Re-post: Imagery

You can tell your readers what something looks, feels or smells like or you can let them see, feel and smell it for themselves and in their minds. Your readers can become part of the action, believe that they are sitting in the same room with your characters and viewing life firsthand, not just reading words on paper.

A fellow author was telling me about a scene she was writing - a young lady is getting dressed for a meeting with the boyfriend’s parents. Obviously the young lady is nervous and wants to make a good impression –“ She put her new dress on, the price tags just clipped off…” Doesn’t that just make you feel the crispness of a new garment that’s never been worn, a garment chosen just for this occasion? It helps to emphasize how important this meeting is to the young lady and stays with the reader longer than just being told those facts.

Show, don’t tell. Every new writer has been told to that in beginning writing courses. Is it more effective to say “He is angry” or to say “He walked into the room and slammed the door behind him”, which makes you FEEL his anger more? Think of the things you do when you are angry, sad, ecstatic  or simply tired. When do you slam things, yell, wipe your tears, have a lilt to your voice or feel like you are dragging your feet across a floor? Give your characters these qualities to show your readers how the character is feeling instead of just telling them. Would you believe that someone is feeling overwrought and tired if we have him “popping out of his chair” and “skipping up the stairs”? Perhaps it would be more convincing to have him “slowly rise from his seat” and feeling like “his feet were made of lead as he heaved them to the next riser”.

Show don’t tell with more than just your characters’ state of mind, think about your settings. Think of a funeral service or wake that you might have attended. Visually you probably saw numerous flower arrangements, did you also smell them? Rather than describing a scene with “lots of flowers”, try writing it as “the air was heavy with the sweet smell of roses”. When you mention the big TV in a room, think,– HOW BIG is it? Statements like “the TV frame nearly scraped the walls on the sides of the alcove” or “the actors on the screen dwarfed the people watching them” will help SHOW the size. You can say a carpet is thick, luxurious and plush, or you can describe how someone’s feet sink into the carpeting to increase your reader’s sense of being there themselves.

Writing lessons: Re-write each of these statements and SHOW the emotions – Anger; Fear; Sadness; Happiness. 1) He drove his car. 2) She ate her sandwich. 3) The children left the school. 4) The cop wrote the ticket. 5) The dog was at the end of the driveway. 6)-She turned off her alarm clock. 7) He put the book down. 8) They walked across the boat deck. 9) She ran to the bathroom. 10) He noticed it was time to quit.

Writing prompt: Quickly read and fill in the blanks with words that come to mind: Time, fast, speed, ________, map, direction, east, ________, man, woman, child, ________, ham, egg, butter, ________, fortune, safety, ________, prize, loss, ________, sick, ________, second, ________, front, ________, pregnant, ________, truck, ________, beat, ________.

Make it a Goal Oriented Year

It’s that time of year when everyone is busy making a list of New Year’s resolutions. A resolution is like wanting to make a lifestyle change such as deciding to eat better; deciding to lose 20-pounds is a specific goal. The resolution may be our route to a goal or an end-result.

Following through on a resolution is to make a habit that will lead us to our goal, but there is no actual measurement to a resolution. Even if we fail to follow our resolution for a day or so, we can still go back and try again. Setting a goal is final; we either accomplish the deed by the date, or time period, we set for ourselves or we don’t. Goals come with pressure, resolutions are more forgiving — but the pressure of a goal might just be instrumental in helping us keep our resolutions.

As writers we should set goals for ourselves as well as resolutions. The goal, such as finishing a manuscript, is an achievement and hopefully an attainable result. In order to reach that goal we make time to write, hopefully daily; we learn to shut out distractions and focus on our task. And if we’ve kept our resolutions and accomplished our goal, then we are likely to continue the habit and begin working on a second goal (a new manuscript?).

We put enough stress on ourselves just committing to an accomplishment. Set goals that are realistic, things that you can control. A goal to finish a manuscript is within your power, however it is NOT within your power to have a publishing house choose to print it. Since you’ve gone to the effort to write the book and would like to see it in print (or e-book), then you can set practical goals such as submitting the manuscript to a new publishing house every two to four weeks until it is accepted.

Remember to set resolutions regarding your writing habits, your health, your lifestyle, etc. Some realistic writing goals to set (in addition to finishing the manuscript) could be: attend a writing conference this year; set up a writer’s web-site; write a blog post twice a week; read three “how-to-write” books; purchase marketing materials like business cards and/or bookmarks for previous works; and more.

Remember that a resolution is a lifestyle change or a habit. A goal is a realistic thing you want to accomplish that is in your power to control. Be realistic in deciding on a time to achieve each goal and the resolutions that will help you on that path. Putting this plan on paper will become your Life Plan and should be reassessed periodically through the year (e.g. every six months).

Happy New Year!

Writing Exercise: Free-write for 30-minutes a day for five days in a row.

Writing Prompt: Make a list of six GOALS you want to accomplish as a writer in the coming year. (If you can’t think of six writing goals, list as many writing as you can and add up-to-ten more goals of anything)

Challenge Assignment: Using the list of goals you wrote, list the “steps” you need to reach each goal (such as completing your manuscript). Decide which of these steps can be resolutions, habits to help you reach that goal (such as writing one hour each morning before work). Decide on realistic time periods or dates to achieve each goal. Set these goals and the steps on a calendar. This becomes your Life Plan.

Re-post: Back to Basics

In grade school we were taught about the parts of the English language: Noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Our teachers also tried to teach us to put these parts of language together; sometimes they even succeeded.

Nouns describe a person, place, thing, event or idea. Pronouns substitute for proper nouns such as he, she and they. Adjectives describe nouns. A verb is action and the three main forms are present, past and past participle. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Prepositions link nouns/pronouns to the sentence; some prepositions are above, across, below, but, except, up, via, and within. A conjunction joins groups of words; examples of conjunctions are or, either, and, if, so that, and yet. An interjection is often a singular word that expresses an emotion or reaction such as damn, gosh, and wow.

All of these words go together to form simple, compound, and complex sentences. All sentences should contain complete thoughts/clauses. An independent clause can stand alone, but a dependent clause “depends” on a joined thought to complete the sentence. A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb. A compound sentence contains two clauses joined together with a conjunction. Finally, a complex sentence is one independent clause joined with one or more dependent clauses; they are joined together with words such as although, because and which.

The parts of a story include setting, plot, conflict, character, point of view, and theme. Setting includes the place and time of the story. A plot is the sequence of events to tell the story and must contain conflict. Conflict is opposition or struggles and helps to keep the story moving; there may be multiple conflicts, but there should be a main one. Character can describe the people in a story or their characteristics. Point of view is basically who the reader “views” the story through; if the story is told through the eyes of a character keep in mind that the character cannot tell you the thoughts of another. The theme is the author’s message or “moral of the story”.

We have rules in writing. But there are times when rules are better off broken.

Dialogue doesn’t need to follow the rules of proper grammar or sentence structure if that is NOT how the character talks. If you have a character who is illiterate or for whom English is a second language, proper sentence structure may not sound authentic. Make sure that you write your dialogue as the character would speak. Don’t overdo it though, sometimes all you have to do is pepper the dialogue with a character’s unique speech patterns and you can avoid making the story unreadable.

Switching point of view (POV) radically within a scene is called “head-hopping” and normally frowned upon. There are times that you can change the POV so long as it does not confuse the reader (as to WHO is talking or acting). A select number of readers like to feel that they are “watching a movie” where the camera lets you see the scene from various angles; such “head-hopping” may be called omniscient, told in third person but moved from character to character. If you are a beginner writer it is usually safest to begin with third-person POV (ie: He moved across the room…) and told from the viewpoint of one chosen character throughout the story.

Writing exercises: Are the following sentences Simple, Compound or Complex? (answers below)

1- Rosie cooked the meal and she served her family dinner.

2- Jimmy came home.

3- Brenda and Alan sang Christmas carols.

4- I purchased new jeans because my old jeans ripped.

5- Jim, who is in my grade, will have gym on Fridays.

Writing prompt: Describe the room you are in and your actions from your point of view (first person: I see, I hear…); then describe the room from the viewpoint of someone standing in the doorway and watching YOU (third person: She sat rocking in the chair…) Remember that in third-person the person describing the room cannot be in YOUR head, they cannot know HOW you feel.

[Answers: 1- Compound; 2- Simple; 3- Simple; 4- Compound; 5- Complex]

Heads Up, Let’s Talk Headlines

Have you ever come back from vacation, opened your email and simply had too many emails to go through? Many, probably most, of us would simply hit DELETE. If you’ve ever requested information online, entered a contest, received a free book or even had your email exposed on someone’s mass mailing, you are probably receiving a literal ton of emails — and let’s not forget all of those emails from foreign attorneys who are just writing to let us know how much money we’re inheriting from some relative we never knew we had and all have to do is send our private banking info…

Anyway, back to the subject (sorry), the email you sent to a busy executive with your finished manuscript, query letter or resume is probably sitting in a jumble of emails. There’s a strong chance that the only emails she’ll open have either come from a name she recognizes or a subject line that interests her; hopefully she won’t simply delete the rest and she’ll trudge her way through most of them in the next week or two.

Email subject lines should be eye-catching but ON TARGET, it has to allude to the subject. Don’t be purposely misleading just to get attention. If you use a simple “Hi there” you might have lots of company; there is nothing to set you apart from the rest.

Which subject line would seem more interesting to you: “Sinkhole Swallows Man” or “Hole Under House” — either heading is accurate for the 2013 tragedy that made newspaper headlines, but the first paints more of a picture and therefore will draw the reader’s attention better. A headline such as “Lost in Sand Trap” is both vague and misleading; it’s possible that someone clicking on this title is expecting something about golf and will be disappointed when he begins to read. Disappointing someone you are trying to pitch to is not an auspicious beginning.

Apply the same principle to blog post headings — keep it on topic. Story headings and book titles allow a little more leeway but should still be indicative of the content. Use powerful and descriptive words to make your headlines a bit catchier. Notice which email subject lines draw your attention first and emulate the proven success to see if it works for you. If you Google the term “email subject keywords” you can come up with some attention getting words and phrases.

Writing Exercise: Open your (unopened) email list and choose any ten email subjects. Write down the subject and BEFORE you open the email to read it grade each 1, 2, or 3 with 3 being the most intriguing and 1 being the least interesting. Next write a sentence or two of what you THINK the email is about. Finally open each email and check which email content meets your expectations; note the subject words used and how apt or inappropriate they were.

Writing Prompt: Make a list of titles (up to 12) for blog posts you can write. Make sure that what you want to write will be well represented by the heading.

Challenge Assignment: Using the list of titles you made, actually write a blog post (up to 350 words) for each and post on your blog; space them out by a few days to a week each. After you’ve posted a few of the blogs check the SITE STATS (most blogs have these in the administrative page) or comments to see if you are getting a response.

Re-post: Creativity Counts

According to Bowker, the renowned bibliographic data supplier, there were more than half a million books published in 2008 including traditionally and self-pubbed material; these are print books carrying ISBNs. While the e-book industry duplicates many print titles, online news sources guesstimate that here are more than ten-million e-books available.

That’s A LOT of books. No matter who is handling the promotion and publicity for each of these tomes, something has to make a single book stand apart from the rest. If everyone just does the same promotion, it really gets very hum-drum.

What are some of the more creative ways to publicize your book? And better yet, how can you afford to publicize your book?

Find an angle. Who does your book speak to? Does it showcase a cause? Does it deal with a specific time in history (fictionalized or factual)? Is it relevant to current events? Work the angle. Promote your book to the clubs, societies and institutions that would be interested in your book’s focus. If your newspapers are giving lots of coverage to the type of event that your book deals with, send press releases emphasizing the similarity to local reporters.

Use the internet to promote yourself and your book. Find out which web-sites appeal to your specific audience and guest blog if possible; even commenting on existing blogs with your “signature” will help to get the word out. Get over your ego and cross promote with other authors. Even listing your blog URLs on each other’s blog-rolls will draw attention. If you can’t wrap your mind around the idea of sharing the spotlight a little, think of it this way – you will increase your own audience each time you share space with another author and their followers come with them.

Online group events are becoming very popular. A twice a year “Blog-Jog-Day” is scheduled for a specific date where all the participants post blogs and then encourage their readers to continue on to another participant’s blog. My publishing group is using group promotions like virtual dine-a-rounds featuring recipes and excerpts from our books. And a group of authors who all contribute to a website are posting a combined listing of all their books published in the year as a “Year-End Review”.

While you tend to reach far fewer people with actual face-to-face appearances, it is still a great idea to schedule events at local libraries, bookstores, malls and clubs. Unless you have already had a popular selling book, or you are a public figure, or you’ve had a life worthy of a made-for-TV movie, chances are most people won’t come out just to meet you and get you to sign a book. Just like writing a story, you have to provide a “hook” to get people in front of you – offer relevant speeches, lessons, or help raise funds for charity to draw the crowd in. Again, be willing to work with others. Form a small team of authors with a set program suitable for libraries and offer your services.

You have to find that special thing that will make you different from all of the others and that could vary with a group, a region or even the world news. Whatever you decide on, never hesitate to (figuratively) shout “Here I am”.

Writing exercise: Close your eyes and picture a serene and comfortable setting. Imagine being there and feeling relaxed. Take a moment to enjoy the sensations. Open your eyes and write a brief paragraph or two describing the scene. Be sure to include what you smelled, heard and felt as well as saw.

Writing prompt: Rewrite the song The Twelve Days of Christmas with a meal (one steak, two potatoes, three pats of butter, etc) and go as high as you can. Try it again with clothing to go out in. One more time with household chores. What else can you think of?

It’s coming to that time of year

Getting the year’s paperwork together for the “Tax Man” causes anxiety for everyone — for the creative freelancer it can seem brutal. In many other aspects of our job we use the creative side of our brains, but at tax prep time we have to make a sudden shift from right to left brain (imagine the screech of a speeding train’s brakes before it goes into reverse!) The organization and mathematical aptitude required seems to go against the writer’s natural nature.

[according to The Thinking Business http://www.thethinkingbusiness.com/ and other sources: The right brain is the creative brain and is responsible for rhythm, spatial awareness, color, imagination, daydreaming, holistic awareness and dimension ~and~ The left brain is the logical brain responsible for words, logic, numbers, analysis, lists, linearity and sequence.]

So down to the nitty-gritty boring stuff…

Hopefully you’ve been keeping your records all year long so it won’t take much to pull it all together, then again there are those of us who live by procrastination, avoidance and denial. The first item on your paperwork should be your income; the income could be listed by client, quarter, or a running list from all year but most importantly, include ALL of your income even if you don’t receive a 1099 tax form. Next you want to list your expenses that went into being a self-employed freelancer; it is super important to have a record of ALL deductions, deductions are those items you can literally DEDUCT from your income total for the purpose of paying taxes.

So what kind of expenses can be deducted? List promotional items like business cards, advertisements, rent for your business; business insurance (including a car your use primarily for business); new purchases and repairs for business equipment such as computers, printers, cameras; office supplies and furniture; and the cost of business related travel expenses and dining. Make sure you have actual receipts for each expense. If you are using a professional tax preparer he/she will be able to guide you using the latest IRS rules; when deciding on an accountant to use, ASK how familiar he/she is with SELF-EMPLOYMENT taxes.

Most tax advisors will recommend that you pay quarterly taxes; this is based on an estimate of your income as well as previous years. Workers who are paid on W-2s have deductions taken from each paycheck, however freelancers collect their earnings without any taxes being deducted. The quarterly tax schedule is designed to help avoid that huge crush to pay all the taxes you owe all at once. Most freelancers MUST pay quarterly taxes (approximately 15 to 16 percent of total income) or pay penalties.

Finally, prepare a decent and efficient filing system; as a freelancer you will need to keep your financial records for at least six years, receipts not just bank statements, in case you have to face the DREADED audit.

Writing exercise: You’ve been called in for an audit; the problem is you can’t seem to locate all of your records — we are assuming you didn’t cheat on your taxes. Write up the “excuse” you plan to use to convince the auditor so you won’t get fined or penalized

Writing Prompt: Pick ten items that you really can’t claim as deductions BUT would like to — explain why they should be authorized deductions. (for example, is your pet cat REALLY a guard cat for the business?)

Challenge Assignment: Using a standard ledger or Excel document, list your income and expenses for the past year. (you can find samples of author recordkeeping online)

Re-post: Web-sites & Media Rooms

An Author Web-site is as important as putting words on paper to write the next great novel – it’s your publicity, your promotion, your showcase.

Most people would not enter an unknown “store” without some kind of descriptive signage or window display to entice. Consider your website to be your window-display to pull a customer in off the street. This site has to introduce you, explain you, feature you. It’s a place to promote and sell your books. It can help you build your platform and may even attract some terrific writing deal for you.

The internet is one of the most versatile, economical and far-reaching marketing tools available today. Just like those newspaper ads that say “Your ad could be here today”, the internet screams “Your website should be here today.”

Published or UN-published (so far), a good author’s web-site should contain multiple pages. It CAN contain a blog which will help to attract readers. You website needs a “home page” which should feature something that says YOU (book covers, you at an event, possibly a graphic of the subject you specialize in). Use your imagination and ask :How do I want my readers to view me?

There should be an “about me” page – remember that your readers are interested in knowing about the AUTHOR so you don’t need to include your life story, only the parts of it that are relevant to your writing. Include a page for each major project (i.e.: each book or genre). Show off the book covers, blurbs, excerpts and acclaim. You will definitely want to include a contact page with a listing of upcoming in-person and virtual events where your fans can “meet” you, buy links, your (author’s) email.

A very important and often overlooked page is your personal media room. This media room literally is for the media. Include a downloadable author pic, jpgs of your book covers, .pdf’s or .doc’s of press releases, industry sales sheets for your books, .pdf’s of publicity (news clippings, etc) and a mock interview of YOU. For your interview get a list of six to twenty questions, include questions about your writing motivations, your preferred style, causes if they are relevant to your writing subjects, where you see yourself in the future, and advice you would give a new and aspiring writer – then answer them; make sure the questions that you absolutely want to be asked are listed first. You can also upload two or three unpublished “guest blogs”.

Your media room should be an easy research stop for any reporter who wants to focus on you – the more work you can do for the reporter, the more probable it will be for them to want to print (or broadcast) news about you. Expect that the info you make available to the media may be used with or without further questions and contact. I include the following clause in my media room at http://chellecordero.com/media/ “Permission is granted by (my “publicist” name) to use this photo for publicity purposes under the following guidelines…” and I list my requirements. As for downloadable documents .pdf is preferred but .doc is acceptable too, just avoid formats that are not easily opened on someone else’s computer. Use your media room link on the bottom of your emails.

This is YOUR forum – use it to your advantage.

Writing exercises: In regards to your writing career, think of the three TOP questions you would want to be asked – write an interesting answer for each. Now question and answer three more about your writing style. Think of a few more interesting questions and upload your INTERVIEW to your media room.

Writing prompt: Do you have a pet? (any kind) Describe what they might dream about when they are sleeping.

Style guides, etc., etc.

You should get familiar with the different writing guidelines recommended by major publications. It’s a good idea to learn which style an individual editor wants for submissions; guidelines do vary between periodicals and book publishers.

Here are the most commonly accepted styles and the general use for each: AP (Associated Press Style), news writing or journalism-based writing; CMS (Chicago Manual of Style), manuscripts (fiction or nonfiction) and written publications; APA (American Psychological Association), social sciences — not to be confused with AP Style; MLA (Modern Language Association Style), academics, literature and humanities.

There are also lesser known and useful guides, including styles for Australia, Canada, and the U.K., that you can find online at http://abt.cm/1YMvDdJ . While some of the major guides have information available online, the best sources for these are reference libraries and bookstores.

There are several abbreviations we often insert into our writing and not always correctly. Some of these common abbreviations are in Latin. Let’s review a few:

·       e.g. (exempli gratia) means for example. [Any donation, even a small one, (e.g., a nickel) is appreciated.]

·       i.e. (id est) means that is or in other words. [Certain dresses were harder to keep in stock (i.e., blue was a popular choice) than others.]

·       et al. (et alii) means and others. [Sandy, Mary, Donna, et al. brought food for the party.]

·       etc. (et cetera) means and so on or and so forth. [The table was filled with lots of food (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, etc.) and we ate until we thought we would burst.]

·       vis. means namely. [He sold his sports car and bought a vehicle for the whole family (vis., the Honda Odyssey) to travel in.]

·       vs. means versus. [The two teams, Rangers vs. Devils, played an exciting game.]

Writing Exercise: Write examples of sentences using each of the abbreviations: e.g.; i.e.; et al.; etc.; vis.; and vs.

Writing Prompt: You went to the bathroom at the library just before closing time and accidentally got locked in the library. The phones are turned off at closing time and you don’t have your cell phone with you. You are sure that you are alone until some books get knocked off the shelves. What are you going to do?

Challenge Assignment: Research any two to three writing styles. Choose a brief newspaper article or random blog post. Rewrite this article/post in at least two different writing styles.

Re-post: Happy Holidays

The holidays evoke all kinds of memories and emotions. These memories and emotions make perfect fodder for lots of short stories. Around the world, and particularly in the U.S., there is a focus on “the holidays” from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Restaurants offer festive dinners, retailers sell perfect gifts, newspapers publish “the year in review”...

Think back to your childhood and the special thrill of waking up on Christmas morning to run down the stairs and rip open gaily packaged presents. Did you get the gift you wanted? Or maybe you have a special memory of a happy family tradition like singing around the Chanukah menorah. Even the smell of a Thanksgiving turkey coming out of the oven might evoke strong memories.

Even a disappointing holiday memory can give you material for a story. How different would the day have been if things had gone the way you wanted? How about putting into words the unique habits of family that is no longer here – Grandma’s special cookies, the way Great-Aunt Edna sang in the church choir, or the way Grandpa filled out he Santa suit.

You can write about a childhood memory and embellish it to make a beautiful children’s story. Write it from the perspective of your own youthful innocence and imagination. Turn a family dinner into an adventure story. Or perhaps tell a story about a toy that came alive. Think about the holiday fuss from the family pet’s perspective.

The holidays can be a special setting for romance as well such as a long awaited reunion of a soldier returning home, an engagement ring adorning a Christmas tree, or a miracle recovery of a marriage that was faltering. Don’t forget the possibility of mystery and suspense – the stolen piece of jewelry that mysteriously appears as a holiday gift, the Santa Claus suit that disguises a thief.

Just for the holidays, here’s a list of writing prompts:

1) Write a letter to Santa telling him what you want for Christmas. Write it as you today, ten years ago, as a high school teenager and as a young kindergartner.

2) Explain the traditions of your holiday gathering to someone from out of town, another country or even another planet.

3) Set an imaginary holiday table and invite relatives you haven’t seen in a long time – what would the greetings be like?

4) Write your memories of a childhood trip to your grandparents’ house for a special family get together – was the car trip long? What was your impression as you came through the door?

5) Pretend that you are a child again and it is Christmas Eve, you managed to stay awake long enough to see Santa placing gifts under the tree. Say hello and have a conversation with him.

6) Maybe your holiday traditions didn’t include a visit from Santa Claus – how did that make you feel as a child? How do you, or will you, talk with your own children about it?

Visualize

How do you Show Not Tell to someone who has never seen what you are talking about?

Description should include more than flat colors and shapes. Use detail, use lots of adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives are “a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.” An adverb is “a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. (e.g., gently, quite, then, there ).” [Definitions provided by Google]

Use analogies to help “describe” an item, but be sure to use something of relative familiarity as the comparison. Analogies are “comparisons between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification.” For instance, if I wanted to describe Duckpin bowling I could either say the bowling ball is about 4 ½-inches wide or I could say that the bowling ball is like holding a firm grapefruit in your hand. Using the analogy rather than the simple measurement makes the description a little more interesting and emotional. Close your eyes and realistically FEEL holding a 4 ½-inch ball in your hand; now imagine holding a firm grapefruit in your hand. Which description makes you FEEL the ball?

Do you remember the old IQ tests that spanned the Internet with the NAMES of colors written in other colors? RED was written in bright yellow; BLUE was written in pink; BLACK was written in green… People often had a hard time rattling off the name of the color without a bit of thought. Written words are often flat and unless you have familiarity with the item being mentioned, all you can “see” are the letters, they don’t have much meaning otherwise. Use textures, temperatures, sounds, echoes, and any attributes that would enable you to see something in your mind. An example of this would be the narrow hallway with sharp corners and a hard, flat surface that goes from floor to ceiling with nothing to interrupt the confinement of the cocoon.

When you are describing a character’s emotional state, don’t rely on saying he is angry, she is sad, he is scared or she is determined. Describe their actions, let your readers know about doors being slammed, the sleeve wiping away tears, someone clutching their chest after a sudden scare, or the character pushing her way through a crowded meeting room to answer a ringing phone. Describe the interactions between characters, the tone of their voices, or mention how people around them are looking in their direction because of the volume of their conversation. Add dimension to your story by using details.

Writing Exercise: Describe the room you are sitting in, really describe it. Use as many adjectives, adverbs and analogies as necessary to truly PAINT the picture.

Writing Prompt: Write your favorite color; your favorite animal; your favorite kind of music; and your favorite food. Describe each favorite using common objects, sensations, smells, sounds, and analogies.

Challenge Assignment:  Try describing your surroundings to someone who has been blind for life, they have no idea what blue is or the (visual) ability to compare two objects to each other if they are not familiar with either, but somehow they can visualize a sunset, a park, a beautiful woman through YOUR words. Write two to four paragraphs describing a setting so that anyone reading your words can see it in their mind.

Re-post: Putting the Finish to "The End"

Congratulations! You’ve written the “Great American Novel” and you can sit back satisfied knowing that fame and fortune are just around the corner. You are definitely prepared for the onslaught of movie producers coming to convince you to let them turn your novel into a blockbuster movie. You’ve listened to the experts and written “hard and fast” and gotten those pages done in record time.

But wait! First you’ve got to polish your story, otherwise known as editing. (By the way, it might be time for a reality check as well if you believe the first two lines of this article)

Editing is certainly more than just running spell check and checking your grammar.*A warning I would like to add about spell check – NEVER allow your spell check program to make changes automatically or blindly. I once had an organization’s newsletter almost make it to the printer with a member’s family name changed by the spell checker to a specific part of the male genitalia! Be sure to check for consistency in names as well (is it Jake Carson or Jake Carlson?).

Remember while correcting your spelling, grammatical errors, misplaced words and incomplete thoughts that you wrote the piece and therefore understand what you meant to say. Your eyes may fool you and allow your brain to TELL you what should be there. One writer I know overcomes this expectation factor by checking spelling in the reverse; she begins reading line by line from the back of her manuscript. Another writer reads her work aloud because she finds it easier to “hear” the mistake rather than see it.

Okay, you have now reached the next level of self-editing your story. As you re-read your work, ask the following: 

Did you hook the reader from the first page (preferably from the first line)? Open your story with action, a question, a problem – make the reader want to keep reading, make the reader need to keep reading. “It was a dark and stormy night...” needn’t go any further; a weather report may be suitable for an early morning weather forecast and that’s it. However “She didn’t believe she would survive that dark and stormy night…” leaves the reader wondering who she is and what the threat is. This gives the reader more motivation to keep reading and solve her curiosity. End each chapter or scene break with a “hook”, a reason to keep reading.

Did you increase your word count with a lot of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs? Pretend that you have to pay a dollar for each word and cut out anything that isn’t crucial. Eliminate purple prose, the overly flowery descriptions filled with basically uninteresting and ornate descriptions. Allow your senses (smell, taste, hearing, sight and touch) to help you describe settings, but do not overdo it.

Did you SHOW or just tell your story? Don’t just say that your hero is angry, let him slam into a room, let him frown or yell. Make his actions, thoughts and words products of his anger. Make sure that your characters have depth and are plausible. Your characters existed before the story’s time period and they will react to the situations you throw at them because of who they are and the things they’ve experienced.

Did you deflate your words with uncertain phrases? Don’t say “he was answering the door”, instead say “he answered the door”. Get your point across with simple phrases. Don’t hmm and haw by tossing in unnecessary words. Put the subject of your sentence in the forefront – use “I gave him the book” instead of “he got the book from me”. Make your statements definite. If you want a character to do something, let him do it.

Writing exercise: Choose a few objects that you have had for a while. What emotions come to mind when you concentrate on those objects and any memories they evoke? Go through the five senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch - write what the objects make you experience through each sense (or memory of).

Writing prompt: In one paragraph, tell the reader about your day. Try to “hook” the reader with the first sentence. For instance, “I made a decision. My appointment with my boss was right after lunch…” Does that make you wonder what my decision was about?

Giving Your Characters CHARACTER

Everyone has a past.

History can certainly color the future whether it leaves lessons learned, scars, vows of never again, or the good memories of past happiness. Few people, if any, truly experience life today for the “first time”. You walk into a restaurant that you have never been in before, smell the fresh baked aroma of apple pie and suddenly feel transported back in time to Grandma’s house when your childhood seemed carefree and you laughed and played with your cousins. Or you sit down at a conference table to hear a sales pitch when you notice the presenter making an otherwise innocuous gesture that reminds you of your high school arch rival and suddenly you close yourself off to even listening.

Think of your plot like a one dimensional road map, while there may be more than one route you can take from start to finish, it’s pretty much just a line on a piece of paper. Now imagine traveling that route in a convertible with the wind in your hair, or on a party bus with music, food and friends, or pedaling along on a racing bike… Your plot is your route, your characters’ personalities will change the experience along the way.

Agree not to allow your characters to act like robots with pre-programmed reactions and responses. Sometimes the nicest person in the world will snap back with barbs if they wake up with a migraine. How often have you heard overwrought parents say that their child’s teacher is describing “someone else’s child” because that is not how the child acts at home (either for the better or worse)? Do you find that you can feel carefree with certain audiences (your family or friends) and much more restrained with others (your boss, your future in-laws)? People will naturally act differently with dissimilar people and sometimes this may play out to the extreme — imagine the surprise your readers will experience when the brave army vet comes home and winds up cowering under an abusive spouse! Allow your characters to be completely and thoroughly human and react to the circumstances and catalysts around them.

Most people are not so decidedly sure of themselves, most people experience self-doubt at some point or other. The happily married man of 40 years spots his still beautiful wife giving the next door and younger, good looking neighbor a hug; at first it doesn’t bother him accepting it for just the friendly gesture she said it was and then he looks in the full length mirror and notices that his stomach overhangs his belt — and suddenly he worries that she might not find him attractive anymore. A little niggling self-doubt creates an air of human vulnerability. If you cast your antagonist with this bit of doubt you will often foster sympathy for him/her which will make the “evil” so much more effective.

Your audience does not need to know everything about your characters, they don’t need to know that the dog that bit her as a child was owned by a family friend who refused to get the dog tested and necessitated rabies shots — all your readers need to know is that your character has an aversion to needles (possibly due to the round of childhood shots) when he/she is sitting in a hospital room recovering from an illness. YOU, the author and the character’s creator, need to know everything about your character. Write up a dossier on each major character and include the highs and lows of their life, their likes and dislikes, fears and hopes… know who he depended on growing up and who he depends on now, know when and why she’s cried and what makes her laugh. If you know your characters well enough they can help you write your story as they make human, multi-dimensional decisions at each plot twist you put in to the story.

Writing Exercise: Write a short, short story – you made one major mistake in your life and it changed everything. Tell us about it.

Writing Prompt: You are planning a road trip, it’s wintertime and the trip will take you through rural and isolated roads. You fill a box (the size that would hold your winter boots) with “emergency” items just in case your car gets stuck in the snow. Make a list of those items.

Challenge Assignment: You have six people locked in a room; there are no windows and no furniture. The lights go out and the occupants hear sounds (one at a time) – the low growl of a wild animal, a train rumbling down the tracks and getting closer, people screaming, crackling of a forest fire, and the scratching sounds of claws against the walls. Finally the lights come back on, everyone is still there and it’s obvious that it was all just piped-in noise, the room is still locked. Describe EACH of the six people AFTER the event, tell us his/her emotional and physical state, how he/she is reacting. Most importantly, tell us at least one thing from each character’s background that has influenced his/her reaction.

Re-post: Am I Speaking English Here?

No matter what your native tongue is, some days communication just seems to fall flat.

As a journalist I’ve sent queries to possible sources; my instructions are simple – a few pointed questions, the date I need a response by (usually quickly due to short deadlines), that fact that there are NO phone calls and all info is collected from the initial responding emails. Needless to say, I get thoroughly frustrated when responses pour in with the starting line “I’m available for an interview, just call me at…” Most of the responses are from folks who would like the free publicity of being mentioned in a newspaper article – if they made it difficult for me (aka failed to follow instructions) I rarely use them as sources.

As a novelist I follow submission instructions as closely as possible, sending queries before sending the full manuscript, making sure that the electronic format, if that is how the publisher wants it, is in the right file format (.doc, .rtf, .txt, etc.). I know for a fact that most publishers will simply deep-six a submission from someone who blatantly ignored their specific instructions. In other words, ignore the details and sabotage your best efforts.

It really isn’t a power complex thing when a publisher asks for a specific process or format so it isn’t the time to flex your muscle to do it “your way”. Consider the countless submissions that come over the transom every day and the work it takes to evaluate what might prove to be a valid investment of time and money – if you can’t, or won’t, follow relatively simple instructions, how is the publisher to know that you can cooperate with them when it comes time to produce or market your work?

Almost every publisher, magazine or newspaper has detailed instructions available either online or in the publication itself. Some of the instructions you might find are: Query letters for specific features and departments should be one page in length and accompanied by recent writing samples; We do not accept unsolicited manuscript submissions; Summarize your query in one paragraph that will grab our attention; and All story ideas must be submitted via our online system.

Yet there are writer’s who persist in sending in unsolicited and complete manuscripts, using flowery and difficult to read stationary, submitting formats the publisher might have problems viewing, or not including an information page in an easy to read layout. Other writers will write cover letters telling the editor what a mistake it would be to pass up on this entry or that the work is a guaranteed best seller; editors prefer to make their own decisions. Still others think that using funny puns and cutesy gimmicks will make an unforgettable impression, unfortunately that impression is often one of UNprofessionalism.

Most writer’s put their best efforts into writing a terrific story, a great article or the next best novel - so why not take the extra time to make sure that your work gets the consideration that it deserves? One publisher explains why you should plan your submission carefully – “Take your time and put some effort into this query, because this is the first impression you will make with…”

Don’t throw out all of your hard work – be professional, be cooperative and be smart.

Writing exercise: Pretend that it is your job to introduce speakers to an audience. Write a one-sentence introduction for each of ten of your closest friends or relatives.

Writing prompt: 1) Quickly write one word answers to the following: What scares you? What makes you happy? What was the last thing you cried about? What food would you like to eat? Describe your first car? What is your favorite color? How old were you when you had your first job? What animal are you most like? 2) Take these eight words in ONE cohesive paragraph.

Deadlines loom

It’s terrific when you have multiple deadlines to keep track of because that means obviously you’ve got multiple assignments… hopefully they are PAYING assignments with big paydays.

No matter how the dollar figures seduce you, you should restrain your acceptances to make sure you are being realistic and actually able to make those deadlines. Sometimes life gets in the way — family emergencies, your own (hopefully minor) illnesses keep you collapsed in bed, your internet goes down and you can’t do research or send emails, or the stress gets you feeling like an amnesiac.

And worst of all if you are like many other writers (including me), you probably procrastinate until you know you can’t anymore. Yes, boxed into a corner… yikes.

Unfortunately missing deadlines isn’t the smartest thing, a ruined reputation won’t keep the assignments coming. Many editors, when you’ve already established a solid working relationship, will understand the VERY OCCASIONAL delay so long as you are professional and indeed it is a rare occurrence. If the extreme happens, like you wind up hospitalized without your computer, contact your editor as soon as possible to let him or her know you probably won’t have the work done as promised. Never ever miss a deadline and ignore it.

Here are a few tricks that have kept me out of hot water from time to time: As soon as I am offered an assignment I pick up my calendar/assignment book, check to make sure I have adequate time to do the work and then write in all of the details including due date. I also enter the due date and details into my online calendar which syncs to my cell phone and pings me with email and text message reminders. (Voicemail and calendar reminders are the next best thing to a CHEAP personal assistant!). Enter follow-up dates on queries on your calendar as well.

As soon as possible after accepting an assignment I open a file folder on my computer usually grouped by client and sub-folder by assignment; I open a NOTE sheet and use down time to research subjects and enter information including referencing URLs in preparation. Don’t rely on just listing the URLs because if your internet does go down you basically lose all of your research.

If you have to interview a subject for the project send an introductory email first, introduce yourself with references to your previous related work (online links if possible). Even if you will be doing the interview by phone it never hurts to send a short list of questions or discussion starters; if you can receive the responses via email it’s a win-win as you don’t have to worry about misquotes, etc., but always inform the subject if you will be using direct, attributable quotes. If you are going to conduct the interview by phone or in person, set a specific time to “meet”.

Try to work on your assignments in the order that they are due if you can, but don’t let it throw you if prep work takes more time — just go to the next one in the queue. On the offside chance that you don’t have access to the internet to send your article in, save a copy to removable media and find the nearest library (or friend’s house) with internet connection; you can also periodically save your work in progress by emailing it to yourself at an email address you can access on the web.

Always make sure you know how to eject media without losing data even if you can’t power your machine on just in case there is a power failure. Be sure to cross or check the project off in your assignment book so you don’t get confused down the road. And it never hurts to save pertinent emails, including queries for assignments, to your work folder just for the record. Remember to “document” everything.

Writing Exercise: Choose any topic of interest and research it. Copy notes and referring URLs to a folder. Write a 350-500 word article based solely on the research notes in your folder.

Writing Prompt:  Make a list of 10 “outrageous” and entertaining excuses why you missed your deadline.

Challenge Assignment:  Set up a complete assignment recording and notification system. Use, at your discretion: a project book, a homework assignment book, or an Excel program to record assignments and contact info; create an online calendar which will sync with devices and email or prompt with reminders; create a master folder for each client and subfolders for each assignment. Work with this system for up to a month and fine tune it as necessary… and then stick with it.

Re-post: Common Mistakes

As an editor I’ve often shuddered at some of the very common, glaring mistakes that writers make. While a number of these mistakes might be mere typos or caused by speech patterns, they still need correction before appearing in print. When you are first writing your story you should be more concerned with getting the words down – don’t stumble over corrections while thoughts should be flowing – but afterwards, please, please, self-edit.

Yes, the most obvious mistakes are spelling, punctuation and run on sentences. Using spelling and grammar checks built into your word processing program MAY be useful but they certainly should not be the final word. One recent experience I came across was an organization’s meeting minutes. The typist inadvertently misread notes and wrote “the town’s angina” when it should have been “the town’s agenda” – the minutes went through spell check and the incorrect word, which was spelled correctly, made it to the final copy. Very embarrassing for the typist…

Some writers tend to not only spell but to write “phonetically”. One of the more frequent errors like this that I have come across is using “should OF” instead of the proper “should HAVE” (or should’ve). Another word that is often ill-used is “gonna” – while this version may be appropriate in actual dialogue (remember the dialogue should reflect the way your character actually speaks) it has no place in the narrative.

Words may sound like one another or are at least similar enough to cause confusion. TOO many writers confuse TWO or more words TO express a thought. Make sure that even though it may sound RIGHT, you WRITE the correct meaning. We are talking about homonyms, not homilies. Other words that sound similar, even if not exact, and are often confused are shudder and shutter, synonym and cinnamon, break and brake, your and you’re, feud and food, our and hour, flower and flour, but and butt, there and their, etc. Make sure that the word you use is the one you intended.

Keep the number consistent. Take my line from above: “One of the more frequent errors”, I am talking about ONE so the correct verb to use is IS; however if I were writing about “frequent errors” the correct verb would be ARE since I am talking about multiples. If there seems to be some confusion as to the number you are talking about (as in my line above), make sure that you know what the number of the SUBJECT is and keep it consistent. The teachers and Mary ARE; Each of the teachers IS – “teachers and Mary” is two or more, but “each” is singular.

Finally watch those typos. Transposing two letters, leaving out a letter or adding an extra one will not only be misspelled but may change the entire meaning of your sentence. Look at some of these simple typos: angel or angle, good or god, united or untied, friend or fiend, main or man, and so on.

A suggestion that was once made to me to help in self-editing is to read one sentence at a time starting from the back. If you read your article or story in the order it was meant to be you may not “see” these mistakes because your mind is telling you what you meant to say instead of what is really written there. By breaking up the logical order you may also break up the automatic thought process and the mistakes may suddenly pop into your vision. Asking a friend to read your story through is also a good idea since the fresh eyes will not be anticipating what you meant to say.

Writing exercise: Write separate sentences using write, right, read, red, lead, led, mail, male, made, maid, plain, plane, suffer, sofa, daze, days, shudder, shutter, through, and threw. Make sure you are using the correct meaning.
Writing prompt: Without going into the “room next door” or another place you’ve been previously, try to describe the setting and include as many details (like art of the walls or color of the furniture) – Now go into the room you described and see how accurate you were.

Thinking outside the box… & Creativity

Yes, this heading is a cliché, it’s not very creative. Creativity is a necessity as a writer and not just for the stories you write. If you are submitting articles to magazines there will come a time that you will have to think up a topic to cover and not rely on your editor to provide you with an idea.

One of my editors sends around a list of stories to his usual “stable” of writers; sometimes the list is sparse and the writers who received the list in their email ask for a story — it’s usually first-come, first-serve and there are some writers who don’t get a request in before all the assignments are handed out. Some of us make suggestions for story ideas, usually not as the list comes out, but by looking at the editorial calendar a month or two in advance. This particular editor allows those of us who recommended an idea the courtesy of writing it if he chooses to use it so it is a win for us and guarantees an assignment; he also lets us know he appreciates the input which, he claims, makes his life just a bit easier and this makes a positive impression for us.

Whether you are writing how-tos for your local newspaper, hoping to get the cover feature in a magazine, or penning a novel, thinking of expanded possibilities can help you find assignments and spin gripping tales that would sell books. Creativity begins with familiarizing yourself with what actually exists and coming up with something relevant, perhaps surprising, definitely interesting and decidedly different.

Here are a few ways to get creative and come up with new ideas: Look at a situation or a theme from a different perspective, would a woman look at something (anything) the same way a man would and if not, think of questions she might want answered; take a break from what you are writing and change the scenery, a fresh view might present a fresh idea; play the what if game, change something in the scene and it may change the story; after researching facts for an article think of questions you still have; introduce a new character who has different priorities or experience than your protagonist; daydream and put yourself into the setting, how do you feel and what would you do; think of the worst case scenario and deal with it.

If you think about popular stories (books, movies, TV shows) you’ll notice that many tales have similar story lines, so how do these repeated stories keep being successful? Each new story has (should have) twists in the story that make it different from previous. Let’s talk about the often compared Romeo and Juliet versus West Side Story; both stories are about young, forbidden and tragic love with characters that very closely substitute — Romeo/Tony, Juliet/Maria, Tybalt/Bernardo, Friar Lawrence/Anita, and Lord Capulet/Officer Krupke. The stories have different settings and time periods, the young lovers want each other despite feuding families in one and racism in the other, Catalysts are characters killed by the hero, in both cases the hero is led to believe his love interest has died, and in one he kills himself in grief and the other he is killed while looking for her.

Same story but the creative twists make each different; different settings, slightly different motivation and different social times makes both stories hits. Change it up and come up with different possibilities.

Writing exercise:  Think of a stressful problem you’ve had at some point; write a brief summary of how you handled and hopefully resolved the problem. Think of any two people who are/were in your life and have different personalities from you. For each of these people, rewrite the same problem and how that individual would have handled/resolved it. This is only for your eyes, so be honest in your descriptions (use phony names if you are afraid of someone reading these).

Writing prompt:  Make a list of 10 different headings of How-To articles that would interest you; a list of 10 people you would like to interview (living or dead); and a list of 10 book titles you would like to write.

Challenge Assignment:  Did you have a favorite bed-time story as a child? Rewrite that story and make the protagonist into someone terribly evil.

                                                                            

Re-post: It's all a matter of semantics

Aside from the reactions of the other characters in your story, how do you think your reader will respond. Dinner guest number one was rude, pushy and probably used to getting her way; dinner guest two sounded polite and possibly a bit hungry and hopeful. You just started building your character’s personality.

When you speak in your character’s voce, you will want to say things THE WAY your character would and keep it consistent. However when you dramatically change the way your character speaks (uncharacteristic) you might be setting the tone for a mood change, trauma or crisis – if your character is always patient and polite, but then suddenly is sour and thoughtless, it might be that something bad has happened to them.

Use the wording carefully, remember that the same thing can be said in many different ways, use the way your character talks to paint a picture. If you want your character to appeal to a specific target then use wording, phrases and mannerisms accepted to that market.

Study as well the accepted speech patterns for different ethnic and regional origins. For instance many Americans may be labeled brash and loud. While the man from the heart of a big, bustling metropolis may sound overbearing, but another from the deep south would seem more patient and polite.

Use distinct speech patterns for each of your characters and each character will have their own unique flavor.

Writing exercise: Imagine that you are holding something in your hands, it should be something pleasant for you (a small cuddly pet, a beautiful piece of jewelry, a book, etc). Describe the feeling you have to someone else. Let them know what you are holding without saying what it is, be sure to include what you feel while you are holding this item.

Writing prompt: Make five sets of random word groups – they don’t have to be related, they should just be random. You might listen to a newscast or a series of television commercials, or people watch and jot down words they make you think of. You might even open a book and pick out words. Take these random groups and use each word in the same sentence. Force your brain to think creatively when you compel it to connect otherwise abstract thoughts.

Getting Attention (aka promotion)

Many writers claim to be introverts (I am), but we need to call attention to ourselves, our books and our blogs in order to turn the hobby we love into the career we can afford. As a writer my priority is to provide enjoyable, informing and thought provoking reading, and receiving word from any of my readers that they liked what they read is enough to make me do a happy dance; my bank however has other ideas, they like to collect on my mortgage and other non-essentials.

In reality promotion works for both my needs and the bank’s needs. Promotion is vital so that readers know my work is out there and ready to be read and book sales translate into bill payments. Writers often head to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google-plus, and Instagram (just to name a few) to post promos, buy links and more. Savvy writers don’t do this as a constant stream of advertisements but mix it up with related interesting tidbits — all this draws attention to our names and our book titles.

Hashtags (formerly known as the number or the pound sign #) are used primarily on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Using hashtags before key words and phrases (no spaces) will help to pull up your posts from queries. Don’t use hashtags that are not relevant to your message and don’t overuse hashtags; 2 to 3 hashtags per Tweet or Facebook post are generally recommended. Check trending hashtags on Twitter to get well-used phrases to make your tags even more potent.

Here’s a (partial) list of literary-related hashtags that authors may find useful: #amwriting;  #AmazonCart;  #eBook;  #Books;  #Reading; #Nook;  #ePub;  #Amazon;  #AmazonKindle;  #KindleUnlimited;  #IndieWriterSupp;  #Askagent;  #indiebooksbeseen;  #WeNeedDiverseBooks;  #Fridayreads;  #writingprompt. Hashtags can also be names of relevant places, authors, topics in your book/post, or a blog hop, etc. Using hashtags will group your posts together with others and are usually the more often searched terms.

If you use hashtags on Facebook posts you will make a clickable link that will pull up all recent posts with that hashtag, a common theme that your reading audience is interested in and will help them to find you better. Hashtags do not recognize spaces or punctuation marks, only letters and numbers (NO spaces). Hashtags have little to no value in spoken language despite many recent comedy sketches. Separate hashtags with at least one space. Don’t hashtag full sentences or overly long phrases. And please do NOT hashtag every word in your post.

The principle is the same for blog posts without the use of the hashtag symbol. Some blog sites call the key words LABELS and each label should be separated by a comma; you can use spaces between words in short phrases. Again, use only terms relevant to your content. There are space and word count limitations, but you can and should use several labels per post.

Writing Exercise: Write a short 3 to 4 paragraph blog post about any subject. Using a different color pen or pencil, circle key words and terms that appear in your post until you have 10 to 20 relevant labels.

Writing Prompt: Write 1 to 2 relevant hashtags for each of the following: your academic career; your love life; the last meal you ate; the person you spend the most time with; a nightmare you once had.

Challenge Assignment: Go to Twitter and choose 3 to 5 Trending Topics. Write a paragraph for EACH trending topic — then write an up-to 140-character Tweet which includes the hashtag of that topic.