Author Question
Q: When do you use a scene break, and what’s the format?
A: I asked a few editors/authors about this. So, you designate a scene break with four asterisk, centered, in between the two scenes:
End of scene one
*****
Start of scene two
Use them any time there is a change of: Time (next day, that night, etc), Place (If a character is at home, and you want to cut to them arriving at work), POV change.
Update for February
Last month was just straight writing. This month has been spent researching and more researching. My office is piled with books and I’m trying to get notes done in between edits, class lessons, editing (for other people), and most importantly, keeping Gus away from the new printer.
Don’t let his sleeping form fool you. That printer has been his Moby Dick for years. I zigged, he zagged and the next thing I know, my printer’s bleeding magenta ink all over the desk. A couple hundred dollars later (and a very surprised printer tech guy, “Geez. A cat did that?!”) and I’ve got a new printer (mine, sadly, went to the great copier in the sky).
Anyway, it’s just been a funny month. I’m working and getting those pages in, but I don’t feel productive…maybe it’s because last month I was on a new WIP and this month I’m back to an old favourite–and maybe most tellingly, an old favourite I thought was completed.
The truth is, I love this story enough to rework it, respect the job enough to go back and “do it right,” but I can’t help a little like I’m failing somehow, that I should have done a better job straight out of the gate.
Quote for the Week
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
~ Walt Disney
Quote for the Week
Some people say I have an attitude–maybe I do. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does–that makes you a winner right there.
~ Venus Williams
Author Question
How important is it to tell the agent/editor the length of your story, the genre, and the audience it’s intended for?
In a word: VERY. Think of your book like a house. How thrilled would you be if you were searching for a house with four bedrooms and the agent refused to tell you?
Agent: I have an adorable house for you!
You: Does it have four bedrooms?
Agent: It’s close to a hospital.
You: Great. But does it have four bedrooms?
Agent: And a skylight! It’s got a skylight!
Now, imagine the book agent is “You.” and you’re the “Agent.” See how annoying that would be? Agents & editors are in the market to sell a specific type of “house.” If you don’t answer basic questions, they’ll go to someone else to find their product.
Publishers are like home buyers, and a publisher who wants a penthouse in the heart of downtown is very different from the publisher who wants the sprawling ranch house on an acreage. So, do your agent a favor. Let them know what kind of place you’re selling, so they know how to place you in the market.
Welcome Friday
What a week…been productive, though in rhythm with my perfectionist, over-achieving nature, I feel like I haven’t been “productive enough.” What does that mean, exactly?
Beats me.
I’ve met my writing goals, haven’t taken a day off in over two weeks, yet here I am, all stressed and neurotic because I didn’t exceed my goals.
This of course begs the quesion (well, it begs a lot of questions, like “does insanity run in the family?), will there ever be a point where I will let myself win? To meet a goal and be proud, instead of thinking of all the ways I didn’t exceed those goals?
The whole darn thing’s culminated in today. I have a day off from the school, I’ve met goals…wouldn’t this be a good time to take the day off? As in, no writing, no housework, no administration…it would..so why am I sitting here, debating which WIP to start?
I bet the answer lies in a big bowl of chocolate.,..
Quote for the Week
“Don’t be afraid to take big steps. You can’t cross a chasm in two little jumps.”
~David Lloyd George
Author Question
Got an interesting question the other day: “If the heroine ends up with her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, does that discount the story as a romance?”
The short is “no,” the longer answer is “it depends.” The relationship dynamic can fit romance if you start the book right after the break up. She’s packing up her things, giving the ring back, whatever. That shouldn’t take up too much room. The crux of a romance story is to explore the courtship and union of two people, so the vast majority of the story should be about her and the ex’s best friend.
If you spend a lot of time on the past relationship,then the breakup, then the new relationship, then your focus is really about her personal journey of transformation, which in my mind, would make it women’s fiction.
Quote of the Week
There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
~ Cynthia Heimel
Quote for the Week
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
~ Helen Keller
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