01 02 03 Amorina Rose Writes: Publications really Rock! 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Publications really Rock!

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30th August. 2015
     One of my prime intentions when beginning this blog was the sharing of knowledge.  I have already done one blog about publications and will probably do many as the blog progresses and I pray it may be useful to you but accept it may not.  Things strike me as I read them and often it may not be anything new but rather a reminder of things necessary as we tread the writing path.  They serve to jog our consciousness into staying alert.  As a teacher I see a lot of lazy writers but as a writer I see a lot of bad habits in me because things are in my mind but I haven’t stopped to translate that on paper.  So when I can I look at things about writing.
     
    For instance I like the WQ online a lot because every edition offers insight into different areas in the writing process. I always find something that makes me wonder if I have considered this particular 'thing' in what I have written. Beginner authors and experienced authors are only human. We try really hard to think of as much as we can to ensure we do our best.  However, like I said in my first paragraph it doesn't always translate to paper when you are in that zone.  I know that no matter how many times I will check this posting I will miss an error of some kind. Of course I have or haven’t as the case may be but thought I had or hadn’t. Stepping away to really look at your own work has to be the most difficult thing I do and I constantly wonder why I am here typing away.

    Reading articles makes me more careful and it also helps me understand why I react to certain books in certain ways. I do translate  things to what I read. Was what I felt about the particular book influenced because of  is now a question I ask constantly in the quest to improve myself.  One element that crops up and is my topic today is pacing, something we actively don’t stop to include during that manic writing process. I mean we hope we do but I repeat, we are only human and can only do so much.
     
      In fact the last book I read lacked just that - pacing. Things happened between the players but as a reader I wasn’t in the moment, I just wanted the whole situation to resolve itself so I could finish the book. It was so slow in happening, eventuating.  Please don’t misunderstand, the book was still readable and I am sure many people would enjoy it but it failed to engage me, it felt like the same point was being hammered in slow motion.  I don’t know whether my book will engage you but I am trying hard to ensure that it does.  If I fail then tell me when you review.  I want to know.  Hence why I spend time reading material like this article by Sean Williams. 
The August 11, 2015  of WQ online says the following about:
Sean Williams is “a #1 New York Times bestselling author of over forty award-winning novels for children, young adults and adults. His latest series are Twinmaker and Troubletwisters (the latter co-written with Garth Nix). He lives just up the road from the best chocolate factory in Australia.”

     I have included a sample of his comments but please use the link in this blog to read it all or if you click on the right hand side of my blog it will take you directly to the WQ Online publication and/or its ‘mum’ the Queensland Writers Centre website.  It is worth exploring them as they offer so much information for the budding writer as well as the experienced.  I personally love their workshops and wish they got up here to Townsville more often.  Anyway back to pacing.
     
     Sean tells us that “increasing the pacing of a work can be accomplished through structural manipulation and word choice, for instance:
Decreasing pace, conversely, can be accomplished by:
     Can you see what I mean about not actively thinking about these things as we write not to mention there are so many other facets of writing to consider as well?  SO we read articles like this and stop and reflect but wait there is more to think about. It is all well and good to include the techniques but the danger is that if we don’t pay attention to the pacing and go a little too much either way, that is increasing or decreasing too much, too quickly, too thoughtlessly then our readers may not absorb the information and not understand fully what may happen or worse give  readers too many chances to guess ahead where it will end up.  This is what happened with the book I read last weekend.  I just wanted to get to the end page.  I would be devastated to have this happen to me but it probably will but then hopefully someone will tell me but I promise it won’t be for lack of caring because this same article gives us clues on managing a balance.

     
     Sean proceeds to give us more techniques to help us maintain momentum alongside careful pacing.  This includes “ Choosing words precisely to prevent confusion at critical moments” and one I like very much is “Ensuring that every scene does more than one thing, such as developing character as well as advancing plot or scene-setting.” I could quote from this article and give you more but it is so much better coming from its source directly.  I am currently trying to finish two somewhat longer than usual novellas in my Unexpected series  and found reading this invaluable.  It only takes one little thing to give you that impetus. For more please go to

Happy reading,
Ciao
Barb
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