Category: The Craft of Writing

Posts relating to the how of writing.

Writers of the Future

Writers of the Future

The Writers of the Future Awards were given on April 15, 2012 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

This was my first year as a judge, although I have attended many times before both with and without Mum.  If you watch the video you'll not only see a nice tribute to Mum but also yours truly in a tuxedo!

The winners and finalists represent a whole new crop of excellent writers, giving me great hope for the future.

I took the opportunity to hang out with the writers and illustrators, and was really honored to spend time with them and my fellow judges.

The difference between a story and an idea

The difference between a story and an idea

A lot of people have trouble distinguishing between an “idea” and a “story”, so I thought I’d provide a simple example.

An idea:

What if UFOs were real?

Expansion:

What if UFOs were real and they were stealing cats?

Closer to story:

What if UFOs were real and they stole your cat?

Story:

It’s always seemed like the only one in the world who understands me is my cat, Whitey. (Yeah, I know, a silly name but I was seven.) Now that Mom died, Whitey’s been with me all the time, purring, and demanding attention and he’s the only one I can let see me cry — Dad’s too much like a piece of marble and Bryan… ugh! Little Bryan would make some sort of annoying game out of it. And now, something’s woken me up and Whitey’s not curled up at the head of my bed… he’s not in my room… there’s some weird light from outside. I go to the window and look down… just in time to see Whitey being sucked up into the belly of a UFO!


Now that’s really just the start of a story, it doesn’t tell what happens in the middle and how it ends. But as always, the start of a story kinda begs the rest of a story (why are UFOs stealing cats and will/how will our protagonist get Whitey back? Also, what about Dad and Brian, there’s clearly stuff going on there that needs “fixing”.)

But for those who are interested in the craft, I hope that helps.

Books on the Craft

Books on the Craft

At some point in every writer’s life there comes a time when you want desperately to know more about the craft.

In fact, I think that most writers are always perfecting their craft and I know many that take seminars on the craft of writing just to hone their skills.

There does come a time when it gets easier. But it never really gets easy.

Here are some books that I’ve found useful and how I’d categorize them:

On Writing in General:

On Writing by Stephen King
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

On Editing

Self-editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

Stretching Your Abilities

The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley

Plot and Structure

Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder
Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies by Blake Snyder
Save the Cat! Strikes Back by Blake Snyder

The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

All these books are targeted toward screenwriting but they’re equally applicable to writing in general.

Working to Mastery

The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success by Donald Maass

The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers by Donald Maass

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass

FYI, Don Maass is my agent.

Dragon’s Kin Outlines

Dragon’s Kin Outlines

A lot of people want to know what an outline looks like.

With Mum’s permission, I’ve uploaded the “original” outline for Nuella’s Dragon (which became Dragon’s Kin and one of the “working” outlines.

The idea for the story came when Mum was thinking that she could include stories from myself and my sister, Georgeanne Kennedy, in the anthology that became A Gift of Dragons. She asked me to write about young Piemur.

The “original” outline, here is a revision of the email response.

When Mum realized that the contract was only for original Anne McCaffrey works, we spent some time back and forth before I realized that Piemur would have been too young for the original story to work but that the story was ideal for young Kindan (whom I’d already introduced as an adult in Dragonsblood).

Here is the working version of the revised outline. As you can see, in []’s we’ve included Kindan’s age so that we remembered to keep track.

You may notice that in both versions, Harper Zist is supposed to die. When it came time to write the book, he refused to be killed!

Remember that outlines, like the Pirates Code, are “more like guidelines.” Mum and I both tend to think that it’s a healthy thing when our characters refuse to follow our lead and do what they think is right.