Storyboarding My Way

by Jackie King

I love daydreaming at the keyboard. My mind conjures up characters and puts them into situations involving murder and mayhem. This is great fun, but the drawback is having to connect the dots after the fact. Translation: I do more rewriting than authors who are plotters. (I’m what’s called a Panster, coined from the old saying, “Flying by the seat of your pants;" as opposed to other writers called Plotters.)

My second Grace Cassidy mystery is now at the dot-connecting point. After a short pause for mental hand-wringing, I decided to create a storyboard, which should have been the first step in writing the book, not when I’m three-fourths way though. (Let me tell you, it’s hard to kick yourself in the behind, especially at my age.)

Author Jodi Thomas once told me how she devised a storyboard for herself. At that time she was working on The Widows of Wichita County, a novel with five principal characters whose lives intermingled. To keep the different storylines straight, she tacked butcher paper across a long wall and posted each woman’s tale in chronological order.

I didn’t have butcher paper, so I found gift-wrapping paper and lined one side of my hallway, white backside up. (One of the perks of living alone is you can do any damn thing you want in your house. My former husband would have had a heart attack about the holes I left. I think he had a virgin complex or something.)

First, I posted a short summary of each chapter to the storyboard to keep track of my imaginary playmate’s antics. I used large sticky notes (about 4x6) so I could move scenes around and see where they worked best.

Notes I already had made on index cards went on the board, too. I used sticky tabs purchased to mark scenes needing corrections for this. These tabs can be moved from place to place as required.

Next, I taped a list of characters with descriptions and other information such as the kind of car or cell phone that person used. I may add pictures later.

I put the salient plot points on sticky notes and stuck them in the order where I thought they fit, knowing I could move them later for pacing changes.

In rewrite when I find a problem, I’ll mark necessary changes on stickies for the board, add the chapter and page number, then go back later to correct.

With my next book, the storyboard will be different. I’ll post characters first, then plot points, then chapter summaries, which will be more orderly. But what I have will work fine for me now.

I’m eager to find if my use of a storyboard will help me complete my novel more quickly.

If anyone has suggestion for storyboarding, please share.

Best wishes,

Jackie King

Are Book Costests Worth it?

By Mark W. Danielson

Writing novels is fun, and reading them is entertaining. Contest giveaways offer exposure. But whether contests are worth pursuing is for each author to decide.

In the past couple of years, I’ve done contests with Good Reads and Omni Mystery News because their readers love to win. Who can blame them? I like winning things, too. So whenever I agree to support a contest, it’s because I truly want someone to win a signed copy of my book or a prize package like the one pictured above. Borrowing from the Master Card commercials, winning is priceless. Not like Charlie Sheen’s “winning” – just winning something. Heck, I still remember winning a hot dog at a YMCA party decades ago, and Oscar Myer didn’t even sign his name to it. So a personal note from an author becomes a memory that will linger for years.

But there is also a business side to any giveaway, and unless you are fortunate to have a big promotion budget (which is practically unheard of these days), advertising in any form usually comes out of the author’s pocket. My contest giveaways cost between fifty and one hundred dollars, and since I earn roughly a dollar a book, it takes a lot of sales just to break even. But considering that a small web site icon runs at least seventy five dollars, contest costs are about the same and are a lot more fun.

My latest Good Reads contest produced four winners from four different states. If they enjoyed Writer’s Block, they will likely mention it to other readers, which is certainly a desired outcome. I’m still waiting to hear who won the most recent Omni Mystery News contest. It seems the chosen person hasn’t responded to Omni yet, and if they don’t respond soon another winner will be selected. I look forward to mailing the package to the winner when I return from my two week international trip.

Personalized gifts leave lasting impressions, particularly when they are books. I found this to be the case a few years ago when Tim Dorsey was a keynote speaker at Men of Mystery in Irvine, CA. I’ve been participating in this event for many years and always enjoy meeting the guests and other authors. But several weeks after Tim spoke, I received a signed copy of one of his books in the mail -- a kind gesture from him to all of the participating authors. It was quite a surprise and I was delighted to receive it. Years before, Stephen Cannell was equally generous by purchasing a book from each participating author. In this regard, a personal note to the contest winners will likely leave equally lasting impressions.

Over the years, I have participated in author panels, lectured, and done signings at libraries, malls, and bookstores big and small, and I don’t believe any of them match the benefits of a contest, so when I hear feedback from sponsors saying some authors consider their giveaways a waste of time, I am stunned. In every sense of the word, novelists are entertainers, and it’s important to keep this perspective regardless of one’s success. Some might compare lesser known novelists to street performers, but they are still out there entertaining for those willing to take notice. And since no one knows who may be watching, reading, or listening to you, it’s always best to embrace anyone that shows interest.

The bottom line is if you’re writing to make money, you might be better off as a professional gambler because the risks are about the same. Finding enjoyment in everything you do will always bring your words to life. Supporting book contests can help gain smiling fans.

Jargon again (and a confession)

As I write, yet again, to sigh deeply and sadly over examples of the abuses to which our language is put, I’m aware that I was recently guilty of the sort of thing for which I condemn others. I wrote a wee Facebook status comment about my website and only one of my friends took the trouble to point out that, instead of the correct ‘no fewer than 159 people’ I’d written ‘no less than 159 people’. Thus, I no longer have the right to pontificate about such matters. (But I will, nonetheless.)

It’s because I come across them so constantly in materials sent to me by companies wanting to commission scripts about training or safety or promotions. Not only that, as an ex-academic, my tolerance levels have been sorely tested by some of the jargon in learned articles whose authors are supposed to be highly articulate and literate.

The most recent commercial example was in a document sent to me asking for ideas on a specific training programme. I won’t name the creators of the document but it was written in the type of English that has become prevalent under successive governments in the UK. Here’s a taster:

“The materials for each module will directly relate to and be interspersed with web-based exercises or reflective interaction. Therefore, it is envisaged that a mini-series of visual materials will be used to enhance each module. The voiceovers or visual materials with each visual subsection will prompt the viewer to undertake the web-based components and acknowledge their return to the next instalment of the visual material. Reference to the correct web-based section will be used to create an overall impression of a journey through the module.”

They sent me three pages of this (although the full document apparently ran to thirty-two pages).

Another favourite that I trot out very frequently is one about the manufacturer who wanted a promotional brochure about a new product (I’ll call it Acmeclad). I’m not an engineer so I needed a layperson’s explanation of what the product actually was. I sent an email asking precisely that. Here’s the answer I got back:

"Acmeclad is of a monocoque construction comprising a polymeric textile reinforcement encapsulated within a neoprene outer layer complete with integral neoprene strakes, bonded to a polypropylene penetration-resistant felt impregnated with a corrosion inhibitor or biocide contained within a water resistant thixotropic gel as dictated by the application for which the system will be supplied."

Just one sentence, but what a beauty.

I sometimes write nonsense for comic effect or to make a point but I don’t think I ever manage to send up language as successfully as the people who write these things in all seriousness. I sometimes question the whole process of evolution. The first example above was written by someone in charge of supplying training services, in other words an educator and communicator. He (I bet it’s a he) should be strapped to a chair and have these words soaked in vinegar (or worse) and fed to him as a sort of verbal porridge – preferably up his nostrils (decorum prevents me from articulating alternative routes to his digestive system).

Then again, what should we do with a person who writes ‘less than 159 people’?

Writing Choices

As writers we have all kinds of choices to make. Here are a few that I’ve gone through:
-Outline or seat of the pants – to outline before writing or just sit down and let it flow. I have tried various points on this spectrum and find that a basic outline works best for me. From there I find the story always goes in directions I wouldn’t have predicted, but I still have a basic framework to work from.
-Time of day to write – I’m a morning person and have gravitated to writing in the morning. I take a walk in the middle of the day to exercise, take a mental break and brainstorm, and then do administrative work, social networking and editing in the afternoon.
-Writing in dribs and drabs or extended periods – when I worked full time, I’d do a small amount of writing in the morning before going to my day job. I adapted a technique from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and used her Morning Pages concept to write three handwritten pages every morning. When I got home from work, I’d do an editing pass and enter these into my computer, typically producing two typed pages. If you do the arithmetic, if I stuck with it, I’d have the draft for a 300 page novel in 150 days. Now that I’ve retired into fiction writing, I dedicate the whole morning to writing except when I have events or am traveling.
- Editing as you go or after a rough draft – although I reread and do some revisions along the way, my main editing is after I’ve completed my rough draft. Then I go through numerous passes: content, consistency, word choice, grammar, repetitive (pet) words and reading it aloud.
-Clean desk vs. messy desk – For the Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America chapter, we recently submitted pictures of our workspace. There was the whole range from neat to messy. I am a folder person, so I keep stacks and cabinet drawers full of file folders. My desk has two stacks of folders with a clean space in between to work, with my computer on the other side of an “L.”

Find what works for you and go with it.

The New Jerusalem

by Leighton Gage

Pictured above, is one of the seven gates to New Jerusalem.

All of them constructed out of stone.

As are the walls that connect them.

Looks like a city in the Holy Land, doesn’t it?

In fact, Nova Jerusalem (as it's rendered in Portuguese), is the world’s largest open-air theater.

It consists of an area of over 100,000 square meters, surrounded by 3,500 meters of walls and 70 towers, all constructed to duplicate the walls and towers of Jerusalem at the time Christ was crucified. 

It’s a bit smaller in scale, only about one-third of the size of the original, but it’s still pretty impressive.

The theatre stands  some 180 km due west of Recife, the capital of the Brazilian State of Pernambuco. And Recife, my friends, is about 1,900 km to the North of Rio de Janeiro, which really puts this New Jerusalem off the beaten track.

But each year, during Holy Week, thousands of people gather there to witness Brazil’s most famous Passion play.

Every Evening, beginning at six pm, about 8,000 spectators spend two hours walking a four kilometer path within the walls.

The path takes them past nine permanent stages.

 At each stage, they witness 60 key actors, and as many as 500 extras, act out the key incidents in the last week of the life of Jesus.

Including his crucifixion...

...and resurrection.

It's all presented with digital sound and spectacular lighting effects.

And some of Brazil's most famous actors have roles

If you’ve been to Greece for Easter, and also visited Seville during the Semana Santa, you might consider making this the next one on your list.

A Friday the 13th Free Book Giveaway Planned

Mystery novelist and former journalist Stacy Juba put together a group of 13 authors for a Friday the 13th free Kindle book giveaway to take place next week.

Stacy, how and why did you come up with the Friday the 13th free book extravaganza with 13 authors?

My mystery novel Sink or Swim is entered in the Kindle Select program, which means that I've given Amazon a 90-day exclusive for the e-book edition in return for 5 free promotion days designed to boost its visibility on Amazon. I used up my first 3 days, and had great success, with many sales in the U.S. and the United Kingdom - its best performance ever. I had two days remaining before I put it back with other retailers, and I didn't know if I could exceed or match the previous success as many e-book sites had already featured the book. I had already chosen April 13 as a free day, to tie-in with a couple other promotions that I had happening at that time, and I suddenly realized that was Friday the 13th. I thought that would be a good hook for a bunch of mystery authors to get together and host a free Kindle day. I knew it had to be 13 books and 13 authors. I spread the word on some author loops that I was looking for Kindle Select mystery authors to team up with, and had a great response.

How does it work?

On Friday, April 13, we'll have 13 books free in the Kindle store. All books on the list are guaranteed to be free that day only. We've been working aggressively to get the word out. The authors have a publishing history that includes Dutton, William Morrow, Dell, Avon, MIRA Books, St. Martin's Minotaur, and Mainly Murder Press, to name a few.

Among the accomplishments of the listed authors are New York Times bestselling, Amazon bestselling, Edgar-nominated, Agatha-nominated, winner of the St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Novel, finalist in the Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine National Short Story Contest, and recipients of the Premier Book Awards Mystery/Thriller of the Year Award, to name just a few accomplishments. So the whole event is quite exciting and Kindle readers will have an opportunity to grab 13 quality books at no cost. Some, like Sink or Swim, will be free for the last time.

Thanks, Stacy.

A list of the free books which will be available: http://www.amazon.com/lm/RXUK7UVMTPUOH/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb=

~Jean Henry Mead

Guest Blogger Jochem Vandersteen on Hardboiled Prose

It's my pleasure to introduce guest blogger Jochem Vandersteen. Jochem is the writer of the Noah Milano series and the founder of the Hardboiled Collective. He blogs at http://sonsofspade.blogspot.com/, a review site for private detective fiction.

To me, one of the main attractions to hardboiled fiction to me is the writing style. Sure, I love the tough guys walking around and the plots involving murder, crooks and femme fatales but if there’s one genre that is generally written in a style I enjoy, it’s the hardboiled one.

Hardboiled prose is sparse, direct, tough.

This style was born from the working class readership of the first pulp magazines like Black Mask and Dime Detective that offered these stories. Also, an important element was the fact the writers of these stories got paid by the word. If they didn’t want the content of their stories butchered by editors they had to tell those stories in as few words as possible.

The most famous name coming from these pulps is of course Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is the first great use of sparse, unemotional language to tell a story, still one of the best examples of a lean prose style as can be found. No wonder my blog is called “Sons of Spade” after the protagonist of this novel, Sam Spade.

Somewhat later Raymond Chandler came along and with his Philip Marlowe stories took  the sparse, clipped phrasings of Hammett and added some of the greatest similes ever along with a slightly  more poetic and romantic attitude.

RobertB. Parker picked up on this and perfected it in his Spenser novels which will always be great examples of how you can tell a story without getting bogged down by long, uninteresting descriptions. Elmore Leonard had as one of his writing rules “Leave out the parts people skip.” Together with Robert, he is a master at this..

Popular writer James Ellroy was forced to emulate the great pulp writers when his original draft manuscript, consisting of 809 pages, of LA Confidential (1990) arrived at his editor. The editor decided the book was too long and needed to be shortened for the sake of publishing costs. Ellroy decided the plot was too intricate to cut scenes and went through the manuscript page by page, removing extraneous words. He reduced the length of the manuscript by over two hundred pages and didn’t lose a scene. This ended up being his household style.

With my own Noah Milano stories I try to tell a good, exciting story that is easy to read and gives you the most bang for your buck as possible. That’s why I write a lot of short stories and bring out novelettes. I’m not writing psychological thrillers or conspiracy novels that go on and on for hundreds and hundreds of pages, I write hardboiled fiction and I’m proud of that fact.

.

J