Who doesn't think of flowers when they think of May? However, let's go a step further. How can we use flowers in our books? Here are some examples: Setting - When describing a character's surroundings, to ground a reader, include a flower typically grown in one portion of the country. For example, in the Spring, you might see outdoor cactus flowers in Scottsdale, but not in Chicago. Season - Poinsettias are a prime example for Christmastime, while crocus, daffodils,and tulips bring Spring to mind, in such places as the Midwest portion of the United States. Romance  - Flowers are a no-brainer when it comes to romance. Single flowers, especially red roses, convey passion, while pink, affection. White roses are popular in bridal bouquets. And, a groom, who usually wouldn't wear a corsage, would wear a boutonniere at his wedding. Sloppy or Not? - This time of year also brings to mind dandelions, which some consider a weed, others, a flower, or even a ...

Graphic by Elle Carter Neal I’m often asked, “How long should a chapter be?” There is no correct answer to that. I’ve read books that had one-page chapters, books with varied page-count chapters, and one book, Delores Claiborne by Stephen King, had NO chapters. You can be arbitrary and make a chapter break every 10 (or 15 or 25) pages. But you really don’t need to set your book up in chapters to begin with (unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool outliner). Sometimes, it’s easier to write the whole first draft with no chapters, just scene breaks, and do your chapter numbering later. For me, as a writer, a chapter is a feel, a rhythm to a story. A chapter is a story within a story with a beginning, middle and an end. As a reader, I also like scene breaks within a chapter to change up that rhythm, and because we are now a society of short attention spans. We are accustomed to “sound bites”, tweets, and texts. Break your chapter when your story needs a change of place, time, an...

Kathryn Craft returns today with a guest post to kick off her blog book tour for her new release, The Far End of Happy (available May 5 th ). You can read Elle's review of Kathryn's excellent book here . Many of us, when first drafting a story, see it as if a film is unreeling in our minds. The words we apply to the page are our way of translating what we see and hear for the reader. This is a great place to start, and can, in the right authorial hands, result in a wild ride for the reader. Readers love a wild ride! But once the ride comes to a stop, the experience is often all but forgotten. We authors wish the memory of our work could linger so our efforts won’t be forgotten. Rather than tinker with wording alone on your next several passes, here are some questions you can ask yourself about your story that can deepen its impact. 1. What is this story really about? The essence of my novel The Far End of Happy is expressed in its logline: “Three women must make i...

Inspirational blooms in my garden If you're anything like me, you might be ready to push back your writing chair and do something different for a few weeks. Spring fever always has me wanting to get outside and work in the garden. The last thing on my mind is crunching out a daily word count for a novel. Maybe the outdoors is exactly what your writing life needs to replenish a surge of creative energy. There's nothing like a change to make the imagination bloom again, and what better place than outdoors where nature is bursting through the warm soil, sending up new shoots and flowering bulbs? I love when the days warm up and I can get outside for long walks and photo sessions to record all the changes around me. By the time I'm back in my writing chair, I usually have a few new ideas to explore or directions for online research that I might be able to use in the book. A long country walk I also find connecting with new friends and projects can help inspire. M...

What would happen if the world ran out of water? Would our societies survive? Would our technology? The more I thought about this, the more complex the situation became. Without water, humans and animals would get sick, cities crumble, and the way of life we know would disappear. At first I set the book in the real world. I started doing research about how people would survive in a dystopian land, which technologies would last, and which would not, but I soon got bogged down in the details. What I needed was an alternative world and a history which is based on ours, but is nevertheless a fiction. This was my starting point, but the book took off when I found my main character. As is usual for me, she came in one vivid image -- a girl standing on a rock looking down on a line of wagons carrying water to a distant town. So precious is their cargo that the wagons are guarded day and night. Mouse wants to be a guard. She wants to leave the narrow confines of The Town and go out in...

Hip and back stretches are especially important for people who sit a lot. The older you are, the more important it is to get up often and stretch out those tight joints and muscles. Here's a short video to help. You can find more Yoga JP videos by clicking and subscribing here .

Even after writing for years, do you still get stuck with “writer’s block?” What do you do to break through? As a former journalist, having a deadline to meet helps me. I belong to a critique group that meets once a week, so I know I need to bring pages for that. Another tip I’ve learned is to write a scene out of chronological order—write your ending first, or maybe you know what you want to write somewhere later in the story, but you don’t know how to get from where you are now to that scene. Go ahead a write it. It often will give you ideas of what you need to write to fill in the gaps. Ask yourself 5 'what if' questions. For instance: 1. What if he/she decided to kill someone? 2. What if they won a million dollars? 3. What if they had quadruplets? 4. What if aliens landed in their garden? 5. What if they turned into a frog? Apparently, Stephen King plays a variation of this game called, “Wouldn't it be funny if…” to come up with his horror ideas. In...

sebp on morguefile Most people like contrast. A neutral wall becomes a focal point in a room if decorated with colorful artwork or contrasting stripes. Bland chairs and couches make a fashion statement when adorned with brightly colored, harmonizing throw pillows. Conservative suits and shirts invite brilliantly hued or dazzlingly printed ties to show them off. Beige or black skirts and pants beg for multicolored tops or jackets. All the above transform boring into fascinating. Similarly, layers pique interest. A winter or spring outfit layered to address cold or changing temperatures often garner second looks. Gorgeous rose blossoms sport layers of delicate petals. Vegetables also come in layered forms—cabbage, lettuce, artichokes. Delicious lasagnas and pizzas with multiple toppings, as well as some dips and desserts, offer layers of “yummy” to hungry diners. pippalou at morguefiles Our books benefit greatly when both these elements are incorporated. Contrast, for example...

My editor recently returned her edits for Deadly Production, my next Mapleton mystery. It's the fourth book in the series, and she said this was the cleanest manuscript of all the books she'd edited for me. But, she did have one overall comment. She said, "It reads like a sequel." Of course, we both know it is, but she suggested more details, both about Mapleton and the locals. Before I plunged in and added details, I needed to look at the first three books to make sure I wasn't changing things around. Putting the mayor's office on the wrong floor, or moving other buildings, for example. Or taking a tall, skinny character and making him short and fat, or white when he was African American in another book. You know what I found? Very little. Most of my character descriptions throughout the entire series were painted with very broad brush strokes. A few words here and there, but I never stopped to give a full-blown description. Ozzie is the cook at Dail...

A cream puff, soon to be devoured. Hello, dearies! It’s been a week for ducks here, with rain a near-constant companion for the last several days. Lacking suitable damp-weather gear, I've taken the downpour as a sign to stay in and perfect my cream puff recipe. In between nibbles, I’m delighting in turning the glossy pages of various baking tomes. The recipes are nearly as inviting as the photographs, and the photographs themselves caught my attention for another reason entirely. Captions. How often do we really pay attention to captions beyond their informational content? Figure 1. A stick-thin model pretends to enjoy a bite of artisan bread, which she will promptly spit out once the camera is off. While you as an author are sensibly focused on providing the best possible narrative, your editor will be on the lookout for appropriate punctuation and capitalization throughout the book; this includes captions. The CMOS is generous in its treatment of captions, t...

It’s a writer’s truism: the most important paragraph is the first one. It opens the door to the reader, inviting him or her to come into the place you have prepared for them. Your opening must convince them that this place is somewhere they want to visit, and perhaps stay for a long time. I have two rules for writing openings, which I (almost) always try to live up to. Here they are: The first rule is to provide a few sensory details in the first paragraph, so the reader feels as though they are “there.”  What does the character or setting look like? Colors, shapes, designs? What sounds are there? Loud voices, whistles, screams, bells? What smells? Strong like gasoline? Sweet like lilacs? Wet wool drying on a radiator? What tactile sensations? Soft wind on skin? The rough scrape of a poorly shaved chin?  The second rule is that the first scene should either encapsulate or foreshadow the theme of the entire chapter or book. Here’s an example from a book I work...

Photo by Jackie , via Flickr In last month’s post on expository technique , I identified reportage as the most utilitarian, least evocative mode of exposition. By way of supporting evidence, I provided parallel passages demonstrating alternative strategies for relaying expository information to the reader. By force of habit on my part, these passages were all written in third person. But what holds true in third person doesn’t necessarily apply in other modes of narration. On the contrary, there’s a case to be made for arguing that reportage is the very essence of first person narration. This is owing to the narrow restrictions in first person vision and perspective. Information pertaining to setting, atmosphere, backstory and plot can only be layered into the narrative through the medium of the narrator’s self-expression. First person reportage is thus both highly selective and highly subjective. The challenge for the writer is to establish the first person narrator as an au...

Woodland Park Library, Teller County, CO This is National Library Week. Do you love libraries? I know I do. When I was a child, my parents told everyone we had to move because I'd finished the local library. Okay, so maybe only the children's section, but I was an avid reader and loved our trips to the John C. Fremont Library in Los Angeles. We were allowed to check out ten books, and it was all I could do to carry them. Sadly, our new home wasn't as close to a library, and I was busy with school—but the school did have a library, and in junior high I chose "library service" as one of my electives. I got to spend an hour a day surrounded by books. Years later, we moved to Florida, and I instilled the library habit in my kids. I can still remember how they'd arrive home with their piles of books and say they'd already finished some of them. And yes, they were little, and the books were mostly pictures, but all of my kids seemed to emerge from the wo...

My writer friend, VR Barkowski, gave me permission to repost one of her blogs because I thought it bore repeating. VR’s debut novel is A Twist of Hate and can be found on Amazon. Check it out. A is for Anne Lamott. Who, in Bird by Bird , reminds us of the importance of shitty first drafts. B is for blogging. After all, isn't that what the A to Z is all about? C is for critiques. Be gracious, be kind, be honest, be open-minded—both when giving and receiving. D is for drafts. First drafts receive the lion's share of attention, but a first draft is only the clay. It is the innumerable subsequent drafts which will mold that clay into something extraordinary. E is for editing. Approach this task without mercy. (Unless you're writing about a character named Mercy, as I am.) F is for formula. The kryptonite of the creative mind. Avoid whenever possible. G is for grammar. One of the required tools of the writing trade. Get up close and personal. You can't do th...

Whether real or imaginary, the places I set my books are always entwined with the plot and the characters. In fact, sometimes my starting point is a particular place and the story and people grow from that basis. For instance, I decided to set a book at the Tower of London ( The Bloody Tower ). The plot could not happen elsewhere, nor could the characters and their relationships. Last Autumn, I visited St. Michael’s Mount in southern Cornwall with a view to my protagonist, Eleanor Trewynn, staying at the castle for my next Cornish mystery. The basis of the plot had already been growing in my mind for some time. The place seemed ideal: a semi-island reachable only by boat at high tide or on foot at low tide. St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, photo Carola Dunn I wrote nearly 20,000 words before I decided the Mount was just too much of a good thing, too inaccessible. Besides the difficulties of getting there, the path to the castle is steep and rocky—and Eleanor is in her 60s (whi...

Sometimes, books die. They die because authors fail to promote them properly, or they don’t promote them long enough for the books to gain traction, and ultimately, more sales. Sometimes, they die because they are not the next book. As authors move on to their next story and the promotion behind that book before, during, and after publication, they may think their older works can do well on their own. And that’s not true. If you have older works, perform a promotional inventory. Brainstorm two questions: 1) what have you done in the past to promote older works? and 2) what can you do NOW to re-introduce these books to new readers? Books don't die. There is always a new reader to introduce them to. How do you continue to resurrect your older works to new readers? ----- Writing in 140 is my attempt to say something somewhat relevant about writing in 140 words or less. Creative Passionista  Shon Bacon is an author, editor, and educator whose biggest joys ar...

What do April showers and May flowers have to do with writing? Much more than we might think. How so? Cause and effect . by Seemann at MorgueFiles A primary mover of story that keeps the reader riveted to its pages is conflict—what causes a rift or problem between characters or character and circumstances and what short- and long-term effects ensue. Conflict (which often springs naturally from a “what if” writing mentality) creates loose ends, both great and small, that almost always need to be tied up. Failing to address even little dangling “ends” may make a disappointed reader hesitate to purchase our next book, so this is a biggie when it comes to establishing ourselves as go-to writers when a reader wants a sure-fire great book. One of the big differences between mediocre work and excellent work is attention to details. When applied to writing, this difference includes the cause-effect-loose ends-resolution scenario. While there may be times when resolution isn’t ap...

Photo by Cara Lopez Lee When novelists speak about their craft, I feel like a voyeur - because what is more intimate than storytelling? Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro recently told me that he drafts novels long-hand, partly because writing at a keyboard feels "like a performance." Actually, he said this to about a hundred people, but he was looking right at me! I had the privilege of listening to Ishiguro answer questions from fellow authors during his recent weekend with Denver's Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Ishiguro is the author of six novels, including The Buried Giant, Never Let Me Go,  and The Remains of the Day, which earned him the Mann Booker Prize. His comment that typing feels like a performance influenced me this past week as I faced a daunting rewrite. I chose to forego the intimidating task of typing-and-deleting, typing-and-judging, typing-and-regretting perfect little letters into my manuscript. Instead, I used a pen to slop whatever came into my head i...