Year: 2008

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

It’s been awhile since I had a worthy tale, but this one is pretty darned good.

We decided to try a new place to eat tonight, one of our old time favorites from Eagan, MN (Old Chicago) that has recently opened. On the way, we had to cross James River, and shortly after passing it, the van was suddenly filled with a wretched odor that had both That Man and I gagging. Seriously, it smelled like the bog of eternal stench. Since we’d just crossed the river, we thought maybe that was the smell, but it just got worse and worse.

Of course, I soon suspected that one of the monsters was suffering from a gas problem. The two littlest would have claimed it proudly if they’d unleashed that torment on us, but they both denied the smell. That meant Princess Monster had done it. Oh, yes–I knew she’d lie about it because she was embarrassed. (Princesses try very hard not to have gas, you know.) Red-faced, she finally admitted she’d done it just as we entered Old Chicago.

So we’re sitting at the table, talking and laughing about how she’d denied it, she suddenly got a story idea. I’m not kidding. I thought I was the only one who sat at the table scribbling madly on a napkin! Tossing ideas back and forth with me, she finished her first draft. Spelling as she wrote it.

It Wasn’t Me

A kid named John (Me: of course, even in the story, she couldn’t claim it–blame it on Uncle John!!) was sitting in the car and tuted (Me: cracks up) in the car.

The whole family gaged. And he said It wasn’t me!

One day they were in the house and the whole city gaged. And he said It wasn’t me!

One other day he was at the White House and he tuted and here came the whole army and he said It wasn’t me!

One day he was at the Impier State Building and tuted. The whole universe gaged, even the alains. And he said It wasn’t me!

But the whole universe said It was him. Then he confessed.

Brainstorming her idea, we decided to add a scene with the President trying to escape the smell on Air Force One (after I explained what AF1 was) and also Ben Franklin’s face sliding off Mount Rushmore.

It’ll be a best seller, I’m sure.

P.S. I’m keeping the napkin.

P.S.S. Yes, she gets the fragment habit from me. I’m working on that. Mine, not hers.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

With Revision Xibalba (RX) starting next week, I worked on finishing character details last week. I wrote up some nice backstory for all the main characters I wanted to consider. Although I didn’t finish the key backstory/event for Charlie and Sam, I did outline it all. I couldn’t get enthused about writing it carefully–as I would to share it publically–but I did want to capture the events. It does all come full circle, so it’s important that I know about it. I just didn’t feel like I needed to know it perfectly, although I reserve the right to come back and finish it later. I planned to give those snippets away eventually.

It’s time to clean my desk, figuratively and literally. If you have anything you want me to read, this is a good week. Once I’m head down, nose to the grindstone, it may take several weeks of snippets of reading time instead of a long dedicated time. I’m out of books, so I shouldn’t be tempted there, unless I buy new ones. (Always a possibility.) I have several TBR piles, but they’re all still packed in the garage.

I have a few short character notes I want to make, and I want to write up the synopsis. I want to treat this like a formal proposal and have query and synopsis in hand, although I’m not sending anything out yet. I want to get this next pass well started, and let the dust settle on the Letters queries/packages before starting a new round. One book in the query stage is hard enough to manage, let alone two. Likely, I won’t be in a position to query NSR until early 2009, but it would be sweet indeed if I wrapped up the revision and could send a few chapters to my brand new agent before Thanksgiving. One can dream, right????! Please don’t wake me up.

If I owe you a package, I’m going to try very, very hard to get it in the mail before RX.

This week is also significant in my writer’s journey, so I’ll be writing up a post celebrating my fifth birthday as a writer. My, the time does fly, even when it seems the slow slog will never end.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. last night to finish this book. I first heard of this series over at Dear Author and was highly intrigued. I’ve never read much contemporary romance. Name a famous contemporary “staple” and I’m about 85% sure I can say I haven’t read it.

I’m so glad I made the exception for this book.

I started it Friday night and read just the first chapter or so. I finished the rest yesterday. Around midnight I really thought I should go to bed, but I was so close to the big turning point… And if you’ve read this book, you know there’s a pretty significant development unfolding in the final quarter or so of the book. I bawled when Mel grieved for her husband, and although I expected the little twist I mentioned at the end, it was still well done.

Oh, there were a few things I wish had been done differently, but it was still a really good read. I wanted more of the killer instinct in Jack, not just the one glimpse of the Marine who had so many service records at the end. The characters are all solid, and the setting is wonderful. Sort of like a Jill Shalvis Sierra Nevada setting, only without her same brand of humor. I think what made this book so attractive is that setting. I could totally see Mel’s cute little cabin in the redwoods, the potted plants on the porch and the deer in her yard. Yet despite the beauty, Mel had very legitimate reasons for not wanting to stay.

I found I wanted to stay. I wanted to say I knew where Virgin River was so I could visit. And in the end, that is one of the greatest victories of all for an author, wouldn’t you say?

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I was sitting in a meeting the other day, turned in my chair, and my lower back caught. I didn’t pull anything–it just feels like something’s stuck. I’ve been cripping around ever since.

Naturally, my heating pad has decided to croak. So I’ll be getting a new heating pad today.

However, most importantly, I need to recommit to exercise. I’ve gotten lax on my walking, and I know that’s why my back is out of whack, not to mention my weight loss goals. When I’m exercising regularly, my knees and back feel much better along with my overall sense of wellbeing.

With RX on the horizon, I must take care of this poor old body or I’ll end up in traction.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Now that I have the plot ironed out and card-by-card plot decisions on what I can keep from the first draft (nearly all of NSR, whoo-hoo!!!), I’m gearing up for Revision Hell, or more appropriately, Revision Xibalba. RX for short.

I’m writing up deeper character backgrounds for the new POV and select key characters. I’m also writing up backstory, especially for Jaid’s father. I missed several key opportunities in the first draft. Eventually, I hope to share most of this backstory with you as snippets, but I can’t yet, not without revealing the ace up my sleeve .

I’m trying to be very careful in my planning this time. I have 63K of storyline finished, that will remain mostly intact, and easily another 50K to build around and inside it. Two new POVs, and dozens of new characters. Some are entirely off stage, but I need to know them. I need their image, their motivations and fears in the back of my mind. And, with all this plotting and story arc fresh in my mind, I want to plot out the second book as far as possible. I need to figure out the structure. Will Jaid continue as the protagonist, or become a key supporting character as the story arc continues (rather like Alexandria and Michael in Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series)? I don’t know yet, but that’s another reason I’m spending so much time on these new characters.

I’m hoping someone’s story begins to shout loud and clear. Pick me! Pick me! However, no sequel bait has arrived yet, so I might rely heavily on Jaid to carry me through the next leg of this White Road.

Anyway, October and November will be key months. I probably won’t participate “formally” in NaNoWriMo this year, since NSR is a revision, but I’ll definitely be there in spirit as I whip this baby into shape and kick it out the door. I plan to start serious revision 9/28/2008. Mark your calendar for:

• sick kid(s)
• That Man’s revolt
• massive Evil Day Job issue (don’t ask me what my company’s doing in October. Yes, it’s big, although I’m not directly involved)
• sick dog
• broken appliance
• car trouble
• computer trouble

The list is infinite! But it won’t stop me from finishing this story by the end of the year, unless I let it.

Edited after domain transfer to fix the links

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Okay, after a few tries, I think I finally devised a worksheet that I can use to plot NSR. This is what works for me, for this book. I’ve never needed this much detail for a book before. I may never need it again (but I suspect I will). Nor are these likely final drafts. I’m sure as I begin writing and diving deeper into character that some of these scenes will change. I haven’t eyeballed it yet from a symmetry standpoint either. Certainly nothing is written in stone! This is not a list of rules I have to follow, but rather a guidemap to help me find “The End.” That’s truly all I’m trying to do here. I need to get the VISION, and these worksheets are helping.

I created 4 worksheets:

Timeline – Act I Act II Part 1 Act II Part 2 Act III

Some notes:

1. The first column is for your characters or threads you want to track across the paradigm. They do not have to be POV characters. I chose to list several characters that did not have a POV.
2. I used colored pens to keep track of each POV. This will help me see the balance across the story.
3. I drew a number on the timeline, and then used the number in the appropriate character’s row for reference. Any character that might be included in the scene also got a note.
4. I don’t recommend trying to get every single possible scene on the paradigm. I quickly ran out of room in Act II Part 1, even though I thought I was listing only the crucial scenes.
5. You may choose to list story scenes that are not actually “on page.” For instance, I listed the bad guys’ movement, even though they don’t have a POV, and even though no POV character was on scene with them. I wanted to keep track of where they were, and this helped.
6. I’ve laid a few hero’s journey notes on top of Syd Field’s recommended turning points in his paradigm. Not every stage of the hero’s journey is listed.
7. Don’t get too hung up on the exact sequence of numbers. A few times I used “A” instead of the next number because I realized I needed to insert a scene and I didn’t want to start over on that page.

Below, I’ve included small screen shots of the first “finished” draft of these worksheets for NSR, my grand project tonight. Again, subject to change. I doubt you can read the detail (I actually hope you can’t I may delete the images later to protect the story), but wanted to give you a general idea of what mine looked like.

Comments, discussion? Is this way too anal for you?

 

 

 

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

As I mentioned, I found Syd Field’s paradigm outlined in his Screenplay and The Screenwriter’s Workbook very helpful in finalizing my vision for the Mayan fantasy. Several people wanted more information, so I’ll go into more depth on what the paradigm is and how I used it. Just personal preference: I use the Workbook more than the original Screenplay. It’s worded a little different and it just clicks better for me personally, although I have both books.

Okay, so I’ll assume you have a story idea, which includes a subject, a character, and some action. The example Syd uses is: a visitor from outer space misses his spaceship home and is found and befriended by some children, who help him escape. (E.T.) Skimming off the uber-sekrit details of NSR, I have: Epigrapher Dr. Jaid Merritt may be known as the Un-Indiana Jones on campus, but she goes on the dig of her life in Guatemala in order to rescue her father.

The paradigm is sort of a timeline that graphs the major events of your story. Draw a line on your paper. You’ve heard me rambling about the Three Act Structure before. Act I and Act III are each roughly a quarter of your timeline; Act II is the middle half. Mark them off. Then toward the end of Act I, place an X or circle to represent the major turning point that moves your story from setup (the Ordinary World, if you’re more comfortable with the hero’s journey) into confrontation (Accept the Call and Cross the First Threshold). Place another X or mark at the end of Act II, another turning point that moves your story from confrontation to resolution (Return with the Elixir). This is the major turning point in or near your Dark Moment.

That’s it!! See how easy it is?

Where I got hung up was taking the existing paradigm for NSR and figuring out how to place the new, more complex story around/on top of it. It was so large, so overwhelming, I just couldn’t figure it out. Is the new story entirely new? Does it overlap part of NSR? Or encompass it entirely? Was NSR all backstory — or concurrent?

Pulling threads helped me get a grasp on each new story element. Once I got an idea of each thread’s beginning and end, I started to feel where it lay on the paradigm for NSR. The key here is to forget perfectionism. I used pencil and eraser and was determined not to stress out about getting this right from the very first try. I jotted. I doodled ideas. I marked possible places I thought certain events might begin to fall, and then moved it if it felt better somewhere else. I drew arrows, scribbled thoughts on the back and down the margins, all very loose and comfortable. I didn’t stress about balance or symmetry yet. Just flow and feel.

I did this for all the threads and there, on four (** see below) messy sheets of paper, I saw the story laid out in enough detail to see exactly how to start and where to end up.

I finished going thorugh the notecards last night and outlined the current draft of NSR, where I think I need changes, and where the new threads may fall. I’m going to start with clean legal sized paper, the timeline and Jaid’s paradigm (NSR). Then I’ll lay out each story thread (whether the character has a POV or not) on top. I want to be able to see each major player at a glance, where he/she is (I’m spanning Texas, Mexico, and Guatemala at any given moment), and what that means.

I’m sure this will take several drafts. I’ll also go into detail about each thread and make sure it has a solid beginning, middle, end, with a clear goal. I’m a big fan of “every character is the star of his/her own story”, so there will truly be several major mini-stories unfolding. It’ll be a @&#* to manage.

So does it sound crazy when I say I can’t wait to dig in?

** why four pages when there are only three acts? Personally, I like to break Act II into two pieces and have another turning point somewhere around 150-225 pages or so, depending on length. A major crisis in Act II helps break up the sagging middle. It gives me a “candybar” scene to write to, as Holly Lisle calls it. I put this extra turning point on the second page, so each page has a turning point except the last (Act III), which actually has one or two big climaxes.

Ironically, the first time I drew the NSR paradigm, I messed up the first turning point, which certainly didn’t help me see the story I was trying to add. I had the midpoint turning point listed in Act I instead of my true “accept the call” turning point. Big difference! Once I got that straight in my head, it was much easier to lay down the other threads.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

My new motto: when all else fails, turn to Syd Field’s Screenplay.

I’d forgotten about the paradigm he outlines, although I know the Three Act Structure and Hero’s Journey. He has a slightly different spin on the same thing. Most significantly, he tells you exactly what you need to know in order to say what the story’s about, and exactly how many turning points.

For Night Sun Rising (NSR) I had all this figured out. I drew the paradigm for it days ago and then stared at it, overwhelmed with how to fit the “new” story either on top or extended or…something. That’s when I started Connecting the Dots and Pulling Threads. Those helped, definitely.

Last night, I came back to the Paradigm, or timeline. First, I took four sheets of normal 8.5×11 paper and labeled them Act I, Act II Part 1, Act II Part 2, and Act III. I marked out the paradigm for NSR again, and added some of the plot detail that I already knew, along with Jaid’s journey. Then I started considering the new threads I identified and matching up any overlaps, where possible.

What I found helpful was to identify key characters/plot threads and their movement, even if they aren’t POV characters. So I have my bad guys making their move, and I can track it, even though none of them have a POV. Between my possible scene cards, and all the brainstorming and doodling…

Dawn broke. The pieces fell into place. Angels started singing.

Seriously, I have it. The green and red threads (new) now fit on top of NSR. It all makes sense. I finally FINALLY!!! figured out how the end of the new threads completes and compliments the end of Jaid’s story in NSR and what that means for the future.

*dies gasps keels over*

I think I even have a good start on what the next book will be. I mean, it is frickin’ hysterical. The set up is perfect. I’d laugh if I hadn’t been beating my head so hard that I left a bloody smear on my Demotivator.

Now that I have 4 pages of very messy scribbles and exclamation points, I need to more finely define the scenes. The first order of business is to go through the existing draft of NSR and create a notecard for each key scene. I added the new threads through Act I, but everything got seriously muddled in Act II Part 1. Some brand new conflict needs to be added that will significantly impact the existing scenes with Jaid and Ruin. So I decided to get the whole first draft outlined, then I’ll step back with the paradigm spread out in front of me and a nice stack of clean notecards to begin the real work.

The “final” paradigm will be on 4 legal sized pages to allow room for all the plot threads. Xibalba, it might end up on four sheets of poster board before I’m done, because this sucker is huge.

I see it. At last, I see it. Beginning, middle, end; purple, black, orange, green, and red, all blended together into a tapestry of Story.

I worked on it so long last night that my eyes started to hurt and my back was killing me. I felt this burning obsession to write it all down, now, before I lose it. However, the existing draft of NSR kept sucking me in. I was supposed to only skim enough to get the notecards down, but I ended up reading more than I planned. And that’s a very good thing.

So the bad news: I won’t be giving away NSR as a serial on the blog.

The good news: most of it will be salvaged and become something much bigger and meaner. It’s so complex, now, I have five colors for POV threads! Whew, boy, it is definitely a doosie.

But I. Must. Write. Faster. There’s a very important date tied to this story. It would be really stupid for me to dink around and miss it. So you know what October-December are going to be, right? Nose to the grindstone, belt another complex, deeper draft out. In other words,

Revision Xibalba.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Continuing the discussion from yesterday on Connect the Dots, I am working through a large tangled mess of episodes to find the structure of this story. I said yesterday that I picked up a green thread and began pulling it out of the tangles. As a result, I got several scene idea cards. The key for this process was letting go of my determination to FIT this thread into the weave of story I already had.

I decided I just wanted to find out about this thread, independent of the rest of the story or world. If the scene cards happened days in the past before NSR even starts, that’d be fine. Really, I pretended that NSR didn’t even exist.

I did the same later last night with the red thread. At first, all I got were “fact” cards. They were important elements of the past and setup, but they weren’t true scenes. That’s okay–it was still stuff I didn’t know. For example, I didn’t know how Nicholas’s plan to ruin Charlie had actually started, nor what turned his plot from a simple “revenge” plot to something more, thanks to Michael Ito’s influence. (I got the foundation for those details from the character connections and pulling the thread helped define them.) Finally I got to some possible scenes, and I was stunned when I landed on an idea I never had before. As a result, I created a new character, and it ties the Dallas (green) thread to the red thread.

Magic. It really is. I knew I had a thread in Dallas, but I didn’t know how they hooked up. Now, I do.

The other important “freedom” I allowed myself in this process: I didn’t limit myself to POV. I took a story thread and pulled it — but I didn’t enforce one character’s POV, because I don’t know for sure who will carry that burden yet. That freedom led me to this new character that I really like, and I just found out about her yesterday.

See, one thing I set out to do in this story was to NOT follow the standard “cliched” urban fantasy structures as much as possible. Yeah, I have a female lead, but she is not kickass. She’s the “Un-Indiana Jones.” She’s more comfortable in her private library with her research spread out before her than tromping around in the rainforest. I also wanted several other strong female characters (not necessarily kickass either), friends or potential friends, that weren’t obvious sequel bait. This isn’t a Brotherhood world, although strong men definitely play a part.

Pulling that red thread last night gave me a brand new character and I can’t wait to learn more about her.

I still don’t know if this is a large story arc with Jaid as the protagonist all the way through, or potentially other protagonists to carry each individual book. That’s okay. The tangled mess is a little tidier and I’m getting some really good glimmers of where the story is hiding.

One theme of this story that I think I can safely mention without giving away the farm is the quatrefoil glyph ol for the Otherworld, or sometimes simply “heart of.” I think I’m finally getting to the story buried at the heart of all these ideas. If you knew the premise set up for this story, you’d think it very ironic that I’m searching for the ol. Charlie Merritt’s life obsession is finding the ol. It represents his line to cross. How much will he give up to find it? What’s his sacrifice?

Have you ever had a killer story idea, characters, or world, yet you just couldn’t find the ol?

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

As I’ve blogged the last few days, I’ve really been wrestling with the Mayan fantasy. It’s high concept. Cool mythology. I’ve got lots of backstory, blah blah blah already figured out. But I could not find the STORY. You know, the one to WRITE.

I have snippets of backstory from 30 years ago. I have the whole history of how Jaid’s father found the very first clue and the sacrifice made to keep it. I went from a handful of characters in NSR to dozens more with several brand new subplots, bringing lots of action and conflict into the arena. But still, I couldn’t find the begin and end points for a story. I had all these episodes. Little cliffhanger ideas, you know, like a weekly TV show that keeps you coming back. But no STORY. I mean, even in Prison Break, a show I never thought would last past the first prison break, has an overall story arc. That’s what I was missing.

In frustration last night, I started tackling the story from a different angle. What I was missing before in NSR was complexity. I had characters that I liked, sure, and a cool plot, but there wasn’t a lot of interaction between the characters. Most of the time, it was only Jaid and Ruin on scene live, with very few other players. Pretty limited in scope. Now I have all these new characters, but no idea how they all relate to one another.

For whatever reason, I decided to start with Quin Salazar, an FBI agent in Dallas. I had an idea that someone was going to call him for a favor. Why would this guy call Quin? How did they know each other? What was their connection?

And that’s what really started to break the story apart for me. I had the theme and premise already figured out. This story is all about crossing lines. Characters being put in such stress and danger that they’d cross the one line they swore they’d never cross, or they’d risk losing everything they value. But I was missing the complexity and interaction BETWEEN characters.

I drew a bubble at the top of the page for Quin Salazar and another for Jackson Davis, the man who calls him for a favor. Then I started brainstorming their connections until I hit on a key commonality for them both. They both want something very very much, but will cross–or refuse to cross–very different lines to achieve their goals. Unbelievably–or maybe this is simply where the magic is–I found a similarity between them. A single theme I can play between them and show through character how one will cross the line and one won’t, no matter how much he needs to.

Amazed, I decided to try it again. I started a new page and drew Jaid at the top with her best friend Callie. I brainstormed a bit, and found again, a very common theme to the core question of who will cross the line and what that means to the story.

Encouraged, I then decided to try something that anyone staring at a tangled mess of expensive yarn would probably do to salvage it. I picked up a thread and started pulling it out of the tangles.

For whatever reason, this thread is green. I can’t explain why because I don’t know, other than my mind told me to pick up the green pen and not the red or black one when I started making notes. I started with Quin Salazar again. How would the FBI get involved when the dig that starts everything is in Guatemala? What does that have to do with Jackson Davis calling him? I opened a new pack of notecards and jotted 5 or 6 possible scenes, using only Quin as the reference, and only my green pen. I immediately got a few implications for the other threads.

Intrigued, I went back to Jaid’s father and what started it all 30 years ago. At the top of the paper (turned on its side landscape), I started with Charlie Merritt, Sam Gerard, Nicholas Linkyn, and Michael Ito. They met up 30 years ago and something very tragic happened. One woman has been missing ever since, and another woman dumped one guy and married another. They’ve all been polite enemies ever since.

That drawing with connections led to two more common themes, playing Charlie and Sam together vs. Nicholas and Michael. I’ve also got a page dedicated to Charlie and Nicholas. More dots. More connections. More lines to be drawn, literally and figuratively. What’s the line driving each character? What’s the last line left to cross? Will they or won’t they cross it?

I’ll continue doing this for all the new characters, drawing lines and connecting dots to get at the core themes for each set of characters. Next, I’ll be pulling a red thread as far as I can, and see how that affects the green. I’m hoping that as I do this, the pieces will finally fall into place and I’ll see the start and end of the story that I want to achieve.

What inspired all this character-connect-the-dots process? There was a new show last season called Life, about a cop who did some really hard time (10 years) for a crime he didn’t commit, and when he finally got out–his attorney got his case overturned and the city paid him several million dollars as a result–he immediately went back to his job as a cop to find who had set him up and solve the murder. At the end of the season, they showed this huge people “map” he had drawn in a secret study in his house. It showed all the connections between people, who was involved in his life, who might have been responsible. As he proved a person could not have set him up, he moved the picture around. That visual stuck with me and that’s sort of what I’m doing now, only on paper.

I suppose if I get desperate enough, I might print out the pictures for each character and stick them on the wall.