STET!

STET! on Hiatus

2012-01-01T10:02:00.001-05:00

Backspace regrets to announce that our wonderful newsletter editor and STET! blog manager, Amy Sue Nathan, is retiring. Amy's writing career took a seismic shift recently when her first novel, The Glass Wives, sold to Brenda Copeland at St. Martin's.

We hope you continue to enjoy the wealth of articles Amy has collected. STET! is an invaluable resource for writers thanks to her efforts. We'll miss her!

Should You Start At The End To Reach The Middle?

2011-12-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

by Tara Maya

Beginnings are difficult. Endings are difficult. But connecting them is the most difficult of all.

As usual, a few plot holes have opened up during revisions, a few broken bridges between the Beginning and the Ending. To fix them, to tie up the loose strings, I am writing from the outside in...from the beginning toward the middle, but also from the ending toward the middle, until the two meet.

To to this, I take each character's story arc and ask myself, Where does this person need to end up? Then I ask, where does this person need to begin? Then...in theory...it's just a matter of figuring out the steps in between. Generally I try to have each major character show up once a chapter, and supporting characters at least three times in the book. I have a lot of characters, so this in itself can be tricky. My main characters have one to three scenes per chapter.

Designing each individual story arc is not too hard, in and of itself; the tricky part comes when I juggle them. I have to make certain the logistics are feasible. Scene X logically must come before Scene Y. But I also try to coordinate the themes of each scene, which should contribute to the mini-story arc and theme of each chapter. (Each chapter has its own chapter theme, which contributes to the larger theme of the book.)

For instance, the chapter theme in the first book of The Unfinished Song: Sacrifice, is "Recrudescence," or the resurgence of a disease which had been dormant or cured. For a few characters, their recrudescence is literal, and they suffer a relapse of the disfiguring skin disorder they had when they were Shunned. For most of the others, however, the recrudesce plays out more symbolically. Kavio discovers an old enemy is back, in an unexpected position of strength. Brena meets the bear again and realizes her injury is getting worse. Gremo... well, I could go on, but I won't spoil anything by saying that Dindi also finds something won't stay down, so to speak.

Each scene focuses on a different character dealing with a relapse or reoccurrence of a problem or person who was supposed to be gone. The chapter as a whole contributes to the book's overall theme of sacrifice because the each person will realize in their own way that to truly conquer their problems, they have to do more. They have to give up more than they thought to gain what they want... possibly
much more than they are willing to give.

Tara Maya went to school for four years to study History and then after a while she went back to school to study History some more. Because four years of History just isn't enough. Academia may have taught her Strunk and White, but the School of Hard Knocks also taught her a thing or two. She's had jobs as a forklift driver, a mermaid and overseas humanitarian worker. She's lived and traveled all around the world: in a village in Cameroon, Africa; in a Buddhist nunnery in Nepal; in a secret Russian city; in Aceh, Indonesia on the same coast hit by the tsunami. She once swapped ghost stories on Halloween with a serial killer. She attended a Backspace convention in 2007 and it was fantastic.

Tara Maya's novel, INITIATE, first in the fantasy series, The Unfinished Song, was released by Misque Press in ebook and trade paperback form in January, 2011. Her second book, The Unfinished Song: TABOO is also now available. The third novel in her fantasy series, The Unfinished Song: SACRIFICE debuted August 30, 2011.

Traditional or Self Publish: Game Changer

2011-12-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

by Kathy Calarco

Inertia: A tendency to remain in a fixed condition without change; disinclination to move or act.

I've always valued open-mindedness. Critical thinking and viewing all sides before coming to a conclusion is the more logical path for me. Yet the subject of self-publishing took on a vivid black and white philosophy that didn't include fence sitting. True confession: I believed self-publication was an act of desperation.

Way back in the days before electronic publishing, self-publishing existed in print format. For a tidy sum one could pay to publish their book. Prices varied depending on the package, some upwards of a few thousand dollars. I checked it out once and when I saw it cost money that I didn't have, I took a pass. Preferring to take the traditional path didn't cost me a single penny - just tons of angst (and I'm not including fees for contests and writing workshops, etc. Those were necessary learning tools). Plus, for me selling to a traditional publisher would give me a huge sense of accomplishment.

I still feel that way, but lately I've considered changing my views of those who choose the self-publishing road. Many of my writer friends, who got closer to a traditional publisher's door than I ever did, have gone the self route. Many of these writers are excellent and extremely passionate about the craft, especially this one. It's just that the luck pendulum never swung in their direction. You know - right time; right place, etc. Thus, rather than leave their babies tucked away on the hard drive, they've unleashed them to the highway of electronic readers, circumventing the traditional route. Plus, they're making money and hopefully enough to justify their choice. (Side note: Those who print self-published of yesteryear most likely didn't recoup their investment.)

And who am I to denounce them for their choice? (A smug snob, that's who.)

Perhaps sometimes it isn't about how to publish but choosing to. Not all who choose the self-published route do so because they're sick of rejection. Not all do so out of desperation.

Maybe they just want to be read. And this notion struck me with brute force recently like a divine intervention. It makes me want to purchase a Kindle (again) so I might read the works by very talented writers. And maybe one day some of them will want to read my works...

That is if I have the nerve to put myself out there. And there's the rub. The self-published author possesses insurmountable courage. They have unleashed their babies for all to praise or call "meh." The latter scares me. Still, the self-published authors of the world , at least some, haven't let the "meh" reviews discourage them.

I wonder if self-publishing fulfills a desire for writers to see their hard work to fruition, which makes me question my former feelings about self-publishing. That's a good thing because to stop self-questioning is a dreadful form of inertia.

All said, I must step up and honor my fellow writers who choose self-publication. It's not about the bling, but always about honoring the art and thyself.

Here's to change and growth! May I remain true to myself while embracing the choices of others.

Kathy Calarco maintains the belief that it’s never too late in life for anything. Having returned to school at age 53, she’s currently studying for a degree in Liberal Arts with a focus on Humanities and English Literature. She writes contemporary literature and poetry, and maintains two blogs, Writeful Mumblings and Five Minute Sprint.

Writing Well is Hard Work

2011-12-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

by Rebbie Macintyre

Writing is hard any time, under any conditions. Not as hard as handling a jackhammer in 110 degree city heat, mind you. And not as hard as chasing toddlers around the house after working all day. And not as hard as dealing with a boss who's dumber than a bag of hammers.

But it's still pretty hard.

You know what in the English language is the dirtiest four-letter word? Hope.

Because we always have that hope, don't we, as writers? Hope that our project will outshine all the other work out there. Hope that we'll outshine our past projects. Hope that a big success may come our way because it's got to happen to someone, doesn't it? I mean, look at all those TV series and movies. They all started with the thing we do: a story.

But my post isn't about Hope. It's about the single basic building block of writers: words.

I just finished one of the best writing books I've read since Donald Maass--and if you've followed my posts, you know I'm a BIG fan of the Man. This book is The Writer's Portable Mentor, A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life by Priscilla Long.

A lot of stuff in that book. Good stuff. Hard stuff.

Like doing Lexicon Practice.

Long teaches that collecting words should be a regular, definite and specific habit for writers. She suggests buying a blank book--something with nice paper, something you want to keep for a while. Put two words per page, half a page each. Now this is not a typical vocabulary list full of words you learned for your high school English class. These are words that you find irresistible. Words that are, as Long says, juicy and hot. When you run across a word you like, put it in your Lexicon and later, when you make time, look it up and write down the definition and the root.

Put down words you know and like. Don't order your list. When you come across a word you like, add it to your Lexicon. Long suggests using concrete words, words that can be sensed. These are the words that make your writing "click" with a reader. Either nouns or verbs.

Words I have in my Lexicon so far: spindle, carroty, fissure, crawlspace, pockmark, felled, muck.

Nothing glamorous here. No movies or TV series.

Hard work. Good work.

See all those four-letter words?

What's in your Lexicon? Don't have one? Start today, in the comments section.

PS - I just found a new resource for building your writer's workable vocabulary: Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words.

*****

Rebbie Macintyre was born in America's heartland and now lives in Florida. She graduated from the University of Missouri and earned her master's degree at the University of South Florida. Her life experiences have provided the fodder for a number of her stories. She's been a teacher, counselor, salesperson, violinist, swimming coach, SCUBA diver and sludge truck operator. She enjoys hiking, biking, a glass of wine and mountain sunsets. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Her first novel, Cast the First Stone, was released in March, 2009. Her second book, A Corner of Universe, was released in February, 2010. Rebbie is a Backspace member.

On Rejection by author Adrienne Kress

2011-12-09T06:00:00.004-05:00

Rejection. It sucks. It truly does.

As writers and actors we have a heck of a lot of it, and, at least for me, it stings every time. It's very difficult when the product is something so personal. With acting, you are trying to basically sell yourself, and with writing you are trying to sell something that is a part of you.

Now of course we all cope in our different ways. Some deal with it matter of factly, it's business not personal. Some rage against the machine, telling everyone how much the industry sucks. Some sit quietly and mope.

And while some coping strategies may be better than others, I have always believed that the most important thing is to understand the pain.

This is what I have learned after years of acting and the whole writing thing. We are human beings. We feel sad when things don't work out. We can also feel angry, hurt, confused . . . even scared.

And there is nothing wrong with that. At all.

I feel sometimes we waste so much time beating ourselves up for feeling these feelings, that that in itself keeps us from moving on, past the pain of rejection. We live in a society where we have been told it is weak to cry. We are in businesses where others will note, "But you knew getting into it it would be really hard" and so we are not supposed to feel bad when the predictable happens.

Yeah, grand, whatever. We still feel what we feel. Whatever the feeling may be.

It's important, at least for me, to understand that no matter how I feel right now in the rejection state, I know I will not give up. This is a great thought to have because it then doesn't matter that you feel lousy now, or that you are full of self pity, because in the end you know that you aren't about to give up or anything. You're just being indulgent.

And that to me at least is the key. Instead of pretending the emotions don't exist, or being ashamed of them, I say indulge them. Not for a long time mind you, but take a day to just feel lousy. Vent to a caring friend. Cry into your pillow. Do whatever you need to do to purge the unhelpful feelings. Because then it's out. It's like, pardon the analogy, throwing up. Sometimes we consume something that is toxic to our system and our bodies automatically vomit it back up. And we feel better. Well "vomit" up the toxic emotions, lay them bare.

And then move on.

That is also very important.

DO NOT WALLOW.

There is nothing good that comes from wallowing.

The next day do something really proactive. Send out more queries, write a blog entry, write a novel, learn a monologue. Force yourself to feel that things are still somewhat under your control.

Of course this is only my coping strategy, some people have ones that suit them better. My point though is the solving of the problem comes not with the question of: "How do I stop feeling bad when I get rejected?" But rather: "How do I get past the emotions I inevitably feel when I get rejected?"

It's about acknowledging that you are human and feel things. Icky things. And then learning how to get past and cope with those icky feelings. Not get rid of them. But, in a really weird way, befriend them.

Now, I think it's time for others to share their coping methods! Don't be shy, we can all learn from each other!

Adrienne Kress is a Toronto born actor and author who loves to play make-believe. She also loves hot chocolate. And cheese. And her cat Atticus.

She is the author of two MG books: Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate (Weinstein Books) as well as a theatre graduate of the University of Toronto and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in the UK. Published around the world, Alex was featured in the New York Post as a "Post Potter Pick", as well as on the CBS Early Show. It won the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award in the UK and was nominated for the Red Cedar. The sequel, Timothy, was nominated for the Audie and Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards, and was recently optioned for film. She's also contributed to two anthologies out this Spring: Corsets & Clockwork (YA Steampunk Romance short story anthology, Running Press Kids), and The Girl Who Was On Fire (an essay anthology analysing the Hunger Games series - SmartPop).

Her debut YA, The Friday Society (Dial), comes out in the fall of 2012.

Originally posted March 28, 2008. Reposted with permission of the author.

Obtaining Cover Blurbs

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

by Jessica Faust

Any published writer knows that writing the book, querying, and finding an agent is the easy part of your publishing career. Once you find a publisher the real work begins, and part of that work is obtaining cover blurbs for your book—you know, those quotes from other authors praising your work and you as a new up-and-coming star author.

But whose job is it to get those quotes? Is it the author, the author’s agent, the publisher? One reader was recently told by her publisher that it’s best if she stay out of it and let the publisher handle the blurbs. This publisher felt that established authors don't always like blurb requests directly from the author (harder to turn down, criticize, etc.), but the author wanted to know if it was okay to go ahead and approach a few contacts anyway.

And this is why I can’t stress enough how attending conferences and being part of writing groups can pay off: it’s just as much about building those author relationships as it is about meeting editors and agents. If all goes well, your publisher, or your editor, will approach a select number of authors requesting blurbs on your behalf, but of course there is no guarantee that everything will go well. Certainly I’ve been in situations with publishers who have put 100% of the burden of obtaining blurbs on the author, and this is where all that networking comes in. Now it’s up to you to get in touch with those bestselling authors and request that they read your book.

Networking is important in this business, as it is in any business, but I know some of you are going to wonder what you can do in a situation like that if you have no opportunities to meet bestselling authors. Well, cold calling (or emailing) is certainly an option, but I would do it carefully and to only a few. I think your best bet, in a situation like that, is to discuss options and possibilities with your agent and see what she can come up with. Remember, agents have connections with authors far outside of just who we represent and might be able to help out more than you realize.

The important thing to remember in all of this is that no matter who you, your editor, or your agent approach, that author has every right to say no and that’s okay. An author’s schedule can be insane between writing the next book, revisions, edits, and yes, a large number of requests for blurbs. How that’s handled is up to the author. I know some who refuse to give blurbs, while others limit themselves to only a certain number a year. One thing that I stress to all my clients is that, no matter what, you should only blurb a book that you truly feel you can get behind. You don’t need to tell the author you didn’t like it, you can always just say you didn’t have time.

Originally published on the Bookends blog on August 13, 2009. Reposted with permission of the author.

As owner and literary agent at BookEnds, Jessica Faust prides herself on working closely with her authors to make their goals come to fruition. Currently she's seeking submissions in the areas of historical, contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and erotic romance; fantasy, steampunk, women's fiction, and mysteries; and YA, especially steampunk, dystopian, and fantasy YA. In nonfiction, Jessica specializes in current affairs, business, career, pop reference, parenting, women's issues, sex, and general nonfiction. While open to anything, Jessica is most actively seeking unique fiction with a strong hook, and nonfiction with creative ideas and large author platforms.

A veteran of publishing, Jessica began her career in 1994 as an acquisitions editor at Berkley Publishing, Macmillan, and Wiley, where she had the unique opportunity to acquire and edit both fiction and nonfiction. Jessica takes her editing experience to the agency, where she works closely with her authors to create the best possible proposal submissions.

Jessica has been a regular columnist with Romantic Times magazine, taught at New York University's Continuing Education Program, been recognized as Agent of the Year by the NYC Romance Writers of America chapter, and is asked regularly to speak at writers' conferences throughout the world. On average she is a guest speaker at eight conferences each year. She is a member of RWA, MWA, and AAR.

A native of Minnesota, Jessica now lives in New Jersey with her family. Her personal interests include cooking, entertaining, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

You can contact Jessica directly at jfaust@bookends-inc.com or follow her through Twitter at http://twitter.com/BookEndsJessica.

A Fiction Synopsis Is A Sales Tool

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

This post originally appeared on STET in March 2011. It's one of the best synopsis posts I've found online!

by Diana Peterfreund

I’ve been getting a bunch of requests for advice on how to write a synopsis for a novel. Most writers I know hate writing synopsis, loathe it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. I have a friend who calls them sucknopses — a term that drives me up a wall. I feel very much in the minority, because I love writing synopses. LOVE IT. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do in the entire process or writing a novel.

My love for writing synopses started early on in my career, and it changed my ability to write on a fundamental level. Now, armed with a synopsis, I can sally forth into the wilds of my story without fear of getting lost. I’ve got a road map.

I was taught to write synopses by Kathy Carmichael. Her synopsis writing workshops and handouts cannot be beat. Doesn’t matter if your synopsis is for romance or not (she has some especially for non-romance fiction. This is the place everyone should go — anything I would say about the nuts and bolts would be derived from her workshops. I cannot recommend them enough. I have not looked at them in years, however, because at this point, I kind of know what I’m doing, It’s like no longer referring to maps once you’ve driven the same route a few times.

So now that you know where I get my basic template for my synopsis, let’s move on to the special things I do.

Thing #1: I write my synopsis before I write my book.

I really think writing your synopsis before you write your books makes it SO much easier. You still have a firm hold on what your central story question is, and you aren’t distracted by all your pretty little details and funny lines and unique set details.

A portion of you have already run off in terror, because you belong to the group of writers who think that pre-planning takes all the fun out of it. I can’t tell you how many arguments conversations I’ve had about this with writer friends who think planning books out in advance is sheer madness. My brain does not work that way. Unless i have a plan it’s like getting in a car with no idea where I’m going. I prefer to have a destination in mind and a road map of how to get there.

Please note: this does not mean that I know every single thing that is going to happen in every scene on every page of my novel. (A lot of people who are on the “OMGNOOO, you PLAN?” bandwagon assume that it’s all or nothing in that manner.) Nor does it mean that things don’t change. To completely beat this “roadmap” metaphor into paste — sometimes you’re on the way to a certain place, and you have to take a detour. Or maybe you say to yourself — hey, let’s take this other road instead.” Or even decide to go to a different but related place. All cool.

But the interesting thing is that it probably won’t change the synopsis, much like if you decide to take a detour on your way to your favorite restaurant it’s unlikely worth mentioning to the people you’re meeting for dinner.

I judge a lot of unpublished writing contests, and the number one problem I see in a bad synopsis is that the author doesn’t know what details they should put in, and which ones to leave out. Writing the synopsis before you write the book helps avoid a lot of these problems because you don’t have any of the details yet.

For instance, say you are George Lucas, and you are writing a synopsis ofStar Wars. It probably doesn’t behoove you to bother mentioning that Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and Luke drink blue milk out of plastic glasses in the opening scenes. A person looking to buy your book doesn’t need to know that. You should spend your time mentioning that those new droids Uncle Owen and Luke just bought are actually refugees from a captured intergalactic ship who are carrying top secret information vital to the rebellion for some old hermit named Ben who lives in the mountains.

Which brings me to

Thing #2: A synopsis is a sales tool.

This is another tip from Kathy Carmichael. A synopsis is not your outline of the story, if you’re an outliner (though it can serve as one in a pinch). A synopsis is, in actuality, your opportunity to skip over flaws in your story. Again, let’s say you’re George Lucas, and you are, perhaps worried that your scoundrel smuggler character might be a little TOO over the top in that one bar scene where he shoots Greedo in cold blood. I mean, it makes sense in context and all, nails the character PERFECTLY, and it’s a totally awesome scene that should never ever have been changed (damn you, George, damn you) but you’re afraid that if you type: “while Han’s first mate, the giant fuzzy Chewbacca, negotiates with Obi-Wan and Luke, Han Solo meets with this ugly green dude who is looking for money Han owes to some other guy and Han shoots him” someone is going to go: “Man, this is not going to play well in Peoria…” You know what you do? You don’t mention it. Because

Thing #3: A synopsis is your chance to tell.

“Show, don’t tell?” Doesn’t apply in synopses. You don’t need to talk about Han shooting Greedo because you have already introduced the character Han as being a “scoundrel smuggler-type with few scruples — or so you think!”

In fact, that’s how you should start your synopsis (Kathy goes into far greater detail on this). “Character A is a such-and-such sort of person who wants such-and-such because of this reason. Unfortunately, he/she is thwarted in this desire by XYZ.”

(If you are writing a fantasy, even this might be pre-empted by some sort of statement about the world rules. For instance, the first paragraph about my Rampant synopsis explains how unicorns are not, in fact, the fluffy innocent sparkly magical pure being of myth and legends, but instead giant, man-eating venomous beasts that have fortunately been extinct for a century or so, only oops, not so much. Then I go into all sorts of stuff about Astrid.)

The other thing that helps you to figure out what detail you need to put in and which to leave out is to really be strict with yourself in terms of space. I cut my teeth writing synopses for inclusion in Harlequin submissions. At the time (might still be, I don’t know) Harlequin said that synopses had to be 2 pages long. That’s two pages for a 50-70k book (depending on what line you were targetting. So you learned to really concentrate on the characters and what made them tick. Usually, in such synospes, you were going to spend the first page on hero (space scoundrel/smuggler), heroine (intergalactic princess and rebel spy), and premise (it’s hatred at first sight when he rescues her from the evil intergalactic vizier/high priest’s evil planet-killing fortress), and the second page on what all happens to them after that.

Much more standard synopsis length is 1 (double spaced) page for every 10,000 words of manuscript. When you are just starting out, look at each 10k words and FORCE yourself to keep your synopsis to that length. You’ll be surprised how it makes you focus on what hte big plot points and turning points of your story are.

This article was reposted with permission of the author and first appeared on The Official Website of Diana Peterfreund.

*****

Diana Peterfreund has been a costume designer, a cover model, and a food critic. Her travels have taken her from the cloud forests of Costa Rica to the underground caverns of New Zealand (and as far as she’s concerned, she’s just getting started). Diana graduated from Yale University in 2001 with dual degrees in Literature and Geology, which her family claimed would only come in handy if she wrote books about rocks. Now, this Florida girl lives with her husband, her daughter, and their dog in Washington D.C., and writes books that rock.

For a full bio, click here. For a list of all Diana's books, click here.

How I Survived The 2011 Backspace Agent-Author Seminar

2011-11-21T12:16:00.000-05:00

by J.H. Bográn

At first I thought could not go at all. The truth is that the planning of this trip took calling in a couple of favors, an alignment of the stars, plenty of credit card miles and a suitcase full of traveling patience.

I left my house in San Pedro Sula, Honduras by 5:00 AM. which is a two-hour plane ride South of Miami. A direct flight to New York takes about five hours, but I had a seven-hour layover in El Salvador. I landed at JFK Airport around 11:00 PM. Then I rode three trains, crossed two rivers, arrived in Newark, NJ and crashed at my cousin's house.

One interesting thing happened during my flight. I was reading fellow Backspace member, Keith Cronin’s, novel Me Again. When I put the book down for a bit, I noticed the in-flight movie was beginning. I could not believe it at first: it was another fellow Backspace member, Sara Gruen’s, Water for Elephants! So there I was, going to the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar, reading a Backspace member's novel and watching a movie based on a Backspace member's novel.

The first day of the seminar I finally got to meet Backspace founder and international author, Karen Dionne (aka K. L. Dionne). We didn't have much chance to chat because she was running the event, but it was great meeting her after missing our chance at 2010’s Thrillerfest.

 The agent panels touched on the basics of the agenting business, the pros and cons, and the personal preferences of the agent panelists. I particularly enjoyed the second panel with an agent/editor combo. I finally learned what a “preempt sale” is as opposed to an auction. Duh!

Then we split and went to the individual workshops. I attended the Thriller/Mystery category since that's my genre. After the first session, with two agents commenting on the query letters brutal is the only adjective that came to mind.

 The agents stopped us from reading at the moment or place where they would stop reading and send out the formal rejection letter. Jeff Kleinman from Folio Literary Management and Meredith Barnes from Lowenstein Associates allowed me to finish reading my query but made comments to improve, particularly on the formatting, balancing and prior publishing credits. So I was okay, I guess.

 In the next session participants read the opening two pages of our manuscripts. Bit of advice: make sure you finish your breath mint before the start of session. You never know if you’re going to read first. I hastily swallowed my mint and then read aloud. The agent did not stop me, but her comments suggested my two pages were plagued with fillers. Not being a native English speaker I had feared my Latin accent would have a negative impact on my reading. I asked her after the session and she said it was not a problem. That comment alone made my day great!

The second day I arrived early and had a chance for small chat with Karen and her daughter. The two morning panels shed more light on the business, especially for the newcomer like me.

This query workshop had three agents. Some of the participants read a revised version of their queries from the previous day. When it was my time to read, I felt self-conscious reading the same query. However, the responses were quite different and the comments they made served to improve other areas.   During the afternoon two-page workshop, author John Gilstrap sat in the room during our readings. (We have to thank the hotel’s slow housekeeping for not having his room ready!) At the end of the reading John also gave some useful pointers.

 The two agents from this workshop requested full manuscripts from many of us. That was a change from the previous day.  The seminar ended with a very inspirational speech by John Gilstrap who earned a standing ovation.   But probably one of the best parts was when a bunch of us got together at the bar, John Gilstrap included. It's great to meet agents and get amazing feedback, but it's really fun to hang out with a best-selling author at the end of it all!

J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is the son of a journalist. He ironically prefers to write fiction rather than fact. José is the author of TREASURE HUNT, the first in the series of a professional thief that goes by the handle of The Falcon. Other works include short stories, contributor to The Big Thrill magazine, co-screenwriter for two TV serials and movie reviews for Honduran newspaper La Prensa. He’s a member of the International Thriller Writers and of writer’s online community Backspace.

You can find him on the WEB, on Twitter @JHBogran, Facebook and Blogger.

Top Ten Reasons Writing Fiction Rocks

2011-11-16T09:04:00.000-05:00

by Merry Monteleone

10. The only numbers you have to worry about are page numbers and word count – and MS Word takes care of that for you.

9. When one of your characters pisses you off, you can get even with him in all sorts of diabolical ways – try that with your coworkers.

8. Seriously, when else will you get to plot a bank heist and not wind up arrested?

7. In normal society, when you sit around talking to yourself, they call you crazy. When you tell them you’re a writer, you become, ‘creative’.

6. You can strike fear in the hearts of friends and acquaintances by hinting that they’ll be included in your novel. (They all think they’ll be included either way, of course).

5. A writer’s daily adventure is only limited by his or her imagination. Pirate play, anyone?

4. You can wade waist deep in books and information on any topic that catches your passion – and it’s called research!!! Come on, how much cooler does it get?

3. You can populate your story with the most colorful, loyal, witty, amazing people you’ll ever meet – and then you get to hang out with them and call it work!

2. There is no dress code for writing fiction.

1. Writing gives you a chance to make sense of the story. It doesn’t replace life, but it makes the experience of living more powerful.

What reasons make your list? And have you done any writing today?

Merry Monteleone writes in the Chicagoland area, while raising thee children and sometimes juggling sharp utensils. She blogs at Mom and More. The "Mom" part is self-explanatory. The "More" part is most often about fiction writing.

How to Crush Clichés in Your Writing

2011-11-09T07:35:00.000-05:00

by Amy Sue Nathan

According to Wikipedia:

A cliché or cliche (pronounced UK: /ˈkliːʃeɪ/, US: /klɪˈʃeɪ/) is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. The term is frequently used in modern culture for an action or idea which is expected or predictable, based on a prior event. Typically a pejorative, "clichés" are not always false or inaccurate;[1] a cliché may or may not be true.[2] Some are stereotypes, but some are simply truisms and facts.[3] Clichés are often for comic effect, typically in fiction.

Most phrases now considered clichéd were originally regarded as striking, but lost their force through overuse.[4] In this connection, David Mason and John Frederick Nims cite a particularly harsh judgement by Salvador Dalí: "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."[5] (gotta love this one)

A cliché is often a vivid depiction of an abstraction that relies upon analogy or exaggeration for effect, often drawn from everyday experience. Used sparingly, they may succeed. However, cliché in writing or speech is generally considered a mark of inexperience or unoriginality.

I couldn't have said it better myself. So I didn't. But when you're creative writing, especially for publication, you must say it better yourself. That's the point. Clichés appear witty -- after all -- the writer thought to use the perfect saying for the perfect moment. In reality? Clichés are lazy. Someone else wrote it and it's already a well-know colloquialism. Ho hum, booooooring. You didn't do any of the work.

But I'll be honest, for me, clichés have their place and my first drafts are strewn with them, along with phrases like find another word for itch or find a good way to describe a dress. In first drafts I write fast and I write anything to get my thoughts into the Word doc -- knowing I'll revise least three or four times before I officially consider it a first draft. I use clichés "like crazy" because the phrase reminds me of what I want to say, but not how I want to say it. Then I go back and find every cliché, something I learned to do in a Margie Lawson class. And believe me, it takes more than one pass through a manuscript to find them all. They come dressed in literary camouflage. Check out this website for a comprehensive list of clichés -- and do the best you can to nix 'em, by just deleting the clichés, or, fix 'em, by rewriting them in your own words, in your voice.

Because saying good-bye to clichés means saying hello to better writing. And that's the point. Right?

Amy Sue Nathan’s debut novel, The Glass Wives, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in 2013. Amy’s fiction has been published in Grey Sparrow Journal, Rose and Thorn Journal and Scribblers on the Roof. Her essays and columns have been published in the Chicago Tribune, theNew York Times online, the Washington Post online,Chicago Parent and in regional print publications nationwide. Amy is also a freelance fiction editor, the social media liaison for Backspace: The Writer’s Place and the founder of Women’s Fiction Writers, a blog that features women’s fiction authors and focuses on writing and publishing women’s fiction. She is also a member of the RWA-WF chapter.

When Amy isn’t reading or writing she looking for things to read and write about, but has also been seen enjoying reality TV – maybe a little too much. She is the mom of a son in college, a daughter in high school and two rambunctious dogs who like to wake her before the alarm rings, no matter what time that happens to be.

You can follow Amy on Twitter @AmySueNathan and contact her through her website AmySueNathan.com.

Writers: How to Reach Your Goals with the First Two Pages

2011-11-02T08:59:00.000-04:00

originally posted on STET November 8, 2010

By Tamara Girardi - The Girardi Diner

On Thursday and Friday afternoon, Backspace Agent-Author Seminar attendees will share their first two with roomfuls of agents and authors. The experience can be daunting and invaluable. Again, though, the conference is not necessarily the place to learn how to write your opening pages.

Attendees will learn at the sessions, without a doubt. But a little pre-conference homework can go a long way.

Homework Assignment #1: Field Research

I bet you’re thinking, “Wait, is this crazy lady really giving me homework?” The answer is, “Yes.” I’m a teacher. It’s what I do.

So, go to your bookshelf and retrieve five books in your genre. I write young adult, so I’ll be looking at young adult books. In each book, turn to the opening page. Read the first line. What do you think? Does it grab you? Is it filled with action? Voice?

Continue reading. Are you doing so because the page is well-written, and you want to continue reading? Or because I said so? If it’s the former, what makes you want more? Take some notes.

Continue reading, evaluating, and note-taking. After you read the first two pages of Book #1, move on to Book #2, and start over. Continue through Book #5 or Book #15 if you wish.

For instance, I’ll go first.

I’m reading Kody Keplinger’s THE DUFF. The opening line is: “This was getting old.”

Immediately, I wonder, “What’s getting old?” Likewise, the narrator’s voice is strong. Moving on.

“Once again, Casey and Jessica were making complete fools of themselves, shaking their asses like dancers in a rap video. But I guess guys eat that shit up, don’t they? I could honestly feel my IQ dropping as I wondered, for the hundredth time that night, why I’d let them drag me in here again.”

The voice continues to sing. I meet two other characters and get an entertaining, striking image of them. And I’m still intrigued. Where did they bring the narrator? What would make her come if she really didn’t want to? Why isn’t she out their shaking her ass like a dancer in a rap video?

I would read on. Would you? Remember that personal preference has a lot to do with whether agents will request pages from an author in the same way personal preference dictates my book shelf is holding titles that are different from those on your bookshelf.

Homework Assignment #2: Expert Advice

Head back to your bookshelf, and this time retrieve a book on writing. Since it seems to fit, I’m going with Noah Lukeman’s THE FIRST FIVE PAGES: A WRITER’S GUIDE TO STAYING OUT OF THE REJECTION PILE.

Scan through your book to see what the writer says specifically about or could generally be applied to the opening pages. As Lukeman writes, “[This book] assumes by scrutinizing a few pages closely enough – particularly the first few – you can make a determination for the whole. It assumes that if you find one line of extraneous dialogue on page 1, you will likely find one line of extraneous dialogue on each page to come.”

So if the book in your hands focuses on how to write well, then it applies to the first two pages.

Now look for specific tips you can apply to your opening pages. Lukeman offers “more is less.” He is specifically talking about a string of adverbs or adjectives, a violation I have noticed in workshopping many first pages. The solution is to “cut back your usage. Amazingly, you can improve your prose simply by going through your manuscript (with an eye for this) and reducing the sheer number of adjectives and adverbs,” Lukeman says.

Lukeman warns against telling and advocates for showing. Regarding characters, he warns against using names that are too cliché or outlandish, introducing too many characters at once, and creating a protagonist who is unsympathetic.

What did you find in your book? How might you apply this to your manuscript?

If you do not have a book on writing handy or if you want further reading on the subject (good for you!), take a look at the three web sites below. Good luck on tightening up your first few pages, and don’t forget, as Lukeman says, to apply those tips to the whole of your manuscript as well.

How to Impress an Agent With the First Page of Your Novel
http://www.ehow.com/how_4875798_impress-agent-first-of-novel.html

Miss Snark Critiques Opening Pages
http://misssnark.blogspot.com/search/label/Crapometer-first%20pages

The Opening or Making the Average Joe Unaverage http://backspacewriters.blogspot.com/2010/06/opening-or-making-average-joe-unaverage.html

Tomorrow: Last-minute conference planning and celebrating success.

*****

Tamara Girardi is a PhD student in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Composition and TESOL program and earned a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2005. She teaches literature and composition and freelances for Pittsburgh area newspapers. She has been a member of Backspace since 2007 and will share her query and first two pages from her young adult paranormal novel THESE WALLS CAN TALK at the upcoming Agent-Author Seminar.

Follow her on Twitter (@TamaraGirardi) for up to the moment conference news.

The Three P's of Conference Attendance (Or Why a Writer's Conference is Not a Reality TV Show)

2011-10-28T07:16:00.000-04:00

This post originally appeared on STET! on September 9, 2009

by Tanya Egan Gibson

Ah, conference season! You walk in, pitch memorized, nametagged, and first five pages in hand, ready to...

...berate Very Famous Editor during a morning one-on-one for not recognizing your manifest talent?

...interrupt lunch conversation between your roommate and Very Famous Agent about their mutual adoration of labradoodles to "unobtrusively" slip in a plug for your novel?

...sidle up to Very Famous Author at an evening social event and let her know she needs to read your manuscript because she'll love it and will want to help you get an agent (her agent, not Very Famous Agent, who is a jerk for having ignored you) and could she maybe take it back to her room (since you happen to have all 600 pages on you) and start it tonight?

You're thinking, I'd never do that. Who would DO that? No one does that! But, here's the thing: people do. Nice-in-real-life people, even. Nice-in-real-life-but-feeling-desperate-because-they've-paid-for-a-conference-and-worked-so-long-and-hard-on-their-manuscripts-and-now-something-has-to-happen people.
Um, people? (Not you, but the aforementioned-multi-hyphenated people.) A conference isn't a reality TV show. Simon isn't judging you. No one's going to vote you off the island. And there's more than one winner.

Attending The Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, in particular, garnered me invaluable feedback on my writing from participants and staff alike, a network of other writers, and even a recommendation from an author to his agent-who eventually became my agent. But all this happened over time--I attended for the first of four times in 2000, my agent agreed to represent me in 2006, and my first novel was just published this spring (with some the jacket "blurbs" coming from SVCW staff authors I'd met over those years).

Conferences, I learned over all that time, are more about process than product. And so, to that end, here are three "P-words" to remember if you find yourself morphing into the kind of desperado who tries to hand a Very Important Anybody a manuscript during a bathroom break. In the bathroom.

Patience. If your manuscript isn't ready, it isn't ready. Take feedback and criticism and resolve to improve. Even if you do have a great finished product, you can't force things to "happen" at a conference. You'll be more relaxed (and more fun to be around for everyone, including the Very Important Someones) if you go in hoping to make contacts instead of expecting a contract. This is not an American Idol audition, your one shot at getting "discovered." (And you don't have to do/say/wear anything outrageous to "get noticed.")

Politeness. Very Important People are people. Treat their feelings and needs as important and respect their desire not to be pitched 24/7. Remember, too, that agents, editors and authors are trying to give you advice to improve your craft, not cut you down. You don't earn votes from the audience for "standing up for yourself" when Simon says you sound off-key or picked the wrong song. What you earn is a reputation for being difficult. Be equally polite to the other attendees. Don't brag or hog time or attention. You are not Head of Household, Leader of the Tribe, or this week's Top Model.

Perseverance. If something doesn't go as you hoped--you write YA urban fantasy and get assigned to an agent whose specialty is war memoirs, or an editor lets you know that the novel you thought was finished is many drafts away from being "done"--make the best of it and resolve to forge onward. There is more than one show. And there are infinite episodes-most of which take place without an audience, just you and your computer screen staring back at each other while you do the real work.

(This post was adapted from an article that originally ran in the California Writers Club's Bulletin. If you live in California, you might check out one CWC's many branches or attend one of its conferences, where you should not follow any Very Important Anyones into the restrooms.)

*****
Tanya Egan Gibson's debut novel, HOW TO BUY A LOVE OF READING, was published by Dutton in May 2009. An alumna of Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she is mother to a four-year-old who creates construction-paper books she insists Mommy "get published" and an infant tyrannosaurus who teethes on copies of HTBALOR, and wife to the most patient man in the universe. Please visit her website at http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com, where you can share your story about how reading changed your life.

Introvert in the Conference Room by Pamela Toler

2011-10-26T07:13:00.000-04:00

Originally posted on STET on April 22, 2011

The writing conferences that I signed up for with such excitement in February are drawing near, and I am filled with my annual combination of dread and nausea. I get so much out of going to conferences--and they take so much out of me.

My name is Pamela and I am an introvert.

Some of my freelancing friends complain about isolation. They miss the camaraderie of the corporate coffee pot. Not me. My extrovert husband and his extrovert family insure that I have more than enough human contact. I thrive alone in my study, happy when the phone doesn’t ring. (A career run largely through e-mail? Heaven!) Left to my own devices, I could go for days speaking only to my cat and the clerk at the produce market.

Which brings me back to my annual venture into the introvert hell known as the writers' conference.

The first time I attended a writing conference I tried to follow the good advice that appears in many places about getting the most out of the experience. The result? Three days of conference followed by three days of a migraine so bad I wanted to cut my head off.

Over the years, I've learned to adapt that good advice to fit introvert reality.

Build down time into your schedule.

The accepted wisdom is that you should go to breakfast, lunch, and dinner with fellow conference go-ers--not to mention attending cocktail parties and hanging out in the bar. The idea is that you develop long-standing friendships with other writers. Which is a good thing. Unless it leaves you curled up in a miserable ball at the end of the day.

Choose the parts of the conference that are most valuable to you and assume that everything else is optional. Eat meals by yourself if you need to. Go for a walk if there's a session with no panels the interest you. Run up to your room for ten minutes between sessions. (I will eat beans and rice for a month if that's what it takes to afford a room by myself in the conference hotel.)

Give yourself a people goal.

Down time doesn't mean don't talk to anybody for the entire weekend. Take the energy you save by eating lunch alone and put it to good use. Some introverts I know give themselves the goal of talking to one specific person: a dream agent, an on-line friend they're dying to meet IRL, an author whose work they admire. Personally, I find tracking down a specific person both creepy and distracting. My own goal for every conference is to have a conversation with three new people each day and say thank you to someone over the course of the weekend. (Possibly an author whose work I admire.)

Don't forget to congratulate yourself when you fill your goal.

Volunteer

It's easier to enjoy a party if you have something in your hands. It's easier to

enjoy a conference if you have an official task.

Do I need to explain this further?

There is always someone at the conference who is more of an introvert than you are. Reach out to her.

I know. This feels like it can't possibly be true, like one of those algebra theorems that prove you can always increase infinity by one. Logically, there has to be someone at every gathering who is the most introverted person there and by the law of averages sometimes that person is you--or me. Right?

Here's the deal. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. Find someone who's standing in a corner of the room holding her coffee cup in a death grip. (If you’re going to the ASJA conference in April or Backspace in May, keep an eye out for a short, plump redhead with glasses.) Walk over. Say hello. Ask her what she writes.

You'll both feel better. Trust me.

I won't lie to you, fellow introverts. These ideas don't make going to conferences easy. (I still come home from a three-day conference feeling like I need at least four days alone to recover.) They do make attending a writers' conference possible and productive.

What's your best tip for surviving as an introvert in the conference room?

Pamela Toler is a freelance writer specializing in history and the arts, an aspiring novelist, and a kick-ass cook.

She can be found on twitter as @pdtoler.

For more information on The Backspace Agent-Author Seminar click here.

Jeff Kleinman's Guidelines to Good Conference Attendeeness

2011-10-24T08:46:00.000-04:00

With the Backspace Writers Conference & Agent Author Seminar just a few weeks away, we once again bring you Jeff Kleinman's Guidelines to Good Conference Attendeeness.

Step #1. TALK to fellow participants.

A couple of months ago I whined about how tough it was to get a project that was really ready to go – a project with a great voice, great writing, great concept. Do you realize what a huge boon you have at these conferences, literally tripping over published authors and – possibly even more intriguing – other wannabe writers who could be an enormous asset to you – reading drafts of your manuscript, offering a different perspective on your work? I always feel that authors are so focused on the editor-agent thing that they forget about the people sitting right next to them, the other writers who could actually be of huge assistance to them. I honestly think that it’s not at all a bad idea to ignore the editors and agents prancing around and just sit down in the hotel lobby with a couple of other writers, trying to create a community, a sounding-board – trying to make a connection to someone whose insights could really prove valuable. If you go to a writer’s conference, just try this (no matter how painful and terrible it is – and believe me I’d hate to do it myself, so I feel for you). Turn to the person sitting one seat down from you (because you always sit with empty seats on either side if you can help it) and say, “Hello, my name is [fill in your name – not mine] and I’m working on a book about [one-sentence description of your book]. What are you working on?” See if you have some kind of common ground. You might not, of course – the person sitting one seat down from you could be an absolute dragon with terrible breath and appalling clothes – but then again, you might make a worthwhile connection. If for no other reason, writer’s conferences are great places to (hem) meet other writers, so meet them, for goodness sake.

Step #2. Take Conferences With More Than One Grain of Salt.

It’s true that, as billed, conferences are one of those rare occasions when you have a chance to meet people on the other side of the mailbox – editors, agents, PR and marketing professionals, and so forth. We’re generally called in to do a bunch of different tasks at these events – lectures, workshops, manuscript evaluations, one-on-one meetings, etc. Often we choose sexy and compelling titles for our talks – stuff like “Write A Bestselling Novel in 5 Minutes A Day and Lose 30 Pounds in the Process,” or “Become Independently Wealthy and Emotionally Fulfilled Through Freelance Writing.” Point being: we have a lot of information that we can impart, and certainly knowing the business side of things can be really helpful, but don’t get too sucked into these kinds of talks. Your business is writing, so make a connection with the writers. Use whatever information you find useful from these editors and agents, and throw out the rest. Whatever you do, don’t panic, hearing the kind of stuff we talk about. Sometimes people get all upset, going to a talk about, say, “Trends in Nonfiction” – someone on the panel will say that memoirs are dead, and all the memoirists in the audience will gasp and turn blue; and the reality is that no trend is dead – it just hasn’t had the next breakout book to hit yet. Let’s face it, Marley & Me is just a memoir about a guy and a dog, and there are millions of those stories out there – so who will want to buy another book like that? Millions of people, apparently. So don’t take what we have too say too seriously.

Step #3. Use Proper Etiquette When Talking To Publishing Folk.

OK, if I haven’t lost you yet, then you’ve hung on for the real reason I was writing all this today. Conferences are opportunities to meet and speak with (either in a structured one-on-one setting, or informally over lunch or a beer) editors and agents – who, for the purpose of this discussion, shall henceforth be termed PF, for “Publishing Folk”. There’s a possibility to talk to these folk about your project, get their feedback – who could resist such an opportunity? Before you go and talk to them, though, here are a few handy-dandy rules to print out (with the proper copyright notice, please: © Jeff Kleinman 2006) and carry with you everywhere. They’re listed in order of importance, of course (but from most to least important, or least to most, I’ll let you decide).

1. Never hand your manuscript to PF without being asked to do so.

That means don’t push it under the bathroom stall, shove it under the hotel room door, leave it for them at the front desk, staple it to their windshield wipers, etc. That’s considered “unsolicited,” and you don’t want to do that. If PF ask you for your material, that’s a whole different thing, of course.

2. Be prepared.

Have a proposal (if NF) or the first 50 pages (if F) available, in case PF ask to see it after all. It should be nicely formatted and all that kind of nonsense.

3. Know Your Log Line.

A typical conversation with PF goes as follows:

You: I wrote a book.
PF: You did? Huh. What’s it about?
You: Many many longwinded sentences about your book.
PF: Huh.

Be able to boil your book down to a single sentence – and make it a single sentence that generates the following response from the PF: “Oh, wow, that sounds terrific – can I read it?” That “wow” is a very difficult thing to achieve, so it’s worth really thinking about what makes your book, and/or you, special/interesting/different/remarkable. If you can’t do it yet, that’s OK – then probably the project isn’t ready for PF after all. Use the single sentence as a test for yourself: if you can’t sum up the book succinctly and in a way that engenders immediate interest, keep rewriting the book until you can.

4. Research The PFs Ahead of Time.

All PFs are not created equal. Some PFs, like yours truly, do not represent romance novels. Other PFs, like yours truly’s partner Paige Wheeler, do. It would be a mistake to ask yours truly about your paranormal romance, because I wouldn’t know a paranormal romance from a three-toed black sloth – in fact I’d certainly know a three-toed black sloth much better. You can find out about PFs from a variety of websites (including Natalie’s fabulous one). Just because you research the PF ahead of time, though, doesn’t mean that you should necessarily contact the PF and try to set up a meeting – that can be confusing and difficult to manage, since the PF is often at the mercy of the conference’s schedule.

5. Don’t Ask Overly Specific Questions at the Q&A.

Q&As are times for general questions, not opportunities for you to discuss your project with a room full of strangers.

6. Relax.

On several occasions at conferences, someone sits down across from me, we introduce ourselves, and then the writer on the other side of the table bursts into tears. It’s a truly weird and horrible feeling to be sitting there watching a grown woman, carefully made up, sobbing into a wad of typescript. Remember: these PFs are generally nice people. They’re generally interested in what you have to say. They’re not mean, or cruel, or vicious – and if they are, you certainly don’t have to take it; just get up and walk away. But I’d say pretty much everybody who does these conferences is a pretty nice person, most of the time – so just talk. Know what your book is about, be able to discuss it concisely and passionately. And then be ready to listen, to hear the questions the PF asks, be ready to respond concisely and passionately.

7. Know that It’s All in the Writing.

Let’s repeat that: It’s All In The Writing. Conferences can be fine things, and being able to talk about your project concisely and passionately is a fine thing, too; but in the end it boils down to the words that are laserprinted on that page. PF may ask to see your material; PF may jump for joy after hearing your description; but bottom line is that PF must read your material. So although it’s always good to have the bells and whistles in place, it’s even better to have a gorgeously written manuscript. The writing is everything.

And there you have it. If you go to a conference, have a great time (and buy me a beer, if I’m there).

Excerpted from Folio Literary Management's website:

I am one of the founders of Folio Literary Management, LLC. I wanted to establish an agency that is forward-thinking and able to offer services that "traditional" literary agents don't provide, so in 2006 I joined with my partners to establish Folio.[Image]Over the course of my career I've represented many successful books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks, Mockingbird by Charles Shields, and The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty. I have also had the privilege of representing the critically acclaimed Finn by Jon Clinch, Sacco & Vanzetti by Bruce Watson, and Enslaved by Ducks by Bob Tarte. My list is comprised of projects with unusual premises; books that offer up some new perspective on something I thought I already knew or never dreamed existed; and wonderful, character-driven novels. That's what I'm looking for.

There's Still Time To Help East Harlem Get Its First Bookstore

2011-10-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

Did you know East Harlem doesn’t have an independently owned bookstore? It’s hard to believe the neighborhood that nurtured writers such as Piri Thomas (Down These Mean Streets) and Nicholasa Mohr (Nilda) doesn’t have a bookstore to support current and future generations of writers.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda is looking to change that by opening a brick-and-mortar store in East Harlem. Aurora is the owner of La Casa Azul, an online bookstore. An anonymous benefactor has offered to match up to $40,000 in donations raised through October 24, 2011. So every donated dollar translates into two dollars that will help open a Latina-owned, independent bookstore.

Open a bookstore and you educate a community. Help educate the community of East Harlem and beyond by donating to Aurora’s 40K in 40 Days campaign and/or by sharing this information widely. To donate, and for more details, please visit: http://www.indiegogo.com/lacasaazulbookstorenyc

From Aurora Anaya-Cerda:

Dear La Casa Azul Bookstore friends and family,

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I announce the ‘40K in 40 days’ campaign to open La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem! Every dollar you give to the ‘40K in 40 days’campaign will have twice the impact! That’s because until October 24, 2011 a generous donor will match, dollar for dollar, every donation we receive – up to a total of $40,000.

About me:

Since 2001 I have worked and volunteered in 5 bookstores, taken countless business classes, attended book-selling school (twice), and travelled the country meeting with booksellers, studying the diverse business models. I have also established relationships with publishers and authors nationwide.

I have operated the La Casa Azul as an online store since 2008. Since then I have hosted over 60 events (book signings, readings, book clubs) in local cultural institutions, schools and cafés. I founded the Barrio Book Club and established the annual East Harlem Children’s Book Festival.

La proxima pagina:

The ‘40K in 40 days’ campaign will secure the funding necessary to open La Casa Azul Bookstore as a real, physical, retail space! Using the concept of placemaking, La Casa Azul Bookstore aims to create a business that is much more than your average retail store by offering book clubs, author signings, story time for children and a community meeting space. La Casa Azul Bookstore will sell new & used books, coffee, pastries, art, clothing and locally-made cards and gifts. A fresh stock of books by local and Latino writers will help solidify our niche as a purveyor of authors of local and regional interest. La Casa Azul Bookstore will cross-promote with local businesses to highlight the importance of sustainability & buying locally. We will continue to work with area schools and nonprofits to promote literacy in the East Harlem community.

Be a part of the Founder’s Circle:

The money raised in the ‘40K in 40 days’ campaign will guarantee a MATCHING investment from a generous donor. You give a dollar – the donor gives a dollar. Just like that, the impact of your contribution is immediately doubled! Your contribution to the ‘40K in 40 days’ campaign automatically makes you a member of the Founder’s Circle and your name is added to the donor wall. In addition, there are perks for the different contribution levels, plus the satisfaction of knowing you participated in the opening of independent bookstore in El Barrio!

The money raised will be used to purchase inventory, bookshelves, fixtures, café equipment and pay for permits. Most importantly, it will secure the deposit on a retail space and allow for La Casa Azul Bookstore to open its doors in 2012.

Sounds exciting, right? It is! But, again, I need your help to get this project off the ground.

Bookstores are a crucial part of a community’s cultural, educational and social character. Help me establish La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem to continue connecting people, books, and the ideas they bring together. I can’t do this work without you.

With gratitude,

Aurora Anaya-Cerda

40K in 40 days campaign information:

Indiegogo campaign link:www.indiegogo.com/lacasaazulbookstorenyc

Web: lacasaazulbookstore.com

Twitter: @lacasaazulbooks

Blog: luchalibrosnyc.blogspot.com

Email: lucha.libros@gmail.com

When Will Your Book Come Out?

2011-10-17T07:28:00.000-04:00

Originally posted on STET in December 2010.

by Anne Greenwood Brown

In Guide to Literary Agents, agent Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary posted an excerpt from her 2009 book, Writing Great Books For Young Adults. In her post she enumerated the author’s 25 steps to publication.

For me and those of you who are constantly being asked, “So, when does your book come out” (often times when you haven’t even finished writing it yet!), the list proves to be a valuable tool to educate your friends and family. Let’s just call it a gentle way to say “Quit asking before I spontaneously combust!”

I shared it with my dad who said it was worthy of a Minnesota “Uff da.” And for those of you from other states, that (as they say) is saying something.

Regina Brooks’ list is below. The parenthetical commentary is mine.

Author writes the manuscript. (Finally crossing it off her “Things to do Before You Turn 40″ List.)
Author revises the manuscript. (And if the author is smart, revises and revises and revises, and moves that comma back-and-forth a few times, and changes “walk” to “amble” and then back to “walk” because why should author be so pretentious?)
Author gets critiques (if the author is humble and realistic enough to know he/she needs outside feedback) and implements necessary changes. (And revises again. Because, after all, “amble” did sound so dangliterary!)
Author submits queries to agents. (No doubt too early–should have gone back to step 2 for another go around.)
Author secures agent. (If author manages to get out of the slush pile.)
Author makes changes per agent’s feedback. (If author is not a megalomaniac. See Writer Unboxed post on this subject.)
Agent submits work to publishers. (At this point, writer loses all control and waxes nostalgic about steps 1-3)
Editor reads the manuscript and tells agent she is enamored and plans to share with the editorial board. (If lightning strikes twice!)
Editor shares the manuscript with the editorial board. (Who–God forbid–may still decline it!)
Editor prepares profit and loss (P&L) statement for the book.(Author has drinks with friends and peruses Vogue Magazine for red carpet dress because, after all, Hollywood can’t be too far behind.)
Editor contacts agent and makes an offer.
Agent shares offer with the author. (Author can’t believe she’s come this far and the numbers just float in a flurry around her head. Wonders how much chocolate she can buy for that.)
Agent negotiates the terms of the offer with editor. (Author distracts his/herself by focusing on current WIP)
Agent reviews actual contract, makes additions and deletions to the clauses in agreement in the best interest of the author, and sends it back to the publisher’s legal counsel.
Editor sends final contract to agent.
Agent sends contract to author for signature. (Author realizes she should have used a pen name and wonders how to get chocolate fingerprints off the contract.)
Editor prepares editorial notes for author, and the author revises again. (Terror! But, ah, a sense of relief, too because now the author has something to do again.)
Author submits final manuscript. (And crawls under the covers.)
Editor reviews the manuscript and then prepares it for production. (Author resumes the “Waiting Game”)
Editors in production department copyfit and proof the manuscript.
Editor sends copyedits to the author for review.
Author reviews last pass of manuscript after proof.
Editor prepares back cover copy, catalogue copy, and other tools to sell the book. (Author sees light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.)
Publicity sends out galley copies to media for review.
Book is published and starts to be sold.(Maybe two years after Step 7)

Whew! And THAT, dear friends, is when our books will come out!

*****

Anne Greenwood Brown is a guest blogger on Writer Unboxed and Book End Babes. She writes Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and is represented by Jacqueline Flynn of Joelle Delbourgo Associates. Her creative non-fiction has been published in Literary Mama. Anne lives in Minnesota with her husband and three above-average children.

Speaking of Dialogue

2011-10-12T07:05:00.000-04:00

by Robert J. Sawyer

Originally posted on STET on 12/6/10

Writing convincing dialogue is one of the hardest things for new writers to master. In fact, it's so rarely done well in any form of fiction that when it is done right, people rally around it. The movie Pulp Fiction, Terry McMillan's novel Waiting to Exhale, and the TV series My So-Called Life were all remarkable in large part because of how believably the characters spoke.

Here's the kind of dialog you read in many beginners' stories:

"What happened to you, Joe?"

"Well, Mike, I was walking down the street, and a man came up to me. I said to him, `What seems to be the difficulty?' He replied, `You owe me a hundred dollars.' But I said I didn't. And then he hit me."

Here's how real people talk:

"Christ, man, what happened?"

"Well, umm, I was goin' down the street, y'know, and this guy comes up to me, and I'm like, hey, man, what's up? And he says to me, he says, `You owe me a hundred bucks,' and I'm like no way, man. In your dreams. Then — pow! I'm on the sidewalk."

See the differences? Most people's real dialog tends to contain occasional profanity ("Christ"), to be very informal ("guy" instead of "man," "bucks" instead of "dollars"), and to have lots of contractions and dropped letters ("goin'," "y'know"). Note, too, that when relaying an event that happened in the past, most people recount it in the present tense ("he says to me," rather than "he replied").

Also note that in the first example, the speakers refer to each other by name. In reality, we almost never say the name of the person we're talking to: you know who you're addressing, and that person knows he or she is being addressed.

A few other features of real human speech demonstrated in the second example above: when relaying to a third party a conversation we had with somebody else, we usually only directly quote what the other person said; our own side of the conversation is typically relayed with considerable bravado, and the listener understands that what's really being presented is what we wish we'd had the guts to say, not what we actually said. We also tend to act out events, rather than describe them ("Then — pow! I'm on the sidewalk"). Indeed, without the acting out, the words often don't convey the intended meaning. The speaker was probably standing on the sidewalk throughout the altercation, of course; what he meant by "on the sidewalk" was that he was knocked down.

Now, which of the above examples is better? Well, the second is clearly more colorful, and more entertaining to read. But it's also more work to read. A little verisimilitude goes a along way. Dropped final letters are rarely shown in fictional dialog (they're usually only employed to indicate an uneducated speaker, although in reality almost everyone talks that way), and vagueness about verbs ("I'm like" instead of "I said"), verbalized pauses ("umm"), and content-less repetitions (the second part of "He says to me, he says") are usually left out. In a short story, I might perhaps use dialog like the second example above; in a novel, where the reader has to sit through hundreds of pages, I might be inclined toward some sort of middle ground:

"Christ, man, what happened?"

"I was going down the street, and this guy comes up to me, and I'm like, hey, man, what's up? And he says to me, `You owe me a hundred bucks,' and I say `in your dreams.' Then — pow! — he knocks me on my ass."

Of course, not all your characters should talk the same way. I read one story recently in which there were dozens of lines of dialog like this:

"Interchangeable?" he said. "What do you mean the characters are interchangeable?"

We have the attribution tag between an initial word and a sentence that repeats that same word. This is clearly being used to denote confusion — and works fine once or twice, but grates if the same dialog device is employed more than that in a given story — especially by multiple speakers. Assign distinctive speaking patterns to single characters.

One trick is to come up with a word or two that one character — and only that character — will use a lot (in my The Terminal Experiment, the character Sarkar loves the word "crisp," using it to mean anything from well-defined to delicate to appealing to complex); you might also come up with some words your character will never use (in Starplex, I have a character who hates acronyms, and therefore avoids referring to the ship's computer as PHANTOM).

Profanity is also important. Terence M. Green's rule: you can't worry about what your mother will think of your fiction. But, again, not all characters swear the same way, and some may not swear at all (in The Terminal Experiment, I have a Muslim character who never swears, although the rest of his speech is quite colloquial).

It's tricky handling characters who are not native English speakers. No matter what language they're speaking, people tend also to be thinking in that language. It's common to write a French character saying things like, "There are beaucoup reasons why someone might do that." But at the time the person is speaking, his brain is thinking in English; it's as unlikely for him to slip into French for a word as it is for a computer running a program in FORTRAN to suddenly switch over to BASIC for a single instruction. Instead, if you want to remind the reader of the character's native tongue, have the character occasionally mutter or think to himself or herself in that language.

The best way to learn how real people talk is to tape record some actual human conversation, and then transcribe it word for word (if you can't find a group of people who will let you do this, then tape a talk show off TV, and transcribe that). You'll be amazed: transcripts of human speech, devoid of body language and inflection, read mostly like gibberish.

To learn how to condense and clean up dialog, edit your transcript. For your first few attempts, try to edit by only removing words, not by changing any of them — you'll quickly see that most real speech can be condensed by half without deleting any of the meaning.

Finally, test your fictional dialog by reading it out loud. If it doesn't sound natural, it probably isn't. Keep revising until it comes trippingly off your tongue (yes, that's a cliché — but remember, although you want to avoid clichés in your narrative, people use them all the time in speech).

A couple of matters of form that seem to elude most beginners: when writing dialog for a single speaker that runs to multiple paragraphs, put an open-quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph, but no close-quotation mark until the end of the final paragraph. And in North America, terminal punctuation (periods, exclamation marks, and question marks) go inside the final close-quotation mark: "This is punctuated correctly."

Get your speech-attribution tags in as early as possible. There's nothing more frustrating than not knowing whose dialog you're reading. Slip the tag in after the first completed clause in the sentence: "You know," said Juan, "when the sky is that shade of blue it reminds me of my childhood back in Mexico." And when alternating lines of dialog, make sure you identify speakers at least every five or six exchanges; it's very easy for the reader to get lost otherwise.

Finally, much real dialog goes unfinished. When someone is interrupted or cut off abruptly, end the dialog with an em-dash (which you type in manuscript as two hyphens); when he or she trails off without completing the thought, end the dialog with ellipsis points (three periods). Real dialog also tends to be peppered with asides: "We went to Toronto — boy, I hate that city — and found . . ."

Get your characters talking at least halfway like real people, and you'll find that the readers are talking, too: they'll be saying favorable things about your work.

*****

Robert J. Sawyer — called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by The Ottawa Citizen and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there these days" by The Denver Rocky Mountain News — is one of only seven writers in history (and the only Canadian) to win all three of the science-fiction field's top honors for best novel of the year:
the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award, which he won in 2003 for his novel Hominids;
the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award, which he won in 1996 for his novelThe Terminal Experiment;
and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which he won in 2006 for his novel Mindscan.
Rob is also the only writer in history to win the top SF awards in the United States, China, Japan, France, and Spain. In addition, he's won an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada as well as ten Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras"). The ABC TV series FlashForward is based on his novel of the same name.

For much more about Rob, see his 10,000-word autobiography.

What Makes You a Real Writer?

2011-10-10T07:08:00.000-04:00

by Ed Kovacs

Technically, I became a professional writer at age nineteen. That’s when I sold my first piece to my university newspaper. It was new and exciting to see my name in print. A little later I became a staff writer and columnist and would get angry when some overworked; underpaid staffer pulling an all-nighter in paste-up would screw up and drop my by-line. The pay was too meager to be a concern, it was all about the ego trip back then. Hopefully, I wasn’t too insufferable, but I doubt it.

Getting paid is the measure of being a professional.

When amateur painters start getting paid for their work, they transform from pursuing a hobby or passion to engaging in commerce. This doesn’t make them Michelangelo; it just makes them a professional painter. Remember, I said that getting paid ‘technically’ makes you a professional.

I functioned for years after college working professionally while cranking out reams of stuff on spec as I toyed with different kinds of writing. I freelanced small pieces to local and national magazines; I sold ideas for stories; I sold jokes and comedy sketches; edited liner notes for LPs; wrote script coverage, radio news, ads for TV and radio, PSAs, and on and on. I got a job rewriting a screenplay at MGM. I was struggling, but building a resume in drips and drabs.

I was a professional alright, but it was the ‘myth’ of being a writer that captivated me, and I was trying to live the myth as I hobnobbed in café society. Unfortunately, I was lazy, poorly organized, a terrible net worker and had lousy follow-through. I had no realistic career strategy, poor writing habits, and didn’t know a thing about marketing. I wasted years carousing, chasing women, and basically screwing around. Oh it was fun and I was a professional writer. Technically, a professional. A real writer? Hardly. Not in what has become my opinion of what a real writer is. I was a dilettante and didn’t know it.

One day I woke up and realized I’d just lost a decade. I’d bought the volume Writers At Work some years before, but never even finished it. I’d only made feeble attempts to replicate the commitment those writers evidenced.

See, I’d been committed to the myth of being a writer, but not to the reality. I’d always relied on my youth, charm and good looks to get by. I was reminded of the old saw about the pretty, party-girl actress who tried to sleep her way to the top. You can’t sleep your way to the top; you can only sleep your way to the middle. As I looked around, I wasn’t sure I’d even gotten that far.

That’s when I decided to seriously commit myself to what it really meant to be a writer. To every aspect of writing: the business side, the practical side, the artistic side. It takes a commitment of time, effort, focus, energy and intent that a lot of people aren’t prepared to make. Some simply can’t. It takes guts, discipline, sacrifice, love, passion and sweat.

The learning never stops, as I found out after my novel, Unseen Forces was published late in 2004. Wish I’d taken a few more marketing courses.

If you count all the palm trees in Hollywood, then multiply by 10, you’ll be a few hundred thousand short of the number of people who call themselves writers in Los Angeles. Most every waiter in Hollywood has written at least one screenplay and thinks he/she is the next Robert Towne or Joe Eszterhas.

Spending a month with a buddy on the weekends drinking Margaritas while you crank out a spec script does not make you a writer in my book. You’re just another pretender as I was, in a city that’s full of them. Even if you sell that spec script and become a ‘professional,’ flukes don’t always repeat themselves.

There’s simply no substitution for dedication, experience and perseverance. That’s why it’s so good to see young writers who really sink their teeth whole hog into the notion of this crazy beast of word-smithing.

If only I’d done the same way back when.

There’s nothing wrong with playing at the notion of being a writer. Just don’t take it or yourself too seriously. And yes, you can hold down a full-time job that isn’t ‘you’ and still be a real writer. Lots of greats have done it and you can too. The requirements become a lifestyle and determine who you are.

Ed Kovacs’ new crime novel STORM DAMAGE will be released December 6, 2011, by St. Martin’s Minotaur. Please visit his Website www.edkovacs.com, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook)

Why Writers Conferences are Rethinking Pitch Sessions

2011-10-05T09:11:00.000-04:00

Agents attend conferences because they’re looking for new projects; authors attend because they’re looking for an agent – what’s wrong with scheduling time for them to sit down face to face?

From talking to authors and agents, and from observing how pitch sessions are handled at other writers conferences, Backspace believes that formal pitch sessions are not a productive way for authors and agents to connect.

At the Backspace Writers conferences, small-group workshops provide aspiring authors multiple opportunities to have their work reviewed and critiqued by top literary agents who are actively seeking material in their genre. We accomplish this goal in two ways:

Through our workshops:

Writers are broken up into small-groups of no more than 15 (typically ten to 12 writers) based on their genre. Each group consists of two literary agents actively seeking material in that genre. The writers take turns reading their query letters (morning) and opening pages (afternoon) and the literary agents respond in turn, providing honest, objective feedback, critiques and/or reviews of each writer’s work. Should any writer’s query or opening pages catch the interest of an agent, they either ask to see more, or the writer is encouraged to arrange to send more material to the agent(s).

Writers read their queries in the morning to two literary agents in each group, and their opening pages in the afternoon to two different agents in each group.

Through our informative and educational agent panels:

The goal of our Backspace Conferences is to educate writers on the realities of publishing, and who better to do that than the literary agents who will ultimately represent those authors and sell their work? We bring together anywhere from four to six top literary agents for an hour of questions and answers ranging anywhere from personal genre likes and dislikes to important information you need to succeed in publishing. Each panel has a theme (example: What Agents Are Looking For Today, or The WOW! Factor: What It Is & How To Get It), and opens up to questions from the audience. We leave up to 15 minutes between sessions and encourage audience members to introduce themselves to the agents on each panel – it may even be a perfect opportunity to pitch an agent who is not in your small-group workshop, but also represents what you write!

Plus, we build plenty of time into the program to give writers an opportunity to network with one another, to speak with literary agents who may not be in their small-groups, and to learn from the critiques and feedback received by their peers during the workshops.

Instead of a tense, angst-filled pitch session where it’s difficult for all but the most confident authors to put their best foot forward, an interesting, relaxed, enjoyable conversation leaves a much more positive impression. And even if authors don’t get the chance to mention their project, the pleasant conversation gives the author a point of reference when sending a formal query letter to the agent’s office after the conference is over.

Agents have a wealth of knowledge about the industry. When agents are on the faculty in teaching positions, authors can benefit from their experience. Specifics about how the business works and what agents are looking for in a query help writers by giving them the knowledge they need to succeed.

Help East Harlem Get Its First Bookstore

2011-10-03T09:33:00.000-04:00

Backspace sponsors 2 writers events every year in Midtown Manhattan to help aspiring writers reach their publishing goals. What better way to show our support for the book community as a whole than by helping to provide a new bookstore for New York City readers? Backspace just made a contribution to help East Harlem get its first bookstore - how about you?

Aurora Anaya-Cerda is the owner of La Casa Azul, an online bookstore. An anonymous benefactor has offered to match up to $40,000 in donations raised through October 24, 2011. So every donated dollar translates into two dollars that will help open a Latina-owned, independent bookstore.

From the website:

Grounded in Latino culture, La Casa Azul Bookstore is dedicated to providing cultural, and educational programs via literature and art in East Harlem. It is our vision to foster public awareness and appreciation of the arts by being a focal point where people come to find unique gifts and participate in culturally-based workshops that celebrate Latino traditions.

La Casa Azul Bookstore will sell new & used books, coffee, pastries, art, clothing and locally-made cards and gifts. A fresh stock of books by local and Latino writers will help solidify our niche as a purveyor of authors of local and regional interest. La Casa Azul Bookstore will cross-promote with local businesses to highlight the importance of sustainability & buying locally. We will continue to work with area schools and nonprofits to promote literacy in the East Harlem community.

More at La Casa Azul and on our conference website.

40K in 40 days campaign, La Casa Azul Bookstore from Lucha Libros on Vimeo.

The Dreaded Synopsis by Literary Agent Jessica Faust

2011-09-30T09:45:00.000-04:00

It’s probably one of the most dreaded words in publishing. Any time I tell any author she has to submit or write a synopsis, I invariably get a loud groan. It’s hard, it’s frustrating, and I know of very few authors who like writing them.

But what makes a good synopsis and how much do they really matter?

A synopsis can matter not at all and it can matter greatly depending on the editor and on the situation. To make things easier on you, I think you should always assume that a synopsis matters a great deal. If you’re submitting a full manuscript with a synopsis, the synopsis probably won’t matter as much (most of us would prefer just to read the manuscript). However, if you have reached the stage in your career where you are selling on proposal and no longer need to write a full manuscript before sending to editors, a synopsis is crucial. In this case, it’s the only thing an editor has to judge the rest of your book by. The synopsis is used as a guide to see if the plot and characterization follows through as strongly as it did in your chapters.

If you are submitting a proposal first (as many agents will ask you to do) you better have a strong synopsis. In that case, we often use the synopsis as a guide to see if we should be requesting the rest of the manuscript or not. We might love the chapters, but I’ve read some really screwy synopses (in which the plot took a dramatic turn in the wrong direction) that have pushed me to reject the book rather than ask for more.

How long should a synopsis be?

Well, for the most part that depends on the requirements of the house, the line, or the agent or editor. For me, my answer is to always tell you to send whatever you have. However, that being said, I prefer something shorter and more succinct (if you have it). I think the perfect length of a synopsis is 3 to 5 pages. That should be enough for you to give all of the important details of the story. To reiterate here, it doesn’t matter how long your synopsis is as long as it is strong and tells the story: 10 pages is fine too.

What do agents/editors look for in a synopsis?

And this is what you’re really here to read. Because believe it or not, a synopsis can make or break your ability to get a book deal. Numerous times I’ve received rejection letters from editors who were basing their feedback on the synopsis, because quite simply what they were commenting on wasn’t even in the chapters we submitted. When trying to sell on proposal (and yes, it is possible to sell fiction on proposal), an editor is going to place a great deal of emphasis on the synopsis. It’s the only way for her to figure out how the book plays out.

So how can you be sure your synopsis sings?

The writing. Like your book, your chapters, and your query, your synopsis needs to be well-written and strong. A weak, hastily written synopsis is going to give the editor the impression that you’re a weak writer who doesn’t or won’t take the time necessary to really make sure that what you’re turning in is the best it can be.
The voice. It’s not as easy to make your voice come through in a synopsis, but it should still be evident, at least to a small degree. The synopsis should not be a dull, dry play-by-play (or even chapter breakdown) of your book. It should never say something like, “Chapter three begins with . . .” Instead it should be your retelling of the story, in your voice. It should be a short narrative of your story.
Showing, not telling. Like the writing in your manuscript, the synopsis should show the highlights of what is important to your book, what scenes move the story forward and show how the characters grow. We don’t need to know about every single secondary character and we don’t need to be told what happens every step of the way. We do however need to know how the core of the story plays out, the heart of the story.
Conflict. This is a bit of a repeat of what I said above, but sometimes people hear things different, so let me reiterate, the synopsis should show the conflicts and challenges faced by your characters and in your plot. What is keeping your characters apart or bringing them together? What challenges does your sleuth face or your warrior? How is the crime solved, what are the red herrings?
Genre. If you are writing a paranormal romance, for example, make sure that your synopsis has an equal balance of showing how both the paranormal and the romance come into play. Editors are buying your book partly based on hook, which is the paranormal element, but also want to make sure that the romance is strong enough to place this on the the romance list. If you’re writing a mystery or suspense, you want to show how the characters solve the crime, and in suspense, you want to show the suspense. If you’re writing fantasy you want to show the world building, but you also want to make sure the plot is equally strong.

I have to admit, I hate a synopsis as much as you do, but they are a necessary evil of the business, especially when you reach the point in your career where you get to sell on proposal, and because many of my clients are now at that stage I’m working more and more with them on creating a synopsis that’s as strong as the chapters they’ve written.

As with everything else you’re doing besides writing the book, make sure you take the time to write a strong synopsis, but throw all the rules out the window. Write a synopsis that sounds like you and that works with your book and for your story. That’s the synopsis we want to see.

Originally reposted on STET on 2/11/11 with permission of the author. Thank you, Jessica!

~~~~~

A native of Minnesota, Jessica now lives in New Jersey with her family. Her personal interests include cooking, entertaining, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

You can contact Jessica directly at jfaust@bookends-inc.com or follow her through Twitter at http://twitter.com/BookEndsJessica.

When Beta Readers Take Your Work Too Personally

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Originally posted on STET in March 2011.

by Rebeca Schiller

About a year ago when I was submitting Julius for critique at the Novels-List at the Internet Writing Workshop some of my fellow critters took offense of my characters’ lifestyle.

Jake and Corinne are in their late 30s. They have successful and lucrative careers, but they hate their jobs and decide to quit to launch this Marxist magazine, which you all know by now is called Julius. The offended critters were not troubled by the fact that my characters were Marxists, but that they had the gall to eat out often or order takeout. One person even said that my characters were irresponsible.

In that particular instance I had to explain that in New York City food to order, in many cases, is much cheaper than cooking from scratch. The response I received in an email from the critter was that they should be eating ramen noodles because he knew what it was like to be unemployed and not have money.

Oops. I guess I might have pushed a button or two. I wrote back and explained that my characters had the means to quit their jobs to launch a business, and that eating at restaurants and ordering takeout was an activity that defined them as cosmopolitan and busy New Yorkers.

Other critters questioned their politics, arguing that the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-bloc countries proved that Communism had been a failure. One person even proclaimed Julius as a polemic defending a unworthy economic system. One person stopped reading because she disagreed with their politics.

All I can say to these critters is this: Simmer down now. Don’t take it so personally. It’s fiction. These characters are not real. They are my sole invention.

However, it’s not all bad; there are the positive reactions. One beta reader seems to be in love with Corinne and commented, “Where has this girl been my entire life?” Um, in my head. Sure some of Corinne’s quips and gestures are based on me and even some of her wisecracks I can imagine saying–after all, I wrote them. But her personal demons are very different from mine, and let’s face it, although, we share an obsession over Alvah Bessie, I’m not haunted by his spirit. Another reader, also a published writer, loves Jake. She sees him as attractive, intelligent, and said he would be the type of guy she would want to date. I would too, especially the way I’ve pictured him in my head and in the bedroom.

Although I’m in my ninety-something iteration of the draft and the story is going through a major overhaul, what’s interesting to note just by the sample of these comments is that Julius seems to be pushing buttons–both good and bad. I’m not getting, middle of the road reactions, but extreme ones. I just hope that by the time it’s finally finished, and published by a major house that I’ll get a good review by Michiko Kakutani and slammed by Glenn Beck–now imagine what my sales will be like?

~~~~~

Rebeca Schiller is the online editor of HAND/EYE Magazine. Previously, she wrote for a number of print and online publications on a wide variety of subjects from pet health to real estate.

Rebeca also has been a contributing reviewer for The Internet Review of Books, ForeWord Magazine, Political Affairs Magazine, The Feminist Review and Dan's Papers. She is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Alvah’s Books.

Rebeca lives on Shelter Island, NY with her three dogs and is working on her first novel Julius.

Vlog on Short Stories by Author Jackson Pearce

2011-09-21T06:00:00.006-04:00

What's your best advice for short story writing? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Passive Voice = Passé

2011-09-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

by Amy Sue Nathan

One of my favorite parts of Stephen King’s On Writing is when he moves his desk out of the middle of his office to a place against the wall, noting that the world doesn’t revolve around him and that he didn’t need to sit there and wait for the stories to pop into his head, that the stories are all out there and he needed to go get them.

He pursues his stories.

King is adamant in his opinion of using active vs. passive voice and in the editing I’ve done for several writers, I’d say that this is the snafu even the best and most seasoned writers run into from time to time. In novices it’s lack of experience and in experienced writers it can be just a lapse, the failure to re-read and catch something - which is why it’s always good to have more eyes on your work than just your own.

So why is active better than passive? In life it’s always better to do than not do.

For example:

The entrance exam was failed by half the students.

It makes sense, right? Of course it does. But it’s passive. Think of passive as passé. And while the adjective passé means out-of-style — the noun passé means an attack (in fencing) that doesn’t hit the target.

And as writers we want to hit our targets — we want our words to be sharp, our thoughts concise, our sentences well-structured. It doesn’t mean there is no creative license. It doesn’t mean there no exceptions to the rule. It does mean you should try your passive sentences in an active voice to make sure it doesn’t serve your story - and your reader - better.

For example, let’s take those same students again:

Half the students failed the entrance exam.

Ah, much better. It means the same thing but ‘the students failed’ is active while ‘the exam was failed’ is passive.

I am a visual learner, so I picture things in my mind. Can I picture - truly picture - ‘the exam was failed?’ That makes the exam the subject of the sentence. Can I picture - truly picture - ‘the students failed?’ Yes I can. It’s a clear-cut roadmap to the meaning, while the passive version is more of a roundabout way of saying it.

I think for many of us it’s a habit. When I write quickly - or blog - I use passive voice. No crime in being passé in rough drafts or online. But not in a finished, polished piece of writing.

Here’s a list of passive verbs to watch out for in your writing.

is
am
are
was
were
will be
will have been
has been
had been
would have been
being
to be

Here are some other passé verbs worth looking out for:

exists
seems
appears
represents
presents
constitutes
offers
has
acts as
displays
makes
exemplifies
describes
characterizes
shows
occurs
contains

Is this an issue in your writing? Any suggestions for how to catch those pesky passive verbs aside from using the search function in Word (which I adore)…let us know!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com.

Reposted with permission of the author.

The Fiction Author's Platform

2011-09-12T09:19:00.000-04:00

by Karen Dionne

"We keep hearing this phrase, 'What's the platform?' . . . Well, what it is is this: What does the author bring to the table? Talent is not enough. The number of slots open to fiction on a publisher's list is being reduced all the time." -- Literary agent Nat Sobel, quoted in Poets and Writers Magazine

In 2006, when then-Simon & Schuster editor Marcela Landres visited the Backspace discussion forums for an online Q&A, she claimed the fiction author's platform was absolutely imperative. At the time, a number of our published authors objected, saying they didn't have a platform, and they still got published. Their thinking is understandable - an author wants to believe their novel sold because it was good.

But then we started looking more closely, and realized that one of them was a midwife who'd written a book that featured a midwife; another was an animal lover who'd written a novel about horses; another was a stay-at-home soccer mom who'd written a novel about - you guessed it.

Marcela put it honestly if somewhat bluntly: If she had to make a decision between two equally good novels, and one author had a platform and the other did not, she'd choose the author with the platform every time.

Why? Because an author's having a platform means the likelihood of the publisher selling many copies of that novel increases.

After a novel is written, it's all about sales. The agent has to convince potential editors that THIS book is different from all the rest. The acquiring editor has to convince the marketing committee and the editorial board that this book is the one on which they should take a chance. The publisher in turn has to convince the booksellers in order to get them to stock it; the booksellers have to convince their readers that THIS is the novel they should buy.

Before any of that can happen, the author has to sell themselves. It’s not as hard as it sounds - all it means is that you need to figure out what makes you and your novel unique, and then work with it so that you too, “bring something to the table.”

Just as a real platform elevates a speaker above his audience, if fiction authors can find a way to make themselves stand out from the crowd, the odds of their fiction being picked up by a major publisher increase.

The fiction author's platform could be a unique subject matter that has mass appeal. They could be well-connected. They could show potential publishers early on that they're savvy about selling by including a marketing plan along with their novel.

I know aspiring authors frequently don't like to think about the business side of things, and the idea of positioning themselves to look attractive to potential publishers turns them off. But if someone wanted to become an astronaut, they wouldn't think twice about doing everything required to get the job. If an author wants to get published, they need to understand and accept how the publishing business works, work with it, and turn it to their advantage.

Writing is art, but publishing is a business. Publishers need to make money on the books they buy, and doing that depends on choosing books with the potential to sell well. Particularly for a debut novelist who's just breaking in, the publisher needs something to make that book stand out from the thousands of others - something that'll make the novel get noticed and purchased - a platform.

Detroit native Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of two environmental thrillers. She is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held every May and November in New York City. Karen is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology.

The Three Lives of a Writer

2011-09-07T06:00:00.004-04:00

by Janna Qualman

It occurred to me with certain clarity this week that I live three lives. Three. All from this one body.

They're separate, but pieces of them overlap. Each is carried out by real parts of me.

Life in the Flesh

I am living, breathing, my body holds a spirit. I primp and present my physical self, nourish my person without regularly exercising it, drive an automatic SUV, read aloud, sing aloud, stir breakfast--and sometimes dinner--with my favorite wooden spatula, lose myself to folding laundry, loathe putting it away. I wince when the phone rings, but love to give hugs. My mind wanders while I'm in church, and I mutter ridiculous things to the family dog. I find solace and happiness and frustation and doubt in the act of writing, can't get enough kisses from my daughters, am never sated. This is real life. The one I've lived for thirty-[two] years, with emotion and experience and depth. Real time. Tangible existence.

Virtual Life

I am a presence. With pictures, sometimes, but most often with words. My thoughts and essence are on display, whether through blog posts or online statuses. I give of myself through a filter, the filter of this internet that is not my physical location, just designed representation. It's me, too, but with time delay. With edits. Smooth, composed. Confident. I banter, I share, I feel, I learn and love. Virtually.

Life through Fiction

I am what my mind creates. My characters are extensions of me, their stories fill me. New experiences, lived vicariously. Papered emotions, felt as if real and raw. People as real to me as the Postmaster, my daughters' teachers, the person driving behind me, my best friend's mother, because they are real, in some other place, even if only by manuscript or in Word document. Entirely made up, but true, honest at the same time. I exist so that they can exist. And because they exist.

These three Jannas, they feel individual, so different, so distinct. But I reconcile one with the others. Aren't I all of them? My three lives. Defining one existence.

What about yours?

Janna Qualman is one who finds inspiration in the layers of everyday life. She loves words, fiction (and the truth found within), her family, and the three C's: chocolate, coffee, and chai. You can visit and learn more at her blog, Something She Wrote (http://somethingshewrote.blogspot.com/) or on Twitter, @jannaqualman.

Reading Across The Racial and Cultural Divide

2011-09-02T06:00:00.004-04:00

by Randy Susan Meyers

I read a post on author Tayari Jones’ blog some time ago that hasn’t left my mind. She asks why books by black writers aren’t considered universal, starting her post with these words:

“In the last few years, black writers have been speaking out about double standards in the world of publishing. Among these are Martha Southgate’s NYT essay,“Writers Like Me” and more recently, Bernice’s MacFadden’s “Black Writers in A Ghetto of the Publishing Industry’s Making”. In these articles, both writers (who also are novelists) put into a public conversation the issues that black writers have been complaining about for years — like why is it that stories about black folks that are written by white folks get so much traction. (The Help, The Secret Lives of Bees, Little Bee, etc.) How come books about us by us are not thought to be “universal”? Why are black faces on the cover of a book thought to be so alienating? At this point in the gripe session, I break out my favorite oh-no-he-didn’t moment — when someone asked me what percentage of my work is “black” and what percentage is “human.”

It’s not only a great post, it’s an important question for all readers and writers. For readers: you/we are missing a vast store of great books by staying within one’s cultural boundaries. We’re missing great reads and, as important, we’re missing that most important (to me) method available to understand each other. How better to understand other’s experiences, than to immerse in their lives through novels and memoirs? Whether or not one has issues with The Help in it’s portrayal of black servants in the South, it is beyond argument that one will be immersed in a more honest, experiential read with Anne Moody than with Kathryn Stockett.

We don’t need to read across racial and cultural lines as do-gooders. We don’t need to read for the common good or as an act of charity. We should be doing this for the reason Jones’ makes in her post in regards to the need for black writers to be considered American authors as well as black American authors, “It is going to be up to readers.”

I am not going to belabor her points — she makes them far better than I could. I will say that I am grateful that I found her through Twitter (another point for Twitter!) And I am grateful that it led me to read one of her books, because now I can look forward to reading all her work.

My main question is this: I gobble novels. I read a certain sub-genre (the troubled family in a troubled culture) like crazy. Jones’ novel Leaving Atlanta is a perfect gem of the genre. I also read reviews, magazines, papers — you name it — like crazy. (My home would be a candidate for Hoarder, if I weren’t also addicted to recycling and clear surfaces.) So why didn’t I know about Jones before Twitter? Why is Kim McLarin, a great writer, not a household name? Why are there so few readings by black authors in my home town of Boston — a city rife with author visits?

Yes, it’s up to us as readers to discover the gems we’ve been ignoring, such as Leaving Atlanta. Based on the true story of the Atlanta child murders from 1979-80, the three narrators in this book will break your heart. Jones’ writes in the transparent manner I love –calling no attention to itself, while wrapping words seamlessly around the story with clarity, precision and beauty. Describing a scene of traumatized children, she writes “All of the kids wore weird expressions, like their eyes had been reversed and they were all staring inside their own heads.”

When we can read page-turning work, learn about history, and drink in great writing, that seems like a good deal to me — especially if we can pull away from ghettoizing writers at the same time.

This post was originally published on The Huffington Post and Word Love. Reposted with permission of the author.

(Visit author Carleen Brice’s blog, Welcome White Readers! for many ideas on this topic. Carleen’s work includes novels Children of the Waters and Orange Mint and Honey.

Randy Susan Meyers is the author of THE MURDERER'S DAUGHTERS, published by by St. Martin’s Press, a Target Club Pick, named one of the Massachusetts Book Awards Top Ten Fiction books, and a 2010 pick from Daily Candy, Elle France, Boston Herald, The Winnipeg Free Press, The Daily Forward's Sisterhood List, Book Reporters, Goodreads and Author Exposure, The dark drama of Randy Susan Meyer’s debut novel is informed by her years of work with batterers, domestic violence victims, and at-risk youth impacted by family violence.

How Do You Stay in the Right POV?

2011-08-29T07:32:00.000-04:00

by Amy Sue Nathan

If your book has an omnipresent narrator, he or she sees and knows all. You know, like when you watch TV and two characters are on the phone, line down the middle of the screen. You can see both characters, hear what they’re saying. You know what each is doing and maybe even what they’re thinking. If you remember the show The Wonder Years, that show was from little Kevin Arnold’s POV. We knew what he was thinking — and although we could see all the characters — we were not inside their heads. If you had a kid who ever watched the old Disney show Lizzie McGuire, same thing.

In writing — if the reader is given access to all the knowledge and thoughts of every character — or even a few — this can be akin to head-jumping. And it can be done. It has been done. But for those of us tampering with genres and trying to publish — it’s a good idea to pick a narrator, a POV, and stick with him or her. When an author allows the reader multiple vantage points within the same book, chapter, page or even paragraph, I liken it driving to a restaurant you went to a year ago, only to find it’s now a dry cleaners. You thought you knew where you were going, but you were wrong. You stop and think, “Wait, I thought there was a restaurant here.” You go back over your directions, your memories, the last time you were there.

And if that happens when you’re reading — well if it happens to me — I stop.

My suggestion is to pick a head and stay in it — through a chapter at least. In third person writing I find it makes the story more intimate, more palpable. My method for making sure I stay in one character’s head — is:

WW_K?

What Would (your character’s name) Know?

When writing or editing a third-person story (I find it easier in first person) this helps me stay in one person’s head. I can’t write what he or she wouldn’t know. I can write what they see, hear and think. I can write whatever he or she is privy to — meaning the actions and spoken words of others, as well as the setting. No matter when I change POV’s – within the same story — or not — this helps me make sure I’m not head-jumping when I don’t mean to — or when I really, really want to, but shouldn’t.

I’ve not written with an all-knowing narrator — have you?

How do you stay in your chosen POV?

Or…do you not?

Writing and Reading About Sex

2011-08-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

Reposted with permission of the author

by Randy Susan Meyers

I tried to think of a, um, sexier title for this post, but they all sounded, um, icky, and the last thing I want when I’m writing about sex is an ick factor. Writing about icky sex: terrific. Writing icky about sex: terrible.

I’ve been thinking about this ever since Pia Lindstrom, an interviewer from Sirius Radio, shocked me out of my I-can-handle-any-question mood when she asked something to the effect of:

So, I was surprised by how much sex is in your book. You did it so well. People say it’s hard to write about sex. How did you do it?

Um. Um. Um. Now there was a question I hadn’t been asked before. Sex is included in my work. (Ask my mother-in-law. When she read one of my earlier works—an in-the-drawer-book—she told my husband that I wrote ‘sex novels.’)

Wait! Before you run to the bookstore in hopes of getting a fun sex novel, save your money. Buy something by Jackie Collins. The sex I wanted to convey in The Murderer’s Daughterswas the gritty emotional side of the bedroom; the stuff we hate to admit is true.

I had to answer Pia (and fast.) How did I write about sex?

By praying no one would ask me about it.

By telling myself that my husband knows I am not writing about him (except for the good parts, of course.)

By realizing that writing about sex isn’t about insert Tab A into Slot B—it’s about the emotion behind the writhing.

By remembering what Elizabeth Benedict said in her wonderful book, The Joy of Writing Sex:

Benedict: A good sex scene is not always about good sex, but it is always an example of good writing.

It’s easier to write about sex when it’s ‘bad,’ when the character is damaging herself through the act, or using sex as panacea or cover-up, than it is to write about good sex. Perhaps it’s a variation on Tolstoy’s famous aphorism about happy families vs. unhappy families. All fantastic sex is remarkably similar in how it lights up the brain, while “I gotta get through this somehow” sex is a textured way to reveal the problems in a relationship, which leads to Benedict’s next point:

Benedict: A good sex scene should always connect to the larger concerns of the work.

When writing about my main characters, sisters Lulu and Merry, I wanted to show them reacting in wildly divergent ways to the same trauma (the murder of their mother by their father.) Naturally, their experiences of sexuality were defined by that horrendous act. If I wanted to reveal the ways they were affected by witnessing their mother’s death, I needed to go into their bedrooms, and not in a polite manner.

Benedict: The needs, impulses and histories of your characters should drive a sex scene.

Most readers can tell when in a sex scene, the writer has stepped away from the character and inserted a boilerplate moment. It’s easy to understand why a writer might avoid writing deeply about sex. Nobody’s comfortable with the idea that readers who know them might think they are reading a page from the writer’s life.

Which means, if you want to be true to your reader, you have two choices. 1) Take the readers off your shoulder and be willing to go all the way (sorry about that—couldn’t resist) in revealing the good, the bad, and the ugly, or, 2) Skip the sex and use the f a d e – o u t.

Benedict: The relationship your characters have to one another—whether they are adulters or strangers on a train—should exert more influence on how you write about their sexual encounters than should any anatomical detail.

Can I just say how much I hate clinical words in novels? I want writers to capture the inner monologue so well that there is only a very small space between character and reader. Thus, for me, the clinical terms leap out from a page as though the writer is shouting. It becomes a ‘look at me’ moment, rather than a ‘be in the character’ moment. Unless, of course, the character is a sex-ed teacher.

What goes on in a character’s mind as Tab A meets Slot B? Are they actually describing their partner’s body? In The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey, the following passage of a couple embarking on their first sexual encounter reveals the emotional and physical relationship of this particular couple without a single clinical detail:

From then on it was all haste and confusion. He undid a few buttons on her blouse and left her to manage the rest while he wrestled with his own clothes. She undressed quickly, eager to be hidden between the sheets. Edward, clumsy with his underwear, took a few seconds longer. Then he was beside her, the whole shocking length of him, and they were clinging to each other. It seemed to Dara that they were struggling to surmount some huge barrier—the barrier between not being and being lovers—and they must do whatever necessary to get over it.

From this passage, the reader immediately knows that Dara is not chasing an orgasm and that she is bringing to this encounter a truckload of emotional baggage.

This is what I want from sex scenes—secret glimpses into the soul, which are possible only at our most vulnerable moments: when we break apart and when we come together—and sex is often a time when those moments collapse into one.

Writing great sex is sort of like having great sex, I suppose—losing yourself in the truth of the moment. Except when you’re writing, you get to go back and edit it until the moments are just exactly what you want.

Are You A 10,000 Words A Day Writer?

2011-08-19T07:32:00.000-04:00

by P.D. Martin

I know there are some freaks of nature whose normal output is 6,000-10,000 words a day, but for most writers it’s anywhere between 1K-4K words per day. And so, it sounds impossible when you first hear or think about writing 10,000 words in one day. But it IS possible…I’ve done it (many times). In fact, on my debut 10K day I wrote 12,000 words!

I first heard about the 10K day at a writers’ meeting in Melbourne. I was well and truly intrigued — and excited. I tend to write between 2,000 and 3,000 words a day (and I’ve been told that’s quite a high output) but the thought of quadrupling that was mind-boggling. So I Googled 10K day to find out what it was all about. The basic rules are:

You write for four two-hour blocks (NO interruptions whatsoever).
You take a 10-15-minute break between stints.
You stock up on food and drink in between each block so you don’t have to leave your seat during each session.
You clear your schedule COMPLETELY for that day.
You unplug the phone and internet (I know it’s hard, but you can do it).
You don’t edit or review anything you’ve written – just keep writing (perhaps the hardest one to follow).
You turn off your word processor’s spelling and grammar check so you’re not distracted by red or green lines.
You complete any necessary research and/or plot outlining work before the 10K day (or you fill in the research later).

It also helps to have a writing buddy. This commits you to the full day, and serves as further motivation when you phone each other or chat online (yes, you can turn the internet back on for the short breaks). It’s not only support, but I guess a bit of healthy competition too.

My 10K days generally look like this:
9am-11am - First writing block
11-11.15am - Contact writing buddy for a few minutes, then stretch and stock up on food/drink
11.15-1.15 - Second writing block
1.15-1.30 - Second break (as above)
1.30-3.30 - Third writing block
3.30-3.45 - Third break (as above)
3.45-5.45 - Final writing block
5.45 - Chat to writing buddy
5.50 - Collapse into a chair, almost catatonic (like this woman)

Coffee and chocolate can also come in handy. My preference is for quality coffee and chocolate (I love the Aussie brand, Haighs). Anyway…

What’s the output like?

The first question I get when talking about 10K days tends to be focused on the quality of the writing. Most people’s initial response is that the words on the page must be crap. Not so, I say.

First off, by not reading what you’ve just written, you’re cutting off the inner critic. So instead of thinking: “That sounds crap, how else can I put it?” or “Oh no, that’s all wrong!” you keep writing and eventually the critical voice realises you’re not listening to them today and gives up. And let me tell you, it’s incredibly liberating to silence that sucker!

Secondly, by not re-reading your work and virtually not stopping, you’re effectively following a ‘stream of consciousness’ writing style. Many times when I’ve read what I’ve written in my 10K day I don’t even remember writing it. And I’m almost always pleasantly surprised.

Admittedly the 10K day works really well for me because I don’t plan/plot, which means I can do a 10K day whenever I can clear one full day. I don’t have to plan for it by plotting out what’s going to happen in the next few chapters. I do, however, do a lot of research. But that’s easy to overcome in a 10K day. Your sentence might look something like this: She rested her hand on her gun, relishing the cold feel of the (gun make and model here)under her fingertips. Or maybe your character turns up at a crime scene that needs some detailed description. Simple: She pulled in behind the black and white. (Description of street/house here)

The point is, you don’t stop. You don’t stop for editing, for the inner critic, for research or for plot decisions. You just keep writing.

So by the end of the day, you’ve got 10,000 words, and rather than deleting those words you usually end up adding to them. You add in research details, you add in dialogue tags and you add in descriptions. Of course, you also edit to refine your writing, tweaking word choice and sentence structure as you go.

10K days are particularly amazing for dialogue (like I said, you can add the tags in later) and for moving the plot forward. In contrast, I can see they probably wouldn’t work well for literary writers.

Of course, you can’t use the 10K day to write a first draft in 8-10 days. At least I don’t think you could! I find the 10K day too much of a brain-drain for a daily or even weekly part of my schedule, but once a month seems perfect for me. And, let’s face it, a 10K day is a great way to get a large chunk of work done while also getting a more direct sub-conscious-to-page experience happening.

Try it out for yourself! You may not get the full 10,000 words, but I reckon you’ll approximately quadruple your normal output. A fellow writer friend who was my 10K buddy one day only wrote 5,000 words, but when her normal output is 1,000 she was overjoyed with 5K. And in some of my more recent 10K days I’ve only made it to 8,000 words or so. But who’s complaining? Not me! I juggle my writing with a pre-schooler and this year I’ve also been taking on corporate work so 8,000 words is massive for me.

So, what do you think of the 10K day concept?

Reposted with permission of the author.

P.D. Martin – Phillipa Deanne Martin – is a Melbourne-based author with a background in psychology. She has written five novels featuring Aussie FBI profiler Sophie Anderson — Body Count, The Murderers’ Club, Fan Mail, The Killing Hands and Kiss of Death. Her most recent novel, Kiss of Death, is set in the world of LA’s real-life vampires and you can view a trailer at www.youtube.com/pdmartinauthor. She’s also released an ebook titled Coming Home, which can be downloaded fromAmazon or Smashwords.

Character vs. Caricature

2011-08-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

by Amy Sue Nathan

When I think of a caricature I think of a guy or a gal, sitting behind an easel in a park or at a Bar Mitzvah, drawing pictures that exacerbate a enthusiastic model's strengths and weaknesses. If he has a big nose, you can bet, in a caricature, that schnoz is going to take up the whole page. These artists won’t insult a paying customer, but they will take one can’t-be-missed feature that’s and focus on it so the person on the paper is unmistakable to everyone he or she knows.

It’s fun and it’s cute and it takes skill, that’s for sure. But what’s missing are the behind-the-scenes details. The details that would make it special. Those drawings, accurate as they may be, simply capture the generalities.

Just like in a book.

I love to recognize a character in a book -- the way I love to recognize a friend in a caricature -- but I don’t want an antagonist or a protagonist -- or even a secondary character -- to be obvious and predictable and without detail. I want the little things that make them special, stand out, different, unexpected, troubling - maybe even ridiculous or contradictory.

In various capacities I’ve been privileged to read a lot of full and partial manuscripts in the past two years-- so add that to the books I read because that's what I do...I read. What always raises a red flag is when a character is predictable or typical. I read and wait for something special, a spark, a flaw or quality that makes someone believable — even if it’s fantastical or supernatural. Woven well into the character’s being it makes him or more than the typical guy or the typical girl or even the typical werewolf, faerie or vampire. That’s when the person or being on the page becomes worth your time - when there are nuances to become vested in. It doesn’t matter if the book is adult, YA or MG. I read them all — and the same truth holds true. It’s the little something special that pulls you in, maybe after the familiar has piqued your interest.

As writers we strive to write relatable characters — but we can’t forget that while we want some bits to jump off the page like the trademark nose — we want shadows and shadings, nuances underneath the surface that make one person special, different from the rest, that makes us step back and look at something close up to see one thing and step back to see something completely different — and everyone looking at it sees someone — or something — different.

Characters are open to interpretation, caricatures are not. They're pretty straightforward, and after a while…boring. So, if you’re writing about anything or anyone and the word “typical” crosses your lips…think of adding “except for” to the description to make the image a little more interesting.

How would you describe some of your characters?

Amy Sue Nathan is a mom, published writer, freelance editor, Philly expat in Chicago and a non-repentant chocoholic.

She is a cartoon on Wednesdays only.