Soliciting Elves

This October, Port Yonder Press is opening its doors to family-friendly fantasy and spec fiction, both adult and young adult, with a word count slot between 50,000 and 100,000.

So, what does the publisher mean by "family-friendly"? This is what she says about what we don't want:

We don’t want tales of buxom amazons or blatant sex. We don’t mind being scared but we’d rather have some horror with our fantasy, not the other way around. We don’t mind tasteful battle violence, but we don’t like gore for gore’s sake. We don’t mind magic, but we don’t like when both good and bad magic are occultish. We don’t like preachy; we’d rather experience what you have to say through the story. We’ll look at Steampunk, and we love genre hybrids, but we don’t want stories that could be more easily classified as science fiction than fantasy. If you have a story that’s been done before and done well, you will have to wow us with your originality.

What we want is excellence in writing and story crafting. If you have a polished manuscript and you're ready to submit, consider submitting to us at Port Yonder Press.

Resource Round-Up: RSS Feeds for Writers

I have a large number of websites I follow on a regular basis, and an RSS feed collection site called Bloglines has been my best tool for that. However, Bloglines is ceasing operations on October 1st and I thought this is a perfect time to take a look at some of my favorite writing-related feeds.

Advice To Writers
http://www.advicetowriters.com/rss/
http://twitter.com/advicetowriters

Jon Winokur is the author of Advice To Writers. He finds these awesome clips about writing from writers and posts them daily. Here's one at random:

There Is No Rule on How to Write

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Author Tech Tips
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/AuthorTechTips
http://twitter.com/AuthorTech

AuthorTechTips is a site dedicated to helping authors use technology to build thier online platforms. It appears to be a labor of love from Thomas Umstattd. He provides a lot of advice on technical issues (How to Get Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status) and lists (The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes).

Fuel Your Writing
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/FuelYourWriting
http://twitter.com/fuelyourwriting

Fuel Your Writing was created... as the inspirational “go to” site for writers of all flavors: business writers, novelists, short story, advertising, technical writers…the list goes on and on. Stop by to pick up ideas, the latest news in the writing world and knowledge about your fellow wordsmiths.

Nancy Kress
http://nancykress.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

SF author Nancy Kress is a great writer and a great writing instructor. She is a wise author who gets to the heart of what works and why. Her no-nonsense posts suggest she could have been a technical writer in another life. In this post, she talks about her own writing process:

Every writer works differently. I, who do not belong to the Electronics Generation, work on paper. Not completely -- first drafts are done on the computer. But I can't edit on screen, I just can't. So I print the novel and edit long-hand, making dozens of changes on nearly every page. Some are small (add a comma, change a word), some are revisions of a sentence, some are extensive revisions involving major shuffling of story elements or the writing of new scenes. The shuffling takes place with scissors and tape, the new scenes are written on yellow lined paper, frequently both are employed. This all occurs on the sofa, with a clipboard on my knees.

Story Fix
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/Storyfix
http://www.twitter.com/storyfix

Larry Brooks writes great posts over at Story Fix.

His message to all writers who wish to publish is this: the bar is very high, and the market is very crowded. There is only one thing you have control over in this business, and it’s not your career (which is largely out of your hands, to be honest) — it’s your manuscript. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be better than perfect. It needs to grab an agent or an editor who has seen it all before by the throat and squeeze. This blog is about how you can evolve your work to that level.

Tribal Writer
http://www.tribalwriter.com/feed/
http://twitter.com/justinemusk

Justine Musk writes "I explore what it means and how to be a kick-ass, soulful & savvy creative in the digital age." She writes long post-titles and involved posts. She's a growing novelist who has read many of the writing HOW-TO books I haven't yet. Heh.

These are some of my favorite writing-related websites, but there are many more. What are your favorite writing-related websites?

Fabulously Fun Friday ~ What's A Writer to Do When a Story Pleads to be Written During a Severe Heat Wave?

These photos ©  Steve Pulley.

Self-Doubt, A Writer's Constant Companion

Okay, let me tell it like it is … just this once.

If you’re like me you might have stumbled into writing. You always loved the power of story, but never actually imagined you would one day have a published novel. You toyed with story lines, even wrote them down. None of them were superb, or ever completed. Then one day a story so real, so unshakable, infiltrated your existence and you just had to write it down. You labored, you toiled, you backspaced and typed line upon line over again. And finally you typed the last word on the manuscript and sat back with a satisfied puff of breath.

You started submitting the manuscript to publishers. And when the redirection letters started pouring in, you demanded perseverance and perkiness of yourself.

But doubt knocked on your door.

You prayed. Oh how you prayed, that God would do with your story what He willed (but reminded Him that it would sure be nice if He would allow you to get published along the way). You may have even gotten so discouraged and busy with other of life’s pressing matters that you let God know He would have to “drop a publisher in your lap” if He wanted the story to go anywhere, because you didn’t have time to keep shopping it. But all that time, stories still percolated in the back of your mind. You just didn’t have the self-esteem to think they were any good. After all, your first story never got accepted.

Perhaps this was all just a waste of time.

Ten years and innumerable edits later, a publisher nearly literally dropped into your lap, and the story was picked up by a small publishing house. You had actually given up on them even replying to you, since it had been so many months from the time you submitted to them. But the day came when you opened your email and there was a message with your book’s title in the subject line and a return address that stopped your heart. Cringing you opened the missive, expecting yet another rejec— er— redirection.

BUT!!!

You gasped as you read the acceptance email letter. You wiped away tears and read the letter again. You printed it out and put it under your pillow so you could pull it out at all hours of the night and read it again whenever the muse struck – which was every ten minutes. (Okay, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration. Slight.)

And you happily signed that first contract without so much as a flicker of a concern, because you knew God had orchestrated this acceptance-from-the-slush-pile as surely as you knew you loved your firstborn.

The small publisher offered no advance, but that was okay with you because you were about to be published! (And you knew the realities about writers mostly being poor and all that jazz. Sigh.)

Up to this point you’ve made no money on your writing. In fact, you are in the red as far as income vs. expenditures go. (Writing conferences, writing books, writing programs, writing groups – all have fees associated with them.) You look at your bills. You look at the amount of time it takes to write. Your doubts begin to rise. Is this really what you should be doing? Is this really where God wants you spending so much time?

You remind yourself that a prominent writer once asked you a question. “Why would God give you such a burning desire to write, if He didn’t want you to do something with it?” You push your doubts aside, remind God that you need a little money now and then (even though you are pretty sure He already knows this), and press on.

A year into your publishing contract, you submit a second story and expect it to be months before you hear back from the publisher on this one, too. But, amazingly, it is less than a week before you get an acceptance. You are pleased, but you still struggle with doubt. You’ve gotten a couple 3 star reviews. You sigh. You still aren’t sure if you are a really good writer. You still wonder if this is really where God wants you to be.

About a year later, you get accepted by an agent. The agent tells you that you are a better writer than another writer he knows who has over 50 books out. You say thank you. You are so excited to work with him.

All this affirmation….

And still you have doubts. You sit down in front of the one hundred thousand words that need to be edited, and you despair that you will ever make a story out of them. Then you despair that if you do ever make a story of them, someone out there still isn’t going to like it very much. (You know this is inevitable, but you still think about it. You still hope to make the story good enough that you might avoid passive impressions.)

And I say to you, if you are like me, welcome to the world of writing. You are an artist. You will always doubt yourself. And there would be something wrong with you if you didn’t. Doubt is good. It makes you think things through. Makes you work hard to be the best you can be. Makes you reaffirm time and again that yes, this is where you ought to be. What you ought to be doing.

Get over it. Press on. Write that next word. Sentence. Paragraph. Story.

Pray. Give it to God. Ask Him to use it. Do your best. Pray some more.

Then write on….

Okay, I’m done preaching to myself now. Back to writing.

What about you? Are you like me?

Interview With Marcher Lord Press Founder Jeff Gerke

Many speculative-fiction authors have had cause to lament the sparsity of options in publishing their works, and especially so among Christian spec-fic authors. As a result, it’s little wonder that Jeff Gerke’s Marcher Lord Press, which specializes in Christian science fiction and fantasy, has been burning down the publishing runway, conquering both writers and readers with its passion and professionalism. Jeff Gerke was kind enough to take a few moments from his busy schedule to talk about publishing, science fiction, and his three best tips to any writer looking to publish with MLP.


AC: What’s your background in writing?


JG:  I have had six of my novels and five of my nonfiction books published. On the fiction side (and for a couple of my nonfiction books), I wrote under the pen name Jefferson Scott. I’ve done two trilogies: a near-future technothriller trilogy for Multnomah back in the late 1990s and a trilogy of military thrillers for Barbour between 2001 and 2003.


I’ve co-written a few nonfiction books. I’ve also written two books about writing better fiction. The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction released in 2009 and continues to sell well, especially at the Christian writers conferences where I teach. And then in October my new craft book, Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach To Writing Great Fiction, releases from Writers Digest Books in October of this year.


Now I make my living as a freelance editor and writing coach helping writers—primarily Christian novelists—better do what it is they’re wanting to do. I also run my own small publishing company.


AC: What’s the story behind your decision to start up an independent publishing house?


JG: It’s a story born out of frustration as much as inspiration. Beginning in 1994 as a Christian novelist, and then from 1999 on as an editor, I championed Christian novels of the strange variety: science fiction, fantasy, spiritual warfare, superhero, time travel, end times, etc. My own first trilogy, the near-future technothrillers, fell into this category.


But with the exception of Frank Peretti’s novels and the Left Behind series, novels of this kind did not do well in the Christian bookselling market. I was forever finding great SF or fantasy proposals and bringing them before the various deciding committees at the publishing houses where I was (I’ve served on staff for three Christian publishing houses over the years). But the books would usually get shot down in the committee process. The few I was able to get through to publication would usually crash and burn sales-wise.


At first I thought this happened because the books didn’t get enough marketing push. Or maybe they needed better covers. Or maybe the books themselves weren’t good enough. But by 2006, I had finally watched a few Christian SF or fantasy novels get the deluxe treatment—great stories, great edits, great covers, great marketing push—and the books still crashed and burned.


That’s when I began thinking that maybe it had nothing to do with those things. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t the product that was the issue but the buyers of the product.


I started thinking about who goes into Christian bookstores and who reads Christian fiction. They weren’t people like me, I realized. They were (and are) white, Evangelical women of child-rearing to empty nest ages. Now, I love this demographic. My wife and my mother are in this group! But as a buying population, this demographic tends to like bonnet and buggy fiction a lot more than fiction about mutant alien vampires who will eat your brain. No wonder the strange fiction wasn’t selling!


When I finally grasped what was going on, I instantly saw the silliness of continuing to try to sell weird fiction to this group. They might be terrific stories, but the main buying population doesn’t want them. The secret isn’t to do a better job giving these books to a group that doesn’t want them but to find the people who do want these books and get the books to them where they are.


So began the dreaming and strategizing that led to the launch of Marcher Lord Press. MLP publishes Christian speculative fiction (that’s the umbrella term for Christian science fiction, fantasy, and all the other weird genres) and nothing but Christian speculative fiction. We don’t try to get into Christian bookstores because the people who go into those stores are not looking for this kind of fiction. We get it to them directly over the Internet.


(But to be clear, we do publish regular print books, not e-books only. Our primary sales channel is the Internet—like Amazon and CBD Online—but the novels themselves are regular hard copy books.)


AC: What’s your best tip for authors looking to be accepted by Marcher Lord Press?


JG: Employ craftsmanship, creativity, and patience.


Marcher Lord Press is thriving. But at present I’m not needing a bunch of new authors and books. In fact, right now I’ve all but closed down my acquisitions process. This is because of two developments, both of them good.


First, I acquired trilogies and series. That means that I’m not having to find new authors for every release list. Books 2 and 3 of series are coming available now and those go right into my release lists. That means there are currently fewer slots open for new books.


Second, I’m working to acquire some well-known Christian speculative novels and novelists. For instance, we just signed beloved Christian SF author Kathy Tyers to a 3-book deal. I’m currently in talks with a couple of other very well-known Christian speculative novelists about becoming the publisher for their classic works that have gone out of print. My goal is for Marcher Lord Press to become the go-to place whenever anyone thinks of Christian speculative fiction.


Between those two factors, I don’t have a lot of open slots for new authors or books. I do have the MLP acquisitions portal technically open, but aspiring authors have to exercise a lot of patience. Because the urgency to find new authors is low (for now) and because I’m only one guy doing all this, authors are warned that they’ll be waiting a year or more for me to get back to them on the proposals they submit to the MLP site. So, yes, patience.


But when I do finally get to reading proposals, I’m looking for craftsmanship and creativity. Creativity in that the story must wow me. It must take me somewhere I’ve never been. It must fire my own love of fantastical fiction. Mundane stories need not apply.


Because I teach fiction writing and coach it and write books about it, I have strong ideas about what constitutes well-crafted fiction. I don’t need more than a page to see if the author knows her craft. I might love a story’s idea, but if the author hasn’t done the hard work to learn her chosen discipline, that book gets a quick “no.”

I’ve written two books on how to write good fiction. I’ve got 96 fiction writing tips available for free on my WhereTheMapEnds site. I teach at writers conferences across the nation. The tools are there for virtually anyone to learn how to write well-crafted fiction. But it takes self-discipline and lots of elbow grease. I respect novelists who have put in the work to learn their craft.


AC: What’s the most common downfall in the manuscript submissions you see?


JG: Poor craftsmanship. Lazy writing. Telling instead of showing. Point of view errors. Undifferentiated characters who are all essentially the author’s personality. Basic craft errors.


Sometimes I wonder if writers of Christian speculative fiction don’t work hard enough to elevate their craft. Maybe they think that because their books are so different in topic that the mainstream techniques of good fiction don’t apply to them. But I’m here to tell you that the principles of good fiction apply to every genre.


There’s no rush to send me your novel. God willing, Marcher Lord Press will be around for years doing this kind of fiction. But even if other publishers take the torch, room will always be found for works of excellence. A novel produced with mediocre craftsmanship will probably sink like a rock, so why hurry to that end? Why not take the time to truly learn the craft and produce a book that will have a better chance of standing the test of time?


AC: What changes, for better or worse, do you see happening in the publishing industry in the near future?


JG: I think we are seeing the end of the Christian publishing industry as we’ve known it. For decades, we’ve had a group of publishing companies that have served the Christian bookstore market. That dyad—bookstore/publisher—has been the controlling force in our industry, way more than the influence exerted by individual authors or genres or anything else. If the church ladies don’t buy it, no one publishes it.


Because Christian bookstores have been such an integral part of the process, they’ve were able to make incredible demands on publishers, things like getting books from publishers at a discount of 60% or more off the retail price, requiring that publishers accept returns for full refunds, etc.


Those days are over. Bookstores are dying. One industry person, speaking on a panel at a Christian writers conference this year, said that at that time Borders was 90 days behind in paying its bills, and in August, Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale. If major players like that are struggling, it’s no surprise that Christian bookstores and chains are having trouble. They’ll no longer be able to make demands as they have in the past.


Publishers are also feeling the pinch. They’re folding or slimming. We hear on an almost weekly basis about new rounds of layoffs. The old guard is losing power.


In my opinion, this is not entirely because of the recession we’ve been in. I think it’s part of a larger trend across our society. The old power bloc, the old system that said what books could and could not be published, is being pushed aside. Rather, it’s being ignored.


We’re entering into this brave new world in which authors can reach readers directly via the Internet. The tools and the freelancers (myself included) needed to turn your book into a professionally produced work of fiction—be it in print or electronic or both—are available to anyone. Who needs a publisher if you can do it all yourself? And if you can sell it yourself directly to the consumer, who needs bookstores?


Even the large publishing houses are today relying on authors to do most of the promotion and marketing for their books. Of course the very biggest names will get the full weight of the publisher behind them, but everyone else is pretty much on her own. So if you’re going to be doing most of the work to sell your book yourself, why do you need a publisher? Why should a publisher take 80–90% of the profit from every book you sell (assuming you earn back your advance, which 95% of books never do) when you can keep nearly 80% of the profit by doing it yourself?


True, it’s better to be paid than to pay. If you can get a traditional publisher to give you an advance and take on your book with their money, you should probably do it. But if you fail in that, as most people do, the self-publishing route is beginning to make a lot more sense in our day.


Soon, publishers won’t be saying, “Well, if you want to be actually published, you’ll try to get us to publish your book,” as they sometimes do now. Soon they’ll be saying, “Please come to us! Please don’t self-publish. We can offer you so much.” The foot will be on the other hand, as it were.


The biggest Christian publishers will probably find a way to survive, at least for a while. They’ll compete for the handful of sure-fire home run hitter authors. But this is going to be a brutal five years for small and medium-sized Christian publishing houses. Many of them are going to be combined, purchased, or closed.


Those companies that are built according to a different model, like Marcher Lord Press is, or those that can reinvent themselves for the changing times, might be able to keep going. I personally don’t want to see all those great Christian people put out into unemployment lines. But the terrain is changing beneath us.


I think e-publishing is going to continue to make strides. We’ll see new reader devices and new forms of going portable with what we want to read.


I don’t think the reading experience will end. I don’t think good writers will no longer be in demand. I just think it will look a lot different from what we’ve grown up with.

In terms of what the next 5–10 years will look like to the consumer, to the lover of Christian fiction, I think it will be like a YouTube invasion. Just as with YouTube, in that all you need to be a filmmaker is a camera and an Internet connection, so in this new day of no publisher and no bookstore, all you’ll need to be a published novelist is a word processor program and an Internet connection. If you can make it available for an electronic reader, you can reach an audience.


But, also like YouTube, 99% of it will be absolutely awful. One service the publisher process provided was a solid vetting and a professional edit. You won’t have that in the Wild West of the new publishing model. You’ll suddenly be inundated with the drivel and rantings that would never have been published before—and for good reason—and the good stuff will be that much harder to find.


As with YouTube, the way you will find good novels will mainly be by word of mouth. Someone will tell you he’s discovered a really good Christian speculative novel that is available for X reader at X site, and you’ll go check it out.


I also think services will arise that will review these self-published books and surface the best ones. There are already sites out there that do this to help you wade through all the iPhone apps, so why not one for e-books? (And why not one for YouTube?)


We’ll see tons of online marketing for these books. Facebook and Twitter campaigns and lots of push on social networking sites that maybe haven’t even been introduced yet. The reader devices themselves will advertize to us. It will be everywhere online.


Eventually, authors will realize that their self-published books stand a better chance of “sticking” and taking off if they receive a professional edit. People who can create awesome cover art (even for an e-book with a “virtual cover”) will find their services in demand. The authors committed to excellence will even hire a freelance copyeditor to catch typos and grammar and punctuation errors.


After a period of chaos, things will settle down. New brands and services will appear that people will associate with quality. We’ll probably see a slow repeat of the last 75 years in publishing, in terms of leaders arising and things getting clarified and stratified—only to then be challenged by a new technology and a new model. It’s the way of things.


But in the near term certainly, these changes will work to the benefit of both author and reader. Now any kind of novel anyone wants to write—or read—is possible. (That’s sometimes not a good thing, but I digress.) There’s money to be made in this new day. There are careers to be made. And much awesome Christian fiction to be written and read.

Borrowed from "One Grumpy Literary Agent"

This site is a riot! SlushPile Hell gives us a glimpse into the world agents (and probably editors) wake up to daily. Here are a few of my favorites:


May 28:

I would like to submit both my screenplay, short screenplay, animation/children’s screenplay, teleplay, travel series, novel, and memoir for your consideration.

Okay, you talked me into it. Send them all to me. In a big box.




June 8:

I have written a 2,500 word novel.

Actually, you’ve written a pamphlet.

June 11:

Hello. I’ve queried more than 50 other agents with this and have gotten nowhere. Now I’m querying you.

You had me at hello.


June 16:

Greetings agent. I have written the most important book on earth.

Will someone, for the love of God, please kill me.


June 20:

My 318,000 word novel may seem like it starts a little slow, but after the first 100 pages or so it really picks up steam, so I hope you will be patient and not be distracted.

Hey, a SQUIRREL! Cool….Oh, hang on. what were you saying?

June 26:

I hope this submission leaves you in a condition of uncontrolled and irreversible “wow.”

Last time I was in that condition I spent the next day in a Mexican jail.
{Linda here: actually "wow" is reversible. . .}

July 9:

To the crazy-eyed writer who showed up at my office today in a Ford Econoline van with a Red-Bull-stained manuscript in your hands: Thank you for not killing me.


July 14:

I have the first 5 chapters written. I know first-time novelists are supposed to present a finished work, but I think it would end up a much better piece for having had an editor’s guidance during the last draft. He, in turn, would have an excuse to ask for a reduced price.

Brilliant! Or wait, better yet, you should write just one page, let the editor finish writing it for you, and he can buy it for almost nothing. Then I, as your humble servant, shall be KING OF ALL THE AGENTS!

July 26:

I have attached a copy of a letter I recently sent to Oprah about my book. She ends her show in September 2011, which leaves little time to select an agent.

Finally! An author who understands the importance of Oprah and has a no-fail plan for getting on her show.


July 29:

Dear Madam/Mister,…

Sorry, I prefer to go by Mister Madam.


August 3:

Publishing Tip of the Day!
5 things you may not want to say to an agent at a writers’ conference:

1. “You look a lot thinner on your web site.”
2. “How are your kids doing? It was so cute how they surprised you with waffles for breakfast last Saturday. At least I think it was waffles, it was hard to tell from outside your window.”
3. “Is it true that agents are just frustrated writers?”
4. “You know, you and I are the same blood type.”
5. “I’d like to share an important message with you from the Book of Mormon.”

August 9:

Please consider my memoir….I know that my family and friends will, without reservation, pay at least $19.95 to make sure they have not been unfairly exposed or defamed.

Eureka! A brilliant new marketing angle! Publishers, take note: henceforth please be certain to include these taglines on all memoir covers, “Are you sure you haven’t been slandered in this memoir? Isn’t the cost of this book a small price to pay for your peace of mind?”


August 12:

I am not the “author” per se, of this book. I was merely the spiritual channel.

‘Nuff said.

August 23:

With all due respect, please keep in mind that I am hiring an agent, not applying for a job, and I do insist on keeping a certain amount of mystery surrounding myself for my own protection.

And don’t forget to wear your aluminum foil hat to protect yourself from the government’s mind control signals.


August 25:

Today is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a promising young author’s career. Today is your chance to be the one who lights the wick on the bottle rocket that will carry my name into the upper echelon and today is your chance to grab a ticket on that ride.

No, after reading this, I think that today is the day to take my drinking to a whole new level.

August 27:

This is my humble attempt to interest you in my book.

Doesn’t the fact that you drew attention to the word humble by underlining and italicizing it sort of invalidate the whole humility thing?


August 30:

Every agent I’ve encountered thus far has been a complete idiot. Let’s see if you can prove you’re different by representing me and my book.

Stop. Your seductive charm is making me feel woozy.

Agents get to have all the fun, don't they?!

The Tip of the Iceberg: Why Sometimes Less is Better

This week, AC is pleased to share with you a guest post by Ellie McDermott. Ellie is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online schools for Guide to Online Schools. She attended Western University and majored in literature and communications. She currently lives in Bellevue, Washington.

The Tip of the Iceberg: Why Sometimes Less Is Better

We’ve all heard the age-old adage that bigger is better. While this may be true in some areas of life (such as bowls of ice cream and piles of fall leaves to jump into), writers know that longer pieces of work have no direct relationship with quality pieces of work. And yet how tempting it can be to slip into convoluted thinking such as: “If my piece of work is longer, it will seem more prestigious,” “Bigger books look better on bookshelves,” or “If I use a lot of adjectives, I’ll seem much smarter than I actually am.”

As Hemingway once famously stated, you should model your prose after an iceberg, where only the top 5% can be viewed. While the other 95% is no less important, it is located just under the surface; understood to be there, but not prominently featured above the water. In the same way, writers can craft concise and thoughtful pieces that leave room for readers to go beyond the text through imaginative response.

But how can you embrace Hemingway’s “Tip of the Iceberg” theory? When trying to get your point across in your writing, it can be difficult to select the right words and phrases. You may feel stuck and want to reject the concept that less is more. But before giving up, consider journeying into the arctic regions of concise and precise language. You may be surprised when you come back with beautiful, powerful, and succinct prose.

Tips to create “Iceberg” prose:

• Outline well. If you have a clear overall picture of your piece, you’ll be less likely to repeat yourself as you write.

• Recognize the difference between nuances and new ideas. Using nuances can be a clever writing strategy, but they also can be an excuse to repeat yourself unnecessarily.

• During the initial writing process, don’t limit yourself. Just be prepared to cut, snip, and trim down your piece in the editing process.

• Don’t be afraid to completely cut out a sentence, paragraph, section, or chapter. It may be incredibly painful, but if you’ve already said it, don’t say it again!

• As you edit, keep in mind those lengthy novels you suffered through only to think at the end, “That novel would have been much better had the author told the story using half as many words!” You don’t want your readers to say that after they finish reading your piece.

• Remember that your readers have excellent imaginations. Leave room for them to explore their imaginative processes by painting visual pictures rather than using a plethora of unnecessary details.

• Choose words that pack a lot of meaning. For example, a meal that is described as filling, delicious, and intense can also be described as hearty.

• Choose a literary mentor that exemplifies concise prose. Ask yourself why you are drawn to their writing and explore how you can utilize similar techniques in yours.

By following these steps, you will be well on your way to creating a more concise and well written essay or short story. Happy writing!

Rule Breaker

Past perfect tense drives me nuts. Reading it. Writing it. Frankly, I’m just beginning to understand when to use it–and I still have to run to my own personal expert periodically to keep me straight.

Since most novels are written in past tense, past perfect is what the writer runs to when an event is further past than past, for instance, in backstory. Some authors believe that every sentence in the backstory should be written in past perfect: He had done that; this had happened; the other had influenced him. That technique distracts me and makes reading difficult.

I recently encountered an author who says the new rule is to use PPT only once to introduce the backstory, continue in past tense, finish the backstory with one past perfect usage, then resume in past tense. I’m not too happy about this either. The word “had” is too small to establish past perfect in a single use. It can be so easily overlooked. If a reader has to stop and go back to see what he’d missed, the writer has failed in one of the most important elements of writing: clarity.

My favorite use of past perfect is found in The Mulberry Tree, by Jude Devereaux. Jude placed an entire paragraph in this tense to begin her backstory, continued in past tense, and finished the last backstory paragraph in PPT. Using this tense several times up front firmly establishes the author’s intentions and the transition is far smoother. (Caveat: If the writer is dumping in tons of backstory, nothing makes it smoother.)

For myself, I’m going to adopt Jude’s usage primarily because I like it, but also because I don’t know who sets the “new rules” or why I should pay attention to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the rules. I especially believe every new writer needs to learn them–each and every one of them, including the rules of their genre. I’m paying my dues now, other authors have paid theirs, new writers aren’t exempt.

Learn at the feet of the masters. Buy the how-tos and study them. Buy style manuals and refer to them. Brush up on your grammar. Once you understand why the rules are there in place, you can better know how to break them, manipulate them, become the new trend setter. But breaking the rules just because you think you have cornered the market in flair and originality will land you in the rejection pile.

Some of the current rules, like “never use adverbs,” beg to be broken. Yes, the constant use of -ly words is a sign of laziness, but I recently read a book where the author avoided them to the extent her writing became cumbersome due to its verbosity. This is the opposite extreme. Pay attention to the rhythm of your writing, and you’ll discover that a light sprinkling of these forbidden words, along with more active and original descriptions, will enhance the flow.

What about the current trend of writing only in deep third person? I love it myself, but does that mean distant third is no longer valid? Most of the political thrillers I’ve read are in distant third, and as long as the author isn’t head-hopping (a definite violation of a vital rule), the distant third seems to be the perfect POV for them. These books tend to be plot driven, and a certain omnipotence can come in handy.

And speaking of head-hopping–frequently jumping from one character’s mind to another in the same scene--the reason it’s frowned upon, aside from the fact that it’s sloppy writing, is because the reader is held at too far a distance from the main character to develop empathy for him. Yet, Francine Rivers employed the technique in Redeeming Love, with arguable success. I had no trouble with it and understood why she wrote the scene as she did–it was expedient for what she was trying to present, and it was long after reader sympathies had been established. Whether she could’ve written the scene better--or at least in keeping with the rule--is still debated.

But Francine Rivers is a multi-pubbed author, highly respected in her genre. Should a newbie try her technique? Not if she wants to get published.

As I said, newbies have to pay their dues. They have to learn the rules and write by them, so agents and editors can see they know them–but also so they can perfect their craft, strengthen their weaknesses, enhance their strengths.

Another caveat: Learning your craft well can have unusual side effects. Writing errors found in published works will become more obvious, and you’ll find you have less tolerance for them. You will become less satisfied with your own work and will discover that writing isn’t as easy as you first thought. In fact, the more you learn, the harder it becomes, and the pickier you become.
Welcome to the world of the discriminating author/reader.

Fabulously Fun Friday - Snub Fighter

We all remember the heroic adventures of the farm boy from Tatooine and his smuggler friend. But what if the story turned out just a little differently? What if Luke Skywalker was hopeless, Red Leader was a competent shot, and Han Solo managed to amaze even himself?

Take a look at what an alternate Star Wars edit might have looked like...

The Self-Publishing Conundrum

If you are a writer who reads writing blogs you probably have heard that Seth Godin recently announced on his blog that after his next release, Linchpin, he doesn't plan on publishing his books via traditional publishing again. This has sent a flurry of chatter across the internet. Some are shocked that he would dare launch out on his own. Others are applauding him for his new bold move.

I, for one, knew this day was coming. Not with regards to Seth Godin, per se, but that a bigger-name-best-selling author would go the self-publishing route. And Seth will do quite well for himself. (Whether he publishes via electronic format only, or also offers paperbacks.)

Below are my thoughts on why he will do well, and why most other authors should not follow in his footsteps.

Let's face it, the vast majority of self-published novels are poor quality. But let's ignore that truth for this article and say that you are one of the authors who's chosen to self-publish and actually have a well-written, properly laid out, professional product. What is the next hurdle to financial success? Two things, I believe - marketing and distribution.

Let's set aside marketing for a moment. Distribution, for the purposes of writing, is getting your book into the hands of a reader. And with the rapidly growing popularity of ebooks and even POD technology making it ever so easy to get a book into print, this obstacle is diminishing and rapidly. However, having your book in bookstores in 2010 is still a HUGE part of the success of a book. (Again, we're talking financial success here, there are all types of success.) And MOST bookstores will not stock self-published books.

Okay, marketing. Marketing, in its simplest form, is making an audience aware of a product.

Now, do you think Seth Godin is going to have trouble getting book stores to stock his book? Absolutely not. Self-published or not, stores will be scrambling to stock his books because the man has made a name for himself. He knew his target market and he consistently gave them what they were looking for and has developed a huge loyal following.

As for the marketing, Seth has a huge following, as just mentioned. I don't have solid facts or numbers, but it is reported that over 425,000 people subscribe to his blog. Many of those people are going to be fans who will buy anything Seth publishes and word of mouth will take it from there, providing the book is entertaining, professional, and supplies a demand.

So the main two strikes against self-publishing, Mr. Godin doesn't have to worry too much about. Why? Because he eliminated them by starting out in the traditional publishing arena and playing his platform-building cards right. He has gotten to a place where he can eliminate the middle man (the publisher) and take his product straight to his audience.

Most authors, however DO have the mountains Distribution and Marketing to climb and their road to success via self-publishing will be a much more precipitous climb than Mr. Godin's. Middle men exist for a reason. In publishing, the middle man has connections that Regular-Rick-Writer doesn't have on his own - both for marketing and for distribution.

Anyhow, now that you know how I feel, what are your thoughts on this?

Want Marketing Success? Polish Your Novel's Content!

What do you think of when you think of marketing your novel? Your platform? Agents? Crafting that dreaded query letter? Consulting Editor Alan Rinzler says the number one issue for writers today is something far more basic — take a step back and focus on the content of your book.

His news is both terrible and great. On the one hand, it means you can stop looking for the magic bullet. On the other, it means that the not-so-sexy stuff you were perhaps avoiding may be the last thing holding you back from landing your novel with a publisher.

Before all else, keep your attention on the core concept and execution of your book — the writing, the story, the characters, the point and the purpose.
That’s what we acquiring editors and publishers care most about.

For writers who are feeling ignored or rejected by agents or publishers, with no response whatsoever to a query or only a vague but worrisome note like, Not a good fit…We liked it but there wasn’t enough enthusiasm…I have this advice: Remember that these very same agents and editors are searching eagerly for writers every day, scouring print and online sources, hunting for new ideas, trying to discover the next hot debut author.

We can’t survive without you.

Rinzler says not to shirk the regimen of rewriting, to hone that unique authorial voice of yours through as many rewrites as it takes to carve out the best writing you can. Maybe you have a world-class bestselling story trapped within you and all it takes to release it is to carve and chip away the dreck until what remains is polished and fits like the finest machined gears.

Start with your giving your characters unique voices. Are your heroic characters virtuous and approachable and your villains fascinating but despicable? Does your dialogue sparkle? Do your secondary characters help keep the story moving? Will readers care about what happens to your main characters?

It is axiomatic that there is nothing new under the sun, however, there is endless variation on any given theme. Find a hook all of your own, a method or tactic or fillip that sets your storytelling apart from those who have gone on before. Roger Zelazny loved to experiment with form in his stories.

The novel Doorways in the Sand practices a flashback technique in which most chapters open with a scene, typically involving peril not implied by the end of the previous chapter. Once the scene is established, the narrator backtracks to the events leading up to it, then follows through to the end of the chapter, whereupon the next chapter jumps ahead to another dramatic non-sequitur.

In addition to surprising a reader with tricks of the writing trade, don’t be afraid to surprise the reader with a simple, well-polished turn of phrase or order of events. Let’s go back to a quote from Zelazny from his first Amber novel, Nine Princes in Amber. He managed to convey a great deal of information with a great deal of poetic artistry, but he always kept the story moving.

The woman behind the desk wore a wide-collared, V-necked dress of blue-green, had long hair and low bangs, all of a cross between sunset clouds and the outer edge of a candle flame in an otherwise dark room, and natural, I somehow knew, and her eyes behind glasses I didn’t think she needed were as blue as Lake Erie at three o’clock on a cloudless summer afternoon; and were the colour of her compressed smile matched her hair. But none of these was the reason I’d paused.

I knew her from somewhere, though I couldn’t say where.

I know there’s a fascination with writing doorstop books today, and the third-person point of view certainly gives you the opportunity to provide nearly endless detail. There’s nothing wrong with providing great detail in your writing, but keep one thing in mind; as Rinzler puts it, choosing what not to say is the art of storytelling. Don’t be afraid to write as long as necessary, but not one word longer.

It’s been said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Get the best editing you can. Take advantage of the many good critique communities out there. Develop a network of trusted Alpha readers and capable Beta readers who will be candid and objective when reviewing your work. Make sure that you start strong from the very first page. Think it out. Make sure your hook will grab the reader and pull them into the novel. Start with your best stuff and don’t let up!

Taking another swing (or three) to make sure your book’s content is as strong as it can be, and you may just find that marketing your book is easier than you thought if you do the hard work up-front.

Fabulously Fun Friday: Kindle Library

Review of Careers for Your Characters by Raymond Obstfeld and Franz Neumann

At first glance, Careers for Your Characters: A Writer’s Guide to 101 Professions from Architect to Zookeeper appears to be a gold mine of useful information for the fiction writer. Another look, however, shows that perhaps my excitement wasn’t as well founded as I hoped.


While the book certainly does an adequate job of covering the professions listed within its pages, the fact remains that only fifteen career industries (advertising, architecture, clergy, law, dentistry, education, firefighting, journalism, law enforcement, life sciences, medical sciences, modeling, moviemaking, political sciences, and, of all things, prostitution) are listed. The “101 professions” touted in the subtitle are merely subdivisions of these fifteen careers. The cover, featuring photos of eight careers not found in the book, is very misleading.


While Careers may not be an extremely helpful resource tool for the average writer, those who do choose to weave a story around one of the included professions, may indeed find the information very helpful. Chapters are divided into seven different sections: “The Lowdown” (a general overview of the industry), “Job Description,” “Daily Life” (includes a sample work schedule, dress code, and buzzwords, among other things), “Education,” “Job Conflicts,” “Myths About the Job,” and “Jobs Within the Profession” (a more detailed look at the particular jobs within the industry). Also included in each chapter is a list of nonfiction books, fiction books, and movies that feature the career under discussion. Excerpts from some of the mentioned novels are found at the conclusion of each chapter.