B. Jeanne Boyko » Holly Lisle

So, What’s Your Book About?

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:21:53 +0000

Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again and spent some time writing a new "one sentence summary" of my first Nanonovel, Gift of the Ancients.

I had a one sentence summary for the story before I wrote it, but Holly Lisle's way of going about it is different than Randy Ingermanson's (I used his Snowflake method to plan the novel in the last ten days of October 2007). As usual, at first I resisted changing a pre-learned method, but I have to say I'm very pleased with the results. The new summary brings the story to life better. As I work on more things in coming weeks some things in the sentence may change, but overall I think we have a winner.

The purpose of a one sentence summary is a marketing tool. It's a fast but complete response to the question "So what is your book about?" and is your first line of attack in trying to interest an editor. It's important, and not easy to do. My original one sentence was:

Forbidden friends must reach and activate an ancient weapon to save their land from invasion.

Ingermanson recommends a 15-17 word limit to keep your sound-bite short. It's accurate, but doesn't hook the way I wanted it to.

In How To Revise Your Novel, Holly Lisle allows for 30 words, but advises including your Protag, Antag, Plot, Setting and Twist and breaks down just how to do it. The new sentence is:

A strong-willed troublemaker secretly discovers Ancient technology and must use it to protect low-tech Ympyra from powerful invaders, but an enemy becomes a friend and nothing works out like she thought.

The twist needs some work, but this is by far the stronger sentence. Anyone agree?

Share/Save

Getting To Know All About You Filling in Character information in the research section of Scrivener. Came up with another interesting...
Oh, I guess he dies now. Had an unexpected plot twist that really helped motivation for a planned event. Thank goodness...
We have a Winner! Thank you, thank you. I’d like to thank the academy.… Just kidding. But today I...

Begin again

B. Jeanne Boyko — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:18:31 +0000

So this week I have made the time to prepare a new undertaking. I got further in revising my novel Phoenix and the Vulture than the progress bar currently indicates (will fix that soon), and then got blindsided by other commitments.

Lesson learned? Don't make other commitments!

The new goal is to go back to my first Nanonovel, Gift of the Ancients and give it a final revision.

This is a manuscript I've already spent at least a year working on since it was written. I've made may improvements, but there were still some things I knew needed fixing, just couldn't properly define.

Going through How To Revise Your Novel will give me the tools, as it says, to "Get the novel I want from the novel I have." I meant to cut my teeth on this course with Phoenix and the Vulture, but only made it so far. There is a time factor for getting Gift done, which helps me to focus, so I'm really looking forward to this. Deadlines are my friend.

Watch for progress reports, which will include actually submitting the manuscript to an editor. It's time for this Work In Progress to get to work!

Share/Save

I’m Baaack! After a much needed hiatus during December, I’ve begun my new Holly Lisle course, “How...
On the Threshold And here I am, within sight of the Nano finish line. I still have some...
So, What’s Your Book About? Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again...

Promises, promises…

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:50:17 +0000

...is the title of lesson two in How To Revise Your Novel, and it's so interesting.

The basic issue is that whatever we spend a lot of words on leads the reader to believe that this item or person is important. If you've plotted first, you will plan to do this for your main characters and items, but in the course of actual writing sometimes things of no significance at all somehow leap off the page, and when it turns out to serve no purpose, makes the reader feel cheated.

Not good.

So I am four chapters into discovering all the places I didn't mean to 'lead the reader on', and filling in worksheets accordingly. Happily, having worked from good plot cards, I'm not coming across too many over-described bits, but it's still time consuming. It's so interesting to go over the whole thing with a fine comb again though, and pay attention to these kinds of details.

So I'm not terribly far along, but the process is under way. I hope to get a lot more done this weekend on my LOOONG bus ride, at least once we hit the prairies and it's a smoother ride.

Share/Save

Promises promises, take two Despite having all my children home today, I got the organisational end figured out for...
Getting To Know All About You Filling in Character information in the research section of Scrivener. Came up with another interesting...
Less is more? Today I covered less ground in my manuscript than I would have liked, getting through...

One down! Woot!

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:16:54 +0000

Well, it was fairly grueling but certainly educational to do a first critical read-through of my Nanonovel while taking extensive notes. I managed it in two days, and I'm looking forward to fixing the messy bits.

The good news is there are still lots of things that I love, and hopefully that will encompass all of the book by the end of this course.

And of course I always get a thrill just from watching the progress widget advance.

Share/Save

Making something good even better I made good headway in understanding the method to be used as I begin my...
So, What’s Your Book About? Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again...
Begin again So this week I have made the time to prepare a new undertaking. I got...

Ah, progress!

B. Jeanne Boyko — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:28:38 +0000

So this Saturday is turning out like I'd intended the last one to. I've made it through a big portion of my novel going through the first lesson of Holly Lisle's "How To Revise Your Novel" and it's good to look the difficult bits in the face. There really aren't that many. It will take effort to fix them, but it's completely within my ability to do, especially with Holly teaching me how to fix the problems I find.

I'm close to half way done, hoping to accomplish more this evening. It will be nice to show some progress on the progress bar.

Share/Save

In Preparation of Progress This week I was able to read through my 2nd lesson and the demo that...
So, What’s Your Book About? Recovering from a week away for a family wedding, I pulled out Lesson Four again...

Slow start

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:07:20 +0000

I knew I would be writing only on M-W-F until other commitments are complete. The first assignment is so intense (described by its creator as the hardest) that picking at it bit by bit isn’t working too well. I think I will focus on understanding the process as well as I can, and devote several hours together on Saturday to just immersing myself in it and getting it done.

Looking forward to Saturday!

Share/Save

No related posts.

We have a Winner!

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:40:10 +0000

Thank you, thank you. I'd like to thank the academy....

Just kidding. But today I completed my 50 000 words for Nanowrimo this year, and a few hundred words after that I finished the actual story, very rough first draft.

Phew!

I am hoping to get in on Holly Lisle's new class, How To Revise Your Novel (which this one will surely need) right away, but if the class fills too soon, I think I'll be content to go back to learning more plot techniques and other goodies from my still unfinished courses. Yes, I am a quick start and I'll leave one thing for another that's shinier, only to return to the first thing at a different time. Keeps life interesting, and it's all the more reason to be proud that I kept the pace up for the whole month of November.

Go me!

Share/Save

Rolling Along I seem to be rolling along racking up the Nano-numbers fairly smoothly. Today I did...
All Set and Ready To Go I’m getting so excited to start writing on Sunday! Today I finished entering all my...
Weekly Tweets for 2009-11-01 New: : Scrivener http://b.jeanneboyko.com/2009/scrivener/ # @Brandilyn http://pic.gd/22a132 Wow, that’s got to be inspiring! # @NaNoWriMo...

All Set and Ready To Go

B. Jeanne Boyko — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:39:55 +0000

I'm getting so excited to start writing on Sunday!

Today I finished entering all my 'organic' and 'planned' conflict (see Holly Lisle's HtTS course) into the notes section of the scenes where they will go. Again I'm grateful for the work on conflict I've been doing in HL's Scenes course as well. I found more places to expand on Interpersonal conflict, more layers to add to the story. Understand that my last Nanonovel, which was under planned, had a great big picture story arch that went really well, but was basically just hitting plot points. The kind of lower-level conflict that I'm adding to the big picture here is going to allow for a lot more character and culture exposition to happen naturally, while moving the story forward, and hopefully require a lot less revision. It is satisfying and inspiring to see the difference and know that if I continue to work, I will continue to improve.

Tomorrow I will not be writing. I will be preparing for many of my family's basic needs to be met while I am in the throes of Nanowrimo and a few other big projects. I'll check in again on Sunday, after our first Write-In with the local folks who are writing novels this month.

Share/Save

Today’s Efforts Today I spent much of the morning in writing related activities. In my Scenes course,...
Getting To Know All About You Filling in Character information in the research section of Scrivener. Came up with another interesting...
Writing Diary Working on Holly Lisle’s How to Write Page-Turning Scenes. Really impressed by what the exercises...

Getting To Know All About You

B. Jeanne Boyko — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:40:16 +0000

Filling in Character information in the research section of Scrivener. Came up with another interesting connection between two characters and a cool plot twist in the process. Better motivation is just better for the story. The plot section of the Holly Lisle Scenes course I've been working on helped me to see where I could lead the reader to assume a certain outcome, then turn it around in a surprising and hopefully satisfying way. I also saw a good place to use Omniscient Conflict to help spread the bread crumbs that keep readers turning pages.

Hopefully there will be many more "Oh! It would be so much better if I..." moments when the real writing starts in just a few days.

Share/Save

All Set and Ready To Go I’m getting so excited to start writing on Sunday! Today I finished entering all my...
Writing Diary Working on Holly Lisle’s How to Write Page-Turning Scenes. Really impressed by what the exercises...
Plugging in the Information Sooo impressed with Scrivener! I’ve got my 16 plot cards entered along with special notes...

Today’s Efforts

B. Jeanne Boyko — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:13:56 +0000

Today I spent much of the morning in writing related activities. In my Scenes course, I wrote about an External Conflict and two characters, one on either side of the conflict. Then I wrote some scene ideas for a WIP for an exercise in Storytelling. I spent time reading ahead in the course as well, and also Holly Lisle's Plotting Under Pressure webpage. It sounds like a lot of fun to do cold.

I am suspecting that I really need to get a grip on my Nanowrimo project. I have all the plotting cards from six months ago, which is great, but need to refresh all the awesome character and worldbuilding work I did before so it's fresh for when writing really begins. As I continue to set up my office today I intend to gather these notes and have them readily accessible. Onward!

Share/Save

Plugging in the Information Sooo impressed with Scrivener! I’ve got my 16 plot cards entered along with special notes...
All Set and Ready To Go I’m getting so excited to start writing on Sunday! Today I finished entering all my...
Writing Diary Working on Holly Lisle’s How to Write Page-Turning Scenes. Really impressed by what the exercises...