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| In This Issue: | January/February, 2010 |
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Pre-Flight Check In: What's in Your Tank?
Flight Review: Portland, Oregon! Flight Plans for March and April: March: On-line Class: Empowering Characters' Emotions! April: Immersion Master Class: Deep Editing Power April: Presenting in St. Louis! Add Power and Take Off with a Deep Editing Analysis: Robert Crais!
Flight Challenges: Dare Devil Dachshund Contest!
Mileage Points: Booking Master Classes, Retreats, Conferences |
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| Pre-Flight Check In: What's in Your Tank? | |
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What's in Your Tank? Pilots are hyper-vigilant regarding fuel levels. Before they take-off, they know e Pilots always refuel as planned. They don't decide to keep flying and hope they make it to the next airport. DO YOU REFUEL? What do you do to keep your BODY and MIND and EMOTIONS in top form? The right food, the right sleep, the right exercise, the right focus time, the right connections with friends and family -- they all contribute to keeping you refueled to go strong. We all know what we can do to maintain feeling good and enjoying life. Wh TAKE CHARGE NOW. Make your committment to live each day smarter. Take care of yourself hour to hour and day to day. Plan ahead. Refuel before you crash. Keep your body and mind and emotions fueled to make 2010 your year for success. |
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| Flight Review: Portland, Oregon! | |
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Two Day Master Class in Portland, Oregon! Hanna Rhys Barnes, author of WIDOW'S PEAK, was the one woman make-it-happen organizer of this Master Class Weekend in Portland. Hanna deserves a halo! Here's what Jessa Slade, author of SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, said about the Master Class Weekend: "I'm Photo: Jessa Slade on day two of the Master Class. Thank you Jessa! Jessa must be an old writing soul in a young body. :-) |
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| Flight Plans for March and April: | |
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March: On-line Class --- Empowering Characters' Emotions! Would you like to learn how to: Capture emotion on the page? Hook the reader by eliciting a visceral response? Analyze your scenes? Fix scenes that don’t work? Increase micro-tension? Add psychological power to a good scene and make it stellar? You will learn all that and more in Empowering Characters' Emotions! Deadline to Register: February 27, 2010 April and May: Immersion Master Classes:
I'm offering two sessions in the fall, September 12 -16 and October 7 - 11. Enrollment is limited to seven per session. The September session has two openings; October has four openings. The photo above shows IMC'ers stretching brain cells in my living room. The photo on the right was taken on a lunch break -- a five minute walk from my house. You can almost see the snow-capped mountains forming the Continental Divide in the background.
Most months, this is the stunning view from the w Here's the frosty view from my writing loft today, Feb. 21st. Click here for specifics regarding the lodge and a full description of this intense three-day immersion Master Class on Deep Editing Power.
April 23rd and 24th: St. Louis, Missouri Missouri Romance Writers of America is bringing me in to present an extended Master Class on Empowering Characters' Emotions. We'll have a two hour session on Friday, April 23, 7:00 - 9:00PM, plus a full day Master Class, Saturday, April 24, 8:30 - 5:00PM. I'll get to cover more material in this power-packed learning weekend! Click here to read the course description on MoRWA's website. Thank you. |
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| Add Power and Take Off with a Deep Editing Analysis! | |
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Deep Editing Analysis: THE FIRST RULE, Robert Crais Growing up, Robert Crais probably watched more movies, multiple times , than any other writer. The drive-in movie theatre he lived behind shaped his life. He started out writing for television—Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice. During those years he wrote two never-been-read-by-anyone novels. Crais refers to those unpublishabl e novels as his learning curve.
Good to be reminded that even authors like Crais, the ones in the million-dollar-advance club, had to waste time writing woeful writing craft and predictable plodding prose, before they learned how to use every nuanced technique to craft a winning novel.
In 1987 his debut novel, THE MONKEY’S RAINCOAT, was released. It Two Reviews for THE FIRST RULE: "Is it possible for a crime novel to be both ultra-violent and elegant? If so, then Robert Crais' THE FIRST RULE is a prime example. The mayhem is graphic and unflinching, but the prose and storyline are as sleek and efficient as a beautifully crafted piece of storytelling should be." --Seattle Times, Adam Woog “In Joe Pike, Robert Crais has created a complex, compelling character, who in the hands of a lesser writer would reflect a flat stereotype of the silent, menacing killer found in B-grade action films. Crais avoids that hazard by investing Pike with depth, intelligence and a fullness of character that makes him both believable and, while still scary, approachable. It takes tremendous skill to create the appearance of effortlessness that his writing evinces. The highest praise I can give a novel is that I read it in a single sitting. That was the case with The First Rule. Highly recommended.” --Terry Hertzler DEEP EDITING ANALYSIS: Want to get reviews like Crais? Let’s dive in and analyze some lines from THE FIRST RULE, released in January, 2010. Examples: 1. Terrio turned white, and Deets snapped a glance as fast as a nail gun. 2. Terrio was staring at Pike so intently that he looked as if he might tip out of the chair. Deep Editing Analysis: These lines may not impress you with Crais's genius. But writers can learn from those smooth lines. Both have excellent cadence. Read them out loud. You’ll hear the rhythmic power. It drives the reader through the sentence and keeps the power going, going, going. We’ll dig deeper. The first one earned three Emotional Hits (my term) from me. 1. Terrio turned white, and Deets snapped a glance as fast as a nail gun. -- 1st Emotional Hit: Terrio turned white . . . Crais could have stopped there. Glad he didn’t. -- 2nd Emotional Hit: Deets snapped a glance (at Terrio). Crais could have stopped with those two Emotional Hits. Again – I’m glad he didn’t. -- 3rd Emotional Hit: Deets snapped a glance as fast as a nail gun. Crais added more power. He slipped in a snappy (Ha!) negatively-connoted simile, and he backloaded it with a power word, ‘gun.’ 2. Terrio was staring at Pike so intently that he looked as if he might tip out of the chair. What’s special about that stare? Crais could have written a line with ‘hard stare’ or ‘cutting gaze’ or: Terrio’s stare lasered into Pike. We've all read similar lines. We've probably all written similar lines. Nothing wrong with those lines--as long as they're not too predicatable for the reader. Writers can expand their repertoire and add power. Crais alluded to what I call an ideomotoric shift. Ideomotoric Shift: When someone learns something new, something that carries a heavy emotional load, they usually react in some physical regain-their-equilibrium way. The news knocks them off balance and they shift to regain their balance. Pike doesn’t tip out of his chair. But Pike’s reaction to the stare is so intense, it’s implied that his body tips. It looks like he could tip out of his chair. Crais's unsung brilliance in that line, is his emphasis on Pike’s response to Terrio’s stare. Get it? Look at the line I wrote. Terrio’s stare lasered into Pike. I only showed the stimulus, the hard stare. I left out Pike’s powerful response. Which means, I omitted the power of stimulus/response. I omitted Deep Editing Power. Example: When Cole was gone, Pike drew the .357 and thumbed back the hammer. The locking steel spring was a breaking bone in the quiet house. Deep Editing Analysis: How's the cadence? You don't have to read it out loud to know it has a compelling rhythm. What if you tweaked it? What if you turned that scene-themed metaphor into a scene-themed simile, nixed 'was' and added 'sounded,' flipped two words, and left off the last four words? When Cole was gone, Pike drew the .357 and thumbed back the hammer. The locking steel spring sounded like a bone breaking. Does that sound as pleasing to your Cadence Ear? It's backloaded with a power word/phrase now. But it lost power. Why? The cadence isn't as compelling. Plus, an important component was nixed. The fact that the house was quiet, makes the noise from the steel spring more pronounced. But Crais didn't use obvious words and phrases. He didn't use--echoed or resounded or resonated in the quiet house. He didn't write that it sounded too loud or ominous. He wrote it fresh. Example: She stared at him, and now her tan face paled. Pike read her apprehension in how she shifted, a subtle step to the side as if she felt her own private earthquake. Deep Editing Analysis: Umm. Fresh writing. How many Emotional Hits? 1. stare 2. face paled 3. she shifted 4. a subtle step to the side 5. as if she felt an earthquake 6. Crais added more specificity - her own private earthquake Six Emotional Hits in thirty-two words. Crais used three power words: apprehension, private, and earthquake. He backloaded with earthquake. I'm sure you noticed this last deep editing point. Her step to the side is an ideomotoric shift. An emotional bullet hit its target. You may be wondering why I count Emotional Hits. I count them when teaching to spotlight how an author added power. To SHOW writers how they can add power by adding more Emotional Hits--and writing fresh. Crais could have written it like this: She stared at him, and her tan face paled. She took a step back. That covers it. Right? But those lines carry a fraction of the power. That's why I developed DEEP EDITING. I dissect lines, passages, and scenes and analyze them to determine what carries the most psychological power. What hooks the reader emotionally, viscerally. What makes one book a skimmer and another book a page turner. NOTE: Some writers ask why I give away so many writing tips in my newsletters and on my web site. I have developed hundreds of deep editing teaching points. They're covered in my five on-line classes and Lecture Packets -- and they comprise over 1500 pages of lectures. I'm happy to give writers a taste of how I analyze writing -- and share a few gems. I trust that some writers will want to learn more. They'll want to take on-line classes or order Lecture Packets so their writing will carry psychological power too. ROBERT CRAIS'S NOVELS are loaded with psychologically empowered writing. I hope you enjoyed this deep editing analysis. I hope it motivates you to dig deep into deep editing and power your writing to a bestseller list. |
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| Contests | |
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The DareDevil Dachshund Contest! The DareDevil Dachshund Contest is my light-hearted way of connecting--and giving Each month, one lucky writer wins my EDITS System Power Pack. The biggie prize in the pack is delivered by phone or Skype--one hour of my Deep Editing brain. All the cartoons are by professional cartoonist, Dana Summers. To read more contest details, click on: DareDevil Dachshund Contest. The Real Dachshunds!
One morning I wanted Calypso to stay awake until I left the house for the day. I leaned her favorite napping pillow, a fluffy frog, against a table leg. She tried to snuggle in and nap on it anyway. I update puppy photos on my web site every couple of weeks. Look under Margie's Smiles. :-) DON'T MISS THE CONTEST! February's Dare Devil Dachshund Contest ends Feb. 23rd! |
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| Flight Deviation | |
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February's How-to Author features Alicia Rasley! Alicia Rasley, author of THE POWER OF POINT OF VIEW and THE STORY Don't miss this opportunity to ask Alicia Rasley-- writing expert and RITA-award-winning author--your writing questions! |
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| Mileage Points - Upgrade | |
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I'm booking full day Master Classes, two-day Weekend Master Classes, and half-day to full-day workshops for retreats and writing conferences. I have three openings in 2010 -- and 2011 is half booked. Feel free to contact me with questions. Thank you. |
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| Smooth Landings | |
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This month, smooth landings makes me think about the Olympic athletes in Vancouver. How hard do they work to achieve smooth landings? On ice skates. On skis. On snowboards. Olympic athletes dedicate themselves to improving every nuanced facet of their performance. They don't skip daily training sessions. They persevere. They dig deep and pay attention to the most minute nano-movements. Olympic athletes PREPARE for an excellent performance. Pilots prepare for an excellent (and safe) flight. What are YOU doing now to prepare for excellence in your writing? Commit to excellence in your writing life. Dig deep to edit deep. Hone your writing skills and make your writing life landings smooth. All the best..................Margie www.MargieLawson.com |
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xactly where they will land to refuel. They fill their tanks before every flight. Their pre-flight check includes checking the fuel in their tanks for ice crystals. In flight, they switch fuel tanks every half-hour, to keep weight balanced.
y do most people do these things part of the time, or rarely?
an old and jaded writing workshop junkie. The two intensive days I spent with Margie's insights were the best since my very first RWA conference where I learned about the three-act structure and GMC. If you think you've heard it all, if you're looking for the same burst of enthusiasm as when you discovered the hero's journey and couldn't wait to launch yourself down that path, take a class with Margie."
My next two Immersion Master Class sessions, April and May, are full.
The Immersion Master Class sessions are held in my mountain top home west of Denver. Participants stay at the lodge next door. So handy!
indow in my writing loft.
introduced his successful Elvis Cole / Joe Pike series. Now a consistent New York Times bestseller, Crais has published seventeen award-winning novels. The movie, HOSTAGE, starring Bruce Willis, was based on Crais's second stand-alone crime novel.
away prizes!
Check out my two miniature dachshunds, Thalia (13 years old) and Calypso (16 weeks), playing tug of war.
Margie's Newsletter
The Buzz About Margie
I use the psychologically-based techniques I learned in Margie's Empowering Characters' Emotions class to add texture and flavor to my writing. Margie taught me that a visceral response will outdo an adverb every time. Now my heroine's heart no long beats loudly - it pounds like a drunk in an old western dragging his tin cup across the jail bars.
Favorite Quote:
