Tag: writing fiction

Storyboarding Fiction

I went to the Southern Literary Festival in Blue Mountain, Mississippi at Blue Mountain Christian University this weekend. What I did was give a talk on how I constructed most of the stories in Hurricane Baby. It was often not as neat a process as this pattern makes it seem, but I did apply it to most of the new stories I wrote for this version of the book. I used the story “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” to illustrate the moving parts of the story.

SET THE SCENE: Answer the questions who, what, where, how, and why your characters are in whatever situation they find themselves in at the start. Always include action to bring the reader in. The reader sees Tommy wake up the morning after Hurricane Katrina, gets a sense of what he’s been through and where his head is at, and learns a bit about the character as well.

RISING ACTION: Get the characters moving. Show the reader what is happening in the world of the book. This piece of the story needs to set the events in the story in motion. Tommy Hebert gets a text message asking for people to come help a family in Mandeville. So he goes out on his boat and meets other men, his best friend Mark, and Mandeville cops who take them to the destruction.

MEAT OF THE STORY: You relay the most important part of the story here. This event should have the potential to cause a change in the characters who experience it. This is where the action is: this is where the heat is. In this story, Tommy and the other volunteers work to dig out Amy Thompson and her baby, Avery Thompson, out of the destroyed house. Tommy and a fireman are able to rescue the baby and get him to the hospital to be helped. But Amy Thompson has a heavy beam on her legs, crushing them–and Tommy finds out later that she didn’t make it.

CLIMAX: For me, the climax is not when there’s a big reveal of information to the characters and the reader. It comes when it’s revealed how the characters react to the big event/the meat of the story. In this story, Tommy is sitting in his house waiting on Mark, and a thirst for something to drown out Amy Thompson’s screams comes on him–and he succumbs to it.

DENOUMENT: The denoument is the fallout of the characters’ reaction to the climax. Tommy drinks three beers before Mark can get to him and starts a fourth as he comes in. They talk and decide Tommy’s in no shape to do the cleanup they had planned–neither physically nor emotionally. Mark leaves, and the reader is left with Tommy continuing to drink and the question of what happens next.

So this process is just one way to organize a story, but it’s been a very effective way for me to think about how to make all the events in a story/book fit together and flow naturally in a cause-and-effect manner.

No more book events in April as it’s usually a busy one for family in our house. Keep writing!

Highs and Lows

Let’s talk about the low point first.

I suspected as much, but I got the official notification on who won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, and it wasn’t me. Which was a bummer. It’s one thing to not win an award because you wouldn’t dream something like that anyway. But to be nominated unexpectedly and then not win feels a little different.

But no matter. I called out the winner on Facebook and congratulated him and encouraged everyone to buy his book. It costs nothing to be gracious even when disappointed.

But one high–the nationwide Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair was in Los Angeles, California this past week, and Hurricane Baby: Stories was there! My publisher, Madville Publishing, had a booth there and they took my book with them! I saw a photo of it because my MFA program was also there, and they hunted Madville up and posted my book on their Facebook page. So nice to see my book in such an exotic locale.

And another high point–this Friday, I went to my hometown high school where I graduated from in 1988 and spoke to the junior and senior classes about having a vision for their life, and setting goals, and executing plans to achieve those goals. I was told before the event that this was a pretty unmotivated bunch of students.

But I didn’t approach them that way. I told them I was just like them back ages ago when I’d been a high school senior, but that I had a vision of what I wanted my life to look like and I worked until I achieved it. It seemed to perk them up somewhat. They asked me to read some of the book, and when someone asked where they could find it, I handed out my bookmarks and told them how to order. I hope I inspired someone at least a little bit.

So what’s ahead? I plan to start working back on Looking for Home on April 1–hopefully my beta readers’ feedback will come in and I can start incorporating what they have to say. And Friday I am conducting a breakout session at the Southern Literary Festival in Blue Mountain, Mississippi at Blue Mountain Christian University. I’m going to talk about how I constructed the stories in Hurricane Baby by a pattern, then I’m going to give them a silly writing prompt I hope they can have fun with.

Happy reading and writing this week!

What an Interesting Development

I track several things on the Amazon page for Hurricane Baby–sales rank, number of reviews, some sales numbers. Until recently, I didn’t think much about price.

I would see the price occasionally dip to $18, $17.99, $16.50–small changes from the cover price of $20.95, but nothing to really wonder about–until after the first of this year.

Then I noticed the price dropped to $8.50 for the paperback version. (The Kindle version is $9.99.) I thought that was odd but assumed it would be short-lived. Next thing I knew, the price was $8.48. Then $8.12.

I really started to pay attention then. It kept dropping until it reached $7.99 a few weeks ago.

I wrote my publisher asking if she had any insight as to why this had happened, Her answer was “not a clue”.

Hm.

So I turned to Google for answers. I input “Why did Amazon discount my book”. I got various websites proffering reasons that largely fell into three camps:

A) The book is selling really, really well and they discount it to sell more, or

B) It’s a completely algorithmic decision, or

C) it may be a case of setting your book up as a “loss leader”, hoping that a low price will cause shoppers to buy even more products than just the one book.

Another possible reason is Amazon may have ordered too many, and they want them out of their warehouse. That doesn’t sound likely since my book is print-on-demand–the book is assembled in response to the number of orders.

I was glad to find out it wasn’t necessarily a case of Amazon being ready to remainder the book and selling copies at fire-sale prices to get rid of them, which had been my first thought.

So we will see what happens in the future for my Hurricane Baby, the little book who could. Hope everyone has a good week!

PS 3/24/2025–I posted this last night, and then I looked at Amazon and found that the book has gone back up to regular price! That’s an interesting coincidence!

Moving Right Along

So I have finished all the podcasts I was scheduled to interview for. One is supposed to come out this Tuesday–day after tomorrow. Another one, the podcaster said it would be out in June. I thought one other was supposed to have come out already, and the one I interviewed for last Thursday, I’m not sure when it’s coming out. I have three others I have reached out to that have not responded, but I think I’ve done enough in enough places to suit myself.

So now I move back into appearances. I go to my old high school in a couple of weeks, then the Southern Literary Festival at Blue Mountain Christian University in north Mississippi the first weekend in April. Two events in May, one in June, a Zoom appearance in July, and two events in August.

I have three other possibilities for August–they’re set but we need to nail down the exact dates. One in Starkville, another in Jackson, and another by Zoom. And I may get picked up by another book club. But that one is very iffy. And then there’s the banquet for the MIAL awards in July at Mississippi University for Women.

Y’all.

Just typing all of this out is unbelievable. I never thought I’d get to promote my work in so many different places. I had a lot of help to get here; people have been so receptive when I’ve just called them up or hit them up by email to see if I can do a program. It’s just been amazing. I don’t think I can emphasize that enough. Just amazing.

Riding the crest of the wave and seeing where the current takes me next! Happy writing!

The Many Sides of Terror

I’ve written here a few times about terror and writing and publishing. The terror of people actually reading your work, the terror of writer’s block and of never being able to write again, the fear of presenting your work–all of that is real.

Today’s terror is whether I can make lightning strike twice. I have a work-in-progress out for beta reading, and I’ll do a rewrite after that, then send it out for a deeper reading to get the opinion of other writers on my text. Then probably another rewrite.

But what about after that? I go back to the rounds of sending it off for queries. I don’t have any kind of deal with my current publisher to submit it to them first, though I probably will do that once they open for queries again. I have a publisher I met last year at a conference that’s interested in it, so I’m definitely going to send there first.

But what if they don’t like it? What if I haven’t sold enough of Hurricane Baby? What if, what, if, what if?

I’m learning to ignore the “What if?” question. It doesn’t do me any good to ruminate over that. All I can do is work to advance the book and get it in as many hands as possible. I have to write the best book I can right now and ready it for querying with as much care and concern as I can muster up.

What about writing terrorizes you? List it in the comments. Happy writing!

The Numbers

I’m going to sound vague on exact numbers in this post. But I do want to talk about was and was not in my first royalty statement for 2024.

First off, my publisher believes that the wholesaler, Ingram, has not paid for any books sold in October, November, and December. By my publisher’s calculations, the figures for late August and September account for half the units shipped so far, and the other half of the units should be recorded as completed sales after the fourth quarter payments come in.

Number two, even with the wonky sales numbers, I sold enough to earn out my publishing costs–the publisher paying for editorial, design, shipping, and other fees. So that was great news that the publisher has broken even on me.

Next, the statement shows only two books being returned to the publisher. Returns come from either a consumer who returned the book for a refund or from bookstores with stock they did not sell. So for me it looks like the gamble of having bookstores order my books for events is not backfiring on me. That’s a great feeling!

And finally, the publisher has only five books on hand, which means I’m coming close to having another print run if people continue buying the book. Not printing too few but not printing too many is a delicate balance for a publisher, and I’m looking good on that front.

Now–the money for the publishing costs comes out of net sales. I barely crossed that boundary with books sold listed in my royalty statement. Then I’m entitled to a portion of the sales left over, which rendered my payout nearly invisible to the human eye–low enough that the publisher can’t cut a check for it so it will carry over into the next year.

But you know what? That’s up to God. That’s his money, and he knows best how it can be used and when he needs it. All I know is that I am a debut author whose publisher is not in the hole for having taken a chance on me. That makes me feel GOOD!

Revision Finished!

So last night I finished the last few issues I had discovered in Looking for Home at the first of January! I managed most of the revisions and took two sections out of the book–they were short scenes, and while I knew what I had meant to do when I first wrote them, when I came back around to them, the story was cleaner for me having taken those sections out. All done!

So now it’s the waiting game. I sent it out to six beta readers, which sounds like a lot. But I had many, many more people read Hurricane Baby through the years than that. And each person had expressed a desire to read it when I got finished. So there you go!

So what’s next?

Some papers for conferences are next in the writing queue. I’m thinking about trying to write a few craft articles, which I’ve never done, and shop them around a bit. I want to read more. Maybe think about the next book? Too soon? 🙂

I feel very satisfied with this draft as a draft–there are areas that need work, especially in the first section. So we will see what suggestions come across the transom! Have a great week!

MORE GOOD NEWS!

I found out this week that Hurricane Baby: Stories has been nominated for a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters 2025 Fiction Award! I had heard of this award but didn’t know much about it; you can look up more information about it here.

I asked who the other nominees in my category were, and I was blown away. Only a few small press books were on the list–the rest were all with the big New York presses. Almost all of them I had heard of except two that were debut authors like me. To be included in such company with my first fiction work was astounding to me. It’s still blowing my mind.

So that was that.

In other news, I have podcasts, interviews, talks, and conferences to get going on in the rest of the month and in February. I need to write out my talks to present them, and that’s going to be interesting. One is a talk on how to go after your goals and dreams, and the other is how I figured out why I write and what I write. I have the basics of that one already typed out–it will just need a good bit of tweaking.

Aaaand I finished revising the first section of my work-in-progress, aaaand I realized I had too many fight scenes in it. Four one right after the other and one in the next to the last chapter. %$#@#$%. I don’t want the character in that many fights. So I’m definitely going to cut one scene and rearrange the others so it’s not one right after the other. I still can’t believe I did that.

So a really really high high, a middling low, and the rest business as usual. Except a year ago I could not imagine such a life for myself. Praise be!

Tracking Progress

When New Years Day 2024 rolled around, I was about half-way through revising Cassie Beck’s story that ends Looking For Home–it was the most developed, so I began with it in November 2023. I decided to track my progress by writing my down what scene I had worked on and my word count for each day I wrote on it. I started on 1/3/24 with 1160 words. Very auspicious.

In February I hit a writing slump. All I could do was sit and stare at the computer. I was stuck on how to begin Carlton Dixon’s story and how to fill in the scenes I already had. Once the slump started in mid-February, I wrote one day from then to April–335 words on March 22. But I finally got my voice back on April 1 and wrote steadily from then until Thanksgiving 2024, when I finished Merrilyn Beck’s portion of the book.

So how am I going to track my progress with the revisions I already know need to be made?

Same notebook–I tallied up how many areas needed work in this revision. I came up with 22 spots. I highlighted the areas in yellow on the screen inside the document. So then I wrote down what needed to be done in each scene in a list in my notebook in list format. This January, I plan to go through the list, make the needed revision, then check it off my list in my notebook as I complete them.

Why am I doing this?

Because it helps me counter the lies that my critical mind tells itself of how I don’t know what I’m doing, how I’m not accomplishing anything, how there’s no point in even going on with the work. Each line of accomplishment in my notebook represents a promise I kept to myself to bring this story out and share it. Seeing the accumulation of progress spurs me on to continue. A simple system–but enough of a one for me.

How do you keep track of what you’re doing and how you are progressing? Drop a note in the comments!

Happy Surprise

We get together and exchange gifts with my husband’s mother, his sister, her husband, and their sons every Christmas Day. This year I was opening a small present from my sister-in-law’s family and saw that it looked like a Christmas ornament, a porcelain star. I pulled it out of the package and turned it over.

This was the inscription:

“The year I was published. Julie Whitehead 2024.”

I was so stunned. I never knew there was even such a thing in the world as a personalized commemorative ornament like that. I went and gave my sister-in-law a hug and told her I loved it.

And they are not bookish people. But they understood what Hurricane Baby meant to me and that was enough. (Picture above courtesy of Bob Whitehead.)