Schema-ing

Okay, I just made up that word. It’s not a misspelling of scheming, it refers to schema (psychology’s usage) “A schema is a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of experiences and situations. Schemas are developed based on information provided by life experiences and are then stored in memory. Our brains create and use schemas as a short cut to make future encounters with similar situations easier to navigate. “

What all that says, is that as we build more experiences and repeat situations, we begin to form expectations about a situational outcome in similar situations.

For writers and readers that means if you pick up a book with a demure 16^th century maiden on it, being clenched by a big burly highlander, you are NOT going to be expecting a slasher scene in the middle of the book. Or anywhere in it.

People who design covers, whether it be the author themselves, someone they hired, or a publisher and in-house artists, strive to make sure the cover is appealing, but also targeted to peoples’ schemas for the book’s subject matter. If I want a historical romance with a good-looking Scot, that book I mentioned above is perfect.

When we pick up a book based on the cover, then read the blurb, maybe a page or two, more of our schemas engage. A word might through us off and we think of other books that we didn’t enjoy based on a concept or wording that seems similar.

So what has this to do with writing you ask? Everything.

If I am writing a slasher book, but no one gets slashed until page 130, I have a problem, and any readers have probably dumped the book in disgust.

Same thing if I were writing something with a lot of sex—I’d better let the reader know up front (through cover, blurb, etc) and I better not wait until page 200 for the action. Inversely, if I’m not writing graphic sex, springing it on a reader at the end of a book, or in a later book in the series when it hasn’t been in evidence at all previously, can shock a reader.

Working with schemas doesn’t mean being predictable—we all read for new adventures—it just means falling within the expectations of the reader.

Two awesome reviews! Thank you #RT!

I have been horribly remiss in not posting this sooner--but I received two wonderful reviews from the big kahuna's of book reviewing- Romantic Times Book Reviews!

To be fair, I just found these-LOL. Tell's you how focused I get when I'm racing to a deadline ;).

WARRIOR WENCH

RT Rating:

TOP PICK! Four and a half stars 

https://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/warrior-wench

auhor(s): Marie Andreas

Andreas has already been making a name for herself with her terrific fantasy series The Lost Ancients, but now she kicks off a fast-paced and high-energy SF series featuring a band of mercenaries led by Starship Captain Vaslisha Tor Dain. There is plenty of action, thrills and some humor in her new series, The Asarlaí Wars, as these mercenaries become reluctant sort-of heroes in the face of treachery and fanaticism. The launch book sets up this dangerous universe and fills it with amazing characters who are sure to grab reader’s hearts and minds. This is going to be a very twisty and dangerous ride!

Captain Vaslisha Tor Dain only planned to be on vacation for a couple of weeks, so when she returns to find that her beloved ship The Victorious Dead has been “mistakenly” scrapped for parts, she is livid and bent both on revenge and getting her ship put back together. In the meantime they have a job to do, so Vas takes the only ship available, The Warrior Wench, that used to be a brothel. Vas then rounds up her second in command, the telepath Deven, and the rest of her crew. However Vas nearly dies of a poisoning and only Deven’s quick work saves her. Who or what is after Vas and her crew? Ominously it seems that things are not right in the Commonwealth of Planets. It may be up to Vas to kick butt and take names! (MARIEANDREAS.COM, May, 368 pp., $14.00)

Reviewed by: 

Jill M. Smith

And The Lost Ancients got represented as well!

THE EMERALD DRAGON

RT Rating:

Four stars 

Author(s): Marie Andreas

Aficionados of action-packed fantasy laced with a generous dose of humor should immediately check out the talented Lost Ancients series. The Emerald Dragon is the third installment in this terrific series which follows the semi-apocalyptic adventures of archaeologist Taryn St. Giles. Elves supposedly disappeared from the Four Kingdoms eons ago and Taryn makes a living mining their ruins. Andreas does a fantastic job building a compelling world and developing characters that leap off the page! Fantasy fans should not miss out.

Beccia used to be a quiet little city until Taryn’s talent for digging placed them at the epicenter of two previous destructive encounters with ancient relics. Although Taryn and her friends/allies (including her trio of often-drunken fairy sidekicks) prevented previous doomsdays, they again find trouble after a series of explosive tremors rock the area. When Alric the elf disappears while investigating, Taryn starts a hunt to find him. Suddenly she is up against bloodthirsty relic hunters and nightmarish monsters as they all hunt for the legendary lost emerald dragon! (MARIE ANDREAS, Apr., 324 pp., $14.00)

Reviewed by: 

Jill M. Smith

Thank you Jill M. Smith and RT Book Reviews! These really made me scream, cry, jump around like a mad woman, and generally mean way more to me than you could know. 

#IWSG- Joys of writing

Welcome to another Insecure Writer's Support Group post! 

 Every month, writers from across the globe join and shout our fears into the Universe!  Join us! 

 http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Today's question was "What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?" I really have to give two answers- just because ;).

1) Creating new worlds and new characters- my people become very real to me, and I might not like all of them, but I respect them. Many I adore, most I wish I was more like. The joy of creating new characters and setting them lose in a new world is amazing. Knowing, "Oh, she'd NEVER do that" just after a few pages of meeting a character is very very cool. 

I've always been a storyteller, creating people out of anything around me or just in my head. Writing takes it out of my head and lets me tell larger stories.

2) The second part didn't happen until I published--total strangers reading MY books, and some LOVING them! That is a very VERY cool aspect to being a writer. I would still create my people and my stories even if I couldn't share them, but sharing my worlds is a very special feeling.

I count myself extremely lucky that I can create things and share them-it's a wonderful feeling.

Happy IWSG day!

Finishing a book

I'm writing this moments after finishing the first draft of book four in my Lost Ancients fantasy series. The Sapphire Manticore is alive!

This is a seriously big book, currently at 400 pages. I know it will shift a lot with rounds of editing, mine and others, but right now it's a very big, bouncing, baby book.

I have mixed feelings right now. I'm glad it's done- been waiting this week to get there, and finally hitting it was amazing.

But I'm also a little sad. Yes, I'll be re-reading it until I'm blue in the face, and editing like mad the next month or so, but it's not the same. This book I really pushed. Since the end of August I've been hitting 5 or more pages a day- for a writer with a full time day job, that's pretty good (at least this writer ;)). That type of rate builds a closeness to the story I wasn't expecting.

And it's left me a little sad. But like I said, there will be edits, and book five and six will be waiting :).

Sleep well my little drunken hooligans, another adventure has been recorded.

Push it...

Yeah, okay, so sorry if some of you now have Salt & Pepper's song in your head. But today I wanted to talk about pushing ourselves--in this case for writing, but it's true for most everything.

It's easy to believe we are driving ourselves as hard as we can. That we're doing the most we can do. This is especially true if we're trying to do more than one thing with the bulk of our time--in my case, a full time day job and building a writing career.

I would love to say that I am a naturally driven person, that I set goals before the sun comes up and have them weeping in the corner before breakfast.

But that would be a lie.

I'm naturally very lazy. REALLY lazy. Unless I'm trapped somewhere I don't want to be, I am never bored simply because I am that good at doing nothing.

Yet, I have written more words since the end of August than I probably did for the six months prior. And, as noted in prior blogs, it's not because my day job slowed down--I work at a college and the start of the semester is intense. 

It's because I made a conscious effort to stretch myself, to increase my writing goals in the face of intense madness at the day job. I started with a goal of 1500 words a day in The Sapphire Manticore (the fantasy series), and if I hit that, I could start working on Victorious Dead (space opera trilogy) at 500 words a shot.

With a few weeks of that under my belt, I increased to 1600 a day--these are work days mind you, the weekends are between 2000 and 3000 depending on what is going on. But I am writing every day. If I'm sick, I might write less, but I am still writing something. It keeps me set in my worlds, so even when I'm not working on them, part of my brain is thinking about them.

I've been at 1700 words since October first, and am now going to bump it to 1800 (aka about 6 pages a day). I am actually kind of surprised at this pace, but I've noticed that I feel much better when the words are done. And I feel better about the books in question.

When we push ourselves, even just a little at a time, we stretch what we're able to accomplish. Right now, stand up. stick your arms out from your sides, and twist one direction. Go as far as you comfortably can. Note how far you go, then turn back to where you started. Now do it again. Your "as far as you can go" is a little further. Because you stretched yourself, and can now reach further.

That's why things like NaNoWriMo (Google it ;)) can really help some folks, they make you stretch further than you thought capable. 

Pushing what you think you can do by constantly stretching just a tiny bit further will get you closer to your goal. And will help you realize just what you're capable of.

If it works for a lazy person like me, it will work for anyone.

#IWSG- Is it done yet?

Welcome to the monthly blog collection from the Writer’s Insecure Support Group! 

Join us! http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Today, a question was suggested—How do you know when your book is done?

Well, kids, here at the Butterball School of Writing, all works in progress come with a handy little pop up device. Once you’ve run through enough drafts, editing, beta readers, more editing, more readers, etc—the button pops up and voila! You have a finished book!

*waits for the laughter to die down….okay, gives up on the attempt at humor*

Homage to Thanksgiving and comparing our books to cooked poultry in an attempt at humor aside, this is a tricky question. Far more so, the more you look into it. Like most all aspects of writing, it depends on the individual to know when their book is done, there’s no one size fits all program.

For me personally it’s still an “it varies” answer, as each book has a different cooking time. But there are some components that follow through on each book.

I throw a lot of stuff on the page (I’m a pantser folks) and my first draft is sometimes pretty wild. I do little edits/re-reads as I’m working on the first draft, but nothing really big. Then I print it out and edit. I slice and dice for story and character arcs first. Something doesn’t actually go somewhere (or set something up for another book in the series- so if you see something touched on in say book two- it might not have an impact until say book five) it’s out. I may cut and save it, if I really love it, but I’ve learned to be brutal. If it’s doesn’t move things along- it’s outta there. Your “darlings” (the words) lose individual strength when compared to the entire piece. Move it or lose it my little wordy friends!

After a few edits, I send it to my developmental editor. She calls me on anything I may have missed, or just refused to see was a problem. Then my beta readers have a whack. I am totally lucky to have some insanely talented friends who are willing to point out where I’ve screwed up, typos, and major “WTF?” issues. Then a nice line/copy edit for clean-up. I also go through a few passes before and inbetween all of these.

At each of these stages, I’m keeping an eye out for anything major, something that tells me the story isn’t doing what I need it to do. If it flies through after all these folks poking and prodding it, and feels solid, I pronounce it DONE!

Told you the pop up button idea was better ;).

Happy IWSG day!!!

Making it "real".

Beginning writers often fall into the same traps, one of which is to describe the hell out of EVERYTHING.   What people looked like down to the smallest details, places, houses, kitchens, closets, stores, how to drive a car…you name it, I can promise it has been described to death by thousands of writers.

Writers do it because, especially when we’re just starting, we’re trying to make it real for the reader—to do that we need to make them see it, right? Every last button, lace, design on the dagger?

Ummm- no.

Good writing has a trick to it—it implies real life, it gives the illusion of real life, but it’s not real life.  Use dialogue as an example.  We may eavesdrop on folks to pick up on things, but you’d never use real conversation in a book (and if you are, stop it. Please. ).  In real conversation people are repetitive, they use fillers (um, ah, etc) they talk over each other, hop subjects, are boring, and a whole lot more.

So, we don’t write like people speak-- we write what feels like how people speak.  Our dialogue needs to give the illusion of real conversation, but in a much tighter and structured form. 

The same thing with description.  A laundry list filled with tiny details might make for a happy writer in some cases, but it’s not going to make for a happy reader.  As writers we have to give an impression of our characters, their homes, their lives.  Give enough detail to anchor the reader a bit, then let the reader’s imagination do the heavy lifting- let THEM determine what everything looks like.

I had a friend ask how I pronounced one of my character’s names once.  I shrugged and told her.  She frowned and said she thought it was something else.  To which I said, “Yep, you’re right too”.  I know how my characters look, sound, move, and react.  It’s in my head all the time.  But once a reader meets them, those characters are theirs now as well.  If they build that character based on your words and their own imagination, that character becomes far more real to them than if the writer forced a list of descriptives down their throat.

Heavy lists of what things look like actually slows down the reader as they try to pull the very detailed image together.  It ruins the pacing and pulls them out of the story.  A death sentence for any book.

I’ve come across books that gave me no classic descriptives of a character at all.  No eye color, hair color, skin color, height, weight, nothing.

And I can promise you I KNEW what that character looked like just from the writer’s other words.  Now, did my character look like what the writer was thinking?  Maybe, maybe not.  But what’s important was that I as the reader saw the character. I didn't see the writer telling me about the character.