Three Types of Good Story Repetition

Today I'm over at K.M. Weiland's Blog, WordPlay (a fantastic writing craft blog, if you haven't visited),

talking about three types of good repetition for our stories.  Hope you'll pop over.

How Convenient--Plot Contrivance

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Morgue File--o0o0xmods0o0o

Sometimes when we’re drafting a book or writing an outline, we’ll run into something that needs to happen in the plot, but is clumsy, or seems convenient or contrived.

I’m working on something now and ran into this problem.  As a matter of fact, I’ve run into this same exact problem in a different manuscript.  I need to have my sleuth’s home broken into. How can I get away with that?  She has nosy neighbors.  She’s alert.  She’s, as a matter of fact, an insomniac.  The villains in my stories are gifted amateurs, not career criminals with a knack for picking locks. 

It’s difficult to make this break-in happen without making my sleuth appear dumb, forgetful, careless, or generally unfit for sleuthing.

How James Patterson Made 94 Million Dollars Last Year

by Gretchen Archer, @Gretchen_Archer

I don’t have a clue. He probably doesn’t either. I’m sure there are forensic accountants, Schedule Cs, and colorful pie charts with the secret formula for how this man, in today’s publishing climate, earned so much money by simply putting pencil to paper (they say he writes-outlines-edits long hand on legal pads), but I bet there’s no one-sentence explanation. “Mr. Patterson, it was the Alex Cross fleece booties that shot you from Forbes Stinking Rich to Forbes Obscenely Loaded.”

The only logical answer? James Patterson supplies a high-demand product to an eager and willing consumer. That’s how he does it. Who’s next? Who will be the next J.K., Danielle, John Grisham? I hope it’s not me. I don’t want to be the next Gillian Flynn or E.L. James, either, but for different reasons, and not because I hate going to the bank, something they must be doing a lot of, too. It’s because, having read both Ms. Flynn and Ms. James (kudos, ladies) I know I could never do what they’ve done (in the first place) without giving up my life. For me to go that deep, I’d have to shut off everything and everyone, and what if, when I dug out, everything and everyone were gone?

Which brings me to a terrible confession: I’m not in it for the money. I write with the luxury of knowing  there will be dinner on the table and lights on in my house if I bring in Sandra Brown numbers or, like many other happy writers, I don’t.

Twitterific

 by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific is a compilation of all the writing links I shared the previous week. The links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 19,000 free articles on writing-related topics. It's the search engine for writers.

Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Mike Fleming and author and writing coach James Scott Bell are offering an online, interactive, writing program to help make your next novel great. It's called "Knockout Novel" and you can learn more about it at KnockoutNovel.com. Plus, all the data is stored in your Hiveword account for easy access.

Strategies for Turning Impersonal Info Dumps into Compelling Copy: http://bit.ly/18Ik5wb @jodierennered

Stalking the Muse: http://bit.ly/13aqUa8 @ashkrafton

To Save Indies, Publishers Need to ReConsider DRM: http://bit.ly/104KaVA @dearauthor

The Process, or Lack Thereof

Guest Post by Mitzi Kelly, @mitzi_kelly

I’d like to thank Elizabeth for giving me a platform to discuss one of my favorite subjects:  the writing process. (Not!)

I have to admit, I doubt if many authors approach a writing project with the same helter-skelter methods I use, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity to analyze my lack of a strategy.  Or, I should say, my lack of an organized strategy.

It really is quite frustrating. From the way I start a new manuscript, to the way it eventually ends up, are at such different ends of the writing spectrum, it’s a mystery to me how I complete any project.   Wait, I just thought about something! This puzzle could provide the major plot theme in my next book in the Silver Sleuths Mystery series!

My process really is that convoluted, folks.  I could probably benefit from a team of sleuths investigating it, but I’m going to give it my best shot.  Please bear with me as I try to describe my creative process, because the key word here really is “creative.”

What If? A Method for Developing Ideas

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

MorgueFile--The Success

I’m one of those neighbors that would be the perfect witness in a murder mystery.  Because, if I’m not driving my kids and their friends around, I’m staring blankly out the windows as I write.

One morning I saw our middle school neighbor from across the street leave the house to walk to the school bus stop.  His folks had put out a large television for a charity to pick up and the remote sat on the top of the TV by the street.  He walked past the television, looking at it. Then he abruptly turned around, reached for the remote, and pointed it at the television.   You could just see what was going through his head: what if the television suddenly turned on?

Writing is like that.  What if___happened?