8 Ideas to Make Your Fiction Writing Work

While I do not like posting somebody’s work without proper attribution, this is just too good to pass up.

But first a note:  My studio is a busy place.  Not always busy in action, but always busy in papers, books, notes and the like.  For over a year now I’ve had two sheets of paper clipped to a file cabinet.  I vaguely remember them being insightful, and a little scary, but I do not remember how they got there.  Today while looking for post material, I just happened to glance at these pages.  The first page, and most of the second page are all the reasons why an agent would pass by a manuscript.  At the bottom of the second page I found 8 reasons said agent would like the work.   It is these that I want to share with you: 

Image: judaica-art.com

1. Good opening line.
2. There was something going on beyond just the surface action.
3. A non-average protagonist in a situation you would not expect.
4. Action scenes that feel like they are happening in real time.
5. The author made a point and moved on.
6. The voice is strong and easy to relate to.
7. Suspense seemed inherent to the story, not just how it was told.
8. The scene was emotionally engaging.

If I can find where these came from I will attribute them properly, but in the meantime… I find these useful, and hope you do too!

The God Patent by Ransom Stephens: A Book Review

It is always hard for me to know how much of the plot and setting of a book to reveal in a review, so pardon me if I tiptoe a bit.

Last month, Ransom Stevens, who holds a Ph.D. in Particle Physics, came to speak to us at the Fremont Area Writers Club.  He spoke about his novel, “The God Patent“, addressing both how the book was written, and what processes he went through to get it published.  He was one of the more precise speakers we have enjoyed at our monthly club meetings. 

Image: http://www.thegodpatent.com

Stephens’ first novel, The God Patent, while being an excellent read, it is also, in my opinion, something of a textbook in getting a story across. 

Let me say that while I love to read, I am by far more critical of books, stories, essays, poems, songs and the like which are written by people I have met.  There is a bit of a mystique about a book and its author if you are removed from that person.  Nonetheless, I purchased the book at our club meeting and packed it away to read on my recent “vacation”.  I should also note that while I am a fan of religious fiction, this book really only touches on religion, but lives in its characters, the story line, and in physics.

The God Patent is the story of software engineer Ryan McNear, his struggle with past mistakes—one of which caused both divorce and the loss of contact with his teenage son—dealing with the law, and finding his way in a life that seems to have turned against him.

The book is peopled with colorful and believable characters—each strong and well-developed—which will captivate or enrage you in the way Stephens handles them.

The book is also about the development of a technical process which purports to use the “creation energy” God used in the making of the Universe as a mundane power source.  As the book develops, the questions of life, the soul, and the possibility of life after death are touched in a scientific way, one that will surely make the reader stop and think.

The idea of the book fascinated me, but I didn’t want to like it.  (See lame excuse above).  The fact is I fell into the book and found myself reading long after my eyes thought it was a good idea, late into the night.

Being a critical reader I kept trying to catch up Stephens with plot pieces, but every time I was sure I had it worked out, he yanked the rug out from under me.  At one point I was sure he had telegraphed the ending, and had set up to worm his way out of delivering what he had promised for at least the last third of the book.  Once again I was wrong.  Ransom Stephens delivered.

I don’t recall Stephens saying how many drafts he had to go through for this delightful book, but whatever labor it took to get it done, it was certainly worth it.

How to Create an eBook From Your Blog – Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Image: I made this one.

Still in the preparation phase of creating an eBook from your Blog, let’s consider the following:

•  Are all of your posts up to the quality you want for your book?
• Are the posts already in the order you want them displayed?
• What will you use for cover art?  (Yes, even eBooks should have good cover art.)
• Do the graphics you want to use belong to you?  If not, do you have a plan to  acquire the rights?

Getting permission when needed is essential, and is especially important if you intend to charge for your eBook.  For example, I want to quote a portion of a source on Fair Use from Nolo, here is a part of what constitutes “Fair Use”: 

Image: school.discoveryeducation.com

Criticism and comment — for example, quoting or excerpting a work in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment.

News reporting — for example, summarizing an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report.

Research and scholarship — for example, quoting a short passage in a scholarly, scientific, or technical work for illustration or clarification of the author‘s observations.

Nonprofit educational uses — for example, photocopying of limited portions of written works by teachers for classroom use.

Parody — that is, a work that ridicules another, usually well-known, work by imitating it in a comic way.

Are you getting the idea that this can be a little tricky?

Now, if all the work is your own, and you are self-illustrating—photographing, drawing, or painting—thes permission problems are a non-starter for you.

Once all of these ducks are in a row, we’ll have to round up a few more, but we’re getting closer to starting the work.

Now, all together, one deeeeep breath…

Writer’s Agent Verna Dreisbach: Guest Speaker at Fremont Area Writers

 On Saturday, May 22, the Fremont Area Writers Club (Fremont, California), hosted Verna Dreisbach as guest speaker.

While the club is accustomed to excellent speakers, we were especially delighted with her presentation.

An author, a writer’s agent, and an ex-police officer, Verna is not one to pull her punches, and the beginning of her talk shook our confidence a bit before she revealed techniques to get through to an agent.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Make no mistake, it is very hard to get an agen these days.
• It is especially difficult for a new author to sell a book.
• However, you can do things to improve your chances.  98% of rejected queries are unprofessional, written by unprepared writers, or are just plain rude.
• The writer must understand that this is a business, being too artsy in your presentation doesn’t work.
• You must stand out above the competition, and the best way is by being professional.
  • Stand out, but for professional reasons—politeness, well researched queries, good fonts, good formatting.
  • The query letter must be properly addressed.  Never send a “Dear Sir/Madam”, KNOW to whom you are addressing the letter.
  • Do not mass-mail, each query must be professional and personal.
  • Saying (in the letter) that you’ve “just finished” your novel suggests it is a first, unedited draft.
• Professionalism is just as important as good writing, Verna suggests that it is easily half of the process.
• Don’t keep badgering the agent.  They are busy, and will not be “beaten down” by your perseverance.
• Busy agents, when they look at query letters, look for the first reason to say no.  Your letter must be perfect.
• Demonstrate that in your writing you are “taking care of the reader”, not just flashing fancy vocabulary and complex concepts.
• These days, all authors are expected to have both a web site and a blog.
• When you’ve (really) finished your novel, send out the query letters, but, start your next manuscript.  Improve your characters, your stories, your craft.
• Queries are like dating.  They need to show you at your best.
• Warning: Even if an editor or group of editors love your book, Marketing can still keep it from being published.  KNOW YOUR MARKET.
• You want your readers to forget they are reading a book.  The reader needs to be swept into the story.
• The finished manuscript is not finished, until you go back and work for LANGUAGE.

She had much more to say, all of it eye-opening and useful.

Verna Dreisbach’s website is: http://www.dreisbachliterary.com/

Forever Author

I love to write.  I wish I knew how to Write Forever.

The fact is, even if you are a 12 year-old blogger, although it might seem like it sometimes, you won’t write forever.  It might be that you become inspired by a new thing.  Photography, perhaps… or cartooning, or building kayaks.  It might be that you fall prey to what creeps up on us all.  Old age. 

As we get older time, misuse, and life itself seem to conspire to slow us down.

What can we do?  Older writers, get out of that chair.  Do some stretching and walking.  Younger writers?  Start today to build the ongoing habits that will keep your body limber and healthy.

You might not be able to write forever, but with some planning and a bit of work, you can write for a long, long time.

Open Mic: Rehearse and Polish

Continued from Part 3

Your document is now printed and ready.  It’s time to start rehearsing.

What?  Yes.  This is a performance.  This is your way to encourage readers and sell yourself as an author.  You need to rehearse, you need to be ready.

Assuming your pages are NUMBERED and NOT STAPLED or attached in any way, you’re ready.

Read through your document–aloud!–paying close attention to the BOLD sections.  When you see BOLD text coming up, be prepared to narrow your concentration and read carefully.  Your listeners will not know you’ve shifted focus.  They will just hear another smoothly delivered sentence.

Now, as you read this aloud listen for places where you speed up or where you drag a bit.  Listen for places where a change in intonation would make the piece more interesting or pleasing to the ear.  If you find such a place, STOP READING and make notes to speed up, slow down, pause for effect, and so forth, on the pages immediately.   Do not assume you will remember the issues later.

When I do this, I often go through 3 or 4 versions of the document, scanned, fixed and reprinted each time, so each new reading is with a clean copy.  This gives me experience seeing the page as it will be (or will nearly be) on the night of the Open Mic.

If you are comfortable with shifting tone or even voice when doing dialogue, your audience will love it.  But THEY DON”T EXPECT IT.  So don’t push yourself, especially in your first several Open Mic sessions.  Get comfortable with standing, with the microphone, and with the group before you get too fancy.

While you’re rehearsing, be sure to add practicing changing pages quietly, and without too much lag between sheets.  Make sure the page numbers are large, and in the same place on each page.

Continued in part 5

Reading For Writing

I have never much cared for the “About Me” sections of online community profiles, thinking instead that one’s work should say by far more than a rehearsed mini-bio.  Despite my personal hesitancy to say much on a profile page, I find that I do read those of other people.  Why?  I guess I want to know what to expect from a person’s writing.

If the profile has the topics “Favorite Authors”, “Favorite Books”, and/or “What Am I Reading Now”, I am drawn immediately to them.

I say you can tell a lot about a person–especially a writer–by seeing who and what they read.

In the days I ran technical support centers, part of my hiring criteria was the question, “what non-work related technical issue have you read about lately?”  If the question stopped the applicant, they seldom got much further in the hiring process.

It is said that we should not judge people based on appearance, or a book by its cover, but I don’t think that rule apples to writers.  Judging people is a part of our business, and a person who calls him- or herself a writer, and says they don’t read, or they don’t have time for books, is either a liar or a fool.  That person is certainly not a writer.

Dick Francis, R.I.P

Novelist and ex-jockey, Dick Francis has died at the age of 89.

Retiring from his career as a steeplechase jockey in 1957, he went on to write 42 novels, many centering around horses and horse racing.  His stories were well-crafted mysteries.

He, and his work, shall be missed.

Respect For Your Reader

Offering respect to your reader is something I write about quite often.  I am usually driven to do so when I see something published by a sloppy or uncaring writer.

Whenever I find something that is hard to read because of poor formatting, grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, logical absurdities, or dysfunctional punctuation, I feel my hackles rise.  We all make mistakes, this is a given.  Self-editing is a trap, for the most part, because we find it difficult to catch errors when our minds fill in the blanks, or change the printed word we read for us.  After all, WE know what we meant.  Still, there is no excuse for writers to allow themselves to be represented badly to the reader.

When someone writes in a sloppy manner and excuses it saying something like, “…screw it!  I write for myself!”  I immediately wonder if that is the case, why in the world would they actually attempt to publish?

I have to admit that this particular diatribe is aimed, primarily, at the world of self-published, barely literate work I see every day on Amazon and other on-line booksellers.  Yes, I know, there are some fine works which for one reason or another aren’t picked up by agents or publishers, and are therefore self-published.  That’s sad.

When I find a book for sale on line that has huge errors in the author’s descriptive blurb I get angry.   Why would I buy a book if the author can’t be bothered to make sure his description of the work is legible?  It is hard to believe that some writers are so enamored of their own work that they believe whatever makes it to paper or screen is perfect the first time, every time, and need not be proofread.

Respect for the reader is an important part of communicating in a written form.