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Posts by Carol Despeaux Fawcett

Jun 14

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How playing the blues is like writing a novel

In TV-land, actor Hugh Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, a drug-addicted medical genius with the bedside manner of Attila the Hun who speaks perfect American English. In real life, Laurie hails from England and speaks with a British accent.

He is also a comic and gifted musician. If you listen to him sing with your eyes closed, you’ll swear he’s a great African American blues singer. (As my cousin did when she heard his CD “Let Them Talk” playing in my home).  The multi-talented Laurie sings, plays a mean guitar and is a stunning pianist. (In TV-land, House has a wall of guitars and a piano in his apartment).

After experiencing Laurie and The Copper River Band play Seattle recently, I’ve decided the blues is my new favorite genre of music.

Listening to the blues reminds me of putting together a novel. I love the way the different instruments—guitars, sax, bass sax, drums, piano, bass fiddle, etc—riff back and forth and talk to one another. It reminds me of different aspects of a novel—dialogue, plot, characterization—and how they all work together. Sometimes there’s dissonance which brings a certain friction to the piece and other times there’s harmony. Through it all there’s a sense of passion that drives the entire work.  Read more

Jun 12

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5 tips to get the most out of a writer’s conference

As mentioned in my previous blog post, “How to use writing contests to reach your goals,” I’ve been entering contests this year to build up my publication credits. And, it’s starting to pay off.

So far, I’ve earned 8th place for poetry in the 2012 Writer’s Digest Annual Contest and this weekend I received more good news—I’m a finalist in two categories at an upcoming writers’ conference!

Even if I don’t win one of the top spots, being a finalist means I’ll get special recognition and an invite to attend an agent and editor gathering with the other finalists. Before the conference, I’ll be thinking about what I want to get out of the conference and put together my Action Plan.

My hubby and I do this before every seminar we attend for our business–we discuss what we want to take home from the seminar and also what we want to give to others while at the conference and after the conference.

Here’s an example of my writer’s Action Plan: Read more

Jun 8

A thank you to author Ray Bradbury

Often, when I need a dose of writing inspiration, I turn to Ray Bradbury. I’ll read one of his stories, watch him on a youtube video, or memorize a favorite quote from him. Like many others, I found Mr. Bradbury to be a remarkable human being and writer.

Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for all you have shared with us. Below are three posts from other writers honoring him as well:

From author and musician Neil Gaiman: The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury — featuring an audio link of Gaiman reading the short story he wrote for Mr. Bradbury’s 91st birthday.

From writer Faye Flam a post on the most important thing she learned from Mr. Bradbury.

From journalist and editor Alec McCabe an article about the time Mr. Bradbury critiqued one of his stories and the three questions Bradbury asked (good questions for all of us to ask about our own stories).

How has Ray Bradbury touched your life?

Jun 6

The Editing Games, part 2

In my previous post introducing The Editing Games, I blogged about how I turned my most recent editing experience into a series of games to keep myself motivated.

Below are two more games I play to keep myself amused and on track. I hope you find them useful:

Game # 3: The Verb Game

After I’m done editing for story and characterization–when I think I’ve got the words in the right order on the page–I play the verb game. I take a chapter at a time (doing this while on the treadmill or elliptical machine is a great way to multi-task) and highlight each and every verb. Then I look at each highlighted word to see if there’s a better, stronger or more precise verb that I could use.

This game will do two things: 1) help make your story stronger and 2) train your brain for the future. If you really do this, you’ll be surprised at how your brain will begin to come up with stronger verbs the first time around.

Game # 4: The Repetition Game

I have a running outline of my chapters to keep track of certain things like plot, themes, character traits, and symbols or objects. If I’m repeating something for a reason–say a character trait like one character’s nervous goat laugh or an object like another character’s jet black toupee–I list this in my outline and make sure that I repeat this trait or object several times during the course of the story. I may even change the trait or object slightly to show growth of the character or a change of mood.

These repetitions can become threads to keep your story cohesive or lend resonance to your manuscript. Just remember: too many repetitions make the reader feel like they’re being harangued and too few repetitions will leave the reader in the dark. In my 300-page manuscript I typically repeat my threads a minimum of three times and usually more like five to six times as long as it doesn’t feel overdone.

What editing techniques or tricks do you use to keep yourself on target?

Jun 4

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The Editing Games, part 1

Editing. Does it ever end? Maybe if we have an apocalypse—where we writers would be too busy scrambling to save our skins or ambling down The Road trying to hide from lawless survivors. Or, would we take time out from the metaphorical red pen if compelled to compete with Katniss in The Hunger Games?

Nah. Being writers who want to get our work published, we’d probably just turn the arena into a battlefield of dangling modifiers, unnecessary adverbs, overwrought adjectives, and just plain old unnecessary words aka “fat.” Yes, in editing mode, we writers are fat trimmers. Read more

May 31

A great iPhone app to help you visualize your writing goals

A big component of setting and achieving our goals is being able to see ourselves already there. In high school, I ran track and set the school mile. In cross-country, I often placed in the top three. One of my secrets was visualization. Before every meet, I’d visualize myself running the race and winning. Mentally, it prepared me for the road or track ahead.

I have big goals in my writing life but, in my hectic schedule, I often forget about the benefits of visualization. Recently, I discovered a great goal-setting app for my iPhone called Aspire Goals. According to Aspire, achieving goals is 80% mental and only 20% actual activity.  Read more

May 29

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The key to building complex, realistic characters

Ever have one of those “aha” moments in your personal life that just rock your writing world? I love it when this happens.

Recently, while on vacation with my hubby, we were surfing channels late one night and ran across an old rerun of The Odd Couple with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. The Odd Couple, in case you’re too young to remember, was a sit-com about two men Oscar, the slob, and Felix, the neat freak, and how they live together and drive each other crazy. We watched the episode and laughed more at how corny the show was than the jokes (but the jokes were pretty funny too).

Read more

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