Karen Sandler

Tag: awakening

  • Best Book in December

    I completely forgot about YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday this morning. Today’s topic was What was the best book you read in December? Since it’s so late, I was tempted to just give RTW a pass this week, but I just finished a phenomenal book and I’ve been itching to give it a mention.

    Before I get to the title, there were some things I was pondering about highly recommended books. Such as, I sometimes pick up a book that lots of people rave about and for me it turns out to be kind of ho-hum. I don’t much like the characters or the plot drags for me. Other times I read a book (The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater comes to mind) that I just swoon over, but other people didn’t much get into it.

    Then there are those books that I know will be a bit of an emotional roller coaster so I’m hesitant to buy them. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a good example of that. But I did put on my Big Girl Panties and read TFIOS and despite the gushing tears that blurred the words sometimes, I loved-loved-loved it.

    WonderMy fave book for December falls into this latter category. I’ve seen many recommendations for R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, but it seemed like it would be an emotionally hard book to read. But I went ahead and bought it a few days after Christmas, and wow! It was fabulous.

    The characters were fantastic (especially Auggie, the main character) and the uplifting plot was just a joy to read. It was one of those impossible to put down books that I kept thinking about even when I wasn’t reading it. Truly, the ideal holiday read. I can’t recommend it enough.

    So, what have you been reading during the holidays?

  • Who Are You (woot-woot)?

    Tankborn smlThis week, YA Highway asks the questions How do you decide on names? Would you ever name a character after a friend/family member/ex?

    Back when I was writing romances, I wanted everyday names for my characters. So I kept a baby names book near my computer. I’d flip through it for my hero’s or heroine’s name, looking for one that seemed to match the character’s personality. When I found the right name, a little bell would go off inside me. I could see the character that much more clearly.

    When I started writing the Tankborn series, I couldn’t use a baby name book anymore. The Tankborn trilogy is set hundreds of years in the future. To set the tone for the world, the names needed to be a little more exotic than what’s on offer in the naming books. Also, I had a multi-ethnic cast and I needed names that would suit them. So I had to rely on the Web, and sites that listed, for instance, Brahmin or Chinese or Zimbabwe given names and their meanings. Here’s one of my fave sites for finding international names.

    Kayla, the name of my main character in Tankborn, isn’t super unusual. At least it isn’t now. When I first came up with it, back when I was writing the movie script that later became Tankborn, I thought I’d made up the name Kayla. Not so much.

    When I wrote the first book, I did make up some of the names of other characters: Tala, Jal, Tanti, Quila. In real life, people make up names all the time for their children, why wouldn’t they in my future world? I used made up names mostly for GENs, sometimes for lowborns. And just as with Kayla, sometimes the names I thought were made up, that originated with me, were actually “real” names (Pia and Risa come to mind).

    For my trueborns, I used real names of various ethnicities. There’s Devak (Indian), my main male character, Devak’s friend, Junjie (Chinese), Devak’s father and mother, Ved (Indian) and Rasia, (Indian). Raashida (African), is an important character in Awakening, the upcoming follow-on to Tankborn.

    Do I ever use the names of real people in my books? Yes, although I don’t match the character to the real person. I just “borrow” the real name because I like it and it works for my book. I borrowed Zul (Devak’s great-grandfather) and Azad (Devak’s dead half-brother) from people I actually know.

    How about you? If you write, how do you come up with those character names? If you’re a reader, have you ever stumbled across a name that didn’t seem to fit the character, or a name that was absolutely perfect?

  • I Love You, You’re Perfect…Now I’m Gonna Revise You

    rewriting_265x265This week, with November and NaNoWriMo in the rear view mirror, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, How do you approach editing/revising?

    So, here’s the first most important thing about revising. You should write your draft knowing that you not only don’t have to get it perfect the first time through, you’re not expected to get it perfect. That’s one thing about NaNoWriMo that’s pretty great. The demand is so enormous (having to average close to 1700 words a day, every single day of November), you can’t possibly revise as you go. You just have to barrel ahead, getting the words down. But you have that freedom every time you write. You can always fix it later.

    Here’s the second most important thing–nothing that you’ve written is sacred. Nothing. Nothing. Every chapter, scene, paragraph, word, even character must be subservient to the story. If something doesn’t work, even if it worked at first, but in the course of revising is no longer relevant, that beautiful chapter, scene, paragraph, word, or character must go. And you must be ruthless in cutting out that dead weight.

    Here’s the third most important thing about revising. You must approach your revisions as if you were the editor rather than the writer of the book. You must go in there looking for trouble, not expecting a masterpiece. And you should never take it personally. Even the best manuscripts go wrong sometimes.

    Now that we’ve got those three basic musts down, here are a few other things I’ve learned over the course of writing and revising 20+ books.

    1. Give it a rest. After you’ve finished your manuscript, give yourself some time so you can return to it with a fresher eye. How much time? I personally don’t like to go longer than a week, and it’s usually just a few days. But you might need a couple weeks or even a month.
    2. Give it a read and think story as you go. Are the story questions answered? Are all the setups paid off? Is there extraneous material that doesn’t move the story forward? Are there characters who don’t pull their weight? This is where your major revising will be happening, where your bigger problems are solved.
    3. Give it another read and look at characters and details. Are your characters’ actions & dialogue consistent for them? Have you introduced word or phrasing repetitions in the course of your first big revision? Ditto for typos?
    4. Give it a final read. Are there any parts that just don’t flow? Awkward phrasing, expository dialogue, settings that are either overly detailed or not detailed enough? Anything confusing that you think a reader might stumble over or have a problem following?
    5. Let someone else give it a read. If you have a critique group or a beta reader, preferably someone who has never heard about the story, ask them to read it. It has to be someone whose opinion you completely respect and trust. And you have to be open-minded about their feedback.
    6. As needed, give the manuscript one last revision based on reader feedback.

    So is it a hard and fast rule that you must give your book three (and only three, no more, no less) readthroughs? No. But is it necessary to pay attention to all of the above elements while revising? I’d say yeah. If you can do that with one pass through the book, that’s great. As long as you’re reading with an editors eye, and are brutally honest with yourself about what’s working and what’s not.

    Happy revising!

  • Lee Child is a Pantser (and So Can You!)

    Lee Child 11-29-12The other night, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a talk by mega bestselling thriller author Lee Child. He is funny, charming, and down-to-earth, not at all the prima donna stereotype of an internationally successful writer. Even in the face of reader controversy (and these were some passionate readers in the audience of about 650) Child stood his ground, explaining why in the upcoming film, Jack Reacher, his main character, standing six-foot-five and weighing in at 250 pounds, will be played by Tom Cruise, who stands a tad shorter and is a wee bit lighter weight. (Short answer–there aren’t too many actors who can “open” a movie and none of the ones who can are of Jack Reacher’s physical stature).

    One of the best parts of the talk was when Child described his working style as a writer. He’s not a morning person. He’s up by around 10:30am and doesn’t start working until about noon. He tends to write for 4-5 hours, then the well is pretty much dry. (Side note: My husband was there, and I was glad he heard this. Because my experience is similar in that I have a limit after which I just have to walk away from the book).

    It takes Child about 90 days like that to finish a book. I’m going to guess his books are at least 120,000 words long, which means he’s writing close to 1500 words/day. That’s a hard pace to keep up. Could be even more words if that 90 days counts editing time.

    One tidbit I found especially interesting about Child’s method is that he does not outline his books. At all. He wants to have the same experience as an author (gee, I wonder what’s going to happen next?) as a reader does. This is utterly amazing. He writes big, complex books, and I’ve never seen anything in them that seems out of place or extraneous. To write all that off the cuff is awe-inspiring.

    http://leechild.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/A-Wanted-Man-News-320-FR.pngAfter the talk, I had an even more delightful opportunity–to exchange a few words with Child. I’d bought two of his books at the event, the newest Reacher novel, A Wanted Man, which came pre-signed, and a backstory book, The Affair, which wasn’t signed. So I stood in line with hundreds of other equally excited fans wondering if I would just stand there squeeing like a fangirl, or if I would be able to say something coherent.

    I’m glad to say I was mostly coherent. I said to him, “So, you’re a pantser,” and he confessed he was. I then told him that I was a total plotter, my very unsubtle way of announcing that I was also a writer. He asked my name, asked me what I wrote, I told him young adult, and squeezed in that I’d just sold two mysteries to Angry Robot’s new Exhibit A imprint. His assistant (publicist?) said, “Oh, we’ve heard really good things about them,” and I was totally chuffed. I moved on, not wanting to monopolize his time any more than I had.

    Very fab night. But here’s the grand revelation I experienced. Yes, I’m a plotter before I start writing. I’ve got a 21-page synopsis of Revolution, the third Tankborn book. But when I’m writing, an entirely different process takes over. I almost never look at that synopsis. I get brilliant inspirations. I have someone come into a room and have no idea why they’re there, and they’re looking for something, and I have no clue why that thing even matters. But then something clicks, that pantsing moment, and I realize this seemingly mundane scene I’ve written is a set up for something wonderful later on down the line. Something very important to the story.

    So, by God, I am a pantser. And I’m glad to tell the world.

  • Best Book in November – RTW

    It’s the last Wednesday in November and YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What’s the best book you read in November?

    I have been reading Old School for all of November, and part of October as well, reading paper books rather than using my Kindle. In October, I bought a whole pile of books by one of my fave science fiction/fantasy authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, from one of our local UBSs (Used Book Store). I’ve been making my way through those books ever since.

    A side note: I do love finding books I want to read in USBs. I like the idea of supporting a local business. But I feel a little guilty when I do that because I know the author doesn’t get her share when I buy her book used. Not to say you should never buy books used. Just be aware of that fact when you do.

    So, among my LMB purchases was a three-fer titled Miles, Mutants & Microbes. LMB has published so many books in the Miles Vorkosigan universe that her publisher has gone back and repackaged a number of them together in various volumes. Miles, Mutants & Microbes includes the novels Falling Free and Diplomatic Immunity sandwiching the novella Labyrinth.

    Of the three, Falling Free was definitely my November best book. Falling Free takes place a couple hundred years before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, the featured player in most of the Vorkosigan Saga books. In Falling Free, we’re introduced to the quaddies, genetically engineered humans designed to live in freefall. Their bodies thrive without gravity (where normal humans would lose muscle mass and therefore bone density). And they’re able to navigate a living environment in freefall because in place of legs, they have an extra pair of arms. Hence the quaddie designation.

    It’s a very cool story with a triumphant ending. Reading LMB’s later books that feature quaddie characters is all the more fun because we know their origin story.

    If you haven’t checked out any of Lois McMaster Bujold’s books, I highly recommend her. She writes both excellent science fiction and fantasy. And I’m quite thrilled that she will be the Guest of Honor at BayCon in San Francisco, which I will be attending in May.

    So how about you? What have you been reading this month?