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The New Jersey SCBWI has a few spaces left for our Writing Craft Workshops being held Saturday afternoon on November 13th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Princeton, NJ. 

Attendees can choose one of two workshops, one focusing on picture books and one concentrating on novels.  The goal of both is to help improve your writing skills and take you to the next level of writing.

Here is some information about both workshops:

Novel Workshop will be lead by frequent speaker and Sprouts editor Anita Nolan.  Here are some of the things you will work on in her workshop:

DEEPENING CHARACTERIZATION WORKSHOP 

Do editors or agents say your characters are one-dimensional, flat, or unsympathetic? In the Deepening Characterization Workshop, we’ll discuss how to make a character sympathetic, intriguing and believable—to make them come alive.  We’ll talk about using no more characters than you need. We’ll discuss villains, antagonists, and secondary characters too. We’ll also talk about upping the stakes, layering your character, and adding emotion. 

ADDING TENSION ON EVERY PAGE WORKSHOP
Rarely does an aspiring author have too much tension in a manuscript. Instead a story almost always needs more. The story might move too slowly or the character might solve their problems too easily. We’ll talk about creating inner conflict and making the high points bigger, dealing with backstory and how it can slow the pacing, and techniques on how to determine where your story has tension, where it doesn’t, and things you can do if your story starts to slow to add tension and conflict. 

These are going to be active workshops, so bring the first fifty pages of your manuscript (if you don’t have fifty pages written, bring what you have, but at least twenty).  Also bring highlighters of at least 5 different colors, paper and a pen.

Picture Book Workshop will be lead by picture book author/illustrator and Creative Director of Sprouts Magazine, Leeza Hernadez.

PICTURE BOOK BREAKDOWNS: From writer’s block to word count, and from page turners to word choice. Sharpen your skills with hands-on methods to master your manuscript—without even breaking a sweat! Workshop includes a “Creative Pick-Me-Up” interlude.

Cost: $60 for either workshop  

$30 for anyone attending Sunday’s Mentoring Workshop (full)

Stay for dinner for an additional $30.

Hyatt Regency Hotel has extended a special price of $95 for anyone wanting to stay overnight.

Anyone who wants to stay overnight and get the special pricing, must contact Jessenia Nivar in Hyatt sales at Tel: (609) 734-4056 and e-mail me to let me know.

Let me know if you want to join us.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Humor can be used in almost all aspects of writing: in conflict, in character development, in story structure, etc. Just as in dramatic writing, humor uses: man against nature (global conflict), man against man (local conflict), and man against himself (inner conflict).

Build character flaws.  A good way to build on your character’s personality is to make the character flawed. People are more drawn to characters that have recognizable flaws – nobody is perfect, and if your character is imperfect in a funny way, you’ve got the beginnings of relatable humor.

Reveal your character’s humanity. Use your character’s positive qualities to build sympathy and empathy and make your audience care about your character. Humanity unites your character with the audience. It’s important in all aspects of writing, but comedy depends on the audience having any emotional bond with the character in order not to fall flat.

Build tension and release. Go over your scene to ensure the payoff is positioned to optimize the humor. If you read the scene and it doesn’t make you laugh, then maybe you can fix it by rearranging the parts. Put the funniest thing last. The longer you can build to tension without the audience losing interest, the bigger the payoff.

Surprise the audience by using a clash of context. It is a tried and true comedic concept. In general, the unexpected is what takes us by surprise and makes us laugh – clash of context takes advantage of this effect by taking something from where it belongs and places it where it does not. There are a few ways to incorporate clash of context into comedy writing. Physical juxtaposition puts the items that clash physically close to one another. Emotional juxtaposition would place something emotional in an impassive setting or vice-versa – for instance, a street vendor selling cotton candy in the aisles at a funeral. Attitudinal juxtaposition has to do with the aforementioned conflict development strategy comic characters in opposition.

The clash of context between the character’s personalities is what makes this strategy humorous. Make sure it is not too painful or too offensive or the audience will be turned off and not laugh. Create comic distance between the reader and the character. If the reader identifies with the character too much, the reader will feel the character’s pain, but distance will leave some room for laughter. Another way to keep things funny is to have the character see the humor or irony in his situation, as painful as that situation may be. The best comedies distance the audience at times and then bring us right into the character’s shoes and make us laugh and cry at the same time.

Use the rule of threes to shock or surprise the reader: setup, setup, and payoff. This method is best used in lists. Start with two seemingly normal things that go together and add something completely outrageous as the third. As an example, “I’ve got to run some errands … the bank, the grocery store, and the crack house.”

Exaggeration takes your character’s perspective to the end of the line, which is what will make that character funny. As such, comic perspective and exaggeration go hand in hand. Everything your characters do should have some level of exaggeration -mannerisms, understanding of the world (or lack thereof), responses, and so on – exaggeration keeps the character interesting and makes everything a little bit more outrageous.

Sarcasm let’s you tell the truth to comic effect or tell a lie to comic effect. If one way isn’t particularly funny, try the other. Telling th

If you’re just starting to think about writing for publication, you probably don’t need an editor yet. First you should learn writing skills and hone your craft. Although a freelance editor can certainly teach you what you need to know, that can get expensive. You may want to start by reading books and taking classes about how to write for publication, or attending a writers conference, getting one-on-one critiques with editors, taking all the workshops you can, and visiting writing blogs or some of your favorite authors’ Web sites (many have a page or two of helpful tips).

But if you have done all the above and can afford to hire a developmental editor, then here are some things to consider:

1. Acquisitions editors—representatives of publishing houses who are looking for new manuscripts and new authors to “acquire” for their houses

2. Publishing house editors—hired by the publishing house to polish your manuscript after it has been accepted.

3. Copy editors—correct grammar, punctuation, etc.

4. Freelance developmental editors—people hired by authors to help them improve their manuscripts, catch mistakes they missed, and increase their chances of acceptance by a publisher.

They line edit, changing and polishing the text, but also larger conceptual problems like story, plot structure, characterization, visual description and other big picture choices and necessary revisions. The developmental editor has to enter the consciousness of the author and help make the book better wherever it needs it. This may mean suggesting language for new material, including dialogue. Or it may take the form of requests for explanation and amplification that only the author can supply.

A good developmental editor will let go of their own egos and enter the world of the writer’s consciousness. They’re there to help you create the book you want to write.  He or she should never take over a book, conform or contort it to their way of writing, or make any changes unilaterally or without your approval. That’s why the tracked changes tool on your Word document manuscript is so useful. You can see everything in the original with any edits, deletions, or additions, highlighted in another color, and can be either accepted or rejected.

Alan Rinzler, a noted literary developmental editorial consultant says, “It’s uncanny how many draft novels have very weak and boring opening sentences, paragraphs and pages, which make you want to stop reading and lie down immediately. Or huge information dumps, meaning tedious back story explanations of what happened before the book started and who are two dozen  characters and their ancestors. Another common flaw is no dialogue, all telling what’s happening from a distance. Or dialogue where all the characters talk like the same person and you can’t tell them apart. Or all dialogue and no visual description, no pause between quotes to explain what else is going on, where they are, and what they might be feeling internally.

Another major flaw for many beginning writers is too much material, stories that are hugely but unnecessarily complex, flashbacks within flashbacks so you can’t tell where or when anything is taking place, and a general sense of a writer being unfocused and overwhelmed by his material. As a developmental editor I go through page by page making deletions, edits, polishes, suggesting specific new language and material, and requesting explanation or amplification for text that only the author can supply. I don’t think this approach is at all unsuitable for either the author or potential publisher since their goals are the same: to p

After reading Transracial Writing for the Sincere by Nisi Shawl, I started thinking how I have avoided creating characters of different cultures in my stories.  I have friends from many different backgrounds and other countries, so why haven’t I included them in my mix of characters? 

First, I don’t see them as different.  Oh, yes most have the telltale signs of English being their second language, but I would never try to reproduce that.  I know I couldn’t do it well.  Other than that and maybe the color of their skin, which I don’t notice, they seem just like me.  But certainly a writer could add depth to a character if they could include the flavor of a different cultures background in their writing. 

Take a minute to read Nisi’s article on how to do just that.  She has a lot of great ideas to help make that happen. 

Here is an excerpt:

If you want to go beyond the level of just assigning different skin tones and heritages to random characters, you’re going to have to do some research. Because yes, all people are the same, but they’re also quite different. For now, we’ll set aside the argument that race is an artificial construct, and concentrate on how someone outside a minority group can gain enough knowledge of the group’s common traits to realistically represent one of its members.

Reading’s a very non-confrontational way to do this. Be sure, though, if you choose this route, to use as many primary sources as possible. If researching a story about first contact between a stranded explorer from Aldeberan and a runaway slave, for example, you’d do much better reading The Life & Times of Frederick Douglass than Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The latter is an important and moving book. But not only is it a work of fiction, it was written by a non-slave; therefore it’s a step further removed from the authentic experience you need.

Websites on minority culture abound. Any half-decent search engine will bring up a freighter’s worth of URLs on African-Americans, for instance, and at least a line or two on lesser-known groups.

For a less cerebral approach, check out nearby ethnic history museums. Art collections, historical dioramas, anthropological displays and so on can provide you with strong visuals. Some are interactive, and allow you to pick up a few aural and tactile sensations as well. For locations, look under “Museums” in the yellow pages, or consult a travel guide for your area.

When it comes to finding more contemporary material, magazines help. I also strongly recommend shopping trips, night-clubbing and restaurant hopping. Take a walk on the wild side. Do you feel like a tourist? Uncomfortable? Well, you are one, and you need to know what it’s like to be conspicuous. If your character’s a minority, she or he will be quite familiar with the sensation. Bruce Sterling once told me that alienation is an essential part of any science fiction writer’s education, and I agree.

Perhaps you have friends of other cultural backgrounds. Talk to them. Explain what you’re trying to do. Even though no one is a certified representative of their own ethnic group, they can let you know when something you propose is totally out of whack. And they can point you to sources of specific info.

If you’re thinking of approaching someone who’s more an acquaintance than a friend, offer to buy them lunch, or dinner, and make the interaction a formal interview. This is what you’d do with anyone else you wanted to pump for valuable data. Cultural background is data. If you want it, and y

The 11 Questions to Answer Before Working On Your Pitch

1. What’s the genre of your book?

2. What’s the hook, or what’s most unique or special about your book?

3. Who is the protagonist and what’s the most interesting thing about him or her?

4. Who is the antagonist and how is he/she standing in the way of the protagonist’s goal?

5. What conflict, dilemma or choice does the protagonist face? (Central story question.)

6. What is at stake? What are the consequences of the choice or conflict?

7. What is the catalyst, or the main event that gets the story started?

8. What are the main points of action that drive the plot?

9. What is the setting of the story?

10. What is the interesting backstory that affects your characters in the current story?

11. What is the book’s theme?

Think television commerical; you don’t want the editor or agent to want to sneak out to the refrigerator while you are pitching, so work on delivering an entertaining or interesting commerical for you book.  It will even help you with the book trailer down the road.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Every year at the Writer’s Retreat, I send out a prompt to the writers attending.  They use the prompt to come up with a first page for a new story.  The group ranks all the entries and the top five are given to the editors, so they can rank the top five.  Betsy’s first page was ranked number one by both editors and now they are eager to hear the rest of the story.  It’s funny, but a lot of these entries have gone on to become full manuscripts.  I thought you might like to hear the prompt and read Betsy’s winning entry.

The prompt:  The door opened and my brother…  Also the first page had to have a family, a bank and a dragon.  It was judged on how well the person integrated the additional details into the story. Other things they were to consider while judging was:  Was it laid out in a logical way? Did you have to go back and read sentences over?
Were the words used appropriate for the story? Did the dialog ring true? Would you want to read more? And the originality of the story.

Here’s the winning entry:  Majestoral Dragon by Betsy Devany

The door opened and my brother stumbled out of the bank, falling backward into the snow with a pfft-thud; his white tunic soaked with fresh blood, though, clearly not his own. Blood splatter the color of liquid emeralds could only have come from a Majestoral dragon.

 “Eswin!” I slapped the side of his head to stir him. Except for a broken lock, he was empty-handed. Obviously, he had failed his task. “Eswin! We were sent to rescue the dragons. What happened? And where are the eggs?”

He lifted his head and pointed at the Bank of Lors. “Unreachable . . . buried too deep beneath the vault . . . and the guards—I tried to stop them, but—the female may be dead!”

Crack! Scorching fire burst through the bank’s windows. I shielded Eswin as shards of shattered glass sprayed over us, settling deep into the snowdrifts. A flame escaped . . . then another . . . and another, shooting up into the sky, crackling and spitting with vengeance. Bright turquoise flames, edged in gold, illuminated the dark night like fireworks. Norsk was still alive!

“Take cover over there! Behind that barrel,” I barked.

Eswin clung to me, his nails dug deep into my forearm, his body quivering. “It’s hopeless, Yosk.” I pushed him away, then pulled him through the snow to the four-foot wide barrel. With a flick of my arms, I released my only brother. “It’s only hopeless if you give up.”

Fastovia was counting on us, on the last known family of Majestoral dragons; on their babies, not yet hatched from their black marbled eggs. Without them our world would perish.

Hot flames scorched my skin, and the stink of burning flesh hung in the air. Hand-over-nose, I sprinted towards the bank when a forty-foot winged shadow slid past me: the great dragon rising out of the ruins with a twig nest on his back, the size of a small boulder. I turned to follow Norsk’s direction when he seized Eswin, then veered in the direction of the full moon. And with one final exhale of flames, the future of Fastovia flew off into the night.

Congratulations Betsy!  It was a good weekend even for Betsy’s friend Norman (in picture at the top).  Norman drove down from New England with Betsy.  He was her co-pilot sitting in the passenger seat and he had a great time with us.  He even made a little friend when Lynne Pisano brought her little hedgehog friend with her.  Now Norman has a pen pal.  Norman has his own blog:  http://www.normanthe