Writing A Novel: Some Great Advice!

Though I've hired a professional editor to go through the final draft of my latest novel, I'm having a few friends do reads in the meantime. With BAND GEEK, I didn't show it to friends until I'd finished my draft, but this time, I've been having people take a look as I go along. This way, I can edit it chapter by chapter and fix problems in my story as I write it.

In particular, I've received some great advice from my cousin Tom, who's an actor. At 85, he's wayyy out of my target readership, but he reads scripts for a living and knows how to create interesting characters. I wasn't sure that he'd enjoy reading about college kids, but he really got into the editing process and provided me with some very helpful feedback. His main critique was that my narrator was too whiny and my lead male character was a little too perfect.

This brought me back to my discussion with my writer friend Amy, who'd instructed me to find the conflict between characters. Her argument was that a story is more interesting when characters have to overcome an obstacle. That said, I added in some back story between the two mains, Sadie and Griffin, that adds a lot more color to their relationship. I also tried to flesh out their relationships with their friends and families so I could deepen my tale all around.

The good news is that so far, Tom really likes my story and ended up breezing through the first 10 chapters. So I at least seem to be on the right track! I'm trying to learn from the mistakes I made with BAND GEEK and am determined to make this book as tight and professional as possible. Getting such an honest assessment from a friend is a great start.

Meantime, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, 99 cents through February!

Writing A Novel: Role Call

One of the concerns that I have with my work-in-progress novel is that it has too many characters. There are the two main characters; their family members ... and then everyone they deal with at college, including Sadie's suitemates, Griffin's teammates and their various new friends/romantic interests. So a lot of people are involved in this story!

BAND GEEK had many characters, too, since it took place in a high school, but the challenge with this novel is that it takes place in two environments: college and the characters' hometown (which, by the way, is also the fictional 'burb of Sequoia, NY where BAND GEEK is set). I suppose that I could have this book set only at college and just skip over school breaks and such, but I feel like I wouldn't be giving an accurate portrayal of someone's freshman year if I did that. When you attend a school that's away from home, as I did, it can be very jarring to go back and forth from one place to the other. Part of me was always glad to return home, back to my old room, homecooked food and old friends. But as time went on and i grew used to college life, those breaks at home became more difficult to deal with. All of a sudden, I was back under my parents' roof and had to follow their rules. In college, I was 18 going on 19 and got to be independent and act like an adult, but at home, I was still treated like a teenager. Many of my high school friends had changed, as well, so our reunions were a little awkward. And it was kind of lonely being back in my parents' big house when I'd grown used to having other students all around. Overall, it was a very confusing feeling and I felt as if I were torn between these two worlds. I want to show what that's like for my characters, as well.

This is why I have so many side characters. College just wouldn't be college without the other students. When you live in a dorm, they become your family -- even if you hate them -- and you're constantly meeting new people, even in senior year. Some of my best memories are when almost everyone from our floor (at least 20 of us, anyway) would go to the dining hall en masse, push a few large tables together and enjoy a huge family-style dinner. On my 20th birthday, we took our dinner party to TGIFridays, where everyone tied balloons to my chair -- and to me. Was I best buddies with all of these people? No, of course not. But even the acquaintances had an impact on my life.

I'm trying to edit down the number of characters and only keep the ones who are important to the story. But I'd still like to give as realistic a picture of college as possible.

Please read and review my first novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Writing A Novel: When Characters Come To Life

When outlining a story, I put a lot of thought into my main characters so that I can make them seem as realistic as possible. However, sometimes a secondary character will surprise by taking on a life of its own.

In BAND GEEK, this happened with the characters Ken and Lenny. Ken was originally meant to just be mentioned in passing and did something very bad to Lana, but ended up becoming a pivotal part of the story. He also turned out to be very likeable as time went on. Lenny was written as a comedic character, but he ended up having a lot of heart ... and he has one serious scene, which gives him a bit more depth.

In my latest novel, I'm really starting to like the character Rachael, who's one of Griffin's sisters. He has three younger sisters -- Rachael, Deborah and Judith, named for my cousin and two sisters-in-law, respectively -- and I originally intended for them to have very small roles in the book. As I wrote for Rachael, though, she developed more and more of a personality -- as is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

What I like about her is that she's strong, outspoken and opinionated, even though she's only 14. She's not the oldest sibling in her family, but she is the oldest girl and is extremely protective of her loved ones. She's a bit of an idealistic and will stand up for what she believes in.

Though I'm an only child, I have plenty of friends with siblings and in most cases, the oldest girl has a certain role in the family. The sister of my childhood friend, Lani, is seven years older than her and seemed like an adult to me when we were growing up. Now that I'm 38, a seven-year difference isn't that big of a deal, but at 15, she'd babysit for us and was so maternal. She was almost like a second mother to Lani and readily accepted the responsibility of looking out for her little sister.

One of my other friends has three sisters and though she's technically not the oldest in terms of age, she's the "oldest" in regards to attiude. My friend is the one who helps organize family dealings, handles family crises and has the shoulders that everyone cries on. Again, she's very maternal and take-charge, and is deeply protective of her siblings.

I guess I was thinking of these women as I wrote Rachael since she has some of their traits. I know that it may seem strange to say that a character "takes on a life" of her own; after all, she's my creation. But even your own writing can surprise you and go in a different direction than what you'd planned. Most writers have experienced this at some point and if you spend a lot of time writing, you probably will, as well.

I'm really pleased with how my recent chapter turned out because it covers a significant event in my novel. I just hope that I can find more motivation in the coming days so that I can continue!

Please read and review my first novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Writing A Novel: Making Characters Different And Interesting

Woo hoo, BAND GEEK got another great review today! This one is from Shari at My Neurotic Book Affair. Make sure you comment on her post so that you can get a chance to win my CD and handmade wire wrapped music earrings.

So far, almost every reviewer -- even the ones who haven't cared for my book so much -- have mentioned how much they like and relate to my narrator, Melinda. This makes me so happy because while writing her, I came to love her (and Josh) almost as if they were real people and put a lot of work into making them come alive. I'm pleased that others are enjoying them as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

Now that I'm working on my next book, I'm still trying to get to know these two main characters, Sadie and Griffin. One of my biggest challenges is writing a narrator who's interesting and relatable -- but has a different voice from Melinda. It's taking some work because the girls have some similarites: like Mel, Sadie is overweight (though much more so), is reserved and a bit of a loner, hasn't had much experience with dating, and has musical talents (in Sadie's case, she sings). I put a bit of myself into my characters so it's not surprising that all will pick up some of my real-life traits. But being a writer means you have to "write what you know" and then expand upon that. Sadie's background and homelife isn't at all like Mel's; plus, Sadie is experiencing her first year of college, so the setting is shaping this newer character. I'm still finding her voice, but it'll happen soon enough.

I think it's common for an author's characters to take on certain similarities because they're all coming from the same place: from that author's imagination. My favorite writers have managed to share their voices through their creations -- and mix things up just enough to keep me guessing and wanting more.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Writing A Novel: First Chapter Challenges

Writing a novel is hard work around, but for me the toughest part of the process is getting those first few chapters out of the way. These are those all-important chapters where you set up your characters and scene -- and of course, write an introduction that's interesting enough to hook your readers.

What I find challenging is that I have to use a lot of exposition in these introductory chapters. It's where I set up the main characters' backstory and their relationships to one another. But the trick is to keep that exposition natural sounding. One of the basic things we're tought in any creative writing class is to "show, not tell," but it's difficult to "show" what a person looks like, for example, without TELLING a bit about them! On the other hand, rattling off lists of adjectives can get boring rather quickly. So, what to do?

I try to weave in the details. For instance, rather than stopping at every new character to describe his or her appearance, I'll add in a subtle detail, "She twirled a piece of her blonde hair around her finger." Or if I'm sharing some backstory, it'll be organic to the story and will set up later events. For the male lead in my latest book, I just went with a flat-out description coming from my narrator -- but he's supposed to be very good-looking, so it was a description from the point of vie of, "Oh my God, there's no adequate way to describe his beauty." As I said before, the trick is finding that balance. I don't think that there's really a right or wrong answer to when to show versus tell; it depends on what works for your story.

Still, I most enjoy writing the middle of my books -- the meat of my stories. It's funny because my husband is always saying that in real life, I don't really like getting to know people; I like to know them. I guess I feel the same way about my characters. I enjoy getting to the heart of who they are and sharing that with my readers.

At this point, I'm almost done with the introductory chapters in my latest novel. I'm just at the point where I'm about to lauch into the deeper part of my tale -- and I can't wait to get there.

Please read and review my first novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Writing A Novel: On To The Next Project

I took a much-needed break from promoting BAND GEEK today and spent time working on my next novel. So far, I've completed my first chapter and am happy with how it's turning out.

Writing a new story has its good and bad points. On the one hand, my book is a blank slate. I can invent any character I want and make her do anything, without having to worry about continuity. On the other hand... the book is a blank slate, meaning that I still have to actually write the story. And much as I enjoy doing that, it's even more satisfying for me when I can see my words come to life on the page. It's especially frustrating when the story is already complete in my head and I've yet to put in on paper.

It also takes some time for me to get comfortable with new characters. Melinda and Josh have been a part of my life for such a long time, so it feels weird -- and almost like I'm cheating on them in a way -- to be writing about someone else's story. But I'm already falling in love with this new set of characters and plan to give them the same care that I gave the characters in my first book.

The business of writing (emphasis on business) takes a lot of work and patience, as I'm finding out, but ultimately, I'm a WRITER -- and this is what I need to concentrate on. I'm glad to be so fired up about my next project and am eager to see where this story takes me.

Meantime, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

How To Write Kick-Ass Characters In A Story

Today's stop on my Virtual Blog Tour is at The Official Blog-Zine Of Terra Little. I wrote a guest post for her very cool blog where I explain what makes a character realisric and memorable.

And yes, once again, I bring things back to soaps! But you have to understand, I spent about a third of my life (so far) at Soap Opera Digest. For 14 years, 15 if you count my internship with Soap Opera Weekly, I lived and breathed soap operas. I've only been away from the industry for a few months, so I still feel like I'm a part of it. In fact, I'll probably always feel a connection to it.

I do think that there is something to be said for looking to soaps for ideas on what works -- and what doesn't work -- when it comes to creating a character. Soaps air almost every day of the year and all of the remaining soaps have been on for decades. This means that the characters have to stay interesting for all of that time! The lame ones eventually disappear; the audience is savvy enough to recognize them. Even if the shows try to shove someone down the audiences' throats, the show will *eventually* get the hint and make that character disappear. But the great, iconic characters -- the Erica Kanes, Dorian Lords and Jack Abbotts -- keep the viewers' attention for a really long time.

Of course, writing for TV is much different than writing a novel. For one thing, I don't have to deal with actors when creating my characters. There were no contract or salary disputes when I wrote Melinda and Josh. They just did whatever I told them to do! However, I do think that critiquing television for such a long time gave me some advantages when writing characters. I pictured them as real people, as they would appear in a movie or on TV. I tried to incorporate those visual cues that would make them come to life -- sort of the same way that a screen writer adds visual cues into a script.

It's a shame that daytime soaps are dying in the United States because I believe that they're a valuable piece of literary history. They've gotten a lot of flak over the years, but they're persisted in some form since the days of radio. I hope that my book has half as much influence and longevity.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now 99 cents.

Best Friends Since Birth

Of all of the characters who exist in BAND GEEK, the one who's the most like a real-life person is Melinda's best friend, Lana.

True, Mel is based a bit on me, but we're also very different. She's edgier and willing to break rules when pushed to it. I'm well... not. That's what made writing her so much fun; she ended up doing things that I never would've done as a teen.

Lana, however, is an homage to my real-life childhood friend, Lani. Lani is a year older than me, but I've literally known her since birth. Her family lived across the street from mine (still do, in fact) so my parents used to have us play togther as babies. They figured that if Infant Me played with One-Year-Old Lani, she'd be a good influence since she was ahead in skills. I did learn to read ar a very early age so perhaps their strategy worked.

Lani has two siblings who are much older and I'm an only child, so we grew up like sisters. She'd sometimes sleep over at our house for days at a time. Other times, we'd fight like siblings. She used to drag me around the floor by my hair. I once tied her up with a jumprope and pushed her down the stairs. Good times!

Lani has always been very outgoing and knew how to charm adults. My mom loved her because she'd VOLUNTEER to help clean the house. She could -- and still does -- make friends with anyone. She met her first boyfriend when she was 13 and dated steadily until she got married. She often got into trouble for being mischevious in school.

I was the opposite. I was shy, quiet and studious. I wasn't the life of the party. Yet we remained friends.

When we were younger, we mainly hung out with the neighborhood kids, but as we got older, we fell into separate crowds. Lani was fairly popular and loved high school. She had steady boyfriends and, as far as I know, never felt like an outsider. I had a group of nice friends, but I didn't date much and saw myself as a dork. High school was mixed for me.

She and I went through a brief period where we didn't hang out too much. This was during my junior and her senior year. Lani was busy with her boyfriend and large group of buddies. I was busy with my Positive Image Club (yes, this was really the name of the organization) pals. I figured that we were growing apart; after all, that happens when people grow up, but once she entered college, we grew close again. She had a car and I didn't yet have a license so during my senior year, she'd drive us to the movies every weekend.

Now that we're adults, we're closer than ever. We don't see each other as often as I'd like but we were in each other's wedding parties and traveled to London, Mexico and Puerto Rico together. She's still way more outgoing than I am, but always supports me. She's also really honest with me when the situation calls for it.

When writing Lana, I tried to capture Lani's loyalty, goodness and off-beat sense of humor. I didn't want Lana to be just a sidekick; she has passions, interests and problems and stands up to Mel when need be. I think I did a pretty good job in creating a literary version of Lani because Lani -- without having yet read the book -- made the exact same joke as Lana in real life. Spooky, but cool!

BAND GEEK is about so much more than Mel's revenge scheme or even her romance with Josh. It's about her relationships with everyone in her life and how they help her grow as a person. Lani certainly influenced my life and Lana does the same for my narrator.

Here we are on May 15, 1992 when Lani came to see me off before my prom. That's me on the left in the white gown and Lani on the right. Gotta love the hair!

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Excerpts From My Novel

I've spent a lot of time writing about the story behind REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, but haven't shared too much about what's actually inside my book. In order to whet your appetite, here are a couple of excerpts:

Introduction of Josh

Josh is a junior and is pretty cute with his shaggy, light-brown hair and deep blue eyes. But the feature that stands out -— at least to his many female admirers —- is the lopsided grin he flashes whenever something amuses him.

When it comes to Josh, though, he thinks everything is a joke. He's a musical prodigy and plays trumpet even better than Mr. Francis does, but insists on sitting last chair. If our conductor forces him to audition, Josh will purposely make mistakes. He claims that it's because he doesn't believe in the auditioning process, but I think he just enjoys getting a rise out of Mr. Francis.

Meantime, Josh shows about the same amount of respect in the rest of his classes. Though he aced his PSATs and gets straight A's without studying, he often skips classes. When he is there, he's always pulling pranks on his teachers. One time he brought a lawn chair to math, then plopped down in it holding a beer as if he were at the beach (he got a week's suspension for that). Another time he locked his English sub out of the room when she was clueless enough to step outside (that only got him a week's detention). Last year, he even got us a day off from school. When workers began fixing the roof, several students complained about the fumes but the school refused to let us go home. So what did Josh do? He alerted the media about our "plight." Not wanting to look bad, Principal Muller was forced to let us stay home until the roof was fixed. Needless to say, Josh became the school's hero. Now he's never without a girl on his arm and gets invited to the jocks' parties, even though he's not on any sports teams.

Introduction of Mel's best friend, Lana

Lana Brody and I have known each other since kindergarten when her family moved in across the street from mine. But that's about all we have in common. While I've always been quiet and studious, Lana's more outgoing. She's not afraid to go up to guys at the diner and tell them she thinks they're cute or to do something funny like dance on top of a table at a party. When we were younger, my parents loved it when she'd come to our holiday dinners (since she's Jewish, we always have her over for Christmas) because while I preferred to watch all of the action, she'd chat with all of their grown-up friends. "Why can't you be more like Lana?" my mom would ask me after everyone else had gone home and we were cleaning up the dishes. "All you have to do is talk to people like she does and they'll like you."

My parents don't understand that some people are just born friendly, like Lana. She has this way of making everyone notice her, whereas I always seem to say the wrong thing or even worse, can't think of anything to say at all. This is why everyone likes her and I’m basically invisible. Sometimes I worry that the only thing that keeps us friends is the proximity of our houses, but so far, she hasn't ditched me for the cooler crowd.

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.