Welcome

Vannetta Chapman,

author of

FALLING TO PIECES

Vannetta Chapman holds a BA and MA degree in English and has published over one hundred articles in Christian family magazines, receiving over two dozen awards from Romance Writers of America chapter groups. She published an Amish novel with Abingdon Press titled A Simple Amish Christmas. Her first Quilt Shop Murder Mystery, Falling to Pieces (Zondervan), was released in September. She is also completing a three book Amish romance series for Harvest House.

Chapman lives in the Texas hill country with her husband, cats, and a rather large herd of deer. For more information, visit her at www.VannettaChapman.com or blog with her at http://vannettachapman.wordpress.com/.

Vannetta Chapman has taken multiple online classes from me, and attended a full day Master Class.She's a multi, multi, multi-Margie grad. I'm proud to feature her on my Pubbed Margie Grad Blog!

Deep Editing Q & A for Vannetta

1. What’s your writing process?

Pantser? Plotter?

My writing is completely character driven, which means I sit down, write the number of pages I've set for my GOAL for the day, and see where my characters take me.

Dirty first draft? Edit as you go?

The next day, I usually read back over what I've written the day before, spend 30 minutes to an hour cleaning up and becoming re-acquainted with what "those people" did, but never more than an hour. Then we're off for another 10 pages! When I'm completely done, I'll go back, read all the way through and edit a bit more thoroughly before sending it off to pre-readers. This gives me a break from the story. When it comes back from these fine ladies, it gets a GOOD washing. :-)

Do you strive to complete a first draft in a certain time frame?

Oh my, yes. This time around (Book 2 in my Pebble Creek series), I'm aiming for 10 pages a day for 40 days = 400 pages. Now I don't write every day. Today we're going to see my in-laws so it's a non-writing day, and I try not to work on weekends to leave that time open for family. When I was teaching full time, weekends were writing days!

How long do you allow for deep editing a complete manuscript?

That's when it comes back from my pre-readers, and I allow 2-3 weeks.

2.  What are some deep editing tools you learned from me, and how did they make a difference in your writing?

Ha ha ha. I have my "Margie sheet." Actually I've combined some of the techniques I've learned in your class, with writing skills I picked up from my graduate degree in English with suggestions from contests feedback and current editors. In other words, my edit sheet is a work in progress. The things Margie-grads would recognize the most is looking for those clichés and deleting or changing them, back loading (adding those power words), the power of 3, and upping the emotional impact of a scene.

3. The opening of the first chapter of FALLING TO PIECES has an award-winning first line, hooks the reader, provides insight into a character, sets up the story question, and presents all that in 95 words. And every word is cadence driven. Kudos to you!

Thanks! Coming from Margie, that is high praise!

Falling to Pieces, opening of first chapter:

Dead bodies had never bothered Deborah Yoder.

Discovering old Mrs. Daisy Powell facedown in her garden had been a surprise. Her friend had died there between the butterfly weed and white indigo, had died with the dog she loved so keeping her company. Deborah had found her when she stopped by to deliver a casserole, rushed to her side and knelt there, not even thinking to go for the police, but she hadn’t been upset.

Amish considered death a natural part of the cycle of life, and Daisy Powell had lived life to its fullest.

Margie asked Vannetta:

How does the opening above differ from your first draft?  Do you remember what you cut, what you added?

That page didn't exist. The story actually began with chapter one, and without a prologue. Then we decided we needed a dead body sooner, so I backed the camera lens up a scene and showed Aunt Daisy in the garden. This was written after the story was finished. My first thought was "Oh no ... I've already Margie-ized my first 3 pages of chapter one!" I'm not kidding. I'm very careful to be sure my first 3 pages, actually my FIRST page hooks the reader. So adding a prologue after I'd done all that work was a bit frightening. Back to the keyboard, as they say...

Do you rewrite to strengthen the cadence?

Yes. Especially on page one.

4.  You have two fresh dialogue cues in this excerpt from Chapter 1.

“We’re lucky they’re young and still take such a good morning nap—​gives us more time to sew,” Deborah reasoned as she changed Joshua’s diaper. The fourteen-month-old giggled and reached for the strings of her prayer kapp.

“Definitely what we need—​more time to sew.” The teasing had left Melinda’s voice, and what crept into its place sounded like a note of despair.

Deborah lifted Joshua out of the crib, and turned to Melinda and Esther. “Why don’t we have some tea and talk about this? Surely we can find a solution.”

Esther smiled as she led Leah to the bathroom across the hall. “You’re good with solutions, Deborah. But even you can’t sell quilts in a shop that’s closed.”

“I had so hoped this would solve our problems.” Melinda stared out the window. She didn’t speak again for a few moments. When she did, her voice took on a wistfulness like the sound of the June breeze in the trees coming through the open windows. “It seemed like such a good idea when we began, but now everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. And we haven’t earned a dime.”

First Dialogue Cue:

The teasing had left Melinda’s voice, and what crept into its place sounded like a note of despair.

Second Dialogue Cue:

She didn’t speak again for a few moments. When she did, her voice took on a wistfulness like the sound of the June breeze in the trees coming through the open windows.

Margie asked Vannetta:  Tell me about those dialogue cues. What went through your mind?  Any idea why you decided to amplify the second one?

As I said, I'm character-driven. I adore Melinda, and she becomes a major character in book 2, Material Witness. I didn't know her entire story at this point, but I knew that she had a lot of heartache in her life, and I needed to convey it here, in this opening scene. I need to give a sliver of her back story, but only a sliver. Deborah hears it, recognizes it, and it's what spurs her on. It's our beginning catalyst for what happens next in the story. We all know our closest friends very well. They don't have to verbalize their hurts to us. We know by their body language and their tone of voice when something is wrong. I wanted to convey that between these 3 women, then contrast it to Callie ... who is completely alone with a dog she's had for less than a day and doesn't know how to care for.

They are both so well written. I love the content, love the cadence, and love the imagery in the second one too.

Your writing is so smooth and strong. You make it look effortless. But writers know that good writing takes work, work, work!

Thanks, Margie! I honestly do tell every writer who asks me that the difference in my writing happened when I took your classes. I was a good writer before--I had an agent and we were working to find a home for my manuscripts. But your deep editing classes were like a key in a lock! They took my writing and added that extra bit to differentiate it, and I think that's why the very next book--A Simple Amish Christmas drew so much attention. It was the first book I applied Margie Edits to, and in a sense it brought me contracts from Abingdon, Zondervan and Harvest House.

Woohoo! Thank you! I'm thrilled that my deep editing techniques made your writing fresh and powerful. Writing fresh and powerful got you all those contracts!

BLOG GUESTS -- One of you will win a copy of FALLING TO PIECES! I'll do the drawing tomorrow morning and post the winner's name on the blog. Please post a comment, ask a question, or say Hi!