You are the Architect

I'm blogging over at Magic and Mayhem today talking about world building. Hope to see you over there!

On Voice

I don't usually do book reviews. Nor do I throw a book up and shout, "You MUST read this book!" But I'm going to make an exception today. So often as writers, we're looking for that elusive voice, the magic narrative that makes agents and editors melt into puddles of goo. The voice that causes readers to line up in droves, salivating for our words. Voice can't be taught. It's not like grammar, or spelling. You can't hone voice the way you can a story arc or plot twist. Voice is voice. You can't fake it. That may sound cryptic, but it's true. You've either got it, or you don't.

Voice comes from letting your guard down. From saying, "Screw it! This is who I am, who my character is, and I'm throwing down!" Voice is the truest part of you that flows through your thoughts, your personality, and your imaginings as you slowly wear the letters off your keyboard. And letting go of your writerly inhibitions and allowing your voice to flow is scary as hell.

Read FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT, by Darynda Jones. I'm telling you, from the first sentence, you'll be hooked. Ms. Jones knows her MC,  Charley Davidson like the back of her hand. The narrative flows easily, Charley's personality comes through with amazing clarity, and through Charley, Ms. Jones tells one hell of a good story. I have to say, this book is one of the best examples of narrative voice I've ever read. It's no wonder this book won the Golden Heart in 2009. I'm hooked. The next installment of this series can't come fast enough for me. Ms. Jones, I'm salivating for book 2. ;)

Blog Chain - Revise Me a Story

This round's blog chain comes from the FABULOUS Sarah who, I might add, stayed up with me into the wee hours last night for an EPIC brainstorming session! Let me just say, that girl could write a book in a night! Anyway--she asks the question:

How do you handle revisions? Do you revise as you're writing, or do you wait until you've gone through beta readers and crit partners to revise? How soon after you finish do you begin your revisions?

I hate to revise. Well, at least, I used to. It always seemed like such a daunting task. I'd whine about making the changes with an "I can't" attitude. But now that I've found my revisionist groove, I don't feel that stress any more. Revising is part of the process and there are many voices chiming in, helping your novel to become a complete and finished product.

I do like to revise while I write. Sarah and I have a tendency to crit chapters as we write them and the rhythm works well for us. But my other crit partners like to have that finished MS in their hands and that works great too! Different methods=different results=all good! While I'm writing, I like to go back and read the previous chapter. I usually don't make any major changes, I'll just polish it a bit. After I've typed THE END, I know I should wait the obligatory 4-6 weeks, but let me tell you, it's HARD for me. I'm not a waiter--like--at all. I'd get so excited to "get the book out there" that I'd jump the gun. And more than once, I've suffered for my haste.

Wait. Do it, people. I may not be any good at it, but I know the benefits. Revise, let the MS sit and send it crit partners. Revise again. Shelf the book for a while--three weeks is even better than none!--and revise again. Once you get that draft to fighting weight, send it out there. And yes, be prepared to revise again, and again, and again!

Kate's response to this question came before mine, and Sandra's will pop up tomorrow. If you want to read about the entire chain's approach to revisions, Start from Sarah's original post and work your way through! Unless, you've got some revising to do! ;)

The Power of Belief - A Guest Post With Author Christine Fonseca

I'm so excited to have author Christine Fonseca as a guest on my blog today! She's a talented writer (in both the fiction and non-fiction arenas) and always there for me when I need a pick-up. We've been talking a lot about the road to publication and what it takes to make it. Her post today literally brought tears to my eyes. Take it away, Christine!

Before I get into today’s guest post, I want to take a minute to thank Amanda for having me. Amanda and I met on the interwebz a year ago or so. Since that time, we’ve belonged to the same Blog Chain group and traveled similar circles. She’s hung out on my blog sharing an interview or her words of wisdom. Most recently, she’s been one of my go-to peeps to swap an idea or two with. Amanda is a great writer with a fabulous future. I am so excited to see what exciting things happen for her.

Which brings me to today’s post – The Power of Belief.

I stumbled across the following quote while wasting time researching on the interwebz.

“Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have NO choice but to believe with you.” - Cynthia Kersey

The words struck a chord with me, reaching deep into some unspoken place.

...believe in yourself…believe in yourself

The words wrapped around me, seeping into my skin. The missing ingredient over the past few weeks. The differentiating piece between success and failure.

Belief.

We can all agree that it takes good writing, good timing and a little luck to make it in this business. But it takes something else as well.

The infallible belief that YOU WILL MAKE IT.

That belief will carry you through the hard times, because yes – there will be hard times.

And that belief will force you to do what is necessary for success.

It will force you to improve your craft, create new stories, and revise until your eyes bleed.

Belief in yourself and your success will force you to find honest – brutally honest – crit partners. It will force you to see the stories in a new light, force you to jump into the deep end of the query pool as often as necessary to find that agent or make that sale.

These actions will make the world will stand up and believe in your success as much as you do.
One of my writerly buds used to tell me to Dream Big. I have a new saying…

“Dream big and have the strength to believe it will happen.”

Do you believe?

Christine writes nonfiction and fiction for teens and adults. Her upcoming release, Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students (Prufrock Press, October 2010) deals with the often turbulent world of giftedness. When she is not working as a school psychologist helping adolescents deal with the transition to adulthood, or playing Band Hero with her husband and daughters, she can be found sipping a skinny vanilla latte at her favorite coffee house, writing her next book.

Blog Chain - Words of Wisdom

It's blog chain time again, and Cole chose a topic that's a game as well! She asked her fellow bloggers to pretend that we are adressing a crowd of aspiring authors eager to soak up our words of knowledge. But the catch is this: we only have one sentence (no more than twenty words) to share and we are only allowed to elaborate or address questions in the comments section of our blogs. Take a look at Kate's advice before mine, and Terri's tomorrow! Here are my words of wisdom for aspiring authors:

"Edit, edit, edit, and when you're sure your manuscript is polished, edit one more time."