Think Sideways Last Call

Just a note that How To Think Sideways closes for good in its current form with all the extras at midnight tonight, the 15th of June. I can still offer the 20% rebate after today, but you won't get all the extras that the course currently comes with (How Not To Write A Series course, forum membership, complete walkthrough of the Think Sideways course, full text of several of Holly's draft novels, etc).

Thanks to those of you who've signed up with my link so far! :o)

Apparently, I Was Wrong...

So I got an email in my inbox... I feel a little silly now, but on the other hand, it's good news for you guys. Turns out I WILL be able to continue to offer the 20% rebate on all of Holly Lisle's products! Yay!

So if that was your only consideration, you don't have to worry about the June 15 deadline. If, however, you wanted to take advantage of all the OTHER bonuses - well, you still only have until June 15 ;)

Last Call for Think Sideways Discount

I mentioned a little while ago that the 12-month version of Holly Lisle's Think Sideways course, and I said I'd let you know when the 6-month one was disappearing. Well, the notice appeared in my inbox, and the official last day for signing up to Think Sideways in its current form is JUNE 15. That's two weeks from now.

Now, the course WILL be available after that on Kindle, B&N and other common ebook platforms. So why buy the course NOW, BEFORE June 15?

If you sign up before June 15, you will get the following advantages:
* 20% rebate of each month's cost when you sign up through my link and forward your receipt to me;
* 50% off the student bookstore;
* lifetime membership to the forums, which contain general discussions, workgroups for Think Sideways and the short courses, and the Resource Providers forum where you can find editors, cover designers, etc (worth $5/month, $30 total);
* Three-week course 'How Not To Write A Series', about doing really good standalones (that you could expand to a series if you wanted to later);
* The Think Sideways Walkthrough - Holly is doing the course herself as she writes Cadence Drake: Warpaint, and throwing up all her notes, including pages and pages from her workbooks, videos where she demos and explains techniques in greater detail, etc - this is HUGE, almost as big as the actual course itself;
* Complete copies of some of Holly's early drafts of certain novels, plus the edited version - I think from memory you get about four complete novels in various stages of drafting.

NONE of these things will be available without extra cost after June 15, and most of them won't be available at all. And I can personally vouch for the usefulness of all these things, except the forums, which I didn't use much because I was already a member of two other writing forums. However, if you want to hear what other people think about the usefulness of the forums, see **blog post here (**DON'T BUY THROUGH THAT LINK!!).

The walkthrough especially is insane value-adding.

So yeah. I love the course, it fundamentally changed the way I plan, plot, write and revise, and it vicariously changed my writing group as well. I go back to the course to refresh my memory on techniques, ideas, process at least a couple of times each novel.

And after June 15, I won't be able to give you 20% of the cost back. If you were ever considering it, now's the time to buy. All of the links in this post will get you the 20%, EXCEPT THE ONE LINKING TO THE BLOG POST. If you buy through that link without coming back and clicking through from here, I WILL NOT be able to give you the rebate.

(And remember, it's 100% guaranteed - you pay for each month up front, but you can quit at ANY time and you'll be REFUNDED for any lessons you haven't yet received, and you can keep all the lessons you HAVE received. So the minimum risk you're investing here is just under $17 to jump in, poke around the forums, check out the bookstore, and read lesson 1)

Need Plot?

I meant to post the other day to let you all know, but now I'm glad I held off until today. (Cryptic enough? :P) Why? Because I just realised today I have something for a giveaway! Read to the end for details... :o)

Anyway, I've mentioned it a couple of times, but now I have an end date for you: the LAST day you will be able to sign up for How To Think Sideways (12 month version) is MARCH 31. After that, it WILL be available on other platforms (Holly is transferring all her stuff to kindle, nook, etc etc) BUT I will NOT be able to offer you the 20% rebate after March 31. So if you've been thinking of joining and want a no-questions-asked 20% discount off the total price, NOW is the time to do it. The 12 month version has all the same content as the 6 month, but delivered at a slower pace. The price is $37.95/month, and that price is going to increase when it heads to other platforms. Remember, you can drop out at ANY time and you'll receive a refund for any month you're part way through, so you really only have to commit to... well, potentially nothing, if you dropped out in the first month and that was refunded. But let's assume the maximum you're committing to is $37.95 less the 20% which is $30.36.

How to Revise Your Novel and How To Think Sideways (6 month version) are also going the same way, but I think there's a little more leeway on the timeframe there.

Holly's website-based shop is also closing, and it currently has a HUGE SALE on! 25 - 30% off everything, from what I can see, and again, if you buy through my link and send me your receipt, you'll get a no-questions-asked 20% rebate of what you paid.

And if you've been wanting to test out some of Holly's non-fic work but have been holding off, I have good news! It seems I have a spare copy of the Create-a-Plot Clinic (version 2)! Yay! This is my second favourite of all her short courses (favourite is How To Write Page Turning Scenes), so I'm excited to discover I have a copy to give away :o) To enter, just leave a note in the comments saying you're interested. And note that I've turned the captcha off, so leaving a comment should be easier ;)

Yay!


PS All links in this post are affiliate links and are good for the 20% rebate ;)

The Most Awesome Writer Resources Disappearing

Just a quick adminy kind of note to say that, as some of you may know, Holly Lisle is, after 30+ years of traditional publishing and 30+ novels published, going indie. What this means for you guys is that very soon, her products will be available through all the standard indie channels - Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, Apple iStore, etc - BUT NOT through the HollyShop on her own website. Why should you care?


Because I will no longer be able to offer you the No-Questions-Asked 20% Rebate on her products.


So if there were any resources of hers that you were thinking of snaffling, I'd really recommend doing so asap so you can email me your receipt and I can refund you your 20% of the total cost. I really, really, REALLY highly recommend her Create-a-Plot Clinic and her How To Write Page Turning Scenes in particular (review of HTWPTS here). The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Horses is pretty good, too.

PS: note that this DOESN'T include her two big courses, How To Think Sideways and How To Revise Your Novel (links in sidebar). I can still offer the 20% discount on those :)

How To Revise Your Novel 1

Quick note: Puppy-induced sleep deprivation and the whole new fulltime work thing are eating my brain cells. Possibly, they're also eating other cells too. I may fall apart at the seams any day now and start spilling internal organs everywhere. That would be exciting, and nearly as messy as the puppies will soon be. Bwa.

Yes, I has pointz here - for the next little while, posting on Inkfever will be Monday-Friday. Who likes Wednesdays, anyway? Ha.

On to the post...


Woo hoo!! Can you hear the screams of joy from there? Wherefore, you ask, scream I so? (oops, been watching too much Pride and Prejudice O:))

Because finally, FINALLY, I have finished lesson 3 of the How To Revise Your Novel course! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

So, in honour of such a momentous occasion (it's only taken a month to do the relatively SHORT lesson), I'd bestow upon you all the great gift of a review O:) :D Don't you feel so privileged?

Lesson One: In which we discover our novel.

This lesson was pretty easy for me. It's something I tend to do with editing anyway, so it felt 'right'. The idea here is to discover three things: One, what you wanted when you started writing the novel, two what you got, and three what you want it to become.

One: Go back to the moment when you first started writing the novel and recall what it was that made you want to write it. Why this story? Why this way? What were you aiming for?

Two: Read through novel. Weep copious tears at how epically it fails to match number one. Use the shiny worksheets provided in the course and carefully examine what went wrong in several categories, such as story, character, worldbuilding, etc. Also keep track of bits you really, really love.

Three: Ponder upon all of this and try to imagine what you want the book to feel like when it's finished. Create a goal. Know what your intent is with your editing - otherwise you're guilty of Editing Without Intent >:)

This lesson was great because it gave me a feel for how much was really wrong with my story, and by using the worksheets I was able to identify that a few things that felt like lots of little problems were in actual fact just one big problem! :D

Lesson Two: In which we consider the nature of promises.

Every writer in existence really needs to have read this lesson. Holly talks about the promises that we make when we write a novel, some of which are universal to all novels (such as 'I will have something interesting to say' and 'I will not waste your time'), some of which we intend (the details we use to foreshadow, etc), and some of which we make without even realising it (eg, the details that we get a little too carried away with for no reason other than that they were pretty).

And even better, Holly talks about how to identify these promises. How can you tell when you've promised something? How can you tell when you've promised too much? Or too little?

When we write, there's an implicit promise that everything we include will be significant in some way. If there's a loaded gun in chapter one, it'll be fired (see Chekov). If the character introduces themself as having a particular issue, that issue will be addressed (if not resolved). And so forth. Promises are the foundation of story, the essence of your relationship with the reader, and they matter.

This lesson is all about identifying what you've promised, and whether you've followed up on that or not. I have a couple of random characters who are just that - random asides. They're not actually contributing to the story in any meaningful way - and I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been looking at promises.

Lesson Three: In which we examine the scenes.

Ironically this is the lesson that took me over a month to complete, and yet it is way, WAAAAAAY shorter than the other two. You've heard me talk before about The Sentence, that neat and tidy little way of encapsulating your scene and/or story and making sure it has all the necessary elements.

In this lesson, we go through our story scene by scene and create a Sentence for it. I tell you what, I thought I understood The Sentence before - but boy was I wrong!! Nothing, NOTHING, that I have encountered breaks down a scene so easily, in such a raw way, stripping away everything else and letting you scene it for what it really is - broken or whole.

Even if I do no further lessons from the course at all, this lesson ALONE will be worth the $188 I'm shelling out for the course.

It's a slog in a way that the other lessons aren't, because it really stretches your brain. You're forced to consider and reconsider, and figure out exactly WHAT it is that's making your scene work - or fail.

Two things I will take away from this that will help me forever in approaching The Sentence: One, the conflict is the natural result of the interaction between the protag and the antag. It's the meat of the scene. The twist, however, is the thing that matters. It's the change that makes this scene worthwhile, it's what gives the whole thing a point - and often, it comes at the end of the scene.

In Conclusion

So, that's it for now. I wish I was further along in the course than I am, but at present I'm struggling to even find time to write, let alone work through this course as well. But as I said, even if right now, today, this minute, you told me I couldn't have access to any more of the lessons, I'd still be happy. My story is going to be so much improved I get squiggly with glee just thinking about it.

Question for you guys: What's the biggest editing lightbulb moment YOU have ever had? The single thing that sort of went 'click' and helped you figure out how to deal with the process of editing?

Also, are any of you taking the course? What do you think so far?

Think Sideways Movie #6: Revision

Today's movie, brought to you by the letter : "Revision: If the victory is long in coming."

Yes, the letter . That's right. I love editing, so you'll just have to deal :P

Today we hear about the horrors and wonders of editing, of why you should plan to do it only once and how you can do so - and why you should never try to write a book and edit it in two months. Male pregnancy, apparently, may ensure. Have fun!



And yes, I know we've hashed this out before, but there are New People reading this blog now! Huzzah! *waves to the swarms of newcomers* So tell me: Editing. Love it or hate it, and why?

Think Sideways Movie #5: Endings

Here's the next installment of the Think Sideways monthly videos, called "Endings: Something Clever Goes Here." And let me tell you, as someone who's just recently ended a novel, sometimes it is SOO tempting to write those four words and be done with the thing o.O



Incidentally, Liana posted a great article on endings and how you find the right one a while back. This is the method I use to find my endings too, and while it can be a little time-consuming, it's also fun, and yields the best results of any method I've tried so far ;) And yes, it's based on the Think Sideways course ;)

How about you, dear readers? Do you experience ending-angst? (Even when I know what's going to happen and am happy with it, I still HATE writing the actual climax) Are you usually happy with your endings? And what sort of endings do you favour?

Think Sideways Movie #4: Middles

Some of you might not have been around for as long as all that, but a while back I posted some of the monthly videos from Holly Lisle's How To Think Sideways writing course (here, here and here). Given I'm on holiday in Europe right now (... today, in fact), I think I deserve a little slackery in the blogging arena - so I thought I'd post the final three movies over the next three weeks.

Today's clip is entitled, "Middles: A Compass, A Kit, and A Sea Of Stars". Middles are scary, terrifying places to be, where you start to doubt your decisions, and ponder just exactly how much trouble you'd be in if you just scrapped the whole thing and started over. Or started on something new. Or maybe just didn't write ever again.

Every gets lost: not every one knows the art of getting lost. Do you?



So, speak to me! Have you ever been lost in the middle? I certainly have. What was your experience like? Or are you just one of those insane people for whom middles aren't an issue? How did you become like that, and can I be like that too?? O:)

Think Sideways Movie #3 - Writing is Weightless

Project Planning: Writing is Weightless - If You Dare To Let It Be

"Here lies a dream that you once spun
Over-planned and under-fun."

In this video Holly reminds us all - as I did last week - that writing is supposed to be fun - even the planning side of it.





So, what do you think? Have you ever over-planned a project (I have)? How much planning works for you?

Think Sideways Movie #2 - The Job of the Writer

Demo: The Job of the Writer

So, it's not long, it's not deep - but I think it is an excellent way of characterising what we as writers have to do - and learn to do.

Problems, anyone?

Think Sideways Movie #1 - A Thousand Words For Wings

So, as I've said before, the month of January is as insanely hectic as December was, what with the various writing, work, and extra curricular commitments. Gweh o.O

For the next few weeks, therefore, I'm going to share with you the videos from the Think Sideways course. Yes, don't worry, I have full permission to do this :) And it will give you a better idea of what the course is like. Be warned - the videos, naturally, do not cover the detail of the course. They are the introductions to each month, and as such are introductory in nature. I like them, though, and hopefully you will be able to get something out of them.

Today, Month One: Thinking: Ideas - And A Thousand Words For Wings.



Feel free to discuss the movie in the comments - what do you think? :)

The Origins of InkfeverPLUS

So, because even after I promised I'd get back on track with posting yesterday I still missed yesterday's post, today you get a double episode :o) There's this post, and a book review below :)

By now, a lot of you know that I have a sister-site to this one: InkfeverPLUS, a website devoted to my novels where you can find character profiles and pictures, novel blurbs, maps, photos, drawings, and a whole assortment of novel-related Stuff which I am slowly in the process of adding to the site.

Thanks hugely to all those of you who have already joined up. For those of you that want to, but haven't, leave a comment with your email address, or email me and I'll send you an invite. Yes, I'm keeping it invite-only for now to ensure that I'm on the 'better safe than sorry' side of the copyright fence ;)

However, what a lot of you won't know - and apparently, what some of you would like to know - is where I got the idea for the site :)

In a way, this connects with How I Really Got Serious About Writing. In February of 2007, I can't recall how, but I found both Holly Lisle's website, and Critique Circle. Both of these sites have quite literally changed my world: Holly for the fantastic articles, clinics, and courses that you can find on her site, and Critique Circle both for the skills I have learned from critiquing, and the life-long friends I have made *waves to them all* :)

In terms of the InkfeverPLUS site, though, it was Holly Lisle's site that was most influential. She has so much information on there especially for writers, and she talks a lot about the concept of 'paying forward': you'll never be able to adequately thank those who help you on your way in your writing career - and sometimes you won't be able to thank them at all - but you can make a difference and show your gratitude by passing it on, by helping others who come after you.

This is a principle that really resonated with me, and it's something I definitely plan to do. Whether or not I'm successful - whether what I have to share is actually helpful or not :D - is another matter O:)

So. That's part one of why I designed the InkfeverPLUS site: at the moment it only houses novel-related things, geared more towards readers than writers, but one day, everything will merge into a lovely big connected website for readers and writers alike :) Hoorah!

Part two relates to the design of the site, for the inspiration for which I must thank the lovely Michelle, better known to me as Glam :) If you click her name, it will take you to her blog - and halfway down the sidebar you'll see a link to her other blog, one for her novel Breakaway. Now, this blog is actually in the process of coming down, so don't go flooding her with requests to join it :D but it's where I got the inspiration for the site design from. Glam set up the blog with the novel chapters all listed in the sidebar, a stable front page post, links to extras for the novel, and all sorts of goodies.

I fell in love.

Between the two of us, we nutted out some tricky features of site design (if you're interested in knowing how to do it, I've actually typed it all up in a word document with screen shots and everything O:) *is clearly not a perfectionist*) and voila! I now have a shiny, lovely InkfeverPLUS.

There's not as much on there as there could be quite yet - none of the maps have made it up, for example - but I plan to devote a good chunk of time in January and February to adding things and bringing it all as uptodate as I can. If you'd like an invite, just let me know ;)

So that, dear lovelies, is how I came to develop the InkfeverPLUS site. I hope that sates your curiousity :)

My Journey Through the World of Writing

First off, sorry for the missed post on Friday. I do my best to post regularly, but sometimes uni just leaps up to bite, and I miss one :( Hope you all still love me ;) Still feeling the after-effects of the uni-bite, today's post is slightly rambly - but somewhere, if you look hard enough, there is a point. I promise :o)

My brain regularly takes random sidetrips in terms of its thinking process, and this weekend has been no different. It's something the Muse has always done - but the difference is now I find myself couching these sidetrips in the language of blog posts. I think I'm addicted* O:)

Somewhat happily for you, this week's random sidetrip was actually relevant to this blog, and also to something I've stumbled across in a couple of places recently.

Novels. How did you get into writing them? What have you learned from each attempt? When did you start thinking seriously about writing? How have you grown since then?

It's a pretty all-encompassing topic that my Muse stumbled upon, but it got me thinking (odd, that - a thought process got me thinking, my, my...).

My first 'serious' attempt at writing was back in year ten. A friend of mine was also interested in writing, and together we began planning a fantasy story. This was in the days before I'd heard of urban fantasy, so when I finally drafted some actual writing for this story (rather than the months and months of playing and planning), the beginning included not one but two prologues. Oh my.

It was a lot of fun, though. It hooked me for the first time on worldbuilding and character development, and there are three characters in particular from that first attempt that I'm not giving up on: they'll get their own story one day, by hook or by crook.

But high school ended, the friend and I went our separate ways, and aside from a creative writing class in college (years 11 and 12 for the foreigners among you) nothing much happened on the writing front.

I started uni (university, since it's come to my attention that US of Aians have no clue what 'uni' means ;)), and life went on.

Until said friend returned from a year overseas, and began classes at the same uni. All of a sudden we had an excuse to be in the same place at the same time, and the topic of conversation turned naturally to writing.

It turned out that both of us had kept our first story in the back of our minds all those years, and had somehow and subtley added to it, growing it, until we ended up with two very different versions. In talking, however, we realised that the two could be enmeshed and make a very pretty trilogy (yes, this was still pre-urban fantasy days O:)). And thus began my second serious attempt.

This time, we actually got around to thinking about some plot. There were no prologues, although there was a Prophecy and a Chosen One, and not-one-but-several invented languages that all used shiny (and random) punctuation marks to Make Them Look Pretty.

We even wrote a couple of scenes for it.

I took another writing class, this time at uni... And I was hammered. Sure, I could string words together into pretty sentences, but I had absolutely no concept of structure, of plot or pacing - or, to the teacher's chagrin, how to write a short story.

But I was learning - and as people often find when they're doing collaborative work, my friend and I were learning at different rates. She had other priorities, other distractions... And it got to the point where, awful though it feels to write this (friend-who-happens-to-read-this-blog, forgive, forgive!), I outgrew our work together.

That is what I like to think of as my 'Act 1': the setting up of my interest in writing, where the conflict and character are introduced, and where we end by raising the stakes: if I was to continue writing seriously, it would now have to be alone.

Luckily for me, it was about that time (now the beginning of 2007) that I stumbled upon Holly Lisle's site, and devoured everything she had to say about the writing life. Not long after I found Critique Circle, and fell into a lovely group of friends, though not the friendship group I've ultimately formed. And on top of this, my Dad, whom I regard as conservative and sensible above all else, told me that I ought to "take it from a disillusioned forty-something year old": life is too short to waste doing something we only like. If I wanted to write, then by frollygop, I ought to get out there and write.

And so began Act 2: I started a novel of my own. It suffered from a host of diseases, most pertinent of which was the habit of skipping from one point of action to the next without down time, or explanation, or worldbuilding. I'd been duly warned about the infamous info-dump, and avoided it well - only to swing too far in the opposite direction.

But it was encouraging to know that I could write chapters, in the plural; previously my highest word count for anything, academia included, was about 3,000. And the crits were encouraging, if firm.

I took a second creative writing course at uni. This enforced a break from the novel, as I found I couldn't work on it and stories for class as well, but this was probably for the best: there were too many problems I needed to sort out before I continued with the novel draft.

I acquired some vague notions of structure from the class, though ended up with the same final grade as last time.

And then the Big Thing happened. It was November; it was NaNoWriMo.

It was a week before, in fact, and I was lamenting on Critique Circle both my lack of an outline, and my lack of time to outline - and, I suspect, my lack of ability to outline.
You've
And my hero stepped in. At that time, dear Merc, you were one of the 'big names', of Critique Circle in my eyes, and to have you not only encourage me to do NaNoWriMo, but also offer to write and in fact write an entire synopsis for me... Words fail me. Absolutely.

And so, armed with a plot and mountains of encouragement cookies, I attempted NaNo. I discovered the horrors of first drafts - but I also discovered that I was writing something that people liked. People enjoyed my story, and wanted more. And so I kept writing. I fell majorly behind, but somehow, someway, in a manner that is still a mystery to me, at the end of the month I pasted in my story, and up came the magic words: Congratulations! You've won NaNoWriMo!

The novel wasn't finished, and it took two more months to push through the final third of the book, but I did it: I finished a novel. Me. Little old me, with one novel down and under the belt. It had a mess of holes and needed serious revising, but as I read over it I realised - I can fix this. And I set about to do so.

I started a new novel at the same time, excited to be starting it with an outline, and I got to 10 chapters - and I stopped. I hit a wall, and realised that my first ten chapters were fluff, and that the story actually started at chapter 11. Man, was that depressing.

It was around this time, lamenting my inability to write story stories (they always turned novel on me), another dear friend took me under her wing. I was going to write a short story - one per week, in fact, no less, barring death, illness, or an overdose of Life. And lo, behold, I did - and I learned Structure. I could write a short story.

One of them turned novel on me... And I ended up with my second project: The Project. It became an exercise in plot, learning how to race from one cliffhanger to the next... And it worked. People read it; people liked it.

And I realised that I could do it.

And this is where I am now: still in Act 2, but happy to be here. I'm editing The Project, and I'm remembering how much I love editing right now. I'm preparing for NaNo, rather terrified once again to have no plot - but I know I can do it. I can do it because I have awesome friends to cheer me on; but I could do it alone, if I had to.

I'm growing, I'm learning - and today, for the first time in two weeks, I'm writing.


* Evidenced by the fact that two weeks ago, a particularly stressful time at uni, saw my lying awake all night one night worrying about blog posts. Argh! Why?!

Unsticking The Project

Yes, you're getting an overload of posts this week :) I do hope that's okay with you. I'm running on the theory that it's making up for all the weeks I've missed posts O:)

It's about now that I'm due to do a Think Sideways: Month Three review. I'll do that properly some time next week, but for now, I need to squee a bit :D

For the last month, I have been majorly stuck on The Project. I've forced a few chapters out, because I felt I should, but I'm well and truly in the mire of the middle. I'm sick of the whole thing: the plot seems contrived, the characters I know are thin, and I just can't see the point of plugging through the first draft when the final product is going to be so rubbish.

Enter Think Sideways, week 13.

The title, most appropriately, is "Can't I Just Kill Them All? How To Fall In Love With Your Novel A Second Time." Boy, was this what I needed this week.

Oddly, one of the main things I got out of it was something I've read before in Holly's free workshops; but it's something that bears repeating. If you're stuck, it's usually for a reason; listen to what your muse is trying to say.

In my case, dear Musey is sick of writing about characters that neither of us like or care about. Heather is flat, boring, and undeveloped. I knew that. This story was an exercise in creating a plot (much like TBAEO turned out to be an exercise in character), and I realised very early on that I had no idea who Heather was; but I kept writing anyway.

Now, in the mirey middle, that strategy isn't working any more.

But now, thanks to Think Sideways, I know how to fix it. I know how to retrace my steps to the point where things were last working well, and I know how I'm going to write the ensuing chapter differently this time.

And this time, it's going to work.

I think I might just have fallen in love again :)

Competition for You!

So, it's October :) This is my final month of uni for the year, and unlike dear September, I haven't had time to stockpile a few posts, so I may get a little behind. Sorry in advance.

But! In honour of the fact that it's my last month of my masters course, I've decided to have a competition.

This month, anyone who buys anything from Holly Lisle's shop through my link over there on the sidebar will be entered into a draw to win a free copy of How To Write Page-Turning Scenes! Yay!



To enter, just email me a copy of your receipt and I'll enter you into the draw. One entry per receipt, but you can enter multiple times with different receipts. I'll draw and announce the prize at some point on November 2.

I'll also post a review of How To Write Page-Turning Scenes next week for you, so you know what you're entering for! :)

Have fun, and good luck :)

Addendum to Think Sideways

Just as an addition to the previous post, if you are considering trying the Think Sideways course, and want more info, Holly has opened one of the student discussion forums (read-only) so that non-members can see what we're getting up to :o) And if you want more general information, you can check out the curriculum and the FAQs , plus a really interesting survey on how much it costs to write a novel, and why learning to generate ideas and plan projects on a deadline is a critical career writer's skill.

And even if you aren't considering signing up, here's a lovely freebie for you - lesson 11, which discusses in detail how to put together the dreaded query letter, proposals, synopses, and editor outlines. Just click here :) (Yes, this is a legal give-away!)

And don't forget to check out my review of month two below :)

Sweet Spot Map #2 - I Am Drawn To

Sorry it's taken so long to post this. I was sure I hadn't finished detangling the map yet, and haven't had time to do so, so have been putting it off - only to discover today that it's actually been sitting there on my computer, done!

So, here for your enjoyment is another part of my Sweet Spot Map - I Am Drawn To. Abstract 'drawn-to's' provide great fodder for themes. You can see things like 'truth' and 'belonging' on there, things which often make their way into my work. What is truth? How would this character feel if they had nowhere to belong? Places obviously make for fun settings: for me, high exposed places, dark streets, night settings, old ruins... all these make for shiny, shivery settings full of atmosphere. People nouns make great MCs (assassins and spies both show up on the more recent version of this map), other nouns are cool props to throw in or things which can generate conflict, and stuff like 'classifications' can be seen in a lot of my stories in the divisions of people in houses, clubs, groups, societies, year levels, and so on and so forth.















(Click on the map for a bigger version)

All in all, this map is providing me with fabulous inspiration, and what's more, it's helping me identify my themes - but more on that next week :)

So - what are some things that you're drawn to?

Think Sideways: The Dot and The Line

I was supposed to write this last week, but I realised as I was looking at it that, in a way, the dot and the line is Holly's way of looking at significance. So I decided to write the article on significance first. If you haven't read it yet, it's here.

So, first of all, what is the dot and the line? What on earth am I talking about? :)

This principle comes from week five of the Think Sideways course. By this point, I have my basic idea, I have my Sentence (logline) with the MC and their major problem, in an interesting setting, with a twist - and I'm ready to continue. What do I do next? The dot. And the line.

The Dot

The basic principle of the dot is that it's small, defined, and contained. It's different (and in some ways opposite) to the blank space around it; it's special. Extraordinary. Stop, it says. Look. Something important happens here.

The most obvious application of this is in maps - you draw a rough sketch, and you let your subconscious pepper it with dots. Then you ask the questions - why there? What happened? What's extraordinary about that place?

Extraordinary is the key word here; an important principle of pre-planning that helps you avoid over-planning is to let the ordinary speak for itself. You only need to define the extraordinary. This is where the concept relates to what I said about significance: you only need to worry about things that are significant to your story. For now, nothing else matters.

This can apply equally well to characters as to settings: For Neighbourhood Watch I shoved a metaphorical dot on my MC and asked the question. Why him? What happened? What's extraordinary about this boy?

For this story, the MC's defining trait is his jealousy for his younger brother, who is cool, confident, and rules the neighbourhood. This is the trait that kicks the story into motion; this is the trait that provides the MC with all the motivation and tenacity he needs to get himself into Really Big Trouble - from whence he will have to find his way out.

Dots can also apply to conflicts: Why this conflict? What happens? What's so special about it? In my Evil Tree Story, the one I'm developing for the Think Sideways course, the major initial conflict is that my MC Jake has to decide between helping out his girlfriend, who gets into serious, life-threatening trouble, and preserving his reputation - no too-cool teenager wants his friends to know he's out hugging trees ;) Why this conflict? Because Jake has always struggled to fit in. Because it's something he's only acheived recently, and it's something he'll fight tooth and claw to hold onto.

Because he adores his girlfriend, and would sacrifice his life for her if he had to.

Thus the dot: Stop. Look. Something important happens here.

The Line

The line has a different power to the dot. The line shows not importance, but difference. Things on one side of the line are not the same as on the other. For me, this was an easier concept to grasp - lines, difference, makes sense :) And it applies to things other than setting much more intuitively, for me.

Setting is easy. Tomorrow, when I post my maps, I'll show you my primary setting 'lines', and give a quick explanation of them. Essentially, the world on one side of the line is different to things on the other side (big surprise there, huh).

So, characters. My MC in Neighbourhood Watch was easy: his line is the line that he draws between himself and his family. He is at once ashamed of them, their poverty and low-class mannerisms, and wishes nothing more than to be disassociated from them forever, and at the same time intensely jealous of his brother's ability to lead and blend in at will. But he would never, ever admit this - his line between his family and himself is (currently) absolute. They are not his, he is not theirs; they just happen to share a house because he has no other choice.

Applying the line to conflict is a bit different: rather than saying what is different on one side of the conflict to the other (although writing this I realise that that would be a perfectly valid approach, too; what is different before the conflict as opposed to after it? What changes?), I looked at what are the lines that cause conflict.

Lines between people are an easy place to start, because often it's the person's dot - the thing that makes them special is the thing that makes them different, which causes conflict, because difference = conflict...

Take Jake for example. On the one hand, he wants to rescue his girlfriend. On the other hand, his mates don't think he ought to have anything to do with tree-hugging hippies in the first place, let alone rescue them when they 'get themselves into trouble'.

Or Heather, my MC from The Project. On the left, we have Heather, who is going to do whatever it takes - whatEVER - to save that little girl, because of her own past. On the right, we have everyone else, who thinks she's getting way too involved, and ought to a) mind her own business, b) leave it to the police, or c) at the very least not make so much trouble over it.

Conflict. Differences. The line.

Remember, this is not the be-all and the end-all of planning. This is just a neat way to kick things off, to figure out what your focus should be, to understand what it is that makes this your story, an extraordinary story, something different and special and you. It's flexible, and I don't think there's any need to feel constrained by its boundaries: if one area isn't working for you, skip it. It's okay to not know every single detail going into a story :)

Tomorrow, when I figure out how to turn my PDF scans into postable images, I'll throw up my initial workings for the Evil Tree Story, and if you can decode my writing you'll see how a couple of sketchy maps sparked the entire conflict and gave me a name for my MC :)

How To Think Sideways

Just a reminder that the How to Think Sideways course (see my review here) is on sale only through this link for this week. There's a new option, too -

You can sign up for the 6-month course, which is US$47 per month.

OR

You can now sign for the course extended over 12 months, which means you're only paying US$23.50 per month.

Obviously it's the same amount total, but as a student I can appreciate that $23.50 makes a much smaller dent in your monthly budget. And don't forget, you can drop out at any time and you will be fully refunded for any lessons in the month that you haven't received yet - meaning that it will cost you $11.75 to test out the course, download lesson one, and see you think it's for you.

Sales go live at 9am Eastern Daylight Time, through this link, and will be open for 7 days. Remember that if you buy through my link, I can offer you a %25 refund once it clears at the end of each month.

If you're wondering what the course covers, this is the curriculum:

Sideways Thinking: Ideas
Week 1: How to Break the Four "Thinking" Barriers to Your Success
Week 2: How to Discover Your Writing "Sweet Spot"
Week 3: How to Generate Ideas On a Deadline
Week 4: How to Recognize and Build On Good Ideas

Sideways Thinking: Project Planning
Week 5: How to Define Your Project's Needs
Week 6: How to Discover (or Create) Your Project's Market
Week 7: How to Develop Your Personal Project System
Week 8: How to Plan Your Project While NOT Killing Your Story

Sideways Thinking: First Chapters
Week 9: How to Write From Inside Your Story
Week 10: How to "Plan" Surprises that Surprise Even You
Week 11: How to Design Compelling Queries, Proposals, and Sample Chapters
Week 12: How to Create, Complicate, and Solve Problems

Sideways Thinking: Middles
Week 13: "Can't I Just Kill Them All?" How to Fall In Love With Your Project A Second Time
Week 14: How to Find and Use Your "Planned" Surprises
Week 15: How to "Hire" Spies, and Why Your Project Needs Them
Week 16: How to Assess Your Progress and Make Mid-Course Corrections

Sideways Thinking: Endings
Week 17: How to Work With Editors, Agents, Marketing Departments, and Artists, and Not Wreck Your Project.
Week 18: How to Find the RIGHT Ending
Week 19: How to Bend Your Plan Without Breaking It
Week 20: How to Write the Ending That Sells the Next Book

Sidways Thinking: Wrap Up/Start Again
Week 21: How to Plan Your Revision
Week 22: How to NOT Fix What Ain't Broken (While Still Fixing What Is)
Week 23v How to Deliver What You Promised and What They Want On Deadline
Week 24: How to NOT Be a One-Book Wonder---Learn to Produce Repeatable Results

How to Think Sideways: Career Survival Training for Writers.