Purple Prose:
Donald Maass

I love craft books that focus on writing fiction, but I’ve read so many that I reached a saturation point. Or so I’d thought.

Earlier this month, Donald Maass released his newest book, Writing 21^st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Story Telling. I’m a fan of his books, but I had no intention of buying this one. What could it teach me that the others on my bookshelf haven’t already?*

Well, apparently plenty.

Upon studying the bestselling lists, Donald noticed an interesting trend. Literary novels lasted weeks on the lists; genre novels survived only a week or two (with a few exceptions). He wanted to know why the difference, so he analyzed a multitude of books from the two groups. The findings led to what I can honestly say is his BEST book, ever.

One thing I love most about Donald’s books is his exercises. These techniques challenge our stories and our writing. Some of the questions can be applied during the planning phase, others during revisions (or you can use them all during your revisions). For example:

• Pick a small moment, when something tiny happens. Write down every feeling your protagonist has about that. Go deeper. What does it mean or epitomize? How does it sum up life? Weave a passage. Something small becomes big. (Chapter 3: The Inner Journey)

• What does your protagonist believe beyond all else? Create a story event that forces him to accept the opposite. (Chapter 5: Standout Characters)

• Pick a weak scene. What are three setting details that only your POV character would notice? How does this place feel, or make your character feel? Create a passage of subjective opinion regarding the place itself. Delete all other description. (Chapter 6: The Three Levels of Story)

One of the things I liked least about his other books is the lengthy excerpts he uses to demonstrate his points. I tended to skim over them, as did many people I’ve talked to. In Writing 21^stCentury Fiction, you’ll still find excerpts, but they are shorter, fewer in number, and from various genres (including YA, yay!).

Have you read any of Donald’s writing craft books? Do you enjoy learning new techniques to challenge your writing, or do you learn by analyzing the novels you read?

* I bought the book because Donald is doing a workshop based on the book in my city next year.

It’s official. I now have well over 500 followers. So, it’s time for a celebration.

In addition to those 500 or so who hang out on my ‘followers’ widget, over 550 people subscribe to my email (though I suspect some of those individuals are widget followers, too). And let’s not forget those individuals who follow me through Google Reader.

Because of this, I’m going to make the rules for this contest slightly different than for the typical blog giveaway. You don’t have to follow my blog in order to participate. Hopefully, though, you think it’s a kick-ass blog because of my writerly (and photography) posts, and you are delighted to follow me regardless. *grins*

Prizes

1. Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2 copies): If you want to know why I love the workbook and how I’ve used it in my revisions of my WIP, then check out the appropriate links to my past posts.

2. First chapter critique (3): This also includes the form I filled out when I was a judge for a recent RWA (Romance Writers of America) Chapter contest. If your novel is YA, then I’ll fill in the full form; otherwise, the form will be modified.

How to Enter

You get one entry for each of the following:

• Filled in the entry form
• Follower (widget)
• Left a comment (I love comments)
• Tweeted about the contest (include @stinall in your tweet)
• Blogged about the contest (include post link)

Depending on the popularity of the giveaway, I will increase the number of critiques being offered. My WIP is about to go out to my first round of beta readers *waves at beta readers*, so I’ll have plenty of time to critique first chapters (I’ll need to do something to keep me out of trouble busy). However, if your first chapter isn’t ready at that point, you can send it to me whenever you want to. There’s no time limit.

The giveaway is open to international entries.

Contest ends Sunday May 29th at 11:59 EST. I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday June 1st.

Good luck everyone!

(I didn't take this photo.)
Are you ready to get your butt ready for bikini season manuscript in peak shape for querying?

Are you ready to sweat and feel the burn?

Then I have the workout for you. It’s guaranteed* to whip your butt manuscript into shape and leave agents drooling. And a drooling agent = The Call.

First, you’re going to need some equipment:

• Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. You don’t have a copy, you say? Then stay tune. It will be one of the prizes in my upcoming contest to celebrate reaching 500 + followers. (note: if you don’t want to bother with the workbook (though I highly recommend it), you can still do some of the workout. Adjust accordingly).

Workout

Warm up:

1. Characterizations

2. Outline

Some people (also known as pansters) prefer to skip the warm up. I’m not going to make you do twenty push-ups if you do. Just remember, you may need to do more work to get your manuscript into shape compared to the outliners.

Donald Maass’s workbook has some great exercises to do for the warm up (found under Character Development and Plot Development). However, I did them after I finished the first draft of my current WIP. With my next project, I’ll do them during my preplanning, to make sure my characterizations and outline are properly warmed up before I start my first draft.

Light Aerobic Exercise:

1. Write your first draft. I don’t care if you speed through it or if your internal editor is peeking over your shoulder (like mine). Just do it!

2. Read through your manuscript and write notes about things you want to fix (like inconsistencies) or things you’re questioning. Go back and deal with them now if necessary.

Intense Aerobic Exercise:

1. Go through your WIP using the exercises in Donald’s workbook under the section Character Development. With my WIP, I went through the entire manuscript doing this step.

2. Go through the remainder of the workbook (Plot Development and General Story Techniques), completing as many of the exercise as you can. Some will have to wait until you analyze the WIP at the scene level (next step).

3. Now we’re going to do interval training. Divide your WIP into chunks, each containing about three chapters (depending on the length of the chapters). Why? Because after each chunk has gone through the interval training, it’s send off to your CPs. Of course, you don’t have to do it this way. But this is how I did it.

a. Go through each scene doing the exercises in the workbook (under Plot Development and General Story Techniques). Not all exercises will be necessary for each scene. Only you can decide which ones apply to a given scene.

b. After editing the scene according to the above step, do a dialogue pass. I talked about this last week on my Query Tracker Blog post (Strengthening Dialogue).

c. The final step is to Toss The Pages. Okay, I don’t actually toss anything. I randomly select the pages. But the main point is I don’t edit these pages sequentially. This enables me to focus on the writing and not on the story. I also use the RWA handouts list under ‘equipment’ during this part. Doing it this way helps me deepen the layers of the story (setting, emotion, etc). Check out the handout, From First Draft to Final Manuscript, and you’ll see what I mean. Really push yourself on this step. Don’t gloss over it, thinking the page is fine. I bet you can make it better.

d. Continue the above three steps then read through the chunk of chapters you were working on and edit if necessary.

e. Send to CPs (optional but recommended). Edit based on their suggestions.

f. Repeat steps a-e for next chunk of the WIP.

Cool Down

1. Once finished—and after you’ve given it some distance—read through your manuscript and deal with any areas you feel could be further improved on (like pacing).

2. Send to beta readers. Edit as needed.

Celebration

(I didn't take this either)

Yay! You are now ready to query. Just make sure you’ve put your query and synopsis through their own intensive workout.

Good luck!

Any other suggestions? How do you usually edit?

* Fine Print:
1. I’m using this workout with my current WIP, so I don’t actually know if it will work when it comes to querying it. But it has made MAJOR improvements in my manuscript, hence why I’m sold on it. Of course, both the writing and a unique concept are important too. This workout won’t help you there. Sorry.
2. I lied about it being a twenty-minute workout. But it got you to look, didn’t it? ;)

When it comes to grabbing the reader’s attention, a great first page is vital. With agents, if they don’t make it past the first page, well, you know what happens.

With my current WIP (YA contemporary), I knew there was something not quite right about the beginning. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. It had voice, but there was no real connection with the main character. I knew it needed something more, but what?

Then I heard that agents Joanna Volpe and Suzie Townsend are critiquing the first 250 words of volunteers’ novels and posting the feedback on their blog, Confessions From Suite 500. The one rule: You have to study the first page of several novels from your genre. Great. That sounded simple enough.

Four hours later, and a huge stack of novels on my floor, I had studied the first two paragraphs of 38 YA contemporary novels, 15 YA paranormal novels, and 16 winning YA entries from past MSFV Secret agent contests. I compiled the data into tables (did I tell you I’m analytical?) and indicated which first two paragraphs hooked me. Based on the results, I came to this startling conclusion:

The first two paragraphs that made me want to read more involved a combination of introspection and action.

When I say action, I’m talking maybe a sentence or two just to break up the introspection, and it wasn’t big action. And, of course, the introspection wasn’t rambling or long. It got to the point within the first paragraph and was loaded with voice.

My findings also supported what Donald Maass wrote in his Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook. In his workshops , he has the participants read their first lines. After each line is read, the participants put up their hand if they would keep reading:

“Weather effects, descriptions, and scene setting never get a strong response. Neither does plain action—unless there is something puzzling about it. The best first lines make us lean forward, wondering, What the heck does that mean?”

Now remember, these results are based on the beginnings that hooked me. Try this exercise for yourself and see what kinds of openings appeal to you the most. You might be surprised.

(Edit: I've had requests for me to publish the tables. Just click on this link if you want to see them.)