Useful and Unuseful Lists - an excerpt from WREDE ON WRITING by Patricia C. Wrede

This week noted science fiction and fantasy author Patricia C. Wrede released her first book on witing, Wrede on Writing. Keep reading for an excerpt from this indispensable guide, talking about the usefulness (or lack thereof) of online writing tips like "Seven Dialogue Mistakes."

The other day I was browsing writing websites and came across one that made me blink. Every post for months had a title like “Seven Dialogue Mistakes,” “Five Ways to a Great Scene,” “Ten Resolutions for Career Writers,” and “Twelve Dynamite Endings.”

I get that a lot of people really, in their heart of hearts, want a paint-by-numbers approach to writing a great book. I also realize that a lot of people don’t want to read more than one screen’s worth of blog post. Lists of tips and tricks and common mistakes seem like a perfectly reasonable way to get at both things at the same time.

The trouble is that, in my experience, a short list of tips or mistakes just doesn’t work very well when it comes to helping people improve their writing.

Writing a short story or a novel is complicated; every bit of it affects everything else. It’s easy to focus on one particular aspect of writing, like dialogue or endings, and dash off a list of do’s and don’ts. But in an actual story, it’s not so simple. That number three “Don’t” from the dialogue list, for instance, may be both thematically appropriate and more perfectly in character than any of the alternatives, not to mention being the ideal way of moving the plot along. Number ten, “Do make sure,” from the characterization list may be impossible to make work, given the constraints of the style and setting.

But there are several sorts of lists that I find extremely useful. They just don’t have anything much to do with writing technique.

The first set of lists is stuff I use during the first draft to save time. For instance, I have one possible-next-book that involves characters from several different imaginary countries/backgrounds. I want their names to sound as if they come from different places with different languages and naming conventions, and I don’t want any of them to be token representatives of their cultures. That means that eventually, when I’m making up secondary characters like the barman and the traveling salesman, I’m going to need more names that sound as if they came from the same places.

So I make a set of lists: six to ten male and female names that would come from each country, along with six to ten family/clan/house/tribe names for each country that mix and match well with the personal names I’ve picked. When I need the traveling salesman, all I have to do is decide which country he’s from and pick from the list.

Or I make a list of place names so that when they pass by that small town, I can grab a name on the fly. I’ll also make lists of things I’ve mentioned in passing, like local foods or animals I’ve invented, so that I can use them again if I need to (and so I can make sure that I didn’t name the fish stew “kishta” and the tiger with antlers “kitsa”—far too confusing, not to mention the potential for tragically horrible typos.)

The other kind of lists I find useful are checklists of things to do during the first round of revisions. There’s an ongoing, ever-changing list of all the phrases I tend to overuse, so I can do a search-and-destroy on them easily. There’s a list of things to check for consistency and continuity. (I have a really bad habit of changing the spelling of a character’s name by one letter somewhere in the middle of the story or calling someone “Anthony” for two chapters and then switching to “Andrew” because I couldn’t be bothered to look up which male-name-beginning-with-A I’d used, and I was sure it was Andrew.)

In other words, all the lists I find useful have to do with the content of the story: names, places, descriptive phrases. That’s what I need to keep track of when I’m writing, not the five dialogue mistakes that I may or may not be making in any given scene or the twelve dynamite endings that don’t fit the story I’m trying to tell.

New eBook Releases 12/3 - Writing Advice and Regency Romance

Happy December readers! With Thanksgiving behind us, the holiday season is in full swing, and we're kicking the month off with a perfect gift and a free seasonal novella.

Patricia C. Wrede, author of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles among many, many other works of fantasy and science fiction, has brought together her years of professional experience into her first book on writing. Wrede on Writing is the book that anyone with a novel hidden away in a drawer. From how to develop ideas into full-grown stories and nurture nascent characters, to how to manage finances and other aspects of the business side of writing, Wrede on Writing is an indispensable tool for any writer. If you know someone who spent November doing the marathon writing spring of National Novel Writing Month, or who always makes a New Year's Resolution to finish that long-forgotten novel, Wrede on Writing would make the perfect holiday gift. Available today in all eBook formats, and soon in paperback.

 Sherrill Bodine has made a name for herself in the romance community - several names, actually! Having also written under the names Lynn Leslie and Leslie Lynn, Sherrill's a prolific writer who loves nothing more than to delve into the romantic world of the Regency period. Today, six of her stories previously published under the name Lynn Leslie have been re-branded and re-released. Whether Sherrill's writing is an old friend or a new acquaintance, start your reading with The Christmas Ball, a short novella FREE for Kindle and iOS readers. Several full-length novels follow, including The Rake's Redemption and Scandal's Child. Treat yourself to a story of romance and passion to keep you warm during the long winter nights!

NaNoWriMo 2013 Writing Advice from Indie Authors

Happy NaNoWriMo Eve! While the rest of the world fears ghosts and goblins today, the intrepid writers who are about to embark on a month-long sprint to a 50,000 word novel have much scarier specters looming in front of them: writer's block, empty coffee pots, and massive word count goals!

So if you're looking for some last minute advice or need a pep talk to get you started, here is some advice just for NaNoWriMo writers from some of your favorite Diversion Books authors.

Pushing New Adult by Mia Thompson
New Adult books are what close the gap between YA and Adult novels, where the protagonists are generally set at ages 18-25. The genre has been known to focus mainly on Romance, but have started to branch out into all sub genres massively in the past few years.

My New Adult books, Stalking Sapphire and its sequel, Silencing Sapphire, both have the sub genre Thriller/Mystery.

Before I sit down to write my series, I ask myself two questions: What do the NA readers expect? And, what experience do they wish to have? To answer these questions, I think of who my readers are.

They are the 20-Somethings; they’re past their childhood stage, but haven’t figured out who they are as adults yet. They are ALL about experimenting and rebelling against the restrictions they had as teens.

Since my readers push boundaries, so should I. The characters, narrator, and plot should mirror that boldness and push the envelope on absolutely EVERYTHING.

To me, NA is not only about emphasizing the matters that were banned in YA, but also about reflecting on the questions that arise after someone has soared past the point-of-no-return of childhood, and are hanging in suspension before they enter the absolute madness that is adulthood.

Mia Thompson is the author of the new adult thriller series Stalking Sapphire and Silencing Sapphire - both now available for all eReaders.

Writing YA in a Month by Suzy Vitello

Writing a YA novel in a month is totally doable! The first draft for my debut, The Moment Before (out this January) was written in a little over two months (not during NaNoWriMo, so I set a slightly different word count goal). But here’s my advice on marathon drafting: find a voice that will go the distance through those long hours, and take five-to-ten minute walk/stretch breaks every hour.

The other thing I did with this book that I’d never done before is plot it out. Normally, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pantser. However, once Brady’s voice and the setting came to me, I knew I needed to figure out the plot to make sure my narrator wouldn’t take me on a wild goose chase of language and rumination. The main thing I did to that end was to make sure that every chapter finished on a somewhat suspenseful note. Here’s a blog entry I wrote back when I was drafting the book (which had the working title, Raising Cheer).

Suzy Vitello's debut novel The Moment Before releases in eBook and paperback on 1/14/14. You can read more writing advice at her blog.

NaNoWriMo: Why It Works by Kathryn Johnson

"Why should I sign up for and participate in NaNoWriMo?" "If I'm going to write a book, can't I just rent a cabin in the woods somewhere, hunker down and write in blissful solitude?" "Isn't it counter-productive to write with thousands of other writers looking over my shoulder?"

These are the kinds of questions new and lightly experienced authors of novels ask me. Honestly, there is no reason why you can't fly solo. For some writers, that works beautifully. But for many of us, writing without emotional and intellectual support results in stalled books. We zoom through the first chapter with enthusiasm, then run out of steam. We start questioning ourselves and have no one to turn to for encouragement. We begin to nitpick at our manuscript, fussing over individual sentences or words. And finally, we just give up in frustration.

This is why some authors are still agonizing over the same story after fifteen years. It's why writing fast, chasing down a first draft in just a few weeks, works. When you shut down your internal critic and let your subconscious do the heavy lifting, you can blast out a very rough but complete version of the full story without worrying about the fine tuning that can come later--like spelling, punctuation, or setting details. All of that can be saved for later revisions. If you find yourself succumbing to the temptation to fuss over the perfect word for a sentence in Chapter 1--and thereby lose momentum--there are opportunities for others, who know full well the traps we fall into, to dig you out of that hole you've tumbled into and set you back on task.

November is one month out of your life. Challenge yourself to write as much as you can, as fast as you can for four weeks. Make your writing a priority for four weeks and celebrate as the pages accumulate!

Kathryn Johnson also writes as Mary Hart Perry and is the author of Seducing the Princess for Diversion Books. She'll be doing a series of seminars in Washington D.C. on Saturday to help writers plan for and jump into NaNoWriMo. More information is available at the Smithsonian Associate program.

Writing Epic Fantasy: Start with Your World! by Garrett Calcaterra

Michael Moorcock cranked out some of his classic Elric novels in three days. J.R.R. Tolkien, on the other hand, took twelve years to write Lord of the Rings. While their approaches to the writing process couldn’t be further apart, the one step both of these fantasy greats had in common was that they created a fully thought-out fictional milieu before they began writing. Taking a lesson from the masters, here’s four tips for developing your fantasy world:

Start with the Fantastical Part – What makes your story a fantasy story? Is it the presence of mythical beasts? Is there magic? Determine the premise of your fantasy component and then use it to determine how civilization evolved based on the presence of your fantastical element.

Chronicle the History of Your World – Just like our characters need back stories in order for us to understand their motivation, our fictional world needs to have a history. Are your denizens indigenous to the land or did they migrate from somewhere? What wars and catastrophic events shaped civilization? What religions emerged? Was there a golden age of civilization that your denizens look back upon fondly? What menace is now present in your world?

Draw a Map – Most fantasy novels involve a quest of one sort or another, and that entails travelling. To help you visualize the landscape, create a map of the world you created. Name the cities and towns. Name the forests, mountains and seas. In addition to being fun, this will also help you further understand your world.

Set Your Characters Loose – Your characters now have a rich backdrop in which to be themselves—put them into action! Only a small portion of your world building will end up on the page, but having gone through the world-building process will expedite the writing process. Plus, the tidbits of exposition sprinkled throughout the story will make the reader feel the weight of your vast world even though they only see small portion of it through your characters’ eyes.

Garrett Calcaterra is an author of dark speculative fiction, including Dreamwielder for Diversion Books.

Whether you're a pantser or a plotter, writing poetry or hard boiled mysteries, all of us at Diversion Books wish you luck on your quest in November. Write on!

And if you're celebrating Halloween rather than preparing for writing a new novel, don't forget to check out Diversion Books' selection of horror and thriller titles. There's a scare for everyone!