Darlene's Digest

Everything I know about writing I learned from my dog, Yofi. Oh sure, her lovemaking scenes involve more buttsniffing than mine, and there was that disaster where her hero was distracted by a can opener while he was disarming a bomb, but overall, I can learn a lot from her. For example: Stay focused. When she’s in the backyard hunting moles, Yofi can stand still forever, not an eyelid twitching, not a hair moving. She has her eyes on the prize, and she will do whatever it takes to get it. When she makes her move, her muscles explode into action as she begins digging furiously. She’s not distracted by laundry or other books or rejection letters from publishers. She’s going to get that mole, and that’s all that matters. Be a big dog in a little package. Sure, we snicker at wiener dogs, but as dachshund owners know, inside, they’re Rottweilers. They’re willing to take on all comers, and they don’t back down. They don’t let their size keep them from doing what needs to be...

Today was my day to blog at the HEA Cafe , so I thought I'd share it here as well: I’m not as far along as I’d like with my WIP (Work in Progress) because I sent a partial to my agent, and he sent back a note saying, essentially, “Kill the backstory and start with someone bleeding.” When I saw this I slapped myself upside the head and said “D’oh!” because it took me back some years to when I worked in news. I’ve been a news reporter, radio news anchor, radio news director and producer of the local TV news. There’s a nasty little saying in broadcasting: “If it bleeds, it leads.” This means if you have a shooting, horrific accident or tornado, it goes at the top of the newscast. In a newspaper, it’s called “Over the fold”. There’s a reason for this: You want to grab peoples’ attention and hold it. A story about the proposed tax hike is important to everyone in the county, but it’s a snoozefest–unless you can tie it to some poor schlub who’s going to lose the little hardscrab...

I was reviewing what I'd written yesterday and realized, once again, I'd spent two pages telling instead of showing. This is one of those basic fiction writing rules that doesn't change--99% of the time, showing your story is better than telling your story. So I went back and I re-wrote it, and it is, of course, substantially better. But dang, this writing stuff's hard work! Why didn't anyone warn me about that?

A small change... Every writer has his or her own pet error. OK, some of us have more than others. One of my particular problems is the proper use of the words "might" and "may". So I made a correction at the top of this page, just above my picture. I think it's now correct. If you disagree, let me know.