No Mission is Impossible

If you want to write about breaking into the CIA, sometimes you just have to do the research yourself.

And Just When I Thought It Was Safe

Rachel Vincent goes and posts about yet another shiny new writer software toy, Post-it Digital Notes.

You can color code your post-its, add links and photos, resize them, and much more.

Word

Like many of you, I use Microsoft Word for writing my novel. Recently I’ve posted a lot about my search for a good outlining tool. The ones I’m most attracted to right now are SuperNotecard and PowerStructure. However, neither does everything I want.

Take a look at the outline tree structure I’m currently favoring:

Act 1
Chapter 1
Scene 1
Plot Point 1

I’m not asking for too much.

With SuperNotecard, I can use decks for acts, cards for scenes, and write plot points on the card. But no chapters.

With PowerStructure, I can use their Novel template and I have acts, chapters and plot points. But no scenes. I could rename chapters to scenes, but then I won’t have chapters.

But look what I can do with Word:

This is easily accomplished with outline view and heading styles. It’s simple. “Act 1″ has the “Heading 1″ style, each “Chapter” has the “Heading 2″ style, each “Scene” has the “Heading 3 style, and I just used plain text for my plot points.

You can:

• Expand and collapse each tree node where you see the “+” symbol.
• View any level of your outline. For example, I could view just acts and chapters (hiding scenes and plot points), or acts, chapters and scenes (hiding plot points), or view everything, as in the above picture.
• Drag tree branches around to reorder them.
• Customize the various heading styles to your heart’s content. Want the chapters to be in a different color, font or size? Piece of cake.

Pretty cool, don’t you think?

It’s not the final answer in outlining, and there are times when SuperNotecard and PowerStructure seem like a better tool. But if you’re already using Word, you might want to play around with this feature.

Author Spotlight: Jocelynn Drake

It’s always wonderful when you find a new story and character(s) you fall in love with, especially when its an author’s debut work. This happened for me when I read Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake.

For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker—an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed . . . and may be all that prevents her doom.

The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead. For Mira, the time has come to hunt . . . or be hunted.

I just loved this book. The atmosphere and Mira epitomize what has fascinated me about vampire fiction. I can’t wait for further books in the series.

Vicki Pettersson said “…Drake has composed a love letter to the vampire genre,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Did you know:

• Nightwalker is on the New York Times and USA Today Best Seller lists.
• Rachel Vincent interviewed Jocelynn here and here.
• Jocelynn has a blog where she shares her passion for writing, answers questions, and supplies me with regular Muppet fixes.
• Jocelynn is a stock market analyst and editor for an investment research firm.

I’ll Take the Red Pill Please

What lasts for hours, will have you seeing things you haven’t seen before, and literally expands your mind?

A Michael Hauge lecture. I only recently discovered Michael’s work, when I watched The Hero’s 2 Journeys, a 3 DVD set, where he lectures along with Christopher Vogler. Wow. Wow. Wow. This man is brilliant. I have never before enjoyed instruction on writing as I did when I watched Michael lecture. Almost every sentence that comes out of his mouth is something you want to write down and think about.

And I’m not the only one. Mel Francis drinks Michael Hauge Kool-Aid. Therese Walsh has a great three-part interview with Michael over at Writer Unboxed.

Note that even though his work seems aimed at screenplays, it’s universal enough to apply to all forms of storytelling. He even gives specific tips relative to novel-writing at times.

If you’re interested, check out his articles. Here’s where further yumminess can be had:

• The Hero’s 2 Journeys is available as a separate 3 DVD set, but also is bundled for free with the pricey Power Structure program. While the videography leaves a lot to be desired, the material is fantastic. You can also get an audio version on CD or download.
• Screenwriting for Hollywood is available on CD or download.
• Writing Screenplays That Sell and Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay or Novel Read are both books.

Cat Blogging Delayed For Good Reason

Sorry I’m late. Stormtroopers again.

How Do You Relate To Your Muse?

Mugging the Muse, by Holly Lisle
It’s free!

Not everyone courts their muse, as I do. How do you relate to your muse?

Power Structure

Power Structure is the latest shiny new toy I’ve been playing with. Essentially, it’s an outlining tool with some very nice features. It lets me organize my outlining thoughts the way I want to. It’s not trying to write my story for me, or even help me come up with ideas. It allows me to structure my ideas in a better way.

One of my favorite features is that it allows me to rename all the key terms in an outline. If I don’t like “plot points”, I can rename that to “story event” or “scene”. If I don’t like “protagonist” I can rename that to “hero”.

Their novel template uses acts, chapters, and plot points (but remember, you can rename those terms if you want!). You can move plot points to other chapters, and chapters to other acts, but this becomes a little cumbersome if you have a lot to move. You can put in as much detail to an act, chapter and plot point as you wish. You can view the plot points as index cards, and shuffle them around. You can track plot points by character(s) and your own custom categories. You can assign tension level to plot points, and view graphs of the tension over time (kinda neat, but I’m not sure I’ll use this feature).

You can define “to do” items for an act or chapter, and check them off (very conveniently) as you create the plot point that will include that item.

You can define all your characters, provide as much detail as you want, categorize them, and associate them with your plot points (chapters and acts). You can define their “character arc” and track it throughout the story.

Gestalt View

You have a “gestalt” view, which is simply a view that displays acts, chapters and plot points all in one screen, with acts in the leftmost column, chapters in the next column, then plot points, and finally plot point details. Very handy for a more graphical layout of the entire structure. I have a large widescreen monitor, and I think this view may seem more cluttered on smaller conventional monitors.

Realistically, you won’t be using all the features. But the unused features don’t seem to get in the way.

At $129.95, it may be a little pricey for some. There’s a free demo (limited by # of plot points and no thesaurus) you can try out. I’m having fun with it so far. Whether it will become a regular tool in my writing, I can’t yet say.

Be forewarned, this program comes with copy protection, where you can register up to three machines for it to work on. You can unregister a machine. If your hard drive crashes or you forget to unregister a machine (and then lose access to that machine), call them up and they’ll work something out with you. My concern is what happens when they go out of business. You can still use the software, but you’ll have to enter your “key” every time you run the program. I realize software piracy is a problem, but I’m not a big fan of companies incoveniencing paying customers to try and circumvent it.

Here’s some reviews by Thomas Kane, Top Ten Reviews, and Sandra Durham.

The company is hard at work on version 2 of this program.

Author Spotlight: Kelley Armstrong

I picked up a copy of Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong, long before my interest in urban fantasy picked up again.

Bitten is about a young woman named Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf, who’s trying to live a normal life in the world of humans. Then her former pack calls, and they need her to come home and help with a very dangerous situation.

For me, Bitten is classic urban fantasy, written at a time when it seemed like this sub-genre was just exploding onto the scene.

Bitten is the first book in the Women of the Otherworld series, sharing the same “world”, but not always with the same narrator.

Did you know:

• Kelley is writing a young adult series set in the Otherworld universe, called the Darkest Powers Trilogy.
• Kelley wrote a crime novel called Exit Strategy.
• There is an Otherworld Roleplaying Site.

Free Your Muse

Free Your Muse
Barbara Stanwyck from The Miracle Woman

Holly Lisle has once again saved the day, but in a most unexpected way.

As the two or three of you who read my blog know, I’ve been struggling with my 2nd draft outline. I’m making progress, but I haven’t completely untangled the mess my pantzer ways got me into.

I had recently purchased Holly Lisle’s How to Beat Writer’s Block audio course, not because I wanted the audio course, but because she’s selling it as a bundle with a bunch of her “clinic” e-books, which I did want. I’m a sucker for writing craft books and software toys. They’re fun to read, inspirational, and if I find one useful tip or technique, it’s worth it. So I figured the audio course would probably never get listened to. I almost never have trouble coming up with ideas for writing. So why should I listen to an audio course on how to beat writer’s block?

But in a way, I was having writer’s block with this 2nd draft outline. Not in creating ideas, but in fixing ideas I had already written. So I thought I’d give Holly’s course a try.

I don’t want to divulge the contents of her course, so let me just say it led me to this very revealing question:

When did writing this novel stop being fun?

Through Holly’s technique, the answer blurted out of my fingers onto the keyboard without giving my conscious mind time to construct an answer. I don’t want to discuss specific details of my novel, so I’ll phrase my answer this way: My novel stopped being fun when Event X happened. This was one of those answers that I already knew inside at some level, but I wasn’t taking it seriously. I didn’t appreciate the implications of what had happened.

Event X happened to my protagonist. I had planned Event X since I started writing the first draft. My protagonist took Event X in stride, took it very well, and went on with her life as best she could.

My line of questions went something like this:

• When did writing this novel stop being fun? When Event X happened.
• How do I fix this? The easy way is to take out Event X.
• If I leave Event X in, why did it take the fun away?

And then it hit me. The answer to that final question: Because my protagonist didn’t react the way I had written.

My Depressed Protagonist

My protagonist was angry. Angry at the person who did Event X to her, angry at life for Event X happening to her, and angry with me for writing her reaction without consulting her first. I didn’t let her express any of this anger, and she became depressed. The life had gotten sucked out of my book.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had abandoned my muse at that point. Writing the novel stopped being fun, and it suddenly became hard work.

My protagonist’s reaction to a major event in her life was not truthful.

“Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.” -Stephen King

Stephen King has often emphasized telling the truth when writing. I failed to do so because I already had this plot idea in my head and I sailed through writing the passage without my muse by my side. So my muse walked away in a huff.

Thanks to Holly Lisle, I discovered my muse was missing and trapped, and I freed her, promising never to let this happen again.

(Footnote: In searching for photos for this post, I learned a valuable lesson. Google for “woman in cage” at your own risk.)