10k words by Sunday

Yup.  Busy mom, here, goes and decides to have a challenge in the crit group to write 10k words by Sunday.  I have about 2.5k.  I'm behind, as usual.  Today, the only thing I've written is a blog post.  I've been swamped today.  And the rest of the week isn't looking much better.

Late night for me!  Woo hoo!  Who's with me?

*crickets*

I do have a couple of things, though.  I find Write It Sideways to be a fantastic blog.  Lots of great and useful information.  I think I've plugged it before.  This post brought some interesting thoughts.

I'm not very good at writing a short story.  I tend to have too much to say and any story I want to be short ends up growing in plot and size because I can't keep help but add subplots and such.  In essence, I can't write short.  I can't throw away ideas just to keep within a word count.  I've tried, I've failed.  So I plan to look over the links in the post just to see what the hell I'm doing wrong.  I'm sure it's a lot.

On Stacia Kane's blog, there's a great post that not only tells you to not "kill your babies" - thank you, Stacia, I could kiss you, but also a good explanation on what it means to write what you know.  You've heard that said over and over.  I write UF.  I don't know how to fly.  If you don't know that there's a deeper meaning to "write what you know" then this would definitely be a good post to read.

And now I'm off to try to catch up on my word count.

Active vs. Passive Voice

The next in my attempt to add all those pesky things you get in your crits that you don't understand:  active vs. passive voice.

Here is a series of explanations and samples from good ol' Purdue University.  Just keep clicking "next resource" to see the next set of examples.

Grammar Girl also has some stuff to say about it and tips.

And this is from Daily Writing Tips.

Dark Angel also has some helpful things to say.

And there you have it.  Helpful examples, tips and tricks.  It's always nice to have it explained.

It should be noted that I did look for agent or published authors but as it was late, several different variations of searches and clicking through the first few pages of each of them yielded no results so I gave up so I could go to bed.  If I ever find any, I will be sure to add them.

Filter words

I read a blog post on filter words a few days ago and I've gotten so much out of it that I thought I would pass it along.

I've written for a long time.  I've always enjoyed writing and telling stories and I'm not that bad at it.  But writing a book is different from just telling a story.  There are mechanics involved.  Since I've only recently started taking writing seriously (starting a hundred chapter ones does not count as serious), I've had a lot to learn.

Fiction itself is easy.  You just make stuff up, that's why it's called fiction.  Doing it well, on the other hand, is hard.  You have to make it believable and draw the reader into the story and characters.  How you do that is just as important as the story concept.  It takes time and practice and lots of learning.

Giving and receiving critiques help you learn.  You hear a lot of comments, though that make sense on the surface but without concrete examples, it's not as easy to grasp as one would think.  There are comments on distance, on active vs. passive, showing vs. telling -- the list just goes on.  And it's like pulling teeth to get someone to actually explain it to you.  Of course, it's not their job to teach you how to write but still, it would be nice to have an explanation every once in a while.

So I think I'd like to troll the web and find all sites that are great at giving examples of all those comments you might receive but don't have a clue what it means or how to fix it.

This particular post on Write It Sideways, I thought, was a great post on filter words and gave examples that are clearly understood.  It helped me tremendously.

Stilted Language

You've heard it said before, I'm sure.  "The dialogue seems stilted."

You may have asked yourself what that means.  It's pretty simple and if you don't know, grab a dictionary. But I'll save you the trouble.

stilt·ed  (stltd)

adj.

1. Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff.

2. Architecture Having some vertical length between the impost and the beginning of the curve. Used of an arch.

So now you know the definition.  What does that mean to you?  If you are getting comments on your stilted dialogue, it means it just doesn't sound believable.  Dialogue should flow.  It should sound like real speech but with all the boring parts taken out.  No one wants to read every comment of every conversation.  It should be normal conversation but better.

Take for instance:

Person 1: Do you have any milk?  I had to dump my last cup when I added the wrong thing from my recipe to it.

Person 2: No, sorry, but hey, what's the number to your plumber?

P1: Oh, hang on a sec, I'll get it for you. Um, yeah. Wait, I know where it is.   I think it's somewhere in my junk drawer.

P2: You know, if you just know the name, I'll google him.

P1: Tsk, oh, um, I can't remember.  It's something like, um--

P2: Wait, wasn't it something like, um, Crane something or other?

P1:  Yeah, I, uh, think so.  I'm pretty sure it was something like that.

I could go on with useless drivel that we all do but I think it's unnecessary.  This is an example of normal, every day conversation that we all do.  Okay, so maybe not exactly like this but close enough.  But it's boring to read.  The only important thing in here for someone reading would be the question and the answer.  Do you have any milk?  No, sorry I don't.  Just ran out.  All the other boring stuff is taken out.

Here's the same language in stilted dialogue:

P1: Would you happen to have any milk in your refrigerator?  I ruined my last cup when I added the wrong spice and now my carton is empty.

P2: No, I'm afraid I have no milk.  But whilst your here, would you mind, what is the name of your plumbing specialist?

P1: Let me excogitate on that for a moment. I believe it referenced a Crane of some sort.

P2: I believe you are correct.  I recall the sign on the van said something similar to such.

Completely over the top, yes, I know.  Note the thesaurus moment.  These happen amazingly often.  But this is language that is much too formal.  People don't really talk like that.

So when you are writing your dialogue, read it out loud.  Does it sound right?  Does it sound like something a person would actually say?  If you have characters that are not native to English (aliens and whatnot) try to keep it real.  Yes, the language may be more formal but it would fit the character so long as you don't go digging around the thesaurus too much.

So many writers think that using big words somehow gives them credibility as a writer.  It doesn't.  People want to read.  They want a good story.  They want it to flow.  They want to feel.  They don't want to feel like the author is trying to prove some kind of superiority.  Use big words if it makes sense and fits the character and the plot.  But usually you can get away with just using a simple word that conveys a heck of a lot more than "I grabbed a thesaurus."

I realize this post was not very well planned.  It's a bit all over the place.  But I'm trying to do this while cooking dinner.  Shoot me.  Kids have to eat.  :)