Tips from Book Editors

Last week I attended the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Dallas, TX. There were almost 500 attendees and many editors and agents. I'm still recuperating. Have you ever wondered how to go about pleasing an editor? Basically, they want the same things: good stories, good openings, passionate writing and beginnings (hooks) that won't let them put the story down. Here are a few tips to put you on the right path. They're shared by all editors, no matter whether they work in the Christian arena or the general market.

1) Write passionately.

2) Study the guidelines.

3) Read and write.

4) It's all about the story.

5) It's important for writers to know who they are and what their brand will be. Have a sense of who you are.

6) Don't just think out of the box, blow it up.

7) Your proposal is a story.

8) WOW us with a great opening.

9) Write the whole book.

10)Good story, good characters. Let your characters tell me what they want to tell me.

11)The industry has a very long memory.

12)Find a hook.

Take a look at your WIP (work-in-progress). Is your hook strong? Will it WOW a reaer? Are your characters three-dimensional? Don't be afraid to rewrite. Don't be afraid to start over from scratch. Finish your book, then start at the beginning and examine each word, each sentence, each paragraph. Flesh it out again.

Are you still passionate about your story now that you've reached the end?

I hope so.

Jess

Not to Be Forgotten

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer tells the story behind the British rescue of over 10,000 children from the Holocaust. Oppenheimer’s mother was one of those children. After a summary of the events leading up to and during this massive rescue, witnesses tell their own heart-rending stories. These personal stories grip us in ways that reporting it second-hand could never do.

You may be compelled to tell your own story, so that important events will not be forgotten by those who come after you. If the account is about something that affected a wide area or many people, or if it resonates with enough people (and if it is superbly written), a publisher might be interested in it.

Stories about 9/11 and stories by victims of Hurricane Katrina or other disasters help us understand the human condition and the resiliency of spirit. There are even organizations that gather stories of veterans, such as the Veterans History Project (http://www.loc.gov/vets).

Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?

Anita C. Lee, instructor for “Your Life, Your Story”
www.AnitaCLee.com
Personal Life Coach, Speaker, Writer
“Encouraging You to Be the Person You Were Created to Be”

Important Steps To Publishing Success

An important step to getting your work published is accuracy. As the writer of an article you know what you want to say. Therefore, when you proofread your work, you may overlook many problems that a reader or an editor may detect. Need proof? Try reading this paragraph:

Can u read this?? its soo kul!!? Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Our minds fill in omitted words, fix logical inconsistencies, and skip over misspelled words. To catch many of these problems, take the time to set your work aside and come back to it 48 hours later. You'll be surprised at how many errors jump off the page at you after the work is no longer engraved in the forefront of your memory.

Carol R. Thomas -- Write Magazine Articles That Sell!

On the virtues of formulaic writing

When I was on the English faculty at a small University several years ago, I was talking with a student in my office one day when I overheard another instructor explaining to her class that she never really knew how to be a good writer until she had an epiphany in graduate school. That is where she discovered that there is a formula to all good writing, and that formula was the five paragraph essay.

She went on to say that she had always made A’s on her papers, but that she never felt like she knew what she was doing until she discovered "the formula."

I let out a groan that the other instructor was sure to hear, followed by a string of unflattering comments, expletives not deleted. All I can say is that she wouldn’t have made many A’s writing five-paragraph essays where I went to grad school…

Good writing is not something that can just be plugged into a template or formula. It must be organic and then painstakingly evaluated, revised, and polished. That is not to say that there are no rules or guidelines, but what rules there are should be treated more as guidelines.

Indeed, it is often said that you must know the rules before you can break them successfully, and there might be some truth to that, and if that is the case, learning how to break them is an important step in becoming a better writer.

How Much Do I Tell?

In writing memoirs, whether for publication or posterity, most people will get to a point of wondering whether or not they should “tell all.” Only you can answer that question for yourself, but here are some questions that might help you decide how much to tell.

Are my feelings about this event still raw or have I worked through them successfully?
Will I help others by sharing my story?
Will I hurt others by sharing my story?
Am I writing to “get even” with someone?
Am I writing to get sympathy from others?
What is to be gained by writing about this event?
What do I stand to lose by writing about this event?

In his book Prodigal Song, a Memoir, gifted song-writer and musician James Eugene Robinson writes about his difficult childhood and down-spiralling life with drugs as an adult. It’s not a pretty picture, but Jim writes to help others understand that there is hope, no matter how low you fall. In addition to his work as a musician, he also works as a professional Recovery Counselor. His clients know he’s already walked the road they walk.

Can your story help others move beyond their present state to where they want to be? Learning to write your own story could impact other lives as well as your own.

Anita C. LeeWriter, Speaker, Personal Life Coach
Instructor for "Your Life, Your Story"
www.AnitaCLee.com

Sell Before You Write

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved to sew. She longed to be a famous fashion designer. So one day she sat down, designed a pattern, found a piece of exquisite material and took the rest of the month cutting and sewing. Once she was done she went door-to-door, asking if anyone in her neighborhood wanted to buy the beautiful dress and launch her fashion career.

After days of wandering up and down the hills and dales of her little town, receiving rejection after rejection, our heroine threw the dress in the gutter and collapsed in tears. "I must be a horrible designer and no one will ever buy my dresses," she sobbed.

Being a wise friend you could probably give our heroine some words of encouragement and helpful advice. The people she showed her dress to may not have been in the market for dresses; maybe they're a Cowboy boots and blue jeans crowd. The dress may have been beautiful but the townsfolk might prefer short sleves instead of long sleeves this time of year.

And, just like our heroine, successful magazine writers learn how to sell before they sit down to write to increase their chances of making a sale.

Carol Thomas, Write Magazine Articles That Sell!

Writer's Conferences - A Good Investment

I'm posting early this week because I'm leaving for a writer's conference in Dallas. I'll be hobnobbing with the rich and famous: editors, authors, agents and publishers.

What fun. What pressure. What a rush! :)

If you've never attended a conference, put it at the very top of your list of things to do. You will never make a better investment in your writing future.

When choosing a conference, look carefully at the faculty. If you write nonfiction, choose a conference that leans heavily in that direction. Go to learn, to network and to make writer friends.

I can't tell you how important it is for you to take control of your writing future. You have to believe in yourself. You must invest in yourself. Classes and conferences will set you on the right path, but you must write, write, write.

Take a look at our classes. Find one that will help you work toward your goals.

Good writing!
Jess

The very fact that you have brought a story into existence for which there is no duplication, is in itself a gift to the world deserving of respect.~Elizabeth Lyon, Author of The Sell your Novel Tool Kit

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. ~ Robert Cormier

The Ten Commandments of Grammar

Since I've never been one to worry about whether what I am doing here is really appropriate or not, I thought I would not worry about it now and post something that I ran across tonight. It is something that I used long ago in a class (and in fact, I am not even sure if I wrote it myself or if it is borrowed/stolen—so if it is stolen, please forgive me).

The Ten Commandments of Grammar
(Thou shall not commit the sins below when writing!)

1. Subject-verb agreement are problematic.


2. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.


3. Comma splices are likewise troublesome, however, they can be corrected easily.


4. Just like sentence fragments.


5. Being bad grammar, a writer should not use dangling modifiers.


6. If your verb tenses agreed, you are writing a good sentence.


7. To mix metaphors is to tread lightly on dangerous waters. Also, avoid cliches like the plague.


8. Eschew obfuscation.


9. Proofreading is important to spot misspellings, and to ensure that did not leave any out.


10. It don’t make no difference where you put your prepositions at.
    

Novel Writing - No Shortcuts

"To fall in love with a first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing." ~Richard North Patterson

I recently read in Alice Orr's No More Rejections that Philip Roth wrote more than 180 pages before he got his opening paragraph of his memoir Patrimony. And that Ann Beattie gave a friend her Chilly Scenes of Winter and he discarded the first 59 pages of the manuscript. Can you imagine what we would do if our crit groups discarded our first 59 pages? I know what I would do. Not a pretty picture.

Barbara Kingsolver once stated that she writes at least 100 pages to trash before she finally begins to work.

Most writing books tell us we should look at each sentence carefully and discard everything that doesn't strengthen our story. That makes perfect sense, but how do we know what strengthens and what doesn't? Five writers can look at the same paragraph and come away with five different suggestions, much like the American Idol judges respond to their contestants.

1)The song is too big for you.
2)That was pretty boring.
3)When you sing a song by Whitney, it better be good, baby.
4)You are a mediocre singer.
5)I don't like your dress.
6)Pitchy.
and then there's the judge who says:
7)You're a beautiful sweet girl/a handsome guy. You have talent. I love you.

Isn't this similar to our critiques or feedback from contests?

1) You have too much story here for a novice. Quite an undertaking.
2) Boring.
3) Mary Higgins Clark wrote a similar book. Hers worked.
4) Face it, you're a hum-drum writer.
5) I don't like this kind of story.
6) You haven't found your voice yet.
And then there's that bone of hope they toss us:
7) I see a lot of potential here. I love your plot and your characters, you just need to . . .

Experienced writers tell us that revising becomes easier the longer we write and the more we engage in the process. That could be an old wive's (writer's) tale. I do believe our first words can be just warm-up words. And sometimes our first pages and chapters are warm-up pages and chapters. We're getting to know our story and our characters. So, with that in mind, I challenge each of us to take a close look at our first 59 pages. And remember - whether we cut them or hang on to them. . .

"Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world." ~Tom Clancy

Come on, let's write. Complete the book and bask in the victory.

Jess - Lamar Novel Writing Month

The Power to Write

Lamar WriteSite Blog for 9/14/07

In her book, The Power to Write: Seven Keys to Discover Your Writer Within, Caroline Joy Adams encourages her readers to press beyond fear and write what is in their hearts.
“…whenever you know that you have something important to say that may change, illumine or enhance even one other life—make the brave choice to share it,” she says.

Telling your own story—a memoir—is a great way to start writing. You may choose to share it with others or keep it to yourself at first. However, whether or not others will see it, you want it to be the best you can do. But that won’t happen the first time through. Re-writing is crucial to good writing. Writers learn how to write better by writing a lot and learning a lot. Books, writing classes, and critique groups can help you get your story told.

Caroline Adams points out that stories are about people, “…people who are involved in a conflict which usually revolves around their longings, dreams or desires, and their great attempts, successful or not, to satisfy those desires.”

Look at your own experiences and pull ideas that show your own longings. How did you attempt to satisfy those desires? Telling your story could change another life. Be brave. Write!

Anita C. Lee
Writer, Speaker, Personal Life Coach
Instructor for "Your Life, Your Story"
www.AnitaCLee.com

Reverse Engineering

Besides reading, homeschooling my daughters, and watching re-runs of Law and Order, I spend my free time playing a new high-tech game called geocaching. Players use handheld GPS devices to find hidden treasure boxes all over the world.

The location of the boxes is usually posted on the geocaching.com web site; but some require seekers to solve a puzzle to obtain the location.

Although one puzzle was beyond my ability to solve, I noticed that someone who had found the box had posted a photo of themselves with the treasure in hand. I printed the photo and hiked up a nearby mountain. When I found the spot on the trail that matched the photo's background I started poking around in the chaparral. After a few probes I was rewarded by the sound of my hiking stick hitting the metal box. Sweet success!

In the same way I reverse engineered the location of the geocache, successful writers reverse engineer the types of articles that a magazine editor will jump to publish. In my course Write Magazine Articles That Sell! we'll investigate methods you can use to dissect and analyse the magazine you'd like to write for -- methods that will dramatically increase your chances to see your article in print.

Carol Thomas -- Write Magazine Articles That Sell!

WRITE TRAVEL FROM HOME

Many people don’t attempt to write travel because they can’t afford to travel. Or, their family needs them at home.

Sorry, those excuses are not acceptable. You can write and sell articles where you are—Southeast Texas.

You don’t think there is anything here to excite an editor.

Well, go to the new Ben J. Rogers Regional Visitors Center and discover the hundreds of things you don’t know about Southeast Texas.

You went and found a lot you didn’t know. But how do you decide what to try to write?

What made you think, Wow! What would you like to know more about-- the Steamboat Museum in Beaumont honoring Texas Heroes; the Buddhist Lotus Blossom Garden in Port Arthur or the renovated Shangri La Park to open in 2008 in Orange? If you are impressed and curious, chances are an editor would be—provided you choose the right magazine.

“Writing Travel for Fun and Profit” will teach you how to find the magazine and write the article.

See you in class.

Rogayle Franklin

To write, or not to write: okay, let's just cut to the chase--why we must write because the alternative is just too dang scary...

A few nights ago, I was at a poetry reading at a nearby liberal arts college, where several local poets read from a new book of poems about Alabama.

One of the readers, a creative writing teacher at the college, made a comment about how he teaches his students that writing should be approached as work, that you have to write every day and can’t sit around and wait for inspiration to hit.

That reminded me of a conversation I’ve been having with my assistant at my day job, who has been telling me the same thing lately about my own poetry writing patterns, and while, like most people, I don’t always practice what I preach, I can say that the act of writing is the best way I know of to generate ideas.

When you approach a blank page or screen, the best way to put something on it is to simply write something on it, anything, simply freewrite with no regard to what you’re writing, just your pen or keyboard silently babbling until your thoughts and words begin to take shape.

Yet, as I was pondering all of this, and how my own thinking-out-loud will affect my writing process from here on out, for some reason I just can’t get an old Monty Python sketch on this same subject out of my mind. So, please enjoy this MP3 of Monty Python’s brilliant application of sports casting to Thomas Hardy’s writing of Return of the Native: Novel Writing (Live from Wessex). (For a transcript, click here.)

Novel Writing - Made Easier

I always wanted to be a novelist. Even when I was a kid, I dreamed of writing books that would make readers think, laugh, and have a feel-good feeling by the time they reached the end. I never received a lot of encouragement. I think back then, we all held novelists up to be really smart people who had some special unequaled talent. Not so. I know a lot of novelists. I've never met one who was over-the-top smart. Unequaled talent? We all have different levels of talent. I believe it can be developed--to a certain extent.

There's an old saying that it's just as difficult to write a bad novel as it is a good one. Oh, how true! The thing is, a bad novel can usually be made better and better and better until it's a good novel. (All those betters symbolize rewrites. )

In my class, Lamar Novel Writing Month (for lack of a better title) we'll write together. We'll chat and outline, and work on our characterization and we'll plot and brainstorm. And we'll write. Every day during the month of October, we'll write. There won't be any homework assignments. We're on the honor system here. :) You can share your writing if you want, but you don't have to. Participation in class will help you have a completely outlined book and hopefully, a good portion written by the end of the month. You'll know where you're going from beginning to end. I'll be your encourager, your mentor, your accountability partner, your writing coach--whatever you need during the month of October.

Don't know where to start? Here's a tip for you: take your favorite book, preferably a recent commercial novel, and read the first chapter with pen in hand. Make notes while you read. List the characters. What do you learn about them from that first chapter? Do you get a hint at the conflict? How many characters are introduced in that first chapter? Pay attention to the description used. What's the setting? Highlight every use of the senses. Got another favorite novel? Do the same thing. Look at that first chapter only. Now compare those two first chapters. What have you learned?

I hope to see you in October for Lamar Novel Writing Month.
Jess

First we write, then we perfect

I wish I had known a long time ago that it is common for writers to fear a blank page. Flannery O'Connor is quoted as saying, "I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it." And another of my favorite quotes concerning writing comes from John Steinbeck: "When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate."

If you want to write, don't let anything hold you back--especially not the fear that it won't be good enough. Let go of perfectionism and plop words onto a page. You can always clean them up later, but if they're not there to start with, there's nothing to clean up.

Many creative types have been helped by Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way. It's time for me to read it again and refresh my memory of her helpful, freeing suggestions. I love the subtitle to the second chapter, "Recovering a Sense of Identity: Going Sane."

I hope this week will be a week of "going sane" for you, as you open yourself to your own brand of creativity. Perhaps this is the week you begin your list of "Things I've Done In Life That I Don't Want Forgotten." This could be the beginning of a time of deep reflection.

Happy creating--
Anita Lee
"Your Life, Your Story"-- writing memoirs that bring the past to life

Reach Millions of Readers

You, like many aspiring writers, may dream of seeing your name in print. You may fantasize about your book hitting the NY Times bestseller’s list or long lines of adoring fans lining up for your first book signing.

You want to get your message across to millions of readers. So naturally you should write a book, right?

Wrong. According to Harper’s Index, of the 1,446,000 books published last year, only 483 sold more than 100,000 copies. Compare this to the number top selling magazine which had a verified circulation of over 2 ¼ million readers.

So, when you want to reach a large audience with your message, think magazines. Magazine articles can establish you as an authority in a field which may evolve into the name recognition necessary to pave the way to a best selling book. Or, they can simply provide a platform to reach millions of readers with your message.

And, if you want to learn how to write great articles, check out my course.

Carol Thomas, Write Magazine Articles That Sell!

Selfish Reasons for Teaching

It took me a while to realize why I had agreed to teach, Travel Writing for Fun and Profit. It surprised friends that know me well because I’m prolific and, if not traveling, write in a state of tunnel vision that temporarily excludes people and time—children may interrupt in case of blood or fire.

It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed workshops and writer’s conferences. But, frankly, they were all to advance my career in some way. So, my fellow writers are a bit curious when I talk about preparing to teach a course that interferes with my work for six weeks. But I have selfish reasons.

I want anyone interested in writing travel to know they can do it—but, nobody just sits under a palm tree on an sunny island with a laptop computer making $100,000 per year. To write travel, you must leave the comforts of home, or the island, and that can be a grueling . . . out of bed at four a.m. back in at midnight. Yes, sleeping in airports. But you do it to take a three-day camel trek across the desert, or float along the canals of France or walk on the Great Wall of China.

Also, it’s a fascinating life writing magazine articles—stand before the magazine racks and pick your interest. From there, I can show you how to write for publications that could, sooner than you might expect, have you meeting celebrities or traveling the world on assignments.

My main reason for teaching is I want the pleasure of seeing you smile in class when you realize, “Wow! I really can do this.” I want to bask in your new excitement and enthusiasm, take you to lunch to celebrate your first sale.

Travel writers can bloom where they are planted too. My next post will show how.

See you in class,
Rogayle Franklin

A writer's job

I'm having a hard time believing it's September already. Summer is gone, but it probably wasn't a break for many writers. Like many writers I know, I only took off a few days during the summer months and will work right up until the day before Thanksgiving. Why do I work so much? Because I make writing a priority--every day.

Writing isn't a traditional job. You've got to be able to work on the fly, motivate yourself and be your own tough-as-nails boss. I write because I don't want a boss. Being my own boss is the best reward for the work I do all year long. I never longed for office gossip, New Years parties or sitting in a cubicle. The view of squirrels in my backyard and the tunes from my iPod are the way I love to work.

So, what about you? Why are you motivated to be a writer?

Making Meaning

There is more to writing than simply writing, and part of becoming a better writer is becoming a better reader and thinker. This is because reading, writing, and thinking are intimately related activities that all involve the making of meaning, and the better you can process and organize new information, the better you will be able to integrate it with your own accumulated experience, and thus produce better, more expressive, and, frankly, more “meaningful” writing.

Therefore, the only way to become a better writer is to become a better finder and maker of meaning, and then to become more comfortable and proficient at translating that meaning onto the written page (or screen). The payoff in all of this is that in addition to becoming a better writer, you will also become a better reader, not only of your books, but of all manifestations of the language that shapes the world around you.

What Are You Waiting For . . . and Why?

I'm a firm believer that writers should hang out with other writers. Online and off. I belong to a number of online writer's groups and I learn something from all of them. I get tips on everything from outlining my novels to creating blogs and getting them noticed by the masses. Everything I learn from other writers encourages me and makes my writing life easier.

This week I scanned a discussion on one of my favorite loops and came across this wise advice by Montana author Wanda Rosseland. It spoke to my heart. I wrote Wanda for permission to share because honestly, people, you'll never read better advice than this.

ADVICE
Don't Wait.
Don't wait to get to be a better writer.
Don't wait for the kids to grow up.
Don't wait to approach that (big, important) magazine you want to write for.
Don't wait for your mother's/husband's/sister's/brother's/boss'/wife's/YOUR OWN approval. Especially don't wait for anyone's approval.
Don't wait until you have the money.
Don't wait until there is time.
Don't wait for accolades.
If you want to write, ask permission of no man.
Just do it.

Wanda Rosseland became a published writer by not waiting. Frustrated at the lack of material for women in a farm magazine, she wrote the editor and suggested a column expressly for women, written by her. To her astonishment, he accepted and “Up My Country Road” was born, 800 words describing life on her family’s farm. Since then, Wanda has had work in many publications, and contributes regularly to Guideposts and Angels on Earth magazines, where she still relates stories about nature and country living under the Big Sky. Inspiration, encouragement, and positive and helpful critiques all come from members of her online writer’s group, The Marble Shapers.

Wanda says, “These writers are the gold in the mountains for me. Fantastic writers, best friends, and women whose hearts are close to God. After writing for years in solitude, it is a gift to be a part of this group.”

Wanda writes non-fiction and is working on a book of people who have seen angels. She can be reached at: wjross@midrivers.com

I'm introducing Wanda to you because she's a great example of someone who didn't wait to achieve her dreams. What are you waiting for . . . and why? Whatever excuse you have, it's not good enough.

Don't wait.
Don't wait.
Don't wait.

~Jess