If you’re published, or about-to-be published, you’ve heard plenty about establishing your online presence with a website and/or blog and various social networking sites you can use to spread your message and promote your book. Twitter , probably the most popular and the most ridiculed of all social sites, is popular with readers and writers. Even more exciting, agents and publishers hang out on Twitter . This venue offers several features that can be useful to writers. The one I’m looking at today is Lists. The List feature appeared in 2009, but I ignored it at first. It seemed like one more way to waste time. Now that my follows total about 850, I realize how convenient it is to have a few specialized lists that allow me to see a stream of messages from a few selected people. Since I’m about to embark on an agent search for my new novel, I want a convenient way to scan agent comments and advice before I send queries. To accomplish that, I created a new list called “Literary Age...

It’s winter here in Illinois, which means snow and ice. The other morning, because the sidewalks looked treacherous, I decided to take the street to work. As I trudged along, I noticed a car about three blocks ahead. I focused on it, wondering if it would turn or continue on towards me. Then the unexpected happened. Before I could do anything, I pitched forward, landing on my knees. The case with my laptop computer inside it hit the street beside me. The culprit was a pot hole, which I would have noticed if I’d not concentrated on looking ahead instead of where I was. I scrambled up and glanced around to make sure I wouldn’t get hit. The car I’d concentrated on had turned. None others were in sight. I took stock of my condition. Fortunately, I appeared to have suffered only scrapes and bruises on my knees and one elbow. My jeans were still intact. No one could even tell I’d fallen. Glad I’d got off so lightly, I continued on to the train station. Once seated on the train...

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, there are over twenty definitions of “ character .” Here is one that is particularly important to us writers: “the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.” Throughout the course of a story, your character [main character(s)] will undergo change(s), and it is through his/her features and traits (the things that make up the character) and his/her actions and speech that will illustrate the change(s) for the reader. What do you know about your characters? Hopefully more than what’s in the book or books your readers devour! As creator, we should know our characters inside and out. Their fears, their desires, their likes and dislikes, everything. Of course, we don’t put all of these things into our books because readers would cry with boredom, and we would never get to the point of the book – the actual STORY. When we know from which our characters come, it helps us to develop strong, comp...

Immediately inside the door she saw a red carpet. At the end of the carpet sat a gray cat, licking a paw. A clock pendulum ticked and tocked on a nearby table. Classic Stickley, judging by the table’s bold, clean lines. Beside the table an orange shawl had been tossed over the arm of a leather chair. Two feet to the left of that… Okay, I’ll spare you. If you’ve done any amount of reading in your life you’ll recognize in the above description a wall of words that many readers will choose not to scale. Or perhaps you won’t recognize the wall at all, because as a reader you’ve always skirted around it. In her September 18, 2009 Blood-Red Pencil post, our own Maryann Miller cautioned us to keep such laundry lists pocketed when our characters first enter a room. But now you’re a writer, not a reader. You are eager to get on with the good stuff! And it’s just so tempting, isn’t it? Put your character in the room, show her glancing around at this, that and the other thing in an active vo...

The tense you use can add an extra element to your writing style. Writing the narrative in past tense with the character dialogue in present tense has been the most popular method for a long time. This is also the most comfortable and familiar to readers. But, increasingly, writers have been experimenting with tense, especially in shorter works and literary fiction. Present tense has a faster pace than past tense. Combined with a first person narrative, a story written in present tense puts the reader directly into the action with the sense of immediacy and urgency that you create. However present tense can tend to stick out like scaffolding, while past tense disappears into the background, much like the "said" dialogue tags. Pluperfect Tense (Past Perfect Tense) Lengthy flashbacks don't need to remain in pluperfect tense when you're writing your narrative in past tense. This is especially relevant if dialogue is quoted in the flashback scene, as it's jarring for ...

Well, actually you will. Tracy Farr, a humor writer, shared these tips on his blog recently and graciously agreed to let us post them here. Enjoy! What do you mean, you can't find something to write about? Aren't you looking hard enough? Aren't you paying attention? Hold on, maybe you're looking TOO hard. Maybe it's right under your nose and you can't even see it. "You mean I should write about my mustache?" Why not? It's there isn't it? So write about it. By the way, it needs a bit of a trim, and I think you have some spaghetti sauce stuck in it. Ideas are everywhere. You see that UPS driver? The one who just delivered that package to your next door neighbor's house? Looks mighty suspicious to me. Looks like he's casing the joint. Looks like he's not even the regular delivery guy, but an escaped convict who highjacked the truck and is looking for easy access to a house. He'll end up terrorizing the lonely widow who live...

The Blood-Red Pencil is famous for its abundance of editor-members. Somehow they allowed me, Morgan Mandel, to sneak into their midst. Getting back to our editors - Not only do they write informative blogs, but now they’ve agreed to share their expertise in a more practical way. Today, and Every First Tuesday of the Month , The Blood-Red Pencil is instituting what we call Ask the Editor Free-For-All . I’ll be scouring e-groups beforehand, putting out a cry for likely guinea pigs; no, seriously, I mean candidates. Even if you don't see the call in one of my e-groups, you’re more than welcome to join the fray. I’m sure many of you have questions you’d like to ask editors. Maybe you’re submitting a manuscript or thinking of submitting one, but are afraid to ask for an explanation of a fine point that really bothers you. You don’t want to sound like you don’t know the business, yet you’d really appreciate knowing what to do before you submit. Doing the wrong thing c...

“Cowgirl up” is an expression that means to rise to the occasion, not to give up, and to do it all without making excuses. This phrase resonates with me since the inspiration for my first novel was my cowgirl grandmother. To me, it means having the courage to do the hard thing, to follow your dream. You don’t have to have a horse, live on a ranch or in the West to “cowgirl up.” It takes courage to write. We are all born with a certain measure of creativity, but as we grow up, learn “responsibility” and “decorum” or have our creative efforts shot down, we stifle that urge. After all, very few make a living at writing—you’d better have a plan to fall back on, like teaching or nursing or business. We’ve probably all heard someone tell about an early writing effort that was shot down by a teacher or family member. “You can’t write.” “You don’t have any talent for that.” That, to me, is criminal! It takes courage to overcome that squashing. I’d been writing in various forms since I lear...

Today we welcome guest editor, Sigrid Macdonald, who visits us to talk about good blogging and her latest publication, Be Your Own Editor: A Writer's Guide to Perfect Prose. ************************ If you're a consummate blogger, you may wonder what the point is of polishing your writing skills. The medium is so quick and instantaneous. Updates are frequent and going back to edit a post that you wrote yesterday or last week seems laborious. Is it important? Don't your readers understand how time consuming blogs can be — won't they cut you some slack? Not necessarily. It depends on the goal of your writing. If you have a personal blog that acts as a diary and is only read by family or friends, don't think twice about what you write and how. Likewise if you are simply chatting with old friends on any social networking site. However, if you are seeking traffic or if your blog is commercial, then you want your writing to be as good as anything in the newspaper. It...

This question comes from Chris Stevenson, who is a member of Morgan Mandel’s Book Place on ning. Book Place Chris’s latest book is Gate Walker and it can be purchased here on Amazon.com If you'd like to know more about Chris and her latest book, visit her on her Web site Question : I’ve just spent months going over tedious track-change editing from my publisher. We were allowed little or no adverb/ly words in our manuscript. My question is: Just how much of my unique voice/style did I lose with this very thorough edit? I’m known for being a pretty good stylist, so it concerned me a little. Thanks. Answer: Ah, the old “ly” debate. My initial response to your comment is that I am leery of editors who issue absolutes: You must remove all adverbs. You must remove all uses of “was.” There are legitimate uses of both, and to strip a manuscript of them entirely is a mistake. The problem is that many new writers use adverbs and passive writing to an extreme and that is what can ...

The definition of social media is evolving. The Wikipedia version is constantly under discussion and is dynamic, changing as fast as the various components of social media change. To get to the bare bones, however, we can say that social medial consists of internet-based applications accessible to a variety of content producers and a wide audience of consumers/readers. You, as producer or consumer, can participate in social media and social networking in a variety of ways (blogger, Wikipedia contributor, photo sharing exhibitor, podcast producer, internet forum contributor/reader, corporate marketer, and so on). Finding resource materials on the use of social media seems easy when you take a look at booklists. I’ve consulted: Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans (Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2008) Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley (Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2008) The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Mil...

Learning to write is a lifelong course. Word art—the ability to create stunning imagery or exert desired influence with clear, concise information—might be compared to painting a sunset or composing a song. Words come in many shades and hues, notes and tones. Combining them into a specific “sight” or “sound” involves careful mixing of “colors” and “chords.” This series of articles examines the elements of writing that set the artist apart from the ordinary journalist. Let’s consider continuity. Continuity involves connections. Effective writing needs to “connect” all the parts so that flow is not interrupted by mismatched colors or discord. How? Careful attention to details—hair or eye color, location, timeframes, and so forth—eliminates confusion and contributes to a cohesive whole. Whether writing a business proposal or authoring a fiction or nonfiction book, a writer must make sure the reader not only understands what’s being said, but also follows the reasoning or the storyline ...

Recently, my husband and I collaborated on a silent auction contribution for the Story Circle Network Conference held in Austin, Texas. We called it the Sole of the Writer Sock Box and here’s a picture of it. He carved the conference logo on a wooden box styled to look like an old library card catalog, and lined the three compartments with aromatic cedar. Tabs on the three divider cards had Dewey Decimal System numbers related to the three stages of creating a book. What are the three stages you might ask? Let me tell you my thoughts as I knit the three pairs of socks that went into the box. The first stage in any writing project is getting the words down on paper, without regard to form, grammar, punctuation, or anything your inner critic might find to pick apart. This is where the writer dreams with reckless abandon – or in the case of a memoir - remembers without reservation. The sock yarn I chose was a bright multi-colored self-striping yarn, and though we don’t necessarily write...

Last night I was reading a self-published book that—ahem—could have used some more editing. Immediately apparent was the insidious use of the word “as.” Even if the typical reader wouldn’t pick this up right away, I assure you these two little letters have a way of undermining a reader’s confidence in an author. This is true for a few reasons. 1) Any word overuse is a problem. In a medium comprised of words, overuse suggests a limited lexicon and a dull imagination. The reader catches the stale whiff of laziness. Be cognizant of the choices you make. 2) The repeated use of this particular preposition sets up a lulling rhythm. You want to open your readers’ eyes to new thoughts and ideas, not close them. Here is one paragraph from the book I read, with nouns and verbs changed to protect the guilty: He unbuttoned his coat and tucked his long hair behind his ear as he sat down on the leather couch. The secretary ignored him as she tapped away on the keyboard for another minute until the m...

How many of you remember diagramming sentences in elementary school? Where you shuffled, with great trepidation, to the chalkboard to draw a straight line and bisect it to show the “subject” (noun) and “predicate” (verb). And then the diagonal line(s) underneath one or more of those words to show “modifiers.” I have to make a confession—I liked diagramming. Although some have likened it to a mathematical equation, I see it more as putting pieces into a jigsaw puzzle (I’m not mathematically inclined, but I do like puzzles). It is easy enough to figure out “The horse galloped” or “The cat hissed.” But what about “John’s horse galloped around the paddock and then ran into the woods.” Oh my. Now you’re getting into lines underneath the lines beneath the subject/predicate line. And where does “around the paddock” go? OK, maybe that’s easy enough (under the verb galloped seems logical). But where does the rest of it go? And why do we care? Do we need to know how an airplane is designed befo...

Darden North sent in this question: It seems that some agents and publishers are looking for fictional works that feature strong female characters. Can you define a strong female character? Hi Darden. Not only are publishers looking for strong female leads, readers (both women and men) are as well. Readers today tend to want characters they can relate to and who are realistic. Of course, we’re not talking fantasy, erotica, or other genres where characters, both female and male are intentionally “over the top.” A “strong female character” can be different things. There are many characteristics, but no one character would have them all. If you want your female lead or supporting character to be “strong,” then see if you can incorporate some of these (in no particular order): Intelligent Quick witted Sense of self Decision maker Not perfect, has flaws Strong in her femininity Not rigid Doesn’t do stupid things Doesn’t belittle others Spunky Multi-dimensional Can have a tr...

So you've decided you want to try this writing thing, huh? Great! Now that you've decided to write, you have to find out what you want to write. Below are several suggestions to kick start story ideas: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW I suppose you've heard this adage. GREAT idea. We know more than what we think we do. Take a pad and pen or park yourself in front of your computer and do some prewriting. Ask yourself, "What do I know?" Write down the skills you have, write down the characteristics that would describe you, write down the jobs you have had, the experiences you have had, the failures and successes you have had. It's a long list, isn't it? Maybe you realized that you don't have the best of luck in relationships. Why not write a story about a person with the same trait and try to figure out why? Maybe you realized that you're an extremely giving person and often times, you don't give enough to yourself. Write a story about that character. Th...

I was asked to present some of my poetry as examples of narrative, lyric, and dramatic—all dealing with a valentine theme and all about a similar subject. It was suggested that I do this in four lines apiece, but it is very difficult to write a narrative or a dramatic poem in only four lines. Lyric, however, no sweat—so here they are. The narrative and the dramatic could have had a rhyme scheme if I’d had longer to work on them. The lyric is free verse. The dramatic is sort of an unrhymed cowboy style. Note that “blush” is the key to all three. I hope you enjoy them. Narrative Maggie sat straight yet nervous at the interview, left hand smoothing out her skirt, right balancing her pen, point to tablet. Her blue eyes smiled when the chairman welcomed her, but I, from then on noticed only the smile in her blue eyes. And when they rested on me, I blushed. Dramatic Well, the stuffy chairman welcomed the bright new prospect gal after we had gathered in the stuffy room. “Well, y’all...