Must Do List by C. Lee McKenzie

I'm thrilled to have C. Lee Mckenzie here as my guest today. She's going to share four things she's feels are necessary for those terrific books she writes. Don't forget to stop by her blog, TheWriteGame where you'll always find an interesting post and follow her on Twitter

Since I started writing, I’ve collected a few “Must Do’s from the Get-Go.” Here’s some I have on my list:

  

1) My first scene must pull my reader into the story.

I think I started three stories with people traveling to a destination, staring into a mirror, studying. Why? Who knows? But now I really try to have them at their destinations, already in trouble or about to be in trouble. They never stare into the mirror.  :-(

2) At the start I must create questions the reader wants answered.

This is my favorite first line, but I haven’t written the story for it yet.

“The first thing she did was hide the knife.”

Like it?

3) Right away, the reader has to know a lot about my MC, and want to know more. In Sudden Secrets here’s one place I tried to give the reader some insight into my MC’s problem.

“Mom was desperate to move. I was desperate to move, too, but not here. All I saw was a spooky, dangerous place.”

4) The last line of chapter one must pull the reader into chapter two.

Here’s the one from Sudden Secrets.

“As we pulled away, I glanced out. A shadow flickered across the upstairs window of the vacant house. It was only a split second, but somebody moved inside that place. I was sure of it.

Those are my most important Must Do’s. What are yours? I always like adding to my list.

 Sudden Secrets

 one Secret

            Cleo has struggled to heal after her baby sister’s death, but the flashbacks to the accident won’t go away. With the move, she vows to keep her tragedy a secret and avoid pitying looks.

one Mystery

Something’s strange about the abandoned house across the street—flashes of light late at night and small flickers of movement that only someone looking for them would see.

Everyone says the house is deserted, but Cleo is sure it isn’t, and she’s sure whoever is inside is watching her.

another Secret

In one night, Belleza’s life changes forever. So famous, her only choice is to hide her secret from the world so she can silence small town bigotry.

Then Cleo happens.

KINDLE

PRINT

EVERNIGHT TEEN

All Lee's Books

Thanks for visiting, Lee. What do you think of her list? What would you add? Don't you love that name, Belleza? 

January Black by Wendy Russo

I'm very pleased to feature a new release by fellow Crescent Moon Press author, Wendy Russo. Here's a little about her.

Wendy S. Russo got her start writing in the sixth grade. That story involved a talisman with crystals that had to be found and assembled before bad things happened, and dialog that read like classroom roll call. Since then, she’s majored in journalism (for one semester), published poetry, taken a course on short novels, and watched most everything ever filmed by Quentin Tarantino. A Wyoming native transplanted in Baton Rouge, Wendy works for Louisiana State University as an IT analyst. She’s a wife, a mom, a Tiger, a Who Dat, and she falls asleep on her couch at 8:30 on weeknights.

January Black is a YA.  You can check out her blog and website here. She's running a terrific giveaway and Wendy is just an interesting person to meet.

Here's a short blurb for January Black:

 

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old genius Matty Ducayn has never fit in on The Hill, an ordered place seriously lacking a sense of humor. After his school’s headmaster expels him for a small act of mischief, Matty’s future looks grim until King Hadrian comes to his rescue with a challenge: answer a question for a master’s diploma.

More than a second chance, this means freedom. Masters can choose where they work, a rarity among Regents, and the question is simple.

What was January Black?

It’s a ship. Everyone knows that. Hadrian rejects that answer, though, and Matty becomes compelled by curiosity and pride to solve the puzzle. When his search for an answer turns up long-buried state secrets, Matty’s journey becomes a collision course with a deadly royal decree. He’s been set up to fail, which forces him to choose. Run for his life with the challenge lost…or call the king’s bluff.

 

Does Wendy's book have a cool title or what? What do you think January Black was? Have you visited Wendy's site?

Maria V. Snyder, Author and Instructor

As I start writing the first book in my third YA series, I'm constantly referring to the notes I've taken at Maria's workshops. I've been fortunate enough to hear her speak a number of times and most recently saw her at the Pennwriters Conference in May.

Maria V. Snyder is not only a well-known successful novelist, she’s an excellent educator and presenter. I’ve heard Maria’s presentations before at my local RWA’s meeting. She’s very generous with sharing her expertise. You can visit her website and find links to outlines of her workshops.


Maria’s two bestseller series are the ‘Study Books’ which were first released as fantasy and have now been promoted as YA fantasy. The ‘Glass Books’ are her second series and came out as YA fantasy and are set in the same world at her ‘Study’ series. Her newest release, Inside Out, is a futuristic YA novel. All her books have some things in common.

First is her intricate but not overly complex world building. In her fantasy novels there is of course magic in her worlds and many things unlike from our world but not so radically different to be confusing. Maria gives a list of dozens of questions that you must ask yourself about your fantasy world before you write it. Animals, weather, education, medicines, government, physical features, clothing and add to those how magic works and how it affects the world and the story. Then you must decide how you’ll introduce all the answers to those questions in your novel. Of course you don’t want to commit the sin of info-dump in the first chapter but you need to work it all in so the novel makes sense to the reader.

A few other tidbits Maria passed along had to do with language in your created world. She emphasizes readers don’t like to be confused so don’t make up a lot of new words. Call chocolate, chocolate. Avoid unpronounceable names for people, places or objects.

The other part of Maria’s presentation at the Pennwriters Conference was her ‘Show vs Tell’ presentation. You can read some of the examples she gives on her website. She also rolled a lesson about writing in scenes as part of this session. She explained scenes as mini-novels that must have a beginning, a middle and an end. They must start with a hook to engage the reader so they want to keep reading. If you’ve read her novels you know she does this very well because it’s very difficult to put any of her books down.

Maria also shared some scenes from her books to demonstrate how to use all the senses in a scene to draw the reader into the fantasy. Don’t rely alone on sight and sound but use smell, tastes and textures to give the created images more depth.

If you ever have a chance to hear Maria speak, you’ll walk away with at least one if not dozens of new ideas and thoughts on how to improve your writing. Visit her website to learn even more.

Have you ever read a novel with exceptional world building? Have you ever put a novel down because the names or worlds were so confusing?