The Undiscovered Country

Sharpen Your Trigger

I am currently in Nashville, TN attending the ACFW Writers Conference. It is over half over, but my brain has tried to absorb so much information, it feels like tapioca pudding. That's a good thing, because I'm learning a lot. I've discovered I don't suck as a writer - at least not completely. In the two classes I took so far, I do more things right than I do wrong.

I still have to go through at least one manuscript (the first few chapters anyway, but more on that later) to make several modifications, but luckily not too many. I could have those done tonight - if I'm motivated enough, that is. It's a bit iffy considering my tapioca brain.

Because I didn't want to chance missing an entire day of the conference due to delayed or cancelled fights, I decided to arrive a day earlier than most. Just in case everything went well, I signed up for an early bird session with Donald Maass, the literary agent and author of "Writing the Breakout Novel."

This seminar was titled "Writing in the 21st Century", which is also based on his newest book of the same title.

Did you know (Voxxylady , you'll be pleased to hear this), that literary fiction paperback novels remain on best seller lists for nearly ten times or more longer than any other genres, including hard cover and non-fiction? Donald was a bit surprised by that, and read the top books to look for what those books had that others didn't.

Literary fiction does have a bit of a misconception surrounding it, namely that they're slow and detail versus plot oriented, when in truth, that's not always the case. What literary fiction strives for is to make every paragraph, every page make an emotional connection to the reader. It's intent is to draw the reader in, to immerse him or her into the author's world.

Me writing science fiction and fantasy, that's also what I long to achieve. As I've said before, I'm not detail/description oriented. I prefer action, and my greatest strength is dialog. When it comes to detail, I groan and moan, and have to almost tie myself to the computer to force me to put it in.

What Donald revealed, however, is it's not the detail and description that's important. Description is by definition objective, and even cold. It is another form of telling. The trick is turning that detail and description into an experience. We don't just see the sunset. There's an emotional reaction to that sunset, that mountain scape where three people died in an avalanche, and that dark room that your parents always told you to stay out of.

Donald may have converted me into writing more literary fiction. Is there such a thing as literary science fiction and literary fantasy? At the very least, because of everything Donald shared (and I shared with you not even a half a page of the eight pages of notes I took), my readers will have a better, more fulfilling experience.

Today I attended a workshop called "How To Think Like Your Editor."

During the first part, the presenter, Erin Healy, told us to read our first chapter, not as an editor, but as a reader. She told us to write down our emotional reactions as we read. I was intrigued by the prologue, but when I started on the first chapter, I felt a bit of boredom and frustration. I knew instantly why. I had added a few chunks of description for the sake of description. It was like reading a school book on architecture. While some of the description is necessary, I have to write in such a way to make it an experience.

When we enter a building we've never been in before, sure we notice the sights, but what else do we notice? We take in the smells, the feel of the air, and even its mood - often created by our own expectations of what that room should feel like. Sometimes the room meets our expectations, sometimes it doesn't. The writer's job is to show that experience.

Here's the rub.

I met with a literary agent, and I showed her my one-sheets. She asked for my pitch and I said, "I too easily get tongue-tied, so can I read it to you instead?"

She told me to go ahead. She liked it, and when I mentioned the other two I brought with me, she was open to hearing my other two. She seemed impressed at my "world building," and the fact I had three complete manuscripts. She asked me to send the first three chapters of all three.

Two are ready. The third (the one with the icky, boring detail), needs a bit of tweaking. Thankfully not a lot, so I bet I could tackle it tonight, let it sit until I get home, go through the first three chapters again, and send them off. While she's perusing them, I'll go through the rest and hopefully elevate my writing, and make it more literary.

I'm sure you're dying to know why I chose "Sharpen Your Trigger," as my title. It doesn't make sense, since it's an obvious mix of metaphors. It's one Donald Maass used during his talk (which he noticed right away), and I liked it so much, I had to use it.