2016 Reading List

It was Stephen King who said if you want to be a writer, you have to do two things: write a lot and read a lot. I spend more hours during the day reading than I do writing. But I don't read because I want to be a better writer; I read because I simply enjoy it. I love escaping my mundane cookie-cutter daily routine and going off some place exciting with adventurous people. My primary escape routes are my car during my long work commutes, and my bedroom late at night when I should be sleeping.

Below are the books I read in 2016. Not all were winners and not all were complete losers, but a few turned out to be grand slams. And in the process of reading, yeah, I do learn what good and bad writing looks like so I can either use it or avoid it in my own writing.

Since one man's trash is another man's treasure, I won't tell you which stories were good and which were bad; you'll just have to find that out for yourself. But I will say I never checked anything out from the library that didn't at least look promising.

Admittedly, the list is heavily slanted this year towards Stephen King and David Baldacci. The Baldacci books come from his series of Camel Club adventures and are mostly just fun to read (mostly). And the King books? Well, what can I say -- his escape hatches always swing on well-oiled hinges and the doors are never locked. So without further ado, here are last year's stories in the order I read them:

Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci
The Camel Club by David Baldacci
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Revival by Stephen King
Stone Cold by David Baldacci
The Twelve by Justin Cronin
The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Horizon Storms by Kevin J Anderson
Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Everything's Eventual Part I by Stephen King
The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis
Dune by Frank Herbert
Under the Dome by Stephen King
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
The Collectors by David Baldacci
On Writing by Stephen King
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

What Is Writing?

I'm sitting in front of my laptop when I hear a knock on my door. Before I can swivel around to see who it is, my wife pushes through and casually steps inside, all smiles and white teeth.
"Hi, honey," she says. "Whatcha doing?"
"I'm writing."
"Oh..."
Her smile fades and now I feel kind of bad. We haven't seen each other much all day and I know she probably just misses me. On the other hand, she knows how limited my writing time is in the evenings and understands my tendency towards feeling protective.
She scrunches her face into a grimace as if she's just stepped on a nail, then she mouths an apology. "Sorry..."
There's a long awkward pause and neither of us really knows what to say next. I don't really want to kick her out and, at the same time, I know she doesn't really want to interrupt my writing.
Just as I open my mouth to say something, she leans to one side and glances over my shoulder at the picture of the German Shepherd up on my browser screen.
She raises her eyebrows and looks over at me. Her smile is back up again, but this time it's slanted into a suspicious grin. "Looks more to me like you're just surfing the Internet."

How do you explain to someone who isn't a writer that there's more to creating a story than just banging away on a keyboard? Admittedly, I used to be one of those people. I just figured that authors were some creatively gifted sub-species of the population who sat down at their typewriters (personal computers didn't exist when I was a kid) and cranked out one best seller right after the other. Then they stacked all their printed pages neatly in a bundle and mailed them (no email back then either!) off to their publisher, who promptly mailed them all checks (and no Paypal!) for millions of dollars.

Wouldn't that be so nice?

If one could generalize and divide up the story-writing process into pie pieces, I'd say the actual writing part would get a fairly small slice. Granted, it's probably the most time-consuming slice, but it's definitely not the most important. In fact, it's probably the least important and most tediously boring slice.

From my own experience, the process of "writing" is actually comprised of several different activities. When I tell my family that I'm heading off to "write" for a while, it doesn't always mean that I'll be banging away the next several hours all on my keyboard.

Here are the top ten activities that I would lump into the process of "writing":

1. Brainstorming 3% - This is where I think about which characters, places, and events I want to include in my story. To minimize the amount of time I have to spend here, I keep a growing collection of story ideas, little notes of stuff I think are interesting. When it's time to write a story, it's like going grocery shopping -- I grab an interesting character from here and a cool location from there and drop in a carton or two of fascinating plots points until my cart is full and I'm ready to check out.
2. Researching 10% - Writing is all about creating the illusion of participation. In order to make that illusion seem as realistic as possible, you gotta know what you're talking about and you MUST get the details right! So I spend a good amount of time researching, which often includes finding pictures of the people, places, and things in my story (which is why I needed the German Shepherd picture).
3. World Building 17% - I like to spend lots of time up front fleshing out the worlds and characters I'm writing about. Giving my people and locations rich histories and unusual characteristics makes them feel more alive and memorable. Our histories and experiences have made us who we are and I want my characters to be motivated by strong desires and ambitious goals.
4. Sketching 10% - At this point I take all of my ideas and begin to assemble a basic plot. If I don't already have an ending in mind, I'll try and develop at least a rough idea of how I want things to be resolved by the time the story is over. I'll also give some thought to character arcs, basic conflicts, and turning points.
5. Outlining 10% - Using my sketch as a guide, I'll begin drafting scene descriptions. Most of these are usually just one or two short sentences to quickly describe how each scene might begin and end. I might also think of cool dialogue ideas I want to include.
6. Fleshing 15% - The outline develops further as I fill in missing segments and ensure a smooth transition from scene to scene. I want to make sure my story has a nice flow to it. I begin to think more seriously about pacing and the overall story arc or themes I want to achieve.
7. Drafting 10% - This is where all of the details get filled in. My outline has been all fleshed out now, so I can take that information and fill in all the cracks and gaps. I often think writing the first draft is like being a stone mason.  All of my different bricks are laid out in neat rows and now they have to be cemented together and built into a great tower.
8. Revising 20% - This often feels like an endless loop of reading & changing, reading & changing, reading & changing...But it's important to make sure that what you've written matches up with what you intended. I usually find that I can add a lot more depth to my characters and situations during this period because I've been thinking about them nearly constantly for a long time now. This is also where I let my alpha and beta readers review and critique my stories.
9. Polishing 3% - Cleaning up any last minute changes for grammar, spelling, and final formatting before sending the manuscript off to find a home.
10. Submitting 2% - I keep a list of SFWA-approved markets and look for the ones I think will be the best match for my story. When one market rejects it, I route it to the next and the next and the next. If it goes through several and no one seems to be interested, I'll sometimes pull the piece and try and figure out what might be wrong with it through another round of revisions.

In addition to all these activities, the process of writing also includes things like reading (both for pleasure and for studying craft), attending conventions and workshops, participating in writing groups, studying up on market and audience trends, people-watching (one of my favorite activities)...the list can be endless.

People are sometimes amazed how much more is involved in the business of writing than simply sitting down and "writing". So don't judge too harshly the next time you see your writer companion engaging in activities that look like goofing off. It's entirely possible that he really is writing. Unless of course his "writing" involves video games or Facebook. Then he probably really is just goofing off.

Being Happy with Rejection

I recently received a rejection letter from a well-respected science fiction magazine. It's a professional magazine and the story was one of many that I've sent out over the last year. 

The unread email from the magazine editor just sat there in my Inbox, waiting for me to click on it. I didn't have to open it, though. The entire message was short enough that it fit inside the narrow preview pane:

"Thank you for offering your story to [us]. We're sorry to tell you that we will not be using it; you are free to submit it elsewhere."

I read the message a few times, each time expecting myself to slip over the edge into some pit of disappointment, where I would sit in darkness for days and wonder why I bother to continue writing. I expected to feel depressed that no one was interested in publishing my stories yet. I didn't feel any of those things though.

I was instead surprised to find myself feeling happy, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me until after I thought about it for a couple of days. I finally concluded that there were a few good reasons why I  simply couldn't feel upset or disappointed or angry because of the rejection.

First, I had heard back from the magazine much sooner than expected based on what their website listed as their average response time. I took this as an encouraging sign and was able to successfully convince myself it was because they had been so excited to read my story. (Note: If you're a member of the magazine's editing staff and you happen to be reading this, please don't write me to correct my misguided delusion!)

Second, I was grateful for their reminder that I had another chance to try again. "You are free to submit it elsewhere." In fact, my first reaction was to open up the story and try to look at it more objectively, try to see it through the eyes of the editor. Sure enough, there were several changes that I needed to make. I took a day to rewrite sections of the story that didn't quite work the way I had intended, then attached it to another email and sent it off to the next editor on my list.

Third, a rejection to me is still a success. I've worked with writers who simply couldn't handle rejection very well at all (or writing critiques for that matter). They simply took them too personally. Not surprisingly, many of those people are no longer writing. They just became too discouraged and gave up. One easy way to avoid being rejected is to never send your stories out to editors. Of course, that's also a really good way to insure that you never get published. The fact that I've received lots of rejections and that I'm still writing and getting better tells me I must be doing something right.

Anyone who is serious about writing is going to face a lot of rejections. Even after you've "made it", not everyone is going to like every story you write. Not all of your stories will even be publishable. Stephen King and J.K. Rowling still get rejected. Writing is a business filled with taking chances. That's one of the things I love so much about this job. I'm taking chances on myself and my abilities. Of course, that also means I have to accept responsibility for my work and I can't blame anyone else when I fail.

This certainly wasn't my first rejection letter and I know it won't be my last, so what did I do with it? I simply printed it off and added it to my growing collection of rejections that sit in a pile on top of my writing desk. I'm proud of my rejection letters. I collect them like soldiers collect battle scars, small wounds that hurt a lot when I first got them, but which have now toughened over and given me a thicker skin.

So that's probably why I couldn't be upset about the rejection, no matter how hard I tried. Instead of seeing it as a failure, I saw it as an opportunity to get better. I also saw it as a form of success: I had created something special and had the guts to send it out into the world. It's okay that it came back. I'll probably end up making several more changes. Each time I'll send it back out until it eventually flies on its own. And if it never does, that's okay too because there's lots more where that came from and next time will be even better.

Dealing with Distractions

Saturday 9:15 AM

“Where are you going, Dad?”

“Downstairs to write for a while.”

“But we were gonna watch a family movie together.”

10:15 AM

“Alright guys...I’ve seen this movie before and I need to get some writing done.”

“Hey honey, before you start writing, will you throw down the laundry from our bathroom and help me sort it real quick?”

10:35 AM

I sit down in front of my laptop and suddenly remember that I haven’t checked my email or Facebook account in two days. I should probably make sure there’s nothing important awaiting my response. I wonder how Tim Tebow’s stats are fairing...

11:45 AM

“Dad, Mom said it’s time for lunch.”

12:25 AM

“Hey honey, where are you going?”

“Downstairs to write.”

“But you’ve been writing all morning!”

Does this sound like the conversations in your home (or in your head) every time you think about sitting down to write? Sure, every writer experiences the occasional supernoval flare up of a new story idea; fingers cramping, struggling to keep pace with the deluge pouring from your neocortex. It’s only when your bladder threatens to drown you that you look down and realize two hours and four thousand words have passed and you really feel this time that you’re well on your way towards the New York Times Best Seller list!

The next day you wake up, full of excitement and energy at the prospect of another one or two thousand words, only to discover you’ve cranked out a meager one or two hundred because the job, the kids, the spouse, the housework, the laundry, the cell phone, the friends, the internet, the TV, the movie, the library, the bills, the errands, the dishes, and the ten thousand other things that compete for your time have robbed you of your goal. You climb into bed at night feeling drained, unfulfilled, and guilty because you failed to write anything substantial that day. You vow that tomorrow will be different. So today becomes tomorrow, tomorrow becomes this weekend, this weekend becomes someday. Why do we give in so often and for so long to those things that keep us from writing? There are lots of reasons. Let me share two big ones I feel encompass all the others.

First, we don’t feel like we should write. Given everything we must accomplish every day, we feel - at least on a sub-conscious level - that we can't make time for such “silliness” as story-telling. After all, it’s our day jobs that put food on the table and maintains the roof overhead. When we’re not working, children and spouses need attention and care. And let’s not forget the importance of maintaining or improving our health. All these priorities consume us and it’s easy to give in to that whispering voice at the end of the day as it beckons our wearied heads toward soft pillows, “Stories are for kids. You’re an adult now. Grow up. Be more responsible. Get a good night’s sleep before the craziness of tomorrow starts all over again.”

Trapped inside every adult is the little kid we used to be, the one who’s imagination fueled the dreams of a million undiscovered worlds. At some point we became adults and bought into a belief that “growing up” meant we had to deny that inner child. As adults, we still dream occasionally (if for no other reason than to reminisce about what dreaming used to feel like). We all long for a chance to escape from time to time. It’s why we’re so easily distracted. Distractions take us away, however briefly, from the mundane adult lives we’re now forced to lead.

Writing doesn’t make us any less of an adult and we shouldn’t feel guilty for giving voice to that inner-child. Just face it; that little kid is never going to shut up and go away! Besides, denying him means denying half of our own existence. Chances are that most of your fondest memories come from childhood. Take time to go back and talk with that kid every day. He can help you remember what things were like before you became so concerned about all the troubles in your life. Let him teach you how to dream again. Give those memories and dreams a voice and let them spill out onto the pages.

Another reason we become so easily distracted is because we don’t feel we can write. Whether you realize it or not, your life has been influenced by at least one book (or perhaps a movie adaptation) that changed how you thought or felt about life. For me, it was Tai Pan by James Clavell. One Saturday afternoon when I was fifteen, my grandmother and I were cleaning her attic when I found Tai Pan sandwiched between dozens of hardbacks inside some musty box. I finished the book in a couple of weeks and knew when I closed the cover that’s how I wanted to live my life. Did my life really turn out that way? Of course not! And although I’ve never read the book a second time, I can still vividly recall the adventure, the politics, and the intrigue that Clavell so exquisitely imprinted on my memory.

As I sit down in my writing sessions, I’m constantly comparing my work to James Clavell, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Arthur Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler (insert your own list of cherished authors here). Then I review what I’ve vomited onto the pages and think to myself, “What bile! No one’s ever going to be influenced by this!”

I’ve accepted that statement to be true insofar as I do nothing to practice my craft and hone my skills any further. Would I honestly expect an editor or agent to accept the first draft of my first story? Heck, I don’t even like it! But what about my sixth revision or my hundredth story or my fifth novel?

It’s only through writing every day that we’ll get any better. It’s only through reading a lot of stories that we learn to distinguish the tripe from the truly inspirational. As I learn what’s good and what’s bad, I incorporate good techniques into my own stories. Eventually I find my own voice and my stories become amazing, if not to anyone else but me. Most importantly, I learn to write for myself.

Distractions are always going to bombard us every single day. When we get into a habit of writing for ourselves, writing because it’s healthy for us, writing because we know we’ll get better, writing to give voice to that imaginative inner child that won’t go away, then writing itself becomes the distraction from all the craziness surrounding us. It’s okay to escape for a while every day. In fact it’s very healthy to do so. Of course, your own personal circumstances will dictate when you can and can’t write. But I guarantee you can find at least an hour every single day to write if you really look for it and you’re serious about writing. Rid yourself of all the other unnecessary distractions in your life and focus on only one distraction--writing--for a little while every day.

Brown and Furry

“Wanna play a game, Dad?” my son asked as we drove home from church one Sunday afternoon. It had been a long service and I was looking forward to lunch and a nice long nap.

I made a right turn from a stop sign and answered, “Sure. What do you want to play?”

I glanced at him in the rear-view mirror as he sat in his car seat and stared out the window. After a moment of tapping a finger on his chin, he decided, “How about ‘I’m Thinking of An Animal’?”

I smiled at his choice. ‘I’m Thinking of an Animal’ is a classic in our family.

“Ok, you go first,” I prompted.

He caught me looking at him in the mirror. “I’m thinking of an animal...” he began, “that’s brown and furry.”

“Brown and furry,” I mused. “Hmmm. Is it a bear?”

“Nope,” he said.

“Is it a spider?” I ventured.

“Nope.”

“Ok, give me a hint.”

I stopped at another intersection and waited for the light to change. He looked at me again in the mirror and hinted, “It lives in the woods.”

“Brown and furry and lives in the woods, eh? Is it a wolf?” I guessed again.

“Nope.”

“Give me another clue.”

“Wow, Dad.”

Apparently I’m the dumbest Dad in the world and any first grader would have guessed the answer already. I was feeling rather stumped by now and wondered if the next clue would give it away.

“It has three legs.”

Ok that wasn’t very helpful at all. Brown, furry, lives in the woods, and has three legs. Admittedly I’m no expert of forest creatures, but I’ve watched my fair share of Animal Planet episodes and nothing with that description was coming to mind.

We made a left and continued on a winding street where I had to slow down to navigate the curves.

“C’mon, Dad!” he pleaded.

I wasn’t about to admit defeat this early in the game, but I was honestly at a loss. My only option was to stall.

“Hold on, I’m thinking,” I said.

Brown and furry with three legs in the forest. What on earth? I had to go back and think about the rules of the game. We did clarify these animals were from our planet, didn’t we? I couldn’t remember.

I knew this was a wild stab of a guess, but I threw it out there anyway. Who knows? It could just be how an eight year old thinks.

“Is it Bambi with a busted leg?”

He shouted, “No!” then laughed, sounding as if that was about the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard before in his life. I was a moron.

We rounded the corner onto our street and I finally succumbed to defeat and told him, “Ok, I give up. What is it?”

“It’s an octopus, Dad!”

I almost ran over the curb as I tried to pull into the driveway, tears welling in my eyes from laughing so hard. ‘I’m Thinking of An Animal’ is a classic game in our family.

Welcome to Scrivener!

I decided to use some of my pittance of a tax return this year and purchase an organizational tool to help with my writing. Aside from having a serious lack of desk space to spread out all my research notes, galaxy maps, star charts, character profile sheets, and reference manuals, I find that I still struggle with some of the basic elements of writing.

I get lots of great ideas for stories. Getting the ideas is the easy part. My difficulty comes in trying to convert those tiny sparks of inspiration into full-fledged stories. I often struggle with moving from ideation and plot development into actual scene creation and producing a single cohesive story.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered “Scrivener”, a wonderful piece of writing software developed by the inventive and understanding folks at Literature and Latte (literatureandlatte.com). Not only do these guys understand software development, they understand the varying needs of writers.

To keep this short, I want to highlight just some of Scrivener’s features that I’ve found most interesting after using the tool for a week. I’m by no means an expert and I’m sure I’ll discover much more as I continue using the program.

Scrivener was designed with the writer in mind. When starting a new project, I can select from a number of provided templates. For example, suppose I want to start a new fiction project. Scrivener provides fiction templates for novels and short stories. Choosing any of these provides me with a basic structure already in standard manuscript submission format. And if I don’t like the standard formats, I can create my own customized formats and save them as templates to use later in other projects.

Scrivener’s working window gives me access to all my project files, located in one easy-to-find pane called the Binder. All my scenes, chapters, notes, research, character sheets, photos, pdf files, etc. are all stored in the Binder. If you have an electronic file saved somewhere on your computer or accessible on the web in almost any format, chances are you can import it into the Binder. Having all your files in one easily accessible location while you write means no more having to open up one reference file at a time, flipping back and forth between multiple windows on your computer to find what you need. Files from the Binder are easily “floated” over your open document for quick reference while you write. Scrivener’s basic templates also include simple character profile sheets so you can document everything you need to know about the people in your story.

When I begin a new story, I often use index cards to try and develop scene ideas and get a sense of the overall structure of my story. More often than not, the cards end up spread all over my bedroom floor. I write, cross out, scribble, tear up, arrange, and re-arrange all those cards endlessly until I’m happy. Then I number all the cards, just in case they break loose from their rubber band and go flying.

In Scrivener, I don’t have to worry about the cards getting away from me thanks to the Cork Board. With the Cork Board, I can create, change, add, delete, and move index cards all over the place without cluttering up my bedroom or risking their loss. All of the cards can be identified with a label (Concept, Chapter, Scene, etc.) and a Status (To Do, First Draft, Revision, Final Draft, etc.). The labels and statuses can also be customized to display whatever you need.

One of the coolest features I’ve found in Scrivener is the random Name Generator. Need help finding a male name? Female name? Foreign name? Hyphenated maiden-married name? Alliterated name? Simply use the Name Generator to make your characteristic selections, set the obscurity level, and move the slider to tell Scrivener how many names to generate, then push the Generate Names button and presto!

Personally, I’m easily distracted while I write and find it difficult to focus when it comes time to begin tallying up the word count. Scrivener’s Compose button lets me block out all the distractions on my computer and focus on getting my story written. I simply press the Compose button at the top of the screen and voila! No more distractions.

Everything on the compose screen is also fully customizable, from the background image to the size of the writing space itself, font sizes and paper colors, even the transparency and fade of the workspace. Since I write science fiction, I created a planetary theme for my Compose window using a wallpaper photo I found on the Internet.

In fact, everything about Scrivener is customizable, down to the color of thumbtacks you can select for your index cards (or you can remove thumbtacks altogether if you don’t want them). The essence of the program is to give writers access to all their tools and documents in one easily-accessible location. But the real beauty of Scrivener is the capability of working on your story in pieces, creating separate documents for each chapter, scene, etc. And when you’re finally done writing your drafts, the Compile feature lets you bring them all together into one cohesive manuscript, immediately formatted and ready for submission, including your name, address, title, byline, word count, and other necessary information.

Of course there’s a lot more to Scrivener than what I’ve shared here, but I didn’t really intend for this to be a pitch for Literature and Latte. I was just looking for a way to organize my work and get some help navigating my way through idea creation, plotting, scene generation, and finally writing my stories. I got a lot more than I expected from Scrivener.

The program can seem a little overwhelming at first with so many tools and ways of working. The great thing about Scrivener is there’s no right or wrong way to use it. Every tool is at your disposal and you can use it however you like, in whatever method best suits your writing style. And if you forget how to use any of the tools, there’s a helpful introductory tutorial that comes with the program. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the intro, Literature and Latte has additional video tutorials and online user forums on their website.

Scrivener might not be for everyone and some will doubtless find other tools that work better for them. Personally, I needed a structured format for my writing and found that Scrivener does the job admirably. Aside from that, it’s so much fun and easy to use that it makes me want to dive in and write every day. And as far as I’m concerned, making it fun to write everyday is the best bonus I could have asked for.

Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic

Here's a simple math formula for all us writers out there:

Better Story Telling = Writing + Reading²

Just as deep space travel depends on the relationship of energy to the mass of an object times the speed of light squared (e=mc² for all those not familiar with Einstein's theory of relativity), being a great writer also depends on universal principles. In fact, the difference between a hobby writer and a great story teller is very similar to the difference between an amateur astronomer and, say, Galileo Galilei. One enjoys spending a couple of hours a week using his instrument to scan the sky and, occasionally, happens upon something interesting. The other completely immerses himself in his field, applying what he already knows to come up with new ideas that completely change how we think about ourselves and our universe.

Nicolas Copernicus studied the pioneering works of Aristarchus before developing his own revolutionary views on heliocentrism. Isaac Newton often pondered the moon's orbit around the Earth while gazing from his bedroom window at apples falling from a tree in his mother's garden (contrary to so many cartoon stories, he was not struck in the head). In fiction, Doctor Victor Frankenstein pored through books, spending years in laboratory research before assembling his fateful beast.

The point is this: in order to be better writers, we need to be better readers. That means reading...a lot! A couple of years ago, I sat down at my computer with a burning desire to write science fiction. Needless to say, I'm still trying to finish the same story. I realized one of my biggest obstacles was the fact I was trying to write science fiction, but it had been years since I had actually read any science fiction. I was out of practice, out of vocabulary, out of style, out of research, out of context. I was trying to write the science fiction I remembered as a kid without realizing that science fiction had progressed and surpassed everything I remembered.

When the year 2012 rolled around, I made a commitment to myself and to my writing. I made a list of books I wanted to read and used the opportunity to study the craft of published writers in my genre. I wanted to learn how they wrote, how they captured my imagination, how they allowed me to visualize the worlds they created, how they made me keep turning pages long into the night when I should have been sleeping, how they expressed the messages they felt needed to be told about humanity and the fate of our world.

My goal was twelve books, one for each month, with a promise that I would learn from the best and the worst. Even if I didn't like a book, I would read it anyway to learn why I didn't like it, making mental notes about what worked and--just as importantly--what didn't, so I wouldn't make the same mistakes.

So the key to good writing is good reading and reading a lot, which is why reading gets an exponential square in the equation above. When I dedicated myself to my reading and to my writing, I found that I had more time than I thought. After just the first quarter of the year, I had already read my twelve novels for the entire year. Here was the list:

Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Changelings by Anne McCaffrey

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

The Bradbury Report by Steven Polansky

War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Daniel X by James Patterson

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Granted, most of these were in audiobook format during my daily commute to and from work. But the format doesn't matter. And I didn't stop with just twelve either. I've discovered that listening to audio books is by far preferable to hearing Adele or P!nk or Taylor Swift sing for the bazillionth time about lost love. Think about it, how many times can you really hear the same song over and over again before you tire of hearing it? And I don't miss any of the talk or commercials on the radio.

It was Isaac Newton who once said, "If I have seen further it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." The important thing is to read a lot and learn from the masters how to construct a compelling story. Read a lot and write a lot and little by little your writing will improve until, one day, you can see further because the high road on which you travelled was paved by those who came before you. Happy reading!

The Revision Process

I recently read a book titled "Stein on Writing" by editor/author/instructor Sol Stein. A section of his book is dedicated to helping writers revise their drafts in the most efficient and effective manner. For those who've completed their first draft and find themselves in revision mode, I thought this would be a timely lesson to share.

When I first began writing, I figured I'd be finished with my story as soon as I typed the words "The End" in my first draft. I didn't know much about the revision process and thought my first draft would be my final submission after making a few minor spelling and grammar changes. Wow was I ever wrong!

I've come to think that the process of story-writing is much more like baking a cake. Writing that first draft is like gathering all the necessary ingredients together and setting them out on the kitchen counter to see what you have to work with and discover what you might still be missing. It isn't until the draft is written and the ingredients are all together that you whip out your revising cups and tablespoons and begin measuring in the flour, sugar, eggs, and spices until it tastes just right. Several revisions later, you're preheating the oven and spreading the frosting for everyone to enjoy!

According to Sol Stein, the best way to revise is to start with the big problems first. Then you work on the medium problems, small problems, and finally the tiny changes such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Tackle these areas in succession to make your revision process as quick and effective as possible:

1. Determine what represents the sense of wonder, enlightenment, or excitement in your story and make sure that level of enthusiasm is maintained throughout the story. Too many stories start out exciting and then just fizzle out.
2. Is the main character exciting enough to hold the reader's interest throughout the story? What motivates the main character and drives her to act and change throughout the story?
3. Do you really like your antagonist? You should! Your antagonist should be just as motivated to accomplish her goals as your protagonist and just as driven to succeed. Is your antagonist truly bad, or does she just behave badly? Villains who are truly evil are much more enjoyable than cardboard cut-outs who just cause trouble for the heck of it. What endearing or charming qualities does your villain possess that would allow the reader to care about them?
4. Don't neglect your minor characters. They need to be credible and believable with their own motivations to act.
5. Is the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist credible and strong enough to sustain the reader's attention throughout the story?
6. What is your most memorable scene? What makes it work so well? How can less memorable scenes be strengthened to this level?
7. What is your least memorable scene? Does it move the story forward? Would the story be stronger without it? Consider rewriting it or cut it out completely.
8. What are the three most important actions in your story? Are they motivated in a believable way? Remember that "coincidence" in a story is not a credible reason for any action to occur. Review all other actions and either strengthen, rewrite, or cut them if they're not absolutely necessary to moving the story forward.
9. Place yourself in the reader's seat and read the first page of your story. Are you compelled to keep reading? If not, you have work to do.
10. Make sure there's something visual on every single page of your story. Never give the reader an excuse to remember they're reading a story. Help them visualize and become involved in the story.
11. After fixing all the above, you're now ready for general revisions:

• Tighten the manuscript by cutting every word, sentence, paragraph and scene that does not contribute to the story. Be ruthless with your word choice and make every word work.
• Vary your sentence lengths to avoid a monotonous voice.
• Make sure the pacing matches your story arc.
• Fix point of view errors.
• Make sure the tension continues to mount throughout the story and the stakes are continually raised for the protagonist.
• Get rid of all but the most essential adjectives and adverbs.
• Eliminate all cliches and rewrite for originality.
• Vary and clarify all dialogue tags.
• Look for precise word choices and meanings.
• Add variety to your dialogue. Can exposition be replaced by dialogue? Is the dialogue confrontational enough? Does it actually move the story forward or is it just banter?
• Last but not least, correct all spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.

By correcting the biggest problems first and working through your manuscript with the checklist above, your revision process will be much more focused, productive, and efficient.

By following this process, I've also learned to quiet my inner editor while I furiously write that first heated draft because I already know it won't be - and shouldn't be - perfect. I now know that writing my draft is just a way to sort through all the cupboards, drawers, and pantries looking for ideas and ingredients for a feast I can worry about baking and garnishing later for my readers.