A girl who CAN say no?

My father recently called me a workaholic. Neither he nor I consider it an insult. In fact, I think it's such a compliment that, at the time, I started to correct him, to say that he must not be reading this blog closely enough because anyone who is as fully up on as many TV shows as I am could not possibly be considered a workaholic.

But then I got to thinking...

I do have a "dayjob".

And I will have three books published in eleven months.

And I do travel a couple of times a month doing out-of-state speaking/consultng jobs.

Oh my gosh, I realized. I am a workaholic!

This is news--big news! Have I always been like this? Yes. I think I have!

Well, the insanity has to stop. I'm still going to be a workaholic, mind you, but a more focused one, so that's why I'm officially going to start turning down consulting jobs.

I know! GASP! The mere act of typing that was actually hard for me.

People are going to call and offer me money to come to their business or organization for a few days and I'M GOING TO SAY NO!!!

I can't believe it. Seriously. (And if you're doubting my freaked-out-ed-ness, you should just talk to the adorable Jennifer Lynn Barnes who had to listen to me ramble on about this last week at On The Border when we should have spent that time stalking people at the Barnes and Noble across the street and watching them buy her brand new book, Golden.)

I'm going to turn down work! Walk away. Say, "thanks but no thanks." I can't even believe it. It's almost like that episode of Buffy after The Council has fired Giles as Buffy's watcher and Willow just keeps saying, "Giles was fired....he's unemployed...he's between jobs."

Well, I'm not between jobs (still got two), but I'm walking away from the third.

Oh, I need to go lie down (which maybe I can now that I'm not going to be losing my luggage and traveling two days to speak for thirty minutes anymore.)

-Ally, the almost underemployed.

Harry Potter and the convoluted MacGuffin

I'm an audiobook junkie--I admit it. Never leave home without one, in fact. And lately I've been working my way back through the Harry Potter series. Sure I've read these books multiple times, but listening is a new way of enjoying them for me, and they're great in the car.

Well, I'm about to finish Goblet of Fire (SPOILER ALERT) and I can no longer stay quiet about something that has been bothering me for ages: there's no need for Harry to be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Now, I love JK Rowling, and I worship her talent, and drool over her creative powers. You won't find many bigger fans, so that's why I have to wonder why Barty Crouch, Jr./fake-Mad Eye Moody would go to all the trouble of getting Harry into the tournament and helping him reach the cup first if the goal is to transport him to Voldermort via a portkey.

Can't anything be a portkey? There must have been hundreds of times that the fake Mr. Moody could have summoned Harry to his office, said, "Pass me that quill, will you Potter?" and achieved the exact same end result.

But for the author and the readers that would have been less dramatic.

Still, for the characters it would have been far more practical.

Maybe I'm wrong. Can anyone tell me what bonus was achieved by making the TriWizard Cup the portkey?

Waiting on book 7,
Ally

ps....I'm not Harry Potter-bashing--I swear!

New baby is here!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that my new niece arrived safe-and-sound yesterday. Both mother and daughter are doing very well. (It remains to be seen how big sister is going to do.)

For the meantime, though, big sister doesn't mind too much because she has a new game. Running.

Here's how you play:

Step one (optional, but preferred): take off all clothes (which makes this an ideal pre and post bathtime game)

Step two: run around in circles counter-clockwise. If you try to run clockwise then you should get REALLY confused and start crying.

Step three: yell "Aunt Ally run, too!"

Step four: if Aunt Ally refuses to run, start crying.

Step five: fall down and yell "Aunt Ally fall down too!" (repeat crying process if necessary.)

Step six: Get to feet again and yell "Aunt Ally get up!"

Step seven: Repeat until Aunt Ally is so sore and dizzy she almost throws up on the new Pottery Barn Kids rug.

Try it at home. It's hours and hours of fun and guaranteed to get you as much exercise as a high school football team doing two-a-days.

Have a great week, everybody. And thanks for all your kind wishes and prayers for the baby's safe arrival.

later,
(Aunt) Ally, the (fully-clothed) runner/faller-downer/getter-upper

No, I'm not missing

If I'm gone a lot this week, don't worry. Please don't contact the FBI's missing persons unit to track me down (unless, of course, the guys from Without A Trace will be tasked with finding me--in that case, call away.)

Also, please don't think I've given up writing in order to pursue my lifelong dream of being a color-namer for paint companies like Sherwin-Williams.

And don't be concerned that I've taken my Dennis Lehane obsession to such a level that I've actually gone to Boston to stalk him (why would I do that when I know he's going to be in Tulsa in September?)

And no, I haven't gone to track down the Miss Universe people and ask WHY they let Santino be a judge, because doing so pretty much guaranteed that the chick in the hoochie-mamma dress was going to win.

And even though watching the Miss Universe Pageant did make me want to track down my old friend, Eduardo, that doesn't mean I've hopped a plane for Paraguay (but I did seriously think about it.)

No, none of these things are true. I'm not even going to be in Atlanta at the RWA convention with all the other cool kids.

Instead, I'm going to be writing by day and babysitting by night since my sister is going to be in the hospital having baby #2 and baby #1--despite being exceptionally intelligent--isn't quite up to staying by herself since she still needs help getting in and out of her crib and all.

So that's where I'll be--providing the heavy lifting.

Have a great week everyone!

Ally

how am I supposed to work now?

So much work.

So much.

So. So. Much.

But TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is coming on and it's probably the greatest film version of a book ever. And it's probably based on the greatest book ever.

How am I not supposed to watch it? Really. Tell me.

Of course, I don't really need to watch it since I know about every line. Some of my favorites are...


"I'm little but I'm old."

"There's a confederate pistol in her lap under her shawl, and she'll kill you quick as look at you."

"You look like a picture this afternoon." ... "He don't say a picture of what."

"There are some people in this world who are born to do our unpleasant deeds for us."

"I may not be much, Mr. Finch, but I'm still sheriff of Macomb County and Bob Ewell fell on his knife."

And of course...

"Miss Jean Louise, get up. Your father's passing."

How anyone could read that book and/or watch this movie and not fall in love with it I will never know. It takes my breath away each and every time.

And all this just reminds me why Atticus Finch is one of the men who sadly are fictional.

--Ally

Read it and Weep!

No, I'm not talking about my current work in progress (although some weeping is usually involved.)

I'm actually talking about the Disney Channel original movie based on Julia DeViller's very cool novel, HOW MY PRIVATE PERSONAL JOURNAL BECAME A BESTSELLER.

It's going to air on the Disney Channel tomorrow (Friday) night at 8 pm Eastern/ 7 pm Central time.

So watch the cool movie.

Then read the cool book!



Later,
Ally

If only I could do it justice...

There's so much I want to blog about.

...like how I just had a very tiring work trip where the airline lost my luggage so I had to make an emergency Target run for essentials. The low point was, after traveling for two full days to speak for thirty-five minutes, the rental car shuttle driver asked, “You got any luggage?” and I held the Target bag aloft and yelled, “This IS my luggage!”

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the low point was sitting through a farmer/comedian. That’s right. He farms. He tells jokes. He made me feel like Kathy Griffin fake smiling while judging Last Comic Standing. Only the jokes were John Deere related.

And I was wearing clothes I’d bought that morning at Target.

I also want to write about how there’s nothing quite as exhausting as a birthday party for two-year-olds when it’s 100 degrees out. And they’ve had cake and ice cream for breakfast.

Or I could write about how my cousin Abby thinks I was joking when I said I should hire her to be my personal assistant and her top jobs would be #1—organizing my extra bedroom which is now FULL of random empty boxes that I keep just in case I should ever have a package emergency. And job #2—reminding me to pay my bills online—something I’ve never forgotten to do but live in constant fear of neglecting.

And the final thing I want to blog about is (again) how cool my LEARNING TO PLAY GIN cover is and how I really hope everyone can come see me at the Barnes and Noble on 41^st Street in Tulsa on August 12^th at 2:00.

But I don’t have time to properly blog about any of it.

So I won’t.

Later,

Ally

Big news time!

I promised big news a few weeks (or maybe months) ago. Well, it’s here.

And hopefully worth the wait.

The cover of LEARNING TO PLAY GIN is here! Is it not beautiful?

So that’s cool news A. Do you see cool news B? Do you?

Yep. Those are cover blurbs from Johanna Edwards and NY Times Bestseller Carly Phillips!

I know Johanna, so while her quote was very cool to get, Carly’s came completely out of the blue.

One day I was checking email (and you know how rare that is) and I saw that I had a message… from Carly Phillips.

Cool. But I didn’t rush to read it because my first instinct—I mean my very first—was that I had probably signed up for Carly’s newsletter, so I didn't freak out...

And then I opened the message…

And it wasn’t a newsletter…

It was a fan letter…

For ME!

She’d read Cheating at Solitaire and loved it! That’s right, a NY Times Bestseller loved my book.

I rushed to tell my editor and agent, and immediately Kate the magnificent said that if we hurried we could probably get Carly's quote on the cover. Isn't it great?

And she’s not even related to me!

So that was the first cool thing that happened to Learning to Play Gin. I hope it bodes well for the future.

-Ally

PS....Mark your calendars: I'll be signing books with the uber-cool Jennifer Barnes, author of Golden, on August 12th at the Barnes and Noble on 41st Street in Tulsa, OK! Hope to see you there!

What I wish

I wish Tim Gunn from Project Runway would periodically walk past my computer, look at my manuscript, and say "Make it work."

I wish cookies and ice cream were good for you and steamed vegetables made you fat.

I wish life were like Tivo and you could pause it whenever you need to go to the bathroom.

I wish I had half the energy of the average two-year-old.

I wish people stopped acting like they're in high school after they get out of high school.

I wish Pirates of the Caribbean had been less about the monsters and more about the people we actually care about.

I wish blogging was the same thing as writing--but it isn't--so I might not be around as much in the next few weeks because Gallagher Girls 2 calls!

later!
Ally

What I wish

I wish Tim Gunn from Project Runway would periodically walk past my computer, look at my manuscript, and say "Make it work."

I wish cookies and ice cream were good for you and steamed vegetables made you fat.

I wish life were like Tivo and you could pause it whenever you need to go to the bathroom.

I wish I had half the energy of the average two-year-old.

I wish people stopped acting like they're in high school after they get out of high school.

I wish Pirates of the Caribbean had been less about the monsters and more about the people we actually care about.

I wish blogging was the same thing as writing--but it isn't--so I might not be around as much in the next few weeks because Gallagher Girls 2 calls!

later!
Ally

The "Voice" Factor

“Once upon a time there was a pair of pants. They were an essential kind of pants—jeans, naturally, blue but not that stiff, new blue that you see so often on the first day of school.”

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you instantly recognized the above passage as the opening sentence of Ann Brashares’s mega-bestselling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

You know why you recognized it? It’s probably the same reason I remembered it almost verbatim even though I haven’t read that book in a year and a half.

Voice.

Hollywood casting directors have the “It” factor. Record label executives talk about “star quality.” In the publishing world we have “voice”.

No one can define it. It can’t be taught or manufactured or broken down into ten easy steps and sold, via DVD, on late night infomercials or at www.instantbestseller.com.

I can’t even tell you what it is—but I know it when I see it.

And I definitely see it here…

"His real language was basketball, and he was such a taut, fluid athlete that he couldn't help seeming a little bit bottled up indoors...Danny existed in suspension, neither black nor white, neither beating up or beaten, beautiful but unfazed by the concept of girls, rotten at schoolwork but coasting through classes, and frequently unanchored by gravity, floating between pavement and the tangled chain-mesh of the St. Vincent's basketball hoops."

That passage comes from Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn, a book so rich in voice that I could probably close my eyes and point at any page and find something worthy of posting here.

Why do I love these examples? I don’t know. Why do you think a painting is pretty or a song hypnotic? When I think about voice I remember that writers are artists, drawing from our language’s common pool, stringing syllables and lines together into something so unique and rare that when it is done well it is no less than beautiful.

Voice—like fingerprints it leaves traces on everything we touch.

Some say writing is a skill you learn like any other. Some say it’s a talent you are either born with or not. I like to think that there is truth in both. Jonathan Lethem and Ann Brashares are blessed--talented. But don’t tell me they didn’t labor over those passages (and the thousands that came before them) as they mastered their amazing gifts.

Writers write, folks. Writers write.

--Ally

PS...It seems we’re back where we began, so I guess that’s my cue we’re finished.

Hopefully the last few days have been enjoyable for you—I know they have been for me. Thanks for letting me rant about my pet peeves and crazy theories, but now I have to stop preaching and start doing.

Writers write.

So I’d better get busy.

Keeping Pace

One of the most common questions new writers ask is, “How long should a book be?”

One of the most common answers experienced writers give is, “However long it needs to be.”

I know this isn’t the answer you want. You want specifics. Facts. A formula or recipe. Step-by-step directions to a six-figure deal.

But is anything in this business that easy? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

There are word count standards--and for good reason. Paper costs money. Overly thick books take up too much room on store shelves, and who wants to pay $25 for a skinny book?

Still, books should be as long as it takes to tell the story well.

When I first showed my editor a draft of I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU she liked it, but (as all great editors do) she had some suggestions.

Can we ratchet up the action? Can we meet Josh earlier in the story? Do you agree the middle sags?

At no time did she say “the book is too long.” She wasn’t worried about industry norms or some rule-of-thumb. She was worried about the story, and she was right.

Over the next few weeks I cut 70 pages out of that book. (I literally broke my delete key.)

Usually when authors talk about making massive cuts it’s because their manuscript is out of control—a 300,000 word epic in a genre where 110,000 words is the norm. So they cut. And they complain.

I did the opposite. My book was within the norm. No one was saying it needed to be shorter…it just needed to be better.

So I returned to the center of the story. I asked myself what mattered, and anything that strayed from that center had to go.

That’s step one to the pacing/editing process. Your story should never tread water. Something should always be happening—at stake. If not. Cut it.

In the case of Love You Kill You I realized there was a lot of interesting stuff at the beginning of the year, and a lot of interesting stuff at the end of the year, and a whole lot of waiting around in the middle. Who needs that? Delete!

I’m not sure who said it, but I heard a quote in screenwriting circles once that said “great stories never stop beginning.” Wow. Ain’t that the truth?

So the book went from the story of Cammie’s sophomore year to the story of her fall semester. That was the biggest change—the best change—but it wasn’t the hardest to do.

The real work (the downright tedious/hard/nerve-wrecking/and eye-crossing work) involves tightening the writing itself.

This is the kind of editing that requires, not a sledgehammer, but a scalpel. It’s the art of saying with nine words what you first said with twelve. It’s tedious and difficult, but it can be done.

Sometimes that means cutting passages or places where you’ve “told” the reader something that should be obvious.

Sometimes it means looking at a sentence like “She looked down at the ground beneath her feet” and asking, do you really need the word ‘down’? Won’t “She looked at the ground beneath her feet” say the same thing? After all, she’s not looking up at the ground, right?

See. I told you it was tedious.

But worth it.

You want to know the crazy thing about those 70 pages? No one missed them. In fact, my local librarian had read the early draft, then she read the streamlined draft, and said, “I have no idea what you changed, but it’s amazing.”

Writing is as much what you don’t put on the page as what you do. Don’t say with twelve words what you can say with seven. Get into a scene right after it gets interesting. Get out right before it gets boring. Make every scene matter, and you’ll be well on your way.

Show Don't Tell

Just a few more writing tips before we return to regularly scheduled blogging, I promise. --Ally.

If you’ve been interested in writing for a while then chances are you’ve heard the phrase “show-don’t-tell”.

I first heard it when writing screenplays, and I think that helped me to catch on to the concept faster than a lot of writers do. Here's why.

A screenwriter might write the following:

“MAGGIE comes into the room and nearly stumbles over a body. She looks down at the floor and gasps as she realizes the dead man is her soon-to-be ex-husband who has been stabbed with the letter opener he gave her when she stopped modeling and decided to go back to law school. Maggie screams then runs away.”

That’s what the script says.

But what does the camera see?

“A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN comes into the room and nearly stumbles over a bleeding dead body. She gasps then runs away.”

In the first example the reader is TOLD all about Maggie and her husband and that she used to be a model and is a lawyer now. It’s what some writers (Jennifer Crusie among them) call an infodump.

I hate infodumps. (And so does she.)

Isn’t it more fun to see one of the homicide detectives recognize Maggie and ask if she used to be a model? I’d like to hear them question her about her divorce and why a pretty lady like her would want to read all those thick books.

I want characters. I want dialogue. I want action.

In short, I don’t want to be spoon-fed. I don’t want to lose out on the “what does that mean?” moment that might keep me reading to find an explanation instead of having the explanation dumped in my lap.

This is the first way I ever learned about show-don’t-tell, and I think it’s a good one.

But it’s important to note that show-don’t-tell has many forms and applications. Here are a few:

--narrative passages & descriptions.

Some Show-Don’t-Tell fanatics say that we should avoid “telling” words like was. If you’re starting out this isn’t a bad idea. (It isn’t necessarily a good idea either.)

An author can write, “The sky was blue.” Or the author can say, “White clouds floated across the blue sky.”

In the first the author tells us a piece of information. In the second she paints us a picture.

(But please don’t think this means we need detailed descriptions of every little thing…boring!)

--character feelings and emotions

Show-don’t-tell also applies to what our characters are feeling. Here, I think authors have three options:

Either saying what the character is feeling, showing those feelings through some physical act, or both showing and telling.

There’s nothing that annoys me more than reading something like:

“Julia was so furious she slammed the door.”

Really? Julia was furious? I never would have guessed. (That’s me being sarcastic, by the way.)

I didn’t need to be told Julia was furious--the door slamming was enough for me.

--Backstory, infodumps, and the two comma method of driving Ally insane

For some people, “was” is where the show-don’t-tell debate begins and ends, but I believe it’s actually a much, much bigger issue.

Remember Maggie, the ex-model who finds her dead husband on the floor? Well, the first passage above is the kind of thing I see all the time in books I don’t finish.

The author tells us a lot about Maggie when we meet her, but won't some of that be apparent once Maggie starts talking and thinking and interacting with people?

And if it's going to be apparent later, why tell it now?

And if this info about Maggie isn't going to be apparent later--if it isn’t important--then why tell me about it at all? I'm far more interested in the dead body on the floor.

For me, infodumps are going to either be redundant or forgotten, and worse, they take me out of the scene I was just getting settled into, especially when done in two comma form.

THE TWO COMMA METHOD....

(Note: this is a phenomenon I made up--you're hearing it here first!)

Here's something that will make me throw a book against a wall and scream at the top of my lungs (even on airplanes).

"Maggie, a former model, walked into her new law office and stumbled. She looked down and saw Jack, her ex-husband who cheated on her and always felt threated by her superior intellect and beauty, lying dead on the floor! She was so terrified she screamed. Then she recognized the letter opener, a gift from Jack, and she turned and ran away."

See the two comma sets? I hate them. H-A-T-E. It's a darn easy way to put a lot of information on the page, but notice how they pull you out of the narrative? See how it's just facts and not emotions? For me, this is telling at its worst (and yet it was done with only one "was").

A disclaimer: All of this is my opinion. You can disagree with me—a lot of people do (many of whom have sold about a billion more books than I).

Books are subjective things, and this is probably the most controversial subject I’ll cover here…still I felt it should be covered.

For me, great books require audience participation—who did it? What does that mean? What happened in their past? Where did that letter opener come from and why is she staring at it?

I want to think, hear, taste, and feel. If I don’t, I won’t finish that book.

So how do you write a book readers want to finish?

Pacing.

We’ll get into that tomorrow.

--Ally

The scene's the thing

We're talking about writing this week here on the blog because A) I'm quite nerdy and think about these things a lot and it feels good to write them down. And B) I've heard so many readers say "I want to write but don't know where to start." So this is where you can start--if you want to.


We'll return to regularly scheduled blogging soon, I promise. --Ally.




Are you a plotter or a seat-of-your-pantser? If you hang out around enough writers you’ll eventually hear that question. And it’s a pretty good one.

Everyone has a different approach to plotting. Some people just sit down and start writing; some agonize for weeks or months until they know exactly what is going to happen and when.

I don’t think one approach is better than the other (as long as something happens).

Personally, when I begin a book I always know the story, but I don’t always know the scenes.

For example, I knew Love You Kill You was going to be about a spy in training who meets a “normal” boy--that she’d fall for the boy, and that the pressure of living a double life would put a lot of strain on her grades and her relationships until, finally, she had to make a choice about whether she really wanted to follow in her parents’ footsteps or not.

That’s the whole story, but it took a lot of time and bad drafts to find the scenes in which all of those things would become evident.

Where would Cammie be? Who would be with her? What would be going on?

Getting the scenes right, for me, is the same thing as getting the book right—one can’t be done without the other.

Scenes give us (the reader) something to see. They give us dialogue we hear. They can show us who the characters are. They can make us laugh. They make a book a movie in our heads.

How?

Well, it’s simple to say but hard to do. It’s about putting our characters someplace and giving them a challenge, a task.

Really great scenes have some sort of external goal or conflict (a bully is punching my face; my smoke detector won’t stop going off; the brakes are out on my car and I’m doing eighty down a steep hill!), but there’s also something deeper at play. (Who am I? What do I want? Am I good/pretty/smart/funny enough? Is my life as out of control as this car?)

I call this “giving an external driver to your internal conflict”, and when you can do that, you’re doing something right.

There should be a degree of conflict in every scene—even if the conflict is only that your heroine can’t get the spaghetti sauce out of her white blouse. This gives her a chance to rage against the stain (when, inside, she really just wants to rage against the guy who caused the stain.)

Your characters have to be somewhere, doing something.

You can cheat, of course, and a lot of authors do. They tell us “Sue was growing frustrated with Harry because he didn’t seem to care about her and pay attention to her needs.” Instead of having a scene where Harry is so distracted by the television that he knocks over the spaghetti sauce, staining Sue’s favorite blouse.

You could do that. A lot of authors do (some are even New York Times bestsellers).

That’s called telling vs. showing.

We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

--Ally

Story structure: acts and plot points

As I’ve said before, the first things I ever wrote were screenplays. They weren’t any good, and that’s okay (see Rule #1—writers write!)

Even though I eventually turned my attention from scripts to novels I’m still greatly influenced by what I learned from that process, and I’ll even say that most writers would benefit from studying that aspect of the craft.

A lot of what I’m going to share in these posts will stem from what I learned in books like Screenplay by Syd Field.

This is no exception.

Screenplays are usually thought of in terms of “Acts”. Books too, but you rarely hear the word. So what makes an act? What role does that play in the storytelling process?

I almost remember the moment when I first heard the term PLOT POINT. I was reading Screenplay, and Mr. Field was talking about the big, dramatic moment that marks the point between Act 1 and Act 2.

In short, it’s the moment that hooks into the story and spins it around—taking our character someplace he/she wasn’t expecting.

In movies, that moment usually happens about 20-30 minutes into the film. (Next time you’re watching a movie check it out—it’s eerily true.)

You have a character going about her everyday life and then…BAM!...something happens.

Mia Thermopolis finds out she’s a princess. Four best friends find a pair of magic pants. Harry Potter finds out he’s going to wizard school.

The day that comes after that moment will be different than the day that came before it. That makes that moment PLOT POINT #1. And, more importantly, that makes us want to know what comes next.

If Act 1 is all about the set-up (meeting our characters, getting to know them, etc.) then future acts are all about confrontation—how will they deal with the new challenges and situations that have come their way?

And challenges should come their way!

Think of your story like a trip—driving down a straight highway with no stops or turns is boring. Now imagine hitting dead ends and backing up, having trees fall in the road and you have to slam on the brakes and off-road through a pasture; you end up on Main Street in a small town homecoming parade; you break down by the side of the road…whatever.

Your characters’ journeys shouldn’t be a straight shot. You need to put roadblocks in their way, and when you do they change directions. Those mini roadblocks, again, are plot points.

Some plot points are huge and some are small—mix it up. Just remember that your story should be building to a final act where your characters either obtain their goals or, at the very least, your story reaches some kind of conclusion.

How do you do this—all of this? Why through scenes, of course.

So that’s where we’ll pick up next time.

--Ally

Writing #2...It's all about character

Oh my gosh!

What have I done? Who am I to tell anyone how to write?

But I've promised...

Sort of.

Still, entire books are dedicated to the craft of writing and even they acknowledge that they can’t cover it all. How am I supposed to scratch the surface with a few blog posts?

But I know you guys think it’s all vast and mysterious--and it's not!

So I’m going to do what I can.


LESSON #2. It’s all about character.


I’ve published two different book series now, and both of them started with a character.

--A self-help expert on being single
--A girl who goes to spy school

Then I asked the question: “what’s the worst that can happen?”

Your story needs some conflict. Your character needs some mission (literally--in Cammie’s case). And whatever conflict you choose should stem from that character.

Of course, sometimes the conflict or situation comes first for an author. In those cases you still need to go back to character because he/she will be the heart of the story—everything ties to it.

For example, what would Wizard of Oz be like if Dorothy was a street-smart bully?

And can you imagine Lord of the Rings if Aragorn--not Frodo--had been in charge of taking the Ring to Mount Doom?

Those might have been very interesting, well-told stories, but they would have been different stories—all because of character.

Every line of dialogue, every plot element or twist should come from the characters. Get to know them. Go deep inside them. Make them interesting and multi-dimensional.

And then start messing with their comfy little lives.

But that’s another lesson.

For tomorrow: story structure--acts and plot points.


Happy writing!
--Ally



PS….Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is opening around the US today, and I’m excited to see it (and not because Orlando Bloom is dreamy…well….not only that.)

This series is written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the founders and gurus behind Wordplay, the best screenwriting website I’ve ever seen.

These guys get it!

Consider what first Pirates of the Caribbean film would have been if Jack Sparrow had been a noble sea captain? How interesting would it have been if Elizabeth was a shrinking violet?

Everything—and I mean everything—ties to character so make sure you’ve got some good ones.

Ally on writing: lesson #1

I spent a long time last night answering email (so if you have written—but not heard back from—me please let me know!)

And, as always, after reading your emails I’m struck with how cool you all are!

But—and this is a big but—why do you say things like “I want to be a writer, but I know I never can”?

Fiddlesticks! That’s right. I said fiddlesticks (a very cool word that I’m personally trying to bring back into fashion).

You guys can totally be writers if that’s what you want to do, if that’s what you’re willing to work to become.

Simple as that. Easy as pie.

You don’t need to know someone (a subject I ranted about a few months ago), and saying you can’t write a book because you can never be published is like saying you can’t go jogging because you’ll never make the Olympic team.

Writers write. Period. And the ones who write long enough, and well enough, will eventually get published if that’s what they want.

No one in publishing—and I mean no one—is saying ‘gee, there are too many great books. I wish people would stop writing them.’

In fact, I was talking to a very cool person yesterday who is a new editor, and she’s dying—absolutely dying—to read some great, unknown stuff so that she can buy it.

But does that mean she’ll buy just anything? Of course not. It has to be good just like Olympic track stars have to be fast.

But no one ever got fast by lounging on the couch talking about the medals they’d like to win someday.

So I’m going to break it down for you—demystify the process.

I’ve already ranted about how a book gets published, so now I’m going to spend a few days on the important stuff: how a book gets written.

Are you ready? It’s a biggie.

Okay. Here goes….

Lesson #1. Don't get it right, get it written.

That’s it—lesson the first.

First drafts are ugly. They’re terrible. They usually don’t make sense and aren’t funny and have all kinds of weirdly-phrased sentences and terrible dialogue. And you know what? That’s what they’re supposed to have.

More detailed stuff is going to come, but that’s the first—and in many ways the biggest—thing you need to know.

Writers write.

Tomorrow’s lesson: it's all about character.

--Ally

No, it's not Monday

Happy Monday--I mean Wednesday--everybody.

I had grand intentions of doing a big blog about the writing craft, but being that I currently feel like a talentless hack, I'm opting not.

Instead, I'll just share some of the cyber love that the books have been getting.

The uber-cool E. Lockhart puts I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU on her recommended reading list.

Little Willow has a very fun interview and review over on her site.

Kate, a writer buddy of mine from Backspace, has some great things to say about Cheating at Solitaire.

And Sharon Cullen shares the Solitaire love over on her blog.


Thanks, ladies! You've made the self-googling process all the more enjoyable!

But now I must get back to work.

And by work I mean watching Celebrity Poker and cursing the fact that the girl from Prison Break has been on not one, but two, episodes and she has yet to reveal anything about Wentworth Miller!?!?

Is he talking about me? Has he been to my website? Did he get the flowers and chocolates and pictures I made of my head on Angelina Jolie's body?

I'm dying for information here, but she's just playing poker. For charity. And not sharing anything.

Seriously. She is SO greedy that way.

Later gators,
Ally

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

Well, first I should say a big, whopping THANK YOU for the uber cool emails that y’all keep sending my way. I love you bunches!

I’ve read (and am working on replying to) them all, and can I just say how impressive you guys are? Seriously. You amaze me.

And what I’ve found to be the coolest is the number of you who have said how much you wish you could go to a school like the Gallagher Academy (I feel the same way!). Some of you have even started learning foreign languages and taking self defense classes. How awesome are you?

So this got me thinking about what the Gallagher Girls do over their summer break and what all you PGGs (Potential Gallagher Girls) could do with your breaks.

That’s why I came up with the following—your summer missions, should you choose to accept them.

Have fun!

--Ally

GALLAGHER ACADEMY FOR EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG WOMEN

SUMMER MISSIONS

Wear sunscreen. Every day—even if you’re not swimming or “laying out” or anything else. Suntans may look cool, but in the long run they could literally kill you. Do you think a spy would die just to have a tan?

Study a foreign language. Get some tapes. Take a class. Find someone you can practice with. And if it’s a native speaker (aka someone who grew up in another country) maybe you can ask about the culture, too. (Can you say COW extra credit?)

Spend some time with an older person you know. Take them a plate of cookies, a potted plant, or just stop in to see if their air conditioning is working. Oh, and while you’re there, ask to hear some stories. Gallagher Girls always learn from people who have “been there.”

Clean out your closets. Gallagher Girls travel light. If you only wear a third of what’s in your closet then you might want to go through the rest and give what you’re not using to a good cause.

Volunteer. In the summer, libraries and daycares and community centers are very busy with programs and activities. Many of these are aimed at younger kids, and maybe they need some help. You know, spies are always on the lookout for good talent.

Get a job. Part of a spy’s life is establishing a believable cover, so don’t be afraid to work hard and learn everything you can while you’re at it—you never know when you’ll need what you learn right now.

Move. A Gallagher Girl’s gotta stay in shape, so get off the couch. Go swimming (while wearing sunscreen). Hike. Take your dog to the park. Attend a self-defense class. Play ball with your friends. If you move enough this summer, P&E won’t sting nearly as badly come September.

Have a great summer, Gallagher Girls. And rest up. Your next adventure promises to be bigger than the last!

I want to be Janet Evanovich when I grow up.

There’s one day a year I look forward to almost above all others. It doesn’t have the calories of Christmas or the eventual anticlimax of New Year’s Eve.

I start thinking about it months in advance, counting down, longing for the moment when Susan (the world’s greatest librarian) calls and says, “We have the new Janet Evanovich here for you.”

Oh boy. That’s good stuff.

Well that day came for me last Friday—just in time for the long weekend—and I’ve just finished my twelfth adventure with Stephanie, Lula, Morelli, and Ranger (oh, was there some good Ranger.)

Don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but let’s just say that if I didn’t want to be Janet Evanovich before reading Twelve Sharp, well I certainly want to now.

She’s earned about bazillion dollars.

She gets great reviews, store placement, covers—you name it.

And most importantly, she deserves it. All of it.

I know that I will read her books in one sitting, and I’ll get absorbed in the characters’ lives. I’ll care. And most importantly, I’ll laugh.

How many authors can you think of that always make you laugh? Go ahead, count. I’ll wait.

Not many, right? So why are we (as a society) so quick to discount funny?

Lately people have told me, “I just loved your book—it was so light and fluffy,” and then they’ll blush and say, “Oh, I’m sorry!”

Yeah, I totally hate it when people say they love my stuff. Obviously.

What they’re thinking, of course, is that “light” and “fluffy” are offensive. Well, maybe I would prefer “spectacular” and “life changing”, but if I’ve entertained someone—if someone laughed out loud because of something I wrote, then I like to think that maybe—in some small way—the world is a little bit better.

Imagine how much better Janet Evanovich has made it.

--Ally

ps…by the way, after way too much self-indulgent thought, I’ve decided that the top five book-related compliments I would like to receive are the following:

#1 I couldn’t put your book down.

#2 I can’t wait to buy your next book.

#3 I told all my friends about your book.

#4 I felt like I was watching a movie the whole time I was reading your book.

#5 Have you lost weight? (Not book related, but worth including just the same.)

And all of these things (except #5 perhaps) wouldn't happen, I think, if there wasn't something to the fluff. We laugh with characters we care about, scenes we can envision, plots that keep us engaged. When I read that, I call it good writing. If you want to call it fluff, that's fine too.

pps...not fishing for compliments. I swear!