| Weaving Words & Selling Them |
| Art by Kim Reale Johnson |
ASK PAT Online Discussion with Author Pat Bertram |
How do you juggle writing, promotion, online activities, and everyday life? And how do you find time to write?
Timeless in Tennessee
Timeless, you’re not the first person to ask me that! People often marvel at how I juggle promotion, writing, and offline life, but the truth is, I don’t
juggle very well. I always drop a ball or two so that a single ball is kept in the air at a time. Right now, my offline life is taking precedence (nothing
particularly good or bad, just work). I am doing almost no promoting, doing a poor job keeping up with my discussion groups, writing a single blog
post a week, and yet all that and more used to fit into a few hours a day. Now it barely fits into a week.
Since I have no answer for you, I posed the question at one of my online discussion groups (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?
v=app_2373072738&gid=2397748813#/topic.php?uid=2397748813&topic=21473). The answers, so generously given, ranged from “I wait until I
have time to write” to “I squeeze the writing in,” to “I make sure I write every day.” The consensus is that we need to manage our time. If we want to
write (or clean house or promote or whatever) we need to schedule our time and have the discipline to stick to that schedule. It all comes down to
what our priorities are. If you’re not writing, perhaps writing is not your main concern. Maybe your family is, or a clean house.
Many people treat writing like a job in the hopes that someday it will become their job. Others think that unless one is under contract, it stills the
creative powers to work under such stringent constraints. Some authors, for whom writing is a job, will write for part of the year and promote for
part of the year, rather than try to do it all at once.
In the end, each of us has to find our own way.
What is the difference between a writer and an author?
Curious in Canada
According to the dictionary, there is little difference between writers and authors, but unpublished writers, and even unknown published writers
who call themselves authors seem a tad grandiose. To me, the difference is that a writer is one who writes. An author is one who has created a
particular piece. For example, I never call myself an author unless I am referring to my books. I am a writer who has three (soon to be four) books
published, but I am the author of More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. You can call yourself anything you want,
of course, but unless you make your living as a writer, I would suggest using the phrase “I write,” instead of “I am a writer.” I sleep way more than I
write, but I never introduce myself as a sleeper
My characters seem drab. What can I do to make them more vibrant?
Colorless in Colorado
Perhaps you need to give your characters more color. Literally. Because colors have meaning, a character’s favorite color can tell us a lot about
him or her. Red for an ambitious extrovert. Pink for an affectionate, compassionate person. Yellow for an optimistic artist. Green for a benevolent
humanist. Blue for a cool, confident conservative. Purple for an intuitive, spiritually oriented person. Brown for a down-to-earth type.
Feel free to use my research: http://www.squidoo.com/colormeaning
Another reason your characters might seem drab is that you don’t know them very well. Perhaps you need to get deeper into their likes and
dislikes, their psychology. Here is a character questionnaire that might help you get to know your character better: http://patbertram.wordpress.
com/character-questionaire/ Feel free to post your responses on the blog! I am always interested in interviewing characters.
If both of those suggestions seem like too much work, and if you don’t want to go through the trouble of figuring out what your character wants,
what stresses him, what his secondary problem is (the primary problem you already know; it’s the story problem), you can cheat your way to a
more colorful character. It’s simple. All you have to do is profile your character using the Luscher color test. Go to the color quiz website, http:
//www.colorquiz.com/ imagine you are your character, and pick the colors your character would choose. Instant profile.
You still have to write the character, but at least you won’t have to worry about making him psychologically realistic.
How did you convince your family & friends that calling you all hours of the day was an interruption? It’s like calling you
at work.
Disturbed in Delaware
I don’t have that problem. One, I write at night (when I write, that is) so that I have no interruptions. Two, I turn on the answering machine or
unplug the phone so that I’m not tempted to answer. And three, I have no family and friends. Perhaps the last is a bit of an exaggeration, but if
they called and interrupted my writing, I really wouldn’t have any family or friends. I’d disown them.
Perhaps that isn’t an acceptable answer. What about you, my dear readers? How would you respond to Disturbed? You can post your response
here: http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/ask-pat/
***
Pat Bertram (http//:patbertram.com) is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite
type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is
Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.
If you would like to ask Pat Bertram a question or to comment on a response in this column, you can find Pat at Ask Pat on Bertram’s Blog: http:
//ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/ask-pat/
Timeless in Tennessee
Timeless, you’re not the first person to ask me that! People often marvel at how I juggle promotion, writing, and offline life, but the truth is, I don’t
juggle very well. I always drop a ball or two so that a single ball is kept in the air at a time. Right now, my offline life is taking precedence (nothing
particularly good or bad, just work). I am doing almost no promoting, doing a poor job keeping up with my discussion groups, writing a single blog
post a week, and yet all that and more used to fit into a few hours a day. Now it barely fits into a week.
Since I have no answer for you, I posed the question at one of my online discussion groups (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?
v=app_2373072738&gid=2397748813#/topic.php?uid=2397748813&topic=21473). The answers, so generously given, ranged from “I wait until I
have time to write” to “I squeeze the writing in,” to “I make sure I write every day.” The consensus is that we need to manage our time. If we want to
write (or clean house or promote or whatever) we need to schedule our time and have the discipline to stick to that schedule. It all comes down to
what our priorities are. If you’re not writing, perhaps writing is not your main concern. Maybe your family is, or a clean house.
Many people treat writing like a job in the hopes that someday it will become their job. Others think that unless one is under contract, it stills the
creative powers to work under such stringent constraints. Some authors, for whom writing is a job, will write for part of the year and promote for
part of the year, rather than try to do it all at once.
In the end, each of us has to find our own way.
What is the difference between a writer and an author?
Curious in Canada
According to the dictionary, there is little difference between writers and authors, but unpublished writers, and even unknown published writers
who call themselves authors seem a tad grandiose. To me, the difference is that a writer is one who writes. An author is one who has created a
particular piece. For example, I never call myself an author unless I am referring to my books. I am a writer who has three (soon to be four) books
published, but I am the author of More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. You can call yourself anything you want,
of course, but unless you make your living as a writer, I would suggest using the phrase “I write,” instead of “I am a writer.” I sleep way more than I
write, but I never introduce myself as a sleeper
My characters seem drab. What can I do to make them more vibrant?
Colorless in Colorado
Perhaps you need to give your characters more color. Literally. Because colors have meaning, a character’s favorite color can tell us a lot about
him or her. Red for an ambitious extrovert. Pink for an affectionate, compassionate person. Yellow for an optimistic artist. Green for a benevolent
humanist. Blue for a cool, confident conservative. Purple for an intuitive, spiritually oriented person. Brown for a down-to-earth type.
Feel free to use my research: http://www.squidoo.com/colormeaning
Another reason your characters might seem drab is that you don’t know them very well. Perhaps you need to get deeper into their likes and
dislikes, their psychology. Here is a character questionnaire that might help you get to know your character better: http://patbertram.wordpress.
com/character-questionaire/ Feel free to post your responses on the blog! I am always interested in interviewing characters.
If both of those suggestions seem like too much work, and if you don’t want to go through the trouble of figuring out what your character wants,
what stresses him, what his secondary problem is (the primary problem you already know; it’s the story problem), you can cheat your way to a
more colorful character. It’s simple. All you have to do is profile your character using the Luscher color test. Go to the color quiz website, http:
//www.colorquiz.com/ imagine you are your character, and pick the colors your character would choose. Instant profile.
You still have to write the character, but at least you won’t have to worry about making him psychologically realistic.
How did you convince your family & friends that calling you all hours of the day was an interruption? It’s like calling you
at work.
Disturbed in Delaware
I don’t have that problem. One, I write at night (when I write, that is) so that I have no interruptions. Two, I turn on the answering machine or
unplug the phone so that I’m not tempted to answer. And three, I have no family and friends. Perhaps the last is a bit of an exaggeration, but if
they called and interrupted my writing, I really wouldn’t have any family or friends. I’d disown them.
Perhaps that isn’t an acceptable answer. What about you, my dear readers? How would you respond to Disturbed? You can post your response
here: http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/ask-pat/
***
Pat Bertram (http//:patbertram.com) is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite
type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is
Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.
If you would like to ask Pat Bertram a question or to comment on a response in this column, you can find Pat at Ask Pat on Bertram’s Blog: http:
//ptbertram.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/ask-pat/
Things You Don’t Want to Learn the Hard Way by Robin Cain As a columnist, novelist and prolific Facebook participant, I seem to get a great deal of email from new writers asking questions. I don’t know if it’ s true for every author, but I seem to get an awful lot. And I have to be honest: I often laugh at what I find to be the sheer absurdity of it. Yes, I am a writer, but being a writer doesn’t make me an expert at anything. Sure, we writers know a few things, but they are all, more likely than not, lessons we learned the hard way. As is the case with many of our most profound life lessons, learning things the ‘hard way’ does tend to etch them deeper into our brains, but it is still no guarantee that we have come away able to call ourselves “experts”. Many new authors I speak with often don’t have the first clue as to what they are up against when throwing their hat into the publishing ring. Far be it from me to rain on their parade (after all, some people do win at this game), so for those that choose to actually take some advice from this “expert”, I have decided to share what I know for sure. If nothing else, maybe an agent will one day thank me. Top 10 Ways to NEVER Get an Agent 1) Send a generically addressed query. There are no points to be gained by using ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘To whom it may concern’ when addressing a query – period. This only conveys to agents that you are sending out bulk queries, you haven’t done your research and you are new to the game. 2) Know nothing about the agent. You haven’t done any research into what the agent is good at selling, what he/she is looking for, nor do you have any idea what they have sold lately. By not taking a personalized approach, you’ve blended into the crowd of hundreds of other queries an agent is getting on any given day. You haven’t caught their attention from the opening line. Get a subscription for Publisher’s Marketplace and learn your agents. 3) Start your query on a negative note. “I know you don’t handle romance, but I think this will change your mind.” “This is my first book, but….” “Although my manuscript isn’t finished…” Get the idea? You are trying to SELL yourself and your work. Show as much enthusiasm as you want them to feel. 4) Try to submit a manuscript that’s not even close to finished. Any writer who has ever written anything knows that from start to finish, there can be a great deal of changes to story, plot, character development, etc. How can you sell a manuscript to an agent if you don’t even yet know what the story is about? Getting an agent all jazzed up about something that doesn’t really exist is only going to hurt your future chances with said agent. 5) Don’t follow submission guidelines EVERY single agent wants and requires certain things before they will even consider your work. Some want emails, some want snail mails, some want partials included in body of email, some want separate attachments, some want 3 chapters, some want a synopsis – it varies with EVERY SINGLE AGENT. Don’t make it harder or more frustrating for the agent than it already is by not giving them what they want. Trust me; they won’t thank you for it. 6) Format your submissions incorrectly. There are standards out there, new writers. Though Comic Sans MS makes your manuscript look really cool, resist the temptation. Agents want certain spacing, certain fonts, certain indents, etc. Do your research! 7) Submit an unedited and unpolished manuscript. Spell check just doesn’t cut it. There are a myriad of really good editors out there whose knowledge base and talent you NEED if you want your manuscript to look good. Can’t afford a professional? Then you better share your work with LOTS of people who are willing and capable of looking for errors. Nothing kills a writer’s chances faster than an agent discovering a writer’s ineptitude (and sheer laziness) with sentence structure, spelling or grammar. 8) Keep hounding the agent Agents get hundreds of queries a week; some get that many in a day. Though this explains the plethora of standard “We’ll get back to you” responses, it isn’t an open invitation to keep sending the same agent the same query letter over and over again. The agent will eventually notice and you will get a “no, thank you and stop hounding me” reply. If an author hasn’t heard from an agent in the specific promised timeframe, then a follow-up note is in order – but not until. 9) Compare your work to something completely dissimilar Trying to get an agent’s attention by comparing your work to John Grisham or Stephen King is just a futile attempt. Unless your work TRULY resembles same, skip the uber-famous name dropping. It’s only going to bite you when said agent reads your work (assuming they don’t see through the obvious grandstanding in the first place). 10) Substitute (or mistake) desire for talent Just because you want to get a book published, you want to be rich and famous and appear on Oprah doesn’t mean you will. The odds in this business are stacked against you and don’t fool yourself into believing that just because your Aunt Mabel or your English teacher in high school said you write well means the rest of the world will think so, as well. There is an audience for every writer out there, but it takes hard work, perseverance, lots of faith, dedication to your craft and a bottomless capacity to learn. You can and WILL be a writer based on desire, but you’ll never be a well-respected author unless you have the talent. © 2010 Robin Cain http://www.robincain.com |
| Do You Have Rhythm? By Maryann Miller |
Rhythm is important in establishing voice and style, and it is equally important in dialogue. To make your characters distinct, they have to speak
with their own cadence. A street-wise kid is going to talk differently than one who goes to a preppy boarding school. Cops talk differently than
lawyers. Farmers talk differently than store clerks. Adults talk differently than children, and women talk differently than men.
In creating those differences, however, be careful about using dialect, Ebonics, and/or pigeon English to extreme. If you want a character to come
across as uneducated, that can be accomplished without totally fracturing the written language.
At one point an editor from Southern Living Magazine rejected a short story of mine, with a handwritten notation that he might consider it if I
rewrote it. He included editorial guidelines that said he would not even consider a story that attempted southern dialect by dropping ‘g’s.
At first I thought, how weird. Southerners drop the ‘g’s all the time. But his point was that a good writer can capture that dialect through rhythm. I
reworked the story that editor was interested in, putting back all the ‘g’s, and discovered that if I worked hard enough my protagonist was talking,
or thinking, just the way a poor Texas farmer would. Here is a sample from the story:
"Have you ever had the itch to travel?" Chad handed a beer across to his grandfather. "You're the only person I know who's never been
anywhere."
"Thought on it some when I was young." Samson sat down and took a long swallow of the cool, refreshing beer. "Had an idea of going to Africa
one time. See where my grandpa came from."
"Why didn't you?"
"Never found a mule that could swim that far."
As the laughter subsided, a companionable silence settled between them, broken only by the soft whisper of music humming in the background
and the buzz of a pesky fly.
"Fact is," Samson paused to drain his beer and open another. "I been thinking on it some. Wondering what's down the road that draws people so."
Again he paused and carefully shelled a pecan. "You know there's things I hear on that radio I never even seen."
Chad watched the rough, gnarled fingers pick the nutmeat out of the broken shell, then glanced up to meet his grandfather's eyes. "Well, maybe
you should quit thinking and start doing."
"Aw, hell! Everybody's got things they thought about an' never done." Samson shifted impatiently. "I'm ninety years old, boy. Sometimes it's just
too late."
"It doesn't have to be. Only if you think so." Chad leaned forward as if he could sway the old man by the sheer force of youthful enthusiasm. "I
could help you fix the truck. Then you'd have nothing to hold you back. You could start by coming up to see me. It's not that far."
Samson withdrew into a thoughtful silence, then he sighed deeply. "I'm gonna have to think on it some."
The rewrite took some time. It wasn’t just a matter of putting all the g’s back. I had to rework the dialogue and the internal monologues to capture
the rhythm of this old man. I also had to pay close attention to how the other characters talked to ensure there was enough distinction that they all
weren’t sounding like Samson.
With careful crafting, you can have characters that come to life through the rhythm of their words.
-------
Maryann Miller is a diverse writer of columns, feature stories, short fiction, novels, screenplays and stage plays. Her books include the award-
winning Coping with Weapons and Violence In School and On Your Streets, One Small Victory, a romantic suspense novel that was released in
hardcover by Five Star Cengage/Gale, Play it Again, Sam, a woman’s novel, and Friends Forever, a Y/A novel.
Other experience includes extensive work as a PR consultant, a script doctor, and an editor. She is currently a freelance book editor, as well as
the Managing Editor of WinnsboroToday.com, an online community magazine.
When not working, Miller enjoys acting and directing in community theatre, playing farmer on her little piece of property in East Texas, and
spending time with her husband.
Blog: http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/
Web site http://www.maryannwrites.com
Robin Jay’s Words of Wisdom – Editing The Calamity Girl – Paragraph One |
by
Linda Randall
Idea Girl Consulting
I have been asking for help with my books now for about six months and no one’s ever given me a straight answer.
I went out on a limb and asked Robin Jay to take a look at my manuscript for The Calamity Girl.
Paragraph One is the discussion this week.
Tips from the Editor:
You need to focus on one thought at a time.
Explain where your character is going and why.
Pretend you are holding your reader’s hand and that you are reading the story to them.
Make sure each story line has a beginning, middle and end.
Robin didn’t say it that way, but that was what I got from her comments.
My story was jumping from Rachel’s Blog, to Michael the movie producer and then over to David the CEO,with no explanation as to who the
characters were.
Robin reminded me that I know the story line but my readers don’t.
She admits that in most cases when writing a book, most authors scrap the first two paragraphs, because it takes them that long to warm up to the
reader.
And you know what?
That is so true.
Once you get into a few pages, you can see that I have relaxed and I’m explaining things better.
The story doesn’t sound so disjointed.
Did I proof read my story?
Yes at 3 am in the morning.
Was I awake at the time.
No.
Next time, I will make sure that I’m bright eyed, and bushy tailed.
It was a red line here and there, and a sentence rearranged, but it all made better sense when she was done.
I felt relieved, someone finally told me that I am an excellent and gifted writer.
I just have to FOCUS and take my time, and explain the details of my story better.
I was sitting on pins and needles all weekend, miserable thinking that she would say it was horrid or something.
My brain works overtime, to my disadvantage.
But alas!
I feel good now.
I will write shorter sentences in my manuscript.
I will clarify all thoughts and story lines and I will try and do the same in my blog posts.
She mentioned I’m doing it there as well.
Sorry guys, I work late at night on this and I’m not always mentally awake when I do it.
So I’m going to spend less time on my blogs and more on my writing.
What’s the point of having so many fans with nothing concrete for them to buy when the time comes?
I want to be a published writer, so I will have to find magazines and contests, just so I can say that I have arrived!
*
If you would like to leave a comment here is the link http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/robin-jays-words-of-wisdom-editing-the-
calamity-girl-paragraph-one/
Linda Randall
Idea Girl Consulting
I have been asking for help with my books now for about six months and no one’s ever given me a straight answer.
I went out on a limb and asked Robin Jay to take a look at my manuscript for The Calamity Girl.
Paragraph One is the discussion this week.
Tips from the Editor:
You need to focus on one thought at a time.
Explain where your character is going and why.
Pretend you are holding your reader’s hand and that you are reading the story to them.
Make sure each story line has a beginning, middle and end.
Robin didn’t say it that way, but that was what I got from her comments.
My story was jumping from Rachel’s Blog, to Michael the movie producer and then over to David the CEO,with no explanation as to who the
characters were.
Robin reminded me that I know the story line but my readers don’t.
She admits that in most cases when writing a book, most authors scrap the first two paragraphs, because it takes them that long to warm up to the
reader.
And you know what?
That is so true.
Once you get into a few pages, you can see that I have relaxed and I’m explaining things better.
The story doesn’t sound so disjointed.
Did I proof read my story?
Yes at 3 am in the morning.
Was I awake at the time.
No.
Next time, I will make sure that I’m bright eyed, and bushy tailed.
It was a red line here and there, and a sentence rearranged, but it all made better sense when she was done.
I felt relieved, someone finally told me that I am an excellent and gifted writer.
I just have to FOCUS and take my time, and explain the details of my story better.
I was sitting on pins and needles all weekend, miserable thinking that she would say it was horrid or something.
My brain works overtime, to my disadvantage.
But alas!
I feel good now.
I will write shorter sentences in my manuscript.
I will clarify all thoughts and story lines and I will try and do the same in my blog posts.
She mentioned I’m doing it there as well.
Sorry guys, I work late at night on this and I’m not always mentally awake when I do it.
So I’m going to spend less time on my blogs and more on my writing.
What’s the point of having so many fans with nothing concrete for them to buy when the time comes?
I want to be a published writer, so I will have to find magazines and contests, just so I can say that I have arrived!
*
If you would like to leave a comment here is the link http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/robin-jays-words-of-wisdom-editing-the-
calamity-girl-paragraph-one/
Friday – Fun Day – Make a Youtube Video – Promote Blogs by Linda Randall Idea Girl Consulting Remember two weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to experiment with something? Posting videos about my blogs on Squidoo? It worked! Not only did I go from 12 views to 4,041 within a two week period on idea girl consulting youtube, I generated 2682 visits on Squidoo. AND I’ve reached 500,000 page views on Idea Girl Consulting Word Press, it’s averaging almost 100,000 hits a week? As for The Idea Girl Says, we average from 1200 to 1600 hits in a day up from 200 hits a day a month or so ago. This experiment was a success in several ways. I generated traffic to all of my blogs (100 of them) I gathered over 100 new Twitter the idea girl followers My tweets are going to be published (I wish I could remember the name of the author I said YES to?) And several authors are asking me to coauthor their books and do projects with them. AND people that I’ve promoted on idea girl consulting word press entertainment site, are getting thousands up to millions of hits on their youtube channels. AND according to Sean Buban – svhrcks5150 youtube channel – a musician that I feature on my entertainment blog) he’s been inspired to make videos of his own from my projects. I just had to share what the results were for over 45 youtube videos being made within a 2 week period. I’ll get back to you a month from now, let’s see if it levels off, or generates even more. I also did a video about my new book that I’m currently writing, and that’s doing good as well. Now if I could set up a large network of videos and connect them all, I’d really have some fun with that one! Don’t forget, once you’ve made your videos, you link them as a response to the first video , connect with twitter, facebook and any social networks to generate traffic to your blogs. To leave a comment go to http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/friday-fun-day-make-a-youtube-video-promote-blogs/ |
Query – 2007 Writers Market – Notes |
by
Linda Randall
Idea Girl Consulting
Writing a Query is a huge task for someone who has never done it before.
That’s me, I’m the new kid on the block.
When I first opened the 2007 Writers Market, I quickly turned to the Query section.
Why?
Because I was writing my first query for The Calamity Girl – The Promotion and I wanted to get started on the basics.
Here are my notes scribbled in my notebook.
Introduction, body, conclusion.
Sounds simple.
It’s like writing a letter in English Class for a journal assignment.
Intro – describes book – hook -Books Theme Statement- period – setting
Introduction -
I want to describe my book to you dear literary agent.
I am going to hook you like a fish with a worm and give you something you want to bite into.
Example 1
I have a completed manuscript of 54,000 words called The Calamity Girl – The Promotion. My genre is women’s fiction or chick lit.
How’s that for starters?
I am stumped, how to write this in a better form, at the moment my brain’s out of fuel, so that it my basis of thought.
I will have to ponder over this for awhile and write something catchy.
Example 2
I have written an exciting book about a young single woman who continuously has bad luck. She meets a guy who is always there when she needs
him. It’s a woman’s fiction book, with some romance and mystery in it.
My friends and family think that it is a great book, I am sure you will love it.
How’s that?
Nope, you never mention the family and friend stuff, nor do you talk about how “great” this book is.
What you want is a clear and concise planned out group of sentences that lets the Literary Agent know what your book is about, what is the genre
and give them something interesting to think about.
So let’s try this again.
Example 3
According to an article in the New York Times on April 7, 2009 by MOTOKO RICH – the sales of romance novels are outstripping most other
categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market. This is good news because I have written and completed a funny,
romantic, mystery style, women’s, fictional, manuscript called The Calamity Girl – The Promotion. It is based on a character called Rachel
Tornquist. She’s beautiful, single and in her late twenties, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. A modern day story of a powerful marketing and sales
executive who refuses to commit to a relationship but then she meets her knight in shining armor while having one of her many mishaps. A girl
born with a silver spoon in her mouth, yet she’s constantly having bad luck where life is concerned; that is why they call her The Calamity Girl. In
54000 words, we follow Rachel within a two month period where her life changes in career, love and lifestyle. She travels to Tucson Arizona, New
York City and Los Angeles California while unraveling the clues of her past family secrets and the instigator of all her troubles at work. Rachel is
left wondering in her close circle of friends who can be trusted as she learns throughout the story that someone is out to destroy her career,
reputation and life.
Not bad, but probably needs some polishing.
You get the idea though of what my Intro is for my Query.
I just wrote it in the past 30 minutes.
*
Taken from http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/query-2007-writers-market-notes/
Linda Randall
Idea Girl Consulting
Writing a Query is a huge task for someone who has never done it before.
That’s me, I’m the new kid on the block.
When I first opened the 2007 Writers Market, I quickly turned to the Query section.
Why?
Because I was writing my first query for The Calamity Girl – The Promotion and I wanted to get started on the basics.
Here are my notes scribbled in my notebook.
Introduction, body, conclusion.
Sounds simple.
It’s like writing a letter in English Class for a journal assignment.
Intro – describes book – hook -Books Theme Statement- period – setting
Introduction -
I want to describe my book to you dear literary agent.
I am going to hook you like a fish with a worm and give you something you want to bite into.
Example 1
I have a completed manuscript of 54,000 words called The Calamity Girl – The Promotion. My genre is women’s fiction or chick lit.
How’s that for starters?
I am stumped, how to write this in a better form, at the moment my brain’s out of fuel, so that it my basis of thought.
I will have to ponder over this for awhile and write something catchy.
Example 2
I have written an exciting book about a young single woman who continuously has bad luck. She meets a guy who is always there when she needs
him. It’s a woman’s fiction book, with some romance and mystery in it.
My friends and family think that it is a great book, I am sure you will love it.
How’s that?
Nope, you never mention the family and friend stuff, nor do you talk about how “great” this book is.
What you want is a clear and concise planned out group of sentences that lets the Literary Agent know what your book is about, what is the genre
and give them something interesting to think about.
So let’s try this again.
Example 3
According to an article in the New York Times on April 7, 2009 by MOTOKO RICH – the sales of romance novels are outstripping most other
categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market. This is good news because I have written and completed a funny,
romantic, mystery style, women’s, fictional, manuscript called The Calamity Girl – The Promotion. It is based on a character called Rachel
Tornquist. She’s beautiful, single and in her late twenties, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. A modern day story of a powerful marketing and sales
executive who refuses to commit to a relationship but then she meets her knight in shining armor while having one of her many mishaps. A girl
born with a silver spoon in her mouth, yet she’s constantly having bad luck where life is concerned; that is why they call her The Calamity Girl. In
54000 words, we follow Rachel within a two month period where her life changes in career, love and lifestyle. She travels to Tucson Arizona, New
York City and Los Angeles California while unraveling the clues of her past family secrets and the instigator of all her troubles at work. Rachel is
left wondering in her close circle of friends who can be trusted as she learns throughout the story that someone is out to destroy her career,
reputation and life.
Not bad, but probably needs some polishing.
You get the idea though of what my Intro is for my Query.
I just wrote it in the past 30 minutes.
*
Taken from http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/query-2007-writers-market-notes/
MAKING THE GRADE - Dellani Oakes A good friend made a comment after having read one of my books. She said, "You have two styles of writing. You write like a writer and like an English professor." Ouch! Admittedly, I do have a fairly good vocabulary - not that I always use it. I used to teach Advanced Placement English, so I know about antecedents, subject and verb agreement and the correct use of semi-colons. Until she said that, I had no idea that there was such a difference in style until I went back and re-read the first few chapters. What I saw startled me. When I taught high school English, the students had to read "The Scarlet Letter." What a tough book! I had to sit and read it with a dictionary by my side. My poor students were really suffering! I found some sections in my own writing that were nearly as difficult. Grant you, I was not incorporating words like "physiognomy", but I did use "ephemeral", "supererogatory", and "geosynchronous". I think I was trying to make every word count, not use "fluff" words which mean little to nothing. By incorporating bigger, better words, I hoped to convey my meaning more forcefully. Apparently all I did was cause a mad rush for the Webster’s. I never intended my books to be hard work. If I want to make my readers sweat, I’ll put in a hot love scene! My novels are purely for entertainment. A day or two later, my daughter told me, "Mom, your sentences sometimes confuse me. They go on forever, and I lose track of the beginning when I get to the end!" After a brief moment of remembering William Faulkner’s nine page parentheticals, I decided perhaps I should change that too. I found myself going to the other extreme - Ernest Hemingway. His short, choppy sentences always got on my nerves. I don’t deal well with it. I don’t like it. It annoys me. It worked for him. It does not work for me. What’s my point in all this? Write to your audience, not down to them. Give them a little mental exercise, but don’t make them work too hard. Reading is for expanding the mind and titillating the imagination, not making the reader’s mind turn to slush. If I want to be completely confused, I’ll read James Joyce! In the meantime, I think I’ll continue to search for my place somewhere between "Moby Dick" and "Peter Pan". |
WRITING TIPS BY ROD MARSDEN |
1. Putting pen to paper.
A writer writes. A writer likely to get somewhere with his or her writing is constantly at it. This is fundamental. There’s no way around it if you want
to get somewhere. It sounds simple enough but then you may ask: When and where does the average person find the time and place to write? I
travel a lot so I do a great deal of my handwriting while on the train. I type it up on computer when I get home. Usually, for a short story, I go
through three drafts before I am satisfied with my effort. It all begins however with the rough I do with pen and paper. If you have a computer you
can take with you on the train I suppose you can use that to create your rough. I suggest, however, that you look at your rough some hours later
and see how it can be improved upon.
2. What to write.
Even if you are only writing a letter to a friend it is still writing. Correspondence with others, especially people overseas, will sharpen you. The
more you write the better at it you will become. You don’t have to tackle that big, bold beautiful novel you have stuck in your head right away. You
are in fact better off with the short story. It will teach you discipline that you will then take to the creation of your novel. Producing articles for
newspapers and websites can also get you going in the right direction.
It is very good to write about what you know. This does not rule out the possibility of science fiction, dark fantasy or horror. What you know can be
woven into any genre. It all has to do with your imagination. Terry Pratchett, for example, has set much of his fiction in, on and around a magical
world he calls The Disc or Disc World. The absurdities of the place, however, reflect life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries here on earth.
This makes for a fun read.
It is very good to write with passion and conviction. If you find yourself drawn into your own characters and what is happening to them others are
also likely to be drawn in.
3. Editors and what they do.
No one can get by without a good editor. They take out the adverbs and adjectives that are nothing but clutter. They make sure you and your
future reader really do connect. I know novelists with twenty novels under their belt and who have won awards swear by the brilliance of their
editors. Now if you find a good one stick to them like glue.
4. You will get rejected from time to time.
Not everyone will see you as a fantastic writer worth nurturing. Not everyone will understand your writing no matter how clear it happens to be to
most other people. If you get criticism that is not to your taste check it out. Don’t dismiss it out of hand. It might be helpful. If nothing else it might
tell you where not to send future work. In any event not all criticism is out to get you in the neck. Some people actually do want to help. My advice
is to let them.
5. Acceptance.
Don’t let acceptance go to your head. A dozen cartwheels should be enough for a short story. No more than two dozen for a novel.
6. Keep your day job.
Most writers don’t make enough money to quit regular work. This can be a plus. Mixing with people who don’t care as much as you do about
writing will give you something worth writing about as well as keeping you connected to the real world.
7. Enjoy the craft.
If you do not enjoy writing then find something else to do. If you are not having a good time putting pen to paper or typing then chances are your
reader won’t have a good time. Try to do more than just entertain. On the other hand, if you can’t entertain then whatever else you want to do with
your audience isn’t likely to work out. People want to be entertained rather than informed. In my opinion novelists and short story writers worth
their salt do both.
Sally Hanan http://inksnatcher.com http://sallyhanan.wordpress.com ink–noun a fluid or viscous substance used for writing or printing. snatch–verb (used without object) to make a sudden effort to seize something, as with the hand; grab (usually fol. by at). Hyphens—when to use them Hyphens . . . who on earth came up with this idea?? Grammar rules are supposed to be solid rules, not vague ideas that writers can use when logic applies; but whoever said writers were logical? Open compounds Two or more words used as one adjective The school bus driver started yelling. Hyphenated compounds Two or more words with a hyphen(s) before a noun The well-fed child laughed his little head around the floor. Closed/solid compound Two words joined as one The underfed child lay listlessly in the dirt. So when should I use hyphens? Most of the time, a sentence’s meaning will be completely clear when the adverbs and adjectives are placed after the noun in a sentence, so hyphens are not required. When adverbs and adjectives are used before the noun, you will probably hyphenate. The cat was black and white. The black-and-white cat played with his tail. “It is never incorrect to hyphenate adjectival compounds before a noun” (CMOS, 7.86). And when can’t I use hyphens? If you have an adverb (a word describing an action word) ending in ly matched with an adjective, either before or after the noun. He was a fascinatingly handsome man. The man was fascinatingly handsome. Is there any easy way to remember how this works? You’ll just have to accept that some compounded words don’t follow the rules. What can you do about this? Buy the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and follow that, although . . . The Chicago Manual of Style will let some originally-hyphenated compounds slide if they are now widely accepted. The CMOS has a style guide for compounds, combining forms, and prefixes at the end of chapter seven. And so we come back to the original suggestion for when to use hyphens—when it’s logical to do so. Capiche? |
Promoting and Marketing your Book by J. A. Hunsinger |
You have poured your heart and soul into writing your book. It has been the dominate passion of your life; otherwise you would not have a
manuscript to hold. Now what?
I will assume that your manuscript is a first draft. Before you can send out query letters telling the world of the birth of the great American novel,
your work needs editing. I do not mean having a friend, an English teacher, your boss, or any other layman read your manuscript, no, I mean that
you must engage the services of a professional editor. Thus begins the process of polishing your manuscript until it is the best it can be. This
process can involve numerous corrections and rewrites. The time and expense involved varies with the quality of the work. One hundred
thousand words will cost in the neighborhood of $2000.00, or more, by the time you get it right.
Believe it or not, writing your book is only the beginning. With a final draft of your manuscript in hand, it is time to query. Famous people query
with a proposal before writing the book. I will assume that you are not yet famous. As an author, you cannot deal directly with one of the large
publishing houses, so your next challenge is to interest a literary agent in your work. If you find a literary agent, your relationship will be
contractual. Do nothing with anyone without a contract. Fully understand your part of the contract before signing or hire an attorney versed in
literary contracts to help you understand. There are numerous listings of literary agents on the Internet. Research each agent for their submission
guidelines, select those receptive to your genre, be certain that they are accepting submissions, submit only what they require, and never send
an unsolicited manuscript, they will not read it. Your literary agent will handle your contractual relationship with a publisher; they are your agent
acting in your behalf.
If you are fortunate enough to become a published author through the literary agent/publisher/reader sequence of progression, congratulations,
you have hit the big time. Your publisher will handle all the details of composition/format, cover design, printing/binding, fulfillment/marketing, and
warehouse/distribution, leaving you free to crank out books. You will have little or no input regarding any of the production aspects of your book,
nor will you retain any rights other than copyright. The publisher will own the ISBN and all future negotiations for anything concerning that work will
be through, or with the permission of, the publisher.
Okay, you have spent a year submitting to literary agents without results. If you have not completely lost interest in publishing your work, you are
left with publishing it yourself, e.g. self-publishing or becoming an independent publisher. A self-published author has hired a publishing company
to publish a book, surrendering all rights save copyright. An independent publisher has formed a small company and gone through the process
from copyright to a finished book ready for the market. That author owns all rights to the book because often the author and the publishing
company are one and the same. Books are produced and marketed by an independent publisher working closely with a large full service book
production facility such as BookMasters, Ashland, OH, where everything is done in house.
Regardless of the method used to publish your work yourself, you will be responsible for promotion and marketing. In working with an organization
such as BookMasters, you will already have a leg up as they handle some of the initial marketing through their own marketing department. Getting
the word out before and after the publication date is vital to your sales success. You must have a website and/or a blog that calls attention to your
book and ultimately leads a visitor to your order page. If you do not want to handle book sales from your garage, then your website order page will
link your customers to your distributor or other points of sale that you have set up. In this way, someone else will take care of the myriad details of
the warehousing/distribution of your work.
Solicit professional book reviewers. Do not send them a book until you have queried them first. Be the consummate professional insofar as your
contacts with reviewers. Always include a cover letter with your book that includes a short synopsis and your expectations as the author. Reviews
are important and they can restore your bruised and battered ego when you read what someone else has to say about your work. Their reviews
look good on your website and provide potential customers for your next book a sales closer as they read your book cover’s ad copy.
I have found that conventional print and display advertising on websites is only minimally successful. The mission here is to get your name and
that of your book out to as many sites on the Internet as possible. Hire professional people to do this for you, e.g. PumpUpYourBook promotions.
Additionally, Amazon is one of the most effective and important book sales tools out there. When you have your book listed with them be sure that
you also use their ‘Look Inside the Book’ program. Ditto for Google Book Search. Going through the submission process with Internet book
promotion and sales sites is time consuming, but the rewards outweigh this expenditure.
Local booksellers such as Barnes and Noble and Borders do everything possible to arrange and facilitate book-signing events for local authors.
So, be certain you contact the individual store’s book manager to set one up for you. They provide a display table and chairs, posters, and a
newspaper announcement of the event, and it is all free. In addition, they will order a supply of your books to stock your book-signing. Not a bad
deal, I think.
If you do not have letterhead stationery, design some, including the envelope. Remember, you are trying to sell a product, be professional in all of
your contacts. Edit religiously, use spell check. Everything that you write is a reflection on you personally, so do it right the first time because the
one chance is usually all you will get. And oh, good luck to you.
Vinland Publishing, http://www.vinlandpublishing.com/ ©2009 Jerry A. Hunsinger All Rights Reserved
| Lessons Learned by Lori Finnila |
I learned to be more openly detailed when I'm putting so much honesty down in my writing so everyone can know what actually happened. I
learned not to be so afraid of some of the books that I had written and got even bolder editing the text. And I confirm that we need to tell what we
feel that needs to be said or written in the form that we feel so strongly about enough to be told in the words that we use to express that need to
be spoken, even if they seem a little outlandish. Someone has to make that point that we are making and we put it down there for a reason so it
must have to be us at that point.
I learned that you have to not only be a good writer but a good editor. Had no idea on this and now am redoing my first two books for errors. Will
definitely not have that experience as a third. I learned to love my first book with all the passion of what I was saying and identified with myself
tremendously through it.
I learned to take my soul which I found in my writing to be so strong to a different level and bring people into my cries for freedom and from pain. I
took this one extra step and spoke and grabbed out at the truth rather than to try and have my cries heard through my words in my writing. For
this I am thankful for this year, that I have survived another year and that this world and these people gave me a choice to show myself as a
human being, and even thriving at times.
| Novel Defragging by D. L. Keur |
I have an editor, and he always says: First the draft, then the rewrite, ad infinitum. None of this off-the-cuff stuff for him. According to him, you
write it, you put it away and let it steep, you drag it out months later, read it, then, with a print-out, begin to actually retype the manuscript into a
fresh, clean word processing file.
And it works.
Changes happen before your eyes. You sit there amazed at yourself and your “muse,” because what happens without much sweat or tears
magically transforms your draft into a solid, substantial, well-written novel. No, not yet perfect, but close, and in a way you never imagined
yourself to be capable.
Subtleties in plotting and characterization smooth the story into a seamless cohesive unit:
subplots gain more significance to the main conflict,
nuances added here and there to dialogue and narrative bring foreshadowing and symbolism that will enhance and enrich, subtly
substantiating, even proofing, plot and character validity in the reader’s mind at a subliminal level,
plot holes heal themselves completely, your mind having stored away subtle errors only to fix them as you physically type through the
manuscript,
contradictions, no matter how insignificant, are eradicated without effort,
oversights are mended,
whole chunks of story get moved or removed, written or rewritten without stress or the usual problems associated with such tasks.
It’s work, of course. At the beginning of the process, the task seems overwhelming. Retyping thousands upon thousands of words seems boring
and unproductive when you could just simply sit down with the original manuscript and edit it. But not so fast, please. The mind—your mind—is a
magical thing, and your “muse” knows exactly what needs changing where without the onus and burdensome effort of resorting to mapping it all
out in carefully, critical lists.
Instead, much like a computer can defrag a hard drive, much like a parity file can heal a corrupted archive, restoring integrity, your brain—the left
hemisphere in concert with the creative right—refines and polishes your story, creating a novel from the draft you originally penned.
Of course, next comes the editing phase, correcting all those grammatical faux pas like comma splices and misplaced modifiers, then the critique
phase, then the audio read-through....
| Art by Wendy Whittingham |
Cranking Up the Suspense |
"Don't mistake a good setup for a satisfying conclusion -- many beginning writers end their stories when the real story is just ready to begin."
Stanley Schmidt
Years ago, a writer asked me to read some of her work. It was beautifully written. The characters were interesting and compelling. And there was
NO tension. NO conflict. No sense of urgency.
Our writing "eyes" are like our real eyes. They see selectively. Sometimes we just can't see our forest, because our favorite trees are in the way.
This author had asked a bunch of writers to read her work. We all said the same thing. There's no conflict. I don't know if she ever believed any of
us. I know she didn't believe me.
It is very hard sometimes, to see our writing with enough clarity to figure out what's wrong. But it can be done. I don't know, but I suspect that
writer's problem was she liked her characters too much to make them suffer. They were vividly written, so I know they were vivid and real to the
writer.
Even in non-suspense, books revolve around something going wrong, or something changing in the characters' lives. Something needs to
happen. In suspense, lots and lots of something needs to happen and it needs to happen on a rising scale of something going wrong.
It can start small, as small as your character getting in a fender bender, but that something needs to lead to bigger problems for your character.
And each something needs to be worse than the last something. Each something needs to be harder for the character to resolve until you reach
the point where the reader (and maybe you) aren't sure your character can solve the problem.
Getting to those points can be hard if you can't bring yourself to make your characters suffer. So you need tough love for your characters. Think
of what you're doing as character building.
But what if you're perfectly happy making them suffer, but your "somethings" seem flat and not as interesting as you'd like? That's a problem,
IMHO, of not pushing your imagination hard enough. There are lots of different brainstorming techniques for getting past bland. Just keep in mind
that first thing, or even the first few things, that you think of going wrong are first because they've been done and done and done. You need to
push past those first ideas, keep your brain working until you get into the "zone." The zone is the place where you surprise yourself, too. Where
you feel a tingle of excitement. It's scary, because you don't always know how it's going to work out, but if you trust your muse, trust your
characters, solutions will present themselves when needed.
I tend to push my muse into the crazy and ridiculous, then I dial it back until it's (hopefully) believable, but still fresh and exciting.
When I was writing Girl Gone Nova, I had a clear idea of where I did NOT want to go with the book. But the characters kept driving me toward that
place. I finally gave in and went where it needed to go. It almost made my head explode, but in the end, I had a story that a) worked with the
characters I'd created; and b) I loved.
Will anyone else love it? Well, early reviews are looking good and I'm hoping readers will love it or at least like it. But during the creative process, I
can't worry about who will like it. That makes my writing and plotting self conscious. And that leads to stilted and flat writing.
When you write with passion and conviction, you can bet you won't please all the people. But if you are true to yourself, and true to your story,
you have a better chance of finding AN audience, than if you try to please everyone.
A couple of books I use for brainstorming are The Fiction Writer’s Brainstormer by James V Smith and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas
(there is also a handbook).
There are other brainstorming/idea generating books out there. When you find one that works for you, keep it close. :-)
Perilously yours,
Pauline
Pauline Baird Jones is the author of is the award-winning author of nine novels of science fiction romance, action-adventure, suspense, romantic
suspense and comedy-mystery and one Steampunk novella. Her seventh novel, Out of Time, an action-adventure romance set in World War II, is
an EPPIE 2007 winner. Her eighth novel, The Key won an Independent Book Award Bronze Medal (IPPY) for 2008 and is a 2007 Dream Realm
Awards Winner. Her ninth novel, Girl Gone Nova will release in April, 2010. Originally from Wyoming, she and her family moved from New Orleans
to Texas before Katrina. Her website is: www.perilouspauline.com
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Writing Tips Usually experienced writers focus on something and 'whittle down' to that focus, but there's also a process of unedited content generation when more is needed, followed by word elimination again. As Grace Paley said, 'You don't always whittle down, sometimes you whittle up.' Poetry is often taken at face value by writers of other genres, when in actuality, punctuation and sentence structure can be used experimentally for a desired effect. E.E.Cummings has become famous for the lowercase 'i' and the well-known fact that breaking the rules to create the unique intended response, should be taken to heart and practiced. Written (except for the Grace Paley quotation) by Donald R. Anderson. Editor Donald R. Anderson has been chief editor of: Poet’s Espresso (now known as poetsespresso) newsletter (founded 2005) to present, co- editor of: Artifact magazine (for two half semesters), comb-bound anthologies Midnight Dance/Pathos, Naked Poetry, and Darwin’s Children, paperback anthologies Sun Shadow Mountain: Poetry and Art Anthology and (its sequel) Moon Mist Valley: Poetry and Art Anthology, assistant editor of (the upcoming) Zine World #28, creator of numersous zines and websites (see projects page on http://rainflowers.org ). Poet Donald R. Anderson has had poetry published in ¡Zam Bomba!, Blue Moon Press, Rattlesnake Press, Artifact (before becoming co-editor), The Collegian, A Poem a Day: An Anthology (Edited by Chantel C. Guidry), Dwarf Stars 2008, upcoming publication in Poetry Now, published online on Medusa’s Kitchen, Poet’s Corner Press, and Farmhouse Magazine and a small award in the annual contest by the Stockton Arts Commission for “Suddenly a Fearsome Crow.” |
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