New homepage and blog

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m like a squirrel with nut, but when Weronika showed me Squarespace where I could have my blog and website all rolled into one, I had to go. The move gives my blog more visibility via search engines (or so I pray).

You just never know anymore.

I have to say I’m tired of updating information in two separate places (blog on WordPress and website on Website Tonight). I still highly recommend Website Tonight if you want a static website, but for the cost, I was able to have blog and website together cheaper at Squarespace.

I intend to write about writing at helluo librorum (that will stay the same). However, my author blog is moving to www.teresafrohock.com. This will be my last post here and I’ll leave this blog up as a redirect.

Hope to see you in my new digs!

Teresa

each paragraph a mini-story

Editing is one thing I’ve heard writers say they hate doing, but I love editing. I try to look at each paragraph in my manuscript as a mini-story. The sentences must flow one to the other to carry the reader into the tale. The devil is in the details, and I make those details as much a priority as the plot itself.

I try to make each sentence and thought lead into the next so I can illustrate how my characters perceive the world and the people around them. I’m going to give you a paragraph from my current WIP and tell you why I did what I did, and if you like the technique, maybe you can make it work for you too.

This is the original paragraph that I gave to my crit group to read (well, actually, I gave them a whole chapter of paragraphs, but this is one that I enjoyed working with):

Guillermo turned. He crossed himself at the sight of her. The creature that stood in the doorway was only vaguely human. She was diminutive; the top of her head barely reached his collarbone. Green was her flesh, the color of putrefaction, a walking corpse with lank black hair, her eyes sewn shut with thorns. Her tattered gown draped her body in strips of dark velvet gone bald. Rings glittered and adorned her thin fingers. Dozens of jeweled necklaces draped from her neck to her sagging breasts; the precious stones in her bracelets and anklets clattered like bones. She wore her jewelry like chains.

Kind of a jumble of images, huh? After reading my crit partners’ suggestions and with some basic clean-up on my own, I want to show you how I go back and modify paragraphs like this to redefine the focus.

The first two sentences can be combined into one:

Guillermo turned and crossed himself at the sight of her.

Next two sentences stay the same:

The creature that stood in the doorway was only vaguely human. She was diminutive; the top of her head barely reached his collarbone.

However, I don’t want to the focus to go immediately to the individual. Guillermo has a habit of sizing up a person by dress and build first, and I do have a reason for this. During the Middle Ages, a person’s clothing–right down to the colors and fabrics they were allowed to wear–determined their status. For some people, it may not have mattered, but for Guillermo, it does. So the next thing he would pay attention to is how she is dressed:

Her tattered gown draped her body in dark velvet gone bald. Rings adorned her thin fingers, bracelets hooked into her arms, and dozens of jeweled necklaces draped to her sagging breasts.

I removed some of the wordiness from the first sentence and deliberately left the color of her gown ambiguous. I’ve got to do some research to determine the color she is wearing, so for now, we’ll go with dark. It’s a detail I can insert later, and most people would never think twice about. However, for those who do know, I can plant a treat.

I eliminate this line: “She wore her jewelry like chains.” Nice line, but one of my partners noted a like/like echo, so in changing the wording of the preceding sentence, the next line stuck out. It interrupts the flow of the paragraph here and diverts the reader’s attention from the next sentence. I will use it somewhere else in the scene. Or kill it softly in the edits. I haven’t decided yet.

And finally, a couple of tiny edits in the last sentence to make it flow better:

Green was her flesh, the color of putrefaction, she was a walking corpse with lank black hair and eyes sewn shut with thorns.

I want to save this sentence for last, because I want the emphasis to be on her eyes.

So let’s look at it once it’s all put together:

Guillermo turned and crossed himself at the sight of her. The creature that stood in the doorway was only vaguely human. She was diminutive; the top of her head barely reached his collarbone. Her tattered gown draped her body in dark velvet gone bald. Rings adorned her thin fingers, bracelets hooked into her arms, and dozens of jeweled necklaces draped to her sagging breasts. Green was her flesh, the color of putrefaction, she was a walking corpse with lank black hair and eyes sewn shut with thorns.

Ta-da! It’s tighter and the focus in on her tattered gown, her jewelry and her eyes. Just where I wanted it. And guess what? That paragraph will suffer further edits along the way, but for now, I’ve cleaned it up enough to let it sit.

What about you? Do have to do a lot of editing to your paragraphs? Or are you one of those talented people who has their final copy roll off the printer the first time? Do you enjoy editing?

looking behind, looking ahead

2010 has been an astounding year for me. I’ve made some amazing new friends and strengthened the bonds with old ones.

Miserere: An Autumn Tale, which consumed my days and nights for so long, is now moving toward publication thanks to my vibrant agent, Weronika Janczuk. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and every time we talk, I feel that we can conquer our corner of the market.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be published by Night Shade Books. Night Shade is brave enough to publish works that are dark and edgy, the kind of books I love to read.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, Jane Friedman named my post Urgency versus Action in Your Writing as one of her picks for The Top 10 Tweets of 2010. I am truly honored to be included with these other great posts from 2010.

Looking ahead into 2011, I want to get the wheels moving toward Miserere‘s debut. At the same time, I want to keep writing posts for helluo librorum and hosting guest posts from other authors.

Tell me about your triumphs from 2010. Did you place a story somewhere or did you learn a new writing technique (share a link back to your blog post in the comments)? Did you master the mystery of HTML for a web page?

Happy New Year to each and everyone of you, and thanks for stopping by in 2010! I hope to meet and see more of you all in 2011.

she said “make it darker”

One thing I promised myself this time through the publication gate was that I would listen to my agent and eliminate the word “but” from my vocabulary. So when she made some recommendations about my blog and website, I started re-evaluating.

Now for those of you who don’t know Weronika, I have to tell you she has the most wonderful way of communicating. She is never snarky nor does she rant. However, she did point out that my other header with its green angel was rather bright and cheery, and I do write dark fantasy. She said I might want to consider making my website and blog darker in theme.

No “buts.” Remember?

So I started looking around online, found a couple of pictures I liked and ran them by her. We settled on the one you see above (for the entire picture, visit my website). It took me about a week, but I also managed to figure out how to publish the blog to my website for better visibility. (Still not happy with the fonts, but that is beyond my control–for now.)

So why all this horn-tooting, you may ask?

One of my blog readers is Amala at Torn Pages, and she talked in a recent post about The Fear of Starting. Her article really rang home with me, because she expressed a lot of the uncertainties that I felt when I started helluo librorum a couple of years ago. I asked myself the same questions she is mulling: What will I write about? Will anybody bother to read my posts? What if I make a mistake?

Mistakes are a given. I made mistakes and sometimes endured some major fails, but if I hadn’t taken the risk, I never would have built either of my blogs up the way I have. Sometimes I felt like I was shouting into the void, but when I really starting working to make my blog posts well-written and informative, people paid attention. I listened when my readers made suggestions, and I worked to make my online work as important as my novels. Blogging, tweeting, and Facebook posts have all gone a long way toward making me a better writer.

It depends on why you’re writing or blogging, but whether you’re writing for publication or just for fun, here are a few things I learned along the way:

• The number one rule is to have fun and write stories, reviews, and interviews that you enjoy doing. If it’s no fun, you’ll be tired of it in a week.
• Never write anything (Tweet or blog post) that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. I’ve seen some of the most inane tweets that I’ve made show up in Google searches, so you never know where your words will be found online. I always try to imagine I’m looking in a real person’s eyes when I write.
• Do NOT put the word “aspiring” anywhere on your blog or website. If you are writing a blog, you are a writer, not an “aspiring writer.” (I’ve noticed women tend to do this much more than men.) You may be “aspiring” toward publication, but for heaven’s sake, you’re a writer. Go ahead and put it on your blog, try it on like a party dress, and make no apologies to anyone. Practice saying it in the mirror: I am a writer. If it becomes your affirmation, publication might become your reality.
• Use your blog to hone your editing skills. Write your post, let it sit overnight, and edit before posting the next morning. Before long, you’ll be using the same techniques with your manuscript.
• Get on Twitter and Facebook and start making friends in the writing community. You’ll find the friendliest bunch of folks and they will support your blog.
• Make it easy for others to find you by putting your Twitter and Facebook links in a widget in your sidebar. I try to remember people are busy and when they’re looking for contact information, they don’t want to play hunt-and-peck. Today’s society is click-and-go.
• Try not to be too self-conscious about the whole thing. Enjoy yourself. If you make a mistake, you can edit the post. Everyone has made mistakes in grammar or spelling from time to time. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

I do enjoy blogging, although other deadlines have forced me to cut back on the time I spend on my blogs. If you have a minute, pop over and visit Amala at Torn Pages and say hi. Help me welcome her to the blogosphere. It’s okay if you say Teresa sent you.

i have a publisher

I am so thrilled to announce that my agent, Weronika Janczuk, has sold my novel Miserere: An Autumn Tale to Night Shade Books. Here is the official Publishers Marketplace announcement:

Teresa Frohock’s debut MISERERE: AN AUTUMN TALE, in which an exiled exorcist who, having once abandoned his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his twin sister’s soul, must now save that lover from a demonic possession before his sister leads the Fallen Angel’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell, to Jeremy Lassen at Night Shade Books, for publication in July 2011, by Weronika Janczuk at D4EO Literary Agency (World English).

I am thrilled to be working with Jeremy and the folks at Night Shade Books to make Miserere a success. (And I know you guys will help, right? Am I right?)

I can’t wait for all of you to meet Lucian and read his story. I fell so in love with the characters in this novel, and I hope you will too.

So stay tuned, I’ll be keeping you up-to-date so you can join me in July for a journey you will never forget. I can guarantee your Woerld will never be the same . . .

i hated my protagonist, but we’re okay now

I have the greatest critique group in the world and not because they tell me when I’m writing well (they do). I love them more when they tell me I’m wrong. They are comfortable showing me where I’ve slid off the beam in plot or characterization, and they are relentless at pinpointing my trouble spots. They inspire me to write better.

Last week, I was in a corner and sent my group what I considered some of the worst prose ever to spew from my keyboard. Normally, I wouldn’t send them something so unpolished, but I was absolutely stumped as to how to proceed.

You see, I didn’t like my protagonist. I had to write my way into the character (not my preferred method), and I felt like something was off. I could care less what happened to him, and if I didn’t care, the reader surely wouldn’t care either.

Then he started to change. The character I had in chapter three was not the same man I had in chapter one. I liked him more as I progressed, but I really needed to have his personality shine through in chapter one–preferably in those first five pages.

When I’m too blind to see, I’ve learned to hand it over to outside eyes. I sent the first two chapters to my critique group, and they were honest with me. In terms of likability, my group returned with a 50/50 split, and one of my partners mentioned that although she didn’t really like him, she was willing to read more to see him change.

Ugh. Seriously not good. I had a major issue with my protagonist, the guy we’re all supposed to be rooting for here.

Clearly something had to be done, but I wasn’t sure what. So I sounded it out with two of my critique partners–one who didn’t like my protagonist and the other who didn’t have a problem with his behavior. Both of them had excellent points but both talked about the inciting incident as being the issue.

My protagonist had killed another man, and the core factor wasn’t that he committed murder, but that no one could understand why he had committed such a violent act. I had tried to gloss it over in the text, hoping the reason would come to me as I continued writing.

Unfortunately, the reason continued to elude me by chapter three. At this point, I knew I would have to work to find his motivation. I had to think about this man and imagine his interactions with other characters. I needed to find a single set of circumstances that guaranteed Guillermo would take the same course of action whenever he was confronted with the same situation. It all boiled down to one question: what makes him angry and why?

Once I had that clue, it was a matter of some minor re-writes. The entire scope of the chapter changed, Guillermo changed, and the tone of the story shifted into the tale I envisioned from the beginning. I finally, finally, FINALLY fell so in love with this book that it is no longer work for me and I’m excited about sitting down with this crew of characters in the evenings.

All because of a dynamic critique group.

What do you do when you’re having characterization issues? Do you turn it over to your critique group and if so, how do you hammer out those trouble spots? On your own or through brainstorming with others?

daydreaming your characters

I took most of the month of November off from blogging simply because I wanted to immerse myself in my new novel. I belong to the school of method writing (for lack of better) where I like to really imagine my characters and their world. I find subtle plot developments by daydreaming conversations they have with one another.

This helps me to sink into my characters by examining their thought and speech patterns and their motivations. We reveal so much about ourselves in how we communicate with others and our characters are no different. I try to imagine how they respond not just to dialogue but also to body language.

I think about how my characters communicate their feelings to one another or what feelings or thoughts they might try to conceal. Are they good liars, able to keep others from reading their expressions, or do they wear their every emotion on their face? How does this impact their ability to interact with the other characters? Motivations can be a big clue here, and I try very hard to delve into the core motivations for all my characters.

When I do their biographies, I look at birth order, their relationship with their family members, and their interactions within the common social structure for their time period (or in the case of Miserere, the world I’ve built). Of course for Garden, I’ve done research into medieval Iberia, and that has taken quite a bit of time.

So for the month of November, I was in Aragon circa 1348, visiting with my boys and trying to get into their heads. I let my imagination run wild with conversations, some will appear in the novel, others will never be seen. However, I don’t feel daydreaming is time wasted, because with every conversation I imagine, I get another clue into the personality of my characters.

What about you? Do you spend a lot of time daydreaming about your scenes and characters? How do you get into your characters’ heads? Communication? Action?

it’s not easy being a Green Knight . . .

Green seems more symbolic of Spring and life; however, while I was doing research into medieval stories for my current WIP In the Garden of Night, I found an interesting passage in The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil by Heinrich Zimmer and edited by Joseph Campbell. In medieval tales, the color of death can also be symbolized by green.

In his analysis of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Zimmer notes that pale green “is the color of livid corpses,” and is not constrained to European mythology. Buddhist art in Tibet also uses “such a green to denote whatever appertains to the kingdom of King Death.”

Of course, it’s possible the Green Knight might have suffered in the translation. The original tale upon which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is based comes from an earlier Irish epic where the giant Curoi Mac Daire, who was the god and gatekeeper of the Celtic Otherworld, wasn’t green but was dressed in black clothes.

Yet in Zimmer’s analysis, the color green serves a dual purpose in the tale of Sir Gawain. The girdle of immortality that Sir Gawain receives from the Green Knight’s wife is also green. The color green now is used to convey both the pallor of death and the gift of life.

Sir Gawain’s adventure is an exploration into the mystery of self-transformation. Twice he resists the Green Knight’s wife, but on the third temptation, Gawain’s fear of death and his desire to live overcome him, and he accepts the girdle that will preserve his life. Gawain doesn’t tell the Green Knight of the gift, but the Green Knight knows of Gawain’s deception.

Yet Gawain doesn’t exult in his deception but is shamed, because he feels that he has failed to uphold the chivalric code. He keeps the girdle to remind himself of his failure so that he will aspire to higher ideals. The tale becomes a glimpse into the mystery of transformation through death and rebirth, both of which are symbolized by the color green.

When I came across Zimmer’s analysis, I decided to make my angel green, because I wanted her to symbolize not just death but also the transformation of rebirth. Individuality is transitory and our emotions and life-experiences complicate our respective journeys toward higher ideals. The same is true for the characters in our novels.

At some point, our characters should change, or as Zimmer’s analysis states, gain “resurrection in the higher life immortal.” The symbolism of valleys and creeks and colors are all used to transport the character through tribulations designed to achieve that final goal of rebirth.

So what about you: do you use symbolism in your stories? Do some colors have a special meaning to your characters? Or do you use other forms of symbolism when writing your tales?

wrangling with beginnings

The reason I haven’t been writing blog posts is because I’ve been wrangling with the first chapter of In the Garden of Forever.

It hasn’t been pretty. I finally got a good grasp on the characters a couple of weeks ago, but the inciting incident I was trying to write wasn’t very inciting, or exciting, or even interesting. Not to me and certainly not to anyone reading it.

After two weeks of hitting my head against the desk and producing a first chapter that was more backstory than story, I just stopped. I quit writing. I listened to music and stumbled on a song that made me think of my protagonist, Guillermo. I listened to some more music and put together a soundtrack for the novel. I daydreamed. I just let go and allowed my subconscious to take over, and miracle of miracles, the scenes started to come.

Putting the scenes into words was another matter altogether. It took me two more weeks of fumbling with around 1,300 words to realize my opening chapter was not working. So I did the only thing any self-respecting writer could do–I deleted it and started over.

My problem stemmed from trying to open the novel too early. Miserere required a slower beginning with Lucian in Woerld, because I had to introduce my reader not just to Lucian, but to Lucian’s world, which was very different from our own.

Garden begins in Aragon in 1348, just after the Battle of Épila. I don’t need to acclimate the reader to anything other than the men involved in the opening sequence, so I can move straight into the action of the story with Garden.

Now things are moving along at a good clip. I not only feel comfortable with the characters but also with the scene I’m creating. Instead of blocky chunks of backstory, the relationships and their meanings are intertwining with the action. I can visualize not just the next scene or chapter, but the next paragraph, and I’ve started to put clues about Guillermo’s flaws in the text.

Sometimes I just have to let the story simmer for a while, but I can’t neglect it. I keep adding ingredients, motivations, paragraphs, sentences, words, but I’m never afraid to dump the pot and start anew.

What about you? Can you start your story with action or do you have to ease into the inciting incident? What do you do when you’re not happy with your opening? Forge on or let it simmer for a while?

edits — a daily inventory

Of course, an alternative title for this post could be: Why I Would be a Major #NaNoFail.

I envy people who can just jump right in where they left off and write so many words a day. I have to rank as the world’s slowest writer. Seriously. Every night I open my file and read over what I wrote the night before, adjusting a sentence, removing a comma (or two or three . . .), a little tweak here, another tweak there, and FINALLY an hour later, I’m at the point where I finished the previous evening.

By this time, most NaNo writers will be well into their next chapter or even starting another novel. Meanwhile, I’ve removed almost as many words as I’ve added.

*sigh*

I have a reason for being so slow. Really. I had an editor once, who helped me with my query letter. She had the greatest way to encourage me to think about my query. In places where my writing was vague, she would insert questions like this:

• How did we get here?
• Give me a sentence here to fill in a gap in the information.
• Lead me into this next thought/sentence/paragraph.

I wish I could think my way through my rough draft using those questions, but I can’t. My rough draft always looks like a hodge-podge of unrelated sentences cobbled together, but as I do my daily edits, I smooth out these rough edges. I ask myself if the thoughts and concepts of the sentences flow logically from one subject to the next.

In my current WIP, I’m dealing with a scene where I need to acclimate my reader to a setting, a time period, and a character who is in a state of discombobulation. I have to be very careful, because I want the character disoriented, not the reader. This means I have to lead the reader from one thought to another while my character is going through the emotional equivalent of tripping through a minefield. Only I want the reader to feel like it’s a ballet.

In the rough draft, I let the scene roll from my head onto the page the way I envision it, and I don’t worry about leading the reader. However, before I add a single word to the chapter, I comb through the previous night’s work to make sure that each sentence leads to the next. I ask myself if I have thoroughly applied scene/sequel to each scene. Do I have a strong balance between my character’s thoughts/emotions and any action in the scene?

This daily inventory can take anywhere from an hour to two hours, depending on chapter length. I groom the chapter like this every night until it is ready for my critique group. Once they’ve responded, I edit according to their suggestions and comments.

So you see, I’m far too slow for NaNo. I’ll be sitting out again this year, but I’ll be cheering you guys from the sidelines! You amaze me in wonderful, positive ways.

What about you? Are you a prolific writer who can write without editing or do you edit every day before you start your next scene? Any tricks or questions you like to ask yourself as you edit?