Sloan Parker

I spent today trying to write a blurb and synopsis, both of which I find extremely difficult to write. So I thought I’d share a motivational quote this week.

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
-Michael Jordan

We all have obstacles every day. I hope you can find a way around, over, or through the ones that cause you the most trouble.

Cheers,
Sloan

This week I worked on the outlines for several upcoming projects. I had some good moments, some frustrating ones, and others that were filled with horrible ideas that I quickly tore up. (Don’t ask because I will deny they ever existed)

Today, I had a breakthrough. I read a few passages from non-fiction books on writing and a light bulb went off (no, make that fireworks). Some of the best advice I’ve read about how to create believable villains and how to take a suspense story line and make it believable (no matter how implausible it is) came from a book titled The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass. I haven’t read the entire thing yet, but from what I’ve read so far I recommend it for anyone writing fiction.

Anyway, just wanted to share that my outlines are moving along. My goal is to be back to writing Trapped (my third novel-length gay romantic suspense featuring Walter Simon from More) by August 1.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And happy 4th of July to my US followers. Happy belated Canada Day to those of you in Canada.

Sloan

This one’s for my writing friends. Some good advice from short story writer Kurt Vonnegut.

Video embedded above. If you can’t view, try the original blog post.

Once a week, I post a quote that I’ve read/heard recently. So here’s this week’s Quote I love …

“Everyone thinks they can write a book. The only people who really know how hard it is are the ones who have tried.”

Nathan Bransford
Literary Agent
Curtis Brown Ltd

I like statements like this. They help keep me sane. Writing isn’t always easy, but it is also one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. There’s nothing like opening a blank document and filling it with words until you have a story you love, characters you’re proud of, a romance that inspires.

Any other writers feel the same? How about you readers … do any of you have aspirations to write a book? Comment or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Sloan Parker

A  light look at a real absence of gay imagery on TV and some sad commercials that make being gay something gross.

I must admit, though, I do like watching the gay commercials on LOGO. It is nice to feel included in society, even if it is on a channel watched mostly by those in the know.

So tell me, what do you think? Do you wish there were more commercials featuring gay men and women? What types of content would make for positive LGBT images? Comment or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Sloan Parker

I’ve been working on editing a draft of my first gay erotic romance and it has been a pretty intense process. I’ve spent time reading “how to” books (keeping what made sense and disregarding what didn’t work for me), studying grammar, and working on my own style. I’ve learned a lot about writing, about myself, and about the kind of writing I like to read vs. write.

Anyway, as a result of my research and studying, I’ve come across some various grammar sites that I thought I’d share. Some of these have been helpful in answering the tough questions or have provided me with an additional source to backup other resources.

Maybe they’ll help some of you.

• English Grammar Gone Awry
• Grammar Monster
• The Guide to Grammar and Writing
• Daily Writing Tips
• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
• Grammar Girl
• The Grammarphobia Blog

If you have any other sites that you’ve found helpful, let me know via the contact form on my website. Thanks!!

Added (2/6/2009): check out the Links page to see all my grammar resource links. I’ll be adding new links to that page.

I am currently editing my manuscript for the first book in The Haven series (More), and it has been quite an interesting journey. I love the editing process. I love to take the ideas I’ve come up with and rework and rework until the words fit exactly what my characters are doing and thinking and feeling. I’ve made a lot of the basic changes already (removing passive voice, punching up the verbs and descriptions, fixing typos, etc.), but I worry about the plot and character development.  How do I know if the work creates the dramatic build-up that I am looking for? How do I know if the passion, tension, and emotions translate as I planned?

With rereading comes redundancy. The difficult part of writing (for me) is the work is never fresh after the first draft. I will never read it from a new “reader’s” perspective. Even if I put the manuscript down for a few weeks or months. It will never be a story and characters that I uncover for the first time. After I am happy with the plot, I consider the first draft complete. Once that is set, I will always know where the story is going and what will happen (unless my muse decides to slash the first draft into bits and pieces and come up with something new).

So how does a writer figure out if the wording, the character development, or the flow of the plot is working from a new reader’s perspective?

Have someone else read it, of course.

I can edit and edit until my heart’s content, making grammatical changes, editing out passive writing, removing redundancies, but I will never know if the story works and creates enough drama for first time readers without letting someone else read it.

And that’s the hard part for some people: giving their work to peers/reviewers. You are putting yourself out there to be critiqued and that can be hard to take. It is important, though, to have fresh eyes look over your work before you ever think of sending it to a publisher/editor. You need to know the reactions and opinions of others to know if the work will be interpreted as you intended it to be. You can love your own story all you want, but if no one else “gets it” then no one will probably want to buy it.

When I give my writing to someone else, I ask them to mark the manuscript with a red pen so that I know reactions/questions/comments and when he/she took note of those. Here are some instructions I pass along to my reviewers:

• Don’t consciously look for errors, but do mark any you notice. (I want them to be reading for the story at this point, not editing for errors. But if they do find them, this will tell me those errors were glaring enough that they pulled the reader out of the story.)
• Write down what questions you have as you read it, including questions about where the plot is going, anything you don’t understand, a character that you can’t remember from earlier in the story, etc. (This will help me see if they are asking the questions I want them to be asking or if I need to clarify something I thought the reader should understand.)
• Write down any predictions about plot lines, conclusions, character development. (These “guesses” will help me see what the reader is expecting…sometimes they’ll be right on and sometimes they won’t. I believe fiction should include a mix of both. The story can’t be so off that it doesn’t make sense, but it also should leave the readers with important surprises.)
• Mark the points at which you put down the story and mark why you did, even if this is because you had to do the laundry or go to sleep. (This helps me understand at which point the story became dull or slow enough for the reader to take a break. Maybe it was a point I thought was full of suspense–which would clue me into the fact that I need to rewrite it.)
• Mark at which point you realized you found a particular character likeable and add a short reason why. (This helps me see what character development pieces help to create likeable characters.)

This process has helped me to fix some miscommunications that I didn’t even know existed. Sometimes, word choices that make sense in my head, don’t always translate to the page as well as I thought.