Book Review: WHERE DO YOU HANG YOUR HAMMOCK? by Bella Mahaya Carter

It's been a while since I read a nonfiction book, so when I was offered this new one, I jumped at the opportunity. Scroll down for my complete review.

Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?

by Bella Mahaya Carter

Publication Date: June 1, 2021

Publisher: She Writes Press 

ISBN: 9781647420659

Description from the Publisher: 

In Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? seasoned coach and author Bella Mahaya Carter shows writers how to use their present circumstances as stepping-stones to a successful and meaningful writing life, navigated from the inside out. It encourages writers and authors to rethink their ambitions (which may be fueled by the tyrannical demands of the ego) and trust in their heartfelt purpose and values in the journey to becoming, or continuing on, as authors.

Many writers believe their self-sabotaging thoughts are trustworthy and true. They take rejection personally. They surmise that if they don’t achieve their goals they have failed, and lose sight of who they are and what matters most.

This book is for writers looking for inspiration and for authors daunted by the publishing process, who might lack the requisite author platform to get published the way they dreamed, or whose careers may not be unfolding as expected. It aims to be the friend and trusted expert writers turn to when hijacked by their own thinking. Ultimately, it reminds authors that they are infinite creators. 

About the Author: 

Bella Mahaya Carter is a creative writing teacher, empowerment coach, speaker, and author of an award-winning memoir, Raw: My Journey from Anxiety to Joy, and a collection of narrative poems. She has worked with hundreds of writers since 2008 and has degrees in literature, film, and spiritual psychology. Her poetry, essays, fiction, and interviews have appeared in Mind, Body, Green; The Sun; Lilith; Fearless Soul; Writer’s Bone; Women Writers, Women’s Books; Chic Vegan; Bad Yogi Magazine; Jane Friedman’s blog; Pick The Brain; the Spiritual Medial Blog; Literary Mama, several anthologies' and elsewhere.

My Review:

Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? by Bella Mahaya Carter is an excellent resource for writers.

At first, I was confused by the title. What does a hammock have to do with writing? At the very beginning of the book, Carter explains the concept with a personal story, which serves as a perfect analogy for the publishing industry. Not only did she have me hooked with that single story, but I also bought myself a hammock swing as a result. Now I just have to decide where to hang it.

Whenever I read a nonfiction book, the first thing I do is read the author's bio. What qualifies this person as an "expert" in the field, and why should I trust what she has to say? Well, Carter's bio is impressive (shown above), and it made me curious what I exciting things I'd be able to learn from her writing.

The next thing I do is flip to the table of contents, which should be easy to navigate and give an overview of the book. Carter's table of contents is clear and concise, giving a detailed roadmap of the book. This enables the reader to pick and choose topics to read in short spurts or to read the whole from beginning to end. 

Then, before actually reading anything, I flip through the book and scan the pages. Sometimes a nonfiction book can feel overwhelming to me, and if there are charts, quotes boxes, divided sections--these elements help break up the narrative, making the book easier for me to digest. Carter's book is mostly narrative, but the chapters are short and the sections are divided, which helps break up the prose. Also, at the end of each chapter is a journal prompt that allows the reader to ponder the concepts presented.

The journal prompts would blend well with the "Morning Pages" concept from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. I intend to use the two books together to help me explore my creative confidence.

As I read the book, I was surprised more primary sources were not cited for stated facts. For example, in the chapter on traditional publishing Carter states, "...royalties--generally a small percentage (about, 7.5%)..." No sources cited. In the same chapter, she quotes Brooke Warner, writing, "...sobering fact: Only 2 percent of authors make their living from their writing alone." This is not a primary source.  A primary source would be the study or research paper that gathered these statistics. Giving information in this manner can be misleading or worse yet, offer misinformation. I'm a big believer in seeking out primary sources rather than taking second-hand information as gospel truth. I wish Carter had cited actual primary sources so readers could read additional information for themselves, if wanted. This is my only criticism of the book. 

This book makes a great companion book for Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. If you haven't yet read either of those - I highly recommend them.

Where Do You Hang Your Hammock? by Bella Mahaya Carter is thought-provoking and insightful, helping readers explore their dreams about writing with interesting concepts to nourish their creativity.

[I was offered an early copy from FSB Associates in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

IWSG: Whose Perspective - Hero or Villain?

The purpose of the Insecure Writers' Support Group is to "share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!"

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

This Month's Question: "Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?"

My Answer: Since I write for the young adult audience, my novels are written from the perspective of the protagonist. However, during the drafting and revision phases, I will often write passages from the antagonist's perspective in order to better understand that character and his or her motivations. These passages don't make it into the finished manuscript, but bits and pieces and the essence of the writing filter through to the story.


How about you? Whose perspective do you like to write from?

6 Inspiring Quotes to Help Develop Your Story Idea

Today, I'm teaching a writing workshop at the Nampa, Idaho, Public Library. We're talking about ways to develop a story idea into a well-rounded concept. Here are some the major ideas we'll be addressing (as usual, you're welcome to copy and share these images as long as you give proper credit and link back to this site):

If you'd like me to come and present this one-hour, hands-on workshop for your school, writers' group, or conference, email me for more information at margokelly1 @ outlook . com (without the spaces, and using the number one after my name).

Happy writing!

Developing Your VOICE

The concept of “voice” is an elusive one for many writers, but when you utilize techniques to develop your author’s voice, the narrative voice, and each character’s voice, your manuscript will become significantly more dynamic.

Below is an exercise from Donald Maass's The Fire in Fiction to help find and develop your author's voice.

1. Choose a page from your manuscript.
2. Rewrite the page, stripping all colorful description and replacing nouns and verbs with generic choices. Make the characters and action bland.
3. Rewrite the page again, using all upper crust formality.
4. Rewrite it again, making main character easily offended by everything.
5. Rewrite again, observing as a foreign tourist, with awe and bewilderment.
6. Rewrite it again, utilizing the wisdom of an elderly person.
7. Finally, rewrite it as it will appear in print, embracing your own voice—opinions, observations, sensibilities.

(The above exercise is paraphrased from Donald Maass’s The Fire in Fiction.)


An author's voice is “… the outlook, opinions, details, delivery, and original perspectives that an author brings to his tale. Above all, a singular voice is not a lucky accident; it comes from a storyteller’s commitment not just to tell a terrific story but to tell it in a way that is wholly his own.”

-- Donald Maass, Literary Agent

What do you think? Have you mastered your own distinctive author's voice?

Building Blocks of Storytelling with Margo Kelly & Joshua Bellin

This weekend, I had the pleasure of teaching a writing workshop for the Idaho Writers Guild with author Joshua David Bellin. We had a fabulous time talking about building better worlds, better characters, and better suspense. The writers in attendance had valuable ideas to share, and we left feeling energized to go home and write better stories! Here are some pictures from the event:

 

 

If you're interested in having me teach a writing workshop for your group, click on the "appearances" tab at the top of this page to see a list of topics I present regularly and feel free to email me at margokelly1 @ outlook . com (without the spaces) for more information.

Character Development Chart

When #writing - do you struggle to develop your #characters? Here's a simple chart to help you map out the arcs for each of the characters in your story.



For additional help developing your characters, check out these previous posts on the topic:
22 Character Questions
Cutting Secondary Characters
Character Development
Character Development Part II
Character Development Part III
Character Development Part IV

5 Tips for #Writing Action Scenes

Often times as writers, we rush through an action scene. It happens so quickly in our mind’s eye that our fingers can’t write it out fast enough. However, these five tips will help improve the action scenes in your manuscript:

1.      Develop the Protagonist Beforehand: When readers are invested in the well-being of a character, they’re more likely to hold their breath as that character fights (literally or figuratively) through an action scene.

2.      Develop the Antagonist: Likewise, when a reader believes in the evil capacity of the antagonist, then the reader will fear the villain who is committing the action more than the action itself.

3.      Convince the Characters: If an action scene is a bit hard to believe, don’t try to convince the reader; instead, convince the characters of the reality of the situation.

4.      Break the Scene into Four Still-Shots: Imagine a photographer at the scene of the action. Which of his photographs (still-shots) would be the four most important ones?

5.      Improve Those Four Still-Shots: Really explore those images. What are the small sensory details that are only noticed upon closer examination? What is your protagonist feeling in each of those still-shots? Don’t go easy on yourself as a writer. Push past the surface details and shallow emotions. Describe the moment as richly as possible to allow the reader to fully experience the scene.

Take your time with this process. In order to give the reader the fullest experience possible, we need to go back and revise not only that one action scene, but also the details of the manuscript leading up to that scene. The result will be worth the effort.

Book Review: HOW TO WRITE A MEMOIR IN 30 DAYS

How to Write a Memoir in 30 Days: Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating and Publishing Your Personal Story by Roberta PHD Temes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a great book for beginning writers. It includes daily prompts, examples, and grammar tips.

However ... while there are many excellent exercises in this book to help you process your ideas, I'm quite skeptical about the concept of writing an entire memoir in thirty days. Maybe you could finish a rough draft, but it's misleading to suggest that in a mere thirty days you'll be ready to pursue publication.

Temes writes on page 11, "Do not worry about your ability as a writer. Later on, toward the end of the thirty days, you will quickly and easily learn how to polish your writing."

I agree that for a first draft you should not worry about the quality of your writing, but I disagree that polishing is quick or easy. Learning to polish your writing is a time consuming and often challenging task. It's one I love, and I hope to do it for the rest of my life, but it is not quick or necessarily easy ... for me at least.

If you take into account that you most likely will NOT finish your memoir in thirty days, you can use this book as a guide to brainstorm through your life stories. This would make an excellent gift book for someone who loves journaling or someone who is ready to document their life for their children.

As Temes writes in the introduction, "They may not yet realize it, but your children and their children and grandchildren may one day want to know about you -- your opinions, your ideas."

If this describes you and your purpose behind writing, then this would be a great book for you!







View all my reviews

Book Review: HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER

How to Write a Damn Good Thriller: A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters by James N. Frey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a good book for authors to add to their arsenal of writing tools.

While there were some EXCELLENT sections in this book, there were also a LOT of pages of information that were not helpful to me at all. However, the significance of the great sections outweighed the disappointment of the weak sections, and so overall I'm still glad that I invested the time and money into this book.

The excellent sections included:
* How to create a villain
* Exploiting the dark mission of the villain
* The plot behind the plot
* Creating a hero

The disappointing sections included:
* Plot structure
* Voice and viewpoint
* Opening, middle, and satisfying resolution

I'm really excited about the information I learned from Frey's book regarding character development and the idea of the plot behind the plot. I've already utilized many of his suggested exercises for my next manuscript.

But regarding the other sections, here are books that I'd recommend instead:
Plot Structure, Openings, & Satisfying Resolutions: SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder
Voice: WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES by Deborah Halverson
Middle: FIRE IN THE FICTION by Donald Maass



View all my reviews

22 Character Questions

Does your manuscript feature strong characters? Are they well developed? Are they properly motivated?

Ernest Miller Hemingway said: "When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."

Do the people in your story live?

Here is an exercise to help develop your characters. Cut and paste it into your word processing program and answer the questions for each of your characters. Build them and motivate them.

1. Character Name:
2. Five Adjectives to Describe Him:
3. Why is he in the story:
4. Five Physical Attributes:
5. How is he linked to other characters:
6. Could his role be combined with another character to simplify the story and complicate the characters:
7. At the beginning of the story, what does this character MOST believe:
8. At the end of the story, what does this character most believe:
9. At the beginning of the story, why is the main character most afraid of this character:
10. At the end of the story, what has the main character learned from this character:
11. What does this character want more than anything:
12. What three things stand in his way of getting what he most wants:
13. What choices does he make to overcome these obstacles:
14. Is his dialogue unique to him:
15. Are his actions unique to him:
16. Is he motivated in each scene by what he wants most:
17. What reasons does the reader have to hope for this character:
18. What are his strengths:
19. What are his weaknesses:
20. What's his innermost conflict:
21. What's the most outrageous thing he can do:
22. What can he say that the reader cannot:

These questions are a compilation of ideas I've accumulated over time in my research to become a better writer. They've come from great books like:

THE FIRE IN FICTION by Donald Maass
WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass
WRITING YA FICTION FOR DUMMIES by Deborah Halverson
THE STORY BOOK by David Baboulene
SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder

If you could add a question to the list above, what would it be?

Poke Your Reader in the Eye

I forgot how much torture fun revising can be. %-P (picture me cross-eyed with tongue hanging out)

But I do love a good challenge, and while working to improve my m.c. in the first ten pages (see Monday's post) ... I've been reading up on blog posts by Donald Maass. His ideas and prompts are thought provoking and really get my writing wheels rolling.

Here's a snippet (not on characters) regarding your inciting incident:

"Find in the inciting event that which would rile up anyone. Magnify and elaborate that element. Poke your readers in their eyes. Make them defensive. Make them mad. Make them think. A well-constructed inciting incident will stir up your readers but leave them with no idea what they would do. To resolve their inner unbalance, they’ll have to find out what your protagonist will do."

Sweet!

Poke your reader in the eye. That will make them buy more books from you ... RIGHT?!

What about you? Does the inciting incident in the book you're writing or reading right now have that "poke you" element?

Profiling Your Character

I've decided I like revising more than writing the first draft. Now the fun stuff begins ... or was I supposed to figure this all out before writing the first draft? Hmm. Oh well.

While revising, I came across a great list of questions to ask your main character. From page 87 in Deborah Halverson's WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES (btw: I still hate the title, but love the book):

1. What is her stance in the world?
2. Is she acquiescent? Challenging? Compromising?
3. Is she quick to anger or does she long for peace?
4. How does she act when confronted with a difficult decision or person?
5. How does she react to someone else's difficulty?
6. What does she think is important? True? Impossible?
7. What brings her joy? Gives her pain?
8.What does she really, really, want?
9. Are her desires and reactions consistent? If not--real people are not always consistent--what is the reason?

What do you think? Great list? Will you use the questions for your characters?

2 Tips to Overcome Passive Writing

1. Do a word search in your ms for "WAS" and reconstruct those sentences. Just because the word WAS appears in a sentence, does not necessarily mean it's passive, but it is definitely a red flag.

For example:

"The key was lost by Vance." = Passive voice is when the action in the sentence is performed ON the sentence's subject.

A better sentence is when the subject performs the action himself. = "Vance lost the key."

2. Do a word search in your ms for "AS" and reconstruct those sentences. When your sentences begin with a subordinate clause (often starting with the word AS), the reader can feel distanced from the story.

For example:

"As she ran by the coat rack, Tessa grabbed her jacket. "Rain, rain, go away!" she shouted as she pulled up her hood. She raced across the street as the first drops fell." = The action is suffocated.

Instead, try a more active construction. = "Tessa grabbed her jacket from the rack. The forecast called for rain. "Rain, rain, go away!" she shouted from the open doorway. A fat raindrop smacked her forehead. Tess pulled up her hood, stuck out her tonge at the clouds, and then bolted across the street."

The tips above were taken from pages 170-171 of WRITING YOUNG ADULT FICTION FOR DUMMIES by Deborah Halverson.

What do you think? Do you consider subordinate clauses to be a form of passive writing? Do you use them?

Inspiration or Lack of Inspiration?

What do you do when you're lacking inspiration? Do you write anyhow? Do you eat chocolate? Do you clean the house? Do you go shopping? Do you read a book?

As writers, the best thing we can do when we are lacking inspiration is: write anyhow.

** Google writing prompts and force yourself to write a piece of flash fiction.

** Open a book on the craft of writing--just flip randomly to a page--and use whatever revising, writing, or editing technique is discussed on that page to improve your current work in progress.

** Write a scene in first person; then rewrite it in third person; then rewrite it in second person.

Basically, if you are lacking inspiration, spend some time exercising your writing skills. Sometimes it's necessary to chop down less trees and take time to sharpen the axe.

What Do You Fear ??

The majority of this material was borrowed from:

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/03/02/what-are-you-afraid-of/

1.      What is your deepest fear?

2.      To what extent would you go to avoid it?

3.      Where does this fear come from?

4.      What if your deepest fear was magnified by ten? Then, what extent would you go to in order to avoid it?

5.      What if you failed twice to overcome your fear? Would you try one more time to overcome it?

6.      Why or why not?

......

7.      What are you least willing to admit about yourself?

8.      What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done wrong?

9.      If these secrets were revealed to the world, who would be hurt?

10.  What would you do to keep the secret from ever coming out?

...... 

11.  What is your deepest shame?

12.  Why are you a fraud?

13.  What are you powerless to change? 

......

Our worst fears are not hiding out there in the dark; they’re the darkness inside us.

Can we turn our fears to our advantage?

Authors do it every day. Think about some of your favorite books. When novelists unsettle us we praise them. As a story teller, fear is your friend. Authors are encouraged to open the door and invite fear in.

Try answering the above questions from your protagonist's point of view ... you might be surprised with what you discover.

The majority of this material was borrowed from:

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/03/02/what-are-you-afraid-of/

Donald Maass founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York in 1980. His agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), The Fire in Fiction (2009) and The Breakout Novelist (2011). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.

Dialogue

The regularly scheduled IWSG post is being interrupted to bring you the following important information about the letter D ...

Should writing dialogue be hard? We all speak everyday ... right? So, why would it be hard to write?

Well, partly, because if you are writing "everyday" dialogue, your readers will be bored to tears.

Don't believe me?

Then think about what literary agent, Donald Maass, wrote on the topic:

"In real life most of what people say to each other is drivel. Transcripts of genuine dialogue, as in police wire taps, is a chronicle of halting, disjointed, nonlinear incoherence. Really, it's a wonder that we understand each other. Dialogue in novels is, thank goodness, unnatural. The author has time to think it through" (THE FIRE IN FICTION, p.190).

What do you think?

Is writing dialogue a challenge? Do you agree with Maass?

Editorial Note: Please consider giving a book or a buck to the BOOK DRIVE for teenagers! If everyone from the AtoZ Challenge gave a single dollar ... we'd have a huge donation for this high school library. My goal is to donate 500 books (plus monetary contributions). So far we've raised $30. CLICK HERE to help out! THANKS!!

A Critique for YOU!

When I *finally* got an agent (an uber-awesome-one, btw), a writer said to me, "Make sure that you give back to the writer community."

Okay.

I'd like to do that by offering FREE critiques of the first 250 words (approximately the first page) of your manuscript. Ideally, I'd like to post the writing and critique on this blog, but if you're terribly opposed to that, I'd still be happy to offer the critique to you.

Disclaimer: I say what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I am not intentially harsh; I just don't waste time sugar coating my opinion.

So, if you'd like a critique, email me at margokelly@q.com and let me know if I can post it on this blog.

THANKS!!

Campaign Challenge: ALONE

Today starts a fun campaign challenge. CLICK HERE for all of the details.

Basic details: "Write a flash fiction story in 200 words or less. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count. If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:
• end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)
• include the word "orange" in the story
• write in the same genre you normally write
• make your story 200 words exactly!"

I tackled all of the items on the list. :) Here's my entry:


ALONE
by
Margo Kelly

 Shadows crept across the wall. I froze in bed listening for the sound to come again, but only the antique clock on my mother’s dresser ticked as I refused to breathe. What had woken me? The heater? A passing car? What was I thinking when I convinced my parents to let me stay by myself for the night? I’m seventeen. I should be fine. I took a deep breath and fluffed my pillow—the silky orange fabric seemed black in the darkened room. But before I threw my head back down on the pillow, more shadows crawled along the wall, and a moan from outside the bedroom window made every hair on my skin stand. A lump grew in my throat, cut off my air. I grabbed the cordless phone, and my finger hovered, ready to dial 911. But I hesitated. Maybe my imagination tricked me. I tiptoed to the window and pulled the drapes away from the edge of the frame. Flashlights danced across the yard. I leaned closer. White balls cascaded through the trees leaving long trails behind. A smile snuck across my face. Friends were toilet papering the yard. I let the drapes close and everything faded.

The Beginning and The End

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Have you ever evaluated how the beginning and ending of your manuscript are related? What about the beginning and ending of each chapter? Each scene?

Other than the obvious facts that these are related by plot and characters, consider the following comments from successful people in the industry:

"The opening image is also an opportunity to give us the starting point of the hero. It gives us a moment to see a "before" snapshot ... there will also be an "after" snapshot to show how things have changed. ... The opening and final images should be opposites ... showing a change so dramatic it documents the emotional upheaval ..." (Blake Snyder, SAVE THE CAT, pp. 72-73).

And, Donald Maass spends pages discussing the topic as well. "Does it matter what is the last line of your scene, or the first? Apparently, many authors do not think it does. ... That's a shame. Like a handshake, an opening and closing line can create impressions and expectations. They can set a tone. They can signal where we're going, or what we've done, or serve any number of other useful story purposes. ... Creating them deliberately, is a discipline worth developing. ... Suppose you did a first line / last line draft, doing nothing but honing the bookends of every scene in your manuscript. Would those little changes give your story a bigger and more effective shape?" (Donald Maass, THE FIRE IN FICTION, pp. 69-73).

What do you think?

Source: http://www.forging-ahead.co.uk/bookends.htm

Should every scene, chapter, and story have their "bookends" related in some fashion?

CRAFT: Character Development Pt IV

Great post on Darth Vader here: http://geoffreywebb.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/what-darth-vader-taught-me-about-people/

On Monday's post, Belle commented:
"I also think bad people changing is true in life and interesting in books. I will never forget the shock I felt when Darth Vader changed for the good in Star Wars. To see he had good feelings inside made his character more real."

Belle hit on a point that I absolutely LOVE: villains who have good traits.

"There's no villain so scary as one who is right." -- Donald Maass (THE FIRE IN FICTION, p.48)

YIKES!!

Have you worked on making your villain (or antagonist) likeable?

Think about the villain in your WIP and ask these questions:
1. What goodness does he have inside of him?
2. What does he say that is true?
3. Is your villain redeemable, like Darth Vader? Why or why not?

How about you?
Who is your favorite villain?