This post first ran here on September 4, 2008. ~~~~~~~~ Something I’ve learned about good, impactful writing in fiction is knowing when you are “telling” the readers your story and when you are “showing” it to them. There is a place in a good book for both methods, but the “shown” passages are always more dramatic and dynamic. They create two entirely different effects. Instead of telling you the difference, I will show you. Here is a short paragraph, an example of a story being told to the reader. Bob walked over to the door. He turned the door knob, opened the door and started to walk outside. It was an icy cold winter day so he went back inside in a hurry and put on his coat. Well, if I’m the reader I haven’t missed anything, I know what’s happening, but the passage doesn’t draw me into Bob’s world, doesn’t let me feel or sense much of anything. Now I’ll rewrite the same passage showing you the story. Floor boards creaked underfoot. Step by step, across the room. The chill...

Here are five essential skills required to pull off a successful, well written virtual tour. They cover both the planning for and organizing of it, as well as the actual writing for it. Let’s examine them one at a time and compare them to writing a good book. 1. Planning Ahead . Virtual tours don’t organize themselves. You do it. You do all the work. And I do mean work. Lots of it and way before the proposed opening date. I recently went on a blog tour in December, 2008. When did I start planning the tour? In August of 2008. Yep. Four months in advance. I was researching blogs, clicking all over the blue nowhere, networking, looking up lists, Googling, twittering, finding top quality blogs with high traffic that were on topic with what fit the demographics of my intended readership. When I found a good fit, I started visiting often, leaving comments, getting my name and what I do known by the blog’s host and readers. For writing a book, planning ahead has some relevance, but not ...

Having a strong and unique voice is considered a good quality in an author. It is one of those intangibles that keeps readers coming back for more. But novice authors often have a rookie habit of "butting in" to the story to interject their own thoughts and/or information. It can be a jarring disruption to the story line. Here is an example: John walked past the flowering shrubs, enjoying the smell. Forsythias are what he was smelling; they are indigenous to Southeast Michigan. He spotted Mary standing next to the water fountain, walked up to her and said, “Hi, Mary.” Mary’s face lit up as she said, “Oh, hi, John, long time.” ~~~~~ See how the second sentence is just stuck in there? It stops the story's forward motion while the author tosses in a fact. It is better to deliver information by letting the characters do the talking - like this: John walked past the flowering shrubs, enjoying the familiar smell. He spotted Mary standing next to the water fountain, walked up to...

Editors often cringe at hastily put together headlines. You know, those blaring boo-boos committed by harried "gotta rush and meet the deadline" news journalists. I collect them from time to time, and thought I'd share some of the more utterly ridiculous ones, along with my own quips, for your amusement today. Fun stuff. Here we go ... check these out. Include Your Children when Baking Cookies Certainly important in some recipes, "Northern Witch Missionary Lip Stew" comes to mind, but a rather expensive ingredient, no? Child’s stool great for use in garden Another reason to leave your kids out of your cookies. The fertilizer they produce is so valuable. Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case Hmm - must be a little people? Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents I sense a rather strong compulsion-to-bond personality disorder here. Seems hereditary, also. Iraqi Head Seeks Arms Oh my god - next he'll be wanting legs, too. Prostitutes Appeal to Pope Well, better ...

Today I want to share with you another example of writing styles. It's all about pace - the speed of movement of your story. Here are two versions of the same scene. One is slow paced, the other fast paced. *** Crack! The ball went up. Up. Up. Out. Further. Higher. Further. Thirty thousand fans held their collective breath as time stopped and held them transfixed. Glen clutched at his sinking heart. Still there was hope. Maybe. A mighty west wind had held center field yard unbeatable all afternoon. The ball rose higher. Glen's heart sank deeper. Surreal, it seemed, as the slow motion play unfolded below. Like clay puppets struggling to scramble, but without actual muscles to propel them with any efficient motion. Fate seemed to mold their motions frame by frame in a stop/adjust/stop/adjust/stop/adjust impossible to believe lackadaisical series of jerky hiccups. Excruciating. The pitcher's pained face was fixed on yonder far yard. The catcher's mask was off, his stance a...

An important element in effective writing in fiction is knowing when you are telling the readers your story and when you are showing it to them. There is a place in any good book for both methods, but the shown passages are always more illustrative, while the told passages are more narrative. They create two entirely different effects. Instead of telling you the difference, I will show you. Here is a short paragraph, an example of a story being told to the reader. *** Bob walked over to the door. He turned the door knob, opened the door and started to walk outside. It was an icy cold winter day so he hurried back inside and put on his coat. *** Now, if I’m the reader I haven’t missed anything, I know what’s happening, but the passage doesn’t draw me into Bob’s world. It doesn’t let me feel or sense much of anything. Now I’ll rewrite the same passage showing you the story. *** Floor boards creaked underfoot. Step by step, across the room. The chill of cold brass felt smooth in his palm ...

Meet the Editor, Marvin D Wilson Marvin is the author of three books, I Romanced the Stone , Owen Fiddler , and the just-released Between the Storm and the Rainbow . He is a prolific blogger, with an internationally popular and award-winning blog at Free Spirit (http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/) Marvin is a full time writer, is on staff at All Things That Matter Press as an editor, and also does freelance editing. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? In college, in an English composition class. My instructor had a hissy fit if we students handed in anything with a typo in it. And back then, they were “type”-ohs – we were still using typewriters, remember those? It was so tempting to leave a “little” mistake in the last paragraph on a page rather than try and go through the pain of fixing it, or even worse re-type the entire doggone page. She would mark us down a whole grade for each and every typo. And nowadays, with the word processor and all the marvelous Word...

Question: What one thing do you look for in the opening chapter and that makes you read on? Patricia Harrington *** A good friend, an esteemed literary colleague, Peggy Ullman Bell (who does the editing of my manuscripts) once said, relaying to me the advice of her mentor: “If you can get the reader to smell the coffee on the first page, that reader will be with you for the entire rest of the way.” Smell the coffee. Perfect. The first chapter, the first paragraph, the first sentence - all are of paramount importance. Imagery, setting, characters, smells, noises, thoughts and emotions must be forward, intriguing, and captivating. It is vital the author snag the reader’s attention, grab hold of all the senses, and bring the story alive with immediacy. If not, a yawn will transpire; the book will go back on the shelf of the library or bookstore. I'll illustrate with two examples. One will be my attempt at a coma-inducing "back-on-the-shelf" opening paragraph, and the other...

Dear Editors- “I think one of the hardest things to do is self-editing. Invariably, no matter how hard you try, there is always something you overlook or miss. What is your advice on how to get the most out of self-editing? What are the most important things a writer should look for when they edit?” Christine Verstraete, author, Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery *** This is the last post in a four-part series. To read the previous posts, click on Third , Second , and First . Today I have three words for you. Cut the fat. Stephen King, my writing-style mentor, recommends that your self-editing reduce your manuscript’s total word count by at least 10 percent. Cut the fat and get to the meat of the story. Here’s an example: Mary decided that enough was enough and that John had abused her just one too many times. She decided then and there that she must stand up for herself. She quickly snatched the rolling pin that she had on the counter and slammed him very hard, righ...

Dear Editors- “I think one of the hardest things to do is self-editing. Invariably, no matter how hard you try, there is always something you overlook or miss. What is your advice on how to get the most out of self-editing? What are the most important things a writer should look for when they edit?” Christine Verstraete, author, Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery *** This is the third post in a four-part series. To read the previous posts, either scroll down (they are posted in succession below) or click on Second and First . Today’s Lesson: 1. Get rid of weak, qualifying words and phrases. You’ve already searched and destroyed those dreaded words ending in “ly,” but other words can weaken your prose. They don’t appear as adverbs or adjectives, but they function the same. Seek out and eliminate these words: Almost, less, seldom, even, always, maybe, soon, more, perhaps, then, very, far, never, today, well, sometimes, just, perhaps Next, search for and rewrite or eli...

Dear Editors- “I think one of the hardest things to do is self-editing. Invariably, no matter how hard you try, there is always something you overlook or miss. What is your advice on how to get the most out of self- editing? What are the most important things a writer should look for when they edit?” Christine Verstraete, author, Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery *** If you missed it and want to catch up with Lesson One, Click Here. And now Lesson Two-- Use the Word tools, “Track Changes,” and “Spelling and Grammar” to do the following: • Eliminate repetitious words. Look for words used more than twice or thrice in close proximity. Switch on Track Changes, and then click on “Edit.” Use the “Find” feature to locate those words everywhere in your manuscript. Have your thesaurus handy or up on your browser, and use it to replace repeated words with appropriate synonyms. An exception to this practice is if you have a character with a quirky trait of using a certain word...

Dear Editors- “I think one of the hardest things to do is self-editing. Invariably, no matter how hard you try, there is always something you overlook or miss. What is your advice on how to get the most out of self-editing? What are the most important things a writer should look for when they edit?” Christine Verstraete, author, Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery *** This is a comprehensive question and subject, so for the sake of blogging brevity I am writing a four-part series of short posts to address it properly. You can do the obvious things, like checking for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. Everyone uses spell-check these days, but that is no guarantee you do not have “wrong” words in your manuscript. Spell-check will not correct things like “too” where it should be “to,” or “then” when it should be “than,” or “you” where “your” should be. So there is no substitute for good old-fashioned reading your manuscript with a critical eye. After completing a...

Question: What I really want to know is what is the general consensus of dialogue tags? Is the old he said/she said still the preferred tag? Submitted by Margay Leah Justice, author of Nora's Soul . http://margayleahjustice.com/ Answer: Different editors have different preferences of nuance on this subject, but one underlying principle is consistently agreed upon. Dialog tags are a necessity for identifying who said what. Beyond that they have very little use. I’ll explain by example and analysis. *** “Why did you do that?” John asked inquisitively. His sister was on the floor, nearly passed out, with an empty bottle of pain killers next to her. Mary replied meekly, “Because I was just feeling so terrible. My head hurts so bad.” John asked angrily, “So you took a couple dozen pain killers? Mary, that’s suicidal!” “I’m so sorry, John. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Mary responded. John added hastily, “Well, we had better get you down to emergency in a hurry.” Mary agreed, “Yes...

Headlines can truly get on an editor's nerves. From the too-clever play-on-words, to the blatant mistakes, it seems as though journalists are often too pressured and rushed to get attention, and bad writing is the result. Take for instance: Vehicle Hits Police Car En Route to Jail Not very clear who's going to jail, is it? Not important, but it's just the tip of the iceberg in journalism today. Consider these; Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter What? Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says No, really? Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers Now that's a little harsh, don't you think? Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over Pervert! Miners Refuse to Work after Death Talk about lazy - whatever happened to good old fashioned work ethic? Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant Hmm - does he at least get a five second running head start? War Dims Hope for Peace Ya think? If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile No - no way. C...

There are similarities and differences with respect to writing for a blog tour and writing a book. In this article I will examine four aspects of writing and how they apply similarly or dissimilarly to writing tour posts and books. 1. Planning the Content. Tour stops are like chapters in a book. A book with chapter after chapter of the same content would be pretty boring, would it not? After two or three chapters, you would put the book down and figure the author was going nowhere with this story. Same with a virtual tour. Each chapter should have its own story within the larger story. At the same time the whole story and all its chapters should be cohesive. One stop should lead you with interest to the next. Nothing is worse than a month-long dirge of same old same old “Interview with the Author,” or “Meet the Author” posts. I’m sorry, but I don’t need to read for the umpteenth time what your favorite color is or what your five pets’ names are. Maybe give me that information in ONE of...

Nowadays commas are on the decline in contemporary prose. Almost an endangered species. And there are many differing opinions about the use of them. This will not be an “official” essay on the correct use of commas. Dear lord, I would dare not presume to be of such authority to instruct you as to where, when, and in what order to include, place, and feel correct in your use of the useful, often necessary, but more often than ever before in literature shunned punctuation, the comma. I just intend to lay out some thoughts of my own on the subject and share some experiences I’ve had dealing with the ponderous and mighty question, “to comma or not to comma?” over the past several years. From Maryann - I was going to edit your opening paragraph, then I realized it is a joke. I hope everyone gets it. When I was writing my first manuscript intended for publication, I ROMANCED THE STONE (Memoirs of a Recovering Hippie), I was living in the same house with a young man, a recent college graduat...