Scene it!!

I think one of the most important points I learned when I began to write was to write in scenes.

In all my books, I write in scenes. Sometimes my scenes are 1000 words, sometimes they are 5-6000 words.

What is a scene?

Anyone who has scene a movie or television show knows what a scene is. A person walks into a room and dialog and action take place in that one room, that is a scene. Next, someone enters another room or exits the house, that is another scene. A book can have hundreds of scenes.

How can you write a scene?

When you begin, orient the reader, tell the reader what is different from the previous scene...ex) the time of day, the day of the week, the season changed, the room or setting changed...set up the scene...

If they have moved from a house to a car, or from a ski hill to the lodge...or from the murder scene to the lab or police station or witness resident...the reader must know there was a scene change.

In my books, I arrive at the crime scene, I write about 1000 words a day so I will, in my notes, write down that I am at "the crime scene" and I have a 1000 words to describe the crime scene or what the body looked like...whatever you want...

If I am stuck for words, I will get up from my computer and pretend that I am actually in that scene (like my book has been made into a movie and I am an actor in my own scene, I am the characters) I look around, I imagine what I would be seeing. What do I want my readers to be seeing? What clues do I want them to have? What false clues do I want my readers to have? I am the director (preferably Hitchcock because he is one of the best at making scenes...watch his movies, you could learn a lot about being a good writer by understanding why he was a good director.) What do I focus my camera on...the answer to these questions is what I write about...

Code One...

All my books involve serial killers and codes...in the last book and in this one...

This is the first of my codes...if you would like to take a crack at these codes before my story comes out...please do....if you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will try to answer your questions without giving too much away...

enjoy!

(click on picture to enlarge...)

Two days away...

I am two days away from the start of my next novel...I upped my start date because I couldn't wait any longer...

It is like when you are on a set of a movie and you are just moments away from shooting it and all the actors are there, standing their waiting...talking fast and getting excited...well the characters in my head are like those actors, I have my plot ready and now my characters will not shut up...they are so eager to have their story told, it is like they are getting figgity in my head...

So, I start early...I already have written down the first line, the first line is never hard for me and I often change it in the editing process but I feel when you have the first line down, it becomes easier to carry forward with your work...

I start with a murder...I always do...funner to read that way...

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

As it happens...

Eight in the morning, Russ awoke. He could hear noises coming from all over the house but he tried to ignore them hoping to catch a few more winks. When his wife enters the room, he realizes she had not been lying next to him. What was she doing, he asks himself but realizes he said it aloud. She ignores him. Like she frequently did. Deciding whether to repeat himself, he turns over with a gruff.

His wife grabs a book off her shelf and noisily flips through the pages.

"What are you reading?" he asks her, hoping this time to peek her interest in a conversation. Nothing. He asks her again. Knowing she hears him, she still says nothing.

With a grunt he wrestles his two hundred and thirty pound frame from the bed and rushes down the steep curving stairs. It's his refuge, the main floor, his oasis. Most hours of the day he spends in the one room that took up most of the main floor.

Stopping at the bathroom, he takes a pee when finished he half naked, enters the kitchen for another of life's priorities, Coffee. With the cup of life in his hand, he heads towards the chair that would be his bodily companion for the times of the day he spent in the house, the chair that sat right in front of his love, the love of his life, the computer.

How-to: Synopsis...

My book is done and I want to send it off to the Debut Dagger Award...easy?

I thought so, but no!

You need to send:
1) The first 3000 words of your book (done)

BUT...

2) A synopsis... what the hell is that?

I did research on Google (of course) because I wanted examples and here are some awesome websites that I found...

Synopsis site 1

Synopsis site 2

Basically, what I learned was this...a synopsis is an interesting summary of the story where you actually give away the ending...

According to the book "Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel" by Ephron (which I think is a must-have for all mystery writers) you need this:

1. to write in present tense
2. summarize your main characters
3. tell the setting and context
4. tell and not show
5. summarize plot, hitting the major plot twists
6. communicate your protagonist's motivation and key challenges
7. don't try to explain every character and plot point

How long should your synopsis be? About 4 double spaced pages...depending on the size of your book. One website said, one page synopsis for every 25 manuscript pages.

Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award

The 2008 Debut Dagger competition, for previously unpublished crime writers, is now open. The first online entry was received at 3:16pm on Thursday 15 November. Competitors have until midnight on 15 February to get their entries in.

The link is here.

What do you win? Only 500 pounds...but your work (well 3000 words of it) is read by an editor and a publisher...for some, that might be the way in...

Check it out...

November is a busy month for some writers...

What is NaNoWriMo?
It stands for National Novel Writing Month...and November is that month...

The goal? 50,000 words in one month...

Some people say 'thats crap...if i write 50,000 words without editing, it will just be gibberish'

OK! I hate to say it but I write 1000 words a day for 90 days straight and i do no editing in the meantime...and yes, what comes out is sometimes gibberish but the point is...i finished my book...gibberish can be edited...

after a person has completed 50,000 word they feel great, they feel like they have accomplished something...

some 'writers' work on a novel they have in their head...they write 2000 words and start editing it...they never move on until they feel it is perfect...unfortunately, they usually never feel it is perfect...the book never gets written because they can't move on past the opening...

NANOWRIMO helps people get past that opening and just do it!

Bravo for them...

Why did I put up this blog?

November 2007...

Bored...so what can i do? I know...write a book...

Actually, that is not true, I am done my book. Well, actually I am done my second novel.

Why do I write? Because I have to...

Anyone who writes understands...they have a story that sits inside waiting to come out...it calls to them, they have to listen...

Some people put it off...they put it off and off and off...I did...
But finally I just sat down and wrote.

1000 words a day for 90 days straight...it was finished. There are no words (surprisingly or maybe there are and I am not a good writer) to express how you feel when you write the last two words 'the end'.