle with is how to punctuate dialog tags. I started out thinking of how to write a "how-to" lesson, but then I thought, why learn it from me when you can learn it from some of my favorite authors? So here are snippets of dialog from some of my favorite books. Enjoy.

 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling:

"You know, I reckon Ron was right about you," Harry told Crookshanks suspiciously. "There are plenty of mice around this place, go and chase them. Go on," he added, nudging Crookshanks down the spiral staircase with his foot, "leave Scabbers alone."

 The bolding is mine. This is a perfect example of how to handle dialog tags in the middle of sentences. Because what comes before the first dialog tag is a complete sentence, there is a period after the tag (after the word suspiciously) and the continuing dialog starts with a capital letter. But the second dialog tag comes smack in the middle of a sentence, so there is a comma after foot, not a period, and the dialog continues with a lower case "leave."

Note that these are not action beats. Although some action is incorporated when Harry gives Crookshanks that gentle kick, the primary verb in the dialog tag is added. In other words, 'he added, nudging Crookshanks down the spiral staircase with his foot' is not a complete sentence. Otherwise we'd get different punctuation, as in this example:

Thud by Terry Pratchett:

Carrot nodded. "You have to understand about a dwarf mine."

If action is used instead of a dialog tag, and the action is a complete sentence, it ends in a period. It's a sentence. Period. Carrot nodded, "You have to understand ..." would be incorrect.

Another example from Thud, where there are more than two people conversing:

"Then get someone else to do it, dear," said Sybil.
"Can I do that?" said Vimes.
"Yes, sir," said Carrot. "You're in charge."

The point here is to use said whenever possible.

Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling are British. Stephen King is American, and his use of dialog tags strikes me as very American. Lots of action and very, very few adverbs. Because he writes horror, he also shows a lot of emotion in his dialog tags.

Desperation by Stephen King:

She turned to Ralph and spread her hands. "The obsessive Bible reading was bad enough, but this ... why didn't you tell me about this praying business?"
"Because it looked private." He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "And it wasn't hurting anybody."

Note that each action beat used to indicate who's speaking is a complete sentence that ends in a period. In the last line, the action comes in the middle of Ralph's speech. Yet each and every sentence, even the first line of his dialog, is a complete sentence that ends in a period. Really, try to avoid shoving an action beat in the middle of a dialog sentence. Action beats are complete sentences, and splicing a complete sentence inside another complete sentence is punctuation anarchy.

So, if you ever want to know more about dialog tags, pick up your favorite novels. Just try not to get lost in them and remember to get back to your own writing.

-- Kate

Level Up!

After a year of my Wii Fit telling me I'm a four star, fabulous, yoga expert, yesterday I took my first hour-and-a-half Vinyasa yoga class. Today, every muscle in my body hurts. I lagged so far behind the rest of the class, I was the obvious newbie. It turns out I'm not so fabulous after all. This is the painful process we writers recognize as levelling up.

If you're hearing a lot of praise about your writing, is it time to take it to the next level? Here are some things you can do to level up your writing:

-- Extend 45 minute writing sessions to 90 minutes
-- Take a class
-- Go on a writing retreat with instructors
-- Challenge your critique group to be tougher
-- Get an expert opinion
-- Start a story in a new genre or write in a different point of view, such as multiple points of view if you're used to writing a single point of view

It can be uncomfortable to level up. Just as my yoga workout has me nursing my sore arms, some of the leveling up I've done in my writing this year has had me nursing a sore ego. But it really works. I'll keep going to that yoga class and getting stronger. And I'll keep taking classes, working on extending my writing time, and trying out new ways of writing.

If you have any other ways to level up our writing, please share them with us. Thanks!

-- Kate