HOW TO DISGUISE THE TRUE BITS IN YOUR STORY – TUESDAY WRITING TIP

A lot of what I write is based on something that actually happened. My YA novel Street Racer was written after I read an article in the paper about someone involved in a street racing accident.

Hope for Hanna is based on real events that happened to a number of people and Harry’s Goldfield Adventure (coming out August 2010) has a factual setting, but the story is purely fictional.

My YA novel Letters to Leonardo, started with a story that was told to me by a friend, and one of the book’s characters is a person that I actually know.

SO, WHY CHANGE FACT INTO FICTION?

If you’re writing a biography or an autobiography there is no need to turn fact into fiction – in this instance, it’s best to stick to the facts.

When I wrote A Duel of Words, I had to be creative about the way I told Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson’s story, but I had to be meticulous about the factual detail.

But if you’re writing a novel and making things up about your characters, you need to change the facts because:

• What you make up could offend or hurt someone if you name a real person.
• Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and people wont’ believe it. In high school I had to write a love story so I wrote about how my parents first met. The teacher’s comment was that the story was well written but ‘not credible’. (Even though it was all true).

HOW TO CHANGE FACT INTO FICTION

To me there are two steps you need to take to disguise the true bits in your story.

1. Make the physical changes to the detail.
2. Make the emotional changes inside you.

HOW TO MAKE THE PHYSICAL CHANGES

Letters to Leonardo is based on some real people, real events and real places. I spent a lot of time creating new scenarios, places, people and events so that I could disguise the things and people that could be recognised. Here are some of the steps you can take to hide the ‘true bits’.

• Change names of characters and places
• Add or remove people from the event
• Change the setting
• Change the time/era in which the story took place
• Combine real events from different sources
• Change the details of the actual event – eg a cat stuck up a tree could become a dog stuck in a drain pipe.

It’s all about using your imagination. Look at it as a challenge. How could you tell someone’s story without them recognising it? How could you tell your own story and people not know it’s you? Think of your facts as being treasure that you have to bury beneath ‘creative’ detail.

Sometimes it can help to draw up a two column table with the real events/people/names etc in one column, and the second column devoted to the ‘made up’ bits.

HOW TO MAKE THE EMOTIONAL CHANGES

I find I’m only able to fictionalise ‘true events’ in my life once I have been able to emotionally distance myself from them.

Maybe this is the same for you – maybe you need time to allow something to become a story in your mind rather than a traumatic event.

Fact can be a great basis for fiction – it’s just how you handle it.

I hope that you have found these tips helpful.

Happy writing

Dee:-)

HOW TO GET YOUR READER’S ATTENTION, AND KEEP IT – TUESDAY WRITING TIP

No matter what the length of your story, the beginning or opening is what hooks your reader and involves them in the characters and what is happening to them. It’s what gets them into the story.

There are many things that a story beginning has to achieve:

• Attract reader attention
• Keep reader attention
• Establish time and place in which the action is happening
• Introduce the main character
• Give some clues as to what the stories is about. Letters to Leonardo opens with a letter from the main character, Matt, to Leonardo da Vinci. This is an indication to the reader that letters, art and Leonardo da Vinci are probably important to the story.
• Give reader an idea of what kind of story it is. For example, if you are writing a psychological thriller, a funny slapstick beginning will attract the wrong type of reader. The reader will soon realise this is NOT a funny story, and they will lose interest.

Early on in Letters to Leonardo, I wanted to establish the fact that Matt does not come from an ‘average’ family background. I thought this would help build up suspense and curiosity for the reader – the feeling that something unexpected might happen.

In his second letter to Leonardo da Vinci, Matt says, “I don’t do furry pets and family holidays – probably comes from growing up without a mum. Tomorrow’s my birthday. I guess I could tell you about that.”

As well as giving hints about Matt’s family background, this piece foreshadows to the reader that something unexpected could be about to happen.

The beginning must arouse the reader’s interest – give them something to keep reading. In Letters to Leonardo, it’s Matt’s first letter. But your beginning can be in any format. It can be scary, funny, shocking, bizarre, too ordinary – or whatever sort of beginning you choose – just as long as it hooks the reader and is in keeping with the rest of the story.

Right from the start, your character must have a strong and unique voice – something that helps the reader engage with them in an empathetic way, something that makes the reader interested, wanting to know more about this person.

We will tackle ‘voice’ in a future writing tip, but look at some of your favourite books and how they start – look at the main characters and see what it is that appeals to you about them.

If you introduce a strong main character immediately and get straight into the action, you can’t go far wrong.

Hope this helps you get off to a great start with your next story.

Happy writing.

Dee:-)

HOW TO MIND MAP YOUR STORY – TUESDAY WRITING TIP

Before I even start plotting, I mind-map my story. It’s kind of like ‘free writing’. It’s a chance to get all those random thoughts out of your head and onto paper.

For me, it has two benefits:

1.  It relieves some of the clutter in my brain and helps me to work out where my story is going.

2.  Random thoughts lead to more random thoughts – mind mapping allows my mind to roam free. It helps me understand who my characters are and what their place is in the story. It helps me to understand why things happen and how they occur.

I always start a book with an idea. The idea can come from all sorts of places; news articles, songs, music, people, objects, kids, dialogue, animal behaviour, plants, flowers, pretty much anywhere.

To show you how this all works, I’m going to use the mind map I had for my YA novel, Letters to Leonardo. The book tells the story of a boy who gets a letter from his dead mother on his fifteenth birthday. Okay, so I knew what the book was going to be about. I wrote this in a sentence in a balloon in the middle of  a very large piece of butcher’s paper.

Then I asked myself the following questions:

1. WHO is the boy? WHO is his mother?
2. WHERE has she been for the last ten years?
3. WHAT is the main character (Matt) going to do now that he knows she’s not dead?
4. WHEN is the story taking place?
5. HOW is Matt going to find his mother? HOW is Matt’s mother going to come back into the story?
6. WHY has Matt’s mother been absent from his life?

When I asked myself these questions, all sorts of answers popped into my head and I wrote them on the butcher’s paper.

I also kept asking myself another important question, over and over again WHAT IF?

1. WHAT IF Matt’s mother wasn’t dead?
2. WHAT IF she came back into his life?
3. WHAT IF she had something wrong with her?
4. WHAT IF he discovered that she wasn’t the person he wanted her to be?
5. WHAT IF there was a reason that Matt’s dad had lied to him for the past ten years?
6. WHAT IF Matt was artistic?
7. WHAT IF Matt wrote letters to someone to help him try and make sense of it all?
8. WHAT IF Matt couldn’t trust anyone living?
9. WHAT IF Matt wrote letters to his dead idol, Leonardo da Vinci?

I wrote the answers to these questions in little blocks of text around the main idea. When I thought I had all my ideas down on the butcher’s paper, I put circles around them. Then I used arrows to link the stories together. I use different colours for different story threads. Below is a simplified diagram of how I created Letters to Leonardo. You can see how I have separated the story threads, which often end up being the themes.

Here’s a simplified version of my brainstorming for Letters to Leonardo.

Letters to Leonardo brainstorming diagram

You probably won’t use all of the brainstorming bubbles in your book, but they can be a great place to start your plotting.

Hope you have found this useful.

Happy writing.

Dee:-)

* * * ON THURSDAY AT Deescribewritng – “Where Do I Start My Story?”

WHICH COMES FIRST, THE WRITING OR THE ART?

My YA novel, Letters to Leonardo was inspired by the works of Leonardo da Vinci. The more I worked on it, the more I became inspired by Leonardo’s art and the meaning behind it. The more I became fascinated with Leonardo the man.

A number of people who had read the novel even asked me if I was an artist. I’m not; just someone who appreciates and is inspired by art.

In Letters to Leonardo, 15 year old Matt Hudson gets a letter from the mother he thought was dead.  On the front of the card is a picture painted by Matt’s mum called Uluru at Dusk.

It was a figment of my imagination and the painting doesn’t actually exist. But I couldn’t help wishing that it did.

If only I could paint.

I have dabbled in pastels a bit, and the opportunity came up recently to take classes. Ambitious I know, but my first class, I thought I’m going to attempt Uluru at Dusk. So here it is.

I conclude that writing and art are a bit like the chicken and the egg – and I don’t think it matters which one comes first.

Art inspired me to write Letters to Leonardo and writing about an imaginary picture inspired me to go out and create it.

Happy writing and creating.

Dee:-)

DISCOVERY OR DESECRATION

If you’ve read my YA novel, Letters to Leonardo, you’ll have discovered that I have a long-held fascination with the amazing and talented Leonardo da Vinci.

In Letters to Leonardo, my main character Matt writes to the long dead painter as a way of making sense of what’s happening in his own life. He relates events and people to Leonardo’s paintings.

Dear Leonardo,

…they never fooled you with their lies did they, Leo? You just have to look at your paintings to know, “There’s someone who sees right to the heart of everything.”

So, as you can see, my interest in Leonardo da Vinci probably falls under the ‘obsession’ category.

Which is why I was dismayed to hear that ‘they’ are planning to exhume his body so they can study his skull to determine whether the Mona Lisa is based on Leonardo himself or his mother.

Now I’m no scientist, but wouldn’t his mother’s skull be a similar shape to his?

So, what will all this really show us?

That some people will go to any lengths to ‘prove’ something.

As a writer, I can understand this quest for discovery. As a person, I cringe at the thought.

I say,”Leave Leonardo in peace”.

Dee

INTERNET PROMOTION FOR AUTHORS

When Letters to Leonardo was released by Walker Books Australia on 1st July this year, it was a fabulous time for me. (Still is – whenever I walk into a bookstore and see my book, I get excited all over again:-).

Two of the most fun bits were the blog tour and cyber launch that happened right here on this blog, just after Letters to Leonardo came out.

I had over 1000 hits for the tour and some direct sales as a result – but more than that; it was such a great experience to get to talk about my work on other great blogs – and cyber meet other authors (I even cyber travelled to the USA).

With today’s technology, getting your book ‘out there’ on the internet is an important part of author promotion. I know how hard this can be which is why I have set up a special page on this blog to share with others how I sent Letters to Leonardo into cyberspace, and the things I learned.

I hope you enjoy reading my tips and experiences, and that they provide some ideas for promoting your own book. http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/blogging-and-cyber-touring-tips-for-authors/

Happy writing and good luck.

Dee

P.S. I’ll be talking on this topic at the CBCA NSW Conference next June with my good friend and author of the wonderful Samurai Kid’s books (my boys just love them), Sandy Fussell. www.sandyfussell.com

ANOTHER “LETTERS TO LEONARDO” REVIEW

Just had to post this lovely review by Maree Kimberley,  fellow YA writer http://girlintheshadows.blogspot.com/

Letters to Leonardo is a heartfelt and real portrait of a young adult trying to come to grips with his mother’s serious mental illness by first-time Australian author Dee White.

On his 15th birthday, Matt receives a birthday card from his mother – the mother he has always been told was dead.

After dealing with the shock, and his anger with his father who told him the lie, Matt looks for and finds his mother. But it’s not the happy-ever-after family reunion he hoped for.

This is a deeply layered book that explores a range of themes with subtlety and empathy. The story moves along at a good pace, the characters are thorougly believable and deftly drawn and the situations are dealt with sympathetically and realistically. It made me cry.

Highly recommended.

Source: facebook.weread.com

LETTERS TO LEONARDO IS NOW LAUNCHED IN QUEENSLAND

Kim, Kat and I launched our books at CYA. Sheryl expertly introduced our session.

Last Saturday, Letters to Leonardo had its Brisbane launch at the CYA conference. What a fantastic day it was.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to launch my book along with two other very talented writers, Kathryn Apel (This is the Mud) and Kim Miller (They told me I had to write this).

We had forty-five minutes to share the stories of our road to publication with the enthusiastic and supportive bunch of authors and illustrators at the conference.

"Letters to Leonardo" flew at the Brisbane launch

Our session was expertly introduced by Sheryl Gwyther, and although there was a minor technical hitch (due to my ineptitude with large screens and lots of buttons), it was a fabulous experience.

All of us had an anecdote about how entering previous CYA writing competitions had assisted us on our journey.

For me, placing third at the inaugural CYA conference in 2006 in the YA section couldn’t have come at a better time. I was down on confidence as a writer, and the judges were so encouraging about my manuscript that it gave me the impetus to rework it and get it ‘out there’.

It was subsequently published by Walker Books who have been amazingly supportive all along the way.

We were on after Jackie French - a hard act to follow:-)

Full credit to Tina, Ally and all the volunteers for another fabulous CYA conference. Jackie French was inspiring, Brian Falkner was motivating…and there were so many other inspiring speakers.

The food was great…and the enthusiasm and talent at the conference was palpable.

Can’t wait for next year.

Dee:-)

“LETTERS TO LEONARDO” IS NOW LAUNCHED IN NEW SOUTH WALES!

 

I was lucky enough to be invited to launch “Letters to Leonardo” at the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival on the weekend.

And writers from all over Australia were there to help me celebrate.

Byron Bay Writer’s festival launch

It struck me all over again how wonderfully supportive children’s writers are. Even though Thomas Keneally was in conversation in a distant marquee, a good crowd gathered to help Matt and I make our way in the world.

I was thrilled to have Anna Fienberg launching "Letters to Leonardo".

 

I was thrilled to have Letters to Leonardo launched by hugely popular children’s author and lovely person, Anna Fienberg, who talked at length about all the things she loved about Letters to Leonardo. (And happened to mention that she thought that the ending was ‘perfect’) *grin*.

Anna’s signing queue at the festival was massive and it truly made me appreciate the time she took out from her busy schedule to read and launch my book.

 

 

 

Local author Tristan Bancks, who was also in great demand at the festival, took time out from his writing, workshops, author presentations, deadlines and his gorgeous young family to give me his support.

Local author Tristan Bancks took time out from his busy schedule to be at my launch.

Jules Nickerson and her lovely family came all the way from Brisbane for the day.

It was great to see two of my Queensland writing buddies, Julie Nickerson and Angela Sunde and their families who travelled all the way to Byron just for my launch. So easy to do my presentation with their smiling faces beaming at me from the crowd.

And what a thrill it was to meet other writers from around Australia who I had never met, but had followed my blog tour and cyber launch.

 The Byron Bay Festival organisers were wonderfully supportive in helping me arrange my launch, and I’d like to thank Jeni Caffin and Sarah Ma for all their hard work.

 Thanks also to my wonderful friend Julie (we’ve been friends since we were 12), and her husband Richard who made me so welcome in their Byron Bay home.

The Byron Bay festival was attended by thousands of people and was a very casual friendly affair; with around 100 great writers and presenters. What an amazing experience to wander from marquee to marquee, listening to these people talk.

My other excitement for the day occurred in the book marquee, when one of the sales people yelled to another, “Do you know where Dee White’s book is?” To which I piped up, “I’m Dee White, and my book is over there.” *grin*.

My launch was on kid’s day, and it was fantastic to see all the young readers and aspiring writers around. (And they seemed to enjoy the ‘thank you for coming to my launch’ Crunchie bars at my launch).

 

 The Crunchie bars were very popular at my launch.

 

 

Thanks to everyone involved for making my Byron Bay Letters to Leonardo launch an unforgettable experience.

  Some Byron Bay locals:-)

LETTERS TO LEONARDO HAS TAKEN ITS FIRST STEPS – So I’m Taking Time Out To Celebrate

Letters to Leonardo 

Letters to Leonardo came out on 1^st July and unfortunately, the Productivity Commission released its report recommending the removal of Parallel Import Restrictions on books just two weeks later.

So, instead of reporting the wonderful amazing, happy times since Letters to Leonardo was released, I’ve been a bit bogged down with campaigning politicians, writing articles and letters, and blogging about this very important issue.

But today, I’m taking time out to celebrate the emergence into the world of Letters to Leonardo, my very first YA novel.

After the cyber launch was over, I had a couple of days to take a breather, and then it was time for the ‘actual’ launch on 4^th July and what a fantastic day that was.

Over 110 family, friends, writing buddies and former teachers gathered at Sunbury library to help me celebrate. As I looked out at all the people who had come to support me, it was like seeing my whole life laid out before me. There were people who had known me all my life, friends from school and people who had known me just a short time.

English teachers and friends from my high school days

I was a bit nervous about doing my speech, but as I looked across at all the proud smiling faces, I knew that it didn’t matter what I said.

And as my writing buddy from Brisbane, Sheryl Gwyther commented, “You could have said ‘blah blah blah’ and there would have been thunderous applause.”

I am truly grateful to friend and mentor, Sherryl Clark who launched Letters to Leonardo and to all the wonderful people, some of whom travelled great distances to help me celebrate my special day. I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends and to have such a great group of writing buddies who support me and help me to hone my craft.

My fantastically supportive author friends

I’d had my advance copies of Letters to Leonardo, but it wasn’t till I was signing books at my launch that I felt like a ‘real’ author.

 

 

SINCE THE LAUNCH OF Letters to Leonardo ……

 

 

Things haven’t really stopped since the launch. My blog tour still had another few days to go, then I had my first book shop signing at Collins Book store in Sunbury, where staff made me feel very welcome and even presented me with a box of chocolates after the event.

I have toured Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges with Letters to Leonardo and been warmly welcomed by all the booksellers and the reading public. So far, I’ve been to Collins Sunbury, Aesop’s Attic Kyneton and Red Door Books in Lancefield. I’m still to visit New Leaves book shop in Woodend and I’m going to be talking about my book on Woodend radio – and I have school visits and a Byron Bay and Brisbane launches planned.

                                                 Collins Booksellers Sunbury went to a lot of trouble with their instore and window displays.

It has all been, and continues to be so much fun. I’ve had some great reviews and lots of good feedback from readers of Letters to Leonardo.

So, I hope you’ll forgive me this indulgence – reliving all these wonderful Letters to Leonardo moments. I guess, when it all boils down to it, I’m just  a new author mum, proudly introducing her book baby to the world:-)

Dee