Writing 101: Sub-Plots

Every book revolves around a central plot or theme, or should attempt to do so. But don't just stop there. Add new layers to your book, and more dimensions, with sub-plots.

Stories within Stories

Also referred to as side stories, sub-plots add extra story to your book. This can help you in a lot of different ways. Let's count them: 

• More pages: If you're falling short of your desired word count, adding sub-plots will give you extra pages of text. 
• Character development: Sub-plots are a perfect way to develop your characters, and make them feel more real. If your characters are learning and growing because of your sub-plots, then you're writing them the right way.
• Complexity: Adding sub-plots adds more layers to the book, making it richer and more complex. More complex stories are often more rewarding stories, but there's a danger here as well. You don't want to muddy up your main plot too much, or make your story too convoluted. When it comes to sub-plots, a light touch is usually best.

Sub-plots can be very simple, taking place over just one scene, or become a long thread that weaves through the entire book. There are lots of good reasons to add sub-plots, but don't add them just to be adding stuff at random. Like every single word in your book, the sub-plots have to add something tangible. Make them relevant to the characters and to the overall plot. 

Always be wary of over-writing. Include sub-plots only when they bring something important to the book. Otherwise, don't do it.

Writing 101: When to Start Promoting

Many self-published authors, and even those who aren't, are largely responsible for their own marketing. Promoting one's own books takes up a lot of time, so much in fact that many say it takes up more time than actually writing. For every four hours the self-published author spends on marketing, they might spend just one on writing books. So when should you start promoting that very first book, or even your second? When is it time to shut down the Word program and fire up Twitter instead?

Promoting Books

When should self-published authors start promoting their books? The answer to that one is pretty simple: immediately. Begin building your brand even before that first book is released. Start creating a buzz for your new book while you're still working on the first draft. And once you start promoting your books, you never stop promoting. After that first day of marketing, it becomes your every day job. 

Welcome to the life of a self-published author. You become one the moment you make the decision to self-publish, and that means you've also made a decision to start marketing. Make a Twitter account, a Facebook page. Join some online forums for writers and readers. And start talking about your upcoming book. Build up your fan base and let them into your process. You should also have a blog even before your first book comes out, and start regularly working on posting new content and gaining new followers. 

There's an easy answer to this one. If you're a self-published author, or you're going to be, it's never too early to start promoting. Finding the line between promoting and over-promoting...well, that's a whole different blog post. But the getting started part, that's easy. So, go! 

Forums, Free Time and Freaking Out

The title of the post pretty much describes the past week, though not necessarily in that order. I started out feeling strong and firm in my decisions last weekend. By Monday night, I was in a state of panic. 

Second Guessing

Last week, I mentioned that one of my big flaws is being indecisive. I don't mean to brag, but I actually have more flaws than most. I've got lots of them to talk about, and another one of the really ugly ones turned up last week to mess with me. After I decided which idea to pursue for my next book, I felt good about it. 

Then, I started second guessing it. I started asking myself questions. I started thinking that maybe nobody wants to read about the particular subject matter that I've decided to write about. Should I write something else instead? 

It was Monday night when I freaked out like this. The questions just started playing through my mind on a loop, until about twenty minutes went by and I got a grip on myself. Finally I decided that if no one likes this book, it's fine. I'm just going to write another one, anyway. 

That made me feel better, and on Tuesday I sat myself down and got some serious work done. Now I'm pleased to say the book is fully outlined, the next book I'm going to write after that is fully outlined, and both books are in the first draft at least up to chapter 4. I didn't do all of that this past week, but we'll get into the backstory of that book in future posts. 

So how's the next book coming along? Very well, thank you. I re-did the first draft of the first few chapters, did some more research and worked out more logistics, and now I feel I'm on much firmer ground. I'm pulling inspiration from all sorts of places to bring it together. I've been working on it for at least an hour every night, after I get done doing all the other stuff I have to get done.

Which brings me to another strong theme of my past week: forums...and free time. 

Do Not Squander Time

Followers of the blog know that I've recently embarked on a mission to join writing forums. I kept up the momentum this week by continuing to read all of them, and I even joined Wattpad. It's a new discovery, this site. It's a bit like a more social-infused, free-for-all-publishing platform, little brother to Goodreads. Sort of. Anyway, feel free to go find me there to see an old short story I posted. It's sort of what you do on Wattpad, post stories I mean. See how I'm participating? 

But I've got to be honest. A lot of it feels like a huge waste of time. The Amazon KDP forums are often stuffed with completely inane conversations, some of them incendiary. Many of the other forums I visit are chock-full of promotions, and questions I'm frankly shocked to see authors asking. I read a little of every thread, and sometimes I add something if I feel like I've got something to add, but it's taking a real toll on my time. 

All this forum-trolling, in addition to working on the book, has left me with no free time. It's been a long week, and I've spent an embarrassingly little amount of time actually writing. I'm going to re-evaluate this forum business as the end of the month and see if it's made a noticeable difference from a marketing standpoint, or a self-growth standpoint, or from any angle at all.

Still, I feel strangely energized. It's exciting to be working on a brand-new project, at last pursuing an idea I originally had over a year ago. I couldn't work on it then because I was still caught up in the Deck of Lies, but with each new paragraph I'm getting deeper and deeper into this new world. It's thrilling stuff, exactly the sort of stuff that I think all authors thrive on. 

Use the comments section to tell me about your week, or your current book project, or both!

A Day in Jade's Life

Recently, I wrote a guest post for the Gym Instructor, authored by a friend of the blog. Go check it out to read about an important day in my life, and everything that happened because of it.

Books on Film: Romeo and Juliet

Few stories are as widely recognized and well-known as Romeo and Juliet. It's a story so famous, the two names have become synonymous with young love, and doomed love, and particularly love that is both young and doomed. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most tragic stories ever penned, and one of the most filmed stories to date.

The Book

Maybe that's because Romeo and Juliet was written to be performed, not read. It's one of Shakespeare's plays, one of his most notable, and it's assigned reading for just about everybody who gets to a certain level of high school.

It's about two young people on opposite sides of a long-standing family feud. Romeo is mooning over the loss of Rosaline, an attractive girl who has spurned him. In an attempt to cheer him, his friends Benvolio and Mercutio sneak into the grand ball being held at the Capulet house. Romeo is a Montague, mortal enemy of all Capulets.

At the ball, he forgets all about Rosaline. He discovers true love, real love, when he has a chance encounter with Juliet. The two meet and nearly kiss, boldly talking of doing so (it was bold back then, believe me), before each discovers the other's last name. 

They can never be together. They cannot even talk to each other. The ball ends, and Juliet goes up to her room to sit and sigh in sadness. But Romeo comes back, finding that he is unable to stay away. The famous balcony scene then plays out, with each swearing their love and devotion to the other. They agree to be married.

Meanwhile, Juliet's cousin Tybalt has discovered that Romeo was at the Capulet ball. He challenges the latter to a duel, but Romeo will not fight him. He cannot fight him, for he plans to wed Juliet and that makes Tybalt a kinsman. Mercutio, however, is affronted by the scene which plays out and he accepts the duel. Mercutio is mortally wounded in the duel, and Romeo ends up lashing out at Tybalt.

Mercutio curses Romeo, and Tybalt, and both of their houses. Two men now lay dead in the streets of Verona. The Prince exiles Romeo, who goes to Juliet at once. He spends the night with her, and they make their marriage official before he goes into exile.

Juliet's father plans to marry her to Count Paris, threatening that she will no longer be his daughter if she does not relent. She goes to the friar for help. He decides to help her fake her own death with a drug that will put her into a deep coma for two days and 40 hours. He will also send a message to Romeo.

She follow instructions and take the drug the night before her wedding to Paris. When discovered in the morning, she is laid to rest in the family crypt.

The message never reaches Romeo. Instead, he gets a message from one of his own kinsman that Juliet is dead. Romeo buys poison and goes to the crypt. There, he kills Paris in a confrontation and drinks the poison. He dies, and Julie wakes. She sees her love dead on the ground, and stabs herself with his dagger.

But you've probably heard the story...and if not, you can find it in more film versions than I could possibly list. It's one of the most filmed books on film, and it's been adapted and twisted and modernized a hundred times over. It's been satirized, it's been spoofed, it's been copied in entirety. Only a few of these film versions, however, are at all worth mentioning.

The Films

One of the oldest film versions of Romeo and Juliet is still one of the best. It was made by George Cukor in 1936, and was nominated for four Oscars (which was a big deal back then, since they had fewer categories). This version stars Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer, two of the biggest stars of the day. The film nearly didn't get made. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM at the time, thought Shakespeare was just too complicated for ordinary moviegoers to understand. But when Jack Warner, over at Warner Bros., announced that he would be releasing A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mayer changed his mind. He green-lit the project, and an adaptation was born.

Great detail was paid to costuming and set design for the flick. Researchers went to Verona to look at paintings and study design. Academics were even brought to the set to help advise filmmakers. But critics complained about the casting. Shearer and Howard were certainly not young, teenage lovers. John Barrymore, in his 50s at the time, played Mercutio as a young flirt, and he no longer looked the part. This version is Shakespeare rearranged, with several scenes playing out of order. Friar Laurence's role is reduced, and some other scenes are expanded. We also get to see Rosaline in this version; she never actually appears in the play. 

Mayer's gut reaction was right. The film wasn't a critical success, and it was bashed for being too "arty." Filmgoers didn't turn out to see it...just as they hadn't gone to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, released the year before by Warner Bros.

Hollywood didn't make another Shakespearean adaptation for more than 10 years.

Franco Zeffrelli took the play on again in 1968, and he went in a totally opposite direction for his distinctive version. Unlike Cukor, Zeffrelli cast young, good-looking actors for the title roles, and made the most out of the brand-new Technicolor technology. He had better luck with his take on the film. It was the 60s, so he emphasized the elements of youth, of two young people who only wanted love...not their family's war, man. It was a message he hoped would resound with the 60s counter-culture.

He hired Leonard Whiting, 17, to play Romeo. Olivia Hussey, 15, was cast as Juliet. Both were studied stage actors, and gorgeous. This version of the story focuses on the young lovers and injects more energy into the dialogue. Romeo's duel with Paris is cut out, a decision that many filmmakers make when adapting the story. No one wants to turn Romeo into a bad guy.

A distinctive version of the story wouldn't be made again until 1996. Re-titled as Romeo + Juliet, this adaptation was directed by Baz Luhrmann. Claire Danes stars as Juliet, Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo. This version uses most of Shakespeare's original dialogue, pressed against the background of a more modern-looking Verona. The swords are guns, the fashion is interesting and the soundtrack is filled with lush, 90s-era pop hits. It's more mob-meets-Shakespeare than true Shakespeare, but it's a damned good version. The ending will absolutely make you cry, even when you know it.

But my personal favorite is probably the most wildly adapted version of the story you'll find: West Side Story. Written in the 1950s for the Broadway stage, it was adapted in 1961 as a musical film...and it's fabulous. Natalie Wood stars as Maria (Juliet) and Richard Beymer as Tony (Romeo). The story is moved from Italy to New York City, and centers on two rival street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. 

The Jets are a group of street toughs, greaser kids who are all white by race. The Sharks are made up of Puerto Rican immigrants who are fighting to eke out there turf in the big city. None of Shakespeare's dialogue is used, and a bunch of well-choreographed songs are added, but the flavor of the story and most of the plot is exactly the same. Maria is still a sweet, young girl, untouched by love until she sees Tony. It's absolutely the most relatable re-telling of the film, and relevant even today if you can look past the 1960s fashion.

How good is West Side Story? It was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 10 of them, including Best Picture. It's won more awards than any other musical ever made, and there have been a lot of them.

But maybe you should watch all of the notable film versions of the story, just in case. You're going to be asked to read the book, if you haven't already, so you might as well see it on the screen, too.

Writing 101: Asking for Help

I've recently been engaging myself with an effort to be more active in writing and reading forums, so I've been confronted with the topic of asking for help a lot lately. And I've got to say, a lot of writers are doing it way too often.

Ask, and Ye Shall Receive

Let me be clear. Asking for help actually takes some courage, and it can do you good to learn how to trust in the kindness of strangers.

But there's a line between asking fir help and being lazy...not to put too fine a point on it. Because, while there is some nobility in the asking, there is much, much more to be gained from finding the answers yourself. And maybe all this beseeching isn't from laziness st all. I'm hoping it's simply because too many people don't know how ti find the answers.

They're in luck, because I'm really good at finding them. And if you already know how to ask for help, you are well on your way to becoming a master as well. You just need to know where to ask the right questions.

 

Getting Answers

To be clear, it's always going to be easier to ask than to look. You will get a lot more out of looking, however, so lets figure out how to to it.

First, don't ever go to Wikipedia to find out anything. You can go to other, more trusted, online encyclopedias to find general information. Wikipedia should be used only for resources. Just search for any topic, scroll to the bottom, and look for the links. 

Instead of asking questions on forums, ask search engines -- but don't go to the twelve hundred different bloggers who think they know the answer. University extension websites, the History Channel website, encyclopedias and websites ending in .gov can all be considered to be reputable sources. Online articles from trusted sources like the New York Times are also trustworthy. 

But don't ever trust one source, no matter how good it is. Confirm your information in at least three places. Otherwise, it's not real.

Do your own research, and learn how to answer your own questions. There's a lot of reasons you've got to do this as an author. First, you can't necessarily trust people on forums -- they might be clueless, or making things up, or simply incorrect in their information. But more importantly, it's your job to find your own answers. That's half the fun of writing, and an important part of the process. Through research, you might uncover all sorts of interesting tidbits you end up including in the book. You might get inspired by brand-new ideas. And you might learn something, which is always a good thing. 

But most of all, you're going to find a question one day that your forum friends can't answer. You will hit a brick wall. You will feel lost. That will happen. If you learn, right now, how to deal with it, you won't get knocked flat by it when it happens at the worst possible moment (and it will).

Writing 101: How to Use the Word 'Best'

I know it seems silly. Best an easy word, with only four letters and a single syllable. But plenty of people end up using it the wrong way...a lot. It's irregular, and it can be easy to confuse with another word that's similar. Make sure you know how to use the word best properly, because using it the wrong way looks really, really bad.

Better Your Writing with Proper 'Bests' 

Good. Better. Best. We were all forced to write it during primary school years; I had to draw corresponding pictures to go with. Special attention is called to the word best because it's irregular; there is no bestest. People only say this colloquially, it's not actually proper English.

The word best simply means most excellent, something that stands above and beyond whatever else it is being compared with. For example: This is the best blog I have ever seen, or Jade is the best blogger! 

But like I said, it's irregular. Bested is actually a word, but it might not mean what you might think it means. To be bested is to be defeated. For example: "How'd the tournament go?" "We were bested by a superior team." It's just another way of saying that the best team won.

What best doesn't mean is favorite. When something is your favorite, it's the one you like the best. For example: "Party in the USA" is my favorite Miley Cyrus song. Yet often, you'll see it this way: "Party in the USA" is my best Miley Cyrus song. This is glaringly, offensively, incorrect. 

It's okay to say something more declarative, such as: Party in the USA is the best Miley Cyrus song. See the change? The best is correct; my best doesn't exist in this instance. You can say I gave it my best effort or even I gave it my best. You can't say This is my best TV show (unless you are a TV writer, director or producer, but let's not get into all that). 

 The point is, favorite and best are not interchangeable. Best can only be used to mean that something stands above the rest; it is superior. To say something is your favorite is to say you like it better than anything else. When in doubt, as always, use your synonyms. When writing the word best, if you feel a little confused, switch it with the word superior. If the sentence still makes sense, you're good!

Always put your best writing forward by using words in their proper place.

Writing 101: Writing in Black and White

Have you ever told a lie? Had a drink before you were legally allowed to do it? Taken something that wasn't yours? Did it make you a completely evil person? Have you ever met a completely bad person? 

So why would you write a character that way? If you're writing in black and white, you're not writing at your best. The world, and every person in it, is filled with shades of grey. 

Good vs. Evil

Novels often pit a hero, a good guy, against a villain, a bad guy. This is the oldest literary plot device, the most basic foundation of many stories, and there's no reason you can't use it in your novels. Just remember not to get too literal about it. Rarely are people all bad, so inherently evil that they have no spark of human kindness or compassion, guilt or regret, anywhere inside them. Writing a villain that's totally evil is going to make that villain feel two-dimensional, a caricature rather than a character.

But you can get away with it. Villains are supposed to be bad, and writing a really bad one can make your story that much more thrilling. The argument can even be made that people who are nothing but evil have existed in the real world. Some have said this about people like Charles Manson and Adolph Hilter. But you aren't going to find a person in the real world who is all goodness, and you'd better not present me with a character who is. 

We all have flaws, and we all want to read about characters who are flawed, too. Why is that? Because in your story, if the character who is all good defeats the character who is all evil, that's great. But it's not going to be relatable to me in any way, because I'm not all good and I know it. I make mistakes. I fall down. I say the wrong things. I eat that third piece of cake when no one's looking. What are the odds that I want to read about a character who never screws up, never falls down, never fails and does only good things?

You guessed it: zero. Readers root for heroes the hardest when they can see bits and pieces of themselves in those heroes. It's much easier to cheer for a guy who's a little bit shy and unsure of himself, a guy who gets tongue-tied in front of the pretty girl, rather than the guy who does everything right and knows just what to say every single time. It makes the hero's triumph much more satisfying when the hero overcomes not only the villain, but his or her own flaws and failings. 

And sometimes, villains aren't really evil people. They might be at odds with the hero, sure, but in their version of the story, the villain is the hero. They're the main character of their own story, and they have their own motivations for doing all their "evil" deeds. What are those motivations? Everyone's done wrong things in their lives, told those little lies, cheated on that test, all that stuff. Make your villains three-dimensional and real. Make them human. And make them relatable, too. 

All your characters should feel like real people, and real people don't come in shades of black and white...so don't write them that way.

Jade in the Spotlight

I'm being featured on Spotlight Monday at Goodreads. Visit to find out some of my writing secrets, and how I like to relax when I'm not writing!

Review: Dance With a Gunfighter

Author Joann Pence gave me a list of books to potentially review, and I selected Dance With a Gunfighter right away. The title immediately brings to mind an incongruous image of a hardened bad guy...dancing to the sound of fiddles. I figured this couldn't possibly be what takes place -- the "dance" referred to has got to mean some sort of exciting Western shoot-out occurs. I was wrong about that, but this book didn't disappoint. 

There are a lot of dances in this book. There is the very real, literal dance referenced by the title. It's a romantic little scene: young girl, sweet sixteen, at her first dance. She's a wallflower, and doesn't expect to get asked to dance. Something about her touches the hardest man in the room, a gunfighter by the name of Jess. 

This is where the book gets confusing right away. The girl's name is Gabriella, but she's a tomboy so she goes by Gabe. The guy's name is Jess. It's two neutral names, and I have the focus of a squirrel so I spent the first 50 pages trying to figure out who was saying what to whom. My inner monologue is playing along the entire time, asking "did the girl or the guy just say that?" after every fourth sentence. But once you get that part of it down, there's still a whole lot of plot to get through. 

Maybe too much. In some spots, this book tens to drag. The constant push-pull between the characters is true to the genre, and I get that, but it's way, way too much and way too drawn out. The inference is there that their love is passionate, but it takes months and years for the couple to get together in any sort of tangible way. He walks out on her, more than once, which is a bit self-defeating on the story's part. In romances, as a woman I'm supposed to fall a little bit in love with the hero of the story. I was never close to falling in love with Jess -- whose main physical attribute seemed to be a ragged blonde mustache -- and never really identified with Gabe. 

This isn't a traditional romance story, though some of the basic formula is there. In this case, the couple faces way too many obstacles and challenges. Remember what I said about a lot of plot? Most of it is strictly designed to keep the main couple apart, sometimes in totally unbelievable ways that are just too contrived. At one point, the couple flees from a gang of bandits straight into the blistering desert. One of them is grievously wounded, and this is clearly just bad planning. Well of course they run straight into a mean band of Apaches, because that's likely, and instead of being murdered right away they're held captive for several months. This is all done on the promise than an exciting action/fight scene will soon occur, but this of course never manifests because this of course wasn't the point of that extremely long scene. The author really had to stretch to come up with new and bigger obstacles to throw between the couple. 

Other types of dances do occur, and the promised gun scenes do manifest. There is a lot of action in the book, which you'd expect in an Old West setting, but there are mystery elements as well. The author shows her writing roots in the form of a few head-turning twists. 

There's a lot the author got right. She researched her desert cuisine very well, and I was only able to find one tense error and a handful of run-on sentences -- and you know how I look for that sort of thing. Many of the scenes between the couple are sweet and touching. It's a story mainly about emotional pain, and how that affects us, and how it defeats and changes us. Weaving a love story into all that is no easy writing feat, so if some things don't feel so smooth I guess that's to be expected. 

This is a good romance with plenty of heart and sweetness, some mystery and action sprinkled in along the way. If you're into that sort of thing, you'll definitely appreciate this finely-edited, well-written tale of revenge and romance.

Find Dance with a Gunfighter on Amazon!

Being Indecisive

Being indecisive is one of my biggest flaws. I can be tenacious once I set my mind on something...but getting to that space can be a tough journey.

What Am I Writing?

For example, my newest book project. Like many writers, I get lots of ideas. They aren't necessarily any good, but I write them all down anyway. So when I finished the Deck of Lies, of course I pulled up my idea notes.

One of them struck me right away, a story that's really different for me because I settled on the idea of a male protagonist. I don't know, maybe I was feeling brave.

So for over a week I worked on two pages of this new novel, as yet unnamed. I thought about it and pictured it and made up all my cast lists and notes and all the crap I collect when I'm working on a book.

Then last night, I got to being indecisive again. I pulled up some old notes that I put together over a year ago, while I was still writing Justice. And I started working on a totally different novel. This one focuses on three protagonists who get sort of thrown together.

I'm determined to make this one stick...but like I said, being indecisive is something I do very well. So what is my next book about?

It's either a dramatic tale about class structure, friendship and societal oppression...or, it's a story about material value and money, and how it controls us.

Heady stuff, I know. It probably sounds like I'm about to go way out there with my next book, no matter which decision I make, but you can be sure you'll still find some mystery, romance and twists no matter what I end up writing next -- even if I scrap both projects and go back to my list of ideas. 

Going Non-Fiction

In the meantime, I'm also working on a freelance article for a colleague's blog. She saw the post I wrote last week when I re-capped all the things I did in 2012. I wrote in the post that I lost 50 pounds over the year, and she was interested. So I'm writing an in-depth piece about my experience with that. The working title is "The Day I Realized I'm Fat." I took some pictures and wrote a really long first draft, and I'm really excited about the piece. I'll add links to the blog once it's published, for anyone who wants to read about what I learned and how I plan to stay thin. 

It was harder to write than I expected, because I found myself being indecisive again. I didn't know how to approach it or where to start, so I finally made up my mind to just tell the story from beginning to end. This explains the title, because I start the article with the exact day I realized I was fat and had to lose weight. 

 Indie Author Month

I'm also happy to announce that I'll be participating in Indie Author Month at Aside From Writing, one of my favorite blogs, again this year. I'm doing a double feature that will highlight one of my books (maybe one of the two I'm being indecisive about) and an interview with me. Friend of the blog and author Melanie Cusick-Jones will be conducting the interview. I'm very excited about it, because I had a lot of fun doing the event last year. Some of my Writing 101 posts are featured at Aside From Writing, so add it to your readers! I'll post a bunch of links once Indie Author Month kicks off, so be on the lookout for that.

Until then, I'll be waffling between ideas and storylines...just being indecisive.

Interview with River

Find out what happened when River Scott, from the Deck of Lies series, visited Mia Darien's blog for a character interview!

Books on Film: Mommie Dearest

Mommie Dearest was the very first book of its kind, and since it was printed it's been highly debated, studied, quoted and called into question. Depending on where you stand in the argument, it's either the very first non-fiction Book on Film I've featured...or it's not.

The Book

No one knows for certain whether or not the events depicted in Mommie Dearest are true in entirety, embellished for dramatic effect, or fabricated in whole. One person who would know is dead, and has been since before the story was released. The other person swears it's true...but then she would, because she authored it.

Mommie Dearest was the very first tell-all book written by someone close to a celebrity, and relationships don't get closer than this. It was penned by Christina Crawford, daughter to the mega-star Joan Crawford. She was on Hollywood's A-list before it had an A-list, married into its most famous family, and ruled the screen for so long they were still making movies about her after she died. But after you read this book, you might want to add one more item to Joan's resume: abusive mother.

Published shortly after Joan's death in 1978, the book details the day-to-day life of Christina, eldest child to Joan. She, like her brothers and sisters, was adopted by the actress in the 1930s and 40s. At this time, Joan was in the bloom of her lucrative movie career. She was a star's star, and so well-to-do she managed to adopt several children despite being a single woman in a very conservative world.

One scene depicts a tense dinner between mother and daughter. Christina refuses to eat meat that is too undercooked. Joan rages and screams at her, and makes her sit at the table for many, many hours. Another shows Joan returning from a disappointing meeting with her movie studio, and hacking her own garden to pieces with a set of shears in the middle of the night.

The book talks as much about Joan as it does about Christina's own feelings. An extensive beauty routine is detailed, where Joan dips her face in steaming water, then alcohol, then a bowl of ice cubes. A parade of men dance through Joan and Christina's lives, but none can tolerate the volatile star. The book makes it clear that Joan suffers with OCD-like tendencies, going over-the-top in all manners of cleaning and household-running. 

The most famous scene of all, undoubtedly, involves the way Christina keeps her closet. Joan finds a wire hanger in the closet in the middle of the night and shouts down the house, screaming "no more wire hangers!" at Christina and raging like a madwoman.

Needless to say, the brutal portrayal of this much-loved star was incredibly shocking to readers and Crawford fans. But even on its own merits (or lack thereof), the book has drawn criticism. Many reviewers find it poorly written and very poorly edited, though others enjoy the "easy to understand" and "simple" prose style.

The content of the book has also been called into question time and again. Many of Joan's close friends, and at least one ex-husband, came forward to speak out against the book after it was published. Two of Joan's children, a pair of twins who were the youngest, also said they did not witness any abuse in the household. Some critics say that Christina's own actions are proof that she embellished these tales of torture by turning her own words against her.

By her own admission, Christina Crawford continued to spend time with Joan well after she turned eighteen, got finished with her schooling and began her own acting career. At the reading of Joan's will, Christina and her brother Christopher did not inherit. The will stated that the reasons were "known to them." Some suggest that Joan learned Christina was writing her book, and this is why she cut her off. Others point to this and say this is the reason Christina wrote the book in the first place -- she wanted to spite Joan for disinheriting her. To this day, Christina Crawford stands by her words.

The book was a sensation, but never a long-lasting hit or a must-read. It did spawn a movie that has become a can't-miss flick, however, and it really is one you can't miss.

The Film

The film version of Mommie Dearest was made as soon as possible. A story like this is too good to resist, and it involved one of Hollywood's elite. No way was it going to be ignored. So Faye Dunaway was cast as Crawford. Two actresses you aren't likely to recognize played Christina, a child and adult version.

Like the book, it received a lot of mixed reviews. Dunaway's performance has been both acclaimed and highly criticized, and the film won a really jaw-dropping number of Razzie awards. She screeches and rages through the entirety of the movie, and the editing leaves very few coherent or sympathetic moments -- but then, Christina's book didn't give filmmakers much to work with in that regard.

Crawford is still an alcoholic on film, and remains verbally and physically abusive to Christina. In one memorable scene, she strangles the girl in the presence of a magazine reporter. Even after Christina has grown older and won herself a role on a soap opera, Joan remains a constant presence in her life. When Christina becomes ill and cannot perform on the show, Joan even filled in for her -- something which absolutely happened, by the way. But Christina is ultimately fired, and there's an inference that she blames Joan for this, too.

The film ends much as the book does, with Christina learning that she won't inherit any part of Joan Crawford's estate. The lawyer says something to the effect of "well you know Joan. She always had to have the last word."

Christina intones "we'll see" darkly and stares at the camera. It's a clear message: she's going to be the one with the last word this time. And the movie exists, so clearly it was a plan forthrightly followed. But taking an arguably badly written tell-all and turning it into a feature film depicting a Hollywood legend...this is tricky stuff. Some things were altered for the sake of simplicity, so you really have to read the book to find out what you've missed.

What Got Adapted? 

In reality, Joan Crawford raised four children. She adopted five. Crawford originally adopted a little boy and named him Christopher, but his natural parent re-claimed him so she got herself another little boy and he became the Christopher Crawford who was Christina's oldest sibling. Joan also raised a pair of twin girls who were never referenced in the film, truly an oversight. 

And, disappointingly, the wire hanger scene is changed around. Joan did go on a wire hanger rant in the book, but the night she raged at Christina over the bathroom floor with cleaning powder in her hand was a separate incident. On film, the two are shoved together into a long, traumatic rant. Faye Dunaway, by the way, is wearing cold cream on her face throughout the scene. 

The scene where Joan squares off against the Board of Directors at Pepsi Cola did not appear in the book at all, as much of the book focuses on Christina, and Joan, and no one else. 

The MGM scene is riddled with fiction. In the scene, Crawford is disrespected and practically kicked out of L.B. Mayer's office. This didn't happen. She actually asked to be let out of her contract, but didn't expect Mayer to agree. He did, and she was stuck.

The book doesn't skip so many of Christinia's teen years, and provides a great deal of detail about her innermost thoughts and feelings. Christina has been criticized by many, but she's also gained a lot of fans with her book. Many have praised her for coming forward with her tale. 

And in either case, it's an intriguing story. Whether it's all true, part fiction or none of the above, Mommie Dearest is sad, a little bit funny, chilling and all about Joan Crawford. That definitely merits a read, and the film is truly an event. Watch it!

Writing 101: Split Infinitives

It already sounds scary, right? Split infinitives -- they're a grammar no-no, but most people have no idea what the heck they are. Some writers wouldn't even know one if it fell right out of their own books. The truth is, most people write with split infinitives. Try to observe this outdated grammar rule, and I can just about guarantee that you'll make yourself crazy.

Splitting Infinitives, and Other Grammar Rules to Ignore

My favorite example of a split infinitive is to boldly go. It's a common phrase, thanks to Captain Kirk, and by strict rules of proper English it's totally wrong. An infinitive is an unmarked form of a verb -- and go is a verb. You split an infinitive when you put an adverb between the verb and its companion to.

Need some examples? Split infinitive look a little something like this:

To quickly walk

To forcefully push

To uncharacteristically yell

Any of these phrases might appear in a sentence that reads well, and sounds correct:

I didn't mean to quickly walk past the library.

You just have to forcefully push it open, that's all.

I wasn't ready for you to uncharacteristically yell at me like that.

Anything wrong with those sentences? Most people would think no, but technically they're all incorrect because they've all got split infinitives. To make them correct, you'd have to re-phrase them:

I didn't mean quickly to walk past the library.

I wasn't ready for you, uncharacteristically, to yell at me like that.

And if you were going to clean up Kirk's dialogue? He'd be saying boldly to go instead...and really, that just doesn't have the same ring to it at all. 

Some professional editors despise split infinitives, and in very high-toned academic writing they might be frowned upon. But the fact of the matter is, most writers split their infinitives. Start looking, and you'll find them in everything from blogs to novels to movie scripts. Trying to write without split infinitives can actually make sentences more cumbersome and clumsy, which is exactly what you don't want. 

You should always write the way people talk to make your books readable, and most people talk in split infinitives. So forget this grammar rule, and split away. In fiction writing, split infinitives are practically expected.

Writing 101: Are Your Sentences Too Long?

Every English teacher cautions against using run-on sentences. It's the writer's job to totally ignore them. A little extra prose is to be expected in novels, where description reigns and dialogue is meant to sing. But there's always a line that any author can cross. Are your sentences too long...and do you know how to tell? 

Running On and On

Novels are supposed to be descriptive. You are supposed to literally paint a picture, only with keystrokes instead of brush strokes. It's not always easy to find the right words to use to describe events, places and people. It's even harder to put those words into the proper structure, and long sentences are a perfect example.

She looked out over a horizon painted in shades of red and gold, an endless sea of color in hues of danger, a warning that she was running out of time and the bandits were drawing closer and closer. 

That sentence is pretty descriptive. It's also too darned long. Many authors struggle with finding a cutoff point, myself included, because they're trying to be descriptive. Basically, the sentence above describes a woman standing and looking at the sky. It only describes this one action, so it seems logical that the sentence should continue until the action is complete.

But it's not. Even if you're describing a single action, you have to break your sentences up into reasonable chunks. Look closely at your long sentences, and you'll find the cutoff points. You can find them in the example above, too: 

She looked out over a horizon painted in shades of red and gold. It was an endless sea of color in hues of danger, a warning that she was running out of time. The bandits were drawing closer and closer. 

Drop in a period, re-word a few things, and you can create cutoff points in all your too-long sentences. According to the strict rules of proper English, sentences are supposed to contain one subject and one predicate. The predicate is the action. By this rule, She looked is a proper sentence. In some cases, that can actually work as a whole sentence: 

Missy pointed at the sky, screaming "look!" 

She looked. 

But you couldn't write a whole book this way -- not a very pretty one, anyway. Many authors tend to write in compound sentences, which may contain multiple subjects and corresponding actions.

She looked where Missy was pointing, and felt a ripple of shock when she saw the clouds above their heads. 

In the above, the subject is looking and feeling, and Missy is pointing -- all sorts of mess is going on. The sentence is a bit long, but not excessively so. It's pretty normal, as far as sentences in novels go. The first and last halves of the sentence could each be a single sentence:

She looked where Missy was pointing. She felt a ripple of shock when she saw the clouds above their heads.

But the very last part of the sentence, when she saw the clouds above their heads, cannot be a sentence on its own. If you wanted to break things up differently, you could use this fragment to begin the next sentence in the story:

When she saw the clouds above their heads, she knew nothing would ever be the same. 

How Long is Too Long?

So, you know how to find cutoffs. How do you know when you need them? Just how long is too long when it comes to long sentences? 

Seventeen words. No, that's a joke. There's no exact formula for sentence length, because everyone writes differently and some words feel a lot longer than others.  A sentence is too long when it becomes clumsy. Every author writes with a natural rhythm of words. Some break this rhythm on purpose, jarring readers with a short sentence or an exclamation every now and then. Wow! Some slow it down by writing longer sentences, but once it starts feeling unnatural and becomes too much to digest it's just too long. 

When is a sentence too long? When it's asking readers to absorb too much information at once:

She walked forward with murder on her mind, the leather strap wrapped around her right hand as if in preparation for the the dark deed ahead, her long skirts brushing the ground as she moved down the wall-worn path that was known to be used by the Evil Ones. 

There's a ton of information in the above. I'm meeting a murdering female, I'm finding out about her weapon, I'm being given a setting and I'm even getting introduced to the bad guys. There's even some data on her wardrobe hidden in there somewhere. That's too much stuff happening in a single sentence. My mind can't absorb all of that at once. Now I have to go back and re-read, and now the flow of the story has been interrupted. If this keeps happening and my flow keeps getting interrupted, I might get frustrated and stop reading altogether. 

Read your sentences. They're too long when you start to get bored with them, or get confused yourself and have to read them twice. If you're struggling with a sentence and you're the author, just think how the readers will feel.

Writing 101: Why You Need Bad Writing

It's one of the easiest pieces of advice in the world to tell an author to read great books. Want to learn how to be a better writer? Read great books! Read authors in your genre, read the bestsellers, read, read, read. I'm not going to tell you to do that. I want you to do something else. I want you to seek out bad writing. You need it. You just might not know it.

Bad Writing is Good

Have you ever come across a really old piece of your own writing? Exactly how long did you stare at it in bug-eyed horror before you quickly thrust it away from yourself and make an attempt to disassociate? 

Mozart was a musical prodigy; he composed "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" at age 5. Bobby Fischer was a chess prodigy; he competed in the Game of the Century at age 13. As far as I've ever known, there are no writing prodigies. Nobody sits down at age 11 and writes an epic novel that becomes an instant hit -- not even the likes of Mark Twain. Many authors, even the most well-known, received many rejections before getting themselves into a position to be known to you. So chances are pretty good that your earliest writing is fairly horrible in some area or another. My early writing is weak on spelling, grammar, punctuation, plot, character creation, character development...you get the point. 

I want you to make an effort to read your own bad writing, and read it more than once. Reading good writing will make you a better writer. Reading bad writing can help make you great. I've learned a whole lot more from reading indie books to review than I ever did catching the odd copy error in my collection of James Patterson. I started thinking about that recently, and wondering about it.

Spotting mistakes in other people's bad writing, and in your own old bad writing, puts you in the right frame of mind to find your own. It's not always easy to be objective when you're editing that book you just worked on for the last 6 months. The project is still new and fresh, and you've got all sorts of feelings wrapped up in it. It's much easier to be objective when you stumble across your own terrible writing from years and years ago, projects you've long since discarded and stopped loving. That's when you're grimacing at your mistakes, and groaning out loud at your poor structure. But you might also see some stuff you're still doing the wrong way. You might notice your own bad patterns. And you might go back to that new project that you're romanticizing, and see it with brand-new eyes. 

And all of that is going to help make you a whole lot better. So, go. Look for bad writing, and look for errors. Then go back to your current projects, and keep all those mistakes in mind while you're getting swept up in the story. You need bad writing to make yours better. Keep reading -- but don't be so quick to put the bad stuff down next time.

Writing 101: All About DRM

If you've self-published on Amazon, you know you have the option for checking a little box that allows you to add DRM protection to your books. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, and many authors read Amazon's brief description and decide to check the box. After all, it protects your rights as the author. What you may not realize is that it also makes things difficult for your readers. As a self-published author, that might be something you just can't afford. 

Why Use DRM? 

Digital Rights Management is included in most movies and music you download online -- at least, the stuff you download legally (like through iTunes and such). It's a sort of encryption that's embedded into the file, and it makes it exceedingly difficult for you to copy these digital files -- like in case you want to give them to your friends or re-sell them. And DRM is commonly used in ebooks as well, to prevent ebook piracy. There's no question that ebook piracy happens...but this might not be enough reason for you to add DRM to your ebooks. 

What's Wrong With It? 

You worked really hard on all your books, and you definitely don't want someone to get ahold of them and start re-selling them, or begin marketing them as their own, or take to giving a whole lot of them away for free. You don't deserve that, and plus you won't be able to keep a reasonable count on your book sales if this is happening. 

So DRM is totally great, right? Wrong. Visit the Amazon Kindle forums sometime, and you'll find people complaining about DRM. The program isn't perfect, and sometimes bugs appear. Many readers are forced to delete books because they cannot open them, or they lose their books because they can't be transferred when they upgrade their Kindles.

Bugs in the system create a lot of frustration. Suppose one of your books is buggy for your buyers? If they can't read it, they aren't going to review it. They aren't going to buy more of your books. They're going to move on, and forget all about you and your damned buggy books. 

Maybe your DRM-protected books work perfectly. Maybe there's nothing wrong with them at all. But even when DRM works perfectly, it frustrates readers. I like to read books on my Kindle sometimes, and on my phone sometimes. Maybe I'll even pull one up on my laptop, because I need to double-check something or make notes for a review. But if I bought a book with DRM protection, I might not be able to do that. DRM also creates sharing problems between devices, meaning I might find it impossible to open up the same book on my phone, my ereader, my tablet (in this scenario, I have a tablet) and my laptop. If I can't access your book whenever I want, I'm going to get frustrated. I'm going to read a book I can access anytime, anywhere. I'm going to forget about reading you.

I also can't turn your book into an audio book if you added DRM, or back it up to prevent loss and safeguard against hardware crashes. I can't print it out, and put it on paper if that's how I'd rather read it.

And to make matters worse, DRM doesn't really work, anyway. 

Picking Your Battles

Book piracy happens, and it happens in spite of DRM. You could be frustrating your readers for no reason whatsoever. DRM does make it a little bit more difficult for people to illegally acquire books, but people who have the skills can remove the protection when they want. Chances are very high that no one is pirating your book even when you don't have DRM protection in place. And when you do have it in place, you're taking a chance on pissing off your readers and even turning some away. Some book buyers so passionately hate DRM, they won't even buy books that have it.

You chose self-publishing so you could make the decisions, and now you've got one to make. Are you going to use DRM, or aren't you?

Personal Reflections, and the Year Ahead

I've been thinking a lot about 2012, and wondering what the new year will hold. I was a little surprised when I thought about everything that happened in 2012.

A Look Back

On this day one year ago, I was anxious, unhealthy, and didn't really want to leave my apartment. One year ago, I didn't have much reason to. But things are different now, because I made some things happen over the past 12 months: 

• I published four books in 2012.

True, they are not long books, but the page counts are respectable. Accomplishing this was a big deal for me because I had to overcome my writer's block to do it. I spent two years being literally unable to write any fiction whatsoever, and in 2012 I decided it wasn't going to beat me.

It didn't. I finished the Deck of Lies series, and now I've started something new. In 2013, I hope to publish FIVE books!

• I lost 50 pounds.

It's true. In February, I noticed that I could no longer wear any of my clothing, not even my "fat girl" jeans. I was frightened. I went to the doctor, thinking I might be ill.

I was not. I was just eating too much. So I followed his advice and started paying attention to what I was eating. I got serious (some would say compulsive) about exercising. I lost the weight, and now I'm quite small.

In 2013, I'm going to wear a bikini...in public!  

• I bought a house.

It's my first home! It is a small house on a big lot with absolutely luscious, REAL hardwood floors. Fabulous, I know.

But because it was lived in for a very long time by a little old lady who did her own canning, it definitely wasn't my style. So the entire thing is being remodeled. I do own it and I'm paying the bills, but I've yet to sleep there. I WILL get moved into it in 2013! 

• I discovered the indie community and the book blogger community.

What a nice surprise it was to find Goodreads, a site dedicated to my true love: words. Here I met many other authors and bloggers, and started regularly participating in forums for the first time.

I'm going to spend even more time in the community in 2013. I've joined three more forums for writers and loaded up my Google Reader, so I'm ready!

• I learned that I am a terrible book reviewer.

I started out strong, and loaded up on review commitments.  Then I got bold. I started to solicit review copies, instead of just waiting for requests. I ended up getting mired in an impossibly long story that really went nowhere, and honestly I haven't been the same since. Poor formatting, lackluster editing and zero narrative creativity I can handle, but that really long book sucked something out of me in 2012. I can't even force myself to read the books and indie authors I actually enjoy. 

I will finish my TBR list in 2013, and apologize to every author who has so patiently waited for me. But in the future I will only accept review requests on an extremely limited basis, because I frankly stink at doing it. I can't promise I'll shake off the aftereffects of that altogether way too long book. Right now, I'm not really enjoying reading. This is bad news for an author, so I'll try to tackle this in 2013.

• I'm going to be less aloof.

In the past, I've mainly used my blog to talk writing and books. Meanwhile, I've been secretly envying blogger/author Annalisa Crawford. She writes wonderfully descriptive posts all about her life, personal stuff that draws me in every time. I always wish that I could do the same, but I seem to be a naturally aloof person when I'm online.

In 2013, I'll try to be more open and blog more about my personal life, too. I'll write about my book projects instead of keeping things as quiet as I have in the past. My goal is write at least one personal post a week, starting with this one, to be posted during the weekend. It's hard for me. This post was originally scheduled to go live Saturday, but I couldn't do it. So we'll see how this one goes.

 A New Year...

I got a lot done in 2012, and I want to keep that momentum going. This is my main goal for the year ahead. What about everyone else? What did you learn in 2012, and what do you hope to learn in 2013? 

Books on Film: Memoirs of a Geisha

Much of the eastern world is still shrouded by a curtain of mystery. It's a world steeped in traditions and culture that only one born to it can hope to understand. It's a world that an American named Arthur Golden revealed in his 1997 book Memoirs of a Geisha. Hidden inside this tale of tradition and uncontrollable circumstance, there's a really beautiful love story.

The Book

The reader meets young Chiyo Saramoto at the beginning of the book. She lives in a poor family, in a poor fishing village near the Sea of Japan. Along with her older sister Satsu, she's sold to an okiya in the large city of Kyoto. The okiya she's sold to is located in Gion, the best-known geisha district in the city. Chiyo is taken into the okiya; Satsu is not. She is taken away to parts unknown instead, and Chiyo is left alone at age 9.

There is a girl her age, nicknamed Pumpkin, already living there. In the okiya, Chiyo is surrounded by Granny, an old woman who complains about everything; Mother, who cares more about money than anything else; and Auntie, a failed geisha. The beautiful and bad-tempered geisha Hatsumomo also lives in the okiya, and she hates Chiyo upon first sight.

Chiyo doesn't care. She's not going to stay in the okiya anyway. She makes plans to leave the okiya, the district and all of Kyoto with Satsu, who has been forced into prostitution in the pleasure district. Chiyo ends up falling off the roof and breaking her arm in the escape attempt instead, an act which enrages Mother. Chiyo's geisha training is immediately halted. She will live in okiya and work as a slave instead, until she works off the debt she's created.

Years pass as Chiyo works in the okiya. Pumpkin continues with her geisha training, and Hatsumomo continues behaving badly. Chiyo is unhappy, and overworked, and completely without hope...until she has a chance encounter on the street one day. A kind and handsome man, the Chairman, gives her a handkerchief and some money. She gives the money back in prayer at the Yasaka Shrine. Her prayer?

To be a geisha, so she may one day see the Chairman again. While she gives the money to the shrine, Chiyo keeps the handkerchief for herself. She develops envy and resentment for Pumpkin, who is still training to be a geisha under Hatsumomo. But during Granny's funeral, Chiyo is taken in by Hatsumomo's rival Mameha. She owns a kimono that Chiyo destroyed years ago under Hatsumomo's direction. Mameha talks Mother into paying for Chiyo's training again, and soon she, too, is learning to be a geisha.

This is when the little girl known as Chiyo dies. Born in her place is Sayuri the geisha. Hatsumomo is popular, but technically she is not a good geisha because she made the mistress of her tea house angry once, long ago. Because of this, Hatsumomo could never find a sponsor (a danna) to become independent. This is why Hatsumomo still lives in Mother's okiya. Mother does not name Hatsumomo as her successor because she knows it would be the ruination of the okiya.

Hatsumomo's hatred of Sayuri is still strong, and she does her best to ruin the young geisha's reputation all around Gion. Mameha must come up with a new plan, and get Hatsumomo out of the way. She begins finding bidders for Sayuri's mizuage, an event which is portrayed in the book as a sort of deflowering ceremony. Nobu Toshikazu is among those Mameha wants Sayuri to entice. He's a prominent businessman and the president of an electric company...not to mention, a friend of the Chairman's. At last Sayuri sees him again, but cannot talk to him because she must try to woo Nobu. Another man, whom Sayuri calls Dr. Crab, is also interested in Sayuri. It is he who wins the bidding war for the mizuage. Sayuri uses this money to pay back all her debt.

This is when Mother chooses to adopt Sayuri as her successor, though she'd been considering Pumpkin before. It ruins all remaining friendship between the two girls, and angers Hatsumomo. She becomes even more shrewish than usual, and is eventually thrown out of the okiya. Pumpkin voluntarily leaves shortly after that.

None of it will matter soon, for Japan will soon be involved in World War II. Many of the geishas are being evacuated, and Nobu manages to get Sayuri to the north. Here, she works for a kimono maker while the war rages. After the war ends, Nobu finds her again and asks her to return to Gion. Here, he wants her to entertain Deputy Minister Sato, a man who can help re-build the electric company. Both the Chairman and Nobu are involved with the company, and she will do anything to help the Chairman.

Together with Pumpkin and Mameha, Sayuri entertains the men regularly. Nobu begins proceedings to become Sayuri's danna. It is the worst of all fates. If Nobu becomes her danna, she will be near the Chairman...but never to have him, only to be tortured by his nearness. She forms her own plan to sleep with the Minister, and subsequently get caught by Nobu. This will lower her reputation in his eyes so badly, he would never want to be her danna. Pumpkin is tasked with bringing Nobu to the right place and time.

She doesn't realize how very much Pumpkin still hates her. Instead, Pumpkin makes sure it is the Chairman, not Nobu, who catches Sayuri with the Minister. Eventually, Sayuri ends up in New York running her own tea house...but not before she resolves things with the Chairman.

The Film

A feature-length film was created in 2005 based on the book. Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese actress, stars as Sayuri. This caused considerable controversy, since Sayuri is a Japanese girl. However, the movie is a very faithful adaptation, copying the plot of the novel almost exactly.

There are some slight differences an exaggerations, mostly done for dramatic effect. On film, Hatsumomo leaves the okiya much more dramatically by setting it on fire before fleeing. Much of the backstory of the novel, revolving around young Chiyo's life, is cut from film -- probably, this is done for time's sake. The book is very long, and so is the movie. Her geisha training is also shortened on film, and shown in less detail.

The movie also adds a little story of its own, giving Hatsumomo a secret lover whom she's not allowed to have as a geisha. We see a love-stricken and trapped Hatsumomo on film, not the hell-on-wheels witch from the novel. The book delves deeply into geisha tradition and their hidden world, heady stuff, while the movie swims briefly along the shallow end.

That said, it's a beautiful story in both mediums. It's filled with mystery, drama, tradition, love and emotion. Read the book, watch the movie, and compare them for yourself.

Dirt and Death

"Everything gets more complicated in this book...but I LOVED IT!"

"It was like a story book version of Desperate Housewives or a very tense soap drama filled with dirty family secrets."

Death (Deck of Lies #3) has been reviewed at BookAThon Freak. It's pretty spoiler-free, so feel free to read the whole review and see if you agree with the reviewer!

Writing 101: So is it Burned, or Burnt?

I'm convinced that irregular verbs exist only to annoy writers. They always show up at the most inopportune times, right when you're in the zone and your fingers are flying. One moment, your creativity is pouring out of you. The next, you're staring at the word burned and wondering if it ought to be burnt instead.

Verbs, Adjectives, Words That Don't Make Sense

The verb to burn is irregular. It has two past tenses: burned, and burnt. When something is burned, it's been scorched by heat and/or flame. Your skin may get burned by the sun or even hot water.  Burned is easy to use, because it's an example of classic past tense. Just add ed to burn, and you're ready to go.

You could always add a t instead. Then, the word becomes burnt. When something is burnt, it's been scorched by heat and/or flame. Your skin may get burnt by the sun or even hot water.

No need to check that twice. Burned and burnt mean exactly the same thing, and they are often used interchangeably. Burned is a bit more common in North American writing, while burnt appears a bit more frequently on the other side of the pond. Burnt can also be used as an adjective, for example: 

"What color is that?"

"Burnt orange." 

It sounds a little more cumbersome to say burned orange, so burnt is more commonly used. But when you're using verbs, burned or burnt will do just as well.

Writing 101: The Merits of Simple English

Listen, I can get as flowery as the next guy. I'll wax poetic about the sky if you want me to, and I'll bet I could come up with some adjectives you've never even imagined before. But really, what's the point? The most beloved books aren't necessarily the most thrilling, the most frightening or the funniest stories ever written...but they are easy to read. Want to be a writer? You need to understand the merits of simple English. 

Verbosity

He strolled forward with the night wind on his shoulder, propelled by a steady tread that squeaked just so with each new stride. The dead foliage on the trees made crackling sounds, shivering with the frigid mistral that came sweeping down the mountain. The refuse storage loomed in front of him like a spectre, a hungry maw waiting to swallow his offering whole.

Do you know what I was describing with the above? I'm talking about a guy taking out the trash on a chilly fall evening. If you didn't get that right away, it's because the above is an example of over-done writing. Every single sentence doesn't need to be an event -- and frankly, shouldn't be. One of the merits of using simple English is that it's easy to understand. I shouldn't have to second-guess every word and read every paragraph twice over just to know what the heck is going on. 

Make me do all of that as a reader, and I'm just going to end up getting exhausted. Flowery language is nice, sometimes, but being inundated with it through page after page is tiresome. It's okay to simply say what you mean. You can still be wonderfully descriptive without using all the lesser-known adjectives in the thesaurus. Let's take the example above and strip it down to simple English: 

He could feel the cold night air on his shoulders as he walked in his squeaking shoes. A cold wind from the mountain made the dead leaves on the trees rustle, creating crackling noises overhead. The garbage area seemed to come from nowhere, casting shadows over him as it stood ready to receive his trash bags.

Easier to read, right? Totally understandable, and yet still descriptive? These are the merits of simple English. Use plain, everyday language to get your point across, because plain, everyday language is what most readers understand. Don't ever make it difficult to read your book. Simplify, and make it easy instead.

Writing 101: Starting Fresh

Writers pour their very souls onto the page. They sweat, they bleed, they cry, they laugh right out loud...they scare their family members, frankly. When you put all of that into your work, it's hard to take that work and destroy it. But sometimes, that's just what you've got to do. Starting fresh is scary, but sometimes that's the only option.

Starting Fresh

It's a New Year, and everyone's thinking about fresh starts. You know who doesn't like starting over from scratch? Writers. Nothing is more horrifying than a blank page. It sits there, and it stares at you...and it knows exactly where you are weakest. 

Erasing text is even more horrifying. Many writers will attempt to endlessly edit their past book projects, no matter how error-stuffed or poorly-written. A good idea is a good idea, and bad writing can always be fixed...right? 

No. Sometimes, starting fresh is your only option -- and incidentally, today is the perfect day to make that leap of faith in yourself.  

How to Do It

Lots of writers start out young. Personally, I began with short stories and poetry. Most of it is unreadable. But some of those early ideas are still good, even if I didn't have the skills to properly execute them back then. It's not at all unusual for a writer to grimace and groan when they go back and re-read something they wrote years ago. It's also not unusual for that same writer to look for ways to make it useable again. 

Sometimes, no amount of editing is going to help. If a story is good, and your characters are good and the idea is something you want to pursue, there's one thing you have to do first: erase. Get rid of all that bad text that's cramping your style. Editing isn't always the right answer if something's really out-of-whack. Just get rid of it, keep the ideas that were good to begin with, and start fresh with that blank page.

It's scary, but in a way it's also wonderful. It's a New Year, a new page, and anything is possible.