Archetype Writing Blog

The chapter I'm editing right now talks about the different approaches to doing therapy.  Therapists actually ask lots of different questions besides "And how do you feel about that?"  Which questions, exactly, depend on which approach the therapist is using.  Also, certain types of therapy are useful for certain types of problems.  So the chapter explains what your fictional therapist should do if you need the therapy session to do this vs. that for your story.  For example, if you need your character to make a connection between something that happened in his childhood and something that's going on now, you need a different kind of therapy than if your character needs to come to terms with his terminal illness.  And don't worry, the chapter explains which therapy for which situation, and why.  And it doesn't stop with telling you what kind of therapy -- it explains what that therapy really looks like and, of course, provides you with the types of questions the therapist would ask so you can make that therapy look authentic.

Fiction:

ToM has gone back to my faithful friends, who are even now wondering how in hell I could possibly add 5000 - 10000 words to the manuscript to make it long enough.  If only the techniques that worked during NaNoWriMo worked for almost-complete manuscripts!

I know how to make it long enough.  Rewrite the whole damn thing in third person, rather than first.  See, when I rewrote it in first, I removed two characters' viewpoints. 

Wait, you think.  If there were three viewpoints, how was it not third person before?

Um...have you ever read Faulker's As I Lay Dying?  It's this book, see, and each chapter is from a different person's viewpoint.  If I remember right, each chapter is in first person.  The problem when I did it, of course, is that I'm not Faulkner.

And it would be really, really a lot of work to switch it over to third person.  First, there's been so much editing since it switched over into first, I'd be semi-starting over if I switched into third person.  Because all of these polished and critted scenes that are in Audrey's POV (Character 1) would need to be handed back to Christian (Character 2) and Jamie (Character 3).  And I'm going to be frank with you.  I'm tired of rewriting this thing from scratch.  I might retire it before I could put myself (and my faithful readers) through another enormous overhaul.

So everybody...think good thoughts in Elana's direction.  She's trying real hard to come up with those extra words for me for the first-person POV version.

Since Shadowwalker is similarly impaired in its early stages, I'm working back over it and fleshing it out.  If the writing gods are good to me, this will require plenty of good words.

Want more information on Work In Progress Wednesdays?  Kate will tell you all about it.

Nonfiction: 

I can't stand it anymore, I have to tell you what I'm working on.  I am writing a book based on the same idea as the Archetype site: a guide to help writers get the psychology right in their fiction! The book will have far greater breadth than the site, and go into much more depth to help you get the details right in your stories.  I don't have a publication date for you yet, but I do have a due date from the publisher, so I'm working hard to get it ready!

Right now I am working on a chapter that includes details on therapist training and ethics.  Might not sound crucial at first glance, but a lot of writers get tripped up by these areas -- especially ethics.  I recently read The Reach by horror author Nate Kenyon, and he does a really good job writing about one main character's diagnosis and institutionalization; unfortunately, he doesn't do such a good job writing about his therapist-in-training.  Students progress through school and therapy training in steps that are pretty consistent from school to school, but nobody in the book pays any heed to those steps.  Worse, nobody in the book seems disturbed by some pretty flagrant violations of the normal training process and ethical code.  The problem, of course, is that the author didn't understand the steps most therapists follow as they're trained, or (in many cases) when he was portraying ethical violations.

If you have any thoughts or questions about training or ethics, now would be great time to ask -- your questions will help me make sure I cover the information you need for your story.  (Feel free to ask questions or make comments on other areas you'd like to see covered as well.)

Some people have asked me about the process for selling nonfiction, so I'm going to tell you just a little bit about it.

Selling Nonfiction

In most cases, when you want to sell a nonfiction book, you write a proposal rather than completing the full manuscript, the way you do for fiction. A proposal introduces the agent or editor to the book idea, compares it to books currently on the market, and sells the reader on the idea that this new book is needed. Because author involvement is crucial in today's book market, the proposal includes a marketing section explaining what the author plans to do to build publicity. Finally, the bulk of the proposal is made up of a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I have several books on proposal writing, but the ones I found most helpful were How to Write a Book Proposal and Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why. (Other people swear by Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody can Write and The Fast Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal.)

Fiction:

I'm pretty discouraged with my NaNo project. If I were going for a paranormal romance, heavy on the romance, I might be okay, but I want there to be more to it than that.  I'm kind of bored with it at that level.  It's slowly becoming clearer to me that I need more tension, higher stakes, and probably more angst.  So I think I need to develop some darker backstories for my characters.

It's so frustrating.  I've never had a novel come in such fits and starts and give me such fits in the process.  Anybody had any experience having to go back in and build dark backstories?  I'm sure some advice would help me!

Nonfiction project
I now have the first drafts of three chapters almost written.  And coming soon -- exciting information about my nonfiction project -- plus, ways you can help me with it!  (I know, that would be more exciting if you knew what it was.  Don't worry, more info soon.  Stay tuned!)

Contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance
I'm starting to get antsy about not having sent my manuscript back to the agent who requested the rewrites.    The agent requested rewrites back in January; I wrote frantically in January and February, and then started finding readers to help me out. Elana's edits helped me a great deal, and now I am anxiously awaiting two other readers' thoughts to see if I got the characterization and so forth working again.

Do you think I should be getting antsy, or am I just being paranoid that too much time is passing?

NaNo novel
I've been slowly editing my NaNo novel, and I have the feeling I know what part of my problem is.  My characters are fairly healthy, angst-free people.  They have problems, sure, but their problems are external.  These are not characters tormented by things they are or have done. 

What do you think I should do?  Start creating tortured backstories?  The characters do get...well, mistreated as the story goes on, so I think it's going to gain momentum for me.  Maybe I should wait and see if that happens before I get out the thumbscrews.  Try something new and all that...

So dear Reader, what are you working on?  Are you using psychology in your project?  I'd love to hear about it, either way!

Kate started doing this, and then Elana took up the torch, and then I caught Annie doing it too.  So what the heck, right?  We'll see what happens.

I usually have several works in progress at any given time.  So here's the tally at present:

Contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance (can't decide) that I'm waiting for some friends to finish reading so I can make appropriate changes and send the rewrites out.  (Elana, have I mentioned yet today how much your editing helped? ;-)

NaNo Novel is at about 65,000 words, which is obviously much too short.  I was feeling pretty apathetic about it.  Not sure why.  These are the least angst-ridden characters I've ever created.  Could that have something to do with it?  Or perhaps I was writing so fast during NaNo that I never had the chance to really get the colors and flavors of each scene, and now I'm still having trouble doing that.  I did switch the novel over from third person to first person, and that seems to be helping, at least with my feelings of apathy, at least somewhat.  I am also hoping that as I get farther into the novel I'll feel more enthused.

Nonfiction project - I've gotten the first drafts of two chapters mostly written.  Since writing is harder than editing for me, I'm trying to write several chapters at a time.

Now let me talk about my very serious, very GINORMOUS problem when it comes to my WIPs.  The Internet.  I knew when the internet went wireless that I was in trouble.  Before, I'd sit down with my laptop, play a couple of games of solitaire, and then be good to go.  Now I'll get out my WIP.  And then I have to check my email.  And then I have to check Facebook.  And then I have to check RallyStorm.  And then I have to check my email again.  And then I wonder why I never get anything done.

I need one of these:

  Ugh.  What do you guys do to deal with the siren call of the internet?