The Sunday Writer [02-03-08]
The Sunday Writer
By Dawn Eastpoint
From Lucky Kitty News
~*~*~*~*~*~
WORD OF THE DAY
Iatromathematique [noun]
1. a doctor who cures patients in a very mathematical way.
They consist in the application of mathematics to the explanation of the phenomenon of life in health and disease. The term was originally applied to the Egyptian physicians who studied, and professed, astrology in conjunction with medical science.
~*~*~*~*~*~
SUNDAY PROMPT
Q. What’s a prompt?
A. A prompt is a word or phrase that's meant to inspire you to write! It can be about anything you want: a poem, short story, or part of something greater such as a 150,000-word novel. But the number one thing is to have fun doing it!
Time Limit: 30 minutes
Prompt: The mask of a demon
If you feel particularly proud of your prompt workout, feel free to send a copy to kcanopener@yahoo.com with [Sunday Prompt] in the subject heading. Depending on volume it may or may not be showcased in next week’s article.
~*~*~*~*~*~
TODAY’S TRIVIA
Q. Which are the easiest materials to recycle?
A. Aluminum, glass, and paper are the three materials most easy to recycle.
Q. Can gold be used on ulcers?
A. In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers. Today, gold leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic ulcers.
LAW: In South Dakota, no horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.
~*~*~*~*~*~
QUOTH THE RAVEN
If someone claps his hand a sound arises. Listen to the sound of the single hand!
-Hakuin
Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) was a Japanese monk, writer, and artist. He was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He revived the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, refocusing it on its traditionally rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice. Hakuin's influence was such that all Rinzai Zen masters today trace their lineage through him, and all modern practitioners of Rinzai Zen use practices directly derived from his teachings.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A TIP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
[If you thought Psoriasis was bad wait until you see this one!]
Eosinophilic enteropathy is a complicated digestive system disorder in which eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, are found in above-normal amounts in one or more specific places in the digestive system and/or the blood.
When the body wants to attack a substance, such as an allergy-triggering food or airborne allergen, eosinophils respond by moving into the area and releasing a variety of toxins. However, when the body produces too many eosinophils, they can cause chronic inflammation, resulting in tissue damage.
These rare diseases are diagnosed according to where the elevated levels of eosinophils are found:
Eosinophilic esophagitis (esophagus)
Eosinophilic gastritis (stomach)
Eosinophilic enteritis (small intestine)
Eosinophilic colitis (large intestine)
Hypereosinophilic syndrome (blood and any organ)
This condition can be divided into two types, [Primary] and [Secondary]. The Primary type is further subdivided into allergic and non-allergic forms. The allergic type occurs in association with food allergies, while the non-allergic form occurs when no obvious cause can be found to explain the high number of eosinophils in the digestive system. Because of this, the non-allergic form is thought to be evidence that the body is attacking itself and considered to be an autoimmune disorder.
Common symptoms may include pain, swelling, skin rash, hives, reflux, choking, difficulty swallowing, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stools containing blood and/or mucus, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, fever, esophageal rings, motility problems, bowel obstruction, bowel or stomach wall thickening (from scar tissue buildup), pseudopolyps, protein loss, anemia, malabsorption, developmental delay, bleeding, and several other symptoms that occur in individual cases. Many people also experience nutritional deficiencies and/or side effects from medications, such as neuropathy (nerve damage) or osteoporosis (decrease in bone mass).
Special amino acid-based formula may be needed as a supplement for those whose diets are so limited that they are unable to obtain enough nutrition from food alone. Some primary forms may require the avoidance of all regular foods and complete reliance on an amino acid-based formula, which may be consumed normally or pumped through a special feeding tube (naso-gastric, gastrostomy or jejunostomy tubes). For the most severe flare-ups or for those who experience problems from all foods and formulas, feeding through a blood vessel (TPN) may be the only remaining option. Some cases also require additional symptom-specific help, such as pain medication. This disease may cause such severe bleeding or nutritional deficiency that they condition may be life threatening if not treated with appropriate medications.
Since there is no known cure for Eosinophilic Enteropathy, management of the condition is very important in order to prevent severe damage to the digestive system (and to the organs in the case of Hypereosinophilic syndrome) caused by the high numbers of eosinophils. Because symptoms vary so widely and may mimic other conditions, it is important that accurate information and awareness of Eosinophilic Enteropathy is achieved.
-Cured Foundation (http://curedfoundation.org/)
~*~*~*~*~*~
THE WRITER’S HANDBOOK
1999 Edition
Rewriting
By Lucian K. Truscott IV
I suppose the term “rewriting” comes from my years as a journalist, but I think the notion of rewriting instead of mere revision also sums up my attitude about going at the work you have just done. I don’t look at a second draft as revision. I look at it as doing the whole damn thing.
I’ve lived in Hollywood for almost seven years now and have worked steadily writing screenplays ever since. I have learned a thing or two about rewriting from working under contract to the major studios. The way it works is this: You come up with an idea for a movie, you go around to various producers and/or studio executives and you pitch the idea, and if you’re really, really, /really/ lucky, somebody bites, you get a contract for a screen play, and you write the thing. You hand it in and wait a couple of weeks. They call you in for a meeting, and one of the executives says something like this (actually said to me in a meeting with a major studio executive): “You know the dead girl on page 18? She was incredibly sexy, and I think she’d make a great lead character. Don’t you think we could have her solve the murder, and have somebody else get killed?”
Now if they insist on something like that, what you end up with is not /revision/ but /rewriting/, which has been incredibly instructive to my life as a novelist.
I have learned one thing is immeasurable value in Hollywood: If a work can withstand such an elemental question as the one above, it can withstand anything. So, after a couple of years in the trenches, I concluded that the studio executives were not the only ones who could ask hard questions or raise outrageous points about my works.
So could I.
In this way, I learned to be my own worst critic. I started out doing it in screenplays, but the process bled naturally into work on novels. You sit down and write a first draft, and you give it a rest for awhile-say a month or two, if you’ve got the time: if not, a week or two might suffice. Then you get back into the things and start to ask yourself hard questions: What is it that /works/ about this piece, and what is it that /doesn’t/ work?
If you go at it hard enough, you’ll come up with something, and having identified an element or two that doesn’t work, you then throw out what doesn’t work and start something new.
This can be quite a shock if you figure out that the crux of the movie or the book just isn’t holding up, because that means you are very definitely going to be doing some rewriting and not mere revision.
This happened to me when I began working on rewriting my most recent novel, Full Dress Gray, the sequel to my first novel, Dress Gray. Because we were on a tight publication deadline, the publisher notified me that I would have to complete a second draft within two months. I sat down and started and went at it eight to ten hours a day. The first 102 pages were OK. But from page 103 on, I ended up writing what amounted to an entirely new book, and by this I mean, everything got shifted around, nothing in the story ended up in the same sequence as in the first draft, new characters were created, and the characters who had been minor players blossomed into superstars. In fact, the daughter of the guy who had been the main character started asserting herself and ended up taking over the book.
What I learn from rewriting movies is to let it happen. It’s a bit daunting at first to look at 00 pages of manuscript and realize that every page from 102 to 702 is going to change, but the best thing to do is just let it rip. I have found when you ask yourself the hard questions the answers start coming, and when you let the answers take over, you are well on your way to making the novel everything it can be. When you start second-guessing yourself and try to protect what you have done too much, then you get in the way of your own creative energies and run the risk of defending the status quo at the cost of allowing something new and wonderful to be born.
There’s one other thing I have learned writing movies, what I’d call the portability of scenes-in the case of the novels, sometimes entire /chapters/. Just because you write chapter 15 after chapter 14 doesn’t mean that it couldn’t become chapter 12 when you’re rewriting somewhere down the line. In my rewrite of [Full Dress Gray] my editor spied a fault of logic in the story. Something that was explained in one way by the main characters about halfway through the book was again explained by a doctor on chapter later. So I exchanged the chapters, had the doctor make the discovery and explain the medical reasons for the event. In the next chapter, by changing about three sentences, I had the main characters reacting to this news and putting their own spin on it.
Of course in a movie, scenes can be much more discrete, self-contained, but there is a tendency in telling a story in the prose of a novel to believe that once your tale has been written, the sequences shouldn’t be terribly disturbed in revision.
Balderdash. Rewrite the thing. Give it an entirely different order if for no other reason than just to see if you can do it. But better still, ask the difficult questions...what /works/ and what /doesn’t/ work, and having learned the answers, go ahead and tell the tale another way.
~*~*~*~*~*~
EXERCISE YOUR WRITES
Pick a subject and write a Haiku, then write in iambic parameter, followed by free verse. What are the differences between them?
~*~*~*~*~*~
AUTHOR OF THE WEEK
Sherrilyn Kenyon (born 1965) is a bestselling and award-winning American author. Under her own name she is known for her paranormal romance and vampire chronicles. Under the pseudonym Kinley MacGregor she is also well known for her historical romance novels. Under both names, her books have appeared on the top ten of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists, and they are frequent bestsellers in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Kenyon's first recognition for her writing came when she won a contest in third grade by writing an essay about her mother for Mother's Day. Even as a child Kenyon knew that she wanted to be a writer. In kindergarten, she wrote in her Brownie manual that she wanted to be a writer and a mother when she grew up. At seven she wrote and illustrated her first novel, a horror story about a girl who kills her brothers. At fourteen Kenyon made her first professional sale, and continued to write for school newspapers, yearbooks, local papers and magazines throughout high school.
When Kenyon was 20, she decided it was time to take her experience writing for magazines and parlay it into the book market. Just as she finished her manuscript and prepared to send it to publishers, her brother Buddy died, and a devastated Kenyon lost the desire to write.
Three years later, Kenyon married and the couple moved to Richmond, Virginia. Kenyon was unable to find a job of any kind before a childhood friend mentioned that the magazine she was editing needed several articles written. Although she had not written a word since her brother's death, Kenyon agreed to write the articles. As soon as she began the work she once again began feeling that writing was something she had to do. Even though they had very little money, as soon as her husband found out that she was writing again he immediately bought her a word processor.
Two years later Kenyon sold her first book, with five more sales coming quickly. She won several awards and had high sell-throughs, but after the publication of her sixth novel she found herself unable to get a writing contract.
After many hardships including the deaths of more loved ones and hospitalization from two difficult pregnancies, Kenyon took a minimum wage job working as a web designer to help pay the bills, still writing at every spare moment. Finished with the manuscript that she had begun in the hospital, [Fantasy Lover], Kenyon submitted it to many publishers, all of whom turned it down. For a total of four years (1994 - 1998), Kenyon was unable to sell any of her manuscripts.
In 1997, just as her web work began to pay well, Kenyon began dreaming up the details of a pirate novel. Her agent did not like the proposal and declined to continue working with her. Despite that disappointment, Kenyon determined to send her proposal off by herself, sending the story to a single editor, another former agent who had recently been hired by Harper. That editor asked to see her story, and within a week had offered a three book contract. This book was very different from her previous works, so she chose to use a pseudonym, Kinley MacGregor.
Even as Kenyon submitted her Kinley MacGregor manuscripts, she continued to work on her vampire stories. On the urging of her editor, she contracted with a new agent in 1999. This agent was very interested in the vampire stories, and soon found a home for them at St. Martin's Press.
Her most well known works are her Hunter-Legends stories, which comprise of the Dark-Hunters, Were-Hunters and Dream-Hunters series.
In addition to her successful fiction career, Kenyon has also written several non-fiction books. She wrote the [Character-Naming Sourcebook], which was finally purchased and published by Writer's Digest. Writer's Digest was interested in launching a new series of books, and, because of Kenyon's background in studying the Middle Ages, she was asked to write [Everyday Life in the Middle Ages]. When the line was looking for a writer for their [Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference], they again turned to Kenyon.
As a result of her love of technology, Kenyon had one of the first e-books, published in 1997. In addition to her writing, she still does freelance web development work.
Kenyon usually writes a first draft of a novel in three to four weeks, although she has been known to completely finish a novel in less than four weeks.
PERSONAL OPINION: I have never been impressed with romance novels, but at the urging of a friend, I picked up [Fantasy Lover]. Not only was I fully drawn into the story (I may have broken reading records), but the intimate scenes were actually worth reading! Kenyon showed wit and humor in all the right places, as well as action (of both kinds), drama, and plenty of supernatural fun. I immediately bought more novels by her and have never regretted the investment.
~*~*~*~*~*~
ASK DAWN
Q. How do I effectively use an outline in order to, hopefully, keep thoughts/ideas for plot characters in line before they get lost in the structure of the story itself?
- ipitydaf00l
A. This is a problem that all authors of long stories must face and solve. After all, it wouldn’t due to have Jimmy go halfway across the galaxy, becoming a hero of ages, to forget that he’s supposed to be attempting to save his grandpa from the clutches of the Wellcom Tribe (they mistakenly believe he’s the Divine Sacrifice to bring their God into worldly form). And we can’t overlook his companion Dankla, who’s searching for the cure to the Lenex Virus that threatens to destroy his entire home planet, or Katthen who’s trying to find her long-lost brother Maccan (who has amnesia and is working against them on the side of the Galactic Tyrant). Then there’s Crawford who is sabotaging them all for his own personal reasons that won’t be disclosed until his death scene in the final chapter.
This is where footnotes come in.
Footnotes are lovely, symbiotic creatures. They don’t take up much space, often living on the sidelines or on another sheet/file entirely. They willingly carry those little details we need to remind us why a certain scene is being written, or interesting facts about something that may come in handy later, or anything really.
Here’s an example from one of my own stories:
• Amadeus learns of Banana’s origins
(Banana was created to be a companion bot for a little girl)
(Banana is programmed to be scared of spiders, not ghosts)
• Amadeus tells Malcolm and Bryan what he’s learned
(They wonder how Banana learned to be scared of “ghosts”)
These two notes remind me of two important facts about Banana. 1, he’s meant to understand children and, in fact, often thinks like one. 2, Banana is scared not of the apparition-type of ghost, but the terrorist group [Ghost] that no one else is aware of yet.
Sometimes more detailed footnotes are added in, such as how a character died off-screen, if anyone saw it, and who it affects. (I have an additional note explaining that the little girl and her family were killed by Ghost, thus Banana’s fear of them. It’s a toss up whether this particular detail will ever be learned in-story, but it helps me understand why Banana acts and reacts the way he does.)
Don’t worry about cluttering up your writing space. Number your footnote then save him on a separate sheet with others of his kind. When you read your outline to see what comes next, you’ll notice that it comes with a footnote too, and that little guy will do his job of reminding you what’s at stake for that scene.
*Ask Dawn is written by Dawn Eastpoint. If you have a literary question you would like an answer to, please write to kcanopener@yahoo.com with [ASK] in the subject heading. Depending on volume and/or time restrains, questions may be posted in next week’s newsletter or answered privately.
**If you would like to make suggestions, a contribution, or have any concerns regarding the newsletter, please send your queries to kcanopener@yahoo.com with [Newsletter] in the subject heading.
By Dawn Eastpoint
From Lucky Kitty News
~*~*~*~*~*~
WORD OF THE DAY
Iatromathematique [noun]
1. a doctor who cures patients in a very mathematical way.
They consist in the application of mathematics to the explanation of the phenomenon of life in health and disease. The term was originally applied to the Egyptian physicians who studied, and professed, astrology in conjunction with medical science.
~*~*~*~*~*~
SUNDAY PROMPT
Q. What’s a prompt?
A. A prompt is a word or phrase that's meant to inspire you to write! It can be about anything you want: a poem, short story, or part of something greater such as a 150,000-word novel. But the number one thing is to have fun doing it!
Time Limit: 30 minutes
Prompt: The mask of a demon
If you feel particularly proud of your prompt workout, feel free to send a copy to kcanopener@yahoo.com with [Sunday Prompt] in the subject heading. Depending on volume it may or may not be showcased in next week’s article.
~*~*~*~*~*~
TODAY’S TRIVIA
Q. Which are the easiest materials to recycle?
A. Aluminum, glass, and paper are the three materials most easy to recycle.
Q. Can gold be used on ulcers?
A. In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers. Today, gold leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic ulcers.
LAW: In South Dakota, no horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.
~*~*~*~*~*~
QUOTH THE RAVEN
If someone claps his hand a sound arises. Listen to the sound of the single hand!
-Hakuin
Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) was a Japanese monk, writer, and artist. He was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He revived the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, refocusing it on its traditionally rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice. Hakuin's influence was such that all Rinzai Zen masters today trace their lineage through him, and all modern practitioners of Rinzai Zen use practices directly derived from his teachings.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A TIP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
[If you thought Psoriasis was bad wait until you see this one!]
Eosinophilic enteropathy is a complicated digestive system disorder in which eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, are found in above-normal amounts in one or more specific places in the digestive system and/or the blood.
When the body wants to attack a substance, such as an allergy-triggering food or airborne allergen, eosinophils respond by moving into the area and releasing a variety of toxins. However, when the body produces too many eosinophils, they can cause chronic inflammation, resulting in tissue damage.
These rare diseases are diagnosed according to where the elevated levels of eosinophils are found:
Eosinophilic esophagitis (esophagus)
Eosinophilic gastritis (stomach)
Eosinophilic enteritis (small intestine)
Eosinophilic colitis (large intestine)
Hypereosinophilic syndrome (blood and any organ)
This condition can be divided into two types, [Primary] and [Secondary]. The Primary type is further subdivided into allergic and non-allergic forms. The allergic type occurs in association with food allergies, while the non-allergic form occurs when no obvious cause can be found to explain the high number of eosinophils in the digestive system. Because of this, the non-allergic form is thought to be evidence that the body is attacking itself and considered to be an autoimmune disorder.
Common symptoms may include pain, swelling, skin rash, hives, reflux, choking, difficulty swallowing, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stools containing blood and/or mucus, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, fever, esophageal rings, motility problems, bowel obstruction, bowel or stomach wall thickening (from scar tissue buildup), pseudopolyps, protein loss, anemia, malabsorption, developmental delay, bleeding, and several other symptoms that occur in individual cases. Many people also experience nutritional deficiencies and/or side effects from medications, such as neuropathy (nerve damage) or osteoporosis (decrease in bone mass).
Special amino acid-based formula may be needed as a supplement for those whose diets are so limited that they are unable to obtain enough nutrition from food alone. Some primary forms may require the avoidance of all regular foods and complete reliance on an amino acid-based formula, which may be consumed normally or pumped through a special feeding tube (naso-gastric, gastrostomy or jejunostomy tubes). For the most severe flare-ups or for those who experience problems from all foods and formulas, feeding through a blood vessel (TPN) may be the only remaining option. Some cases also require additional symptom-specific help, such as pain medication. This disease may cause such severe bleeding or nutritional deficiency that they condition may be life threatening if not treated with appropriate medications.
Since there is no known cure for Eosinophilic Enteropathy, management of the condition is very important in order to prevent severe damage to the digestive system (and to the organs in the case of Hypereosinophilic syndrome) caused by the high numbers of eosinophils. Because symptoms vary so widely and may mimic other conditions, it is important that accurate information and awareness of Eosinophilic Enteropathy is achieved.
-Cured Foundation (http://curedfoundation.org/)
~*~*~*~*~*~
THE WRITER’S HANDBOOK
1999 Edition
Rewriting
By Lucian K. Truscott IV
I suppose the term “rewriting” comes from my years as a journalist, but I think the notion of rewriting instead of mere revision also sums up my attitude about going at the work you have just done. I don’t look at a second draft as revision. I look at it as doing the whole damn thing.
I’ve lived in Hollywood for almost seven years now and have worked steadily writing screenplays ever since. I have learned a thing or two about rewriting from working under contract to the major studios. The way it works is this: You come up with an idea for a movie, you go around to various producers and/or studio executives and you pitch the idea, and if you’re really, really, /really/ lucky, somebody bites, you get a contract for a screen play, and you write the thing. You hand it in and wait a couple of weeks. They call you in for a meeting, and one of the executives says something like this (actually said to me in a meeting with a major studio executive): “You know the dead girl on page 18? She was incredibly sexy, and I think she’d make a great lead character. Don’t you think we could have her solve the murder, and have somebody else get killed?”
Now if they insist on something like that, what you end up with is not /revision/ but /rewriting/, which has been incredibly instructive to my life as a novelist.
I have learned one thing is immeasurable value in Hollywood: If a work can withstand such an elemental question as the one above, it can withstand anything. So, after a couple of years in the trenches, I concluded that the studio executives were not the only ones who could ask hard questions or raise outrageous points about my works.
So could I.
In this way, I learned to be my own worst critic. I started out doing it in screenplays, but the process bled naturally into work on novels. You sit down and write a first draft, and you give it a rest for awhile-say a month or two, if you’ve got the time: if not, a week or two might suffice. Then you get back into the things and start to ask yourself hard questions: What is it that /works/ about this piece, and what is it that /doesn’t/ work?
If you go at it hard enough, you’ll come up with something, and having identified an element or two that doesn’t work, you then throw out what doesn’t work and start something new.
This can be quite a shock if you figure out that the crux of the movie or the book just isn’t holding up, because that means you are very definitely going to be doing some rewriting and not mere revision.
This happened to me when I began working on rewriting my most recent novel, Full Dress Gray, the sequel to my first novel, Dress Gray. Because we were on a tight publication deadline, the publisher notified me that I would have to complete a second draft within two months. I sat down and started and went at it eight to ten hours a day. The first 102 pages were OK. But from page 103 on, I ended up writing what amounted to an entirely new book, and by this I mean, everything got shifted around, nothing in the story ended up in the same sequence as in the first draft, new characters were created, and the characters who had been minor players blossomed into superstars. In fact, the daughter of the guy who had been the main character started asserting herself and ended up taking over the book.
What I learn from rewriting movies is to let it happen. It’s a bit daunting at first to look at 00 pages of manuscript and realize that every page from 102 to 702 is going to change, but the best thing to do is just let it rip. I have found when you ask yourself the hard questions the answers start coming, and when you let the answers take over, you are well on your way to making the novel everything it can be. When you start second-guessing yourself and try to protect what you have done too much, then you get in the way of your own creative energies and run the risk of defending the status quo at the cost of allowing something new and wonderful to be born.
There’s one other thing I have learned writing movies, what I’d call the portability of scenes-in the case of the novels, sometimes entire /chapters/. Just because you write chapter 15 after chapter 14 doesn’t mean that it couldn’t become chapter 12 when you’re rewriting somewhere down the line. In my rewrite of [Full Dress Gray] my editor spied a fault of logic in the story. Something that was explained in one way by the main characters about halfway through the book was again explained by a doctor on chapter later. So I exchanged the chapters, had the doctor make the discovery and explain the medical reasons for the event. In the next chapter, by changing about three sentences, I had the main characters reacting to this news and putting their own spin on it.
Of course in a movie, scenes can be much more discrete, self-contained, but there is a tendency in telling a story in the prose of a novel to believe that once your tale has been written, the sequences shouldn’t be terribly disturbed in revision.
Balderdash. Rewrite the thing. Give it an entirely different order if for no other reason than just to see if you can do it. But better still, ask the difficult questions...what /works/ and what /doesn’t/ work, and having learned the answers, go ahead and tell the tale another way.
~*~*~*~*~*~
EXERCISE YOUR WRITES
Pick a subject and write a Haiku, then write in iambic parameter, followed by free verse. What are the differences between them?
~*~*~*~*~*~
AUTHOR OF THE WEEK
Sherrilyn Kenyon (born 1965) is a bestselling and award-winning American author. Under her own name she is known for her paranormal romance and vampire chronicles. Under the pseudonym Kinley MacGregor she is also well known for her historical romance novels. Under both names, her books have appeared on the top ten of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists, and they are frequent bestsellers in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Kenyon's first recognition for her writing came when she won a contest in third grade by writing an essay about her mother for Mother's Day. Even as a child Kenyon knew that she wanted to be a writer. In kindergarten, she wrote in her Brownie manual that she wanted to be a writer and a mother when she grew up. At seven she wrote and illustrated her first novel, a horror story about a girl who kills her brothers. At fourteen Kenyon made her first professional sale, and continued to write for school newspapers, yearbooks, local papers and magazines throughout high school.
When Kenyon was 20, she decided it was time to take her experience writing for magazines and parlay it into the book market. Just as she finished her manuscript and prepared to send it to publishers, her brother Buddy died, and a devastated Kenyon lost the desire to write.
Three years later, Kenyon married and the couple moved to Richmond, Virginia. Kenyon was unable to find a job of any kind before a childhood friend mentioned that the magazine she was editing needed several articles written. Although she had not written a word since her brother's death, Kenyon agreed to write the articles. As soon as she began the work she once again began feeling that writing was something she had to do. Even though they had very little money, as soon as her husband found out that she was writing again he immediately bought her a word processor.
Two years later Kenyon sold her first book, with five more sales coming quickly. She won several awards and had high sell-throughs, but after the publication of her sixth novel she found herself unable to get a writing contract.
After many hardships including the deaths of more loved ones and hospitalization from two difficult pregnancies, Kenyon took a minimum wage job working as a web designer to help pay the bills, still writing at every spare moment. Finished with the manuscript that she had begun in the hospital, [Fantasy Lover], Kenyon submitted it to many publishers, all of whom turned it down. For a total of four years (1994 - 1998), Kenyon was unable to sell any of her manuscripts.
In 1997, just as her web work began to pay well, Kenyon began dreaming up the details of a pirate novel. Her agent did not like the proposal and declined to continue working with her. Despite that disappointment, Kenyon determined to send her proposal off by herself, sending the story to a single editor, another former agent who had recently been hired by Harper. That editor asked to see her story, and within a week had offered a three book contract. This book was very different from her previous works, so she chose to use a pseudonym, Kinley MacGregor.
Even as Kenyon submitted her Kinley MacGregor manuscripts, she continued to work on her vampire stories. On the urging of her editor, she contracted with a new agent in 1999. This agent was very interested in the vampire stories, and soon found a home for them at St. Martin's Press.
Her most well known works are her Hunter-Legends stories, which comprise of the Dark-Hunters, Were-Hunters and Dream-Hunters series.
In addition to her successful fiction career, Kenyon has also written several non-fiction books. She wrote the [Character-Naming Sourcebook], which was finally purchased and published by Writer's Digest. Writer's Digest was interested in launching a new series of books, and, because of Kenyon's background in studying the Middle Ages, she was asked to write [Everyday Life in the Middle Ages]. When the line was looking for a writer for their [Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference], they again turned to Kenyon.
As a result of her love of technology, Kenyon had one of the first e-books, published in 1997. In addition to her writing, she still does freelance web development work.
Kenyon usually writes a first draft of a novel in three to four weeks, although she has been known to completely finish a novel in less than four weeks.
PERSONAL OPINION: I have never been impressed with romance novels, but at the urging of a friend, I picked up [Fantasy Lover]. Not only was I fully drawn into the story (I may have broken reading records), but the intimate scenes were actually worth reading! Kenyon showed wit and humor in all the right places, as well as action (of both kinds), drama, and plenty of supernatural fun. I immediately bought more novels by her and have never regretted the investment.
~*~*~*~*~*~
ASK DAWN
Q. How do I effectively use an outline in order to, hopefully, keep thoughts/ideas for plot characters in line before they get lost in the structure of the story itself?
- ipitydaf00l
A. This is a problem that all authors of long stories must face and solve. After all, it wouldn’t due to have Jimmy go halfway across the galaxy, becoming a hero of ages, to forget that he’s supposed to be attempting to save his grandpa from the clutches of the Wellcom Tribe (they mistakenly believe he’s the Divine Sacrifice to bring their God into worldly form). And we can’t overlook his companion Dankla, who’s searching for the cure to the Lenex Virus that threatens to destroy his entire home planet, or Katthen who’s trying to find her long-lost brother Maccan (who has amnesia and is working against them on the side of the Galactic Tyrant). Then there’s Crawford who is sabotaging them all for his own personal reasons that won’t be disclosed until his death scene in the final chapter.
This is where footnotes come in.
Footnotes are lovely, symbiotic creatures. They don’t take up much space, often living on the sidelines or on another sheet/file entirely. They willingly carry those little details we need to remind us why a certain scene is being written, or interesting facts about something that may come in handy later, or anything really.
Here’s an example from one of my own stories:
• Amadeus learns of Banana’s origins
(Banana was created to be a companion bot for a little girl)
(Banana is programmed to be scared of spiders, not ghosts)
• Amadeus tells Malcolm and Bryan what he’s learned
(They wonder how Banana learned to be scared of “ghosts”)
These two notes remind me of two important facts about Banana. 1, he’s meant to understand children and, in fact, often thinks like one. 2, Banana is scared not of the apparition-type of ghost, but the terrorist group [Ghost] that no one else is aware of yet.
Sometimes more detailed footnotes are added in, such as how a character died off-screen, if anyone saw it, and who it affects. (I have an additional note explaining that the little girl and her family were killed by Ghost, thus Banana’s fear of them. It’s a toss up whether this particular detail will ever be learned in-story, but it helps me understand why Banana acts and reacts the way he does.)
Don’t worry about cluttering up your writing space. Number your footnote then save him on a separate sheet with others of his kind. When you read your outline to see what comes next, you’ll notice that it comes with a footnote too, and that little guy will do his job of reminding you what’s at stake for that scene.
*Ask Dawn is written by Dawn Eastpoint. If you have a literary question you would like an answer to, please write to kcanopener@yahoo.com with [ASK] in the subject heading. Depending on volume and/or time restrains, questions may be posted in next week’s newsletter or answered privately.
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