Hi all, I hope everyone’s summer is off to as good a start as mine is.  My garden’s blooming, the weather is great, and I got the chance to take a writing craft class on Friday night with my friend and writing mentor, Adriena Dame. If you live in Kentucky or Southern Indiana and are interested in taking a class, Adriena’s upcoming classes can be found here.

Adriena discussed the basics of story form, including how to plot your novel or short story using the classic “conflict, crisis, resolution” story form (where you have rising action until the climax and then denouement).  But, in the course of discussing this, she brought to my attention another tool for the plotting process that I hadn’t been introduced to until now: Janet Burroway’s concept of “connect and disconnect.”

As we know, conflicts in any story should somehow be connected to one another, preferably in a “cause and effect” or “action and reaction” sort of a way.  In Janet Burroway’s book, Writing Fiction, she discusses how over the course of a story, or within a particular scene, characters make and break bonds of trust, love, understanding, or compassion with one another.  The connections are the moments of coming together, or understanding, while disconnections are the things that set the characters at odds again.  This back and forth between characters helps keep the tension high, and the movement zigzagging ever upward as the story progresses.

She uses the Cinderella story—a story everyone knows—to illustrate this concept.  If you look at Cinderella in terms of connection and disconnection, you will begin to see a pattern emerge that is the power struggle between Cinderella and her Stepmother and Stepsisters and, perhaps, society in general.  As the story begins, Cinderella’s father has died (a disconnect). He is married (connected with) a woman—her stepmother—who spurns her once her father dies (a disconnect).  Then, an invitation to a royal ball arrives, and even the lowliest maid in the kingdom may go (a connect), but Cinderella’s stepmother won’t allow her to go, despite the fact that all eligible maidens are invited (a disconnect).  So where the Prince’s invitation offers a connection, the Stepmother’s cruelty once again alienates Cinderella.  Then, although Cinderella must prepare her sisters for a ball she cannot attend, she is rescued when a Fairy Godmother arrives once her sisters leave (a connect).  Cinderella is temporarily connected to the life she yearns for, but that connection is again broken when the clock strikes twelve and she must flee the ball (a disconnect).  A decree is issued afterwards that every maiden in the land must try on the glass slipper (an invitation/connection), but Cinderella’s stepmother locks her away and won’t allow her to try it on (a disconnect). Of course, Cinderella is discovered and allowed to try the slipper, which fits (a connect), and which is the climax of our story. The action falls to the inevitable “fairy tale” ending, where the prince and Cinderella marry and live happily ever after.

What do you think of the “connect and disconnect” theory of plotting?  Do you try to do this in your own writing?  Do you subscribe to a different model of story form that achieves the same thing?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Next time I should have some news on a contest opportunity for poets and short story writers…

It occurred to me, as a lawyer-slash-writer, that it might be useful to have a post on copyright. As many of my loyal readers are also writers, I thought I would devote this week’s post to sharing some useful tips and information about intellectual property law with you.

Many writers are concerned about protecting their work, but many don’t know how copyright operates or what the author has to do to protect their work.  To make matters worse, the concept of trademark is frequently confused with copyright. I will begin with a discussion of copyright, because it is the single most important concept for writers to be familiar with.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is protection under federal law that is extended to “works of authorship.” Insofar as the written word, a “work of authorship” includes poems, short stories, novels, newspaper articles, magazine articles, blog posts and more.  For the sake of brevity, I will not delve into a philosophical discussion on how short or “bare bones” a piece can be and still be a “work of authorship.” Suffice it to say that most things you are creating (from short stories to novels) are works of authorship.

How do I protect my work with Copyright?

Put simply? Write it down. There is no “registration” required to obtain copyright protection for your work. Indeed, other than “fixing your work in a tangible medium,” the author needs to do nothing else to protect their work. Is Scrivener or Word a tangible medium, you ask?  Yes.  Typing your work into a word processor or writing it down on paper are both surefire ways to make sure your work is fixed in a tangible medium. Again, for the sake of brevity, I will not engage in any philosophical discussions of whether your lipstick poem on a bar mirror is “fixed in a tangible medium.”

When does Copyright begin?

It is automatic. From the moment your “work of authorship” is “fixed in a tangible medium,” i.e., you write your lovely poem down on paper, the copyright is created.

Who owns the Copyright to my work?

You do. The copyright will last for your entire lifetime and long after you are dead (70 years, presently, and even longer if Disney has their way).  The rights will remain with you, or your heirs, until they expire, or until you assign your rights to another by contract.

Isn’t this kind of hard to prove? What does registration do?

This is a question that pertains more to what happens if someone uses your work without permission than to the creation of the copyright.  If someone were to plagiarize your work, you would indeed have to prove you were the first to fix the words in a tangible medium.  A discussion of the ways in which this might be shown would require much more space than a single blog post. In order to avoid this evidentiary dilemma, however, you may register your work with the U.S.Copyright Office for a small fee. Moreover, registration allows you to recover additional damages (i.e., money) from individuals who infringe upon your copyright.  Upon (or before) disseminating your work to the public, it is a good idea to register it.  Most publishers will do this for you, but if you’ve used a small press that hasn’t, or you’ve epublished, you should consider registering your works online at http://www.copyright.gov.  At the time of the writing of this post, an online registration of a basic claim costs $35.00.

So what is Trademark, then? Do I need a trademark too?

Trademark is federal protection that extends to words, names, symbols or slogans used commercially to identify and distinguish goods or services. For most writers who are unpublished, or who are published and not “branded” (i.e., you have a wide readership and people want to buy t-shirts with your character’s names on them), the answer is no.  Trademark has its place, but it is not to protect entire works of authorship, like poems or novels, but to protect words and phrases on the business end of things. For the most part, unless you reach rock-star levels of fandom, trademark is not something you’ll need to give much thought to.

The “Idea” Myth.

No copyright post would be complete without a section devoted to debunking the common myth that you can sue someone for stealing your ideas. “But I thought of writing a book about a boy who goes to wizarding school first!!” you say.  Ahem..sorry, but this won’t fly.  Copyright applies to the way you’ve put the words on paper, and to the story you’ve told, as you’ve pieced it together.  It does not cover the ideas or concepts behind it.

I hope this has been a helpful post!  Any thoughts?  I’d love to hear them in the comments.  :)

 Note: This blog post is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for legal counsel. If you are unsure about whether you need to register a copyright or trademark for your work, you should seek the opinion of an intellectual property attorney who can discuss the details of your particular situation and give you personalized legal counsel.

UPDATE:  I thought an update was necessary to explain a querying faux pas.  When querying agents, never tell them your work is copyrighted.  They know that, because copyright is automatic, and it’s offensive, because it suggests you don’t trust them.  Agents do NOT want to steal your work, they want to find a manuscript they love.  Likewise, if you have decided to register your work, that is also information that does not belong in a query letter. 

On another unrelated note, Janet Reid pointed out a concern this week that writers might be being scammed by individuals or businesses claiming to register copyrights and providing false registration numbers.  If you decide to register any of your works of authorship, please do so with the U.S. Copyright Office directly, via the government website I listed above, or go through a licensed attorney. 

David who?  I hadn’t heard of him either.  Which really surprises me.

Or perhaps you ALL have heard of him and I’ve been living under a rock for the past decade.  This is an equally likely scenario.  ;)

So, my blogging bud Lauren Waters posted about a tragic accident a week or so ago involving Farland’s son and encouraged her readers to buy one of Farland’s books on Amazon to help support the cause.  Farland’s sixteen-year-old son Ben was comatose after having sustained severe head-injuries in a long-boarding accident.

In support of the cause, I looked up Mr. Farland on Amazon and purchased his book, Million Dollar Outlines.

I was shocked when I read (before I even cracked the e-pages of the Kindle book I purchased), that Farland taught numerous well-known writers…BEFORE they became famous.  His past students read like a laundry-list of who’s-who: Brandon Sanderson of the Mistborn and Wheel of Time series, Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight series, Brandon Mull of the Fablehaven series.  I could go on…

I was intrigued.

Ultimately, Farland’s book, Million Dollar Outlines was a worthy craft read. Farland has a background in the film industry, and in greenlighting, so he had some interesting takes on audience and what makes a story sell.  The overarching theme of the first half of the book is to (1) know your audience, (2) know what they want, and (3) deliver it to them.

I could go on at length about the book, but to keep the post small and chewable (and to encourage you to buy Farland’s book –both for the value to you as a writer and to support a fellow writer in need), I will give you a brief example I found useful and relevant.

Today’s writerly subject?  Interactive Settings

Farland instructs that in every scene, “the setting should impinge upon the character’s senses.”

For example, if you have two characters walking in the woods, ask yourself how the setting you’ve placed them in might impinge upon them. When you ask yourself this question, remember to think about all the senses, and even imagine the setting as presenting physical or emotional obstacles.

Aurally, you might have your forest-walking characters be startled by a twig snapping, or a branch falling. Or perhaps the wind is howling through the trees.

Visually, perhaps the sun is dappling through the canopy overhead, playing patterns over the trail, or an unusually thick fog is obscuring their sight in the forest.

Olfactory? Perhaps the smell of a campfire burning comes to them on the wind, or a particularly pungent weed is overpowering at this time of year?

Using the sense of touch, perhaps you could explore the velvet like texture of moss covering a tree, or the characters could become chilled as a storm blows in.

Finally, as far as using setting to present actual physical obstacles, the characters might have to struggle over a fallen tree, wade through a bog, etc.

While many of these ideas seem obvious upon discussion, Farland points out that far too many authors place their characters in an uninteractive setting and fail to make use of the senses to bring it alive.  Yes, you too (*cough*) have probably been guilty of placing two characters in a kitchen or other interior room, failing to have the scene impinge upon the characters in any way.  Too often, I think it is easy to become so involved in what’s going on with your characters, and the story’s central conflict, that the setting can (pun intended) fade into the background.

This is definitely something I will try to deepen in revisions of my WIP and my recent MG novel.

Wishing you all many interactive settings!  Do you have any tips for how to bring setting alive?

*To find out more about Farland’s son Ben, his condition, and how you can help support the cause, click here.

Ah, achieving clarity.

It has a nice ring, doesn’t it?  No, I’m not talking about some zenlike state approaching Nirvana.  I’m talking about achieving clarity in writing.

I’m in the throes of editing this week and one of the things I’m looking for at this stage is wordiness.

Excess.

Fat.

I am cutting out the waste.

Come to think of it, perhaps it is a little zen-like.  In the spirit of clearing away the baggage that mucks up my prose, I thought I’d share some tips for achieving clarity with you this week.

Watch out for weak construction and passive voice

Not only does it suck the punch out of your prose, it takes a up a lot more words too!

Example:

Patty was thinking about decluttering

Patty thought about decluttering

Perform a “that”ectomy on your manuscript

You will find, upon using the search tool for “that” in your manuscript, that many (perhaps upwards of 50%) of the “that”s in your manuscript are unnecessary and just add extra weight to your sentences.

Example:

He assumed that they were hidden.

He assumed they were hidden.

He saw, she saw; He knew, and she could tell.

When you see sentences or parts of sentences with these words, you are probably trying to keep in 3rd person limited, and at times beginnings like this are necessary, but take a close look at situations where you can simply state what was happening without filtering it through the lens of your point of view character.

Example:

He knew they made no noise.

They made no noise.

Extra words that convey something implicit in a character’s action

Many times we overdescribe simple actions, adding in words that do nothing to further the reader’s understanding.  The following two examples were things I found in my own manuscript during revisions…

Example:

The boy wrinkled his nose and squinted his eyes at Jane.

The boy wrinkled his nose and squinted at Jane.

Obviously, one can only squint with one’s eyes, so the “his eyes” in the first sentence was completely unnecessary.

Example 2:

He peered into the street with a scowl on his face.

He peered into the street with a scowl.

Again, I don’t think the scowl is on his bum, folks.  It’s on his face.  This is implicit.

Short paragraphing and shortening sentences where possible

I don’t have a hard and fast rule for this one, such as when and where you should do this, but I think it is especially important when writing for children and teens, or even for the modern adult for that matter, to keep the prose in chewable chunks.  This achieves clarity on a macro scale, ensuring the reader isn’t bogged down by long, heavy sentences and page-long paragraphs.  A succession of long sentences not broken up with short ones, or shorter paragraphing, tends to feel heavy and slow.  See how dense this paragraph was?  You’re already bored, aren’t you?

Case in point.  (See how nice this one sentence paragraph is after the long one above?)

Best of luck to you all in achieving clarity this week.  Do you have any tips that help you pare down the wordiness?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments!