Snare Your Readers with Open Loops

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: Scheherazade]Much that is popular doesn’t pass muster with me. Music, books, food, travel, clothing: if it’s trendy, I’m probably not there. Not because I dislike being trendy; far from it. I love being the center of attention, being one of the cool kids, as much as (or more than) most. My tastes don’t seem to line up with popular. Probably plays a role in why I’m not.

What’s popular in all those categories is what sells. In each, there are lessons I can learn. We can eschew the package and order a la carte.

Over at the Writer’s Village, writer and coach John Yeoman hosted Anthony Metivier’s article 13 Reasons Why I Love James Patterson – And You Should Too. Metivier comes at Patterson from all angles. Number eight is a writing lesson I’ve been seeing without learning for ages.

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Coming About; or, Aiming the Boat in a Different Direction

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: Cap'n Fiona on the Star of India with Mommy and Daddy]Someone described the method of steering a sailboat called “tacking” as first sailing in a direction to the left of where you want to go, and then sailing in a direction to the right of where you want to go. The process of shifting from left to right is called “coming about.”

Get on a sailboat and everyplace you want to go is against the wind. Forces external to the boat, such as wind and currents and other boats, cause you to adjust your heading, even if you haven’t changed your destination. That’s also a possibility: discovering that the beach you’re heading for is crowded, but over that way is an open spot you’d prefer.

Same with any business venture.

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Eyes Open

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

The oak tree keeps its dead leaves through winter, dropping them in spring. Its dark trunk slides through the bronze leaves, gilded by the sunset over the frozen snow-covered lake.

The healing burn on my hand looks horrific now, but at its most painful it simply looked like a large blister.

When I look through the glass of the patio door at this angle, it is so wavy from age that objects beyond it, trees, mostly, seem to move as I adjust position in my office chair.

There’s almost no difference between the ATV tracks in the snow and those you’d see in sand.

As the sun sets, shining slightly in my eyes, the house looks darker by contrast, when in fact it is lighter than at any other time of day.

The knots holding the dining room chair cushions in place are never even; one always off to the side or listing somewhat to port.

[image: snow fence]
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Standing Next to Smart People

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: standing next to the smartest person in the room]I used to try to be the smartest person in the room.

What that means is I made sure that others knew how smart I was, and if someone knew something I didn’t, it was intimidating so I avoided them.

These days I like to go stand next to the smartest person in the room. And learn from them.

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A Foolish Consistency?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: rowhouses]That’s Emerson, by the way.

I read a post recently about keeping a “series bible” so you’d always get the minutiae right as you add more books to the series.

I take a different perspective. I’ll meander toward it.

First, an excerpt from my very first book The Commonsense Entrepreneur. It’s about musicians, but in most ways it applies to authors as well:

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Two Kids Walk Into An Open Mic

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: Joel plays bass]A handful of years ago we were regulars at open mic in a suburb of Sacramento. Some of the performers were excellent musicians and singers; real artists.

Some, not so much.

One night two young boys, the older probably 15 and the younger 10 or 11, came in with their electric guitars. They used a recorded rhythm section backing track and played along and sang.

From a purely musical perspective, they were not very good.

I had seen something, though.

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Most Viewed Posts of 2014

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

[image: Get Your Book Out of the Someday Box in 2014]These were the most viewed posts on the Someday Box blog in 2014.

  1. 4,472 Words of Free Marketing Advice About Marketing Free
  2. The Hook (#1 of 12 Sentences)
  3. The Ultimate Plotting Tool for Pantsers: Your Story in 12 Sentences
  4. The Setup (#2 of 12 Sentences)
  5. The First Plot Point (#3 of 12 Sentences)

A Cliché is Worth a Thousand Words

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Diagrams and illustrations make instruction manuals easier to follow.

Gestures can make speech more easily understood.

Metaphors convey ideas it would take paragraphs of words to match.

Shorthand communication. If there’s a quick and easy way to get the picture, feelings, from my mind to yours, it’s my job, even obligation, as a writer, to use the most effective method.

Clichés are shorthand, just as images are.

And both require judicious use.

[image: the bus you just missed] … more … “A Cliché is Worth a Thousand Words”

Another Structure: Shawn Coyne’s Story Grid

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

As a story structure geek, I’ve been thrilled to learn from Larry Brooks over at Storyfix.

And just as thrilled to discover the work of Shawn Coyne, by way of Steven Pressfield’s site.

An acquisitions editor for a million years, Shawn knows what it takes for a book to succeed. He knows what makes a story work, which is, as Larry keeps saying, the bare minimum, the ante, for this game. And he’s teaching it, a bit at a time, at StoryGrid.com.

The image below is the story grid for Silence of the Lambs which, though I have not indulged in either book or movie, is a classic example of story done right, according to Shawn.

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How Could Learning More Lead to Knowing Less?

Posted on by Joel D Canfield

I really miss the show Lie to Me. Chap named Cal Lightman (played brilliantly by Tim Ross) is a lie expert. He reads what are called microexpressions in the human face, and can determine whether or not a person is telling the truth. (Based on real science, pioneered by Paul Ekman, the reality is not quite as TV crime show, but is never the less fascinating.)

In the first episode he hires a TSA inspector named Ria Torres. An abusive childhood has taught her to read facial expressions. She is what Lightman calls a natural.

Although the occasional scene where Ria catches something Lightman misses is injected for humorous effect, the dynamic of their relationship is very much mentor and apprentice. Even as a natural, it is assumed that she will expand her knowledge, understanding, abilities through training and experience.

Music Theory Destroys Creativity?

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