Writing a good scare!

Hey guys!

Ah the month of Halloween is upon us! In just 21 days all the spooky and creepy will hit our doorsteps and homes. And I, for one, couldn’t be more excited. This is hands down my favorite holiday of the year. The haunting atmosphere connects with my eerie little W.I.P. So, I wanted to look at some fundamental elements that I think should be in a “good scare” book (just to be clear: this is only my ramblings, no one else’s. Also, I’m talking spooky, not full on horror – though some elements might overlap).

All right, let’s get to it.

When it comes to eerie, one of the first thing I think of is pacing. A spooky book isn’t going to be a languid walk in the park. It’s got to be fast and unpredictable at times, and then at others there needs to be a slow, but ever-increasing tension buildup. This can’t be just your average building of tension. This needs to build a particular atmosphere. It needs to be an increasing “heart in your mouth” feeling. Think about those old horror movies where the girl goes creeping around the house. Cheesy, yes. Effective? Also, yes. Most of us will still hold our breath, even though we know what’s going to happen. It’s human nature. Now, I’m not saying write an old-fashioned cheesy horror (but you can if you want!). What I’m getting at is the variation in pacing should go between these two. You need to build up, then be quick and unpredictable.

So, here’s where I want to build on atmosphere aside from it building your tension. Atmosphere is crucial for a spooky book. You need to decide what kind of atmosphere you want (and I do recommend either doing this before you write your first draft, or doing an entire edit pass focusing on just this aspect.) Are you looking for eerie and peculiar (ala THE ACCIDENT SEASON by Moira Fowley-Doyle) or are you looking for something off-kilter and uncomfortable (ala CORALINE by Neil Gaiman)? Perhaps you’re going for an old-style Goosebumps book, or what about something like ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD by Kendare Blake? Whatever your choice, you need to think ahead – what makes an eerie tone as opposed to a “hold your breath” tone? Word choice, word choice, word choice. Sentence structure. Choice of details. Be careful in your choices.

Then, of course, there’re characters to talk about. You can have a cast of completely normal characters, of course, but you can up the spook by having odd characters, too. Think about HOW TO HANG A WITCH by Andriana Mather. The Descendants are plain unusual – descended from the witches from the Salem witch trials, all dressed in black, and giving fierce looks, and a closed circle kind of feel.

Plot – well, this one goes without saying. But just a reminder: twists, turns…the unexpected, and the guessing game of who is going to do what. And then you have the “this is weird…what the heck is going on?” And the “is there going to be something terrifying in there?” Choose whatever plot you want, but make sure it keeps the creepy factor throughout!

All right. So, there are many, many more things that can make a novel spooky, but if I try and write them all here, I’ll end up with a book (and I’m not writing non-fiction lol), and there will be plenty that I miss. So this is just my little nook in the web to tell you the main things I look at on my first edit pass when it comes to spooky!

Happy Halloween to come, you guys!!!

Editing and the Five Stages of Grief

Happy Mother’s Day! Hope everyone reading had a fun, relaxing day with the kids or hanging out with Mom.

Reflecting on Mother’s Day made me think of how the creative process is often compared to childbirth. Novel writing is no exception. It can easily take nine months (sometimes longer!) to finish a writing project, editing being the hardest, lengthiest part. Most writers will agree they love drafting but hate editing. Why is it so painful to go back and review your own words? I know for me it’s tough to reread what I’ve written because I’m either too critical where I shouldn’t be and not tough enough where it counts. It’s brutal to admit that a favorite scene, a beloved character, or even a gratuitous line may not work and should be cut to improve the overall pacing, plot, and/or cast. So, as with a death or loss, the editing process can be subject to the five stages of grief: 

First comes denial: So what the word count of my YA novel is 150K? Surely the right agent will see the necessity of every single word and will fall in love with the project anyway. Their enthusiasm will exude as they pitch the story, and it will sell, as is, even though it’s twice as long as average and it’s a debut. George RR Martin’s first book in A Song of Ice and Fire was 300K, after all!

Then comes anger and maybe a touch of righteous indignation: How dare they (critique partner, beta reader, friend, agent, editor) say that (scene, character, line) doesn’t work? They just don’t get the story!! How can they expect me to hack away at what was surely created through divine inspiration, not to mention my own blood, sweat, and tears??

Bargaining: Okay, well, maybe if I just cut a few extraneous words, I can keep this scene …

Then depression and reluctant acceptance sets in: This is when you begin to realize making tough changes is necessary and will strengthen the overall story.

This is the time to really take a critical eye to the pages. Even though all the characters are like your children, you may find one of them isn’t moving the story forward, may be detrimental to the pacing, and needs to go.

As hard as it is to cut characters, sometimes deleting scenes is even more difficult. One scene can often change the outcome of the story, and if that pivotal event could (or should) be cut, even if that means rewriting the last third of the novel, it has to be done.

But what about those instances where changes will make the story different, not necessarily better. Maybe the advice you received was simply a personal preference of the reader. How can you tell the difference?

If more than one person gives you similar feedback about a scene or a plot point or if you’re not getting the response to a certain character the way you intended, it’s time to reevaluate. The critique can sting at first, but it’s best to wait a few days, let the advice sink in, and then go back with the red pen and mark up your work. It’s like chipping away at a slab of marble-- most edits will streamline and polish the story and let the really important points shine through. And in the end, your work will be improved, your message will be clearer, and the overall story will be all the better for it.

Lop of their heads!

Welcome to May, everybody! I'm extra happy this month, as it happens to be my birthday, which means I get to splurge a little.

Our awesome Sharon Johnston came up with the idea of "Killing your Darlings" for our May theme (don't you just love themes? In fact, you may (boom boom) have noticed a theme throughout our blog this year!). Yes, that was corny, but I really couldn't help myself.

There are a lot of ways to kill your darlings (it could be sentences, scenes, paragraphs, characters, dialogue, etc.). However, I'm going to talk about ones people rarely talk about. *Whispers dramatically* *long pause* Books. Yes, you heard me. Books. Sometimes you just have to cut that darling free. Hold on, let me explain. I mean this in two ways. Let me ease you into this by offering you the abstract version:

1) At some point or another, you're going to have to stop editing, polishing, tweaking, and adjusting that baby bird book of yours and cut the apron string - let it fly out into the agent slush pile, or out on submission, or out to your CPs. I know it's hard. You want your darling to stay your darling forever. But what if someone hurts it? Doesn't like it? Says my characters are flat? Gasp - hate it?! Well, thems the breaks. I'm not being harsh here. It burns like hell. However, there are benefits. Feedback will help you improve. You'll learn about subjectivity. You'll gain a new perspective. But, you'll also learn that, well, you can't please everyone, and you can't be perfect. And people will have read your book. That's the point of becoming a published author, right? So, as hard as it is, kill that darling string of yours, and let your baby book go.

Okay, that wasn't so bad, now was it? Good. Glad we're on the same page. This bit, though, is going to be tougher:

2) Sometimes you're going to actually have to kill your book. I mean it's got to go. Your book might be written in the wrong tense - give it up and start again, darling. It might be the wrong character POV. That's right - kill the POV and choose another one. It might be the wrong story. WHAT? The wrong story? But I wanted to write that story! Hey, calm down. No one's arguing with you there. What I'm saying is that your story may have went off track. What you wanted to write might have gotten muddled up, your vision changed, your characters went off track...in fact, any number of things could have derailed your story. That means you have to kill that darling story and start from scratch. Painful, I know, but a good writer always does what's best for their vision, and if that means starting again, then that's what you've got to do.

There you go. That's killing your darling. Ah, wait, one more thing. Don't shoot me, but sometimes a book just doesn't work for publishing. It might be a saturated market, the book might not just have a wide enough appeal, it might be too niche of a market, it might not fit comfortably on the book shelves. There are a lot of reasons a book might not get published. I'm afraid that at some point, you might have to kill one of your books. I have a few dead ones myself. That doesn't mean I don't love them. It doesn't mean they weren't worthy. It just means that right now, you need to work on something fresh. Make sure you're moving forward, being objective, and remember...this is a business, as well as an art.