Review: Mary Buckham's WRITING ACTIVE SETTING

Before you read this review, you should know I’m biased. Not because I’m related to Mary, but because I’m a fan. As a teacher, she’s one of the absolute best. She does what many have not grasped: if the student doesn’t “get it,” explain it in a different way. And Mary has a huge arsenal of methods for communicating her points.

In ACTIVE SETTING, she uses plenty of examples to push her message. Better still, the examples are short, so no need to read half a novel before you get to the salient part. She also offers up exercises that truly work and you can immediately apply to your WIP (= work in progress).

But what is ACTIVE SETTING about? It’s not just about finding a solution to drab, boring description. In fact, the common misconception among writers about treating your setting as a line or two of imagery (“A baby-blue chair and a dark-wood table lined the wall.”) is exactly why this series was written, I believe.

If, like me, you fall into that particular category of writer, you’re not utilizing the concept to its best advantage. So, what you should not do is approach a scene wondering what type of description to add and where it would be best placed. Instead, ask what the scene lacks in terms of substance (not cosmetics), and then flip to Mary’s relevant chapter to learn how to use setting to fix the problem. You can add pace, deepen POV (= Point of View), and put right a whole host of other wrongs.

Once you’ve eliminated all content-related wrinkles, your scene will sparkle with description, but not in a haphazard, some-here-some-there way, but in an organic fashion that brings your story to life.

The ACTIVE SETTING boxset containing all three volumes is out now.

Rating: 5/5

Do you speak geek?

Being a geek is cool. You can't deny it.

What constitutes geekdom or nerddom isn't even important. Everyone has their definition, which is perfectly fine. You are what you are.

For those still undecided on the issue of whether you are a geek, here a quick test. If you can answer 'yes' to any of the following -- welcome to my world.

• I know what TARDIS stands for
• I think Firefly was one of the best things on TV. Ever.
• I think Joss Whedon is a god
• I think Pat Rothfuss is a god
• I know who Jim Butcher is and/or have read his books
• I love computer games with swords
• I love computer games with aliens
• I love computer games where you get to shoot at stuff
• I think this one-liner is hilarious: "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
• I think the Big Bang Theory rocks
• I just had to read this blog entry all the way, because I love geek lists

Everything clear now? [smiley face]

Tabletop Games

I recently started inventing tabletop games. And you know what? They're really, really fun. You may disagree. For one, not many people actually take the time to play games anymore. Also, I enjoy strategy games, which some find tedious. But they're games I love playing myself, and they've already taken off among my friends.

The first game I invented, and still my favorite, is Tidal Wars! It's full of little twists and cool graphics created by my friend Julie. Plus: PIRATES. Need I say more? Finding the basic premise was easy, but working out the kinks was tough. I have created a prototype with The Game Crafter, and am pretty damn proud of it. The picture on the box needs to be enlarged, and the instructions are difficult to read, but it's already fully playable. Woot!

After Tidal Wars! (and the soon-to-follow Wizard Wars!, the same game, but with wizards instead of pirates), I turned my attention to educational games for children. The result was Genius and Genius jr., the most fun you can have with math. Kids love these card games. Once again I turned to The Game Crafter for manufacture, and the results are fantastic. Both card games are now fully finished.

Julie and I are currently working on Genius Wordbuilder (plus the Junior version), a card game for little (and big) spellers.

The most surprising thing? The Genius series came about when, excited about Tidal Wars!, a friend of my mother's asked me to invent a game for kids -- and my mother loved the idea, too. But I love playing the games as much as the little ones do. I never expected that.

The key to my games is simplicity, replayability and attention to detail.

Have I given up on writing? Never. Games are merely one more way to express my creativity. If anything, writing opened up the possibility to simply give it a go. I can't draw to save my life, my singing has been likened to night-time screeches by fighting cats, and my neighbors don't like it when I whip out my clarinet, but inventing games is a wonderful way to create something tangible, something of practical use.


Tidal Wars!: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/tidal-wars-
Genius: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/genius
Genius jr. : https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/genius-jr.

Alpha Readers & Writing Partners

Writing is a deeply intimate affair. You are allowing others insight into the crazy and wonderful place that is your mind. But before you're ready to hand out the key to your anonymous readership at large, the first peek goes to your writing partner. By this I do not mean someone with whom you work on the same book, but your alpha reader.

Your alpha reader is the first person, beside yourself, to catch a glimpse of your book, but she's also so much more.

An alpha reader has the dubious pleasure of wading through your inane ramblings, flowery treatises on your characters' angst, and your attempts at describing the most sensual experiences with a suddenly limited and awkward vocabulary. My alpha reader is called Julie, but yours may go by a different name. Anyway, Julie always manages to find the silver, and occasionally the gold, in my writing. She comes equipped with a natural talent for cadence, a good head on her shoulders, and a wonderful sense of humor to soften even the harshest of truths. Once she's grabbed my WIP (= work in progress) by its collar and given it a good shake, my confidence soars, because -- look here, perhaps I'm not as rubbish a writer as I thought.

How do you find your Julie? Well, I found mine through a post on Absolute Write. She wasn't the first fellow writer I'd met that way, but she'd turn out to be my most important (although I've also found some great beta readers that way, but they will be the subject of a different blog entry). Anyway, it pays to approach the relationship with a potential writing partner slowly. Don't bury her in your last four manuscripts with a turnaround time of a week. Get to know one another. Chat about your particular concerns, and ask for advice. If you gel, you gel.

It helps if your Julie is also a fabulous writer in her own right. Because a writing partnership is a two-way, high-speed interstate. So it is essential you want to dissect her novel, push her to write ever more and faster, and are not afraid to be critical. You need constant communication and, most of all, mutual reassurance.

If you haven't found your Julie yet, don't worry. You will. And once you do, never, ever let go.

English is English is English. No?

Living in the UK, I found that writing for an American market is not easy. A while ago, my character went to the bathroom to pee. She used the cubicles. My American writing partner Julie had a right old giggle. In the United States, cubicles are those partitioned office spaces, and that's it.

I'm to write "stalls."

Now it was my turn to split my sides. To me, stalls are exclusively those vegetable carts/tables you find at the market, and I dare any American to pee in those!

Also, if you're American, don't let a Brit fall in love with you. She/he might end up completely "potty" about you. Yep, that too raised a riotous laugh from Julie. She prefers "nuts about you."

Every time I think I'm getting the hang of US English, along comes another case of English-but-not-English.

Sigh.

Pitching Event

Hey all,

Head over to Savvy Authors on Feb. 24, 2014 for a fantabulous pitching event. They have a great line-up of agents and editors waiting for your pitches all week. The focus will be on Romance, just about any genre, which is why my own book DIVIDE AND CONQUER will most likely not be very successful. Even though it has strong romantic elements with strong romantic conflict, it has an equally strong paranormal plot, making it more Urban Fantasy than Paranormal Romance.

I know, I know, a good book is a good book, but pitching is first and foremost about what genres the agent/editor would like to represent or acquire, quality being a close second.

There is an increasing trend toward super hot sex scenes, too, so be prepared. I can only guess that "super hot" in this context includes "frequent," since my own book contains two graphic sex scenes, pretty hot, but it's not considered "super hot."

Anyway, it's worth pitching. You have nothing to lose, have you? You don't even have to be a member of Savvy Authors. What are you waiting for?

Old blog - Total Linguistic Failure

Sometimes it’s tough to reconcile writing with my day job. I’m a patent translator by trade, specializing in optics and nuclear engineering, and finding the right words is my bread and butter.

The one thing you should know about patents is that they are entirely devoid of style. In fact, I regularly come across, and produce, terms like “control-rod guide tube actuating mechanism arm” and “loop-knittedly” (I kid you not). As with anything, you get used to it, though. In fact, it makes work easier, not having to strain to think of the most aesthetically pleasing phrase.

Back at home, I flick the switch and allow the creative juices to flow once more. Except, now and again, the switch jams, and stringing sentences together becomes a task seemingly beyond my capabilities. Suddenly, incoherent thoughts fumble for a concrete term in the mush of vocabulary, groping for something, anything, I can use to convey my idea. Instead of describing suspense in terms of how my MC experiences it, I resort to stylistically challenged sentences like “she was scared out of her mind”. The patent-way of writing, where direct and simple statements are the ideal.

Those moments are what I call total linguistic failure (TLF). This “fire bad, flower pretty” way of writing destroys all confidence concerning any talent I may possess. Don’t get me wrong. Pulitzer-worthy I’m not by any stretch. But neither am I a complete hack (I hope).

A couple of months ago a weird thing happened. A friend confided in me that she, too, experienced bouts of TLF. I was intrigued. Could this be an affliction that affected more people than I’d thought? Entirely unrelated to my job? If so, what was the government doing about it?

I did some research, called a few more friends, checked out some blogs. The results shocked me. Credible evidence suggested this was indeed a common disorder; as many as seven in ten writers suffer from it at one point or another. And apparently there are no help lines, no charities set up to assist the victims. Would I have to give up writing altogether?

No, I’d come too far to simply coil up and submit.

I’m now seeing a team of psychiatrists once or twice a week. Their names are Ben & Jerry’s, and they taste creamy and sweet, and they are a lot nuttier than I am. Still, their influence on my life has been immeasurable.

Now, each time TLF returns, I clench my fist, set my jaw and work my way through the rough spells. It’s the equivalent to flipping the bird at TLF. Light always follows darkness, and soon enough I’m back on form. My new coping mechanism has done wonders for my word count. What’s more, all lingering signs of TLF can be removed at the editing stage.

So, if you, too, are familiar with TLF, you no longer have to suffer in silence. If caught early, I believe it is entirely treatable. Feel free to share any tips for dealing with this problem in the comments section.

Old blog - Why urban fantasy isn't dead*

 *This is not a comment from an author to an agent but from an avid reader (roughly 3-4 books a week) to the book industry as a whole, even though I won’t deny that the writer in me would agree with the sentiment.

Take a naive but capable young woman, add a sexy, brooding and decidedly mysterious vampire who inevitably falls in love with her, an equally hot baddie, sprinkle on obstacles (such as the world in peril) to overcome, and the result is YA (young adult).

Take a tough-as-nails woman who can hold her own in a fight (with or without guns), add a sexy, brooding and decidedly mysterious vampire who inevitably falls in love with her, an equally hot baddie, sprinkle on obstacles (such as grisly murders) to overcome, and the result is urban fantasy.

The argument has been made that the market is flooded with plot concepts which follow these or similar blueprints. While YA still seems to be able to scrape by, mainly due to the voracity of faithful young readers, the urban fantasy genre has come into disrepute lately. Are older readers really that much more discerning and demanding than their younger counterparts? And are agents and publishers right to turn their back on this genre?

I think not. And in support I would like to put forward two thoughts for you to chew on.

First, just because it’s writing-by-numbers doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy it. After all, this is exactly why I follow heroines like Jaz Parks, Mercy Thompson and the many others so fervently from one book in the series to the next. If I like the set-up, enjoy the humor and find the plot at least halfway engaging, I’m satisfied.

I admit I’ve never been one to look to books as a means of making me ponder the greater issues in life. No, I can do that all by myself, without any prodding (speak: pontificating) by authors or film directors, thank you very much. What I need is a few hours of complete escapism.

Second, even if the above outline were right on the money – and let’s be fair, most plots offer ample variation on these themes or are indeed entirely different –, only shallow people would consider it as indicative of the originality of the book as a whole. A good story is more than its most basic ingredients. And for this I would like to reference my own work, or, to put it bluntly, justify my own work. My main character Ivy is a private detective of sorts, and she is helped out by a vampire. There are some grisly murders, too. Still, these items are merely the vehicle I use to drive the plot home.

My “mythology” is different from that of other writers. In addition, I have deliberately used certain stereotypes and turned them on their head. My vampire is neither broody nor mysterious. Neither is he the love interest. And Ivy isn’t your typical shoot-first, ask-later protagonist either. Her journey from A to B and then to C and D is what makes it different. Humor, fallacies and red herrings are only three of the sign posts that litter the way.

Isn’t it true that the real measure of the experience can only be gathered from actually reading the book?

Agents and publishers have to sift through queries and first chapters ad nauseum, and after a while these things can seem kind of samey. But here’s a thought. The key question is not whether the story is original, but whether it's engaging. And this is more to do with the author and her or his writing than with the basic plot ingredients.

Readers certainly haven’t had enough of what’s out there. I’m constantly looking for new serialized adventures (suggestions welcome). So my plea to agents is this: don’t give up on a book simply because the query doesn’t promise a never-before-seen concept. Until you’ve developed a feel for an author, please keep an open mind.

About Me

I'm an urban fantasy addict. Can't get enough of paranormal creatures and phenomena. Throw in a few smidgens of romance, and I'm sold. Worse, I'm often overcome by the need to create my own worlds and characters, so every spare minute I get, you'll find me tucked away behind a laptop, tapping away on those keys. At least that's where you'll find my physical form. My mind... Well, the mind's usually off experiencing all kinds of adventures.

Post from previous blog - Description

Blog from August 2011

Eugh! What a slog!

When did writing become such a chore? I used to like hammering away on the keyboard without getting sucked into the rabbit hole ofsine qua non. You know, those things which the gods of literature insist spell the difference between "amateur writer" and "author".Worldbuilding, infodump avoidance, word count goals, giving specifics - being a writer was easier before I'd heard of any of these things and the role they play.

I could go on as before, writing blindly first and filling in the gaps later, but my brain keeps whispering to me: "what type of dog?", "how tall was the guy?", "how can I show that she was sad?" It interrupts my flow and I find it difficult to get lost in my character's voice, to truly understand her.

Grrrrrr!

Still, sooner or later it has to become second nature, right?

Delusional optimist, me? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, look, a pretty rainbow. Hmm, I'd better get my tools and go look for that pot of gold that's bound to be at the end of it...

The Dark Moment

The Dark Moment or “Black Moment” is the absolute low point of your character’s life. The Dark Moment will validate your character’s journey. But how do you know your Black Moment is as dark as it can be?

I have made up this formula that will knock your readers’ breath from their lungs.

1. Imagine your character, at the very end of your book, after the HEA (Happily Ever After), being blackmailed by criminals. What is the worst thing they could get your character to do? Turn her back on her family? Kill someone? Whatever you come up with is what your character must do.

2. What does the character have left? A husband? A child? A career? Then is what she must lose by doing 1.

Moving from the abstract to the concrete, this may mean that in order to save her family, your character has to torture someone for information. If she does, her family will be found, but she might go to jail. This is her Dark Moment.

In the final act, she will then set out to recover what she lost and defeat the baddie once and for all. To recover her freedom, she might save someone’s life who pays for a top-drawer lawyer. She is acquitted. Her mind is still reeling from what she has done, but at least she has her family.

In an alternative scenario, she has written an expose on a politician that destroyed his career. When she discovers she has been duped and her accusations are false, she must confront a dangerous organization to find proof that will exonerate him. The information she finds will set the record straight, but implicate her own husband in a murder. She no longer loves her husband and has more chemistry with the lead investigator, but how will the children react? Or her own parents, who are proud of their successful son-in-law? Still, this is what she must do, even if it means losing her family’s love. This is her Dark Moment.

In the final act, the murder committed by her husband turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg. He was a professional hitman. In a shootout with her husband and his pals, the lead investigator saves her life. Suddenly, her parents no longer mind his lowly job. Even her son comes around after they uncover the extent of his father’s murderous past.

Most of all, milk the moment. The reader has to understand, but also feel, this is the low point in the character’s arc.

Conflict - The Dough That Keeps Your Ingredients Together

Consider these two scenarios.

1) Adam and Eve are exchanging the most mindblowing of kisses, when Lucifer walks into the room. Frustrated at the interruption, Adam pulls away. After a heated argument with Lucifer, Eve storms off.If only her ex would get the message and leave her alone. Adam runs after her, and just as he’s about to catch up, he gets run over by a man on a bike. He is taken to hospital. Eve, worried sick and feeling guilty, rushes to his side. Seeing this strong man so pale and weak almost breaks her heart, but it makes her more determined than ever to salvage their relationship. She leans over him and gives him a heart-stopping smile. “I love you,” she whispers. Adam takes a long breath. “I love—“BEEEEEEEEEP.” He crashes, and nurses and doctors swarm into the room. Wide-eyed, Eve is bustled into the visitor area, where she waits anxiously for news.

2) Gary Oswald Darwin, the boss of Paradise Inc., takes Adam, a young upstarter in the legal department, under his wing. Gary also encourages his daughter Eve to spend time with the young man. Adam enjoys her company, at least until Lucifer, Gary’s former business partner, returns from an extended business trip. Adam is charged with untangling complicated contractual details and visits Lucifer to discuss the situation. The two hit it off. When Lucifer kisses Adam, both feel the tingle.The surge of emotions that sweeps over Adam is unfamiliar territory, and he melts into Lucifer’s arms. They move toward the bedroom, where Adam shoves Lucifer away. Wide-eyed, Adam runs off. Walking the streets, he berates himself. His career is just taking off, his boss is nuts about him, and he has a nice, beautiful woman hanging on his every word. Why is he letting some man derail his life?What the hell is wrong with him?

Scenario one is a series of coincidences. Scenario two is some serious conflict. Even though both stories are told, not shown, you feel yourself drawn into the second more than the first. Agents and editors are looking for conflict, so make sure you get it right.

Welcome to my new blog

Yay! I finally got around to starting a new blog. In time, I will transfer my old blogs to this site. Until then, you'll have to make do with my current thoughts.

The last year has been an amazing year. I won one RWA contest and finaled in many, many more. I reckon about ten RWA contest. I had one request for a partial, but I didn't act on it. Why? Although my book was finished, it wasn't "finished." I used the contests to hone my opening chapters and to identify potential weaknesses that might affect later chapters. If I had thought for a minute that I would place, let alone win or garner any interest, I would have had a different strategy.

I may have missed an opportunity by not acting on the request, but I think the extra time to tinker has been worth it.

So, what is my new book about?

It's called DIVIDE AND CONQUER, an urban fantasy of 106,000 words.

Two women, a magic-wielding warrior and a self-confessed noob from Seattle, are prophesied to stop a tyrant's grab for power. When they fail, their young friendship is put to the test. Striking an unlikely alliance with two men of dubious loyalties - and killer smiles - they attempt to reclaim Earth's history, and their first quest is to rebuild their trust.

Before writing it, I knew I wanted to achieve three things.

First, I wanted it to be about two women, linked by a common fate and being of equal importance in terms of the storyline. That meant alternating points of view, written in the first person. Quite a challenge, as you can imagine.

Next, I wanted a story where, halfway through the book, our heroines fail to fulfil the prophecy. The book starts with the not unfamiliar premise of throwing a mundane-world woman into a whirlwind world of wizardry, all because of a prophecy. Halfway through, they fail in their mission, and the world around them changes. I found, somewhat unexpectedly, that this change acts as an equalizer, with both women having to become accustomed to a new environment.

Finally, I wanted this to be the best story it could be. That involved creating a dark moment that would overshadow their failure and the subsequent "downer" in their mood.

I'm happy with the result, and happy the book is now finished. I hope that when you get to read it, you'll be, too.