The Blood-Red Pencil

Busted!—Colum McCann caught exposing his novel's spine

2012-02-03T00:00:00.003-07:00

In her wonderful cross-genre book The Creative Habit, choreographer Twyla Tharp calls a work’s organizing principal its “spine.” She writes:

The spine is the statement you make to yourself outlining your intentions for the work. You intend to tell this story. You intend to explore this theme. You intend to use this structure. The audience may infer it or not. But if you stick to your spine, the piece will work.

I am such a student of the way structure can support meaning in literature that I had Tharp's notion tucked away in my consciousness while reading my book club’s recent pick, Colum McCann’s 2009 National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin.

The book begins with the description of a disparate crowd of onlookers brought together by a 1974 public spectacle—specifically, Philippe Petit’s infamous 110-story walk between the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Because the thread connecting the interrelated stories comprising McCann's novel is as tenuous as Petit's high wire, the book baffled many in our club.

My Kindle was not the best way to experience this book. I longed to flip back through for a more visual sense of how the stories fit together. But I had blogged here about McCann before, and had faith it would all come together—and was rewarded with this paragraph in the voice of a character named Gloria, on p. 306:

I caught glimpses of people’s rooms: a white enamel jar against a window frame, a round wooden table with a newspaper spread out, a pleated shade over a green chair. What, I wondered, were the sounds filling these rooms? It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected.

And I thought, there it is: in one paragraph, McCann has revealed the spine of his 400-page work. Once my book club members knew they were peeking into the details of these characters’ lives as if stacked atop one another, the book started to make sense in a way they could verbalize.

Was McCann’s use of this technique conscious? Who knows. But even that which has been done subconsciously, once brought into the light and examined, can be recognized and used again.

About the spine, Tharp concludes:

In the end, whether they see it is not part of the deal I’ve made with my audience. The spine is my little secret. It keeps me on message, but it is not the message itself.

Tell us: What is the spine of your WIP? Is it on the page, on a Post-It, or tucked away in your head?

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Kathryn Craft is an author of women's fiction and memoir who specializes in developmental editing at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and editing service. What she believes: 1. Editing forever changed the way she reads. 2. Well-crafted moments of brilliance help her forgive many other problems in a manuscript. 3. All writers have strengths and weaknesses—but why settle for weaknesses? 4. We can learn as much from what other authors do right as we can from what we do wrong. This is her series, "Busted!—An author caught doing something right."

Why Ghosts are Good Guys

2012-02-02T00:00:00.010-07:00

So if someone wants to write a book, why don’t they just write it? Why do they need you, the ghostwriter?

Of course, the answer is that not everyone who wants to write a book does need you. They might be able to write their book themselves, thank you very much. But it’s equally true that there are many people who’d love to be an author, but don’t think they can be, because of three main reasons:

1. They’re not a writer, or they lack confidence in their writing skills.
2. They hate to write – some would rather clean the bathroom than write.
3. They don’t have the time.

These are not empty excuses. Writing a book is hard. It does take time. Writing talent and skill do help a great deal. That is exactly why authors are given respect.

Yet just because someone is not a writer or doesn’t have time to write, doesn’t mean that their ideas, methods, systems, tips or tricks, or stories don’t deserve to be in a book.

In my experience, the number one reason people want to hire a ghostwriter is because they think they don’t have the time. Usually they are quite right. Some of them have had the idea for a book in their back of their minds for years, and may even have a couple of unfinished drafts stashed away that they’ve given up on because they found out how hard it was to write a book – and how long it took. They just didn’t have time to maintain the sustained effort it takes.

So that’s the reason most of your prospective clients will give you when they hire you to write their book. No time!

From my perspective, however, the number one reason many people need to hire ghostwriters is because many people do not write well. And although it’s not a good idea to inform your prospective clients that they’re probably a lousy writer, I do suggest that you educate them on the importance of good writing. Because this is the real reason they should hire you.

Some people don’t know that good writing is important. They think that as long as they get “something” out there, that’s what matters. Visibility is it!

Many people also don’t recognize the difference between good writing, bad writing, or ho-hum writing. This is not because they are stupid or badly intentioned. They may care passionately about their topic, and they may be able to move people when they speak because they are powerful verbal communicators, but when it comes to writing, an awful pall falls over them and renders them ineffective.

And yet they may have a wonderful story to tell. One of my personal frustrations is finding a book that has a great concept, a fire-eating story, characters that scream for attention – and a poor writer writing about them. What a waste of an idea or a story.

When an author puts something “out there,” they will be judged on it. Poor writing tells the reader that the author doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, about the quality of their communication. So the visibility the author gains by getting his or her work “out there” actually does him or her more harm than good – all it means is that now many people know they are poor writers.

The written word is one of the most powerful forces in changing the world. It has a long and distinguished history in doing just that. But bad writing never convinced anyone of anything except that the writer didn’t know what he or she was doing – or worse, didn’t care.

If you are interested in learning more about the ins and outs of ghostwriting, my online program “Living as a Ghost” covers everything I’ve learned in the twelve years I’ve been making my living this way – for only $349. Find out more at Primary-Sources.com/LearntoGhost.html.

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Kim Pearson is an author, ghostwriter, and owner of Primary Sources, a writing service that helps others become authors of professional and compelling books and articles. She has authored 6 books of her own, and ghostwritten more than 30 non-fiction books and memoirs. To learn more about her books or services, visit Primary-Sources.com.

Time out for a Little Fun

2012-02-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Years ago I used to fight with my kids for my sacred space to write in. I had a room that was called my study where I had a desk and a typewriter --- yeah, I started writing in the dark ages. Problem was, the study soon became the room where stuff was stored when nobody knew where else to put it. So I would have an odd assortment of boxes and bins and things stacked in and around the desk and filing cabinet that made finding my space a challenge.

Then if we had company, either the company stayed in the office and slept on the sofa bed or one of the kids did. First obstacle to overcome was finding the sofa bed under the piles of things "stored" in the office. Then came the challenge of figuring out if it was an invasion of a guest's privacy if I went into the study now and then to work.

Now that the kids are grown and out of the house, I have an office all to myself. Or at least I thought I did, until the cats decided they would like to share the space with me.

Wait. Did I say "share?"

The cats have taken over the space. Our two new kittens love to walk in front of the monitor and play with that funny little thing that moves all around the screen. That's almost as much fun as chasing a bird... or dare I say it?... a mouse? I haven't told them what that device is beside the keyboard.

If one of them needs to go outside or is hungry, they don't go bother my husband who is just sitting in the living room watching TV or reading a book. No. They come into the office. Jump up on the desk and stand in front of the monitor. No playing this time. Just blocking the screen so I can't see what I'm doing.

Misty, our calico, took over my office chair weeks ago, and she does not know the meaning of "share" either. She glowers at me when I move her so I can sit down. Then she jumps up behind me and pushes on my back to get me to move.

The last time one of our sons came to visit, he laughed because my office chair was rolled aside and I had a kitchen chair in front of my desk. When I told him why, he asked why I didn't just move the cat.

I glowered at him.

So did the cat.

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Maryann Miller is an author and freelance editor. Information about her books, her editing services, and her blogs can be found on her Web site at www.maryannwrites.com Follow her on Twitter and Facebook

Coming in February

2012-01-31T00:00:00.009-07:00

By Dani Greer, Founding Member

We haven't begun to touch on the many awards for writers, and how one can use them to promote books. There are the big awards, like the Pulitzer and Man Booker prizes, genre awards like the Cybils and the Hugo award, and hundreds of awards for children's books. But the month is over, and hopefully we've given you some ideas and incentives. Check out the awards you might qualify for at this Wikipedia list, and do some research. Think about submitting your newest title for at least one book award this year!

In February, we'll talk about things we love in the writing world. We had fun with this theme last year. I love what's happening in e-books with all the opportunities for authors to self-publish, getting old rights back and issuing titles to download for nominal fees, and even offering freebies so readers can try an author's writing style without a huge investment. As far as I'm concerned, it's a win/win situation for everyone.

What about you? Have you added an e-reader to your life? What kind? What's the best e-book you've read this year? Are your own books available as e-books? Offered any great deals lately? My Nook is ready and waiting for its next acquisition! Do leave us suggestions in the comments.

Book Review - A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

2012-01-30T00:00:00.011-07:00

Last week I introduced Louise Penny and all the awards she has won for her books, most notably, The Agatha. When I first started reading her latest, A Trick of the Light, it reminded me a bit of the great Agatha Christie. I loved the quaint little village of Three Pines and the assortment of people who live there; unique characters, made very real, much like Christie made her characters real.

While that similarity is there, Penny takes her stories and her people to deeper places than Agatha Christie ever did. Consider this brief description of the story:

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

The suspects are many in this wonderful story, penned with such exquisite language that I would stop now and then to just savor a word or a phrase or a description.

"This was the village that had lived behind the thin wooden door to her bedroom, where outside her parents argued. Her brothers ignored her. The phone rang, but not for her. Where eyes slid over and past her and through her. To someone else. Someone prettier. More interesting. Where people butted in as though she was invisible and interrupted her as though she hadn't just spoken."

In that brief paragraph, we learn so much about this woman, Clara, who is suspect because once she was friends with Lillian, until Lillian cruelly betrayed her while they were in art college. Then there are the gallery owners. They have all gathered at the party in Three Pines to try to sign Clara, who has just had the most successful solo-show opening in a long time. Did one of them allow the competition and jealousy so common in the art world drive him to murder?

Like a great artist working on a painting, Louise Penny took the time to add layer upon layer to the story and the characters. We find out about the problems between Clara and her husband, Peter, also an artist, but not on the same plane as Clara. We discover secrets about Gamache's second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, as well as the complex connections so many people had with the dead woman.

In discovering those secrets we encounter characters that become so real that one reviewer on Amazon wrote, "…you want to go and, if not live with them, at least spend a few weeks of quality time."

I agree. I would love to visit these people again.

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Louise Penny worked as an award-winning journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before leaving to write crime fiction. Her first mystery, Still Life, was the winner of the New Blood Dagger and the Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys Awards. Louise went on to become the first writer ever to win the Agatha Award for Best Novel four times, as well as an Anthony Award for The Brutal Telling and the Dilys, Arthur Ellis, Macavity, and Anthony Awards for Bury Your Dead. Her novels are bestsellers in the United States and Great Britain and have been translated into twenty-three languages. She lives with her husband, Michael, in a small village south of Montréal.

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A Personal Check List for Fiction Writers

2012-01-27T00:00:00.010-07:00

Today we welcome a new third-Friday regular to the blog - Debby Harris who last visited us here. Welcome aboard, Debby!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m an Honorary Lecturer for the School of English at the Scottish University of St. Andrews (a town probably better known outside of Scotland as the historic Home of Golf). Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of providing editorial support for two Ph.D. candidates in Creative Writing. To help them evaluate their own work during the writing process, I prepared a check-list of practical questions for fiction writers to ask themselves. This check list has since proven so useful to me as a tool for editorial assessment/self-assessment that it seems churlish to keep it to myself.

So here it is:

A) Plot

1) Does the work feature a strong/striking central idea around which the action of the plot revolves?

2) Is the central concept sufficiently robust to be conveyed in 25 words or fewer?

3) Does the action reflect an artful balance between incident and exposition?

4) Do plots and sub-plots advance logically, evincing a chain of cause and effect underlying the course of events?

5) Are individual incidents and episodes well-conceived and well-orchestrated?

B) Characterisation
1) Do the principal characters evince personal and emotional depth, eliciting sympathy or antipathy according to their roles?

2) Is character interaction dramatic and dynamic, contributing to the development of exposition, plot and theme?

3) Is the dialogue lively and natural?

4) Do characters behave self-consistently with respect to their age, social and educational background, experience and temperament?

5) Within the framework of dialogue, is the register of diction appropriate to the respective characters and the work’s intended audience?

C) Setting and Atmosphere

1) Is the setting well-established in terms of time and place by means of descriptive imagery and selective detailing?

2) Have the back-story elements been artfully accounted for in terms of background research and character profiling?

3) Are atmosphere and mood effectively generated by means of evocative language?

4) Do setting and atmosphere enhance plot action and character tensions?

5) Do setting and atmosphere contribute meaningfully to thematic development?

D) The Writer’s Craft

1) Is exposition handled adroitly, via a variety of techniques?

2) Does point of view function artfully for the conveyance of story?

3) Is the angle of vision manipulated effectively to influence the reader’s perceptions, emotional affinities, and thematic evaluations?

4) Are scenes artfully “staged” with the aid of props and choreography of action?

5) Does the work throughout exhibit a polished command of diction, syntax, and the ornaments of language?

In my experience, these questions, answered honestly, can help you locate any areas of potential weakness in your work. (Incidentally, it’s also a useful tool whenever you’re out to critique any work of fiction that comes your way.)

Cheers!

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Debby does edit for authors, so please visit her website for more information. Readers, if you have questions for Debby, please leave them in the comments.

A New Writing Award for Women

2012-01-26T00:00:00.013-07:00

Awards come and go, and it pays to be cautious especially in these days of increased book publishing opportunities. Here is a new award I can personally vouch for having been a member of the Story Circle Network for years. ~ Dani Greer

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May Sarton under her portrait

By Paula Stallings Yost

The winner of Story Circle Network's first annual Sarton Memoir Award will be announced at Stories from the Heart, the biannual SCN National Memoir Conference, at the Wyndham Hotel in Austin, Texas, April 13-15, 2012.

The award is named in honor of May Sarton (1912-1995), the distinguished American poet, novelist, and author of twelve memoirs and journals. Readers have found Sarton's work to be inspiring, moving, and thought-provoking. While widely acclaimed for her fiction and poetry, Sarton’s best and most enduring work may lie in her journals. In these honest, probing accounts of her solitary life, she deals with such issues as aging, isolation, solitude, friendship, sexuality, self-doubt, success and failure, envy, love of nature, gratitude for life's simple pleasures, and the daily challenge of leading of a creative life.

Much time and effort has been invested by many to establish this award project. Numerous entries were received in 2011 and submitted to two rounds of judging, first by volunteer SCN jurors and next by professional librarians not affiliated with SCN. We are looking forward with great anticipation to honoring the author of the best woman's memoir published in the United States and Canada, chosen from works submitted.

For more information about the award and the SCN Conference, please visit StoryCircle.org/Conference/ and StoryCircle.org/SartonMemoirAward/.

Consider joining this debut literary award presentation while attending a great conference, where women from around the country gather to celebrate their stories and their lives. Through writing, reading, listening, and sharing, they will discover how personal narrative is a healing art, how they can gather their memories and tell their stories. Readers, writers, storytellers, and any woman with a past, present, and future are welcome. There will be opportunities to explore difficult or hidden issues, expand relationships with other women, and discover different modes and media—such as art, dance, and drama—for sharing our stories.

Awards for Mystery Novels - Agatha, Anthony, and More

2012-01-25T00:00:00.007-07:00

For the theme of awards this month, Dani Greer asked me to write about awards for mysteries. She thought that would be a good topic for me since I write mysteries and read a lot of books in that genre. She also introduced me to the work of Louise Penny, who writes a mystery series set in Quebec featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

Louise Penny has won most of the major awards for mystery novels and has been compared to Agatha Christie. In fact, that is who I was reminded of when I first started reading her latest novel, A Trick of the Light, and it is no surprise that Penny has won the Agatha Award four times for her series.

The Agatha Award honors the "traditional mystery." That is to say, books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie as well as others who write mysteries that contain no explicit sex or gratuitous violence. In these books, the murders happen off screen and couples do what couples do behind closed doors. The award is given out at the Malice Domestic Conference near Washington D.C. every spring.

In addition to awards for novels and short stories, there is the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement, which is given in recognition of a significant body of distinguished work in the Malice Domestic genre. The award is bestowed by the Malice Domestic Board of Directors.

The Poirot Award is presented to honor individuals other than writers who have made outstanding contributions to the Malice Domestic genre. The award is bestowed by the Malice Domestic Board of Directors and presented at the Malice Domestic conference. The Poirot Award is not an annual award.

For more information about the conference and Agatha Award, visit the Malice Domestic website.

Another award that Penny has won is the Anthony, which is given in the fall at Bouchercon, an annual convention for fans of mysteries, as well as authors. All attendees can nominate books and authors for the award prior to the date of the convention. The top nominees in each category are then put on a ballot used during the convention to vote.

The Barry Award, presented by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, has been given to Penny twice, and her first book, Still Life, was also named one of the five Mystery/Crime Novels of the Decade by Deadly Pleasures magazine. While newer than the Agatha or the Anthony, it has quickly become a coveted award for mystery fiction and nonfiction. Books can be submitted for consideration and a panel of judges comprised of reviewers and magazine staff select the winners.

The Dilys Award has been given annually since 1992 by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) to the mystery titles of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The award is named in honor of Dilys Winn, the founder of Murder Ink (now sadly closed), the first specialty bookseller of mystery books in the United States. Penny won this award for her first book and for a later book, Bury Your Dead.

The one major mystery award that Louise Penny has not won is the Edgar. Her books don't qualify, as this award is given to books considered more hard-boiled. The awards are presented by the Mystery Writers of America, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in the previous year. Named for the famed, Edgar Allan Poe, the contest accepts all sub-genres for nomination, including hard boiled. Visit The Edgars website for a list of this year's nominees.

In researching this topic I found more awards for mystery writers that I was aware of, or that I can include here. I did find this site Mystery Book Awards that lists them all with brief descriptions. Very helpful resource for readers and writers. I like to read books that have been nominated or have won awards, mainly to see what was so special about them. Rarely have I been disappointed.

Come back next Monday for a review of A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny and see why I think it deserved the awards it has received.

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Michael L. Printz Adds to ALA Awards Legacy

2012-01-24T00:00:00.010-07:00

1/25/2012 Update: At the recent ALA Conference, the award winners were announced and the 2012 Printz winner was Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. Click here for more information.

For many years, beloved Kansas librarian Michael L. Printz was considered by many to be the backbone of the American Library Association (ALA). After Printz died in 1996 at the age of 59, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA, a branch of the ALA) memorialized him by bestowing the Michael L. Printz Award to the best young adult book published the previous year. While fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anthologies are considered, so far the prize has been awarded to eleven novels and one graphic novel.

While the Printz Award program is relatively new, other ALA prizes are not. Generations of parents, students, librarians, and teachers have trusted the reputation of books that have won the John Newbery and Randolf Caldecott medals, the first of ALA’s annual awards for exemplary literature for children and young adults. Since 1922, ninety books have won a Newbery, and since 1938, seventy-three a Caldecott; and the metallic seals on their covers automatically speak of their quality.

Whereas many John Newbery Award recipients focused on motherless children, the ALA aimed to use the Printz Award to recognize a different type of book: one with an edgy, ultra-current focus on situations relevant to the lives of modern adolescents. These books explore conflicts sparked by crime, teen pregnancy, separation and divorce, parental death, physical abuse, drug abuse, social ostracism, and sexual promiscuity.

The repercussions of having received such an honor are far-reaching. If you are a parent, you already know that when choosing books for child readers, the very sight of the raised gold seals on these books evokes feelings of trust and artistic competence that helps drive sales.

Such exposure, extended through the word-of-mouth influence of school librarians, has to have a significant impact on an author’s career. Walter Dean Myers, who won the first Printz Award in 2000 for Monster, has continued as a trailblazer with his recent appointment as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

As in the Newbery and Caldecott tradition, runners up for the Printz Award also receive a prestigious designation. A silver seal is affixed to their covers that contains a large “P” and the words, “Honor Book.”

Author A.S. King (The Dust of 100 Dogs, Everybody Sees the Ants) earned this honor for her novel, Please Ignore Vera Dietz (see here for a previous BRP post highlighting a clever craft technique she used). I asked King if she’d share how being chosen as a Printz Honor Book has impacted her career in general, and specifically boosted sales of Please Ignore Vera Dietz. Since books sales are reported infrequently, and she received this honor just one year ago, she can only guess that it has boosted sales. She noted that sales of the paperback, due out in 2012, will eventually paint a more accurate picture. But translating a prize into sales isn't always a direct process, King says.

“Please Ignore Vera Dietz being picked as a Printz Honor book certainly impacted my life and career in many ways,” says King. “I have had more school and university visit requests, for sure. I believe it raised my profile and built bridges that I hadn't had before—bridges that can impact every part of a writer's life.”

Additional Resources

Complete list of ALA and YALSA Awards

ALA selected book and media lists

2011 Printz winner Paolo Bacigalupi's (Ship Breaker) interview with A.S. King

Thanks to Drew University PhD candidate Stephanie Cecchini for providing helpful information for this post!

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Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and line editing service. Her women's fiction and memoir are represented by Katie Shea at the Donald Maass Literary Agency. The first chapter of her memoir, Standoff at Ronnie's Place, modified as a stand-alone essay, was published online by Mason's Road, the online journal of Fairfield University's MFA program. She blogs about Healing through Writing.

The WILLA Literary Award

2012-01-23T00:00:00.004-07:00

When I received an e-mail last August that I had won the WILLA Literary Award for Follow the Dream, I didn’t believe it. At first I thought it was telling me I was a finalist (which would have been wonderful in itself) and that I’d find out later. So I had to reread the letter several times before it finally sank in. I had WON! It took several weeks to come down from Cloud Nineteen.

This prestigious national award is given by the Women Writing the West organization in seven categories: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Original Softcover, Creative Nonfiction, Scholarly Fiction, Poetry, and Children’s/Young Adult Fiction and Nonfiction. Each category has a winner and up to two finalists, who also receive award recognition at the organization’s annual fall conference. The WILLA recognizes outstanding literature featuring women’s stories set in the west.

Books published in the previous calendar year can be submitted by publishers or authors, and are read by groups of volunteers according to a set of rubrics set up by the WWW organization. The top five in each category are then judged by an independent panel of judges—librarians from around the U.S.

The WILLA is named in honor of Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, who is known for her novels of the immigrant experience on the American frontier, including O Pioneers! (1913) and My Ántonia (1918). She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours.

Winning this award is a huge honor for me and serves to validate my writing, that my hard work has been for a purpose. It also honors my rodeo-riding grandmother, on whom I have based my first two novels, Cowgirl Dreams (an EPIC Award Winner) and Follow the Dream. An award-winning book also helps with your marketing: it revives the book’s newsworthiness and it adds prestige. Readers and reviewers who perhaps were not interested in the subject matter before may express new interest in an award-winning book.

I encourage all authors to enter literary contests. You never know what may happen!

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Cues from the Coach: Why a Coach?

2012-01-20T00:00:00.013-07:00

You’re sitting at your computer, hands poised on the keyboard. You’ve planned your story, done your character sketches and outline, and know exactly what will happen and how it will end. But where does it start? You look at the row of question marks on the first line of your outline. You didn’t know where to begin when you created it, and you don’t know now.

Or, for the fifth time, you’ve rewritten a tense scene that’s pivotal to the story, but it still lies flat on the page. All the elements are there, but it doesn’t sing. And it won’t hook a reader. Now what?

The ability to write is a talent. The ability to write well is an acquired skill. How do you move from one to the other?

Taking a writing class offers possibilities, particularly when it comes to grammar skills. The downside, however, might be a one-size-fits-all approach that can inhibit rather than foster creativity.

A writing group offers a forum for brainstorming and inspiration. The critiquing process, if handled with objectivity and diplomacy, can define areas that need development or other intervention. The efficacy of any group, however, depends on the ability/experience/expertise of its members, the manner in which the critique is delivered, and the validity and thoroughness of the suggestions.

Family and friends can be enthusiastic and encouraging—or the opposite. What they won’t be is objective. Those who know us and love us are not the best stepping stones on the path from writing talent to writing well. (Yes, exceptions exist, but emotional ties often taint “constructive criticism.”)

A competent editor should always be part of the team that takes a book from concept to completion. Editors, however, can be expensive, and they generally come into the picture after a book is written unless their specialty is developmental editing. Taking another step prior to the editing process will help assure that your manuscript is well written, grammatically correct, and ready to grip your audience—and it will likely save you big bucks over the course of your writing career.

Working one-on-one with a writing coach, book shepherd, or mentor can make the difference between an expensive content edit and a quick copy edit/proofread. The tricks of the trade and lessons learned will apply to future works, hence the money-saving factor. Remember, though, that a writing coach does not replace an editor. Here’s what she/he does do:

• Teaches you to use words more effectively
• Shows you how to develop characters
• Helps you to grab and hold your audience
• Teaches you the effectiveness of show vs. tell
• Helps you to avoid writer intrusion
• Highlights the value of active verbs
• Makes your work memorable
• Makes your readers eager for your next book
• Shows you where to begin and end
• Teaches you to maintain rhythm and flow
• Helps you eliminate unnecessary material

Have you ever worked with a writing coach? What qualities in a coach are most important to you? Do you believe a coach could improve your work?
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After working as an editor for more than two decades, Linda Lane now mentors writers who want to take their work to the next level. To learn more about her mentoring, visit her at http://www.denvereditor.com/

Be My Guest - Jodie Renner

2012-01-19T00:00:00.003-07:00

Check Your Facts, Ma’am!

You’re busy creating your story world with your right brain, rolling along with the great plot and developing your characters while your muse is buzzing. Great! But later, when you’ve got that first draft done, it’s important to switch to your left brain and go back and check for continuity, logic, and accurate information – or get someone else to do it for you.

As you’re writing, you may assume everything makes sense and all your info is correct, but at some point, step back and reread for logistics. While you’re at it, verify your facts, to avoid annoying or even alienating your readers – and eroding your credibility. “But,” you say, “I’m writing fiction, so who cares about facts?” You should, because you want to create a credible world for your readers to be drawn into, and if an erroneous fact jars them out of it, they’re going to be annoyed. Think about watching a movie about Ancient Rome and suddenly you notice a watch on one of the gladiators.

The illusion of being caught up in their world is suddenly shattered.

If you’re writing a western, make sure the gun makes and models characters use were invented by that period.

In a contemporary novel, don’t have a character in the 70s or even 80s researching a topic on her home computer! A quick Google search with the question “When did home computers become popular?” revealed that Microsoft pioneered the home computer in 1992, and 1995 was the year computers really became mainstream. Yet, I recently read a novel in which the (missing and assumed dead) mother of the protagonist had sent emails 20-25 years earlier! I personally started emailing around 1996 or ’97. How about you?

Similarly, don’t have your everyday characters using cell phones in the ‘90s.

In a historical fiction I edited a few years ago, a ne’er-do-well was running from the police in England, around 1855. He happened on a poker game near the harbor and found out one of the poker players was boarding a ship for America within hours. Thinking that escaping to America would solve his problems, the fugitive followed the guy after the late-night game, stabbed him, and stole his ticket for the ship. Arriving in America three or four weeks later, he was greeted by his uncle, whom he’d arranged to meet him at the pier. I asked the author how the fellow, who’d boarded the ship within hours of his poker game, could have arranged for his uncle to meet him at the harbor. By cell phone? The author admitted he hadn’t thought of that, and was grateful that I’d pointed it out.

Also, be aware of whether expressions were in use in the time frame or geographical region of your story. If you use a modern expression in a historical fiction, it jolts the reader out of that time period, and they’ll probably feel you did a shoddy job of recreating that world for them. For example, in a historical fiction I edited that took place about 150 years ago, the term “upscale” was used. This struck me as out of place for that time, so I looked it up. Merriam-Webster lists the year of the first appearance of many words, and “upscale” is listed as first being used in 1966, so to even use it in narration in a historical fiction takes the reader out of that world. Same with the even more recent “high-end” (coined around1977). For historical fiction, better to use “upper-class” or “elegant” or “sophisticated” or “affluent” or “wealthy.”

As a freelance editor, I constantly notice little errors like a vehicle make or model changing, problems with time sequence, sudden changes in a character’s name or appearance, inconsistencies with the season, climate or geography, and so on. If errors like these aren’t picked up before your story is published, you can be sure that a number of readers will notice them and may lose confidence in you as a writer – and put down your story.

So, if in doubt about facts in your story, take the time to look them up, or run your story past trusted readers before publication. Better yet, employ the services of a freelance editor, who will be on the lookout for incorrect information, discrepancies, and logic problems, and may query you with a comment like “Was this invented back then?” or “Did she just buy a new car? The one she had yesterday was a blue Toyota. Now she’s driving a Ford,” or “Who’s Ralph?” (That character whose name you changed.) The last thing you want is for your readers to say, “Oh, come on! This doesn’t make sense!”

How about you? As a reader, have you ever been jolted out of a story by something that didn’t make sense? As a writer or editor, have you noticed incongruities that needed to be fixed? Do you have any interesting or funny or absurd examples to share?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guest blogger Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction manuscript editor, specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, mysteries, romance, YA, and historical fiction. Jodie’s services range from developmental and substantive editing to light final copy editing and proofreading, as well as manuscript critiques. Check out Jodie’s website at http://www.jodierennerediting.com/ and her blog, dedicated to advice and resources for fiction writers, at http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/.

Posted by Maryann Miller who is struggling to make sure the wordage used in her historical mystery fits the 1960s.

Be My Guest - Susan Malone

2012-01-18T00:00:00.006-07:00

Why We Write

I’ve just been doing the final edit of a provocative book about how the pursuit of happiness is folly, the book’s premise being that we are “sold” to be always pursuing happiness, when being happy is within our inherent natures, providing we have sustenance and shelter. It got me thinking how this corresponds to writing. The writing itself is one beast, and the desire to “be published” quite another.

Almost all the writers who come to me want to be published, of course. It’s almost as if the words and people and places don’t exist until they garner some sort of audience—readers to fall in love with their characters and be transported by the story. And such is of course the case, to a large extent. We humans are pretty danged ego-driven, and artists of all sorts ask if another human isn’t there to appreciate their art does it actually exist?

But is this actually why we write? It helps when reevaluating one’s writing career to hone in on the truth of the matter. That truth is different for each one of us. Do you write because you want to be a rich and famous author? Or do you write because you have to, i.e., you go pretty wonkers when not writing?

Either is actually fine, and no right or wrong answer exists here. But you can save yourself a ton of heartache by getting to your own reason for doing this, while buffering yourself against Hamlet’s whips and scorns of time.

If your goal is to be published and become a bestseller, Lord knows that’s great motivation. It’ll keep you studying and learning and your butt in front of the keyboard (which is a huge part of this battle!). But it will also lead you down a path of rejection and hurt and, often, writers completely stop after a time when their dreams don’t come true. Because for every million writers with that dream, one is published. (I’m talking traditionally published here; self-publishing brings with it the challenge of the flip side—actually selling your book to readers.)

In fact, the vast number of folks I’ve seen go in with fame as the only goal quit at some point. Publishing is an unforgiving business. It takes a backbone of steel to pursue, after a certain amount of time. “Becoming Rich and Famous” doesn’t usually hold up to the heartaches and sorrows that come. And trust me, they will come. So you have to dig deeper and find another core of motivation to keep plugging along.

If you write, on the other hand, because you must, because of a deep driving desire to let your characters run free, your story be told, no matter the costs or the outcome, you’ll still face those same sorrows and heartaches. Sometimes the hurt is deeper, stronger, more aching as these are people and places in your stories that you, as the writer, have grown to love (and indeed, those are the best kinds!). Then you have to dig down deeper again, and find the fortitude to carry on in the face of said rejection and sadness.

Again, many people stop at this point, as their personal pain is too much to bear. As I’m fond of saying, we’re not working with bread dough here, but, rather, the very heart and soul of you. The thing to remember at this juncture is truly that it’s not about becoming rich and famous; it’s simply about writing as beautifully as you can. At the end of the day, that is enough. Publishing will humble you to your knees. But that’s okay. Really. Because from your knees is a great place to look up and see clearly. As Rilke said, “Ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?”

The answer to that will help you design a much clearer road ahead!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Award-winning author and editor Susan Mary Malone has four traditionally published books to her credit (fiction and nonfiction) and many published short stories. A freelance editor, forty-plus Malone-edited books have now sold to Traditional publishers. You can see more about her, and what authors say about working with her, at: www.maloneeditorial.com

Posted by Maryann Miller, who found this blog topic to be quite inspiring.

Be My Guest - Terry Odell

2012-01-17T00:00:00.003-07:00

Don't Stumble over the Humble Apostrophe

This month's post is about something very basic—but when we're busy writing, sometimes even the basics become stumbling blocks.

We were driving onto the highway the other day, and our local BBQ joint (note, in our town there are only 3 choices for food: the Irish pub, the BBQ joint, or the sandwich shop) had just put out a new sign: "Breakfast Burrito's Served All Day."

I cringe at how common that mistake is. I know I'm guilty of the occasional typo because my fingers don't always listen to my brain, but I do know the rule. Mr. Holtby in high school English drilled it in. Deep. And although I hope most people here know the rules, too, I figured it might be worth a reminder, in case anyone wants to sell burritos all day.

An Apostrophe Has Two Uses

1. It shows possession. Something belongs to someone or something.

The man's hat. The dog's leash. My biggest trouble-spot with this is dealing with plurals. There's a difference (as my crit partner loves to point out) between the Detective's office and the Detectives' office. But then, I can never remember if I've given each of my detectives his own office.

I also have to stop and think about housing. You know, like when you go to the house that belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Since it belongs to both of them, it's the Smiths' house, not the Smith's house.

And words that already end in "s" can be a problem. I go out of my way to avoid naming characters with names ending in "s" to bypass the head-scratching. And here, I've seen it both ways. In my first book, my editor, whom I fear was overworked, didn't catch that I'd written both Doris' and Doris's throughout the manuscript. Luckily, I noticed it in edits. She really didn't care which one I used as long as they were all the same. My inclination is to leave off the final 's' after the apostrophe simply because it looks cumbersome and when I read it "aloud in my head" I keep added "s" sounds.

(I'm sure there are official editors here at BRP who will explain this one in the comments, and I welcome them. I have a kind of dislike-hate relationship with the Chicago Manual of Style, so I'm not even going to try to look up a rule.)

Okay, that's one use of the apostrophe. The other:

2. Replaces extra stuff. Yes, those were Mr. Holtby's words. (note the possessive apostrophe there! The words belonged to him.)

Apostrophes are used in contractions to show you've combined two words and taken away some of the letters.

Examples: Don't. I've. Shouldn't. He'd. We'll.

I don't think I need to ask you what each of the above stands for. This was a lesson I taught when I was tutoring in adult literacy. It was very common for students to see the word don't and read it aloud as do not. They knew what the apostrophe meant even if they couldn't use one when writing.

There IS NO RULE THREE saying you can use an apostrophe for a plural.

One last point:

A major hangup for people seems to be with its and it's. But if you remember rules 1 and 2, there should be no problem knowing which to use. (As long as your fingers cooperate.)

It's = it is. The apostrophe stands for a missing letter.
Its is possessive. The tree lost its leaves. The leaves belonged to the tree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terry Odell is the author of numerous romantic suspense novels, as well as contemporary romance short stories. Most of her books are available in both print and digital formats. She’s the author of the Blackthorne, Inc. series, steamy romantic suspense novels featuring a team of covert ops specialists. Look for Terry's newest release. DEADLY SECRETS, A Mapleton Mystery, is her first non-romantic suspense novel. To see all her books, visit her Web site. You can also find her at her blog, Terry's Place, as well as follow her on Twitter, or visit her Facebook page.

Posted by Maryann Miller who also avoids character names ending in s.

Here’s to the Cliché

2012-01-16T00:00:00.005-07:00

Photo credit: AussieGall (CC)

As writers we are warned to beware of clichés, and we try hard to keep them out of our writing. Often the only time to use them, and then sparingly, is to give an idea of a person’s style through dialogue. However as a ghostwriter, I’ve found clichés to be a useful avenue into my clients’ psyches.

Many people use clichés unconsciously when they speak. For instance, I ghostwrote a book about business success for a businesswoman who used a lot of clichés. One of her favorites was “we were just like peas in a pod.” For anyone she liked, she’d describe their relationship as being two peas in a pod. It started with her grandmother, who she credited for establishing her values that she used in business. I therefore asked many questions about Grandma – what she looked like, how she talked, and so on. Turns out Grandma liked jewelry, and so did my client. Grandma liked to entertain people, and so did my client. Grandma was basically a wild old rip, lots of fun, and an adventurer. My client admired and loved her grandmother, and deliberately copied her style. So her “peas in a pod” cliché was actually true, and exploring it added depth to her book about business.

Another benefit of the peas in a pod cliché and one of my client’s keys to success was that whenever she would try something new – a new product, new system, new advertising – she’d go out and find people who were already doing something similar and doing it well – and then she’d find out how they did it so she could recreate it for her own situation. In other words she looked to people she admired and copied them, so they could be like peas in a pod. This turned out to be a whole chapter of her book.

Now I always try to find out what my clients’ – or my fictional characters’ – favorite clichés are, and probe for their deeper meaning. Sometimes I find gold. Or at least peas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CreateSpace Ins and Outs Explained by Bob Sanchez

2012-01-13T00:00:00.009-07:00

Bob Sanchez

Bob Sanchez is here today to inform us about a hot new trend.

Self-Publishing with CreateSpace by Bob Sanchez

Several people have asked about self-publishing using Amazon’s CreateSpace, so I’d like to share my experiences. At first I’d thought to walk through the entire process, but there’s little point. You can follow their instructions as easily as mine. So this post will provide essential highlights. I’ve used it five times—for one novel, three writers’ group chapbooks, and a friend’s memoir. The process is straightforward, and the physical book is fine. The quality of the formatting and content is up to you, although you can hire CreateSpace (or me) to do anything you prefer not to try.

The website is createspace.com. You’ll need to sign up (it’s free) or sign in. Once you sign in, click on the Books tab and read about Publishing a Trade Paperback. There is plenty of good, clear information. In the Overview, notice in particular the calculators that give you an idea of production and shipping costs. They offer a $39 Pro plan, which reduces the price of the copies you purchase. By all means spend the money if you plan to buy copies for resale, because you’ll quickly recoup the small cost. Then when you’re ready, click on the Create a book tab and follow the instructions. Give your project a name, select Paperback (they don’t do hardcover), and choose the Guided Setup process. You’ll answer a bunch of questions including your book’s description. When you get to the page about ISBNs, you’ll have several options. If all you want to do is publish your book and get on with your life, just take the free one. Free is good.

Your next choice is trim size. The 6 x 9 is very common and is what I’ve used. Notice the link to download a template in Word format, and download the file. It will contain sample content with all the correct margins and other formatting for that size. Chances are, you’ll want a black-and-white interior with white paper, which is an economical option. Cream paper adds to your per-copy cost.

At this point (your editing and proofreading should be complete by now), insert your novel into the template, which is a Microsoft Word document. The margins and other details will be set for you, but you can change any of it. Make sure your fonts and font sizes are consistent, and modify the headers and front matter to suit your needs. CreateSpace has plenty of helpful tips, including a step-by-step formatting guide. Look everything over carefully, but don’t fret too much, because it’s not hard to get back to this point later.

When you’re ready, you can upload the interior file to CreateSpace in Word or PDF format.

Now for the exterior file (cover and spine). You can use one of their preformatted covers, or you can build your own in Photoshop or another graphics application and upload the file in pdf format. This is trickier—not terribly difficult, just fussy. If you don’t want to do it, perhaps you have a friend with graphics skills who can give you a hand. Or ask me (desertwriter1@gmail.com) for help in putting it together after your artwork is ready.

Skipping ahead a bit, CreateSpace sets a base price—your cost—depending on trim size, paper type, interior ink color, and page count. You may set any sales price you want as long as it’s at least that minimum.

Finally, you’ll be asked to purchase a proof copy of your book. Order it and look it over carefully, because this is your last chance to get it right before you buy a bunch of copies.

This post doesn’t cover every detail, but my point is that you can publish through CreateSpace with reasonable effort and patience. The hardest part for many people will be using Microsoft Word and Photoshop, or whatever graphics program you have. So please ask questions, and I will do my best to answer them.

Bob Sanchez

Bob is a retired technical writer who worked in Massachusetts and now lives with his wife in New Mexico. He is the 2012 president of the El Paso Writers' League. His three published novels include When Pigs Fly, Getting Lucky, and Little Mountain, all available through Amazon at tinyurl.com/bobsanchezauthor.

During a recent promotion, his P.I. novel, Getting Lucky, was downloaded over 1500 times in one day.

Visit Bob Sanchez's blog

Please welcome Bob to The Blood-Red Pencil and throw him some questions here.

A Little Known Award

2012-01-12T00:00:00.004-07:00

There are a lot of well-known awards for writing, like the Agatha or The Pulitzer Prize. Any writer would love to win those awards, but there are quite a few that are less well-known, but also prestigious. Later this month, The Blood-Red Pencil will have a week about writing awards. Since I don’t usually post during that week, I thought I’d tell you about a friend and great writer, Sylvia Dickey Smith, and the award she won. Or to be more accurate, I’ll let her tell you.

Sylvia, in 2011, your book, A War of Her Own, won the Texas Press Women Award, then you went on to Nationals. What was that like?

Helen, so glad you asked! And to clarify—I not only went on to nationals but I placed 2nd there—to a Fulbright Scholar and head of the Fulbright Scholar program at her university, and who wrote her book while on a Fulbright-Scholarship-funded sabbatical—that made second place a little sweeter.

These were my first state and national awards so I wear them proudly! When I received word that I’d won the Texas Press Women Award, I thought, oh well, not a big pool for them to draw from. But national certainly eradicated that notion. Bells, whistles, firecrackers, bottle rockets, grenades, air to ground missiles? Nothing holds a candle to what I felt.

Did you submit your book for consideration by TPW? Did someone else? What was it about your book that caught the eye of TPW?

Interesting story to that process. I had been advised by a fan to seek out a journalist who might be interested in writing a feature article about WW2 and the homefront, and in the process, mention A War of Her Own in the article as a historically accurate recounting of what life was like. It took me a while, but one person led to another and I met Ginger Mynatt, a journalist from Sherman, Texas. She and I traveled to Orange where she conducted research on Orange and the shipyards during the war, wrote her article, and sold it to Texas Co-Op Magazine, a publication of Pedernales Electric. Indeed they published her article, but cut any reference to me or A War of Her Own, supposedly due to word count. Talk about disappointed! I always enjoyed that magazine, but now, when it comes in the mail, I smile and dump it in the trash unread! (only half-joking!)

Anyway, Ginger suggested I submit the novel to the annual Communications Contest for Press Women of Texas, and the rest is history. (A first place state win leads to the state submitting it to the national contest.)

Do you know if every state in the U.S. has a Press Women’s Association? How could other writers get recognized by their state’s PWA?

NFPW was founded on May 6, 1937. The national organization is the hub for the state affiliates. Join the national and you automatically become a member of the state organization. If there is a state that does not have a branch, then you join as a member-at-large and may still compete in the national competition. The National Federation of Press Women at http://www.nfpw.org is the place to start. (And if you join, tell them Sylvia sent you.)

Nothing could keep me from attending the national conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa last year. Although I was a stranger amidst hundreds of women, some who have known each other through the organization for fifty/sixty plus years, I have never felt more among friends. They INTENTIONALLY create an attitude of inclusiveness. Next year the conference is in Arizona, and I plan to be there—with a win, hopefully. They have over 80 something categories all available on the web site under Competitions. I hope to win in 2012 with my upcoming book, The Swamp Whisperer!

Here’s a brief synopsis of Sylvia’s award-winning book:
A War of Her Own: In the summer of 1943, Orange, Texas, is a sleepy little town overrun with tens of thousands of new workers. With jobs galore at the wartime shipyards, the workers are rich with cash and looking for a good time. Bea Meade, mother of an infant son, finds her life shattered when her philandering husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. To make ends meet, Bea takes a job at a shipyard as a riveter. Bea has to fight her own battles against a no-good husband, the prejudice facing women in the workplace, and the mysteries of her own past. Bea's journey to discover who she really is, a vibrant woman of her times, serves up an entertaining story of the World War II homefront you'll remember long after the final pages.

Note from Helen: There are awards out there that you may never have heard of. You’ve heard about this one now and later this month you’ll learn about more awards. Leave a comment if you know of an award you or other writers have won or could win.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Helen Ginger is an author, blogger, freelance editor and writing coach. She teaches public speaking as well as writing and marketing workshops. In addition, her free ezine, Doing It Write, which goes out to subscribers around the globe, is now in its twelfth year of publication. You can follow Helen on Twitter or connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.

10 Self-Motivators for Writers

2012-01-11T00:00:00.008-07:00

January is often a time when we wrap ourselves in the Cloak of Determination. If, like me, your cloak has a tendency to slip from your shoulders, I offer you the following motivators to keep on writing:

10. You can have a cookie(s) when you finish for the day.

9. In the midst of the shambles you've already written, which is mocking you from the page, there is one sentence you really like. Focus on it.

8. What would you be doing if you weren't writing? Do you really want to be doing that?

7. Think about how far you've come; not how far you still need to go.

6. Fantasize about what you'd treat yourself to with some of that royalty cheque. Perhaps it's a personal chef to make you cookies.

5. You love your characters. If you can't keep on writing for yourself, keep on writing for them.

4. Having the discipline to keep on writing even when it's tough is what separates the real writers from the wannabees. Do you really want to be a wannabe?

3. Remember why you started writing this story in the first place.

2. Accomplishment makes anyone glow. Go for the glow!

1. This story deserves to be written and only you can write it.

----------------

Elspeth Antonelli is an author and playwright. Her twelve murder mystery games and two plays are available through host-party.com. She has also contributed articles to the European writers' magazine Elias. Her blog, It's A Mystery, explores the writing process with a touch of humor. She is on Twitter as @elspethwrites.

Why Would Anyone Do Such a Thing?

2012-01-10T00:00:00.003-07:00

Forever Young: Blessing or Curse - Blog Book Tour Stop

Forever Young: Blessing or Curse,
a thriller by Morgan Mandel

Quite a while ago, when I first read a chapter of my now released thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, to my critique group at Chicago-North RWA, I received such comments as, "Why would anyone do such a thing?"

After hearing that, I had to step back and think. It wasn't enough for my 55 year old character to take an experimental pill to revert her to 24, but I also had to give her a good motive for doing so. Piling more reasons on would be even better. After all, the more a character suffers, the more readers are happy.

To make her desperate, I virtually killed her husband, gave her a bad thyroid, and bequeathed her with the beginnings of osteoporosis, a disease which caused her mother's decline and death. Then, if that wasn't enough, I let her lose her job.

Satisfied I'd made my character absolutely abject, I presented her with the option of taking an experimental pill to turn her young again, free from age-related diseases, yet able to retain her memories.

There are other methods I could have used to show why my heroine took such a drastic measure. Here are some I might have tried, but decided not to:

Establish early on through hints, words, and actions that she was a devil-may-care person, who'd do anything on a whim
Make her the pill's inventor who'd like to test the pill on herself
Let her be a doer of good deeds, who wants to benefit mankind by being the first to try the pill.

From my examples, you get some idea of how to go about establishing motive. Remember to include your own character motivation in accordance with the type of character you wish to portray to your readers.

Now, about what happens after my heroine took that pill -- well, let's just say, it's not all rosy. Otherwise, the book would have ended right there. To find out what other tortures I devised for her, you'll need to read Forever Young: Blessing or Curse on kindle or smashwords.

What reasons can you think of for taking a pill to be 24 forever? Would you do it? Or, maybe you know someone, real or imaginary, who would?
---------------------------------------------

Try Morgan Mandel
for Diversity and Versatilty

Morgan's next Tour Stop for Forever Young: Blessing or Curse is on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, at L. Diane Wolfe's Blog,

Morgan Mandel is a past president of Chicago-North RWA, past library liaison for Midwest MWA, belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. All of her books can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.

Morgan is an active blogger and networker. Her personal blogspot is:
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/

Writing in 140: Seeing Down Writing Journey's Road

2012-01-09T00:00:00.002-07:00

In January 2011, I wrote about stretching yourself as a writer. This New Year, how about we think about our future writing self? In your writing career, where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years? What projects are you writing? How many? Are you self-publishing or going the traditional route? Have you moved into writing articles and non-fiction to promote your fictional works? Are you now writing screenplays? Coaching and editing? It's great to think yearly and organize what projects you plan to write within a year's time, but it's equally great (and important) to stop and widen, deepen the view of your writing career…and take notes. Knowing where you want to be will help you situate what you have to do now and in the immediate future in order to get there.

-----
Writing in 140 is my attempt to say something somewhat relevant about writing in 140 words or less.

~~~~~~~~~~

Shon Bacon is an author, doctoral candidate, editor, and educator. She has published both creatively and academically. Shon also interviews women writers on her popular blog ChickLitGurrl: high on LATTES & WRITING. You can learn more about Shon's writings at her official website, and you can get information about her editorial services at CLG Entertainment. Currently, Shon is busy editing, writing, and pursuing her Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University.

Busted!—Cracked.com caught packing a loaded sentence

2012-01-06T00:00:00.003-07:00

It was Christmas afternoon, my older son was curled up on the couch with a book I’d given him, and he wouldn’t stop giggling.

The book was You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News, from the editors of Cracked.com, and I'd known as soon as I saw the title that the book would be a perfect gift for my son. I hadn't necessarily planned to purchase anything the fall day I'd been browsing through my local bookstore, but a quick flip through confirmed the notion, and soon thereafter my Christmas shopping season had officially begun.

This son is 24 and I’ve read aloud to him his whole life long. A fringe benefit is that he also likes to read aloud to me. So when I asked him what was so funny, he started reading from a chapter called “Four Things Your Mom Said Were Healthy That Can Kill You.” The countdown was in reverse order and began with #4: Exercising.

He read:

Exercise is good for you. Exercise is hard. Therefore the more you exercise, the better off your body will be, right? There’s no better example of this line of reasoning than the marathon, which is named for the legendary Greek messenger who ran 26.2 miles from a battle in Marathon to Athens, announced to the general assembly, “We won,” and promptly dropped dead.

Maybe it's my love of the thought of exercising, or the number of cookies attempting digestion in my belly—or who knows, maybe it's just an editor thing. But I already found this set-up funny, with its short sentences, simple logic, triumphant backstory, and swift, understated climax. But in this post I want to focus on the next sentence:

Ignoring the cautionary-tale shape to that story arc, the modern fitness movement made the recreation of the mythical death sprint their de facto symbol of peak physical condition (the ancient Greco-Roman sports of nude wrestling and lion fighting were presumably dismissed as too gay and too cruel to animals, respectively).

I loved hearing this sentence so much I asked my son to read it again. It won’t be funny once I’m done dissecting it—analysis is such a buzz kill—but hopefully I can point out a few things about great writing.

1. It is concise. Even the word “that,” which can be removed to the betterment of most sentences, is a simple yet vital means of identifying the focus of the commentary to come.

2. It makes you feel smart. The unidentified author uses language just esoteric enough that you feel like an insider for grasping the concepts: “story arc,” “modern fitness movement,” “de facto symbol.” By engaging your mind to create relationships rather than spoon-feeding, the prose draws you in.

3. The words chosen convey both concrete and applied meaning. “Ignoring the cautionary-tale shape,” “mythical death sprint.” Further, equating the three-word “mythical death sprint” with the symmetrical “peak physical condition” is quite funny.

4. Modern socio-political movements (gay rights, cruelty to animals) are retroactively applied to ancient practices in a way that suggests a timeless truth—people were always a little “cracked.”

5. It has a great sound. Say the sentence out loud. Enjoy the hard c’s, the “sh” sounds and the s’s, the “p” versus the “ph,” the repetition of “too.”

Have trouble writing like that? Don't worry. This kind of charged, taut prose rarely rolls from mind to keyboard in a first attempt, but it is well worth striving for in further drafts. Reading aloud is a great way to check your progress.

How about you—enjoyed any good sentences lately?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathryn Craft specializes in developmental editing at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and editing service. What she believes: 1. Editing forever changed the way she reads. 2. Well-crafted moments of brilliance help her forgive many other problems in a manuscript. 3. All writers have strengths and weaknesses—but why settle for weaknesses? 4. We can learn as much from what other authors do right as we can from what we do wrong. This is her series, "Busted!—An author caught doing something right."

Grammar ABCs: G is for Gerund

2012-01-05T00:00:00.005-07:00

What is a gerund? Is that one of those little rodent-type creatures who run around inside a wheel? Oh. No, that’s a gerbil.

The word 'gerund' in English comes from the Latin term gerundium, of the same meaning. Gerundium itself comes from the gerundive of the Latin verb gero, gerundus, meaning "to be carried out".

We all know what a gerund is even if we don’t know the name. A gerund is an “ing” form of a verb when it serves as a noun. Although they name things, like other nouns, they normally name activities rather than people or objects.

Shopping is a Sally’s favorite pastime.

Riding a horse is something Rob never thought he’d do.

As you can see, gerunds are often passive writing and are generally frowned upon by English teachers and purist editors. Sally would rather shop than eat is certainly a more active sentence and shows how much passion she has for shopping. Rob never thought he would ride a horse OR Rob never wanted to ride a horse are also more active sentences.

I can’t talk about gerunds without discussing infinitives, which are verbs formed with “to.” To shop is Sally’s passion. To ride is something Rob thought he’d never do.

Again, these sentences are a bit awkward and certainly can be made more active.

Both gerunds and infinitives can be the subject of a sentence, as in the above examples.

Both gerunds and infinitives can be the object of a verb: Sally likes shopping. Rob doesn’t like to ride.

But only gerunds can be the object of a preposition: Sally continually talks about shopping. Rob always avoids riding.

Do you avoid gerunds in your writing or editing, or when do you embrace them?

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Time Out for a Little Fun

2012-01-04T00:00:00.001-07:00

Years ago I wrote a humorous column in the vein of Erma Bombeck, and recently I compiled many of the columns into a memoir. This is an excerpt from the book, A Dead Tomato Plant and a Paycheck, titled for the wonderful Mother's Day gift I received one year. Enjoy....

If anybody ever bothered to ask mothers of pre-schoolers what they would wish for if they could have anything in the whole world, I’m sure the unanimous answer would be, PRIVACY!

The privacy to be able to close the bathroom door and know that it will stay closed until she opens it again.

The privacy to be able to take a shower without the kids and any number of their friends coming in to see if they can have a snack.

The privacy to sneak a piece of candy without having to swallow it whole because one of the kids just walked into the room.

The privacy to be able to talk on the telephone without someone picking up the extension and yelling in her ear. Or without someone jumping up and down and waving his arms to get her attention. Or without someone disappearing in ominous silence.

The privacy to be able to have a neighbor over for coffee without someone climbing all over the table, or the neighbor, or both.

The privacy to have a glass of water, or pop, or milk that she can call her own.

A private place where she can leave a pencil on a table for a moment without worrying about who’s got it and what they are doing with it.

A private place where no one else will sew on her sewing machine, or type on her typewriter, or take the last page of her story for scratch paper.

A private place where she can dream of better days, or think, or write without someone asking a million questions, or screaming and fighting, or wanting a cookie, a drink, another cookie.

The privacy to be able to do something, anything, ALONE!

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What's Your Answer Is Back!

2012-01-03T00:01:00.003-07:00

We had such a great response to the What's Your Answer feature when it was first introduced, we're bringing it back.

In case you've forgotten, here's how it works. I ask some questions. You pick one or more of them and give your answer(s) in the comment section. By the way, if you choose to answer one, you're welcome to expand on your answer. If you pick more, pretend you're somewhere like Twitter and make your answers brief. (No, we won't count the characters, but you get the drift.)

You may also include a website or blog URL at the end of your comment

Here Are Today's Questions And My Answers:
Question:
Do You Have a Publisher or Do You Self-Publish? Why?

Answer:
I started out with a small publisher, but now I self-publish. I love the freedom and the time-saving aspects.

Question:
Do You Read Books That Are Self-Published?

Answer:
Yes, I'll read any book that appeals to me, as long as it has a good storyline and is well told.

Question:
Amazon Has the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Program Where Authors Can Allow Their Books to Be Given Away for Free To Prime Members, as long as the author gives Amazon exclusive rights during three month increments. Is that program a good thing?

Answer:
If you have a lot of books and can spare some, or want to publicize one that starts a series, it might be good for publicity, to hook readers. Be careful you don't offer the book(s) anywhere else during that period, or Amazon will ban you from publishing all of your kindle books.

Now It's Your Turn. Pick a Question (or more) and Give Your Answer In the Comment Section.
------------------------------------------

Forever Young: Blessing or Curse
Is On Kindle & Smashwords

Blog Book Tour Stop Here on Tuesday, Jan., 10, 2012 Topic: Why Would Anyone Do Such a Thing?
Morgan Mandel is a past president of Chicago-North RWA,
was the Library Liaison for MWMWA, is an
active blogger and networker.

Her personal blog: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
Find all of Morgan's books at Amazon & Smashwords.com

Happy Yew Near!

2012-01-02T06:00:00.003-07:00

Oops! My first edit of the year. Happy New Year!

Some of you are probably still on holiday, but the Blood-Red Pencil editors have been busy planning the 2012 schedule.

We'll continue with our individual posts the first part of the month, like Kathryn Craft's popular Busted! series. Then we'll have special guests the third week, and the last week of each month add a different new theme. This year, we'll post those topics in advance right here on the blog. If you have a contribution you'd like to make around our topic-of-the-month, please shoot us an email.

Our theme for January is Conferences with Awards, and specifically we'll address how an author would use an award as a promotion tool for their book. There are more prizes and medals than you can imagine for all genres, and many are available to individuals as well as self-published authors. This is an area of publishing that is changing and expanding as quickly as everything else in the industry.

Have you won an award for one or more of your titles? How did you go about earning it? How do you use it to promote your book? Do you find it increases sales? These are some questions we'll tackle. We'll also look at various genres and their corresponding awards, and we'll have one guest who works for a publisher actively pursuing awards as part of their marketing plan. If this is a promotion concept you haven't considered, please be sure to visit us again. You might glean some new ideas to help you sell books.

Do tell us which industry award you truly covet. Please leave a comment and don't be shy!

~~~~~

Dani Greer is founding member of the Blood-Red Pencil and contributes the Hearing Voices column to this blog. This month, she'll talk about unique swear words.

Shitty First Drafts

2011-12-31T07:05:00.001-07:00

This post originally aired on 11-06-2008, and I thought a reminder that we can write garbage in our first drafts would be helpful. Getting it right the first time is rare indeed. Think about this as you head into the New Year.

Writing is a talent, a dream, an obsession, a release, a thrill, but it is also a craft. The words don't just magically appear on paper - all arranged at their finest. The words we love to read were painstakingly crafted by the author, paragraph by paragraph, line by line.

Anne Lamott, a wonderful writer describes the process in her book, Bird by Bird, this way: “For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts."

And further:

“The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.”

What wonderful advice. No wonder her books are so good.

A book can go through as many drafts as necessary, and every author has his or her own method of getting to the finished manuscript. The following suggestions are not RULES. Do what works best for you.

The first draft - get the story down from beginning to end. Some people like to edit as they go, and if that works for you, great. Others, like Ms. Lamott, prefer to get the story down, then go back to edit, and I am in that camp, too. I may do a little editing of two or three pages, just to jump-start the writing the next day, but I don’t go to far back. Fine-tuning can sometimes be just an excuse to avoid going forward.

A hint I picked up a long time ago is to stop writing in the middle of a scene. That gives you something to work on right away the next time you sit down to write, and often the next scene will flow naturally out of the one you are working on.

More about the second draft when I post again. In the meantime, have fun playing with your characters.

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What does an editor cost?

2011-12-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

This post first published 9/6/08 and not much has changed, including debate over fair and affordable editing costs.

It's all well and good to tell a writer they need a professional editor to peruse their manuscript before submitting to an agent or publisher. But, how much does that cost?

An informal industry perusal yields quite a range of costs. Let's take a look at some prices as well as methods of pricing. It depends in part on what you're buying. A line editor might charge $25 per hour and edit on average 10 pages an hour. Some editors simply charge $2.50 per page, which makes the math rather easy. A 300-page novel would cost you $750 for editing services.

But, what does that get you? Just a cleaning up of grammar, spelling, and typos as a rule. Some good editors will take a little longer and make deeper suggestions to improve the writing. But don't expect too much more than the basics for that price. It's still money well-spent, and it can mean the difference between being accepted or the story languishing in a drawer.

Can you get editing for cheaper? Sure. I've heard as low as $300 per manuscript. That's a steal, and the immediate reaction - you get what you pay for - isn't necessarily true. The editor might be great, but just starting out. Or the editor might be really fast and good, so can be highly competitive. Determine the price you can pay, and then look for referrals to get the job done. No matter how good your writing, it can always be better, and a keen eye can be just the tool to polish your manuscript to a gleaming shine.

Have you had your manuscript professionally edited? What did you pay? If you're an editor, what do you charge for what level of service? Interested writers want to know.
----------------------------------------------------
Dani Greer is a professional artist, writer, editor, and special projects coordinator for Little Pickle Press. You can read more at her blog, check out her guide, or follow her on Twitter. Oh, and make friends on Facebook.

Hearing Voices

2011-12-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

First published March 12, 2010.

Writers often discuss development of their own writing "voices" but there is more to the idea than just this one aspect. Let's discuss some other voices in the writing process.

I once reviewed a young adult manuscript that had many characters, all of whom had different voices. In this case, the reader was dealing with teen slang and regional dialect, foreign and biblical characters, as well as talking fantasy animals. Few of them at this point in the writing had really well-developed voices, easily distinguishable from each other, and they often left me confused as to who was saying what. It’s an issue that’s very important to the readability of a story, especially with an audience of young people who have shorter attention spans than adults. Each of your characters must sound distinct, and this is where revising plays a major role in honing a well-crafted story.

The above scenario illustrates various kinds of character voices a writer might have to manage. Beyond that, vernacular challenges us because as time passes our language changes. Think how difficult it is to read Mark Twain. Not only are we dealing with heavy dialect, but also with an entirely different society, complete with standards and practices vastly different from the modern day. The Zeitgeist always creates dialogue challenges, and every time period will have its own peculiarities. I’ll write a complete post on the issues of language and appropriate voice in history because nothing can pull a reader out of a story faster than a modern word or phrase carelessly plopped into the wrong century.

Then there is the issue of virtual voice and how it translates onto the printed page. Just how much of your blog can you put into a book without some serious editing? That's another post, and one that's particularly pertinent today. WTF and OMG might be okay online, but how much of that will your reader tolerate in a cookbook?

What about the challenge of keeping your character “in voice” throughout the story? This is especially difficult if an author is not familiar enough with a language or dialect to stay naturally in its mental frame. It’s very easy for characters to start sounding like the author, and that’s part of what a good editor “listens” for when reading a manuscript. Does that hillbilly twang in the early pages carry through until the very end? Or does your protagonist sound like a Harvard graduate by the last few pages of the novel? If so, is the transition logical to the story or an oversight on the part of the writer?

In the first installment of the Hearing Voices series, I’ll talk about the simplest yet probably most difficult voice in all writing – the one used in children’s books. That sparest of voices presents the greatest challenge to writers precisely because it is so minimal. But a good children’s story touches the heart and mind of an adult as easily as a child because of its clarity and the strong voice that is essential to a good read. Stay tuned for more about that, and a review of a new series I really like coming up next Saturday.

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Dani Greer is founding member of the Blood-Red Pencil, and lately has spent much of her time as special projects coordinator for Little Pickle Press, a job that includes reading many children's book submissions. In her spare time, she critiques cozy and history mysteries for grown-ups, with particular attention to voice and detail. Contact her by email for manuscript critique costs. (Reduced rates for books with felines in the cast.) In 2012, she plans to spend many hours revising and preparing her own writing for publication.

A Spoonful of Sugar

2011-12-27T05:00:00.001-07:00

First published Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Recently, I had the less-than-stellar experience of editing a manuscript for a first-time writer who believed her every word, every comma, every sentence contributed to her perfect book and under no circumstances should be changed. Emotions ran high, and reason ran out the door. Resistance became the word of the day, every day.

A few years ago, I attended a seminar where we were told that our books are not our babies. However, books are birthed after months, sometimes years, of hard labor. That does suggest a kinship between the two b’s—babies and books.

What happens when our baby gets sick? Do we take it to the doctor? Yes. When the doctor writes out a prescription, do we fill it? Of course. We even get well-baby checks and follow a schedule of immunizations to prevent measles, mumps, chickenpox, tetanus, hepatitis, and other diseases. Why? We want our baby to be healthy, the best it can be.

What about our manuscripts? When they are less than healthy, do we take them to the doctor, a.k.a., editor? When the editor writes out a prescription (suggestion to make the book better), do we fill it? Suppose we don’t think the story’s ailing. Do we still get well-manuscript checks? Do we immunize our book against lack of continuity and flow, poor dialogue, plot and character weaknesses, redundancies, lagging story lines, absence of hooks, telling rather than showing, and a host of other disorders? Do we want our story to be the best it can be?

Most of us agree that the doctor’s ability to ascertain the true state of our baby’s health exceeds our own. Similarly, a competent editor’s ability to determine the well-being of our manuscript far surpasses ours. Yet, do we resist the editor’s efforts to make our book the best it can be?

We writers often love our words and are loath to part with a phrase that epitomizes our feelings or paints an extraordinary (in our opinion) word picture. We may need to be convinced that a few more strokes of the brush will enhance our emotions or add depth to our scene. But if we are resistant writers, we want to protect our words at any cost. Sometimes that cost is very high.

Take the writer mentioned above. Her book has great potential to become a bestseller. However, much of her unedited writing rambles and digresses from her topic. If polished, her incredible story and unique delivery will draw in many readers. But its present state falls far short of excellence and stifles the realization of that potential.

How do editors reach a writer with the needed prescription before the manuscript’s poor health becomes terminal? According to Mary Poppins, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” We editors—a.k.a., book doctors—prescribe cures for almost all literary ailments. How can we help resistant writers to swallow those cures? What is that "spoonful of sugar” that "helps the medicine go down”? What do you think?

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Linda Lane loves to paint word pictures. For years she has worked as an editor (2 books she edited won national awards and a third on which she worked was accepted for nomination for a Pulitzer Prize) and writer (when she had time - which was seldom). In January 2012 she is changing her focus. Teaching writers to write through hands-on work with their own manuscripts, she will coach them in the skills that will save thousands of dollars in editing fees over the course of their writing careers. How? Well-written, polished manuscripts cost less to edit.

Using Characters and Scenes to Trim the Fat from Your Story: Part Two

2011-12-26T06:00:00.001-07:00

This post originally went live on BRP on January 14, 2010. It followed a part one. Having just finished a first major editing on a manuscript that challenged me on so many levels, I felt the need to bring this piece back for a look-see. I hope you enjoy it and get something from it.

In addition to examining the characters in your story to trim unnecessary material, you can also look at your scene development.

As I edited the VBB, I saw a major need for the client to edit scenes. Back in 2008, I wrote a short piece titled “Developing Scenes” that’s worth a check out. It’s important to remember that scenes don’t have to start at the beginning. Now, what does this mean? Let’s say you wanted to write a scene in which your main character’s conflict was revealed. You plan to do this by having the conflict blurted out during an argument between the main character and her boyfriend. In your scene, you start with allowing us to see the main character driving home, then she walks into her apartment, then she checks her mail and phone messages, then she takes off her clothes and puts on something comfortable, and then after all of that the boyfriend comes home, and there’s a lot of conversation about nothing before we even get to the argument. This would be considered a very slow-reading scene. As a reader, I would be waiting impatiently for something to happen. You would be amazed, if you went back and read through your manuscript paying close attention to scene development, at how many words go into revealing nothing important about the story and characters.

With this issue, it’s important to ask yourself, “Where’s the best place to start a scene and end a scene?” You don’t want to start too early and slow the read, and you don’t want to drag a scene on.

In my piece “Developing Scenes,” I write, “Typically, we are ‘placed’ somewhere (setting). People are revealed to us (characters). Some idea, point, purpose, situation is presented to us (beginning). There is interaction amongst the characters (middle), and the scene concludes in a way that propels the story forward and makes us want to know what happens next (ending).” As you edit through your manuscript, you want to make sure that these elements are in your scenes and that each scene does what it needs to do to make your story sing, not lag.

To those writers who tend to write epics when a particular book doesn’t necessarily call to be epic-size, place this word on a Post-it near your computer: SCOPE.

I know there are a lot of pantsers out there, those who just sit and let fingers fly across keys until a story is done. However, to help limit scope, it might be a good idea to actually outline books before writing them. An outline can give you a sense of how big a book will be. If it looks like your book will hit the scale at 125k or more, then you can work to revise an outline instead of revising a whole novel. And as you do so, you can ask yourself what is the overall purpose of this story, what characters are absolutely necessary to tell this specific story, and what tension, development is necessary in order to tell that specific story.
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Some Christmas Fun

2011-12-24T06:00:00.002-07:00

This poem first appeared here at The Blood Red Pencil in December 2009, but the very first publication was in 1980, when I was writing a weekly column for a suburban newspaper. Throughout the years I have dusted it off to share again with a new group of readers. Enjoy.

Tis the day before Christmas and all is not done,

Things on the “to do” list number a million and one.

There are cookies to cut while the oven is hot,

And a gift for Aunt Mildred. Egad! I forgot.

There are presents to measure, to balance and wrap,

If the stacks are not even the kids will know in a snap.

The turkey is snug in the freezer so cold,

Will anyone notice if I put dinner on hold?

Tis the day to test stamina, courage, and brawn,

The survivors are heroes at next morning’s dawn.

Just when I thought I was running out of time

A stranger appeared with a smile so sublime.

He was dressed all in silver from his head to his toe.

And I blinked my eyes twice to see if he would go.

He patted my shoulder and gave me a latte,

“Your’re almost there,” he said. “The rest will be easy.

“Don’t worry, don’t fret, don’t get in a frazzle,

Together we’ll do it with narry a hassle.

I’ll hang the tinsel and check all the lights,

You bathe the children and kiss them goodnight.”

The kids were all tucked in their beds nice and warm.

(A threat to their presents always works like a charm.)

I’d finally decided, of course. It’s a dream.

That’s a mirage on my sofa eating toffee ice cream.

I was amazed at the picture that greeted my eyes,

My living room looked like Currier and Ives.

The stockings were stuffed, and so was the bird,

What magic he used was beyond any word.

He smacked his lips, gave a sly little wink,

“It’s time I was off to help others, I think.”

He twirled around once, then three times and more,

And in a twinkling was headed out my front door.

There’s no doubt about it; it was love at first sight,

For that stranger who saved me on Christmas Eve night.

No matter his name, he was really such a dear.

I wonder, will he return again in another year?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, Good Cheer!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by Maryann Miller who is still baking cookies and wrapping gifts.

Maryann's Web site

To "Was" or Not to "Was"

2011-12-23T08:44:00.004-07:00

This post originally aired on October 25, 2008, but since the debate continues in writing circles, I thought the refresher would be good.

There is a lot said about avoiding the use of was in narrative because it can sometimes be a sign of passive writing. The danger there is that some writers avoid using that simple verb entirely. They hear in a critique group or in a workshop at a conference that they should get rid of passive verbs and replace them with active verbs.

In many cases, that advice is right on, but there are times when using was is proper. That usage denotes an ongoing action or activity, something that started before the character arrived on scene and will continue when the character leaves.

For example, “By eight o’clock preparations were underway in St. Peter’s Square for the general audience. Vatican work crews were erecting folding chairs and temporary metal dividers in the esplanade in front of the Basilica, and security personnel were placing magnetometers along the Colonnade.” (Excerpt from The Messenger by Daniel Silva.)

In this same scene, the central character, Gabriel, stops at a café. “Gabriel drank two cups of coffee and read the morning newspapers.” Both action verbs because this is happening now, to this character, and will stop when he does something else.

Before the difference was explained to me, I would try very hard to eliminate all uses of that dreaded word and wondered why it seemed to make the narrative awkward. When it is used sparingly and properly, the narrative is smooth and one almost has to stop to realize the word is there.

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Dot Dot Dot to Death

2011-12-22T04:00:00.005-07:00

This post last appeared 12/2/2008 and deals with one of my favorite (or should I say least favorite) subjects: the overused ellipsis.

A comment on the chat line citing the overuse of ellipses just sent me whirling! This is negative with me as well, and as I mentioned in a previous post, will contribute mightily to a submission going into the NO pile.

My Webster’s says an ellipsis “indicates an omission (as of words) or a pause.” Probably most writers insert the ellipsis to show a pause, but after seeing those little dots fifteen or twenty times on a single page, I begin to wonder what is missing. Perhaps the thing that is missing is effective writing.

Sure, in a dramatic scene one can see how the ellipsis adds tension, conveys a distraught person’s dialog or disjointed thoughts. In examples where one character’s speeches are laden with ellipses, but none of the other characters have such a halting style, the use seems forgivable, as it goes to shape character. But if most or (perish the thought) all the characters have the dots, it comes off jerky and uneven, and in my opinion indicates lazy writing.

Here’s a way to validate the idea that you really don’t need all these dots: thumb through a book by your favorite author. How many do you see? Just for grins, I fanned through several Robert B. Parker novels (one of my favs and a writer notable for his dialog). I spotted only a few ellipses per book.

Overall, I think ellipses do more to “tell” than to “show” and I certainly know what they tell me!

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Billie Johnson, editor & publisher, Oak Tree Press

Visit our blog, too!

If You Can Read This, You Need An Editor

2011-12-21T06:00:00.002-07:00

This post originally appeared April 4, 2011

CAN YOU READ THIS?

if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

I don’t know about you, but after I’ve worked on a manuscript for weeks, months, even years, I become so close to the work that I cannot look at it objectively anymore. As you witnessed with the above example, your eye will see a misspelled word or a typo and your brain registers the word that it’s supposed to be.

A Seattle newspaper reported a story about a new ramp at the ferry terminal that was operated by a "system of wenches." (Those serving girls moonlighting after handing out grog at Ye Olde English Tavern?) Oops!

A Michigan county had to spend $40,000 reprinting ballots after the "L" was left out of the word "public." A big Oops!

There are many more reasons to hire an independent editor, but these are good ones.

Even editors need editing! It’s invaluable to have another pair of eyes look at your work. It’s surprising what they’ll pick up. And you certainly don’t want your manuscript tossed because of a typo on the first page!

Do you have your favorite public typo story?

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Using Characters and Scenes to Trim the Fat from Your Story: Part One

2011-12-20T06:58:00.001-07:00

This post originally went live on BRP on January 13, 2010. Having just finished a first major edit on a manuscript that challenged me on so many levels, I felt the need to bring this and part two back for a look-see. I hope you enjoy it and get something from it.

Every year, I edit a slew of manuscripts – short stories, flash fiction, novellas, novels, etc. The biggest book I had ever edited before this time was about 200,000 words, and that story was about 80,000 words too long. A lot of slash-and-burn occurred for that literary baby.

But in 2009, I met my biggest adversary: a book that was over 330,000 words. No, this was not a Twilight saga. No Harry Potter. No The Lord of the Rings. This was a contemporary novel, a blend of street, urban, and literary fiction.

It was, by far, one of the cleanest reads I have ever read. The writer is extraordinarily creative and talented.

Despite these glowing praises, the book was way too long. Typically, I would have helped the writer slash and burn the book down to a nice length, but it was difficult to do so with this project because everything in the book “seemed” to belong there. After reading the book once before editing, I realized that two problems hindered this VBB (very big book) from being a good size: characters and scenes.

In May 2009, I wrote a BRP piece titled “Eight Questions for Writers.” The very first question in the list is “Who is your main character?”

If you have a book that needs to be cut and cut BIG TIME, then you seriously should consider this question. In the book I edited, though the client told me who the main characters were, everyone was a main character. Every character had a backstory, nearly every character had a story arc, and there were so many characters that I needed to index them and take notes while I read so I could keep up with who did what when and how all the characters connected with one another. No reader will take that kind of time to read your book. They just won’t. We read, typically, to escape and to enjoy another place, another set of people. There’s nothing escapist or enjoyable with having a slew of main characters that we have to keep meticulous tabs on.

So, ask yourself, “Who is your main character?” Realize, there will be supporting, minor characters that help main characters, but all of these characters do not need full-blown stories of their own; that’s why they are minor and supporting. At least one read-through of your completed manuscript should be conducted to edit out any material that over-inflates a minor/supporting character’s role in a novel and to make sure your main characters are developed as necessary.

Part two will look at scenes and scope.

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Loglines for Books

2011-12-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

This article first appeared on The Blood-Red Pencil on January 26, 2010.

A logline is a very short description of a script. If you’re going to pitch a script, you have to have a logline. More and more, though, writers will include a version of a logline in their query letter. Writing a logline for your novel forces you to get to the core of your book, to the nugget that will excite an agent, lure a publisher, and sell a reader.

In general, a logline should be about 20 words long and should capture your storyline.

The problem is that you rarely see actually loglines that short. Here's one I saw as a sample on ScriptShark:

A college freshman girl's arrival to campus spawns mysterious killings revolving around the football team.

Okay, from that we know the protagonist, where it takes place, and that it's probably horror ("mysterious killings", "spawns"). But we don't know what the protag's goal is or who the antagonist is. It fits the word count, but, in my mind, it's not complete.

Here are a couple of more (and I'm sorry to say that I've forgotten where I gathered these):

A playboy manufacturer rescues 1,100 Jews from certain death. Appalled by atrocities in Nazi Germany, he hoodwinks the Nazi brass and converts his factory into a refuge for Jews. Based on Oskar Schindler's true story.

A conscientious sheriff relinquishes his gun and job to marry a pacifist young woman, but on the way to the honeymoon they pass a band of outlaws riding toward their peaceful village to take it over.

Both of those are over 20 words and the second sample only implies the goal. Both, however, are compelling and would be hard for someone to pass up. (And they weren’t passed up, since they're both produced movies.)

Loglines are catchy and pitchable. All of them tell who the protagonist is, most tell the antagonist (which is not always a person) and what the goal or theme of the movie will be, and most of the time you can tell what kind of movie/book it will be just by the wording.

Once you have a logline, what do you do with it? You use it in your query letter - it can be your opening hook. You can use it in your pitch with an agent or editor. It’s a good conversation starter when you’re talking to someone about your book (the elevator speech that you need to prepare). Give it a try on your book. And remember, make it irresistible and complete.

If you have a logline for your latest book or book-in-progress, tell us in the Comments section. Here’s mine:

Angel Downe has a plan. After ten years on the streets, she’s going home to ask her mother why she loved her one day, then threw her out like garbage the next. To do that, she needs three things: her high school diploma, a car and a gun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Helen Ginger is an author, blogger, freelance editor and writing coach. She teaches public speaking as well as writing and marketing workshops. In addition, her free ezine, Doing It Write, which goes out to subscribers around the globe, is now in its twelfth year of publication. You can follow Helen on Twitter or connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Busted! Mark L. Danielewski Caught Building on Cliché

2011-12-16T05:00:00.003-07:00

This post originally ran on September 3, 2010. If we run it again, will it become cliché?

Stop in the name of love.

You can’t hurry love, no you’ll just have to wait.

Whenever you’re near I hear a symphony.

If the Supremes sang it in the sixties, chances are it’s a cliché today. And what are we writers told? Don’t use clichés. This makes sense from a business perspective. Why should a publisher pay a wordsmith to regurgitate combinations so recognizable that readers are numb to them? We need to do the work of writers and come up with new word combinations that will snag the reader’s interest and inspire new thought.

But don't throw the love child out with the bath water just yet. A known cliché could lay the groundwork upon which you could create a meaningful—even a Supreme—twist.

In House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski did just that in the following exchange between the narrator and a woman he just met. Even out of context it is easy to see how he uses a lyric from the sixties to evoke character and voice.

“Thank you,” I said, thinking I should kneel.
“Thank you,” she insisted.
Those were the next two words she ever said to me, and wow, I don’t know why but her voice went off in my head like a symphony. A great symphony. A sweet symphony. A great-f***ing-sweet symphony. I don’t know what I’m saying. I know absolutely sh*t about symphonies.

Those of you wanting to fuel your inner flame may want to check out the images and techniques Danielewski offers up in his creatively dense experimental fiction. He continues this passage by elaborating on another cliché—about how this woman has left him "reeling."

And hard as this may be for you to believe, I really was reeling. Even after she left the Shop an hour or so later, I was still giving serious thought to petitioning all major religions in order to have her deified.
In fact I was so caught up in the thought of her, there was even a moment where I failed to recognize my boss. I had absolutely no clue who he was. I just stared at him thinking to myself, "Who's this dumb mutant and how the hell did he get up here?" which it turns out I didn't think at all but accidentally said out loud, causing all sorts of mayhem to ensue, not worth delving into now.

Don’t berate yourself if your first draft lacks sparkle due to an overuse of clichés. This simply proves their ubiquity: finding clichés conveniently lined up at the front of the shelf marked IMAGERY, your mind used them as shorthand for laying down your story.

Sensitize yourself to look for worn out phrases in subsequent drafts. Replace most of them with more evocative language. If you identify a cliché that works well for you, try refreshing it with a twist. Like any edited prose you will want your twisted cliché to create voice, deepen characterization, and further plot.

Here are a few examples where I turned first draft shorthand into second draft imagery.

They got along like cat and mouse:
The roles they slipped into were threadbare costumes: she the cat, bored and de-clawed; he a near-dead mouse.

He stuck his foot in his mouth:
He sat there with a size 12 Chuck Taylor hanging from his lips, the rubber sour against his tongue.

Anyone want to join in the fun? Twist one of these or sub in one of your own.

Between you and me and the bedpost
Been there, done that
From head to toe
Bring home the bacon

I know you'll come up with something admirable. After all, what is a river deep, or even a mountain high, between a writer and a word challenge?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathryn Craft specializes in developmental editing at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and editing service. What she believes: 1. Editing forever changed the way she reads. 2. Well-crafted moments of brilliance help her forgive many other problems in a manuscript. 3. All writers have strengths and weaknesses—but why settle for weaknesses? 4. We can learn as much from what other authors do right as we can from what we do wrong. This is her series, "Busted!—An author caught doing something right."

How Do You Show Feelings?

2011-12-15T06:00:00.003-07:00

This post originally appeared October 15, 2009.

“Feelings…Nothing more than…feelings…”

The words of that old song haunt me as I struggle to polish my manuscript. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through study, reading, and feedback from critique groups is that emotions are critical in creating three-dimensional characters.

Have you heard the description, “The characters are flat?” That’s because the author is telling the reader what the character is doing and feeling, but the reader is not identifying with that character.

Reading a novel is like donning the skin of the main character, jumping into his head, and living the adventures vicariously right along with him. As a reader, I want to see, smell, hear, touch and taste exactly what the character is smelling, hearing, touching an tasting. For just a short time, I want to “be” that character.

Easier said than done.

Suppose Gertrude is mad at her boyfriend. “I hate you!” she cried angrily. Doesn’t this let us know her feelings?

Not necessarily. I don’t feel anything. I’m being told that Gertrude is angry. How do you fix it? Well, the words express the sentiment pretty clearly. But how about adding an action:

“I hate you.” Gertrude threw her grandmother’s bone china cup against the wall, where it shattered into a million pieces.

OK, that’s pretty graphic. I’m showing that she must be pretty angry to break that heirloom. Plus, the million pieces shattering is perhaps a metaphor for their relationship.

There are quite a few ways you can convey emotion in a scene like this. For example, the weather. Rain might be cascading down the window pane or beating against the glass. The wind could be shrieking or buffeting the trailer they’re in, etc. The temperature: it could be freezing in the room, or sweltering. Each brief scene description can add emotion when viewed through the character’s circumstances and feelings.

Perhaps Gertrude could be speaking in just above a whisper, but the words she says and the temperature can show the vehemence she’s experiencing. Sometimes a whisper can be more chilling and make a bigger impact that a shout. (And you don’t even need to “tell” by using an exclamation point.)

In my second novel, Follow the Dream, I struggled with a Christmas scene in the 1930s, where my main character and her eight-year-old son are boarding in a hotel room, while her husband stays in the country in an uninsulated shack to take care of their horses. Here’s what I wrote originally:

With Jake there, the cold emptiness inside her filled within minutes. They ate, popped corn, trimmed the “tree,” and then Neil played “Silent Night” on his violin. In the glow of candlelight, the little room was transformed into the cozy, warm togetherness of a home.

My intrepid critiquers said, “Yes, but what is she feeling?”

Hadn’t I conveyed that with the cold emptiness filling, the room transformed in the cozy, warm togetherness of a home? Apparently not. I was “telling” the reader what the feelings were.

Here’s what I’ve done with it. Maybe it’s still not enough, but you can see (and I hope, feel,) the difference:

After passing his plate for seconds, Jake raised his glass of wine. “This ham dinner tastes as wonderful as any high-falutin’ dish served to a king.”

Nettie clinked her glass with his, meeting his gaze with a smile. Warmth and love flooded the cold, empty void that had lived inside her since she saw him last.

Dinner finished, they took turns shaking the popcorn kettle over the hotplate burner. The hot smoky smell of the oil and popping corn filled Nettie’s senses with memories of noisy, laughing Christmases spent with her large family. While Jake propped the sagebrush in a bucket, she grabbed a needle and thread. Eating as much popcorn as they strung, she and Neil trimmed the “tree.”

Jake pointed at the festooned sage. “You missed a spot. If you hadn’t eaten so much—” He ducked, laughing as Nettie threw a pillow at him.

“It’s beautiful, and you know it,” she teased.

Nettie lit tiny candles on the sagebrush, and they opened their few packages—tobacco and rolling papers for Jake, a music book for Neil, and a halter Jake had braided for Nettie.

Then, Neil coaxed the sweet notes of “Silent Night” from his violin, and Nettie snuggled contentedly beside Jake. The melody filled her heart with the wonder and miracle of that night so long ago, and the soft glow of the candlelight transformed the little hotel room into the cozy, warm togetherness of a home.

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A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Cleaning up your copy

2011-12-14T06:00:00.002-07:00

This post originally appeared on Blood-Red Pencil in November 2008.

One of the best things you can do to make the most of your editor's time is to ensure that you proofread your manuscript as thoroughly as you can beforehand. Does this seem like a bizarre statement to you? After all, the job of the editor is to edit and/or proofread, isn't it?

But consider the issue more carefully. Many editors work on an hourly rate even if they charge per project. A good editor knows approximately how long it will take her to work on a manuscript of a certain length, and she factors this into her rates.

Is the manuscript you send to your editor filled with extra spaces where you hit the spacebar too hard, rogue punctuation that has been left over from odd sentences you deleted, inconsistent use of quotation marks, characters' names in lower case because you forgot to press "Shift", simple spelling and grammar errors, and typos that are due to your fingers accidentally hitting two keys at once? If so, you're wasting your money while your editor wades through all these unnecessary corrections before she can spend the rest of the allotted time on your actual story.

I've known some writers who feel they need to test their editor by deliberately including errors in their text. No editor is infallible, but many editors pride themselves on a very high catch rate. By all means, feel free to play games with your editor, but remember that it is your money that you are wasting. Or, if your publisher is footing the editorial bill, bear in mind that you could be setting yourself up to be labelled a high maintenance writer, in which case your book had better be worth the hassle.

The type of edit may also depend on the stage of the project you are working on - an editor checking the characterisation and plotting of a first draft may decide to note a particular typo or spelling error only once in order to focus on more important aspects of the edit. He may simply state that the text has, for example, "excessive use of participle clauses" and leave you to do your own search and rewrite. Different editors have different styles, and you may, or may not, be the type of writer who needs an editor to point out each participle clause. If you can choose your editor, bear this in mind when you're drawing up your criteria.

Clean copy is a pleasure for an editor to work with, and the writer who produces clean copy can easily win the editor's respect. A manuscript with limited errors is also less distracting to read, and the editor can focus more deeply on the narrative and construction elements.

Remember that your editor is there to help you create a better book. Meet him as far across the half-way mark as you can, for the sake of your story, and your wallet.

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Elsa Neal is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. In her experience with reading and critiquing manuscripts, she's picked up the most common errors that many writers seem to make. Read her list of the Top Ten Mistakes Writers Make at her website. Stay and browse through her resources for writers or follow her writing insights at her Fictional Life Blog.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

2011-12-13T06:00:00.004-07:00

This is a second repeat of my original post here on November 10, 2008, but in my part of the country, it still applies. Maybe in yours also.

It happens often enough, but I still can't get used to it. I'm never ready when it comes. Dare I say that naughty, four letter word?

SNOW@!# - Yikes, I've said it.

My area of the Midwest gets hammered with that pesky stuff quite often, as evidenced by the photo to the left. Instead of looking on it as something evil, which is easy to do since it gets in my way when I want to drive or walk, I'm trying to think of it as an opportunity for better writing. Snow can be useful, that is, if it's included in a manuscript.

When doing this, it's best not to dwell on the obvious. Almost anyone can describe snow as pretty, white, or cold. The trick is to use snow as a vehicle of moving the plot forward.

Here are some examples:

Common Occurrence: During the winter my newspaper often gets buried in the snow and doesn't get discovered until later when the stoop is shoveled.

Opportunity: What if an important article about a rapist or mass killer were in the paper, but a victim wasn’t alerted because snow covered the paper?

Common Occurrence: Snow covers car windows, fogs up glasses, and makes it hard to see.

Opportunity: Your character is involved in a vehicle accident due to poor visibility. Take it a step further. The ambulance can't get there because of a traffic buildup. The hero performs CPR on an accident victim, or maybe a person stuck in the snow tries to walk and suffers from hypothermia and/or frostbite.

True example: One winter I slipped in the snow and banged my head on the sidewalk. For a moment I felt disoriented, but then was able to get up and walk away.

Opportunity: What if your character slipped, was knocked unconscious and suffered amnesia?

True example: Snowstorms often delay my mail.

Opportunity: What if your character is waiting for an important letter, but it slips from the mail carrier’s hands in the wind and gets buried in the snow a few doors down? Maybe the letter was an apology or love letter and turns up years later, after the people involved had moved on with their lives? Maybe even married someone else?

You get the picture. Sure, snow is pretty, but it’s also a useful vehicle. See how many ways you can make snow do things for you. Can you mention some?

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www.morganmandel.com
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Find Morgan's books at
Amazon and Smashwords.

Insecurity - My Middle Name

2011-12-12T07:33:00.004-07:00

This nonsense first appeared on 4-5-2009. I thought it might be time for a bit of fun again. Enjoy.

As we all know, writers are by nature very insecure people, especially in the early years when perhaps the only thing we get published is a letter to the editor and that's cut from four paragraphs to three lines. In fact, for years, basic insecurity was the only thing I had to affirm my credibility as a writer.

But even in my moment of greatest anxiety, I never reached the heights (or should I say the depths) of insecurity as did Glenda Gibberish. She wrote an entire book on squares of toilet tissue and hid each page in an empty roll. When her husband, Harry, asked about all the cardboard cylinders lining the dresser, Glenda told him she was making toys for the gerbils.

That worked well until he decided to take an interest in the welfare of the pets. She lost one whole chapter in a single afternoon.

Following that disaster, Glenda resorted to stuffing the rolls in her underwear drawer, in the empty cookie jar, and in the springs of the old sofa bed. She figured she was safe since she put her own clothes away and nobody ever bothered with the cookie jar since she never baked. But she forgot about her mother-in-law's visit. Oddly enough, the other woman said nothing when they unfolded the bed and toilet tissue rolls fell out, but Harry gave her one of those looks that we women enjoy so much. Then he surprised the gerbils with new toys.

This ruse went on for years, and she couldn't bring herself to tell a soul that she was writing. Then one day she was hit with this overwhelming urge to “out” herself. It was the same compulsion that drives a dieter to a banana split at Dairy Queen, and try as she might Glenda couldn't shake it. So she had lunch with her best friend.

“Oh, no. Is it serious?”

“Not right now, but it could be.”

“How long... I mean, have you been this way forever?”

“Since I was a little girl. But, you know. It isn't the kind of thing you just drop into casual conversation.”

“Good. Maybe we can keep it from getting around.”

“Don't worry. I have plenty of editors looking out for me on that count.”

“Have you told Harry yet?”

“No. But he did wonder about the sudden demise of Jake the gerbil. I think he choked on a particularly graphic sex scene.”

“Harry?”

“No. The gerbil.”

“Hasn't Harry noticed you writing ?”

“Right now, I tell him I'm going into the closet to straighten up a few things. But that's not going to last long. Sooner or later he's going to remember that I don't like to straighten anything.”

“Don't worry. You can trust me with your secret.”

“Actually, I wouldn't mind if you told a few people. My book comes out next month and I need the publicity.”

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Writing as an Art: Marching to the Beat

2011-12-09T05:00:00.008-07:00

Originally published July 9, 2010.

Do you ever read aloud from a favorite book? Or does a particularly poignant or empowering passage or poem inspire you to verbally articulate its content?

All good writing possesses a rhythm—a beat—that sets the tone for the action, the scene, the discussion. A competent writer “hears” it and uses it to reach out and touch the reader. He or she creates the rhythm, puts it in place, and marches to the beat. The reader follows along behind.

Have you ever listened—I mean really listened—to a great drummer? Drums do a lot more than make ear-splitting noise. Drum solos can express a variety of emotions from the gentleness of a summer breeze (using the brushes) to waves lapping on the shore or a jog through the park (the sticks) to the power of a thunderstorm (the deep resonance of the bass). Morse code messages can be tapped out on the rim and worked into an overall piece. The rhythm can inspire an entire dance without benefit of any other instrument. The snare, high hat, cymbals, and bass all communicate with the listener, creating different emotions, different moods, different mental pictures, depending on the drummer’s intent and the listener’s experience.

How does this relate to writing? The same freedom the drummer employs to express himself through percussion, the writer uses to create a word picture, first for himself and then for his readers. Why him- or herself first? Writing is an extension of self. What we cannot imagine, we cannot write. Who we are comes through in our characters—our dark sides as well as our brighter ones. Whatever our passions, our loves, our fears, our hatreds, our experiences, we reveal them in some fashion through our stories and our characters. Then the rhythm of our words creates a work—gentle, powerful, fierce, compelling. Our emotions determine the beat. Is it jazz? rock? rap? ballad? symphony? a combination of these or other forms? Is it harmonious or dissonant? Whatever it may be, we want our readers to listen to the rhythm and march to the beat. That’s what makes them want to buy our next book.

How do you use rhythm in your writing? When proofing a draft, do you know when you’ve missed a beat? when the story ceases to flow? when the rhythm is off? when the reader no longer marches to the beat? Please tell us how you handle these writing bumps in the road in your works.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda Lane is an editor and writing coach. Her team of award-winning consultants covers the gamut from fiction to nonfiction to screenwriting to memoirs to poetry. Learning to write well is an investment in your future that will save you thousands of dollars in editing fees over the lifetime of your career and earn you the respect of fellow writers, reviewers, and critics alike. Visit Linda at http://www.denvereditor.com/.

Building an Online Platform to Promote Your Books

2011-12-08T06:00:00.003-07:00

This post originally appeared on Blood-Red Pencil in September 2009.

If you're a published author, your logical objective of building a platform is to promote your books. Coming up in this series we'll also look more at leveraging free interactive content sites (also known as Web 2.0 sites) that are not specifically for authors.

Wikipedia is the first place many Internet users look for information on authors and books, however they discourage the creation of pages on yourself. Check with your publisher about having your information added to Wikipedia by their marketing department, or offer to create a profile for another author in exchange for the same favour. Also note that Wikipedia discourages publication of original research; you must be able to cite another author's work or link to information that proves your points.

Amazon has a blogging option for authors whose books it lists. Use this to keep your readers updated on your book launch, book tour, contests, encourage questions, and post snippets of interesting information.

Barnes and Noble has a well presented "Meet the Writer" feature which can include author interviews, biographical information, and trivia, and which should probably be organised by your publisher.

Squidoo has alternative category sub-sites called SquidLit, specifically for literature, and SquidWho, for people profiles. If your information is already on the web in places like Wikipedia and Amazon, Squidoo can simply pull the details from those sites and all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Be sure to personalise these pages, though. Let your readers know that this is your book and that you are a flaws-and-all human being with whom they can interact.

Google Knol, which is still in Beta, is geared towards professional articles, so will be ideal for publishing additional original research you've conducted and promoting your reputation as an expert in your field.

Next up we'll look at a statistical snapshot of the biggest Web 2.0 sites.
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Elsa Neal was one of the early adopters of Squidoo after it came out of Beta and has been actively involved in the community as a Squid Angel and a Top 100 Giant Squid. She has more recently been experimenting with HubPages. She can also be found on her own website or sharing her writing insights at her Fictional Life Blog.

6 Questions NOT to Ask a Writer

2011-12-07T06:00:00.003-07:00

Originally posted on December 8, 2010 and the author's most commented-upon post to date!

People mean well. They do. But I believe there are certain questions you should never ask a writer - or never ask many of us.

1. Are you still writing that novel?

A 'no' answer will elicit more questions - like "When is it being published?" or even worse, "Why?". A 'yes' answer will usually result in the questioner giving you a puzzled look while they respond (with astonishment) "Really? Still?"

Of course, you could be marvelously successful and have no problem answering this question. If this is true, you need to go soak your head.

2. Are you famous?

Obviously, since you've just been asked this question, the answer is no. How on earth could anyone answer yes?

3. How much money do you make?

This question never ceases to astound me. I thought it was impolite to ask about someone else's earnings. What kind of answer would satisfy the questioner? My usual response is to smile and say, "the yacht is still on hold."

4. What's your book about?

Here's a loaded question. Some writers will take this as an invitation to go on for hours while others will say "I'm not sure yet." Some will give the genre as an answer: "It's a murder mystery" or "It's about looking for love". I've never found the right answer to this.

5. Am I in it?

The obvious answer is "no". Are you going to tell someone you've based a character on them? Unless this character is flawless and enjoys superpowers, they're going to be disappointed. I try to explain that I invent my characters - they're not based on anyone I know.

And (in my opinion) the worst question:

6. But what do you really do?

The best answer I've ever given to this question is, "I kill people (and then add softly) fictionally, of course." It's best given at a dinner table, as you're putting down a plate full of food. It does give the questioner pause. Of course, remember, I write mysteries. You have to find joy somewhere.

Do you get questions that make you squirm?

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Elspeth Antonelli is an author and playwright. Her twelve murder mystery games and two plays are available through host-party.com. She has also contributed articles to the European writers' magazine Elias. Her blog, It's A Mystery, explores the writing process with a touch of humor. She is on Twitter as @elspethwrites.

How Far Can You Go?

2011-12-06T06:00:00.013-07:00

This post originally appeared here at The Blood-Red Pencil on January 4, 2010, but still applies, except I no longer have a day job.

As I was walking to work in Downtown Chicago and doing my best to bypass the slippery remnants of the latest snowfall, I realized how distance can be relative. Here are a few examples:

1. Temperature – What would ordinarily be a short walk seems endless on an extremely hot or cold day. Even a drive is torture, if the heat or air conditioning in the car won't function when needed.

2. Terrain – A few steps can take forever if you're trying to negotiate an icy patch. I know this for a fact. (grin) Swimming a few feet against the current can seem like a mile.

3. Injury or Illness – If you’ve hurt your hip, leg, foot, ankle, etc., walking a short distance can be time consuming. If you’ve injured your shoulder, arm or hand, lifting that member or moving it a few inches can be a nightmare.

It may seem like traveling to the end of the world for someone with heart disease or bad lungs to walk across a parking lot from the car to a store or restaurant. Even if they're dropped off by the door, it could be difficult.

4. Age - Similar to Injury or Illness – The elderly can’t usually walk as far or as fast as the rest of the population, with the exception of those who regularly follow an exercise regimen. (I know one lady over 80 who can outdo me in Fitness Class.)

5. Direction – Climbing stairs takes longer than going down stairs. How about climbing a ladder in an elevator shaft, as the heroine does in my romantic suspense, Killer Career? That's no picnic either.

Can you think of other instances? Or, maybe you’d like to share how you’ve used distance in one of your novels.
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Morgan Mandel

http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Click this link for Morgan's books.

5 Steps to Surviving an Edit

2011-12-05T05:00:00.001-07:00

This post originally ran on January 6, 2010, but its advice is timeless.

You have decided to submit your manuscript to a freelance editor. On one level you are hoping that editor will identify any issues that might prevent a publishing house from purchasing your book so that you can fix them before you are rejected. But deep down inside—no matter how much you are paying for the service—you are also kind of hoping that editor will deem your work “brilliant as is” and return it with only a few typos changed.

I know. I may be an editor, but I am also a writer who has previously hired a freelance editor. And it’s amazing how your thumping heart can squeeze all common sense from your brain as you open up your evaluation and wonder…does she think I’m any good?

Ahem—wrong question. If submitting to a freelance editor is on your New Year's resolution list, please keep this post handy and read it through a few times before you read your edited pages.

1. Editors know how hard it is to communicate effectively on paper—it’s often harder than the author thinks—and respect anyone who gives it their best shot. Your editor wants you to succeed and will apply special evaluation skills to help you do so. To communicate these concepts she must put marks on your page.

Marks on the page ≠ “I am a bad writer.”

Marks on the page = your editor is doing what you paid her to do.

2. Ask any published author: each manuscript attempted offers up its own specific challenges. You submitted your work to be edited because you wanted to determine whether those problems have been adequately addressed, and whether others you haven’t yet identified lurk between the lines. While reading your editor’s evaluation of your work is not the time to pretend those problems never existed.

3. Identifying problems is helpful because problems have solutions. No doubt your editor will point you toward some possible solutions. Her suggestions might take the story in a direction you hadn’t hoped for—but read them anyway. You don’t have to use them, but they might help loosen your hold on your former way of thinking so you can move in a more productive direction.

4. Rather than brace yourself against your editor's comments, open yourself to their possibilities. Allow a week or two to digest them so whatever truth is there can sink in.

5. Even constructive criticism can be difficult to read. Try to accommodate your discomfort. “If I were an agent I would have stopped reading here” is not an easy thing for you to read or your editor to write—but its very honesty is a gift. Especially if the only feedback you’d received thus far was from family and friends who think your writing is “awesome.”

I’ll leave you with this related story. Determined to make the most of his talent, a friend of mine studied classical voice in New York City at a rate he could barely afford—$200 an hour. One day, during his lesson, he broke down. He had sacrificed so much to be there and could no longer take the constant criticism. “You only tell me the things I do wrong,” he told his instructor. The instructor seemed baffled. “That’s because you’re paying me to correct what isn’t working,” he said. “You have improved significantly since you started studying with me. The fact that we are working on new problems indicates this. Now. We have 15 minutes left. Do you want to spend that $50 on me attempting to help you feel better about yourself, or do you want to learn a little something more from me today?”

The moral of this anecdote, of course, is that creative endeavor is hard and taking criticism is even harder. Make sure you do what you need to do to bolster your spirits. Pray. Meditate. Go for a walk. Kiss your dog. Read inspirational literature. Just don’t expect your editor to provide coddling that is at odds with the honest feedback you are paying to receive.

Remember that your editor’s remarks have no bearing on her opinion of you or on her thoughts as to whether or not you are a good writer. A good writer is simply someone who continues to address the problems in the writing until no barriers remain between her story and the reader eager to enter it.

And never underestimate the transformative power of hard work. Once your diligent problem solving starts to shove those barriers out of the way in the revision process, that editor that seemed to be your harshest critic will become your greatest cheerleader.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and line editing service. Formerly a dance critic and arts journalist, she now writes women's fiction and memoir. At her blog, Healing through Writing, she is currently posting about the philosophical, logistical, and biological challenges of healing from a triple ankle fracture sustained during Hurricane Irene.

Writing for Wikipedia – Creating the Article in Draft

2011-12-03T04:00:00.001-07:00

Another substantive post about writing an author Wikipedia page. This was first published here on March 31, 2010 and is part of an excellent series by former blogger, Charlotte Phillips.
~~~~
So far, we registered with Wikipedia, wrote our leads, learned about biographies, took the tutorial, and practiced making edits in Wikipedia. Yesterday we wrote the rest of our articles.

Today we put our creations into Wikipedia using the article wizard.

Follow these steps to get to the article wizard:

1. Go to the Wikipedia login page and login.

2. Go to the article wizard page and click the Create Article Now button:

3. Read the intro, then scroll down to the propose article topic area and click the I’m Writing About Someone Else button:

4. Read the definition of notable people, then scroll to the buttons and click My Proposed Article Is About a Notable Person:

5. Read the blurb about reliable and verifiable resources – including the lists in the sidebar. Note: online sources are not listed, but reliable websites are acceptable sources. Reliable websites include news sites, publisher sites, book review sites, writing award sites. The author’s own webpage is not a reliable source. We talked earlier about interviewing your author as a good first step, but information gathered must be verified by independent, reliable sources.

Click My Proposed Article Has Good Sources.

6. Read about copyrights, notability, and neutrality, then click the button labeled My Submission is Neutral.

7. Almost there! You have three options

Submitting your article to someone else to review (a good choice if this is your first ariticle and you are ready to create the entire article in one go,
Creating your article live in Wikipedia (not recommended for first timers, but a valid option if you are confident in your work), and
Creating a workspace for your draft.

Select the option that best fits your circumstances. I'm selecting the Draft option, so my next steps are:

follow the instructions to correctly enter your article name in the data entry field, then
click the Create New Userspace Draft button.

Your article name should be the name your author is known by – the name that appears on his/her most popular books.

The first view of the editing screen can be intimidating, especially if you haven’t viewed the tutorial or practiced editing other articles. The truth is, the process of creating articles using the wizard is extremely simple. We’re going to take it one line at a time.

If your monitor is small, like mine, you may not see the whole screen, which makes the information at the top even scarier. So scroll down to get a sense of the full window. The top half contains instructions and the bottom half is where we work.

In the top, the first instruction says

Don't change the text {{Userspace draftdate={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}}
{{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}}.

Don't worry if it makes no sense to you. This is needed!

That sounds simple – do nothing. Scroll down to the workspace. Does the first line in the big white block look familiar? Don’t Change it.

The next instruction says

Replace New article name with the name of the article, leaving the ' ' ' format
marks intact.

Doesn’t sound quite as simple, but it is. Scroll back down to the workspace. The second line in the big white block looks like this:

'''New article name''' is

Those single quote marks are code – the article wizard will read those marks and know
• The words between the marks are the title of your article
• The words between the marks should be displayed in bold in the lead sentence

I’m pretty sure you don’t want the title to be “New article name,” so we’ll change that to the name by which your author is best known. In my case, William G. Tapply.

In the workspace (big white block in bottom half of the window) place your cursor in front of the word New in '''New article name'''. Type the title of your article and delete the words New article name. Your result should look like this:

'''William G. Tapply''' is

Now we just need to add the rest of the lead. If your lead begins with your author’s name, just replace the word is with the rest of your lead. Mine looks like this:

'''William G. Tapply''' (1940 - July 28, 2009), an American author lso known as Bill Tapply, and best known for his Brady Coyne mystery novels, penned more than forty books during his twenty-five year novel writing career and nearly a thousand magazine articles during his lifetime. He was a Contributing Editor for Field & Stream and a columnist for American Angler. With his wife, author Vicki Stiefel, he ran The Writers Studio at Chickadee Farm from which they mentored young writers.

That’s it – you’ve completed your lead.

The next help provided by the wizard concerns reference tags and external links. What about the rest of the article? It appears, we are somewhat on our own. However, by completing the tutorial and peeking at the edit tabs of different articles, we have learned some things about formatting.

Next step is to create a heading for the first chunk of information.

You have a choice of four levels. Open the Quick Reference Cheat Sheet and scroll down to section headings. The format is defined in the center and off to the right, the result is displayed. I want my first heading to be at level one so it looks like this:

== Biography ==

After the heading, place the associated text.

So now my draft looks like this:

'''William G. Tapply''' (1940 - July 28, 2009), an American author also known as Bill Tapply, and best known for his Brady Coyne mystery novels, penned more than forty books during his twenty-five year novel writing career and nearly a thousand magazine articles during his lifetime. He was a Contributing Editor for Field & Stream and a columnist for American Angler. With his wife, author Vicki Stiefel, he ran The Writers Studio at Chickadee Farm from which they mentored young writers.

== Biography ==
William G. Tapley, born in Waltham, Massachusetts, grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts where he graduated from Lexington High School. He added a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.A.T. from Harvard to his arsenal before launching his first career as a teacher Lexington High School, where he worked for nearly twenty-five ears….

My next chunk of information is about my authors published work. I want a heading and two sub-headings. The format:

== Published Work ==
William G. Tapply’s work includes…rest of text goes here

=== Novels ===
List goes here

=== Non-fiction Works ===
List goes here

I could simply list everything under the heading of Published Work, but the cheat sheet says “A Table of Contents will automatically be generated when four headings are added to an article.” I want a table of contents, so I subdivided the information. This works for Mr. Tapply because he published so much work in multiple categories. This approach may not make sense for an author with one entry in each sub-group.

Let’s talk about those lists. If you’ve been studying the reference pages provided this week, you already know, there is no standard way to provide a list of published work. In the examples we’ve viewed,

Nevada Barr’s list is in a table,
Ernest Hemingway’s work is provided in sub-heading form, with paragraphs of information about each work,
Robert Crais’s list is really a compound list – a numbered list of novels and under each title, a bulleted list of awards
Linda Barnes’s books are presented in simple bullets.

We will focus on the numbered list and bulleted list. Both forms are presented on the Quick Reference Cheat Sheet. If you are interested in a different form, go to a page that uses that form and click on the edit tab to see how it was done.

I’m going to use Tapply’s Stoney Calhoun novels for my examples. To create a numbered list, I would type:

Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
# Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
# Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
# Dark Tiger, 2009

On the published page, this will look something like:

Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
1. Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
2. Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
3. Dark Tiger, 2009

To create a bulleted list, I would replace # with *.

To create a compound list, simply modify the list. For example:

# Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
## Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
## Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
## Dark Tiger, 2009

Will result in:

1. Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
1.1 Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
1.2 Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
1.3 Dark Tiger, 2009

In this last example, I could replace the ## symbols with a single asterisk:

# Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
* Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
* Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
* Dark Tiger, 2009

and the result would be something like:

1. Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
• Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
• Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
• Dark Tiger, 2009

My draft list looks like this:
== Published Work ==

William G. Tapply’s work includes…rest of text goes here

=== Novels ===
Stoney Calhoun Mystery Novels
* Bitch Creek, The Lyons Press, 2004.
* Gray Ghost, St. Martin's Press , 2007.
* Dark Tiger, 2009

===
Non-fiction Works ===
List goes here

Can you figure out what it will look like? To see how your page will display, scroll down below the big white box and click on the Show Preview button. When you finish oohing and ahhing over your masterpiece, scroll back to the work box. We need to complete our draft and save our work.

Before we save our drafts, let’s add one external link and one category so we have those for future reference.

Go to the external links area in the big white box. You’ll see:

== External links ==
* [http://www.example.com/ example.com]

We will replace http://www.example.com/ with the address of an external site and replace example.com with the words we want to display on the page.

So, if I type:

* [http://www.williamgtapply.com/ William G. Tapply home page],

The asterisk will display as a bullet.
The left “[“ and right “]“ brackets will tell Wikipedia this is an external link.
Because Wikipedia knows this is a link, http://www.williamgtapply.com/ will not display, but “William G. Tapply home page” will.
When readers click on William G. Tapply home page, the contents of http://www.williamgtapply.com/ will display.

Now scroll down until you can see the Edit summary field. Put your cursor in the white rectangle and type a note about what you’ve done – in my case, created the first draft.

Click the Save Page button.

Note: I hung out on this page too long, so first I received a prompt that said Wikipedia couldn’t save, but to try again. I clicked on Save a second time and was presented with one of those annoying fuzzy letter boxes. I managed to feed back the correct letters and my draft was saved.

Next time, we figure out how to find our saved work, how to add categories, how to shore up notability, and how to release to the Wikipedia world. For a sneak peak, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:So_you_made_a_userspace_draft

Helpful links:
Help
New Contributors Help Page
Your First Article
Quick Reference Cheat Sheet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:So_you_made_a_userspace_draft

Writing for Wikipedia – Registration (Redux)

2011-12-02T04:00:00.001-07:00

This is the first in a series of articles about author Wikipedia pages. Do you have one yet? It first appeared here on January 15, 2010.
~~~~~

Do you have a favorite author who does not have a Wikipedia page?

We here at The Blood-red Pencil are dedicating a new Friday series to learning to write for Wikipedia. Our focus will be on writing biographies of living people—specifically, living authors.

If you want to play along,
• Make a list of your favorite authors
• Check Wikipedia to find one who does not have a wiki biography
• Search the internet for biographical information on your selected author

You’re looking for information like when and where your author was born, a list of all published writing (and the copyright year for each), schools attended, etc. Wikipedia biographies are about facts—not your feelings or reasons for selecting your author. So, make a list of facts. For other ideas, check out these biographies:

• Susan Wittig Albert
• Nevada Barr
• Robert Crais

Anyone may edit Wikipedia articles, but only registered contributors may create new pages. Because we are looking to create new biographies, you’ll want to register. Registering is a quick and simple process. You’ll need three pieces of information and you’ll need to be able to read one of those funky letter boxes. Sorry. That’s just the way it is. The registration page looks like this:

Simple, right? So click here and register.

We’ll spend the rest of this series exploring writing for Wikipedia:

• January 22 – Biographies
• January 29 – Writing the Lead
• February 5 – The Rest of the Story
• February 12 – Creating and Article in Draft

• February 19 – Benefits

• February 26 – Odd and Ends

Who are your favorite authors and do they have wiki pages?

----------------------------------------
Charlotte Phillips is the co-author of the Eva Baum Detective Series, 2009 President for The Final Twist Writers Group and contributor to multiple blogs. Learn more about Charlotte and her books at:

MarkandCharlottePhillips.com

News, Views and Reviews Blog

Finding Tips on Self-Editing at The Blood-Red Pencil

2011-12-01T04:00:00.004-07:00

First published July 14, 2010, this post is one of the most useful we've ever offered! Thank you to Patricia Stoltey. We still miss your posts and your incomparable skills at internal linking. ;)
~~~~
Most of us who write spend as much time in the revision and self-editing phase as we do writing our first drafts. Since a large percentage of the contributors to this blog are editors, there's a lot of information here to help. Now that we've added a search bar, it's easy to find what you're looking for, whether it be advice on using adjectives and adverbs or different points of view on point of view.

To give you a head start, here are the links to my series, Self-Editing One Step at a Time:

1. Charting the Novel Story Arc

2. How to Identify Dragging Narrative

3. Identifying and Eliminating Your Habit Words

4. Searching for More Silly Stuff

5. Weeding Out Unnecessary Adjectives and Adverbs

6. Cleaning Up Those Dialogue Tags

7. Analyzing Sentences for Redundancy and Wordiness

8. Fine-Tuning Sentence Structure

9. Read Your Manuscript Aloud

10. One Final Self-Editing Chore

When I used the search box to look for "self-editing," I found more, including these:

Alex Sokoloff's guest post from June, 2009 is called: Top Ten Things I Know About Editing.

Lillie Amman's post from September, 2008 is Ten Tips for Self-Editing.

You can do the same kind of search for "adjectives," "adverbs," "dialogue," or any other element of writing to see what the authors and editors have written. If you don't find what you want, visit us each month on Ask the Editor free-for-all Tuesday (first Tuesday of the month) and post your question or suggest a new post topic.

-------------------------

Patricia Stoltey is a mystery author, blogger, and critique group facilitator. Active in promoting Colorado authors, she also helps local unpublished writers learn the critical skills of manuscript revision and self-editing. For information about Patricia’s Sylvia and Willie mystery series, visit her website and her blog. You can also find her on Facebook (Patricia Stoltey) and Twitter (@PStoltey).

Kindle and Smashwords Quirks

2011-11-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

I've been back in the fray again these past weeks, formatting my books for electronic media. The last time I ventured into self-publishing was with Killer Career, which I published in print via Lightning Source and also electronically. I confess to cheating on that one and paying someone to do the kindle version, but I did tackle and conquer the Smashwords edition back then.

This time, I decided to try doing both when I re-released my romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams, for which I regained my rights during the summer.

Now that I've successfully published Girl of My Dreams on Kindle and Smashwords, I'd like to share a few observations about each, which may save you some trouble.

VERY IMPORTANT: Be sure to save your original manuscript first. Then, for each format, do a Save As and give it a new file name.

My Observations: When I read from my own kindle, long paragraphs seem boring. The shorter ones zip along much better. Since the preferred style is not blocked, I'm providing the indented paragraphs version.

Okay, here are the Kindle and Smashwords quirks.

KINDLE:

1. First line indent of each paragraph, instead of tabs.
2. Single spaced, with no extra space between paragraphs.
3. A section break after each chapter.
4. It's okay to submit in Word, but as a .doc file, not .docx, but if necessary, see #5.
5. If you're like me, and have many small sentences of dialogue following each other, unless you take action, those dialogue portions will appear blocked, which you don't want. Do all your other editing. When you're done, save the file as a web page filtered file. That will restore the correct indentions.
6. Amazon recommends images be at least 500 X 800 pixels, with the longest side a max of 2000 pixels. I doubled their minimum size to 1000 x 1600 pixels.

One thing I noticed when I uploaded my image was it did not appear clear in their sample, although the original image looked great on my end. I spent tons of time trying to get their image to look better, and finally gave up. When the book appeared on Amazon, it looked fine.

SMASHWORDS:

1. On the cover page, be sure to use one of their formats for the title, and also be sure to include the special Smashwords license. Samples are provided in their stylebook. (I forgot at first and had to go back and do this.)
2. First line indent for each paragraph, instead of tabs.
3. No extra line between paragraphs.
4. NO section break between chapters. Smashwords recommends doing returns instead, but too many create blank pages. I used three before the chapter name and two after.
5. It's okay to submit as a Word .doc file, and you don't need to worry about that blocking issue found in Kindle when you have multiple lines of short dialogue.
6. Although Smashwords mentions the ideal size is 500 X 700 pixels, I submitted my larger original image size to Smashwords, and I was pleased with the results.
7. If you get error messages after you do your upload, before you go crazy, check the stylebook first to make sure you didn't violate any of the rules.

A few to look for first are:

A) Check to make sure all links provided are entire links.
B) Make sure you have no text boxes. I had inserted a text box on the last page of my manuscript where I was going to put my autograph, but then decided against it. I thought it was deleted. It only showed up when I hit that line on the page. I finally could delete it by clicking the outer edge of the box and choosing Delete.

You don't want an EPub error message, which I received, because the EPub version goes to many important vendors.

Of course, both Amazon and Smashwords have tons of other directions to follow, but these are some of the differences I happened to notice between the two. I hope this helps you along the way.

By the way, if you like romantic comedy, here are the two electronic links for Girl of My Dreams.

Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/84rhje7
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104525

The print versions now available, unfortunately, are those of vendors who purchased the book and can still sell it on Amazon. After I finish publishing Forever Young: Blessing or Curse and re-releasing Two Wrongs, I'll be doing print versions for each as well.

-------------------------------------

Morgan Mandel Morgan Mandel writes mysteries, romancesand thrillers. She's a past president of

Chicago-North RWA, was the Library Liaison

for Midwest MWA, and is an active blogger and

networker. Check Amazon and Smashwords for Killer Career

and Girl of My Dreams, both at 99 cents.

http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/

http://www.morganmandel.com/

Thank You

2011-11-29T05:00:00.010-07:00

Dear Readers,

It's a lovely thing to be able to write a thank you note and have it reach thousands of people in an instant. No matter how long I use the Internet, I don't think I'll ever quite get used to this amazing tool and the freedom it represents to me.

When I first starting writing, I used a pencil. I was a child. In my teen years, I learned to type... on a manual typewriter, and it was a miracle indeed when I got my first electric typewriter with an auto-correct ribbon. Years later, I can't begin to tell you how rich I felt to have my own computer with printer and copier. But the online communications with my computer... that is what I'm most grateful for and for many reasons.

Half a dozen years ago, my husband and I had an opportunity to move to a small rural town, and I decided then and there, I would focus on my writing. I have always written my way through life, but in a secondary way to my art career. I would leave the brushes for a time, and focus on my words and another master.

It became evident very quickly that my research and most of my communication would happen via the Internet, and were it not so, I would have moved from here years ago. I have no good library for research, few kindred spirits, not even a nearby place to buy writing supplies. The Internet makes my life as a writer, editor, reader, and world spirit real and possible. I could not be happy today without it. It is my work and my office, if not my life.

Before I started writing this thank you note, I was in an online mailbox reading manuscripts sent by authors far and wide. It's one of the jobs I do for a publisher, and one of the ways I make money. Opening that mailbox gives me a giddy feeling. To be able to read words pouring from other writers who are bravely submitting their stories, to respond to them in an instant, it's a gift I'll never get used to! What a miracle to share and support each other this way. How lovely that we can save paper and our planet on this step of our publishing journeys.

I am also grateful for the discovery of blogging and this blog in particular, which has quietly and steadily turned into a dynamic resource for authors. Over the past four years, we've had many guest writers and regular bloggers who have contributed almost 1,000 - 1,000! - outstanding posts about writing and all things related to books. Some of you have been with me since the first day, and I especially thank you for your steady and dear contributions and your sweet friendship. We have lasted this long because of your hard work. Let us stay together a long, long time to come. We are a marvelous team!

Over the next month, we'll share some of our best and previous posts with you, dear readers, as has become our tradition each December. We hope you'll stop by daily, and look forward to sharing yet another new year with you. Thank you to all for your support and may you have the finest of holidays ever.

In peace and gratitude,

Dani

Gratitude for My Writing Addiction

2011-11-28T05:00:00.019-07:00

Hi, my name is Shon Bacon, and I'm addicted to writing. It's been about 29 years since I picked up a pen and thought, I think I would like to write stories for people to read.

Since then, I have found it quite difficult to stop. I don't want to stop. I can't stop. My blood is the ink to which I write life stories. My writing courses through my veins.

There have been several times when I tried to stop cold turkey, but I just couldn't. I could last a few days, even a week; one time, I lasted a whole month; however, words continued to churn in my brain and meld into sentences that grew into paragraphs that birthed stories.

I will admit, wholeheartedly, that in the teen years of my writing addiction, my work sucked. I loved baseball and I loved love, so as I teenager, I wrote a lot of suck-ass screenplays about chicks who somehow became owners of baseball teams and fell in love with the star player.

As I grew, my writing did, too, but not by leaps and bounds. My twenties found me writing stories, once again, about women and love, but I focused on the tangled relationships that women went through with their mates. At the time, all I really knew was I loved words and I loved telling stories; I had to get the words out. I needed my next story fix, and seeing my word count grow gave me a rush that could not be explained.

My stories didn't necessarily suck in my twenties, but there was something missing in them. That something--me.

As I approached my thirties, a strange thing happened to me. I began thinking about every nuance of my life. I truly began to feel and to grieve things in my life that I had just "dealt" with because I really didn't know about the true process of grieving, of dealing. Just as important as this, I also began to apply what I was learning about myself to what I saw and experienced with other people and realized...wow...we're all going through a lot of the same crap. Finding that common ground made me want to write about more than just relationships. I wanted to write about the ugly, confusing, painful things that go on in life; I wanted to share my pain and ultimate triumphs on paper through fiction so that others could read, relate, and commune with me.

My need to write rushed over my psyche like a brush fire. Not only did my need to write and write differently grow, but my writing grew craftwise as well when I entered an MFA program that taught me the fundamentals of writing, both fiction and poetry, and helped me to develop the way that I wrote. I learned to love first and foremost the "word," how a word sounds and how it can connect beautifully with other words to not only say what you want them to say but also to resonate sounds and rhythms and meanings in ways that move the reader.

My fingers have never ached so much, the tendinitis in my wrists has never throbbed so much as it does now, now that I am continuing to still grow into who I am truly meant to be as a writer. I realize that ultimately, one should try to give up their addictions, and believe me, in this journey, I've suffered lofty highs and devastating lows, but I can't give up writing. I couldn't. After my actual physical presence, my writing has been an integral part of my connection with myself, with others, and with the world I live in.

Without those people who fostered in me the love of reading, of crafting stories, of connecting with others through words I use to concoct my stories, I would not be in this position where I could say Sum, ergo scribo: I am; therefore, I write. Because I exist, there are stories to be told, and I'm grateful for the addiction that allows me to keep writing the stories that only I can write.

~~~~~~~~~~

Gratitude for the Simple Things

2011-11-25T06:00:00.002-07:00

The Thanksgiving holiday is a special time of year when we pause in our whirlwind lives to remember what we are grateful for. I do try to think of each day with gratitude, but sometimes we do get caught up in the hurried way we live our lives and we start to see only the negative things that happen.

Sometimes the simplest things are what give me pause, bring me to tears:

• A spectacular sunset
• The full moon in a clear sky
• A day of sunshine in the cloudy Pacific Northwest
• My cat sleeping in my lap

I consider myself lucky (maybe that’s the wrong word, maybe it’s the recipient of great gifts) for bigger things in my life too:

• The parents who inspired me to be self-sufficient and independent
• My close family, including my “in-laws” who I think of as sisters
• The wonderful teachers who encouraged me to develop my interest in reading and writing
• My dear husband who has supported my writing dreams without question

And even though we have been going through a very rough year with my husband’s health, we still have each other. I am following my writing dream, I am busy with editing projects, and I just won a WILLA Award.

What more can I ask for?

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

-------------------------

A native Montanan, Heidi M. Thomas now lives in Northwest Washington. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, is based on her grandmother, and the sequel, Follow the Dream, has recently won the national WILLA Award. Heidi has a degree in journalism, a certificate in fiction writing, and is a member of Northwest Independent Editors Guild. She teaches writing and edits, blogs, and is working on the next books in her “Dare to Dream” series.

Thanksgiving Memories

2011-11-24T01:53:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving is traditionally the time to gather with family and share good times. That works well when family is close, but not so well when they live 1,200 miles away.

When we first moved to Texas, it wasn’t feasible for us to travel to Michigan when the kids just had a short break from school, and most of our relatives preferred to stay home. So it was always a treat when one of the Grandmas would join us for the holiday.

It was nice to have someone with whom to share that special spirit of Thanksgiving, and the kids appreciated having a Grandma all to themselves. No other cousins around clamoring for attention. I appreciated having a Grandma all to myself, too. There's nothing like an extra hand in the kitchen to make one feel like she can conquer anything, including a twenty-five pound turkey.

One year when Mom Miller came for the holiday, the kitchen sharing was a little awkward at first, due to the fact that we didn’t cook together very often. Once every three or four years left a lot of room for verbal stumbling, especially since we were both so busy trying not to offend each other.

"Is this okay?"

"Sure, do it any way you want."

"Well ... I'll do it the way you want."

"In that case ... 1 usually ... but you don't have to .. I mean ... my way isn't necessarily the right way ... "

But after we stopped all that nonsense, things went much better, and I even picked up a couple of helpful hints from Mom:

"Slice your celery on the slant and it won't be stringy.
Seal your onions in a glass jar and they won't stink up the refrigerator."

I considered returning the favor, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with any hints to pass back. I guess I just didn’t have the experience. It seemed like whenever I tried to come up with a brilliant idea in the kitchen I ended up in some kind of mess; like the time I put all my sugar, flour and other powdered stuff in plastic storage containers. It was a mad moment of organization, and I was so busy congratulating myself, I forgot to mark the containers.

When I handed Mom the container that I thought had powdered sugar for the frosting she was making, I thought she'd be pleased at this obvious sign of incredible organization, and perhaps my efficiency rating had finally risen above a minus ten. But, alas, it was not to be. And it was a good thing she tasted what was in the bowl before she frosted the cake with the end result.

Granted, the cake was a little crumbly, but it didn't really need wallpaper paste.

Despite the awkwardness, this was a very special time I shared with Mom Miller, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Gathering as friends and family is so important, and doing so to give thanks for our many blessings just makes it better. Hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with good food and good company.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maryann Miller is an author and freelance editor. Her latest book is Open Season, which has gotten nice reviews from Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly. One Small Victory, is a top seller in the mystery bestseller list at the Amazon Kindle store. Visit her Web site for information about her books and her editing services. If you have a good book, she can help you make it better. She will stop playing with her horse and work, honest.

The Gift of Gratitude

2011-11-22T05:27:00.005-07:00

At this time of year, we often contemplate gifts of the harvest—whether they come from the garden, grocery store, or perhaps a job after a long period of unemployment. Economic difficulties may make gifts more difficult to recognize, or they sometimes make them more apparent. When we look at what we really need to survive, we learn to appreciate the value of gifts.

Translate that into the writing and editing business—often a feast or famine industry, with famine outweighing the feast. What is there to be grateful for in this arrangement? As an editor, I can think of several gifts that have kept me going when economic hard times make writers think twice about spending their precious dollars on editing.

Authors can be a trying lot. (I’m sure they think the same about editors.) However, the vast majority of the ones I’ve worked with appreciate my efforts in their behalf and say repeatedly how much they’ve learned from working with me. And they come back with their next books. For these I am grateful because their cooperative spirits and genuine gratitude make my job easier and more rewarding.

Fellow editors often are not the competition, but rather comrades in arms as we wage war against not only poorly written books, but also against the stain of mediocrity. Every writer deserves to have a well-written book, and every editor here on BRP—including our guests—strives to make that happen. And we support one another. For these editors I am grateful because editing can be a lonely job, and few besides them understand the extra (unpaid) hours that transform a needy manuscript into an excellent book.

Manuscripts come in all sizes and conditions. We freelance editors often find that our writers' works challenge our skill and ingenuity. Those of us who work for small publishers also may find the diamonds we receive in manuscript form to still be lumps of coal. The work that comes to us most often has not been accepted by an agent or publisher—and most often would not be. Yet for these I am grateful because such manuscripts put food on my table as well as, potentially, the tables of their writers once my work has been completed.

Opportunity doesn’t always knock on the front door. Sometimes it slips in through a back window to surprise us with unexpected gifts. More than once, writers who came to me as strangers seeking editing services stayed to become treasured friends. For this opportunity to make new friends I am grateful because they are kindred spirits of a special kind.

Looking back, would I want a different job? Absolutely not! I am so grateful to have a small share in developing literary works of art. Creativity in all forms can be priceless. To help another grow into his or her creative gift is the most rewarding job I can imagine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda Lane writes, edits, and teaches writers to write more effectively. Visit her at http://www.denvereditor.com/.

Thankfulness

2011-11-21T06:00:00.003-07:00

As we start the week heading toward Thanksgiving, it made me think about the time I got all philosophical and used my newspaper column to ask if we don’t use the Thanksgiving holiday as an unconscious excuse not to be thankful the other 364 days of the year. Or at least not be aware of all the things we have to be thankful for. So I decided to make a concentrated effort to search my soul and come up with something to be thankful for every day. Here is the list I made that year:

I'm thankful for the cold weather that chills my bones and helps me to appreciate the heat of summer. (Next August you're free to remind me I said this.)

I'm thankful for the puppy that comes in my office to chew on my toes and remind me there's more to life than just work.

I'm thankful for mail delivery because I know it will draw me out of the house at least once a day.

I'm thankful for the kid who will bail me out and cook dinner when I'm working on a deadline, even though he hasn't cleaned his room for the past six months.

I'm even thankful for those deadlines that loom like monsters and fill me with dread. They've been known to prod me into working when I don't really feel like it, and they've saved me from cooking when I didn't really feel like it.

I'm thankful for the buzz of the dryer that beckons to me periodically throughout my day, everyday. Did I really say that? Of course I did. At least it gives me a chance to unbend and stretch my legs when I've been sitting too long at my desk.

I'm thankful for the car I don't always have. The days it's mine, I can make important appointments and keep them. The days my daughter takes it to work I find that some appointments aren't all that important.

And I'm even thankful for the 4 p.m. onslaught, when everyone comes home from school and needs me right this minute. It helps me appreciate the peace and quiet of the rest of my day.

But most of all (here I'm going to serious-up folks) I'm thankful for the gift of life and living, family and loving, friendships and sharing, laughter and all the little joys that dot my life. That includes my colleagues here at BRP, and all the other wonderful friends I've made in cyberspace. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maryann Miller is an author and freelance editor. Her latest book is Open Season, which has gotten nice reviews from Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly. One Small Victory, is a top seller in the mystery bestseller list at the Amazon Kindle store. Visit her Web site for information about her books and her editing services. If you have a good book, she can help you make it better. She will stop playing with her horse and work, honest.

Grateful for My Dream Clients

2011-11-18T04:00:00.005-07:00

Today I would like to express my gratitude to the writers I’ve worked with who understand that writing a long story (novel or narrative nonfiction) isn’t easy.

Until recently my dream clients have:

read and written a lot in their lives, for pleasure or work or school
undertaken a writing education, whether in a formal MFA program, during on-the-job journalism training, or by attending workshops, continuing education classes, and writing conferences.
realized that their writing education is never complete, and that each project will present its own challenges.
networked with other writers farther down the publication road so they have a realistic view of what they’re in for and the effort involved.
improved on earlier drafts of their project after sharing with a critique group or other trusted advance readers.
hired a developmental writer for the express purpose of identifying problems and suggesting solutions, so will not get angry or lose heart when she does so.

As you can see, my dream client is a hard worker. But this year I learned that not all hard workers adopt the same process for achieving their goals. Because this year I met Martin.

Martin told me that many decades ago he’d had an unusual life experience that he’d now written as a novel. I felt ambivalent when I heard this. Basing a novel on real events can be tricky, as once the story structure is in place it is often the “real” parts that stick out as irrelevant or unnecessary—and the writer is typically loathe to change them.

A retired researcher who had often written for publication in scientific journals, Martin had received no formal education in writing since his undergrad days as an aspiring poet. Nearing 80 and used to working alone, he had no time or inclination to go back and get the kind of education I outlined above.

So he embraced his strengths as a researcher and read numerous classic novels and analyzed them as to what made them work, slowly but surely absorbing plot structures, methods of characterization, and ways to build psychological tension. He applied what he learned to his first draft, checking his progress with trusted first readers. Only after several drafts did he seek my services.

His voice was confident from word one because he knew what he was trying to do and had a plan for doing it. Since I didn’t have to teach him to write I was able to dig into the underlying structural issues without distraction. I’m still not quite sure how much of his novel is “real” because Martin was always willing to make changes in service of the story so it would ring “true.” And he didn’t make suggested changes verbatim—he took every suggestion I made and ran with it in his own direction. This tickled me to no end.

Even at his age he never rushed the process. He wanted to get this right. And when he had made revisions based on my suggestions, he did something else my dream clients do:

he took advantage of my lower rates for repeat projects and ran it all past me again, realizing that any major change can instigate a host of new problems.

Martin’s education was nothing like one I might have outlined for him, but it served him well. Because he was so willing to help himself, I was able to help him all the more.

He did not leave me wondering if all my effort was worthwhile. I saw his revised, stunning project through to completion, and as he now submits to agents, I am reinvigorated to the work of editing new clients.

Authors willing to work hard? See me. I’ll gladly list you among my roster of dream clients!

Editors: what attributes define your dream clients? And writers: what do you want in a dream editor?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be My Guest Jodie Renner

2011-11-17T06:00:00.005-07:00

HYPHENS, ELLIPSES, DASHES
Ellipses vs. Dashes; Hyphen, Em Dash and En Dash

A. Ellipsis (…) or Dash (—)?

In fiction,

An ellipsis (…) is used to show hesitation: “What I meant is…I don’t know how to begin…” (Also indicates the omission of words in a quoted text.)

A dash (—), also called em dash, is used to show an interruption in speech:

“But I—”

“But nothing! I don’t want to hear your excuses!”

or a sudden break in thought or sentence structure: “Will he—can he—find out the truth?”

The dash is used for amplifying or explaining, for setting off information within a sentence, kind of like parentheses or commas can do: “My friends—I mean, my former friends—ganged up on me.”

B. Hyphen vs. En Dash vs. Em Dash:

The en dash is longer than the hyphen but shorter than the em dash (the regular dash)

A hyphen (-) is used within a word. It separates the parts of a compound word: bare-handed, close-up, die-hard, half-baked, jet-lagged, low-key, never-ending, no-brainer, pitch-dark, self-control, single-handed, sweet-talk, user-friendly, up-to-date, watered-down, work-in-progress, etc.

Dashes are used between words.

An en dash (–) connects numbers (and sometimes words), usually in a range, meaning “to”: 1989–2007; Chapters 16–18; the score was 31–24 for Green Bay; the London–Paris train; 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

An em dash (—) is used to mark an interruption, as mentioned above (“What the—”), or material set off parenthetically from the main point—like this. Don’t confuse it with a hyphen (-). Some authors, publishers, and companies prefer an en dash with spaces on each side of it for this: ( – ).

C. How to Create Em Dashes and En Dashes:

Em dash (—) Ctrl+Alt+minus (far top right, on the number pad). CMS uses no spaces around em dashes; AP puts spaces on each side of em-dashes

En dash (–) Ctrl+minus (far top right, on the number pad)

D. Advanced Uses of the Dash (Em Dash):

According to the Chicago Manual of Style (6.87), “To avoid confusion, no sentence should contain more than two em dashes; if more than two elements need to be set off, use parentheses.”

Also, per CMS, “if an em dash is used at the end of quoted material to indicate an interruption, a comma should be used before the words that identify the speaker:

“I assure you, we shall never—,” Sylvia began, but Mark cut her short.

But: “I didn’t—”

No comma after it here, as that’s the end of the sentence, and no tagline.

The CMS (6.90) says that if the break belongs to the surrounding sentence rather than to the quoted material, the em dashes must appear outside the quotation marks: “Someday he’s going to hit one of those long shots and”—his voice turned huffy—“I won’t be there to see it.”

Using an em dash in combination with other punctuation: CMS 6.92: “A question mark or an exclamation point—but never a comma, a colon, or a semicolon, and rarely a period—may precede an em dash.

All at once Jeremy—was he out of his mind?—shook his fist in the officer’s face.

Only if—heaven forbid!—you lose your passport should you call home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by Maryann Miller who used to always confuse ems with ens and resorted to hyphens at all the wrong times.

Be My Guest - Susan Malone

2011-11-16T06:00:00.002-07:00

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS

This is the time of year we all count our blessings, and like you, I’m grateful for oh, about a hundred things! But since this is a site about writing and editing, we’ll keep it to that.

It’s funny; a decade ago, when my brother (a renowned psychiatrist) and I wrote our first book together, Five Keys for Understanding Men, we were in NYC promoting it via the network broadcast stations. Gary looked at me and said, “This isn’t going to work for you as a career path—it’s too risky.”

Now, I know my brother loves me, and has my best interests at heart. And from the outside looking in, it’s very difficult to dispute his reasoning. Publishing is the iffiest of businesses in the world. I could go into all of the depressing facts about getting a book published, actually making a living at it (and how few folks do so), and all of the other nightmares included herein. But what I’ve learned over the many, many years I’ve been involved in it, is that fabulous things happen too.

I have been so blessed by publishing, both as an author and an editor. I write, of course, as almost all of us do, because as Rilke said, I must. When that’s not happening, I tend to babble (if not actually speak in discernible tongues), tear my clothing, gnash my teeth, and run screaming into the night (just ask some of the folks who have lived with me :). As many of you surely do as well.

Editing, oddly, was not something on my early career-path’s radar, but rather, I stumbled into it, lo so many years ago. When in a writer’s group, I discovered I had a knack (as did the rest of the group, who kept piling manuscripts atop my head). And I fell smack dab into the flip side of writing—editing. Little did I know how much I’d grow to love it, and love the writers who can’t live without it.

Has any of this been easy? Well, no. My first book was published nearly a decade after I wrote my actual first novel (not the one that was published. Or even the second . . . ) In fact, publishing will humble one to her knees. Any creative endeavor will. But what absolute joy to see that first baby in print. And the second one, and the next, and . . . Man, is there another rush on this planet to compare to that? This year, when Five Keys was put out as an e-book by the publisher, that rush remains the same. What a true, true blessing. And when one of my writers snags a publishing contract, and his book does well, I get to feel that tingle all over again.

Anyone who loves books and aspires to be part of this business, to hold that dream and work for it, who understands the blood, sweat, and tears that go into all of this, hears me. And as difficult as the journey can be, the rewards are that much sweeter.

Can you get there? Yes. Might it take time (and enough tears to sink the Titanic)? Yes. But ah, the joy!

For the record, I’d actually forgotten my brother sitting me down and saying that, all those years ago. He reminded me of it recently and said, “I was wrong.” (Hark! A man admits it! LOL.) Only then did the memory coming back in living color. And now we’re working on our second book, about families. What a joy it is to write with him.

And now as well, some of my dearest friends are authors, agents, editors, and publishers. In fact, I met Maryann Miller, who asked me to blog for this site, at a literary conference where we were both speaking last summer. What a neat lady.

I am indeed so very blessed. For all of the difficulties in this business, the highs are better than any drug, and so many folks have become lifelong friends. And as for me, I get to live in a world of words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be My Guest - Terry Odell

2011-11-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Rule of Three

Have you ever noticed the rhythm of an author's writing?

There's something about the "rule of three" that seems ingrained in us as human beings, from the Three Little Pigs, the Three Stooges, to the Third Time's the Charm. (Did you notice the use of three examples?)

When writing, giving three examples of things seems to make the narrative flow better. We'll often list three things a character does or says. Somehow, it doesn't feel as "right" with more or less. The three-act structure is the basis for plays and writing books.

Repetition helps readers remember. Things presented in threes just seem to stick with us: Faith, Hope. and Charity. Winken, Blinken, and Nod. Blood, Sweat and Tears. Stop, Look and Listen. Stop, Drop and Roll. How many more can you name? Dozens I'm sure.

Here are some examples of using the rule of three in writing fiction:

He took off his boots, sank onto the couch and stretched his legs out in front of him.

He flopped down beside her, drew her close and was out.

Jungle noises filled Dalton’s ears. Monkeys chattered, birds sang, insects buzzed.

At the top of the stairs, a pair of double doors stood open. Classical music drifted down. Two men in black trousers, white shirts and red jackets greeted guests.

Following the flashlight’s narrow beam, she rushed toward the voice, stopping two paces into the room.

Repetition shows you meant it. If you repeat a word twice in a paragraph or a short passage, there's a "clunk" or "echo" effect. However, using the word three times is effectively telling the reader you meant to repeat the word.

As a matter of fact, the US Marines found that grouping things in threes helped people remember training, which in turn, helped keep them alive. They experimented with a rule of four, and retention and effectiveness plummeted.

However, as with anything else, overuse of any pattern can get monotonous. So go back over your manuscript and see if you've got too many things happening in threes.

And, after finding out that I'm finally getting rights back to two of my earlier books, I've begun working on a third. Readers seem to like threes—hence the popularity of trilogies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terry Odell is the author of numerous romantic suspense novels, as well as contemporary romance short stories. Most of her books are available in both print and digital formats. She’s the author of the Blackthorne, Inc. series, steamy romantic suspense novels featuring a team of covert ops specialists. To see all her books, visit her Web site. You can also find her at her blog, Terry's Place, as well as follow her on Twitter, or visit her Facebook page.

Posted by Maryann Miller who loves the rhythm of words and writing.