I've done a lot of posts filled with advice. Some of them are rather old. Most were written after I noticed trends from a contest. All are completely buried and hard to find unless you use the editing label. But all are still relevant.
So I thought I'd repeat this general list of the different blurbs on writing and querying advice.
I highly recommend the posts on filtering and hyphens. Also the post on punctuation for a tag or beat. Those are problems I see on entries every year.
I hope these are helpful!
General Advice:
Quick twitter advice
Reading in your Genre
List of SFF subgenres
Subjectivity of the First 250 Words
Editing/Writing Advice:
Writing in Layers
Be Aware of Creating Reader Expectations
Comma Mistakes
Making Characters Likable
Character Motivation
Tips for Writing a Strong Fantasy
Ellipses and Em Dashes
Compound Adjectives- hyphens
Types of Conflict
Avoid Filtering
Throwing Crutch Words in the Trash
The Difference Between a Tag and a Beat
Qualifiers Weaken Your Sentences
Plugging Plot Holes
Editing Tips for the Big Picture
Weak Writing-Gerunds
Query Advice:
Nix the Rhetorical Questions
Frequent Query Mistakes
Creating a Super Query
Vague Plot in a Query
Building Blocks of a Query Letter
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Building Blocks of a Query Letter
With Query Kombat coming soon, I thought I'd take a quick run at writing query letters. For those who don't know Query Kombat is a battle-style contest where 64 query letters and the accompanying first 250 words go head-to-head against each other until only one is left. It's not a contest for the faint of heart. You're faced with a lot of feedback from ten to twelve critical judges, and that's just the start to get to the agent round. Half of all writers in each round will see the votes go against them and lose. But the reward is a huge variety of opinions from experienced writers.
To win you're going to need a well-crafted query letter. But what does that look like?
No successful queries are going to be alike, but there is a formula you can follow--just like if you're baking a cake--to get you started. I call it the basic building blocks.
The "meat" of a query, or the part that details the story, is usually three paragraphs long. (Some cut that to two, but I like three to make sure everything is covered.) Each paragraph should have a specific function and goal. Keep in mind that the details of every query letter will be different, but the basic buildings blocks are all going to be similar. These are the parts agents look for. The parts that show you have all the aspects of a story and nothing is missing from your writing. It will look something like this:
The "first" paragraph of your query is the basic setup. Note: I call it the first paragraph here for simplicity, but it may be the second or third, depending on where you place it. Some writers choose to put a paragraph about comps, their bio, and genre ahead of this paragraph. It's really subjective to decide what goes where and probably isn't that important. Some prefer to start with the meat of their story and others prefer to ease into it by putting general information first. (If you have something really striking in your bio like solid publishing credits or are ownvoices, I suggest going with that first.)
So the setup paragraph. Here, you're setting up the basic personality of your main character and giving a sketchy version of the world (whether that's set in our world or an imaginary world, the past or the present or even the future). A key component of this paragraph is motivation. What does your character want at the beginning of the story? The setup can be two or three sentences, made up of details about your character that shows their personality and what they want. Then the last component of this paragraph (probably where you should end it) is the obstacle. What (or who) happens to either (a) block the main character from their motivation or that (b) changes their motivation.
To sum it up, the first paragraph of the "meat" of your story should set up the main character and setting, provide the character motivation, and introduce the obstacle. Note: If you're writing a dual POV story (commonly romance), you'll write two of these setup paragraphs. One for each main character.
My Pitchwars mentee from 2017 has agreed to share his query letter as an example. Here is the first paragraph of Ian Barnes' successful query. Notice it has every building block mentioned above.
Next is the middle paragraph. This paragraph can be the most difficult to nail down because there are fewer rules for the middle paragraph. There's a variety of things that can go into this paragraph, but I'm going to stick with the building blocks first. You've just introduced the obstacle, now you get to expand on that obstacle and give us more details. Basically show us how bad the situation is, and also how does the main character react. Their emotional and actual plot response to the obstacle. By providing their response you highlight their character arc and personality and thus give the reader more ways to identify with the main character. Another component to this paragraph for some stories is to introduce the love interest character or other major character that helps the MC along (often needed for middle grade).
The last component to the middle paragraph is somewhat optional, meaning it can go here or in the third paragraph. Agents will want to see how the story escalates. What comes up to make the situation worse? The problems deeper? The situation more dire? The main character more fragile? This is extremely important because it shows your story has depth and the status quo changes before reaching a conclusion. It's probably the most often forgotten component of a query. And a good place to include it is right at the end of the middle paragraph.
A sum up of the middle paragraph is expand on the obstacle, how does the MC attempt to fight it, who helps them, how does it get worse?
Here is that paragraph from Ian's query:
And we've reached the third and final "meat" paragraph. The place in a query letter where things most often go wrong, sometimes because a writer fears giving away too much. Everyone says this is the stakes paragraph. But that's not the whole story. Or where you want the query to end. I think this last paragraph should be about the choice facing the main character. What choice you might ask. Let's dig in.
Often the third paragraph will begin by shedding light on more escalation of plot and expand on intensifying the situation. It's about putting the main character in the most painful place possible and showing them at their most desperate. That's step one. Then it should move into the stakes: what happens if the main character fails? What bad thing is going to happen? The stakes can be entirely personal to the character or may involve a group of people, or go bigger and affect the entire world for an epic fantasy. The size of the stakes depends entirely on your story line and your genre. Just be sure to include them.
Sometimes writers will end the query there. But a stronger query goes a step further. It will take in the choice facing the main character. That's what the whole story pivots upon. The choice is the hinge that decides success or failure. Whether the MC falls or is uplifted. An example might make this easier to follow. Remember Galadriel from The Lord of the Rings: her choice is the place where she decides whether to (a) take the ring from Frodo and seize power or (b) reject the temptation and remain herself.
A lot of writers fear to include this information because they believe it is giving away the ending. Here's the key: you don't want to conceal the options of the choice (the a or b), you want to conceal how the main character decides. So a query about Galadriel would end with does she grab the power to stop the dark lord or stay true to herself and find another way. But it wouldn't tell us which option she picks.
There are all kinds of choices a main character will face. As many different choices as there are stories. Sometimes the main character must decide whether they will fight or lay down and die. Like the stakes, the choice may be small or large. Here in Ian's query, it's a choice between putting aside hatred and the past in order to work with old foes. The last sentence provides the choice and the stakes and sums everything up nicely.
I've always enjoyed writing and shaping queries, and if you think of them as a recipe or a formula, it becomes much easier. I also like to tackle queries in different passes or layers that focus on separate aspects of building a successful query. First draft of a query, for example, might nail down the story, character, and plot. Get that straight and then do more passes to add voice and personality. Final passes will help you to upgrade to more active verbs and more interesting word choices. Practicing writing flash fiction is a great way to build your query skills because flash fiction requires some of the same expertise. And remember to get people to read over your query. The Query Kombat forum is a great place to find readers.
I 'll leave you with another successful query from Jason Hines, another Pitchwars 2017 mentee. I think you'll find he hit all the building blocks. Happy query writing!
To win you're going to need a well-crafted query letter. But what does that look like?
No successful queries are going to be alike, but there is a formula you can follow--just like if you're baking a cake--to get you started. I call it the basic building blocks.
The "meat" of a query, or the part that details the story, is usually three paragraphs long. (Some cut that to two, but I like three to make sure everything is covered.) Each paragraph should have a specific function and goal. Keep in mind that the details of every query letter will be different, but the basic buildings blocks are all going to be similar. These are the parts agents look for. The parts that show you have all the aspects of a story and nothing is missing from your writing. It will look something like this:
The "first" paragraph of your query is the basic setup. Note: I call it the first paragraph here for simplicity, but it may be the second or third, depending on where you place it. Some writers choose to put a paragraph about comps, their bio, and genre ahead of this paragraph. It's really subjective to decide what goes where and probably isn't that important. Some prefer to start with the meat of their story and others prefer to ease into it by putting general information first. (If you have something really striking in your bio like solid publishing credits or are ownvoices, I suggest going with that first.)
So the setup paragraph. Here, you're setting up the basic personality of your main character and giving a sketchy version of the world (whether that's set in our world or an imaginary world, the past or the present or even the future). A key component of this paragraph is motivation. What does your character want at the beginning of the story? The setup can be two or three sentences, made up of details about your character that shows their personality and what they want. Then the last component of this paragraph (probably where you should end it) is the obstacle. What (or who) happens to either (a) block the main character from their motivation or that (b) changes their motivation.
To sum it up, the first paragraph of the "meat" of your story should set up the main character and setting, provide the character motivation, and introduce the obstacle. Note: If you're writing a dual POV story (commonly romance), you'll write two of these setup paragraphs. One for each main character.
My Pitchwars mentee from 2017 has agreed to share his query letter as an example. Here is the first paragraph of Ian Barnes' successful query. Notice it has every building block mentioned above.
Forty years ago, Kastien slew a
god. He lashed out in rage and grief with a sharpened hunk of fulgurite,
piercing Divine flesh and proving humanity’s bastard overlords could die. Together
with his wife, Val, he freed half the continent using the fulgurite’s power to
walk through walls and defy gravity. The new Commonwealth hailed Kastien as
Godbreaker, but now the only title he gives a damn about is Husband. His knees
ache every Void-damned time it rains, and he longs to retire with Val. But when
a plague sweeps the nation, boiling blood and burning eyes to ash, protecting
the home they forged means embracing the violent legacy he’s tried to bury.
Next is the middle paragraph. This paragraph can be the most difficult to nail down because there are fewer rules for the middle paragraph. There's a variety of things that can go into this paragraph, but I'm going to stick with the building blocks first. You've just introduced the obstacle, now you get to expand on that obstacle and give us more details. Basically show us how bad the situation is, and also how does the main character react. Their emotional and actual plot response to the obstacle. By providing their response you highlight their character arc and personality and thus give the reader more ways to identify with the main character. Another component to this paragraph for some stories is to introduce the love interest character or other major character that helps the MC along (often needed for middle grade).
The last component to the middle paragraph is somewhat optional, meaning it can go here or in the third paragraph. Agents will want to see how the story escalates. What comes up to make the situation worse? The problems deeper? The situation more dire? The main character more fragile? This is extremely important because it shows your story has depth and the status quo changes before reaching a conclusion. It's probably the most often forgotten component of a query. And a good place to include it is right at the end of the middle paragraph.
A sum up of the middle paragraph is expand on the obstacle, how does the MC attempt to fight it, who helps them, how does it get worse?
Here is that paragraph from Ian's query:
As traditional cures fail, the Commonwealth’s leaders
suspect this disease isn’t a pathogen but a weapon—one unleashed by the Divines.
Now, husband and wife must return to the birthplace they did their best to burn
to the ground, risking a second war to attempt the impossible: abduct a god and
force them to produce a cure. The catch: Kastien and Val will need all their powers,
but overusing the fulgurite’s unstable magic will turn them to stone.
And we've reached the third and final "meat" paragraph. The place in a query letter where things most often go wrong, sometimes because a writer fears giving away too much. Everyone says this is the stakes paragraph. But that's not the whole story. Or where you want the query to end. I think this last paragraph should be about the choice facing the main character. What choice you might ask. Let's dig in.
Often the third paragraph will begin by shedding light on more escalation of plot and expand on intensifying the situation. It's about putting the main character in the most painful place possible and showing them at their most desperate. That's step one. Then it should move into the stakes: what happens if the main character fails? What bad thing is going to happen? The stakes can be entirely personal to the character or may involve a group of people, or go bigger and affect the entire world for an epic fantasy. The size of the stakes depends entirely on your story line and your genre. Just be sure to include them.
Sometimes writers will end the query there. But a stronger query goes a step further. It will take in the choice facing the main character. That's what the whole story pivots upon. The choice is the hinge that decides success or failure. Whether the MC falls or is uplifted. An example might make this easier to follow. Remember Galadriel from The Lord of the Rings: her choice is the place where she decides whether to (a) take the ring from Frodo and seize power or (b) reject the temptation and remain herself.
A lot of writers fear to include this information because they believe it is giving away the ending. Here's the key: you don't want to conceal the options of the choice (the a or b), you want to conceal how the main character decides. So a query about Galadriel would end with does she grab the power to stop the dark lord or stay true to herself and find another way. But it wouldn't tell us which option she picks.
There are all kinds of choices a main character will face. As many different choices as there are stories. Sometimes the main character must decide whether they will fight or lay down and die. Like the stakes, the choice may be small or large. Here in Ian's query, it's a choice between putting aside hatred and the past in order to work with old foes. The last sentence provides the choice and the stakes and sums everything up nicely.
Their plan goes to the Void when they discover plague ravaging
the gods’ cities, weaponizing the infected against their Divine masters. Worse,
the gods combating the sickness are being hunted and murdered in manners
reminiscent of Kastien’s kills during the war. To stop this mysterious new
godbreaker and obtain a cure, Kastien must set hatred aside and protect the
last Divine healer. If he can’t quiet the old rage and find space for trust,
Val and everything they’ve spent their lives building will fall to dust and
shadow.
I've always enjoyed writing and shaping queries, and if you think of them as a recipe or a formula, it becomes much easier. I also like to tackle queries in different passes or layers that focus on separate aspects of building a successful query. First draft of a query, for example, might nail down the story, character, and plot. Get that straight and then do more passes to add voice and personality. Final passes will help you to upgrade to more active verbs and more interesting word choices. Practicing writing flash fiction is a great way to build your query skills because flash fiction requires some of the same expertise. And remember to get people to read over your query. The Query Kombat forum is a great place to find readers.
I 'll leave you with another successful query from Jason Hines, another Pitchwars 2017 mentee. I think you'll find he hit all the building blocks. Happy query writing!
Not even the devil himself wants Wayne’s soul. Wayne is a curse magnet, a hexjammer. World-class jinxes stick to him like wet dog shit to the sole of a boot, screwing up his life instead of their intended target. Because of these sorcerous lumps of joy, he’s spent the past three hundred years avoiding entanglements with humans and the extranatural—mostly. His daughter Jenna, stuck in a coma because of his curses, is the one relationship he can’t cut loose. Then out of the clear Arizona sky comes the Brighteyes, Heaven’s own wetworks pro. It hires Wayne to kill a witch and offers him a miracle to do the deed.
Miracles aren’t something angels pass out like candy—or if they do, it’s the flavor of candy sweaty guys offer to children from the back of an unmarked white van. But Wayne can’t say no with Jenna lying in a hospital bed. What’s the life of one Las Vegas witch compared to his daughter? Except the witch, Fionna, reminds Wayne a whole lot of Jenna, and bears a cursed tattoo that will latch on to Wayne if she dies. Complications are a bitch.
Fionna’s tattoo is a gateway for nightmare creatures to visit their wrath on earth and her curse is popping out evil like a Kardashian fresh out of birth control. Naturally, the demon overlord of Vegas wants to claim Fionna for himself. With the Brighteyes breathing down his neck, Wayne seeks help from a holy-blade wielding Sikh and a failed Korean demon-turned-arms dealer. They have two days in Sin City to send Fionna’s nightmare ink back where it belongs before it’s lights out on the Strip, and the world. But dispatching Fionna’s curse means no miracle for Jenna. Wayne must weigh risking his world and betraying his conscience against saving his daughter.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Weak Writing- Gerunds
There are all kinds of things to avoid in writing that weakens the power of your words. Many of them I've already posted about such as crutch words, filtering, passive writing, boring verbs. But there's another indicator of weak writing that isn't as well known--gerunds.
So gerunds. What's that? The easy answer is -ing verbs used as some form of noun whether that be the subject, direct object, or objects of a predicate. Many writers lump all forms of -ing verbs together and try to avoid all of them. That can lead to some awkward or weird sentences. It's like saying never use adjectives or adverbs. Ridiculous. You can't writing a story without certain words. Just don't try.
What's more important is to be aware of your word choices and make sure they are used for a reason. There are some gerunds to be avoided. And others that are less harmful.
(Please note that I'm no English major. Grammar isn't my strong suit. I'll do my best to get the terms right. )
When gerunds come up in writing discussions, it's usually paired with to-be verbs. What we used to call helping verbs. Like so:
Suzie is flying to the post office.
James was sweating up a storm before his speech.
Helen and Jake are shopping for my present.
And it's usually considered weak writing because you're using extra words and the sentence feels less active written this way. That's easy to fix.
Suzie flew to the post office.
James' armpits poured with sweat as he waited to give his speech.
Helen and Jake drove off to shop for my present.
Another form of a gerund is when it's used as the subject of a sentence.
Reading is my favorite leisure activity.
Swimming is a low impact exercise.
Eavesdropping is a nasty habit.
My opinion is that these types of sentence in your writing are usual rare enough to be ignored and left as is. It's not likely that using -ing verbs as a subject will be overused in a story or that your pages will be full of this type of sentence. Try and avoid having too many of them and then don't worry about this form of gerund.
Next up is the another form of -ing--the participle phrase. These are often used in action sentences to create a flow of movement. When you have a lot of such action sentences in a row, participle phrases can be useful to give a different sentence structure from conjunctions alone. But beware of placing them at the beginning of your sentences.
Santa's sleigh flew through the night sky, stars blurring with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, tumbling off the vehicle.
Arms and legs churning, he plummeted through the air.
There are easy to rewrite to be more direct also.
Santa's sleigh flew through the night ski, and stars blurred with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, but he tumbled off the vehicle.
His arms and legs churned as he plummeted through the air.
The trouble with getting rid of all participle phrases is that your sentences begin to get a cadence and all sound alike. Especially the longer the action continues. You simply have to mix things up and use some -ing phrases, if just for variance.
So how do you get a good mix? That's where reading great writers in your genre comes in. After careful observation I've noticed that writers often use participle phrases in the middle of or end of their sentence. But rarely do strong authors use participle phrases at the beginning of their sentences. If you want to banish more -ing from your sentences, this is the one to eliminate. So a better mix might look more like this:
Santa's sleigh flew through the night ski, stars blurring with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, but he tumbled off the vehicle.
His arms and legs churned as he plummeted through the air.
To repeat myself, No More sentences like:
Dancing in time to the music, Rudolph clicked his hooves.
Jumping for joy, Sally tore into her presents.
Using the Bumble for a trampoline, Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss on Mrs. Claus.
They just don't flow.These types of sentences stick out. Pile too many together and they'll tire the reader. I suggested my Pitchwars mentees limit themselves to one sentence with this structure to a chapter, and I hinted that zero is the better choice. Whenever I see books with many of these participle phrases sentences I have to wonder about their copy editor.
Here's some other ways they could have been phrased:
Rudolph danced in time to the music, clicking his heels.
Rudolph danced in time to the music and clicked his heels.
Sally jumped for joy as she tore into her presents.
With the Bumble for a trampoline, Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss at Mrs. Claus.
Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss at Mrs Claus from his Bumble trampoline.
Yukon Cornelius bounced off his Bumble trampoline and launched a kiss at Mrs. Claus.
That's my take on gerunds and I hope you found something useful in my rambling.
So gerunds. What's that? The easy answer is -ing verbs used as some form of noun whether that be the subject, direct object, or objects of a predicate. Many writers lump all forms of -ing verbs together and try to avoid all of them. That can lead to some awkward or weird sentences. It's like saying never use adjectives or adverbs. Ridiculous. You can't writing a story without certain words. Just don't try.
What's more important is to be aware of your word choices and make sure they are used for a reason. There are some gerunds to be avoided. And others that are less harmful.
(Please note that I'm no English major. Grammar isn't my strong suit. I'll do my best to get the terms right. )
When gerunds come up in writing discussions, it's usually paired with to-be verbs. What we used to call helping verbs. Like so:
Suzie is flying to the post office.
James was sweating up a storm before his speech.
Helen and Jake are shopping for my present.
And it's usually considered weak writing because you're using extra words and the sentence feels less active written this way. That's easy to fix.
Suzie flew to the post office.
James' armpits poured with sweat as he waited to give his speech.
Helen and Jake drove off to shop for my present.
Another form of a gerund is when it's used as the subject of a sentence.
Reading is my favorite leisure activity.
Swimming is a low impact exercise.
Eavesdropping is a nasty habit.
My opinion is that these types of sentence in your writing are usual rare enough to be ignored and left as is. It's not likely that using -ing verbs as a subject will be overused in a story or that your pages will be full of this type of sentence. Try and avoid having too many of them and then don't worry about this form of gerund.
Next up is the another form of -ing--the participle phrase. These are often used in action sentences to create a flow of movement. When you have a lot of such action sentences in a row, participle phrases can be useful to give a different sentence structure from conjunctions alone. But beware of placing them at the beginning of your sentences.
Santa's sleigh flew through the night sky, stars blurring with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, tumbling off the vehicle.
Arms and legs churning, he plummeted through the air.
There are easy to rewrite to be more direct also.
Santa's sleigh flew through the night ski, and stars blurred with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, but he tumbled off the vehicle.
His arms and legs churned as he plummeted through the air.
The trouble with getting rid of all participle phrases is that your sentences begin to get a cadence and all sound alike. Especially the longer the action continues. You simply have to mix things up and use some -ing phrases, if just for variance.
So how do you get a good mix? That's where reading great writers in your genre comes in. After careful observation I've noticed that writers often use participle phrases in the middle of or end of their sentence. But rarely do strong authors use participle phrases at the beginning of their sentences. If you want to banish more -ing from your sentences, this is the one to eliminate. So a better mix might look more like this:
Santa's sleigh flew through the night ski, stars blurring with its passage.
Binki the elf grabbed for the safety rail, but he tumbled off the vehicle.
His arms and legs churned as he plummeted through the air.
To repeat myself, No More sentences like:
Dancing in time to the music, Rudolph clicked his hooves.
Jumping for joy, Sally tore into her presents.
Using the Bumble for a trampoline, Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss on Mrs. Claus.
They just don't flow.These types of sentences stick out. Pile too many together and they'll tire the reader. I suggested my Pitchwars mentees limit themselves to one sentence with this structure to a chapter, and I hinted that zero is the better choice. Whenever I see books with many of these participle phrases sentences I have to wonder about their copy editor.
Here's some other ways they could have been phrased:
Rudolph danced in time to the music, clicking his heels.
Rudolph danced in time to the music and clicked his heels.
Sally jumped for joy as she tore into her presents.
With the Bumble for a trampoline, Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss at Mrs. Claus.
Yukon Cornelius launched a kiss at Mrs Claus from his Bumble trampoline.
Yukon Cornelius bounced off his Bumble trampoline and launched a kiss at Mrs. Claus.
That's my take on gerunds and I hope you found something useful in my rambling.
Monday, November 27, 2017
When to Sequel
I feel like I've written about this before, but I'm still hearing questions about when is the right time to write a sequel. You've finished a book you love, got it as perfect as possible, and have started querying it. Do you start on something totally new or head directly into writing book two? There's the simple answer and the more complex answer.
The simple answer is absolutely not. Start something totally new. It's time to leave those dearly loved characters behind and move on to something different. Why? Because an author only has so much time in a day. Even the fastest writer can only produce so many quality manuscripts in a year. Don't waste your time working on the second part of a story line that may go nowhere. That's the harsh truth.
Sadly, if the plot and characters weren't right for the market in the first book, it's unlikely to fit better in the second book. Now you are in the no man's land of your first book has played out with agents and you have nothing new written to send out to them. That puts you out of looking for an agent for a good six months. Not a great situation to put yourself in.
If you can't move forward because your brain and heart are hooked on your old characters, then do a short blurb about a sequel. Write a quick outline of your ideas. Something that won't take much time. Maybe write a couple of chapters. But then it's time to pull up your big girl pants, find your discipline, and move on to something else while you let querying play out.
It's possible that querying will be successful. You'll land an agent who loves your story as much as you do. So start that sequel with an offer in hand?
Nope. Do not go there. Keep finishing the something different you should have started. Why? Because a fair percentage of first books on submission do not sell. And then once again, you've wasted a writer's most valuable resource--your time--working on something that's not going anywhere. Now you have nothing new to send your agent if wonderful book doesn't sell, except a sequel to wonderful book that they can't use.
If book 1 doesn't sell, it's pretty damn likely publishing isn't going to jump ahead to buy book 2. I mean it can happen, but it isn't likely.
I say again. Start something new. Start something new. Start something new. Until you have a sale and the publisher is open to giving you sequels.
So now the complex answer. There are a few exceptions to the just say no approach.
1. You plan to self publish. Totally acceptable to query a story you love and have no luck, but decide to self publish. Or don't query at all and just go straight to self publishing. There are pluses and minuses to either path you choose. Traditional publishing has some advantages and shortfalls and the same with self publishing. This is not the post to discuss those, but if that's the path you want, then write those sequels.
2. Your heart is stuck. You just can't move onward to something new. You have no other ideas of what to write. It's either write these sequels or face writer's block forever. Then just write a sequel to get it out of your system.
3. The sequel is 100% better than the book you finished and should have been book 1 in the first place. I've heard this a few times. People start in the wrong place with their story. Sometimes they start in the wrong place with an entire book. If you say but book 2 is where all the action starts, then why did you start with book 1? Perhaps you started with what should have been backstory for the real opening book. Warning: this is going to be incredibly hard to judge because you are likely way too close to the situation. But it can happen.
So there are my thoughts on when to write a sequel. It's not always the happy answer but it's the answer that is the most logical.
How do you feel about the matter? Feel free to set me straight in the comments.
The simple answer is absolutely not. Start something totally new. It's time to leave those dearly loved characters behind and move on to something different. Why? Because an author only has so much time in a day. Even the fastest writer can only produce so many quality manuscripts in a year. Don't waste your time working on the second part of a story line that may go nowhere. That's the harsh truth.
Sadly, if the plot and characters weren't right for the market in the first book, it's unlikely to fit better in the second book. Now you are in the no man's land of your first book has played out with agents and you have nothing new written to send out to them. That puts you out of looking for an agent for a good six months. Not a great situation to put yourself in.
If you can't move forward because your brain and heart are hooked on your old characters, then do a short blurb about a sequel. Write a quick outline of your ideas. Something that won't take much time. Maybe write a couple of chapters. But then it's time to pull up your big girl pants, find your discipline, and move on to something else while you let querying play out.
It's possible that querying will be successful. You'll land an agent who loves your story as much as you do. So start that sequel with an offer in hand?
Nope. Do not go there. Keep finishing the something different you should have started. Why? Because a fair percentage of first books on submission do not sell. And then once again, you've wasted a writer's most valuable resource--your time--working on something that's not going anywhere. Now you have nothing new to send your agent if wonderful book doesn't sell, except a sequel to wonderful book that they can't use.
If book 1 doesn't sell, it's pretty damn likely publishing isn't going to jump ahead to buy book 2. I mean it can happen, but it isn't likely.
I say again. Start something new. Start something new. Start something new. Until you have a sale and the publisher is open to giving you sequels.
So now the complex answer. There are a few exceptions to the just say no approach.
1. You plan to self publish. Totally acceptable to query a story you love and have no luck, but decide to self publish. Or don't query at all and just go straight to self publishing. There are pluses and minuses to either path you choose. Traditional publishing has some advantages and shortfalls and the same with self publishing. This is not the post to discuss those, but if that's the path you want, then write those sequels.
2. Your heart is stuck. You just can't move onward to something new. You have no other ideas of what to write. It's either write these sequels or face writer's block forever. Then just write a sequel to get it out of your system.
3. The sequel is 100% better than the book you finished and should have been book 1 in the first place. I've heard this a few times. People start in the wrong place with their story. Sometimes they start in the wrong place with an entire book. If you say but book 2 is where all the action starts, then why did you start with book 1? Perhaps you started with what should have been backstory for the real opening book. Warning: this is going to be incredibly hard to judge because you are likely way too close to the situation. But it can happen.
So there are my thoughts on when to write a sequel. It's not always the happy answer but it's the answer that is the most logical.
How do you feel about the matter? Feel free to set me straight in the comments.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Roundup of Posts with Writing/Editing/Querying Advice
I've done a lot of posts filled with advice. Some of them are rather old. Most were written after I noticed trends from a contest. All are completely buried and hard to find unless you use the editing label. But all are still relevant.
So I thought I'd make a general list of the different blurbs on writing and querying advice.
I highly recommend the posts on filtering and hyphens. Also the post on punctuation for a tag or beat. Those are problems I see on entries every year.
I hope these are helpful!
General Advice:
Quick twitter advice
Reading in your Genre
List of SFF subgenres
Subjectivity of the First 250 Words
Editing/Writing Advice:
Writing in Layers
Be Aware of Creating Reader Expectations
Comma Mistakes
Making Characters Likable
Character Motivation
Tips for Writing a Strong Fantasy
Ellipses and Em Dashes
Compound Adjectives- hyphens
Types of Conflict
Avoid Filtering
Throwing Crutch Words in the Trash
The Difference Between a Tag and a Beat
Qualifiers Weaken Your Sentences
Plugging Plot Holes
Editing Tips for the Big Picture
Weak Writing-Gerunds
Query Advice:
Nix the Rhetorical Questions
Frequent Query Mistakes
Creating a Super Query
Vague Plot in a Query
My blog also has close to 80 interviews with literary agents (you can also find them in the blog sidebar.) old and new and a host of Getting the Call stories meant to inspire and inform about querying.
So I thought I'd make a general list of the different blurbs on writing and querying advice.
I highly recommend the posts on filtering and hyphens. Also the post on punctuation for a tag or beat. Those are problems I see on entries every year.
I hope these are helpful!
General Advice:
Quick twitter advice
Reading in your Genre
List of SFF subgenres
Subjectivity of the First 250 Words
Editing/Writing Advice:
Writing in Layers
Be Aware of Creating Reader Expectations
Comma Mistakes
Making Characters Likable
Character Motivation
Tips for Writing a Strong Fantasy
Ellipses and Em Dashes
Compound Adjectives- hyphens
Types of Conflict
Avoid Filtering
Throwing Crutch Words in the Trash
The Difference Between a Tag and a Beat
Qualifiers Weaken Your Sentences
Plugging Plot Holes
Editing Tips for the Big Picture
Weak Writing-Gerunds
Query Advice:
Nix the Rhetorical Questions
Frequent Query Mistakes
Creating a Super Query
Vague Plot in a Query
My blog also has close to 80 interviews with literary agents (you can also find them in the blog sidebar.) old and new and a host of Getting the Call stories meant to inspire and inform about querying.
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Starting a Novel Using Short Stories from Katrina Carrasco
Starting to write a novel can seem daunting. How to get from
0 words to 100,000? Every time I begin a new book, it feels like I’m staring up
the side of a mountain, wondering how I’m going to survive the long, long
climb. I imagine that, in my metaphorical rucksack, all I have is my love for
writing, a few ideas for the story, and an interesting character or two.
Sometimes that doesn’t seem like much -- but it’s got to be enough to get me
going.
As I’ve become more comfortable with my own novel-writing
process, I’ve discovered a few ways to give myself a head-start. (Think:
beginning a hike at a 2,000-meter base camp rather than at sea level.) One of
my favorite ways to world-build a book is to write short stories. Whether a
story spends time with a character or explores my setting, it brings me into
the world of my novel and asks me to think about that world in a different way.
I stumbled upon this process through trial and error. About
eight years ago, when I started the draft that would eventually become my first
completed novel, I envisioned the book as a family saga. So I wrote 50k about
one generation, then 50k about the next (somewhere around here a family curse
got thrown in, naturally), and then 50k about the next … only to discover that
the great-granddaughter (who appeared in generation No. 3) was actually the
character I wanted to write the book about. So then I wrote the actual novel
about her. In essence, I’d done 150k of prewriting. Ouch!, I thought at the time. What
a waste! Of course, as most authors will tell you, no writing is a waste,
especially with early books. Those were hours logged that served to hone my
craft and help me find the real story I wanted to tell. Plus, I had a rich
family history written out that I used to bring depth and complexity to my protagonist’s
story.
That manuscript is shelved now, always special to me because
it was my first completed book. It wasn’t until my third completed manuscript
that I had a novel strong enough to capture interest from my agent and my
editor. By then, I’d figured out that writing a whole other novel was not the most efficient
word-building exercise, and I’d reined that in to the technique I’m sharing
here: world-building through short stories.
What this looks like is completely flexible, depending upon
your needs and your style. I find it most helpful to write a world-building
short story (WBSS) either about a character or the setting. A WBSS can be a
piece of flash-fiction or a fleshed-out, 5,000-word narrative. I like long-form
pieces (yes, I’m a novelist at heart), so I’m usually comfortable with
5,000-word WBSSs. But it can also be a useful challenge to myself as a writer
to build a story in 2,000 words or less. Go with what works best for you!
Stories About Characters
When writing a WBSS about a character, consider choosing one
of your secondary (or even tertiary) characters. This will help you avoid the
trap of flat, unremarkable supporting characters. Consider a book that has a
crime boss as a secondary character, and this crime boss has henchmen (tertiary
characters). You could have one of her men be a Large, Slow Henchman and not
much else. But what if you wrote a story about him, and along the way
discovered something about his family; what drove him to violent, underpaid
work; what his favorite smell is, and his least-favorite part of his body? Now
when he appears in scenes as you draft your novel, he will have tics and unique
reactions to situations and a history with roots that extend far off the page.
Another benefit of choosing a secondary or tertiary
character is that they will likely have a totally different personal and
situational POV than your main character. Take L.S. Henchman again, and
consider what parts of your book world he would know and see versus those your
main character (say, a middle-class professor) knows and sees. When you explore
your book world through L.S. Henchman’s eyes, you’re making it richer by
default by using such a different lens -- and you can draw upon that richness
when drafting the novel itself.
Stories About Setting
When writing a WBSS about your setting, consider it an
opportunity to do research. Look for anecdotes or information you might not
otherwise have woven into your story. This is a great way to come across other
(real) stories that might spark episodes or events in your book. For historical
novels, looking into a town’s past might bring you to old newspaper articles
about disappearances, celebrations, or conflicts that you can incorporate into
your own story. For contemporary novels, reading up on the politics or
residents of an area can give you a deeper understanding of your setting in the
context of the larger world. (Note: Researching may not be applicable to
certain genres, like fantasy or some SpecFic. In cases where there is no
research possible, try using WBSSs to set and explore world rules or other
things you must create, like topography, language, or social norms.)
Benefits of This Method
On top of the world-building benefits, there are other
reasons to write WBSSs. Depending on how much you care to polish a certain
piece -- and how well it stands on its own -- you may want to submit it to
magazines or websites for publication. I strongly encourage you to submit short
fiction to these outlets. Why? 1) It’s practice for pitching your work. 2) It
helps you get accustomed to rejection (a fact of life in the writing world). 3)
It helps you get accustomed to acceptance (celebrate your successes!). 4) Publishing
short fiction will start building your reader base. 5) Publishing short fiction
will build your creative resume/portfolio.
Another benefit of writing WBSSs is that they are relatively
low-commitment. Say you have an idea for a book, but you’re not sure if it’s
enough to charge ahead with and pour countless hours into. (Think back to the
mountain I mentioned, and being intimidated by the sheer scale of starting a
novel from a blank page.) If you write a WBSS, you’re only committing to a
short story. Some of the pressure -- and some of the fear -- is taken away when
you think in increments of 5,000 words, rather than 100,000. And if you
complete the story and love it, you’ll have 5,000 words of material to draw
from for your book draft.
I hope this post inspires you to try the WBSS method. Have
you tried writing short stories as a world-building technique before? What
other world-building methods work for you when you’re starting a new novel?
Katrina Carrasco is a queer Latinx writer, born and raised
in Southern California and now living in Seattle. In her novels and short
stories she explores the ideas of passing, performance, and belonging: what is
gained and what is lost by conforming to societal expectations of gender, race,
class and sexuality. Her short fiction has appeared in Witness Magazine, Post Road
Magazine, Quaint Magazine, and other journals. Her debut novel, CIPHER, will
be released in Fall 2018 by MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. CIPHER follows Alma
Rosales, a queer woman and ex-Pinkerton detective, as she switches between
female and male disguises to investigate an opium-smuggling ring.
Website: katrinacarrasco.com
Twitter: @katrinacarrasco
Blog: kmcarrasco.blogspot.com
Goodreads Page for CIPHER: goodreads.com/book/show/34041372-cipher
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Guest Post from Sandi Ward on Creating an Unconventional Narrator
Using an
Unconventional Narrator to Tell A One-Of-A-Kind Story
Choosing a point of view (POV) for your novel may come
naturally to you, rather than being a conscious choice. I imagine most authors
simply start thinking of a story either from inside a character’s head (“I started to shake as the vampire
opened his eyes…”), or they see it from outside
(“The vampire’s eyes clicked open, and Jeremy shuddered”). A story organically
grows from this key decision, which must be one of the very first choices a
writer makes as a story idea unfolds.
Writing in first
person
I always write from a first person point of view, because I
like to get very close with my protagonist. I need to know everything about the
character—her thoughts, feelings, background, friends and family—in order to have
her tell a compelling story. First person allows me to totally inhabit a
character. It’s an intimate form of story-telling, one where you are getting a
specific viewpoint.
Voice
Once you’ve decided on first person, it’s important to think
about voice. Rather than being
omniscient, a first-person narrative demands an opinionated point of view and a
unique way of thinking. Your character’s background and experiences means that
she will make judgments and choices that reflect her own POV, not that of the
author. Her family, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education and other
factors influence who she is.
Unexpected voices: 3
examples
Sometimes, an author takes a leap and sees the world from
inside the head of a character you might not expect to tell such a tale, with
fantastic results. For example, the classic The
Boy in the Striped Pajamas tells a story of the Holocaust—from the point of
view of a young boy in a Nazi family. The reader only slowly learns the truth
of what’s happening in the story, and the reader has a better understanding of
the big picture than the young boy ever does. It’s a truly unique read.
Another example is The
Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. This story is
told from the POV of an autistic teenager who wants to solve a mystery: who
murdered his neighbor’s dog? As a reader, we marvel at the main character’s
observations and quirks (including numbering the chapters with only prime
numbers), chuckle empathetically at his misunderstandings (although we are able
to see what he missed), and ultimately feel his pain at the changes going on in
his life.
As a last example, in my debut novel, The Astonishing Thing, I present a story about a troubled family
from the point of view of the family cat. Our pets are witnesses to our private
moments; they hear our confessions and are the keepers of our secrets. My
protagonist, Boo, doesn’t understand everything going on in her family. Like a
smart little girl, she isn’t completely familiar with concepts like mental illness and divorce. But she wants her family to be happy and safe, and
provides a unique way of looking at the world.
The unreliable
narrator
Sometimes an author goes a step further and tells a story
using an unreliable narrator; examples include the hit novels The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Especially in a murder mystery, you can create fantastic twists and turns if
narrators lie, omit information, or can’t remember events due to alcoholic
blackouts. It can make for a thrilling reader experience.
Advantages and
disadvantages
One disadvantage of using first person is that you can never
leave that character’s head. The main character can only guess at what others are
thinking—but sometimes that can lead to interesting misunderstandings or
assumptions, creating further drama. So you may be able to turn that
disadvantage into an effective narrative device.
Using an unconventional narrator can be a great way to
experiment, get creative, and pull more drama out of a traditional story. Have
fun with it and happy writing!
BIO
Sandi Ward grew up in Manchester-By-The-Sea,
Massachusetts. She went to Tufts University, and then received her MA in
Creative Writing at New York University.
She now lives on the Jersey Shore with her husband, teenagers, dog and a
large black cat named Winnie. Sandi is a medical writer at an advertising
agency. The Astonishing Thing is her
debut novel.
Twitter/Instagram @sandiwardbooks
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sandiwardbooks/
Pre-order THE ASTONISHING THING, the story of a troubled
family seen through the eyes of their cat, on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2mK6KoS
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Query Kombat Thoughts from a Kontestant
I was a 2016 contestant in Query Kombat (Go, Team #WriteyMcWriterFace!),
and I really only entered for one reason: to improve my query. I was thrilled
to get into the contest, and after getting knocked out in Round 3, I was even
more thrilled with my query. It was tight, to the point, and I had gotten great
feedback from people who knew what they were talking about.
But you know what surprised me? A killer query was not the
best thing I got out of Query Kombat. Don’t get me wrong, a great query was an
amazing benefit. But there were unexpected benefits that I had never imagined,
some of which were much more important to my writing career than my query
letter.
Number One: It helped me develop a thick skin. I went
through three rounds, which meant I got dozens of comments about everything
that was wrong with my query and first 250. Most people were encouraging and
supportive, but they still told me what I was doing wrong. I needed them to tell me what I was doing wrong.
As much as I wanted the feedback, I still had to steel myself up for it every
day. Soon I was able to read it, understand it, and apply it. Query Kombat
taught me how to embrace critique, and that is an essential part of surviving
and thriving in the world of publishing.
Side note (we’ll call it Number One-A): Query Kombat also
taught me how to filter critique so I knew what would work for my query and
manuscript, and what wouldn’t. Spoiler alert: if you get into Query Kombat,
you’re going to get conflicting feedback! Some of it will fit with your vision
for your story, and some of it won’t. Sifting through all that feedback and
figuring out what resonates (and what doesn’t) is a skill that needs to be
practiced. The further you go in the contest, the more practice you’re going to
get.
Number Two: The QK Community. If you’re not active on the #QueryKombat
hashtag yet, you are missing out. Connecting with a community of writers who
are at a similar stage in their careers is truly invaluable. I met some great
writing friends just by being active on the hashtag. That’s something you can
take advantage of whether you are chosen to be an official Kombatant or not.
This year they’ve made the community even more amazing with
the addition of the Query Kombat Forums. You can give and receive feedback on your
query and first page, and you can put up ads looking for critique partners and
beta readers. If you haven’t taken advantage of the forums yet, you’ll find
them here: http://querykombat.boards.net/
Number Three: I learned how to give critique. Every contestant is expected to critique a number of
other entries in every round. That meant I analyzed almost two dozen queries
and first pages, and I got to see how other people analyzed them as well. I
probably learned more about writing a great query from giving critiques than I did from just reading the comments on my
own.
Giving critique is another benefit you can take advantage of
whether you are an official Kombatant or not. If you don’t get into the
contest, don’t disappear. Read the other queries in your genre, analyze them,
and analyze the comments on them. This process will help you enormously when it
comes time to revise your own work.
Writing contests like Query Kombat are not just about
winning a prize at the end. They’re about actively engaging in a community of
writers and making each other better. The more you put into the community, the
more you’ll get out of it, whether you’re an official contestant or not.
Julia Nobel is a writing coach and middle grade/young adult author. Her childhood obsession with The Babysitters Club turned into a lifelong passion for reading and writing children’s literature. She offers writing masterclasses and courses for writers in all genres, and is a 2017 Pitch Wars Mentor. Her 3-year-old daughter likes to help her write by throwing apple sauce at the keyboard and pressing the escape key.
Website: www.julianobel.com
Twitter: @nobeljulia
Monday, May 15, 2017
Five Reason for Writing in Verse
Shari Green is here to tell us more about writing in verse. I've always been curious about this form of writing (we sometimes see these in contests) and I'm glad for a chance to know more about why to pick verse!
And don't forget to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.
Take it away, Shari.
It seems to me, verse novels are everywhere…although I might possibly have highly-developed verse-novel radar. ;-) I do seek them out, because I love the form so much, and I’ve written two verse novels myself. (The second one is brand new! MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS launches in the U.S. on May 15. Details below.)
I’m often asked why verse? so I’ve given it some thought. Whether you’re a reader curious about the form, or a writer wondering if verse might be right for your next story, here are five reasons why you might choose to write in verse.
Olivia has been Macy McMillan’s best friend ever since Macy transferred to Hamilton Elementary from Braeside School for the Deaf. But then their sixth grade teacher assigned that embarrassing family tree project, and Olivia made a joke about Macy’s father, and now neither girl is speaking—or signing—to the other.
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. With her mother getting married and an ugly For Sale sign jammed into their yard, Macy could really use a best friend right now. But it seems the only person who has time for her these days is Iris Gillan from next door. And it’s not like a crabby, old woman who doesn’t even know sign language is going to be any comfort. Right?
MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS is a Junior Library Guild 2017 selection. A summer read for fans of Sharon Creech and Kate DiCamillo, from Pajama Press.
Shari Green writes fiction for kids and teens. She lives on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, with her husband, kids, and the worst watchdog ever. Visit her online at www.sharigreen.com.
And don't forget to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.
Take it away, Shari.
It seems to me, verse novels are everywhere…although I might possibly have highly-developed verse-novel radar. ;-) I do seek them out, because I love the form so much, and I’ve written two verse novels myself. (The second one is brand new! MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS launches in the U.S. on May 15. Details below.)
I’m often asked why verse? so I’ve given it some thought. Whether you’re a reader curious about the form, or a writer wondering if verse might be right for your next story, here are five reasons why you might choose to write in verse.
- It suits the story: A story element may lend itself to verse, to the techniques and structure of a verse novel. For example, a bleak setting or subject can be reflected in short, stark lines; or the setting may be enriched by using verse that reflects the rhythm of a culture’s language or music; or the subject matter may be directly related to poetry or writing, making verse a natural fit.
- It lightens the load: Difficult or demanding subject matter can be more palatable in verse. The economy of words and the abundance of white space may help the reader to absorb what’s happening without being overwhelmed.
- It gets to the heart: Because verse tends to be intimate, immediate, and often intense, it can be easier to get to the heart of a story by using poetry. This may be partly because of the economy of words, the spareness, but also because things like spacing and alignment—the visual elements of the poems—can become a metaphor for the character’s emotion or state of mind, hitting the reader on a subconscious level and increasing the emotional impact.
- It helps readers: For kids (and adults) who struggle with reading or who think they don’t really like reading, verse novels can be much less intimidating – readers aren’t hit with a huge block of text when they open the book. And since verse novels often are fairly quick reads, less enthusiastic readers are more likely to finish them, giving them a sense of competence and confidence. Rhythm and repetition can be a huge help to struggling readers in processing & retaining what they read, too.
- It feels right: Sometimes verse just feels right, which probably sounds a bit vague, but it was certainly my experience when I began writing novels in verse. Verse was not only how I heard my characters’ voices, but also a natural fit for my own voice and style. And I must say, playing with poetry and the musicality of words is a joy!
Olivia has been Macy McMillan’s best friend ever since Macy transferred to Hamilton Elementary from Braeside School for the Deaf. But then their sixth grade teacher assigned that embarrassing family tree project, and Olivia made a joke about Macy’s father, and now neither girl is speaking—or signing—to the other.
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. With her mother getting married and an ugly For Sale sign jammed into their yard, Macy could really use a best friend right now. But it seems the only person who has time for her these days is Iris Gillan from next door. And it’s not like a crabby, old woman who doesn’t even know sign language is going to be any comfort. Right?
MACY McMILLAN AND THE RAINBOW GODDESS is a Junior Library Guild 2017 selection. A summer read for fans of Sharon Creech and Kate DiCamillo, from Pajama Press.
Shari Green writes fiction for kids and teens. She lives on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, with her husband, kids, and the worst watchdog ever. Visit her online at www.sharigreen.com.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Quick Writing Advice from Twitter
The other night I got inspired to tweet some writing advice tips. I thought I'd expand on those a little here.
Do unto other writers the good you wish they would do unto you. Even when no one is watching. Help each other after published too.
This goes beyond retweeting for each other and congratulations at their successes. You can also be moral support when someone is having a tough time. Enter your fellow writer's giveaways. Most writers are also readers. Consider purchasing their books if they interest you and leaving reviews. Give back by doing critiques or joining contests as judges and mentors. Do all the good you can for each other.
If your first chapter doesn't accomplish mutiple goals and foreshadow, rewrite it until it does. #writingtips Foreshadow can be added after.
First chapters have to be big workhorses. You need them to accomplish several goals: character introduction and development, plot introduction or foreshadowing, world building, establishing conflict, and so on. It should also create some way for the reader to connect with the opening of the story maybe by making the reader curious about what comes next or through building sympathy with the characters. Foreshadowing can be added after the first draft is done and edited in.
By foreshadowing I mean things like showing your MC is afraid of heights and then having that fear be a part of the finale chapters. Or in Grudging, the characters play a trick on the enemy in the first chapter and the ending revolves around another sort of trick. But your foreshadowing can be as simple as hinting at the conflict/antagonist that hasn't been revealed yet.
Description can show the setting. Even better if it also shows something about your character's personality or sets the mood. #writingtips
When describing the setting try and make sure the words create the proper mood in the reader. A huge bonus is if you can use something from the setting to help show parts of your character's personality or their emotions. This can be done with actions or with introspective.
Vary your sentence length and structure unless you want to put your reader to sleep. #writingtips
This can take practice but make sure to vary the length of your sentences--some long, more medium, and short--and incorporate various sentence structures in each paragraph. If all the sentences syntax is similar, it creates a singsong rhythm in your reader's head and becomes really boring. Watch out and avoid it.
Celebrate small successes when querying or you won't get through the rejection. #writingtips Don't second guess yourself.
My family used to get ice cream at the Dairy Queen down the street whenever I got a full or partial request back when I was querying. I helped get me through all the rejection. We did somewhat the same when I had books out on submission. Rejection can be crushing to the spirit, so treat yourself when you have a positive accomplishment.
Don't waste time with thinking "oh I should have done this" or "I should have done that." Whatever it was is done. Spend your energy on deciding how to proceed in the now.
Avoid a mushy middle section by always have goals for each chapter to accomplish. #writingtips
This works for me and I hope it will for you. Have an established goal in mind when writing each chapter in the middle sections of your manuscript. Have each scene advance the plot, or advance the understanding of the characters, or advance the conflict, or advance the world building information for example. Even better if you do several of these in the same scene.
Check how much character introspective or reflection there is in your favorite books. Probably more than you expect. #writingtips
You're likely to be surprised at how much character thought/introspection or reflection there is in each page, let alone each chapter. Your character needs to think about themselves, other characters, the situation, their feelings and a huge variety of subjects. This helps draw the reader closer to the character, builds a relationship between reader and character. I think a lot of more beginning writers try to limit this use of inner thought because they think it's telling. Sometimes it is. And you have to learn when it's needed and when it's too much. That comes with practice. But you can learn a lot about when to use it from your favorite books.
Trust your writing instinct. If you have writers block, there's probably something wrong with the direction of your story. #writingtips
This is another one that is often true for me. Whenever I get stuck in my writing, it's usually because the story is headed in the wrong direction. It isn't necessarily always a big problem that needs fixed; sometimes it can just be the trend of one conversation being slightly off. Just be aware of what your instincts are telling you.
If you feel like the story is too flat, it may be time to add more conflict. If you feel readers will be bored than you are likely right. Perhaps you have some chapters that aren't achieving any goals and could be cut.
This can be true when you're querying also. Listen to your inner voice because it could be leading you in the right direction.
Don't expect your first writings to be masterpieces. There is a learning curve to everything and writing has rules just like any other job.
Writing is a profession, and with any profession there is a learning curve. There are rules to writing and techniques and skill involved. It will take more than one or two manuscripts to learn them all or to become skilled at using them. Be patient with yourself and just be aware that you will probably grow as a writer. It's an acquired skill and we are all learning.
This is true about writing query letters and synopsis also. They get better over time.
Best way to become a better writer is to read a lot of books in your genre. #writingtips #amwriting
My favorite advice. Read. Read in your genre. You'll pick up so much. Timing, pacing, the amounts of description, introspective and characterization to add. When to throw in a twist. When to change the direction of the story. The list of things to notice in successful books is never ending.
Do unto other writers the good you wish they would do unto you. Even when no one is watching. Help each other after published too.
This goes beyond retweeting for each other and congratulations at their successes. You can also be moral support when someone is having a tough time. Enter your fellow writer's giveaways. Most writers are also readers. Consider purchasing their books if they interest you and leaving reviews. Give back by doing critiques or joining contests as judges and mentors. Do all the good you can for each other.
If your first chapter doesn't accomplish mutiple goals and foreshadow, rewrite it until it does. #writingtips Foreshadow can be added after.
First chapters have to be big workhorses. You need them to accomplish several goals: character introduction and development, plot introduction or foreshadowing, world building, establishing conflict, and so on. It should also create some way for the reader to connect with the opening of the story maybe by making the reader curious about what comes next or through building sympathy with the characters. Foreshadowing can be added after the first draft is done and edited in.
By foreshadowing I mean things like showing your MC is afraid of heights and then having that fear be a part of the finale chapters. Or in Grudging, the characters play a trick on the enemy in the first chapter and the ending revolves around another sort of trick. But your foreshadowing can be as simple as hinting at the conflict/antagonist that hasn't been revealed yet.
Description can show the setting. Even better if it also shows something about your character's personality or sets the mood. #writingtips
When describing the setting try and make sure the words create the proper mood in the reader. A huge bonus is if you can use something from the setting to help show parts of your character's personality or their emotions. This can be done with actions or with introspective.
Vary your sentence length and structure unless you want to put your reader to sleep. #writingtips
This can take practice but make sure to vary the length of your sentences--some long, more medium, and short--and incorporate various sentence structures in each paragraph. If all the sentences syntax is similar, it creates a singsong rhythm in your reader's head and becomes really boring. Watch out and avoid it.
Celebrate small successes when querying or you won't get through the rejection. #writingtips Don't second guess yourself.
My family used to get ice cream at the Dairy Queen down the street whenever I got a full or partial request back when I was querying. I helped get me through all the rejection. We did somewhat the same when I had books out on submission. Rejection can be crushing to the spirit, so treat yourself when you have a positive accomplishment.
Don't waste time with thinking "oh I should have done this" or "I should have done that." Whatever it was is done. Spend your energy on deciding how to proceed in the now.
Avoid a mushy middle section by always have goals for each chapter to accomplish. #writingtips
This works for me and I hope it will for you. Have an established goal in mind when writing each chapter in the middle sections of your manuscript. Have each scene advance the plot, or advance the understanding of the characters, or advance the conflict, or advance the world building information for example. Even better if you do several of these in the same scene.
Check how much character introspective or reflection there is in your favorite books. Probably more than you expect. #writingtips
You're likely to be surprised at how much character thought/introspection or reflection there is in each page, let alone each chapter. Your character needs to think about themselves, other characters, the situation, their feelings and a huge variety of subjects. This helps draw the reader closer to the character, builds a relationship between reader and character. I think a lot of more beginning writers try to limit this use of inner thought because they think it's telling. Sometimes it is. And you have to learn when it's needed and when it's too much. That comes with practice. But you can learn a lot about when to use it from your favorite books.
Trust your writing instinct. If you have writers block, there's probably something wrong with the direction of your story. #writingtips
This is another one that is often true for me. Whenever I get stuck in my writing, it's usually because the story is headed in the wrong direction. It isn't necessarily always a big problem that needs fixed; sometimes it can just be the trend of one conversation being slightly off. Just be aware of what your instincts are telling you.
If you feel like the story is too flat, it may be time to add more conflict. If you feel readers will be bored than you are likely right. Perhaps you have some chapters that aren't achieving any goals and could be cut.
This can be true when you're querying also. Listen to your inner voice because it could be leading you in the right direction.
Don't expect your first writings to be masterpieces. There is a learning curve to everything and writing has rules just like any other job.
Writing is a profession, and with any profession there is a learning curve. There are rules to writing and techniques and skill involved. It will take more than one or two manuscripts to learn them all or to become skilled at using them. Be patient with yourself and just be aware that you will probably grow as a writer. It's an acquired skill and we are all learning.
This is true about writing query letters and synopsis also. They get better over time.
Best way to become a better writer is to read a lot of books in your genre. #writingtips #amwriting
My favorite advice. Read. Read in your genre. You'll pick up so much. Timing, pacing, the amounts of description, introspective and characterization to add. When to throw in a twist. When to change the direction of the story. The list of things to notice in successful books is never ending.
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