It’s not enough to write a page-turning story with characters you can’t help but love. Editors, agents, and readers are eager for writing that does not read like this:

After reading all the words on my contract, I know what my rights are.

They want tight, powerful prose like this:

I read my contract. I know my rights.

And this is where Don McNair’s book, Editor-Proof Your Writing: 21 Steps To The Clear Prose Publishers And Agents Crave, comes in. He lays out the 21 steps that are guaranteed to tighten your prose. Each step explains the specific issue (e.g. double verbs) and provides lots of examples. You then apply your new knowledge to the exercises with each step and the accompanying excerpt from a book (I skipped the excerpts). The final assignment for each step is to apply it to your first chapter (and only your first chapter). Most of the steps are achieved using the FIND function, so they’re easy to do.

After you’ve studied the book, you can apply each step to your novel. Even if you know most of the information, you’ll be surprised how many “issues” you’ve missed in your manuscript. For example, you might have sentences like this:

I sat down and watched TV.

Unless there is something significant about the act of sitting down, you can simply write:

I watched TV.

It is assumed the character is sitting. This sounds pretty obvious, but you might be surprised how many times you make this mistake without realizing it.

Another example is:

Their squeals of laughter fill the air as they chase each other and play tag.

The last I heard, tag involves being chased. The better way to write it would be:

Their squeals of laughter fill the air as they play tag.

I highly recommend the book to everyone, especially if you tend to write like the before examples. It’s a quick and easy read that makes the editing process more efficient. Also, it includes several chapters on hooking the reader and keeping them hooked.

How do you edit your writing to ensure it isn’t flabby?

In an attempt to bring life to their writing, many new writers fall in love with adverbs and clichés. In truth, adverb and cliché abuse has the opposite effect to what they intended. It leads to flat writing.

Jessica Bell’s newest book, Adverbs & Clichés in a Nutshell, is what your prose really needs. She explains why you want to avoid them, and proves a multitude of examples to show how much better your writing will be when you use, instead, alternative methods to bring your writing to life.

For each example, she lists a bunch of adverbs and clichés. Next, she has two similar paragraphs demonstrating the use of these words. One is written with the adverbs from the list, the other with the clichés. And finally, she presents a paragraph rich with imagery that is far superior to the previous two. You learn by example.

I recommend Adverbs & Clichés in a Nutshell to everyone who struggles with them. And I especially recommend it to EVERYONE in broadcasting. Apparently someone told them that clichés are a good thing, and the more you abuse the better. They always look proud when they do it. Too bad they can’t hear me groan.

Last month, Natalie Aguirre (Literary Rambles) interviewed Chuck Sambuchino about his new book, Create Your Writer Platform. Natalie was excited about the book, so I had to check it out.

Unlike other promotion-based books I’ve reviewed, this book doesn’t focus solely on social media. Chuck talks about what platform is and why it’s necessary. He shares twelve fundamental principles of platform (the book is worth it for this chapter alone), and he discusses platform for fiction and memoirs. Topics also include choosing the platform avenues that will work for you, as well as information on the use of websites, blogs, newsletters, non-fiction articles, public speaking, and social media. At the end of the book is a section with author case studies that showcase what several authors did to make the most of their platforms.

Create Your Writer Platform is one of those books you don’t have to worry about being out of date before you finish reading it, because Facebook decided to add another feature, or because there’s a new social media site that’s suddenly become popular. And it’s one of those books you’ll want to review again and again.

* * *

If you’re interested in learning more about crafting YOUR social media strategy, the YARWA (YA chapter of the Romance Writers of America) is offering a month long workshop during April. This workshop is for both the newbie and individuals experienced with social media. For more information, please check out their website. You don’t have to be a member of the YARWA or RWA to register.

Have you given much thought to your writer platform?

I’ll see you in April, when I return to blogging after spring break. XOX

Two months ago, I swore I wouldn’t buy any more books dealing with the craft of writing fiction. But after reading this and this post on the moral premise, my interest was piqued regarding the book The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue & Vice for Box Office Success by Stanley D. Williams.

Did I buy the book right away? Nope. Didn’t need to. The moral premise for my WIP came easily to me, thanks to the blog posts. It wasn’t until I started to figure out my next story that I became stuck. My moral premise was lame. Actually, it went beyond lame. It sucked.

So, I ordered the book and I’m glad I did.

The book goes into what the moral premise really means and why it can benefit your story. As Dr. Williams points out, theme only plays part of it. For example, the moral premise for the James Bond movies would be: The pursuit of power leads to death and defeat; while the pursuit of justice leads to life and success (taken from the book).

The Moral Premise brilliantly explains how to create yours based on vice and virtue, how to use it to create your characters, and how to apply it to your plot and story structure. It gives you a framework for building a strong story that won’t let you and your readers down.

If you want to write a story that will resonate with your readers, I highly recommend the book. It’s both insightful and enjoyable. In all honestly, I couldn’t put the book down (though I did skim through a few of the early chapters). And the best part of all, there are plenty of examples from movies to demonstrate the author’s points. Movies we’re all familiar with.

What is the last writing craft book you’ve read? Do you usually figure out your theme before writing your story?

For many writers, once we’ve made the decision to pursue a writing career, we become so focused on finishing our book, we often don’t think about what comes afterwards. And with more options available to us than a few years ago, it’s important that we look at the big picture, no matter where we are in the pursuit of publication.

How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now! By L. Diane Wolfe is a thorough guide that will benefit writers, no matter where they are in the writing process. It covers everything you could possibility want to know about writing and beyond. In total, there are eighty-four chapters, each ranging between two to three pages. Topics cover all aspects of traditional and self publishing, social networking, marketing, and promotion. And with each topic, the book explains everything you need to know so that you can make the choices that are right for you and your project.

Chapters include:

• Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing

• Going the Traditional Route

• Business Setup (i.e. what you need to know if you’re self publishing)

• Developing a Website

• The Media

• Reviewers

• Where to Send Review Copies

• What to Expect From Reviews

• Newsletters

Because each chapter is short, you won’t find the level of information that you might find in a book or online workshop focused on that specific topic (for example, writing newsletters). But it is a great resource for figuring out what you need to do to succeed. The book is also filled with links you can click on for additional information on various topics. This makes the book invaluable, regardless of which publishing route you choose.

Have you thought much about promotion, regardless of where you are on the publishing path? (and that includes those of you writing the first draft of your first novel).

Note: I’d like to thank L.Diane Wolfe’s publisher for providing me a copy of the book for the review.

Available February 5, 2012
Publishing/Marketing, 214 pages
$14.95 Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-9827139-5-2
$4.99 Ebook ISBN 978-0-9827139-9-0
Available in all Ebook formats

Barnes and Noble -
Amazon -
Amazon Kindle -

Like most bloggers, I'm taking time off during the holiday season to spend time with my family--and work on the first draft of my new project. I wish you all a happy holiday and I'll see in January.

A few weeks ago PETE the Elf had a touch too much Eggnog at the Holiday Christmas Party and as he stumbled home, he lost Santa's NICE LIST.

The North Wind scattered the papers to all four corners of the world, and The Bookshelf Muse put out a call to help find them in order to SAVE CHRISTMAS.

Ever since I read about it, I've been on the lookout. And then today, EUREKA!

Yes that's right...I found part of Santa's missing NICE LIST. There it was, fluttering in the wind, half caught under the corner of my welcome mat. And shock of all shocks, I recognized the name, and I bet you will too.

Here it is below:

NAME: Leigh T Moore (aka LTM)

LOCATION: That's Write

NICE LEVEL: 93%

NAUGHTY LEVEL: 7%

OBSERVATIONS: This summer, Leigh introduced me to the New Adult book Easy by Tammara Webber (before it became the much hyped about book that NYC snatched up). That one book changed everything for me, and set me on the course to writing New Adult novels.

RECOMMENDATION: a) Coal b) Gift

~ ~ * ~ ~

Because poor Pete is dashing all over the place trying to hunt down the rest of Santa's missing Nice List, I decided to take care of this one myself. Leigh, I thank you for that email conversation that changed everything! I'm sending you a Kindle indie YA or NA novel of your choice (unfortunately Nook won't let me gift people because I don't live in the US. So hopefully you can read Kindle books). :)

If you write straight romances or novels with a romantic subplot, you’ll want to check out Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Alexandra Sokoloff. I’ve read a few books on writing romance, but this is the best one I’ve seen.

Unlike other books that deal with the topic of romance, Alexandra focuses on what she’s known best for: story structure. If you haven’t read her first book (Screenwriting Tricks for Authors), you might want to do that first. But for $2.99, it’s worth it. Alexandra assumes you’ve already read the book before reading Writing Love. If you’re familiar with story structure, it’s not as big a deal if you want to skip on.

One of my favorite parts of Writing Love, which is worth the money alone, is the chapter on ‘love story’ elements. In it, Alejandra talks about scene and story setups that you will find in romance. These include: call to adventure (when the protagonist first notices her future love interest), the reluctant heroine, mistaken identity, handcuff the couple together (not necessarily literally).

Another thing I loved is that she took ten well-known romance movies (e.g. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility, While You Were Sleeping) and analyzed them according to their romantic storylines. This includes how the various ‘love story’ elements were used to drive the story. She also discussed how the rules of fairy-tale structure can be applied to your book.

Overall, I highly recommend Writing Love for all writers who include romance in their stories.
Do you write stories that have romance as their main story line, or are they usually subplots?

We know we’re supposed to show and not tell (most of the time), but do you really know how to show what you want to say? Or do your critique partners keep getting on your case for telling instead of showing?

Jessica Bell recently released her new book Show and Tell in a Nutshell. In it, she presents sixteen examples on how to show different attributes instead of “telling” them. For each example, she lists the key points she wants to show (for example, boredom, living conditions, mess) and turns it into a telling paragraph. She then presents the same information, but in a scene rich with “showing."

If, like me, you need a list of rules and explanations, then your best bet is to first read Rivet Your Readers with Deep POV by Jill Elizabeth Nelson (I reviewed the book here). Jessica’s book doesn’t share a list of dos and don’ts for showing verses telling. Instead, it provides you with before and after examples that you can analyze to see how Jessica improved the scenes with showing.You then apply the results to your own writing. The two books complement each other in this way. If you are the type of writer who prefers dissecting examples to see why it worked, and aren’t into a list of dos and don’ts, then Jessica’s book is perfect for you. Either way, Show and Tell in a Nutshell can benefit your writing if you struggle with the concept of show and tell.

In addition to the above, Show and Tell in a Nutshell provides a list of different attributes (e.g. alcoholism, anger, flu, lust, panic attack) so you can see examples of how you can show them in your story. This is a great starting place if you’re not sure how to do it.

What’s your preferred learning style? Studying lists of dos and don’ts, analyzing excerpts to see how authors performed their magic, or a combination of the two?

If you’re interested in winning a copy of Show and Tell in a Nutshell, Jessica is giving away a copy on Goodreads. Good luck!

***

And the winners of the New Adult giveaway last week are:

Meredith
Christina Lee

Both winners have already been contacted. I hope you enjoy your books. :)

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.

©Stina Lindenblatt

Yesterday, wonderful Angela Ackerman from The Bookshelf Muse guest posted on my blog and talked about creating suspense even if you don’t write suspense. But for some reason, my email subscribers never received the post in their inbox. On Monday, I changed the setting so that my post titles would show up in the Subject of the emails. That apparently was an epic fail. Sooooo, I’m posting today to test if the problem is fixed, and make sure everyone has a chance to read the post.

I’ve turned off the comments on this post, but would love it if you comment on Angela’s.

As a huge fan of Angela Ackerman, The bookshelf Muse, and The Emotion Thesaurus, I’m thrilled to have her on my blog today to talk about creating characters you want your readers to trust, even when they shouldn’t. The result is the page-turning story readers crave.

####

I don’t know about you, but I love reading books where the author encourages me to draw conclusions that are wrong. Case in point--untrustworthy characters who I trust anyway. Like all writers, I am ultra aware of character cues and actions as I read, so when I’m led astray and find out someone I believed to be good really isn’t, I want to cheer and tell the author, “Well done!”

Tricking readers in this manner is difficult. In real life, all of us are body language experts. At least 93% of communication is nonverbal, meaning we are very adept at ‘reading’ other people by their mannerisms, gestures, habits and voice changes. In books, this skill allows us to pick up on nonverbal description that communicates a character’s emotions. Plus, if we are in the dishonest character’s POV, we also have access to their thoughts and internal visceral sensations (heartbeat changes, adrenaline shifts and other uncontrollable fight-or-flight responses). All this means that tricking the reader can be very tough.

There are several ways to make the reader believe one thing while another thing is true. One technique is the red herring. This is where a writer nudges a reader in one direction hard enough that their brain picks up on ‘planted’ clues meant to mislead them. So for example, let’s say I had a character who was a pastor and youth councillor for his church and he spent his weekends working with homeless teens, trying to get them back into group homes. The reader will begin to get a certain image in their mind. If I then further describe him as slightly bald with a bad taste in fashion (imagine the kind of guy that wears those awful patterned sweater vests) but who has a ready smile for everyone he meets, it’s a good bet that I’ve disarmed the reader. They’ve written this character off as a good, honest guy. Even though his life is all about the church, no way could he be the one stealing cash from the collection box, or the man having affairs with depressed women parishioners, or playing Dr. Death by administering heroin to street teens, right?

Another technique is pairing. Similar to a red herring, pairing is when we do two things at once to mask important clues. If as an author I show my friendly pastor leaving an alleyway at night and then have a car crash happen right in front of him, which event will the reader focus on? And if later, the police find another overdosed teen nearby as they interview the pastor about the accident, commending him from pulling a woman from the wreckage before the car could explode...would the reader put two and two together? If I did my job right as an author, then no.

A third technique is to disguiseuntrustworthiness as a Character Flaw. After all, no one is perfect. Readers expect characters to have flaws to make them realistic. If our nice pastor (am I going to go to Hell for making my serial killer a pastor?) is characterized as absent-minded with a habit of forgetting names, misplacing his keys, or starting service late and flustered because of a mishap, later when the police ask him when he last saw dead teen X and he can’t quite remember, readers aren’t alarmed. After all, that’s just part of who the character is, right?

When your goal is to trick your readers, SET UP is vital--if the clues are not there all along, people will feel ripped off. Make sure to provide enough details that they are satisfied you pulled one over them fair and square!

What techniques do you use to show a character is untrustworthy? Any tips on balancing your clue-sprinkling so that the reader doesn’t pick up on your deceit before you’re ready for them to? Let me know in the comments!

Angela Ackerman is one half of The Bookshelf Muse blogging duo, and co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression. Listing the body language, visceral reactions and thoughts associated with seventy-fivedifferent emotions, this brainstorming guide is a valuable tool for showing, not telling, emotion.

If you read this link from Cool Links Friday last week, you’ve already had a taste of what you can expect in Rivet Your Readers With Deep POV by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. No matter what your skill level, you’ll benefit from the book, even if it’s just a reminder of the rules we quickly forget. These are the rules you don’t want to break, unless you want weak writing.

If you struggle with telling, this book will also help. For each topic, Jill gives examples of shallow POV, then shows how to make each sentence stronger. You might be surprised at how often you are inadvertently telling.
Topics include (note: these are not the chapter titles):

• POV basics
• What deep POV is and what it isn’t
• The dangers of thinking and feeling
• The horrors of prepositional telling
• It’s ABC not BCA: Are you writing out of order?
• First person deep POV (because you can screw up here, too)

The book also explains how to show emotion beyond the typical clichés (e.g. pounding heart). The Emotions Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi will help take your writing one step further. It’s the perfect accompanying book to Rivet Your Readers. It will give you ideas for showing emotion that you might not have otherwise thought of, both viscerally and externally. It’s the most used writing resource I own and also worthy of a 5 star rating.

Have you read either of these books? Have you read any books on POV?

By Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a publisher asking if I would review Arthur Plotnik’s newly revised and expanded book, The Elements of Expression. Being the craft-book junkie that I am, I said, “Hell yes!” (Okay, I might have put it a little more politely than that). I have Arthur’s book Spunk and Bite: A writer’s guide to bold, contemporary style, which I loved. I knew I had to read The Elements of Expression.

Right away I’m going to admit this book isn’t for everyone. If you love the study of language, definitely pick it up. If you want to write with eloquence and wit, this is the book for you. If you prefer a book that gets straight to the point, you might want to skip on it (though you are missing a treat if you do). And if you easily suffer from writer’s envy, well, this book is going to be painful. Though if you read it, you might become the author others get jealous over because of your style. Get my point? I hope you do.

The book is written for everyone. Fiction writers. Non-fiction writers. Bloggers. Tweeters (yes, seriously!). And if you’re planning to do public speaking (i.e. if you’re planning to make extra income by conducting workshops), you’ll want to check out the book. There is a chapter called ‘Speaking Louder Than Words: Oral Presentation’. It has great advice and exercises for becoming a powerful speaker. If you have to do presentations for your job, you’ll want to pick up this book. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

What you won’t find is a discussion on grammar. It’s a book on style and expression. A book for picking the right words and imagery for forceful writing. And forceful writing gets noticed by agents, editors, readers. Isn’t that what we want?

Fortunately, being a book on expression, it isn’t dry. The Elements of Expression is filled with wit that left me laughing at the most inopportune times. In other words, this isn’t like those much dreaded high school English textbooks. I don’t remember any of them having a chapter on ‘Make My Day: The Power of Tough Talk’.

Have you read any craft books that deal with style and expression?

As some of you know, I’m addicted to craft books on writing fiction. Because I’m about to tackle the revisions on the first draft of my YA horror novel, I couldn’t resist buying Revision & Self-Editing: Techniques for transforming your first draft into a finished novel by James Scott Bell.

First off, I already own several great books on editing (see list below). Each book offers writers something the others don’t. Revision & Self-Editing is no exception. The commonality between them is the multitude of exercises and checklists to help you identify your novel’s problem areas. If you’re a left-brainer (analytical thinker) or whole-brainer (like me), you’ll thrive on this aspect of the book. For the right-brainer (the creative thinker), the book will help you make your manuscript stronger. You just need to have an open mind to being analytical.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive book on writing fiction, this book isn’t for you. James covers all the important elements of fiction (characterization, plot & structure, point of view, dialogue, description, etc), but the chapters are more like summaries. For more in-depth information, you need to check out other resources (e.g. Plot & Structure). There is, though, tons of information you might not know or have forgotten. He hits the key points of each element, and he does it well.

What I found great about the book was that it is a quick read. I had a hard time putting it down (crazy, huh?) because the chapters are short. It was easy to read “just one more chapter” and then keep on reading. This made for an even quicker read. It means you’re not wasting time reading the book when what you really want to do is edit your novel. Overall, I highly recommend the book no matter what your skill level.

Do you have a favorite book you use for editing your manuscript?

Other recommended books:
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass
Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS!

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!

I am picking Laura Paulingfor so many reasons:

• Laura has an amazing blog. My favorite posts are when she analyzes books and movies using Save the Cat by Blake Synder.

• She’s a great beta reader. When she suggested a better way to restructure my WIP, I had one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” moments. And then she offered to reread it.

• She loves to help other writers.

• She has answered my questions about self publishing, and continues to support the self-publishing community.

Laura, my RAOK gift to you is a Amazon gift card. I know you will use it well.

Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge? Don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness? Let me know in the comments!

As you might have figured out by now, I’m a writing-craft-book junkie. So it should come as no surprise when I picked up Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict & Suspense by James Scott Bell. I wasn’t planning to. But then author Jody Hedlund gushed about it on her blog. And she was right. The book seriously rocks (Okay, those weren’t her exact words).

It’s divided into two sections: Conflict and Suspense. These are further subdivided into twenty-two informative chapters (you can check out the table of content here). The explanations in each chapter are brilliant, and examples from various novels are used to demonstrate the key points. For those of you who enjoy exercises that transfer to your writing (me me me!), the book is rich in that area. For example (chapter 12—Styling for Conflict):

• Identify a highly charged moment in your book.

• Make a list of possible actions, gestures, or setting descriptions that might reflect upon the scene.

• List at least twenty to twenty-five possibilities as fast as you can. Remember, the best way to get good ideas is to come up with a lot of ideas and then choose the ones you want to use.

• Write a long paragraph incorporating the detail, then edit the paragraph so it is lean and potent. The telling detail works best when it is subtle and does all the work by itself.

As writers, we’re constantly reminded to read outside our genre(s). Certain genres are character-based while others focus on plot. If you read predominantly plot-based stories, you’re missing out on an opportunity to see how others develop characters readers love to connect with. Romance, young adult, and horror are a few genres that rely heavily on emotions. Thrillers and suspense are perfect examples for solid pacing. By reading other genres, it will help you further develop your craft, plus they might trigger ideas to use within your stories.

But what about craft books on writing? Have you explored books that don’t focus solely on writing novels and short stories?

We’re all familiar with Writer’s Digest. My bookshelves are crammed full of craft books from the publisher (yeah, I have a little addiction issue). But last year, I discovered a publisher most of us aren’t familiar with—unless you’ve read Save the Cat! by Blake Synder. Michael Wiese Production publishes tons of books that focus on TV and film, and many of these deal with topics relevant to novelists.

The following are books that now live on my bookshelf (all which I love):

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need by Blake Synder (I recently ordered the sequel Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into ... and Out of at Elana Johnson’s recommendation. It's in the mail.)

(Seriously, how can you resist this cover????)

Story Line: Finding Gold in Your Life Story by Jen Grisanti

Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath by Dr. Linda Seger

Symbols, Images, Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith

Inner Drives: How to Write & Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation by Pamela Jaye Smith

Have you read any craft books geared toward screenwriters?

(So what does Brad Pitt have to do with this? Nothing. But it got you to look, right? And maybe if you study these books and take up writing screenplays, you might just meet him when you pen his Oscar winning movie. Hey, you never know.)

On Monday, I talked about weaving symbolism into your story. No matter how small the detail, symbolism can enrich your writing.

In the post, I mentioned the book Symbols, Images, and Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith. I recently discovered this book and love it. If you’re looking for a deep book on the meaning of symbolism in our culture (or anything along this line), this book isn’t it. If you’re looking for a reference book to help you pull more symbolism into your story, this is what you’re looking for. Or at least it’s a good starting point.

Pamela divides the book into twenty-three categories. These include:

Astronomy and Astrology
Composition (i.e. the concept photographers, cinematographers, artists consider, and you will too after reading this section)
Numbers
Codes
Earth
Air
Fire
Water
Animals
Color
Anatomy
Clothes
Architecture

The book begins with a brief introduction on how symbols, images, and codes work. Each chapter (category) is then broken down according to:

• What the symbol means. For example, air means freedom, spirit, superhuman power, and understanding.

• How it’s been used in history, myth, and contemporary times.

• Examples found in movies, along with explanations as to how it worked in the movie.

• How to use it in your story. There are all kinds of cool ideas listed. Some are more appropriate for certain stories verses others.

• Written descriptions. Words that are great for creating powerful prose and imagery.

• Cinematic techniques. Not relevant to most of us, but this section is really cool too.

No matter what genre you write, this book is a great resource.

<<<3

If you want to know more about writing symbolism in fiction, I have a very special guest post coming up in a few weeks. This author KNOWS about symbolism.

(How’s that for suspense?)

One way to create a richer story is by weaving in symbolic subtext. This is also a great way to reveal the story’s theme.

Subtext works both at a conscious and unconscious level. When we read a book or watch a movie, some symbols will jump out at us, especially if the creators have done a good job drawing your attention to it. With other symbols, you won’t stop to analyze it. For example, if the scene takes place in a room with green walls, you won’t be thinking that the director wanted to reveal the subtext of life. But you can guarantee someone behind the scenes purposely picked that color because of what it symbolized and not because it was her favorite color.

In the first season of Criminal Minds, there was one episode (Compulsion) in which fire and the number three were important elements. Among other things, fire represents anger and divinity (Symbols, Images, Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith). It was eventually determined that the unsub was starting fires based on the need to test her victims. If they survived the fire, they were free of the wrath of God. The number three (or rather the triad of the number three) would set off the unsub. The creators could have randomly selected any number, but three (like other numbers) has a symbolic meaning. In Christianity, it represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. As the unsub lined up the three bottles of flammable liquid, before dousing her three victims with them, she made reference to the bottles as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

In the book Where the Heart Is, author Billie Letts used a tree to represent life and growth. Pregnant seventeen-year-old Novalee is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Wal-Mart store. With nowhere to go (since her mother ran away with a guy many years ago), she secretly moves into the store. A woman mistakes her for a young girl she once knew and gives Novalee a Welcome Wagon gift of a buckeye tree. As can be expected, the tree starts to die. Novalee tries to return it to the woman, who suggests they plant it in her garden, but only if Novalee comes by regularly to take care of it. This is the turning point in Novalee’s life. These are the first acts of kindness she has experienced in a while, and under the guidance of Ruth Ann, Novalee turns her life around. This is only one example of what the tree symbolized in the story.
In the second example, the meaning behind the symbolism was obvious from near the beginning of the book, and was woven throughout. In the first example, it was only obvious at the end of the show, when the Behavioral Analysis Unit solved the crimes.

The two resources on symbolism for writers I recommend are Symbols, Images, Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith (I’ll be reviewing it on Wednesday) and the blog The Bookshelf Muse.

Have you woven symbolism into your story to highlight theme and to be use as subtext?

When Christina Lee suggested a blog event to showcase a debut book we've enjoyed this year, I was all for it.

Normally I’m not big into zombies. Okay, the only zombie YA books I’ve enjoyed (though I’ve read a few) are from the Generation Dead series by Daniel Waters, but I couldn’t resist checking out Carrie Harris’s debut book, Bad Taste in Boys. I mean, excuse me, just look at the cover. I don’t read a lot of YA humor, but I thought this story was great.

Blurb: Someone's been a very bad zombie.

Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steroids are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate!

She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town. . . and stay hormonally human.

Other debut books I loved (but are being showcased on another blog):

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler

Angelfire by Courtney Moulton

Possession by Elana Johnson

The Liar Society by Laura & Lisa Roecker

Debut books on my bookshelf I can’t wait to read (and there's a few more I'm dying to add):

Creep by Jennifer Hillier (I really can’t wait to read this one. It sounds so, well, creepy.)

Bestest. Ramadan. Ever by Medeia Sharif

Secret of Spruce Knoll by Heather McCorkle

Check out Christina’s blog for links to the bloggers participating in this event.