Top Mistakes in Fiction Writing

This baby monkey has nothing to do with today's post. I just love monkeys! I could watch the chimps at the zoo all day long. Sometimes they make more sense than my kids.

No, today we're going to talk about the top mistakes made by beginning writers--in hopes that you can avoid them and leap ahead of the pack. Every writing professional has his/her own list of big No-No's in fiction writing. Most of them show up in newbie writer's manuscripts, and they happen enough to form a pattern. Thus, The List.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and it is not taken from any particular source, but is rather a conglomeration of the collective input from agents, editors, and authors who have seen them all enough to agree on the big ones. Most of the experts have probably made at least one of these blunders themselves, possibly last week, since it is often difficult to judge your own writing objectively and even seasoned professionals trip up from time to time.

1. A weak opening. Too many first-time writers start with description of the scenery, back story, or bland dialogue that fails to engage the reader right from the start. Think about the last book you bought. After lifting a brow at the price tag, you probably read the back cover copy, and then opened to the first page. Something on that page captured your attention, made you want to know more. That's because the author had a strong opening to suck you in. And it worked. You had to know more.

2. Not enough conflict. Conflict, both internal and external, are what drives the plot. Without it, the narrative just lies there on the page. It doesn't go anywhere--except back to the library! Even literary fiction has conflict, usually internal: the hero has some private pain he must overcome or...or what? That's what you want to know. Every book doesn't have to be throat-slashing, monster-jumping, car-chasing thrills. Emotional conflict can be just as powerful, but make sure your reader cares enough about it to keep reading.

3. Too much telling--not enough showing. Remember show-and-tell in grade school? Why didn't the teacher just let us stand up and talk about our object? It's because we are visual creatures and we use all our senses to experience life. If you simply state every emotion your character is going through, the reader is robbed of the opportunity to experience it right along with her.

Instead of naming the emotion, show the physical reaction to that emotion. Instead of: Shari was anxious about her first day. Write instead: Shari rubbed moist palms down her jeans and licked lips that were as dry as desert sand.

4. Overuse of adjectives and adverbs. Those delicious little sentence helpers your English teachers praised you for using need to go. Find words ending in -ly, and evaluate whether you can eliminate them by using stronger verbs or rephrasing the sentence. Adverbs are lazy. They rob the manuscript of tighter emotion by simply telling the reader how something was done.

Ex: He spoke angrily. What does that really tell us? Instead, try something like this: His words were clipped, precise, and he refused to look at her when he spoke.

There are plenty more, but make a checklist and evaluate your own work for all of the above. You're writing will be tighter, flow more smoothly, and be a better read.

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Where Do I Submit?

If you're working on a novel or a non-fiction book, be certain you know your audience. Your audience will determine which avenue of publishing you should pursue.

There are two avenues for publication: the Christian market or the secular. It can get a bit confusing when you research the major publishing houses and learn that the big secular houses like Random and Time-Warner own most of the Christian houses.

However, for your purposes, think of publishing as loosely categorized into two major associations. American Booksellers Association (ABA) is made up of all the publishers who produce mass market books for the secular reading public. Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) caters to the Christian market and the content of the books is quite dissimilar.

If your novel includes Christian elements involving salvation by faith and references to God and Jesus as Persons with whom your characters have a personal relationship, your novel will never see the light of day in the ABA. As with many other media biases, books can contain just about anything perverse, graphic, Satanic, vulgar, or heretical...anything except Christian thematic elements.

Many beginning authors desire to write books that will appeal to both secular and Christian audiences, while remaining true to their faith and including elements of faith in their writing. They reject publication in the CBA, fearing their book won't be read by the ones they hope to reach. It's a naive desire and one quickly squelched as they investigate the realities of publishing. Christians are portrayed in popular novels the same way we are portrayed in television and movies--as quirky hypocrites and not worth taking seriously. There have been a very few "religious" heroes who have managed to make it past the editor's desk who are portrayed with integrity and honesty, but they are usually the property of a well-known and well-established author who can write anything they like! (Faye Kellerman comes to mind with her orthodox Jewish heroine.)

So the choice is already made for you if you plan to include God in your book. That is one reason the CBA exists--to give Christian authors and readers who want to read clean books that include God a place to meet.

When I first began write, I tried to write from a purely secular perspective, desiring to reach a larger audience. But every author's personal beliefs come through in their books and I found I could not write well without including God. It wasn't honest. Life does include God, whether we acknowledge him or not. I knew my heroine would cry out to God at a certain point, and if I develop that idea further than a generic prayer, it would never be published in the ABA.

Above all, your writing must be REAL and if it's not real to you, it won't come across as real to your readers.

My agent, Rachelle Gardner, has a great post on this subject on her blog. Click the link to read more. Remember: write for your audience and write REAL.

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/search/label/Christian%20Publishing

Merry Christmas

It might encourage you to know that I practice what I preach to you about submitting short stories to magazines and contests while working on bigger projects.

I was notified yesterday that one of my short stories has made it through the first round of cuts in a national Flash Fiction contest and is in the top 100!

More cuts to come, but it was exciting news right before Christmas! If I can do it, so can you! Polish up that story and hit Send.

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Merry Christmas!

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So You Think You Want to Write a Novel...

"I've started a novel, but I can't get past page eight," the college student confided. "I love to write. It's in me and I have this story idea, but...I dunno. Why's it so hard to get it down?"

It is hard, isn't it? Much harder than you thought it would be. When you read good books, the words flow from the page with seemingly effortless rhythm and the pros make it seem like anyone with an imagination and a good grasp of the English language could churn out a bestseller every couple of months. Why not you?

Then you try. And after a few pages you start to think, Maybe there's more to this than I thought.

So you start doing what you should have done first, which is study the craft and art of fiction writing. And you discover a new world that has existed right there all along and you had no idea it was so complicated!

When you think of being a writer, what you're really thinking is novelist.

But that is sort of like taking a first-year EMT and asking him to perform brain surgery. A novel is a 70,000-120,000 word Mt. Everest. And just as a novice mountain-climber wouldn't begin with Everest, you shouldn't try to master novel-writing before mastering the craft on a smaller scale. You'll get discouraged too quickly and give it up altogether.

Short stories, magazine articles, and essays are an excellent way to cut your teeth on the world of publishing, get your name out there, and add credits to your budding resume. Start with something small. Enter contests and read the winning stories. Figure out how they did it. What is they have that you do not yet?

The Internet makes things so much more accessible. Writing contests abound, but do your homework. Sleazy contests abound, too. Watch out for entry fees. Legitimate contests do often charge a nominal fee, but make sure the sponsor of the contest has a good reputation in the literary world.

My first magazine article was published while I was still in college. The pay was a check for $35, but I felt as if I'd won the Pulitzer Prize! Seeing your name in print is a great boost for a beginning writer and helps fuel your writing drive while you stare at more rejections.

A couple of stories I had published nearly 20 years ago are still surfacing and I can google the titles and still find them on the Internet! Quite interesting! It's amazing the lifespan of a single well-placed article.

So go for it. If you're hitting the wall on your great American novel, set it aside and tackle a 1000-word story. Fill it with all the passion, story arc, conflict and suspense you are saving for your novel, trim the words until they fairly sing with tension, and send it in.

That little 1,000 words could be the start of something big!

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The Writer's Toolbox

Every craftsman needs quality tools to be the best at what he does. The same holds true for artists of any genre, including writers.

Some of the most useful books I've found and have seen recommended on many writer sites are listed below. They can all be found quite reasonably on Amazon or many used bookstores online. There are countless others, but these will get you started.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King. Written by a pair of editors, this handy reference book takes your rough draft to the next several levels, telling you what to look for as you try to edit your own work. More than a grammar or punctuation checker, this book teaches you how to spot weak places in your plot, how to ramp up tension, how to spot overused words or phrases. Most agents and editors recommend this book and so do I.

Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass. Donald Maass has been a top literary agent for over a decade and this book is the gold standard among writers. He clearly explains the techniques and characteristics that separate a fairly good novel from a breakout hit. A must-have for any serious fiction author.

Plot & Structure, by James Scott Bell. More information and helpful exercises than you can probably ever used, but Bell packs this book with useful tips on everything from finding ideas to story arcs.

There are too many helpful books to list, but these three sit handily on the shelf beside my computer and I refer to them often. The best way to decide which books you should invest in is to visit respected writer sites or blogs by agents and editors. Most will list their favorite books for writers. The ones mentioned on site after site are tried and true and you can safely assume they are what you need.

Vote for Me!

One of my short stories was selected for a contest at Christian Fiction Online Magazine. Click here to read it and vote for me!

http://christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/best_multicultural.html
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What is Voice?

If you work hard at your writing for a while, you will hear a term you may not fully grasp. You may hear an editor, agent, or another writer refer to a author's "voice." What are they talking about?

In literature, voice refers to the way a writer expresses thoughts on the page. Just as most audible voices sound a bit different, so do the ways in which we express our ideas in written form. Read enough, and soon you can pick out your favorite authors by the way they write. The pace of their phrasing, the word choices, that twist of humor in unexpected places. Any avid reader could instantly tell the difference between the writing styles of John Grisham and Sue Grafton. You wouldn't confuse Ted Dekker with Debbie Macomber either. Each has his or her own unique style that fans come to expect when they pick up a book with that name on the cover.

Every writer has a voice and one challenge of beginning authors is to find that unique voice inside and write from it consistently. I am to the stage in my fiction writing where I can tell when I'm writing "in voice" and when I'm just slapping words on the page. Just as an opera singer must practice diligently to always call up that voice when she needs to. So authors have to practice it, and it can take awhile.

First we mimic other writers, which is a great way to learn to write. But even the greatest mimic can never reproduce another's voice, so don't worry that you're not being unique. Imitation is a great way to learn, but don't fear breaking away and trying it on your own. With enough practice, your own voice will come through in your writing.

My agent, Rachelle Gardener, had an excellent post on her blog which goes into much greater detail. For more study, check out this link. http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/search/label/Voice

How Much Description?

How much description should you include in your story? Should you wax on about the vibrant colors of the setting sun or merely mention that it was setting?

Tastes range from pages of eloquent prose to terse one-liners that get the point across. In the past, when readers had more time to savour words and the turn of a phrase--and were not bombarded with visuals 24 hours a day--long descriptive narrative was a treat. A writer's unique perspective added color and richness about places and settings most readers would never see.

But in these fast-paced times, filled with high-tech, color-enhancing, photo-shopped reality, most readers will skip your eloquent phrases and get on to the story.

The trick is to use as few words as possible to convey the biggest picture. Comparisons are excellent and in a single phrase can convey a world of meaning. For example, rather than describe the burly professor down to his shoe size, a phrase such as "He was a grizzly bear in a red bow tie" paints an instant picture of not only the man's physical appearance, but hints at his disposition as well.

Your goal as a writer is not to commandeer as many words as you can, but rather to make every word count. Whack at your sentences and scenes without mercy, eliminating unnecessary words--regardless of how pretty they sound when you read them to yourself!

Your future readers will thank you--and they might keep coming back for more.

Why Do I Need a Point of View?

One of the first decisions to make when you begin a short story or novel is: From whose point of view is the story told?



Story-telling has evolved over the years. Fifty years ago, a book could get away with long passages of exposition, description, or non-essential scenes and dialogue. It was common to find yourself inside first one character's head, and then another.



Not so any more. Modern readers have shorter attention spans and are easily bored. If every scene doesn't grab the reader, he is likely to set the book aside--or worse, never start it at all.



One technique that keeps a reader engrossed is a sense of identification with the hero, or protagonist. And one of the best ways to keep that reader reading is to put him inside your hero's head. We more closely identify with people we understand--even villains.



One problem beginning writers often make is to become so engrossed in the story that we begin to "head hop." This is jarring to a reader and immediately confuses, taking them out of that realm of make-believe where you want to keep them.



When beginning a story, you must tell it from one character's point of view. Pretend your blank page is a television camera and your character is looking through it. Your heroine won't describe her "golden cascade of hair" because she can't SEE her own hair at the moment. Likewise, she won't mention the hero's "dark, churning anxiety" because she cannot know what is inside someone else's head.





My beginning writing students struggle with this, often not realizing they are telling things which can't be known until I point it out to them.



There is a place for switching POV's. You can add depth and curves to your story by switching to another viewpoint, but be sure you make a clear distinction before doing so. Either a chapter break or section break, and then clearly identify your secondary character early in the paragraph so the reader eases smoothly into the next point of view without losing momentum.

For deeper point of view, avoid "telling" words like "felt, wondered, decided." Instead, show your character feeling, wondering decided.

Instead of saying, "She wondered if he would be back." Write, "Will he be back? Had she driven him away?

For more discussion on point of view, click on the POV label on the right sidebar.

Happy Thanksgiving

What are you doing cruising writing blogs? You should be relaxing and enjoying your day!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Guest Blogging Today

An email I wrote to the American Christian Fiction Writers communication loop is featured on another blog today. Check out today's post at Theresa Slack's blog. http://www.teresaslack.blogspot.com/

Manuscript Formatting

This post will deal with formatting a complete manuscript, but much of it applies to the standard formatting of any publishable material, from short-story contest submission to page-length articles.

Nothing can take the place of good-old-fashioned research of the agent or publisher to whom you are submitting, but the industry standard stays pretty much the same no matter who it is.

Everyone uses Microsoft Word and if you will use this program, you make it much easier on yourself. If you use a different word processing software, you'll have to set it up to resemble the following as closely as you can.

Font: Use Times New Roman, 12-point font. Can't go wrong with it.

Margins: Use a 1" margin all the way around your page (not including the header, which is discussed below)

Title Page: The first page of any submission should be the title page. It must include the title of your book, with any subtitle below. Use 14-point font and center it in the middle of the page. Beneath that, put the word count (as found in your Tools menu) and the genre of your novel (suspense, romance, general fiction, etc.)

Centered at the bottom, type your name or your agent's name, address and all contact information, including any web addresses and telephone numbers.


Header: Agent proposal preferences will vary, but an acceptable header will include the Title or Portion of your book title in all CAPS, your full name separated from the title by a slash, both flush with the left margin. Set your preferences to NOT include this header on the Title page.

Page Numbers: The page numbers should be flush with the right margin, directly across from your name and book title in the header. Start numbering with the title page, but do NOT include the number on that page. The first page of your manuscript will be page 2.

Creative Variation: Don't do it! A few beginning writers think they must attract attention to their creativity by veering from the prescribed standard. I had a writing student once who consistently refused to follow my instructions on how to set up his paper. He was an artist and would hand in very decorative reports using colorful font, and 24-point name and date. I know he thought he could compensate for poor writing by impressing me with his artistic ability.

I consistently gave him an F for not following instructions. Finally by the end of the year, he caught on and handed in a boring, clean paper like everyone else. He got an A on it.

Don't think you will impress anyone by not following instructions. The opposite is true. You will greatly impress agenta and editors that you are bright, humble, and can follow instructions, and may be someone they would like to work with.

Camy Tang has a detailed summation of manuscript formatting on her blog Story Sensei. Click here for further instruction.
http://storysensei.blogspot.com/2006/07/novel-manuscript-format-for-cba.html

What Do I Write About?

Once that all-compelling first story is on paper and out of your system, you may find yourself thinking: Now what? Can I do it again? What do I write about?

"Where do you get ideas?" is one of the most frequently-asked questions successful authors fend. The answers are myriad, as plentiful as the world swirling around you.

Ideas are born in reality and then taken to the next level by the question: What if? Writers look at an everyday situation and ask themselves, "What if the ending changed? What if the boy hadn't gone straight home? What if the guide dog suddenly attacked its master?

Some other tips to get the ideas flowing:

• Write the best, most intriguing first line you can think up. Then build a story around it. What comes next? My novel that is currently out on request to a top agent was formed from this simple exercise. I took a terrific first line penned by Christa Allen and wrote a first page, which won a "First-Page Contest." So many people asked me, "So what happened to the girl? Did she find her mother?" I stewed on it for awhile and the result was a 93,000 word novel which I hope finds a publisher soon.

• Dream up a crazy-sounding title for your book. Sometimes ideas come from great titles.

• Play word games. Make lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives and like the kids' game, match them up in all sorts of ways. The wordplay can spark ideas you wouldn't have had otherwise.

• People-watch. Great stories are built around great characters. And great characters are great because they're believable while being bigger-than-life. Pay close attention to the way the lady in the checkout line fiddles with her pocketbook when she's watching the total ring up. She's nervous, wondering if she has enough to pay for it. No one told you that. You could tell by her outward actions. Use that in your story to show a character's anxiety.

• Read-Read-Read! I'm surprised when I hear (usually a student) say, "I'm gonna write a book. I'm a good writer." When I ask what they like to read, they respond, "Oh, I don't read much, I just like to write." I have to smile. Someone is fooling himself. Much of good writing is learned. We learn by reading good writing. Reading teaches us what sounds right, how words flow together to provoke a feeling, a mood. Try to copy the style of an author you enjoy. I'm not talking plagiarism. Don't copy the words or phrases unique to that author. But try to imitate the style. You won't be able to do it, but the result might be a style of your own. It's what's called Voice.

Now, get out there and observe!

Do I Need an Agent?

You've fine-tuned that manuscript and now you're beginning to think it's publish-worthy. That thought brings you to a crossroads. Should you try to find a publisher on your own or should you try to land a literary agent?

There is no right or wrong answer. Much of it depends on your personality, your connections, your head for business, and whether or not your story is likely to grab an editor's attention from the slush pile.

For the unenlightened, the term "slush pile" refers to the thousands of queries, proposals, and manuscripts an editor or agent receives every single day from prospective authors just like you. From the months spent in your writing fog, you may emerge with the idea that you are among the very few who would attempt such an overwhelming task like writing a book. However, there are millions just like you, all vying for those elusive spots in the published world. And those hopeful submissions pile up every day on the desks of overworked publishing professionals.

One obstacle you will find if you begin to submit your work to publishing houses is that not many of them accept unsolicited queries from unknown writers. One reason they do this is to cut down on the enormous workload and the number of staff it takes just to weed through the junk, hoping for a treasure. There are, however, a few who will still accept your query out of the blue, so if you choose this route, submit to those houses.

But do your homework first! The internet makes is so easy now to research a publisher: what types of books do they publish, how many pages is their average, who are their authors, etc. Don't, for example, submit your erotica fantasy novel to Steeple Hill--a Christian romance publisher with strict online guidelines about content. There are no excuses for not doing your homework first and to fail to do so will earn you not only a quick rejection, but muddy your name in the event you come up with something acceptable later.

The advantages of this "do-it-yourself" approach are that if you do land a contract, you get to keep all the money you earn. You work directly with the publisher, rather than going through an agent who will keep 10-20% of your earnings.

The advantages of finding an agent who will represent you are numerous and signing with one can be almost as elusive as signing with a publisher. Agents are equally bombarded with hopefuls and have slush piles of their own. Again, do your homework before you submit to an agent! Read their websites, their blogs, their preferences and submit your proposal EXACTLY the way they ask you to. Being "creative" in your submission will only earn you a flat rejection.

Agents are experts in navigating the confusing world of publishing contracts, foreign rights, advances, royalties, etc. and unless these things are second nature to you, an agent will take this business load off your shoulders. Most writers prefer to stay in their caves and write. We don't like the business end of it and often, that naivete results in the writer being taken advantage of by a publisher. An agent knows when you are offered a good deal and has the negotiating skills to garner you the best deal possible.

The internet abounds with agent blogs filled with information, so there is no excuse for not educating yourself about each agent before you submit your work. They each have their own preferences such as: query vs. full proposal, email vs. snail mail, and genres of books represented.

One word of caution: if you think you may want to find an agent, it's best not to submit to publishers on your own first. That only cuts down on the number of editors your agent can submit to once you've found one. You cannot resubmit a manuscript once it's been rejected. Your agent will have the ability to present your work in the best possible light, so rein yourself in and refrain from submitting on your own until you land that agent.

That Dreaded Revision

Books aren't written—they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it. - Michael Crichton

Revision is the key to writing well. Too many new writers believe every word out of their imaginations is golden and cannot see the errors for the love glowing in their eyes. To write well, you have to get over your love affair with your own words.

It has been said that the first draft is like a naked toddler, racing through the house in joyous abandoned. The editor side of your brain is the loving parent who cares too much to let the child grow up naked. Writing the first draft is both exhausting and exhilarating, but that's not where the REAL work comes in.

Revision is a cruel taskmaster, but it is the harshest revisions that usually produce the greatest work. Revision is where you begin to weave the subtleties into your story, like fine threads of gold and sliver. Not too much. Just enough to add sparkle and value to the lines and paragraphs.

If you can count the number of revisions your finished work has undergone--you probably haven't done enough! I have learned to enjoy the revising process. That's where you whittle away nonsense, boring scenes, and even that beautiful flowing prose that swelled from your heart one morning when you felt especially poetic. If the writing calls attention to itself, it needs to go.

Learn to embrace revisions as the honing of your ideas, but don't stop with a simple word change or punctuation correction. Revision takes a carving knife and gouges deep holes in your story, cuts entire scenes or characters that do nothing but add to your word count. Revision cuts to the heart of your story and answers the question: What is this REALLY about? Your book isn't about the surface story. There's a deeper truth scratching to get out and it is that truth that revision finally frees and makes your work shine.

Happy revising!
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Sorry, English teachers!

Before I say what I'm gonna say, let me qualify myself. I have a degree in English and am a card-carrying grammar snob. I love parts of speech, purple prose, and flowery adjective trains. I have taught junior high and high school grammar and encourage the very style of writing I am about to trash.

So, if you are an English teacher, calm down! You may continue teaching the way you always have. This is for those who are past that stage and are ready to write publishable fiction.

When teaching reluctant eighth graders to put their imaginations on paper, we encourage adjectives and adverbs to make the writing more descriptive. We praise sentences like, "The gnarled old man walked slowly and painstakingly across the dirty floor."

However, you most likely are not a middle school essay writer and if you are, congratulations for being at the stage in writing where you are ready to take it to the next level. In publishable fiction, the fewer adjectives and adverbs you use, the better.

Huh? you may be thinking. How boring! I thought adjectives and adverbs pepped things up.

They do--in middle school. In professional-quality writing, they slow things down. Think of them as the cheap and easy way out, rather than the most descriptive. In the above sentence, if we whittled away the unnecessary qualifiers, we'd get a sentence more like this: "His back stooped with age, the man picked with painstaking concentration around the food cartons, cigarette butts, and yesterday's newspaper scattered across the soiled carpet."

An adjective or adverb used sparingly can be beneficial, but many times there is a better way to say what you're trying to say. We get in the habit of finding a noun and then plumping it up with a string of adjectives and think we've adequately described something. Most of the time, the better choice is to use more colorful verbs and even appositive phrases in the place of an adjective.

The goal is to paint a word picture, involving as many senses as possible, so that the readers don't see a simple one-dimensional cutout of your character, but feel as though they have been there.
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Backstory

Backstory is any part of your story that happened before the action starts. It is tempting when you begin to write to include everything you know about your character and your story. If you know it, you think your reader will want to know it too. And they do. But not right off the bat.

My agent, Rachelle Gardner, gives an excellent discussion of backstory on her blog, so I'll leave the rest to her. Click here and find out how to weave it in so you leave your readers wanting more.

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

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Be a Follower

I've added a new feature to this blog. If you'd like to be notified when I enter a new post, sign up to be a follower. I hope to add to this as I learn more and master various writing techniques. Learn along with me! Become a follower!

Making Characters Believable

The story whirring inside your head may be incredible. Your grasp of language and word-choice may be eloquent and gripping. But if you overlook one important element, your book will not hold the interest of a reader. It took me a while to get a grip on this element, and I most likely still have a ways to go. But the most important element to include in your writing is that your main character must be authentic.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you must give a complete physical description, similar to a police lineup. A few clear physical hints are good, but it goes beyond that. The reader must connect with your hero right from the start and that is far more difficult to achieve than it looks. Why is it that we instantly bond with some people, but others remain strangers at a distance? Watch television interviews with either celebrities or average Joe's. Why is that sometimes we're laughing right along with the person, and other times we snarl a bit?

It usually comes down to the likability of the person and that can translate a hundred ways. What makes a person likable?

Often it is their flaws. We all have them and it's nice to read about a character who has them too. They can't be TOO flawed, or they wan't be likable enough to be the heroes. Even a villain can be successfully used as a main character when he's seen as a whole person. When we know and understand the reasons he does what he does. We may not agree with him, but we keep reading to see what else he will do.

Heroes cannot be boring. Your normal, everyday life may be boring, but who would want to pay $12.99 to read about it? Even boring people can have fascinating events that propel them to react out of character and then the person is no longer boring. It is acceptable to portray your hero as an average guy, but put him immediately into a situation where he must do things an average guy wouldn't do. That action makes him above average, and therefore, interesting.

One of the mistakes I made early on--and tend to keep making--is to create a dull character who is a victim of her circumstances. Bad things keep happening to her and forcing her into situations where she does not wish to go. That is all right to a point. However, I tend to habitually make her too passive. I am learning to give her some spunk right off the bat. She should make a choice that puts her in harm's way, rather than have it always fall on top of her. We admire people who do courageous things, even if it's not the right thing. People who act, rather than re-act. And that action---in a good book--is what causes all the trouble.

See if you can create a character who is flawed, but likable, and have him/her jump into a situation for a good reason, that creates problems. Once you have a likable character, then you have the makings of a good book.
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Understanding Point of View

One common mistake among beginning writers is the failure to really understand point of view (POV). Novels published earlier than the eighties often confused point of view and we were used to it.

Current trend though, insists that authors stay true to the viewpoint character and not switch back and forth at random. Point of view is most easily illustrated by thinking of your keyboard (or pen or whatever you write with) as a movie camera. Picture looking through the viewfinder. Whatever you can see and know from there is your point of view.

For example, you may see that Jim is wearing a bloodred turtleneck and his face is downcast. You cannot, however, see what Jim is thinking, know why he picked that turtleneck unless he told you, or what he plans to do later. If your viewpoint character walks into a room, "see" that room through his eyes. Stop short of explaining things which cannot be known by the viewpoint character at that moment.

Is is entirely permissible and often desirable to switch points of view throughout your novel, adding texture and depth by looking at the situations from other viewpoints. However, there should be a clean break--a chapter break, leaving a double line of space, etc.--so that the reader knows you have switched characters. You cannot tell what Marla thinks and what John thinks in the same paragraph.

Yes, I know you've seen it done. So have I. Occasionally it works or is willfully overlooked when done by the masters. But neither you nor I are masters yet, so don't try it!

Camy Tang is the author of several romance books as well as a very informative blog for writers called The Story Sensei. She does a fantastic job of explaining Deep POV, which helped me tremendously.

Click here to learn more tricks for creating believable fiction.
http://storysensei.blogspot.com/2005/11/deep-point-of-view.html

How Long Is It?

When you begin to interact in the world of writers, there are a few terms that are taken for granted, ones that you should know and use easily.

First of all, manuscript length is measured in words, not pages. The number of pages the published book will have can vary greatly and is not evident in your unfinished manuscript. The typical paperback fiction--excluding romances and sagas--is between 70-100,000 words. This can translate into anywhere from 200 to 600 pages, depending on the printer, how chapters are divided, typeface, etc. Your computer-generated word-count is sufficient in explaining the length of your work.

Publishing avenues also vary greatly and you should understand the difference. Typically when asked if you've had a book "published," people mean "by an established, royalty-paying publishing house." Countless print-on-demand publishers, vanity publishers, and self-publishing options exist and can be an acceptable option for a writer--as long as you understand the limitations. Don't be fooled by the fancy ads on the Internet that advertise for "authors." Authentic publishing houses do not have to advertise. They are inundated with more manuscripts than they can possibly evaluate.

So if you are searching for a mainstream publishing opportunity, and the offer looks too good to be true---it is. If you have to pay THEM, it's not traditional publishing. These for-profit printers will pump you up with confidence that your book is fantastic, but the sad reality is, if you've got the bucks, you've got the book. Don't be sucked into this avenue unless you have a sure-fire way to market, promote, and distribute your book. The vanity publishers won't do this for you because they don't have any more clout than you do. The publishing world gives no credit whatsoever to a self-published book unless you have proven sales of tens of thousands of books.

There are reputable self-publishers out there, just be very careful who you're giving money to. If you're in a rush to get your book published and no traditional route opens up to you, it may be because the book doesn't have as much sales potential as you believe it does. The self-pubs won't give you the quality of editing found in the mainline houses and unfortunately, it usually shows in the quality of books produced.

That Dreaded Grammar and Punctuation

Ugh. Thought we were through with high school English class! I just want to write what I feeeeeeeel...The editor can clean up my spelling and grammar mistakes....

If you've ever said that, or even thought it, (No, I won't ask for a show of hands.) give yourself one swat. Now repeat after me: "I will not turn in shoddy work. No editor alive will like my story that much."

Like it or not, proper use of the English language is essential if you want others to enjoy your work. The fun part of fiction writing though, is that many of those pesky rules you learned in English class can be tossed aside. Sometimes. Tightening of your work often requires eliminating wordiness, and much of English grammar is wordy.

My favorite rule to break--and as a grammar snob, it took a while to accept this!--was the use of incomplete sentences. In fiction, especially close POV and snappy dialogue, using complete sentences is cumbersome. That's not the way we think or talk. Good fiction should be a very close reflection of reality, or at least believable fantasy. We don't speak in Auld English Syntax anymore, so neither should your characters, unless they happen to be uptight English grammarians. Like me.

The Bible of the publishing world continues to be The Chicago Manual of Style. If you don't own a copy, get one! And get familiar with it. The more you write, the less you will have to rely on it. The rules will become second nature. Especially if grammar was not your strong point, you need a reference guide more than you think you do.

You absolutely MUST learn the differences in the spelling and use of homonyms. (Ex: Don't use "their" when you meant "they're.") Mistakes like that leap off the page at editors and mark you as an amateur.

Another pet peeve amongst the writing elite is the use of (!) If you tend to be a high-strung dramatist like me, you will pepper your first manuscript with exclamation points. After all, we have to be sure the reader understands how intense, emotional, scary, perverse, disgusting...etc. the situation is.

WRONG! Readers hate them!! Exclamation points are annoying! See?!

One trick that helps tremendously is one I learned at a writer's conference from a successfully published author. He said he got over his fixation with exclamation points by using the Find/Replace feature in Word, replacing them with periods. Then as he did his edits, he had to justify every one. Usually the best option turns out to be rewriting the sentence with stronger verbs, or tighter writing that speaks for itself and doesn't require the dreaded (!)

Fine Tuning Your Manuscript

"Do NOT hand in your first draft!" I tell my middle school writing students.

They grin at me, clueless, and I know what they're thinking. "She won't know if it's my first draft or not. It sounded pretty good to me when I finished typing."

Oh yes, I do know. They are always so surprised, as though I'd magically peered into their houses and watched them whip the story out of the printer the night before class.

We authors are the WORST critics of our own work. When we read our story, we see what we think we said, not necessarily what's on the page. Learning to set creativity aside for awhile and pick up the red pen is a learned skill. It's not all about the grammar and punctuation either. Proper editing can make the difference between a ho-hum story and one that sings from the pages.

An excellent and often recommended source is the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown & Dave King. You can find it on Amazon quite cheaply here: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256235816&sr=1-1

Just as I can tell when my students haven't done the refining they should have done, any agent or editor can tell at first glance whether you know what you're doing. Don't kill your wonderful book by neglecting so many of the simple tricks that can set your work apart from the masses cluttering the desktops. Learn to edit your own work.

The Query Letter

Writing a good query letter is almost as important as writing a good book. The reason is that your god book will never make it to an agent or editor's desk without being preceded by an excellent query.

The purpose of a query letter is to whet the readers interest in your book. Do NOT try to tell the whole story. That's for the synopsis. The goal is to capture the editor's interest in a single page, let her know a bit about you and your writing experience, and give her a taste of the fantastic book that prompted the letter. Notice, I said a taste. Not a mouthful.

Some things you should NEVER do for ANY reason:
Promise that your book is the next DaVinci Code.
Say that God told you to write it and told her to represent it.
Drone on and on about your personal life.
Make the query longer than a page.
Use tiny font so you can get more in.

The basics of query writing are detailed more clearly in my agent's blog. Click here, learn the ropes, and happy querying!
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-write-query-letter.html

Writing the Query Letter

Another great resource for writing query letters has been written by New York literary agent, Noah Lukeman. I cannot overstress how important that first impression is, so there's no way you can "over-learn" it. Check out Mr. Lukeman's site and FREE download for sharpening your query skills. http://www.writeagreatquery.com/

The Fiction Proposal

So, you've finally done it! Weeks, months, maybe years of studying the craft, the market, the business of writing professionally and...Now what?

The uninitiated usually leap into the submission process with painful naivete, assuming that anyone who reads this precious bundle of words will be as swept away as you were in writing them.

So you print out that last page, or as is more common now, you save the finished draft in your computer file and start hunting for book publishers.

It's a bit daunting at first, realizing that publisher after publisher doesn't even want to SEE your baby if you don't have an agent.

An agent? you think. Do I need an agent? Surely I can do this myself.

And you can. Sometimes. But it's difficult, you finally realize, to be taken seriously or to get your manuscript looked at by those overworked, overwhelmed editors who may hold your future in their print-stained hands.

So you start shopping for an agent and discover WOW. It's as hard to get an agent as it is to find a publisher who will fall in love with your beautiful words. You think you've mastered the query letter, so what might you be doing wrong?

Here's a tip: Every agent has his or her own specialized preferences for the types of books they want to represent as well as the manner in which they want to recieve queries. DO NOT IGNORE THEIR STATED PREFERENCES. Before clicking send on any query, it is absolutely essential that you first research that particular agent, their submission standards,and whether or not they represent your particular kind of book. It is amazing how ingorant we writers are when we first decide to pursue publication. You must do your homework. There is no easy hop from writing your book to finding a publisher. Skipping any of these steps is a sure-fire way to be rejected again.

The link below from the Steve Laube Agency is an excellent resource for learning to write a successful book proposal. Although specific to his literary agency, this guide is still a standard for most agents and will at least help you get in the door.

Most writers hate the thought of condensing thier 80,000 word novel into a 2-3 page synopsis. We actually hate every section on this proposal, but get over it! Whine and stomp all you like, but if you're serious about the business of being a professional novelist, you'll hush up and learn to do it. As I tell my 13-year-old Algebra student: "Stop skipping steps! It doesn't work and you're setting yourself up for failure."

So writers, stop skipping steps! Click on the link and get started! Good luck! http://www.stevelaube.com/guidelines/

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