JodieRennerEditing

Busy with Editing and Publishing my Craft of Fiction Articles

2012-01-19T10:51:00.001-05:00

I've been very busy editing fiction manuscripts, mostly thrillers, mysteries, romantic suspense and other crime fiction, as well as publishing my craft of fiction articles on various writers' blogs, so my own blogspot here is getting negelected.

In fact, today (Jan. 19, 2012), I have four different articles published on four different sites:

Hot off the press - "Check Your Facts, Ma'am!" (so you don't annoy and alienate your readers) is up on Blood-Red Pencil blogspot, at http://www.bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/.

And an updated version of my "Thrillers vs. Mysteries" is up on The Thrill Begins blogspot, at http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/.

Also, Part 3 of "Tension on Every Page" (with parts 1 & 2 just below it) is up on DP Lyle, MD's blog, Writer's Forensics Blog, at http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/.

And "Essential Elements of a Bestselling Thriller" is up at Suspense Magazine's blog: http://www.suspensemagazine.com/blog2/

Drop on over to any or all of them, and leave a comment if you have a minute to spare!

And keep on writing!

WRITERS' CONFERENCES & BOOK FESTIVALS 2012

2011-12-27T13:16:00.001-05:00

Here are some of the writers' conferences to be held in North America in 2012 (and a few free book festivals). Please let me know of any I’ve missed, and I’ll be glad to add them to the list. Also, some of the annual conferences held in Sept.-Dec. don’t seem to have their 2012 dates set yet, so I’ve put a ? for those. If you know the exact date for 2012, please let me know and I’ll add them.

JANUARY 2012:

Jan. 20-22, 2012 – Writer’s Digest Conference – Sheraton Hotel, New York City. http://www.writersdigestconference.com/

Jan. 27-29, 2012 – San Diego State University Writers’ Conference, Doubletree Hotel, San Diego’s Mission Valley. http://www.ces.sdsu.edu/writers/

FEBRUARY 2012:

Feb. 3-4, 2012 - Cape Fear Crime Festival, Wilmington, NC. http://www.capefearcrimefestival2.com/

Feb. 3-5, 2012 - Love Is Murder Mystery Conference, Chicago, IL. http://www.loveismurder.net/.

Feb. 15-19, 2012 – Savannah Book Festival 2011, Savannah, GA. Free and open to the public. http://www.savannahbookfestival.org/

Feb. 16-19, 2012 – San Francisco Writers Conference - http://www.sfwriters.org/

Feb. 16-19, 2012 – San Miguel Writers Conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. http://www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org/

Feb. 17-20, 2012– The Southern California Writers Conference (SCWC) – San Diego http://www.writersconference.com/

Feb. 22-26, 2012 – Fisherman’s Wharf Writers Conference, Algonkian Writers Conference, San Francisco. http://algonkianconferences.com/conferences.htm

Feb. 27-29, 2012 – Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, Point Loma - www.pointloma.edu/writers.com

MARCH 2012:

March 1-4, 2012 - Sleuthfest 2012, Orlando, FL. Florida’s premier mystery writer’s conference. Workshops and expert panels. www.mwaflorida.org/sleuthfest.htm .

March 3-4, 2012 - Whidbey Island Writers Conference, Whidbey Island, WA; http://www.writeonwhidbey.com/

March 10-11, 2012 – The Tucson Festival of Books, University of Arizona campus, Tucson, AZ. Free and just excellent! http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/

March 16-17, 2012 - The Write Stuff, Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, Allentown, PA. http://www.glvwg.org/

March 30-31, 2012 - 7th Annual Northern Colorado Writers Conference, Fort Collins Hilton. http://northerncoloradowriters.com/annual-conference-mainmenu-128.html

March 29-April 1, 2012 – Left Coast Crime 2012 annual mystery convention, Sacramento, CA. http://www.leftcoastcrime.org

APRIL 2012:

March 29-April 1, 2012 - The Maine Festival of the Book, featuring some 75 authors. Free! Portland, Maine. Visit http://www.mainereads.org/

April 11-15, 2012 – Romantic Times Book Lovers’ Convention, Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont (Chicago) IL. http://www.rtconvention.com

April 13-14, 2012 - Houston Writers Guild Conference, Sugar Land, Texas. http://www.houstonwritersguild.org/welcome.html

April 14, 2012 – 22nd Annual TMCC Writers’ Conference, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV. http://www.tmcc.edu/wdce/conferences/writers/

April 16-21, 2012 - Philadelphia Book Festival – Free! http://libwww.library.phila.gov/bookfestival/

April 19-21 – Las Vegas Writers’ Conference, Sam's Town Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. http://www.lasvegaswritersconference.com/

April 20-22, 2012 - Missouri Writers Guild’s Write Time! Write Place! Write Now!

Writers’ Conference, Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center of St. Louis, http://www.missouriwritersguild.org/

April 20-22, 2012 - Pikes Peak Writers Conference, Colorado Springs, CO, Marriott Hotel. http://www.ppwc.net/html/ppwc.html

April 20-21, 2012 – Kentucky Writers’ Conference and Southern Kentucky Bookfest. - Free! http://www.sokybookfest.org/KYWritersConf

April 21, 2012 – Alabama Book Festival, Montgomery. Free Admission, http://www.alabamabookfestival.org/

April 26-28, 2012 - American Society of Journalists and Authors’ 41st Annual Writers Conference for nonfiction writers in NYC: http://www.asja.org/wc/2011/

April 27-29, 2012 - Malice Domestic, annual traditional mystery fan convention, in Bethesda, MD. www.malicedomestic.org

April 28, 2012 - Unicorn Writers’ Conference, Portland, CT. http://www.unicornwritersconference.com/

MAY 2012:

May 3-5, 2012 - The Oklahoma Writers Federation Story Weavers Conference, Oklahoma City. http://www.owfi.org/conference.php

May 5, 2012: Ontario Writers’ Conference – Garden Hilton Hotel, Ajax, Ontario, Canada. http://thewritersconference.com/Ontario-Writers-Conference.html

May 4-6, 2012 - Tallahassee Book Festival and Writers Conference. http://www.twaonline.org/

May 11-13 – Algonkian Writers Conference, San Fran Write to Market Conference, San Francisco. http://algonkianconferences.com/conferences.htm

May 18-20, 2012 - SC Book Festival, Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina. http://www.scbookfestival.org/

May 24-26, 2012 - Backspace Writers Conference, New York City. http://www.backspacewritersconference.com/

JUNE 2012:

June 1-3, 2012 - Bloody Words XII, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Includes panels, agents, a short story contest, and forensics. See http://www.BloodyWords2012.com/.

June 1-3, 2012 - Wyoming Writers Conference, Casper, Wyoming. Presentations, workshops, agent pitch sessions, and open mic readings. http://www.wyowriters.org/conference.html

June 7-8, 2012: 8th annual Clarksville Writers' Conference, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee. Workshops on writing and publishing. http://www.artsandheritage.us/writers/

June 8-10, 2012: 64th annual Philadelphia Writers' Conference, Holiday Inn Historic District, Philadelphia, PA. More info to come soon at www.pwcwriters.org

June 8-12, 2012 – Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Lands End Resort, Homer, Alaska. http://writersconference.homer.alaska.edu/

June 9-14, 2012 - Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Santa Barbara, CA. http://www.sbwriters.com/

June 12-16, 2012 - Western Writers of America convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico. http://www.westernwriters.org/

June 22-24, 2012 – Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference, Hyatt Regency, Austin, Texas. http://www.writersleague.org/38/Agents-Conference

June 22-24, 2012 - RomCon in Denver, CO. Crowne Plaza, Denver International Airport. http://www.romcon2012.com

June 25- 28, 2012 - Romance Writers of America Annual Conference, Anaheim, California. http://www.rwa.org/cs/conferences_and_events

June 28-30, 2012 - Jackson Hole Writers Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. http://www.jacksonholewritersconference.com/

JULY 2012:

July 11-14, 2012 - Thrillerfest & Craftfest – International Thriller Writers annual conference, New York, NY. http://www.thrillerfest.com/

July 7-13, 2012 - Antioch Writers’ Workshop, Yellow Springs, Ohio. http://www.antiochwritersworkshop.com/

July 12-15, 2012 - Public Safety Writers Conference, Las Vegas NV. Open to those writing fiction or nonfiction about or for any public safety field. Conference speakers include a coroner, fire fighters, police officers, and others in the writing field. http://www.policewriter.com/.

July 22-27, 2012 - Napa Valley Writers’ Conference - http://www.napawritersconf.org

AUGUST 2012:

Aug. 3-5, 2012 – UNF Writers Conference – University of North Florida, Florida Writers Association, http://www.unfwritersconference.com/

Aug. 16-19, 2012 – Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts – Sechelt, BC, Canada. http://www.writersfestival.ca/

Aug. 19-22, 2012 – Pacific Northwest Writers Association summer conference, Bellevue, Washington, http://pnwa.org/

SEPTEMBER 2012:

Sept. 16-18 - Fall in Love with Writing: A Conference for All Genres and Awards Banquet, Albuquerque, NM

Sept. 21-23, 2012 - The Southern California Writers Conference (SCWC) – Los Angeles http://www.writersconference.com/

Sept 20-22, 2012 - Hampton Roads Writers Conference, Virginia Beach, VA - http://www.hamptonroadswriters.org/2012conference.php

Sept. ?? - Writers’ Police Academy, Jamestown NC. Hands-on, interactive and educational experience for writers to enhance their understanding of all aspects of law enforcement and forensics. http://www.writerspoliceacademy.com/.

Sept. or Oct.? - Central Ohio Fiction Writers Conference - http://www.cofw.org/conference.html

Sept. or Oct. ? - Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Atlanta, Georgia; http://www.georgiaromancewriters.org/mm-conference/

OCTOBER 2012:

Oct. 4-7, 2012 – Bouchercon Crime Fiction Convention, Cleveland, Ohio. http://www.bouchercon2012.com/.

Oct. 6-7, 2012 – Write on the Sound – Edmonds, WA - http://www.ci.edmonds.wa.us/ArtsCommission/wots.stm

Oct. 27, 2012 – Boston Book Festival – free and excellent! http://www.bostonbookfest.org/

Oct. 19-21, 2012 - Surrey International Writers Conference, Surrey, BC, Canada.
http://www.siwc.ca/

October 27-30, 2012: Algonkian Writers Niagara Falls Conference, Niagara Falls, CAN, http://algonkianconferences.com/conferences.htm

Oct. ?? – Florida Writers Conference http://floridawriters.net/

Oct ?? - South Carolina Writers Workshop, Myrtle Beach, SC - http://www.myscww.org/conference/

Oct. ?? - Emerald City Writers’ Conference (Romance Writers of America), Bellevue, Washington, http://www.gsrwa.org/conference.php

NOVEMBER 2012:

Nov. 1-4, 2012– World Fantasy Convention: http://www.wfc2012.org/

Nov. 2-4, 2012 _ The La Jolla Writers Conference, San Diego - http://www.lajollawritersconference.com/

Nov. ?? The New England Crime Bake Conference, Dedham, Mass. http://www.crimebake.org/

DECEMBER 2012:

JANUARY 2013:

Fun in the Sun Conference – Florida Romance Writers: get ready to set sail
onboard Royal Caribbean's beautiful ship, Liberty of the Sea. We sail from Ft Lauderdale, Florida on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 and return to port on Monday, January 28th, 2013. Join us to see the beautiful blue seas of Cozumel and bask in the Caribbean sunlight. This year our conference will include a Pre-sail party on Wednesday night January 23rd, 2013.

List compiled by Jodie Renner, of Jodie Renner Editing, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

TIPS FOR WRITING EFFECTIVE DIALOGUE

2011-11-19T20:22:00.000-05:00

by Jodie Renner, freelance manuscript editor, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Dialogue is one of the first things agents and editors look at when they receive a manuscript for consideration. If the dialogue is wooden, stilted, and artificial, most agents will assume that the rest of the writing is amateurish, and the manuscript will be quickly rejected. Here are some concrete ways to make your dialogue more compelling and natural-sounding.

A. Dialogue needs tension, conflict and emotion!

This one is huge. As Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy say in Writing Fiction for Dummies, “Dialogue is war! Every dialogue should be a controlled conflict between at least two characters with opposing agendas. The main purpose of dialogue is to advance the conflict of the story.”

1. Leave out the “Hi, how are you?” “I’m fine, and you?” “Nice day,” stuff, and cut to the chase. Skip past introductions and all that empty blah-blah small talk.

2. Avoid any kind of long monologue or dialogue that just imparts information, with no tension or emotion.

3. Don’t use dialogue as “filler” – if it doesn’t advance the plot, heighten the conflict, or deepen the characterization, take it out.

4. Include lots of emotional or sexual tension and subtext in your dialogue. Silence, interrupting, or abruptly changing the subject can be effective, too.

B. Loosen up the dialogue.

The most common problem with dialogue for new writers is that it often sounds too stiff and formal. Here are some easy, quick tips for loosening up the dialogue to make it sound more natural:

1. Read your dialogue out loud. Does it sound natural? Can you cut some words out, or use more common, everyday conversational words, rather than more “correct” words? In conversation, use “bought” rather than “purchased,” “use” rather than “utilize,” etc.

2. Use contractions. Change “I am” to “I’m”, “we will” to “we’ll”, “do not” to “don’t”, “they will” to “they’ll,” etc.

3. Break up those long, grammatically correct complete sentences. Nobody talks in complete sentences in informal conversations with friends (or enemies) and family, especially in stressful situations. Frequently, use some short sentence fragments, and one-word answers.

4. Don’t have one person go on and on about a subject. Fiction is not the place for a lecture on a topic, or somebody speaking at length about himself. It’s not natural, and your readers aren’t interested in long monologues! Have the other person interrupt to ask a question, give their opinion, seek clarification, change the subject, etc.

C. Keep it real!

Avoid unnatural dialogue caused by having the characters say things they would never say, just to impart some information to the readers! An extreme example of this would be a character saying to his sister: “As you know, our parents died in a car crash five years ago.” Or even the more subtle, “As your lawyer, I must advise you…” Using dialogue this way to get some information across to the reader is artificial and a sure sign of an amateur writer. Work the information in subtly, without having one character say something that the other would obviously already know.

D. Give each character his or her own voice or speaking style. Make sure all your characters don’t sound the same (like the author).

First, pay attention to differences in gender, age, social status, education, geographical location, historical era, etc. Some characters, especially professionals, will use more correct English and longer sentences, while others will use rougher language, with a lot of one- or two-word questions or answers, sprinkled with expletives.

Then, think about individual personality differences within that social group, and the situation. Is your character: Shy or outgoing? Talkative or quiet? Formal or casual? Modern or old-fashioned? Confident or nervous? Tactful or blunt? Serious or lighthearted? Relaxed or stressed? And give each character their own little quirks and slang expressions, but exercise caution when using slang or expletives. (More on that in another article.)

E. Gender differences.

Bear in mind that men and women tend to express themselves differently.

- In general, men are terser and more direct; they usually prefer to talk about things rather than people or feelings; and they often use brief or one-word answers.

- Women, on the other hand, like to talk about people and relationships; often hint at or talk around a subject, tend to express themselves in more complete sentences; and often want to discuss their feelings.

- These differences are especially important to keep in mind if you’re a female author writing dialogue for male characters, and vice-versa.

F. Other tips:

1. Avoid “talking heads” – pages of unbroken dialogue, with little action or description.

- Move the characters around the scene, and indicate their reactions, gestures and body language:

“…as they walked into the kitchen,” “They pulled up in front of the police station,” “He crossed his arms,” “She got up and started pacing.” “He touched her arm.” “She gasped in alarm.” “He clenched his fists.” And so on.

2. For dialogue tags, use mainly he said and she said (and asked for questions), which are non-intrusive, rather than words like remarked, conjectured, queried, interjected, insinuated, pronounced, and uttered, which draw attention to themselves and can be annoying.

3. Also, beware of using non-speaking words as attributes, like “That’s so nice,” she smiled, or “You bet,” he grinned. You can’t “smile” or “grin” words! But you can say, “You bet.” He grinned and waved as he pulled away.

4. However, in addition to he said and she said, words like shouted, whispered, mumbled, yelled, murmured, and screamed are very useful for advancing the plot and ramping up your imagery.

5. Avoid the dialogue tag if it’s obvious who’s speaking.

6. But do make it clear who’s speaking. Readers don’t want to have to back up and check to see who’s talking now.

7. Try to use action tags (beats) instead of dialogue tags, such as:

Shelley hung up the phone. “That was Carole.”

Mark tensed. “What did she want?”

8. Avoid having the characters constantly using each other’s names. Once in a while is good, but don’t overdo it.

© Copyright Jodie Renner, August 2010, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Resources: On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels, A Writer’s Guide to Fiction by Elizabeth Lyon, Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella, Novel Shortcuts by Laura Whitcomb, Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy

See also "Dialogue Nuts and Bolts - How To Write Dialogue Accurately," at http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2010/08/dialogue-nuts-bolts.html

NaNoWriMo in a Nutshell

2011-10-31T10:11:00.000-04:00

What is NaNoWriMo, anyway?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, an incentive for aspiring writers to get off their butts and start writing. It’s held in November, because what else will you do in November, anyway?

How do I find out about it?

For more info and to register for NaNoWriMo, visit their official website at www.NaNoWriMo.org. Here’s the answer to your first question, on their FAQ page:

NaNo in a Nutshell:

“What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Where: You write wherever you’d like. On your computer, on your iPad, on a typewriter---anywhere is fine, just as long as you’re writing! For a more in-depth NaNoWriMo overview, visit the devilishly handsome What is NaNoWriMo? and How NaNoWriMo Works pages.”

***

More info and background on NaNoWriMo:

According to Wikipedia, “NaNoWriMo is an annual creative writing project coordinated by the non-profit organization The Office of Letters and Light. Spanning the month of November, the project challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel in one month. The project has been running since July 1999 by Chris Baty, and started out with only 21 participants. In 2009, over 170,000 people signed up and 2,427,190,537 words were written.

How do I get involved?

Writers wishing to participate first register on the project’s website, where they can post profiles and information about their novels, including a synopsis and excerpts. Word counts are validated on the site, with writers submitting a copy of their novel at the end for automatic counting. Municipal leaders and regional forums help connect local writers with one another by holding writing events and providing encouragement.”

What are the rules?

This is for fiction writing, but participants’ novels can be on any theme and in any genre, and in any language. According to the website’s FAQ, “If you believe you're writing a novel, we believe you're writing a novel too.” You start writing November 1, and the idea is for you to reach a minimum of 50,000 words by 11:59:59 PM on November 30, local time. We’re talking first draft here, not polishing and revising, which you leave till later. You’re allowed to do all kinds of advance planning and make extensive notes, but you can’t start the actual writing until November 1.

According to Wikipedia, “Participants write either a complete novel of 50,000 words, or simply the first 50,000 words of a novel to be completed later. While 50,000 words is a relatively low word count for a complete novel, it is still significantly more than the 40,000 word mark that distinguishes a novel from a novella. Notable novels of roughly 50,000 words include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Brave New World, and The Great Gatsby.”

To complete the NaNoWriMo challenge, participants will need to write an average of about 1,667 words per day. Organizers of the event say that the aim is simply to get people to start writing, using the deadline as an incentive to get the story going and to put words to paper. This “quantity over quality” philosophy is summarized by the site’s slogan: No Plot? No Problem! This is also the title of Chris Baty's book of advice for NaNoWriMo participants, published in late 2004 by Chronicle Books.

Is there a cost to enter this program?

No, there is no fee to participate in NaNoWriMo; all you need to do is register in order to have your progress verified.

Are there any prizes?

No, there are official prizes are awarded, but you will receive a handy-dandy certificate to display as you wish, as well as an icon to display on the Web, and you’ll be officially included on the list of winners. Anyone who reaches the 50,000 word mark is declared a winner.

How do they know I reached the target number of words?

Beginning November 25, participants can submit their novel to be automatically verified for length. No precautions are taken to prevent cheating; since the only significant reward for winning is the finished novel itself and the satisfaction of having written it, there is little incentive to cheat. Novels are verified for word count by software, and may be scrambled or otherwise encrypted before being submitted for verification, although the software does not keep any other record of text input. It is possible to win without anyone (other than the author) ever seeing or reading the novel.

In October 2008, the self-publishing company CreateSpace teamed up with NaNoWriMo to begin offering winners a single free, paperback proof copy of their manuscripts, with the option to use the proof to then sell the novel on Amazon.com.

What about community support?

The official forums on the NaNoWriMo website provide a place for advice, information, criticism, support and an opportunity for “collective procrastination.” The forums are available from the beginning of October, when signups for the year begin, until late September, when they are archived and the database is wiped in preparation for the next year.

Most regions also have one or more Municipal Liaisons (ML) assigned to them, who are volunteers that help with organizing local events. MLs are encouraged to coordinate at least two kinds of meet-ups; a kickoff party, and a "Thank God It's Over" party to celebrate successes and share novels. Kickoff parties are often held the weekend before November to give local writers a chance to meet and get geared up, although some are held on Halloween night past midnight so writers start writing in a community setting. Other events may be scheduled, including weekend meet-ups or overnight write-ins.

Don’t have a computer to write on? NaNoWriMo runs a Laptop Loaner program for those who do not have regular access to a computer or word processor. Old, yet functional laptops are donated from NaNoWriMo participants. Those wishing to borrow a laptop are required to cover the cost of shipping it back and must send a $300 deposit along with proof of identity, but are not charged a fee for using the laptops. In 2006, AlphaSmart, Inc. donated 25 brand-new Neos to expand the Laptop Loaner library with the promise of 25 more over the next two years .

by Jodie Renner, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, Part III

2011-10-07T11:19:00.000-04:00

More techniques for writing a compelling suspense-thriller…or any other page-turner.

In Part I of this series, I passed along some tips for creating a compelling opening, complex characters, and a tight point of view. In Part II, I discussed creating a riveting plot with lots of conflict and suspense and a tight, to-the-point writing style. This final post in this series covers tension, dialogue, pacing, passion, and crafting a satisfying ending.

Put tension on every page.

This applies to all fiction, but even more so for thrillers. As Jack Bickham says, “Virtually all the high points of most stories involve conflict. It’s the fuel that makes fiction go. Nothing is more exciting and involving.”

Bickham continues, “In fiction, the best times for the writer—and reader—are when the story’s main character is in the worst trouble. Let your character relax, feel happy and content, and be worried about nothing, and your story dies. Pour on all sorts of woes so your poor character is thoroughly miserable and in the deepest kind of trouble, and your story perks right up—along with your reader’s interest.

“The moral: Although most of us do everything we can to avoid trouble in real life, we must do the opposite as writers of fiction. We must seek out ways to add trouble to our characters’ lives, putting just as much pressure on them as we can. For it’s from plot trouble that reader interest comes.”

In his chapter called “Tension All the Time,” Donald Maass emphasizes giving your protagonist (and other characters) conflicting emotions and inner conflict.

All dialogue needs tension, too.

As Ingermanson and Economy say, “Dialogue is war! Every dialogue should be a controlled conflict between at least two of the characters with opposing agendas. The main purpose of dialogue is to advance the conflict of the story.” So definitely leave out the “How are you? I’m fine. And you?” blah-blah-blah, and cut to the chase. Unless of course you’re trying to show seething resentment or subtle tension boiling up from under surface politeness. As Donald Maass says, “Conflict in dialogue can be as polite as poison, or as messy as hatchets. The approach is up to you. The important thing is to get away from ambling chit-chat and get right to the desire of two speakers to defeat each other.” So follow James N. Frey’s advice: “Decide you will have fresh, snappy dialogue and not a single line of conversation.”

Vary the pacing.

Although thrillers are generally fast-paced, it’s important to slow down the pacing from time to time, to give your readers a break. As Jessica Page Morrell says, “because readers need to put down a book from time to time, and because pacing can’t be as relentless as a runaway train, you need to bring down the temperature and tension in a story at intervals. A win for your character, as well as a slower or interlude scene, provides the pauses and quieter moments needed.”

Give your scenes conflict, intensity and intrigue.

Start and end your chapters and scenes with questions and intrigue. James N. Frey’s advice is to end each scene or section of dramatic narrative with a bridge, a story question to carry the reader to the next one.

Every scene, according to James Scott Bell, needs a degree of intensity. A moving force in the scene is trying to make something happen. Opposition or obstacles are keeping the POV character from meeting his objective. And the outcome is often not entirely satisfactory. In fact, Bell advises us, “Design your scenes, for the most part, so the lead is in a worse position after the scene is over.” This will keep the reader reading to find out how the protagonist tackles the new challenges and survives her new predicament.

Put passion into your writing.

Donald Maass, in The Fire in Fiction, feels that the key ingredient to a page-turner is passion. “What do I mean by passion? … A passionate author has us in her grip. Passionate fiction is not bogged down, wandering, low in tension, or beset by the many bugbears of by-the-numbers novel writing, like stereotypical characters, predictable plots, cliché-ridden prose, churning exposition, buried dialogue, and so on.[…] When the purpose of every word is urgent, the story crackles, connects, weaves, and falls together in wondrous ways.”

How to develop that passion as a writer? Maass believes in learning from others. “Everything we need in order to understand the techniques of passion lies within the covers of novels that you will currently find on the shelves.”

Create a thrilling, satisfying climax.

Frey points out, “In almost all damn good thrillers, the hero is nearly killed in the climax, but then manages to kill or capture the villain and to foil his evil plot. Audiences find this motif satisfying….” An effective, satisfying climax has a surprise or two, good prevails over evil, and often the hero discovers something about himself or gains insight into the human condition. Don’t disappoint your readers by having a nebulous, wishy-washy, or tragic ending. Leave that to literary fiction, not your killer thriller!

Resources:

James Scott Bell, Revision and Self-Editing
James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller
Donald Maass, The Fire in Fiction
David Morrell, The Successful Novelist
Jessica Page Morrell, Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us

Copyright Jodie Renner, 2011

Jodie Renner is a freelance editor specializing in crime fiction. Check out her website at: http://www.jodierennerediting.com/.

WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, Part II

2011-10-04T16:53:00.001-04:00

by Jodie Renner

Some key techniques for writing a compelling suspense-thriller…or any other page-turner.

In Part I of this series, I offered some tips for creating a killer opening; staging intriguing, complex characters; and engaging your reader in your hero’s story through a tight, riveting point of view. Those techniques, used well, will set the stage and grab your readers early on, making them bond quickly with your hero, and start worrying about his plight.

How to keep your readers involved right through to the end of the book? Plan for conflict, tension and suspense on every page, and deliver it with a tight, to-the-point writing style. Don’t allow your reader’s attention to wander for a moment!

“Once the inciting incident threatens the protagonist, the writer’s job is to prolong the trepidation for as long as possible.” (J.P. Morrell)

Plan a riveting plot, with lots of conflict and tension.

Conflict drives all fiction. And more conflict and higher stakes are of course necessary for a successful thriller. Put your protagonist in hot water right away. Then up the stakes and create more problems for him. Then more.

As James N Frey says, “Have your characters in terrible trouble right from the beginning, and never let them get free of terrible trouble until the climax. Keep the clock ticking and the excitement mounting right to the climactic moment.”

Unlike some other genres, in a thriller, you need high stakes and an urgent mission, and you need to keep the plot moving along briskly. Don’t bog it down with explanations and digressions and backstory. Add those in in small doses, marbling them into your story only when needed. And color any exposition (internal monologue) with plenty of tension, anxiety, inner conflict, questions, all expressed with a distinctive voice and lots of attitude.

Jessica Page Morrell, in Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, has this advice for creating effective conflict:

Give characters opposing goals, agendas, and strong motivations.

Make sure the stakes for each character are high.

Stage confrontations as if they’re happening/unfolding in real time.

Embed dialogue with tension, subtext, and power exchanges.

Know your protagonist’s deepest fears.

Stir in lots of suspense.

As Morrell says, “Suspense forces a reader to stay engaged and is part anxiety, part curiosity. Suspense unsettles the reader, plunges him into nail-biting angst. … Suspense builds and satisfies when the reader desperately wants something to happen and it isn’t happening.”

Suspense is usually caused by threats, when the protagonist whose head we’re in is in danger, his life is about to become a living nightmare, and we have to keep reading to find out how it all turns out.

Some techniques to use to increase the suspense are subtle foreshadowing, delaying information, subterfuge, threats to the protagonist, time running out, inner conflicts, surprise twists, and cliff-hangers. All of these techniques involve delaying the resolution of the hero’s problems, piling on new challenges, and hinting of even worse dangers to come.

Use a tight writing style. Make every word count.

In a suspense-thriller (or any compelling fiction), it’s important to write economically. As Steve Berry says: “Shorter is always better. Write tight. It makes you use the best words in the right way.” Succinct, to-the-point writing produces the predominantly fast pace demanded by thrillers.

Don’t meander or ramble. Don’t wax eloquent. Don’t use highfalutin words that sound pompous and will send your readers to the dictionary. Direct, sensory, evocative words are much more powerful. As Jessica Page Morrell says, “Simple words are close to our hearts and easily understood.” Avoid the convoluted, erudite sentence structure popular in previous centuries. And don’t say the same thing three or four times in different ways – we got it the first time! Also, stay away from those stale clichés.

As Harlan Coben says about writing his thrillers, “I want it to be compulsive reading. So on every page, every paragraph, every sentence, every word, I ask myself, ‘Is this compelling? Is this gripping? Is this moving the story forward?’ And if it’s not, I have to find a way to change it…. No word really should be wasted.”

For more details on effective writing styles for fiction, see my article titled “Style Blunders in Fiction.”

In Part III of this series, I’ll discuss effective dialogue, varied pacing, scene structure, and a satisfying climax and conclusion.

Resources:

Steve Berry’s 8 Rules of Writing, Writer’s Digest, September 05, 2008
Harlan Coben, in an interview by Jessica Strawser published in Writer’s Digest, “Straight Talk with Harlan Coben,” November 29, 2010.
James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller – A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters.
Jessica Page Morrell, Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor, specializing in thrillers, romantic suspense, and mysteries. For more info on Jodie’s her editing services, visit her website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com

WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, Part I

2011-10-01T13:15:00.001-04:00

a small section of Jodie's bookcase

- Some key techniques for writing a compelling suspense-thriller…or any other page-turner.

To unwind, I love reading thrillers, romantic suspense, suspense-mysteries, and other crime fiction, as they provide just the escape I’m looking for after a long day of ... editing crime fiction! Here are some tips I’ve gleaned from writing gurus and my own editing experience on writing a suspense-thriller—or any other story—that will keep your readers up until the wee hours.

First, what’s a thriller, anyway? See my article on Thrillers vs. Mysteries. In a nutshell, as James N. Frey says, “the main ingredient of a thriller is pulse-pounding suspense.” The time-honored formula for successful thrillers is, according to Frey: “A clever hero has an ‘impossible’ mission to foil evil. The hero is brave; he or she is in terrible trouble; the mission is urgent; the stakes are high; and it’s best if the hero is self-sacrificing for others.”

So what makes a compelling suspense-thriller, the kind you can’t put down? Most thriller writers and readers would agree that some of the essential ingredients for a thriller that sizzles are:

An opening that grabs you by the collar and drags you in
A likeable, resourceful hero
A ruthless, cunning villain (or more than one)
A riveting plot with a powerful story question and lots of intrigue
Plenty of tension and conflict
Fast pacing, with tight, to-the-point writing
An unexpected, satisfying conclusion

But how do we achieve all that and more? In this post and two more to follow, we’ll discuss some techniques that can help you create a page-turning, adrenalin-inducing thriller.

To start with, As Frey, says, “To write a damn good thriller, you need a killer attitude.” For Part I, we’ll just touch on your opening (first page), characters, and point of view.

Write an opening that hooks ‘em in.

Put your protagonist on stage right away, in media res – in the middle of things. As James Scott Bell says, “Give us a character in motion. Something happening to a person from line one. Make that a disturbing thing, or have it presage something disturbing.” Start with a powerful story question, and get that inciting incident, the first threat, in there quickly. Don’t open with a description of the setting or weather, or with interior monologue. A dialogue with tension and some action is much more dynamic.

But don’t stress over getting the perfect opening for your first draft – just get your story down, then come back at a later date to revise and spice up your first paragraph and page. For more on writing compelling openings, click on my article “Act First, Explain Later.”

Create complex, compelling characters.

Your lead character, according to James Scott Bell, needs “grit, wit and it,” so make him or her gutsy, smart, witty and charismatic. Your hero should be strong, resourceful and likeable, but not perfect. As Bell says, "Leads, to be realistic, must also have flaws and foibles.”

According to Jessica Page Morrell, “Your characters can be neurotic or despicable, vain or shallow, but they must always be vivid, fascinating, and believable, and their actions, decisions, and motives must propel the story to an inevitable conclusion.”

James N. Frey takes it a step further: “All damn good dramatic characters are larger than life, theatrical, determined to overcome the obstacles that are put in their path. They are an extreme of type, larger than life, and they have a ruling passion that defines who they are.” This applies to both the hero and the villain.

Frey advises us to create characters that, “in addition to being multifaceted, are interesting in the way real people are interesting. They’ve done things, they’ve been places, and they have unusual views. In other words, they’ve ‘lived.’ Such characters have an individuality that stamps them as fresh.” And give your characters internal conflict, moral dilemmas, and tough decisions and choices to make, as these help develop and define them.

And make your antagonist a nasty but believable villain, powerful, cunning, relentless, unpredictable, selfish, and cold-hearted. But not 100% evil – give him depth and complexity by showing us how he explains and justifies his actions.

For more on this topic, check out my blog post, “Creating Compelling Characters.”

Zoom in on your hero.

Limited viewpoint, where we experience the story from the point of view of the protagonist(s), gets us “up close and personal” with the main character, so we start to identify with him right away, and get emotionally engaged fast, which is critical for effective fiction.

As Maass says, when discussing the weaker manuscripts his agency rejects, “Too many manuscripts begin at a distance from their protagonists, as if opening with a long shot like a movie. That’s a shame. Why keep readers at arm’s length?

“Novels are unique among art forms in their intimacy. They can take us inside a character’s heart and mind right away. And that is where your readers want to be. Go there immediately. And when you do, show us what your hero is made of. If you accomplish that, then the job of winning us over is done.”

And as David Morrell points out, “Modern readers have a mania about credibility. To the extent that the omniscient narrator intrudes with godlike information, the illusion of actuality is broken.” Steve Berry says, “Don’t let you, the author, enter the story.”

So for more impact and to draw your reader in more to your story world, get us into the head and heart of your protagonist right away. Then express each scene, including the setting, from your viewpoint character’s point of view. Colour the description with their feelings, attitude, reactions, etc., rather than stepping back and describing the scene from a more impartial, distant authorial stance.

Parts II and III of this article (plot, suspense, conflict, dialogue, tension, pacing, style) will appear here soon.

Resources:

- James Scott Bell, Revision and Self-Editing – Techniques for transforming your first draft into a finished novel - Steve Berry’s 8 Rules of Writing, Writer’s Digest, September 2008 - James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller – A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters
- Donald Maass, The Fire in Fiction - David Morrell, The Successful Novelist - Jessica Page Morrell, Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected.

Jodie Renner is an independent editor specializing in crime fiction. For more info on Jodie's editing services, visit her website at: http://www.jodierennerediting.com/.

REVISING AND POLISHING YOUR NOVEL

2011-09-23T12:33:00.002-04:00

Congratulations! You’ve finally finished the first draft of your novel! Give yourself a huge pat on the back and go out and celebrate! Then put it away for at least two weeks while you concentrate on other things, before going back and starting on revisions.

—Yes, revisions — starting with big-picture issues, like plot, characters, point of view and pacing. It’s highly unlikely that your first draft is ready for proofreading, or even line editing yet — save that for the last step of the revision process, after any large issues are detected and dealt with. If you’re unable to hire a freelance developmental editor and/or a copy editor, this is where your critique group (online or in-person) or acquaintances who read a lot of fiction come in.

Based on my own experience and advice from writing gurus, I’ve compiled a recommended approach to the revision process:

1. After you’ve finished your first draft, put your story away and concentrate on other things for a few weeks or even a month. Let the story percolate in your subconscious for a while.

2. Meanwhile send/give the manuscript to “beta readers” — savvy people who read a lot of fiction, in your genre. For suggestions and a list of possible questions, see my blog post, “Questions for Your Beta Readers” on Crime Fiction Collective (and Publetariat.com). Get at least two volunteer readers, but no more than five, as too many contradictory opinions could get overwhelming. Stress to your readers that at this point you’re looking for big issues only — parts where they felt excited, curious, delighted, scared, worried, confused, bored, etc.

3. After your break of a few weeks or so, collect the reactions of your volunteer readers or critique group. Go through them and note any that you really like; perhaps ask for clarification of suggestions, or more details.

4. Change the font of your manuscript to one you really like and print it up to read, rather than on the screen. (A different medium to help you look at it with fresh eyes. Or you can save this step until you’ve incorporated some changes.)

5. Reread your manuscript from start to finish, making separate notes only on big-picture changes you’d like to make, such as plot, characterization, point of view, pacing, etc. Cross out, delete or condense any boring scenes. Don’t get bogged down on wording or punctuation, etc. at this point.

6. Update your story outline and “to-do list” or plan of action to take into account advice from your beta readers, and/or critique group, as well as your own new ideas.

7. Save a new version of your manuscript under the current date and go through the whole thing, revising on-screen for big-picture changes only. Is your opening compelling enough? (See my blog posts on your first pages: “Act First, Explain Later” and “Those Crucial First Five Pages.”) Do all of the major plot points make sense? Do you see any inconsistencies in timing, setting, character or plot? Does the story drag in places? Is there enough conflict and tension? Suspense? (See “Writing a Killer Thriller,” Parts I, II and III, on Crime Fiction Collective BlogSpot.) Are your characters complex enough? Is your protagonist likeable? (“Creating Compelling Characters”) Do you have too many characters? Is your point of view all over the place? Anchor it in one of the main characters most of the time. (“Deep Point of View” on Blood-Red Pencil.) Maybe rewrite a scene from the viewpoint of a different key character? Rearrange some chapters or scenes? Or change the chapter breaks to earlier or later?

8. Now would be a good time to send your revised story to a freelance editor or to a few more volunteer readers — ones who haven’t read an earlier version.

9. Incorporate any new suggestions you like, and resave each new version as you go along, using the current date in the file name.

10. Go back to the beginning and start editing for voice, style, and flow. Slash excess wording and repetitions, or overexplaining. Streamline your sentences. Take out whole sentences and paragraphs — even scenes or chapters — if they don’t add anything new or drive the story forward. Take out unneeded adverbs and adjectives, eliminate clichés, and pump up your verbs to bring the action to life. See my blog post on fixing common style gaffes, “Style Blunders in Fiction” at The Thrill Begins BlogSpot.

11. Read just the dialogue out loud, maybe role-playing with a buddy or two. Do the conversations sound natural? Or stilted or even boring in parts. Amp up the tension and cut down on those empty phrases, overly wordy monologues, complete sentences, too-perfect grammar, etc. See my blog post called “Writing Effective Dialogue.”

12. Go through and do a basic line edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation — or better yet, hire a freelance fiction editor to do it.

13. Change the font to one you like, and print up the manuscript, double-spaced. Sit down with it and read it through out loud, crossing out excess words and sentences, and noting changes and suggestions between the lines, in the margins, or on the back.

14. Open up the screen version and type these new changes into your document; resave with today’s date.

15. Go over the whole thing again, on screen or on paper, looking for any new issues that crop up. Changes very often create new errors, so watch for those.

16. Repeat above steps as needed, until your manuscript is compelling and polished, before sending it off to a literary agent or acquiring editor, or self-publishing. This whole revision process could easily take several months. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by publishing it or sending it off too soon.

17. Better yet, at some point along this process, send it to a reputable freelance fiction editor so you can get a professional, unbiased look at it, from someone familiar with both the genre and industry standards.

18. Finally, if you’re seeking an agent, take as much care with that all-important query letter. See my blog post, “Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot” on Blood-Red Pencil BlogSpot.

Thrillerfest, Editing, My Craft Articles

2011-07-21T19:32:00.004-04:00

Thrillerfest in NYC was excellent again this year. I only attended the two-day Craftfest, but all the workshops were top-notch, and all led by bestselling authors. I attended classes led by Steve Berry, William Bernhardt, Grant Blackwood, Michael Palmer, John Gilstrap, Steven James, and Hallie Ephron. Wish I could have also attended some of the others that took place at the same time! Will get into more details about the seminars and topics soon. Ken Follett was our keynote speaker. He's a relaxed, fascinating speaker, and his talk was really inspiring.

As usual, I am editing three fiction manuscripts at a time (all crime fiction), as that seems to work for me. I edit the books in sections, so when one author is doing revisions on a section, I'm working on another manuscript, and so on. All three books I'm working on now are really well-written and compelling, and the authors are great to work with, so I'm really enjoying my freelance editing these days. As I near the end of one manuscript, I start looking closely at the ones others are sending me.

I haven't had time to post here as, besides editing fiction manuscripts and magazine articles, doing initial critiques of first chapters for others, and judging books for a Writer's Digest competition, I also post regularly on three other blogs: Crime Fiction Collective: http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/,
The Thrill Begins: http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/ , and, less frequently, Blood-Red Pencil: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/. Check out these blogs for great articles of interest to writers (and readers), especially of crime fiction and thrillers.

Here are some of my craft of fiction articles and tips posted on other blogs:

CRIME FICTION COLLECTIVE, http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/

April 25, 2011: Questions for Your Beta Readers

May 9, 2011: Show, Don’t Tell

May 23: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part I

June 6: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part II

June 20: Writing a Killer Thriller, Part III

July 18: Thrillers vs. Mysteries

PUBLETARIAT.COM: http://www.publetariat.com/

April 26, 2011: Questions for Your Beta Readers

THE THRILL BEGINS, http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/

March 31, 2011: Writing Effective Dialogue

April 28, 2011: Creating Compelling Characters

May 19, 2011: Act First, Explain Later

June 23, 2011: Pros and Cons of First-Person Point of View

July 21, 2011: Style Blunders in Fiction

BLOOD-RED PENCIL, http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/

August 7, 2010 – Act First, Explain Later

Sept. 17, 2010: Creating Compelling Characters

Oct. 2, 2010: Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue

Dec. 15, 2010: Show, Don’t Tell

Jan. 8, 2011: Style Blunders in Fiction

Feb. 11, 2011: Deep Point of View, or How to Avoid Head-Hopping

Feb. 16, 2011: Survive Your Writing or Editing Career

March 21, 2011: The Pros and Cons of First-Person Viewpoint

March 28, 2011: Deep Point of View, Part 2

April 18, 2011 – Deep Point of View- How to Avoid Head-Hopping, Part 3

Busy Editing and Other Blogging

2011-05-19T08:55:00.006-04:00

Am really busy these days with my freelance fiction manuscript editing (mostly thrillers, romantic suspense and mysteries) and writing articles for other blogs on various fiction-writing techniques -- no time to keep up my own blog!

Here's where you can read fiction craft articles by me:

THE THRILL BEGINS Blogspot: http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/ How to write a compelling opening for your novel

March 31, 2011: Writing Effective Dialogue

April 28, 2011: Creating Compelling Characters

May 19, 2011: Act First, Explain Later

CRIME FICTION COLLECTIVE: http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/

Questions for Your Beta Readers

Show, Don't Tell

May 23, June 6 and June 20: Writing Killer Thrillers (3 parts).

BLOOD-RED PENCIL blogspot: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/

- Various articles on different effective fiction-writing techniques.

Also, check out my website at www.JodieRennerEditing.com.

Besides editing manuscripts, I also offer initial critiques of your first 10, 20 or 30 pages, so please contact me if you'd like a second opinion on your first chapter or two.

And keep on writing!

Two Conferences, Three Countries, Numerous Blogs and a Lot of Editing…

2011-04-06T12:57:00.032-04:00

… all in two months. I’ve been way too busy. Time to slow down a bit and smell the roses…er, tulips…when they bloom here in Canada, that is. And get caught up on my editing.

February 16-22, I was in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for a stimulating writers’ conference in a great location. The 6th Annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival, Feb. 18-20, offered three days of workshops, with a wide variety of topics to choose from, plus keynote speakers and cultural events to give us all a taste of Mexican food, music and dance. I met some great people at the conference. I really enjoyed getting to know and hanging out with Diana Barnes, a writer and professor of Spanish Literature (far left, in the black jacket).

And I got to San Miguel early enough to explore this very special, safe, World Heritage colonial town in the mountains of Central Mexico, and snap hundreds of unique photos.I’m definitely going back to San Miguel next year, but for longer.

And I took a little detour on the way home to join my sister and her husband in Cancun for four days of R&R -- and I don't feel a bit guilty about it!

Then, March 22-27, off to Left Coast Crime’s conference, The Big Chile, in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico, also a high desert location. I chose one of the optional pre-conference bus tours to Taos, led by two friendly, knowledgeable guides, which turned out to be a lot of fun and a photographer’s delight. This conference, for both writers and readers of crime fiction, featured panels (in contrast to the workshops at San Miguel), talks, a bookstore, book signings, and plenty of other cultural and literary activities to choose from, culminating in an awards banquet. I was also pleased to be asked to participate in a panel with literary agents and editors, called “Industry Professionals on Publishing,” which was extremely well-attended.

At the Awards Banquet, I was pleased to join thriller writer David Morrell's table. Morrell is the author of numerous novels, starting with First Blood, which grew into the Rambo movies with Sylvester Stallone. David generously supplied wine and gave each of us a book of his (I chose his excellent book on advice for writers, called The Successful Novelist, since I had just bought three of his novels at the bookroom.)

At both events, I was very fortunate to hook up with interesting people (mainly writers), companions to share sightseeing, shopping, meals, and lots of stimulating conversation, mostly revolving around writing, editing and the state of publishing and self-publishing. In both cases, although I loved the conferences and exploring new and different parts of the continent, it was the connections with these great people and talented writers that made the experiences so enriching and satisfying. A special thanks to my friend, mystery-suspense novelist LJ Sellers, for introducing me to four other bright, dynamic people – horror and thriller writer Andrew E. Kaufman, romantic suspense writer Peg Brantley, mystery writer Judith Yates Borger, and reviewer Marlyn Beebe. We all shared ideas and brainstormed over lunches, dinners and drinks--great times!

Plus, due to a flurry of activity before I left, I’ve recently had several of my articles posted on three blogs. In February and March, Blood-Red Pencil blogspot, at http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/, posted Deep Point of View, or How to Avoid Head-Hopping, Survive Your Writing or Editing Career, The Pros and Cons of First-Person Viewpoint, and Deep Point of View, Part 2. (Part 3 coming in April.) As well, my article on “Writing Effective Dialogue” was published on The Thrill Begins blog at http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/, and my article on “Creating Compelling Characters” on Writing from the Peak – Pikes Peak Writers Blog, at http://pikespeakwriters.blogspot.com/.

And I was surprised to discover that my panel at LCC and my freelance editing services were mentioned in a few other very interesting blog posts: Ctrl+Alt+Pub blog, at http://ctrlaltpub.blogspot.com/2011/03/state-of-indie-i-had-pleasure-of.html and Sisters in Crime blog, at http://sisters-in-crime-sinc.blogspot.com/2011/03/left-coast-crime-2011-mystery-of-santa.html.

The very well-written article by Andrew E. Kaufman on the state of indie publishing, at Ctrl+Alt+Pub, sparked a lot of interest and debate. That will be the topic of another blog post here – the rapidly changing world of publishing, self-publishing and e-publishing.

And you might want to also check out Blood-Red Pencil’s “Ask the Editor” monthly feature for some tips for writers from editors and other writers. Here’s yesterday’s post: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2011/04/make-most-of-your-spring-with-ask.html.

Time to get back to my editing – my “raison-d’être” and, besides being satisfying and rewarding, the activity that funds my trips to all of these great writers’ conferences!

...speaking of editing, if you have a fiction manuscript you'd like me to have a look at, my website is http://www.jodierennerediting.com/.

LINKS TO JODIE'S BLOG POSTS on the CRAFT OF FICTION

2011-03-15T15:03:00.005-04:00

(See down for Blood-Red Pencil blogspot posts and The Thrill Begins blogspot posts)

Act First, Explain Later (Hooking Your Readers with an Effective Opening)

Point of View – Head-Hopping

Creating Compelling Characters

Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue

Show, Don’t Tell

Style Faux-Pas (Style Blunders in Fiction)

12 Tips for Keeping Your Manuscript out of the Rejects Pile

Dialogue Nuts and Bolts

14 Tips for Breaking into the Romance Genre

16 Tips for Writing an Effective Short Story

Clear, Concise, Powerful Nonfiction Writing

Hyphens, Dashes, Ellipses

Basic Formatting of Your Manuscript

Thrillers vs. Mysteries

Writers’ Conferences in 2011

Fiction Definitions

Query Letters

Writing a Synopsis of Your Novel

JODIE’S BLOG POSTS ON BLOOD-RED PENCIL BLOGSPOT:

August 7, 2010 – Act First, Explain Later

Sept. 17, 2010: Creating Compelling Characters

Oct. 2, 2010: Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue

Dec. 15, 2010: Show, Don’t Tell

Jan. 8, 2011: Style Blunders in Fiction

Feb. 11, 2011: Deep Point of View, or How to Avoid Head-Hopping

Feb. 16, 2011 – Survive Your Writing or Editing Career

March 28, 2011: Deep Point of View, Part 2

April 2011 – Deep Point of View, Part 3

THE THRILL BEGINS Blogspot, http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/

March 31, 2011: Writing Effective Dialogue

April 28, 2011: Creating Compelling Characters

WRITING FROM THE PEAK - PIKES PEAK WRITERS BLOG, http://pikespeakwriters.blogspot.com/

March 30, 2011: Creating Compelling Characters

THRILLERS VS. MYSTERIES

2011-03-13T17:15:00.005-04:00

Most readers of fiction know what mysteries are. But what’s a thriller? How are thrillers different from mysteries? Both are fiction stories involving criminal activity, catching the bad guy, and at least one murder.

The main difference is in the delivery—how they are told. A mystery can unfold in a leisurely fashion, but thrillers need to be much more fast-paced and suspenseful. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines a thriller as a work of fiction “that thrills, especially a sensational or suspenseful book, story, play, or movie.”

James N. Frey, author of How to Write a Damn Good Thriller and How to Write a Damn Good Mystery, among other “damn good” books on writing, says, “In the United States, mysteries are not considered to be thrillers, though they share some common elements.” Frey describes the differences like this:

“In a mystery, the hero has a mission to find a killer.

In a thriller, the hero has a mission to foil evil.”

Frey goes on to elaborate, “a thriller is a story of a hero who has a mission to foil evil. Not just a hero—a clever hero. Not just a mission—an ‘impossible’ mission. An ‘impossible’ mission that will put our hero into terrible trouble.”

According to International Thriller Writers (www.thrillerwriters.org), a thriller is characterized by “the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. Thriller is a genre in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. Part of the allure of thrillers comes from not only what their stories are about, but also how they are told. High stakes, nonstop action plot twists that both surprise and excite, settings that are both vibrant and exotic, and an intense pace that never lets up until the adrenaline-packed climax.” (Source: James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller)

David Morrell, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become the successful Rambo film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone, and author of 28 thrillers, most recently, Shimmer and The Naked Edge, posed the question several years ago, “What is a Thriller?” He decided to explain the difference between thrillers and mysteries because “some readers evidently have a porous view of who-done-its, crime stories, action stories, suspense stories, thrillers, etc, and group them all together as mysteries."

Morrell and the International Thriller Writers organization don’t consider thrillers mysteries. “What is a thriller?” asks Morrell. “It is an encompassing term into which many crime, action, and suspense stories can be grouped. It applies to a variety of types: the legal thriller, the spy thriller, the action-adventure thriller, the medical thriller, the police thriller, the romantic thriller, the historical thriller, the political thriller, the religious thriller, the high-tech thriller, etc. New types are constantly being invented. What gives them their common ground is the intensity of the emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration of excitement and breathlessness. By definition, if thrillers do not thrill, they aren’t doing their job. Sometimes, they build rhythmically to a rousing climax. Other times, they start at top speed and never ease off.”

So, asks Morrell, “…what’s the difference between mysteries and thrillers? According to him, “One crucial distinction is that traditional mysteries appeal primarily to the mind and emphasize the logical solution to a puzzle. In contrast, thrillers strive for heightened emotions and emphasize the sensations of what might be called an obstacle race and a scavenger hunt. It’s not that thrillers don’t have ideas. […] But in broad terms, the contrast is between emotion and logic, between an urgent pace and a calm one. True, the two genres can merge if the scavenger hunt of a thriller involves solving a puzzle. But in a thriller, the goal of solving the puzzle is to excite the reader as much as to satisfy curiosity.” (David Morrell, www.crimespreemag.com)

Which do you prefer, mysteries or thrillers? It probably depends on your mood, but I much prefer the pure escapism and “pulse-pounding suspense” of thrillers.

Who are some of your favorite thriller writers and novels? Mine include Lee Child, Harlan Coben, David Morrell, Sandra Brown, Michael Connelly, Allison Brennan and Nora Roberts. For suspense-mysteries, try LJ Sellers' excellent Detective Jackson series.

What about your favorite thriller characters? I love Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar. Also, I just finished The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, and I really liked his Mickey Haller character.

BASIC FORMATTING OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT

2011-03-10T20:27:00.005-05:00

Often, the first thing I have to do when I receive a manuscript for potential editing, before starting my sample edit, is to reformat the section I’ve been sent, so it’s easier for me to read. Here are some guidelines for formatting your manuscript before submitting it to a freelance editor, an agent, or a publisher.

1. Your manuscript needs to be in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office). This is a must.

2. The preferred font is Times New Roman. It’s easier to read than many other fonts. The font size should be 12-point.

3. Left-justify the text, rather than justifying both sides.

4. Double-spaced, if possible. But do not press “Enter” at the ends of the lines to double-space. This causes major headaches and a lot of frustration. As soon as a word is added or taken out, everything screws up. If you've already done this to double-space your document, add 3-4 words to a line, and take out 3-4 words from another line, and you'll see what I mean. And it's a slow process to remove all the "returns" at the ends of the lines. Please don't send it for editing like this. Much better to just send it single-spaced. So make sure that when you’re typing and you come to the end of a line, do not press “Enter” unless it’s for a new paragraph. Let the text “wrap” around on its own.

5. A quick and easy way to double-space your whole manuscript: Control + A (for “all”), then Control + 2. Voila! It’s done!

6. Indent each new paragraph, including each time someone new is speaking. Press “Tab” to indent for each new paragraph. Do not click repeatedly on the space bar to indent! It’s important to use the forced indent, which is the “Tab” key. If the indent is too deep or too shallow for you, this can be fixed for the entire manuscript in a second or two, but only if you have clicked “Tab” to indent, and not the space bar. Clicking repeatedly on the space bar to indent is not acceptable and is another problem that's time-consuming to fix.

7. Don’t add an extra space between paragraphs. Just leave it at your normal double-spacing. Press “Enter” at the end of the last paragraph, then indent the new paragraph by clicking on "Tab."

8. Only one space between sentences, not two. Two spaces between sentences went out with manual typewriters.

Slightly more advanced info:

9. To force a page break at the end of a chapter (in Word 2007), place your cursor at the end of the chapter, then click on the tab “Page Layout” in your …, then click on “Breaks”, then on “Page.” This will give you a forced page break for the end of each chapter. Do not do this at the end of a normal page, only for the end of a chapter.

10. Your next chapter should start at least 4 spaces down the page. And if you flip through your collection of best-sellers, you'll notice that the first paragraph of a new chapter is not indented. Just a custom, I think - lends itself well to making the first letter bigger, too.

11. For more advanced, specific formatting, read the guidelines set out by the agent or publisher.

12. And a few more technical notes about writing:

Dialogue:

New paragraph for each new person talking (remember to press Tab!).

Comma after “said”: He said, “How are you?” (Much more often, the "he said" comes after.)

Comma at the end of the spoken sentence, where a period would normally go, inside the last quotation mark. “Come with me,” she said.

Also, use "Tom said" not "said Tom." "said Tom" is considered old-fashioned.

Dash vs ellipses:

Dash (—) is for interruption: “I just—” “You just what?”

Ellipses (…) are for hesitation, or trailing off: “But I thought…”

For more specific info on Hyphens, Dashes, Ellipses, go to my article on this blog: http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2011/02/hyphens-dashes-ellipses.html

formatting your manuscript, formatting documents, formatting for submission, how to double-space a document, how to format your document, how to format your manuscript

WRITERS' BOOT CAMP

2011-02-10T14:26:00.008-05:00

by Larry Seeley, Published Author and Guest Blogger

On January 28-30, 2011, I attended a Weekend Fiction Boot Camp in Ventura, California. The boot camp was advertised as “An intensive work and hone experience for serious writers who want to move out of classroom exercises and writing book prompts, and move into the world of writing professionalism. Not for the faint of heart.”

Toni Lopopolo, owner of Literary Management, and Shelly Lowenkopf, noted writing guru, led the proceedings. Fifteen aspiring authors attended. Our experience ranged from novice to published authors, and each participant was encouraged to contribute.

The weekend started off Friday evening with dinner and wine, then Toni and Shelly started the workshops by asking writers why they enrolled in the Writers’ Boot Camp and what they hoped to learn and accomplish over the weekend. Next, we talked about how to write a pitch for your book to attract an agent or a publisher. Basics, like how to distinguish narrative vs. dialogue and what makes up a scene were also covered that evening.

Each attendee submitted at least ten pages of a current project. Fourteen were fiction, and one non-fiction. The pages were emailed prior to the camp, and Toni and Shelly offered editing and comments. After Friday’s introductions and background, the next two days were spent critiquing the offerings. Toni read each selection aloud, the author not permitted to consult a printed version, but the others reading along. Once finished, she and Shelly went around the table and asked for comments. The results were amazing.

When you hear your words read back to you, a different perspective evolves. When other writers take the time to review your work and offer suggestions, it’s easy to see what you do well and where you stray. We noted our comments and returned the marked-up copies to their respective authors. Reading the comments on my writing sample was illuminating. When I came home and got back on my computer, I used many of the suggestions to rewrite several sections of my current novel based on what I learned at boot camp.

Toni and Shelly also offered various gems of wisdom regarding the art of writing. Both are qualified and have worked as editors and teachers. Shelly spent thirty-four years as an instructor in the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC and is an author and editor in his own right. Before founding Literary Management, Toni worked as an Executive Editor for Macmillan’s and St. Martin’s Press in New York, among others.

I should add that I’m prejudiced because Toni is my agent, and I have one published novel, Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, and a second, 17 Degrees North, almost finished. When we went around the table, and Shelly asked my occupation, I replied, “rewriter,” because that’s what you become when you set out on a path to write and publish fiction. I’m also grateful to Jodie Renner for her encouragement and professional editing.

The weekend proved rewarding and worthwhile. I recommend it to anyone who aspires to success in the writing field. If you’re already selling one hundred thousand books, forget it, but for those of us who still strive toward that goal, consider going.

One writing tip—if you feel you need to use an exclamation point, you haven’t written a good line of dialogue or a creative scene. Incorporate the excitement in what you put on paper, not with punctuation symbols (and don’t write another vampire story).

Larry Seeley is the author of two thrillers Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (published in 2010) and 17 Degrees North (coming out in 2011), which take place mainly in the southwestern states, mostly New Mexico. Larry is now at work on the third book in the series. Larry’s website is: www.larryseeley.com.

For more info on the Writers’ Boot Camp, go to: Weekend Fiction Bootcamp – January 28,29,30
Toni Lopopolo Literary Management

JAMES FREY KNOWS HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER

2011-02-08T20:18:00.009-05:00

Just finished an excellent book by James N. Frey called How to Write a Damn Good Thriller – A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters. I highly recommend this book for anyone who’s interested in writing thrillers, romantic suspense, crime fiction, or any other kind of fiction, for that matter.
James concludes with some great advice:

“When you start constructing your thriller, it will help a great deal if you have the right attitude. […] To write a damn good thriller, you need a killer attitude. I suggest you make a pledge to yourself to do the following: [I’m reproducing some of Frey’s key points here.]

• Commit yourself to creating strong conflicts in every line of every scene.

• Decide you will have fresh, snappy dialogue and not a single line of conversation.

• Decide to write quickly when drafting. Fast is golden.

• Commit yourself to this: You will not have any major characters that are bland and colorless. They will all be dramatic types, theatrical, driven, larger than life, clever.

• Have your characters in terrible trouble right from the beginning, and never let them get free of terrible trouble until the climax.

• Have powerful story questions operating at all times.

• End each scene or section of dramatic narrative with a bridge, a story question to carry the reader to the next one.

• Keep the clock ticking and the excitement mounting right to the climactic moment.”

And the tips I left out are excellent, too! As is the advice given throughout this interesting and informative book. Now I’m going to look for How to Write a Damn Good Novel (I & II), How to Write a Damn Good Mystery, and finally, The Key – How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, all by the same author.

Thanks for your inspirational and practical tips, James! And thanks for giving me permission to pass on some of your damn good ideas to my blog followers and editing clients!

James N. Frey, http://www.jamesnfrey.com/
"The Best Damn Creative Workshops on Planet Earth"

James N. Frey is an internationally acclaimed creative writing teacher and workshop leader. Many participants of his workshops have gone on to publish with major New York houses and receive solid advances (as high as $2 million) and much critical acclaim.

writing advice, writing tips, writing a thriller, suspense-thrillers, advice for fiction writers, how to write suspense, writing suspense, James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller

HYPHENS, DASHES, ELLIPSES

2011-02-08T14:35:00.015-05:00

Ellipses vs. Dashes; Hyphen, Em Dash and En Dash

In my editing of fiction manuscripts, I often find writers using ellipses (...) where they should use dashes, or hyphens instead of dashes, etc. Here's a brief run-down on the use of these punctuation marks.

A. Ellipsis (…) or Dash (—)?

In fiction,

An ellipsis (…) is used to show hesitation:

“What I meant is… I don’t know how to begin…”

or a trailing off:

"She came with you? But I thought..." She paused.
"You thought what? Come on, spit it out."

(Also, usually in nonfiction, indicates the omission of words in a quoted text.)

A dash (—), also called em dash, is used to show an interruption in speech:

“But I—”

“But nothing! I don’t want to hear your excuses!”

or a sudden break in thought or sentence structure: “Will he—can he—find out the truth?”

The dash is used for amplifying or explaining, for setting off information within a sentence, kind of like parentheses or commas can do:

“My friends—I mean, my former friends—ganged up on me.”

B. Hyphen vs. En Dash vs. Em Dash:

The en dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash (the normal dash).

A hyphen (-) is used within a word. It separates the parts of a compound word: bare-handed, close-up, die-hard, half-baked, jet-lagged, low-key, never-ending, no-brainer, pitch-dark, self-control, single-handed, sweet-talk, user-friendly, up-to-date, watered-down, work-in-progress, etc.

Dashes are used between words.

An en dash (–) connects numbers (and sometimes words), usually in a range, meaning “to”: 1989–2007; Chapters 16–18; the score was 31–24 for Green Bay; the London–Paris train; 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

An em dash (—) is used to mark an interruption, as mentioned above (“What the—”), or material set off parenthetically from the main point—like this. Don’t confuse it with a hyphen (-). In fiction, the em dash almost always appears with no spaces around it. Some authors, publishers, and companies prefer an en dash with spaces on each side of it for this: ( – ).

C. How to Create Em Dashes and En Dashes:

Em dash (—) Ctrl+Alt+minus (far top right, on the number pad). CMS uses no spaces around em dashes; AP puts spaces on each side of em-dashes

En dash (–) Ctrl+minus (far top right, on the number pad)

D. Advanced Uses of the Dash (Em Dash):

According to the Chicago Manual of Style (6.87), “To avoid confusion, no sentence should contain more than two em dashes; if more than two elements need to be set off, use parentheses.”

Also, per CMS, “if an em dash is used at the end of quoted material to indicate an interruption, a comma should be used before the words that identify the speaker:

“I assure you, we shall never—,” Sylvia began, but Mark cut her short.

But: “I didn’t—”

No comma after it here, as that’s the end of the sentence, and no tagline.

The Chicago Manual of Style also says (6.90) that if the break belongs to the surrounding sentence rather than to the quoted material, the em dashes must appear outside the quotation marks: “Someday he’s going to hit one of those long shots and”—his voice turned huffy—“I won’t be there to see it.”

Using an em dash in combination with other punctuation: CMS 6.92: “A question mark or an exclamation point—but never a comma, a colon, or a semicolon, and rarely a period—may precede an em dash.

All at once Jeremy—was he out of his mind?—shook his fist in the officer’s face.

Only if—heaven forbid!—you lose your passport should you call home.

FICTION DEFINITIONS

2010-12-24T10:04:00.013-05:00

I have compiled a handy list of terms used in writing, editing and publishing fiction. They're listed below in alphabetical order. I hope you find it a useful resource. Jodie Renner, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Action scene: A scene where the movement escalates to a crisis.

Active voice: A way of describing action that is preferable to passive voice. “Jason mowed the lawn” is active; “The lawn was mowed by Jason” is passive (generally to be avoided).

Anthology: A collection of short stories, novelettes, or novellas written by various authors and compiled in one book or journal.

Antagonist: The character or force in the story that opposes the protagonist. The “bad guy.”

Author intrusion: When the author of a novel provides extra information directly to the reader, rather than through dialogue or the thoughts of the characters. Usually an explanation of the times or circumstances, or a commentary or editorial about some aspect of the story. Generally to be avoided, as it takes the reader out of the story.

Autobiography: The writer’s life story written into a book. (also memoir or narrative nonfiction)

Backlist: Published books that are still in print but aren’t part of the “new” stuff coming out during the current season.

Backstory: History of a character or events that took place before the story events. Novice writers tend to introduce too much backstory too soon.

Bio: Brief info about the author. Usually appears at the end of a novel.

Biography: An in-depth examination of the life of someone other than the writer. (narrative nonfiction)

Brainstorming: Throwing out ideas and getting them down as fast as you can on paper or screen, without judging or censoring them at this point. Just get as many ideas on paper as you can for now. Then later you can decide which ones to actually use.

Chapbook: A small booklet of poetry, journal entries, or stories, often published by small presses.

Character: A story person who is brought to life via action, attitudes, dialogue, description, thoughts, and the impressions and reactions of fellow characters.

Character arc: The status of the main character as it unfolds throughout the story, the storyline or series of episodes. Characters begin the story with a certain viewpoint and, through events in the story, that viewpoint changes.
“The changes, evolution, or degradation that happens to characters over the course of the story or series.” (Jessica Page Morrell)

Character development: “The means used to develop and reveal characters, including appearance, traits, thoughts, emotions, manners, gestures, actions, backstory, and dialogue.” (Jessica Page Morrell)

Chronological order: A way of telling your story in same order as the events happened. Also called “linear order.”

Cliché: An expression that’s been used so much it has lost its power and gone stale. Some examples are: quiet as a mouse, sharp as a tack, snug as a bug in a rug, chills running up and down her spine, warm as toast, cold as ice, short and sweet, hot and bothered. Writers should avoid using clichés whenever possible. Instead, try to find a fresh way to express your idea.

Cliff-hanger: When the outcome of an event, scene, or story is unknown or in doubt.

Climax: The point of greatest tension in a story. The turning point in the action; the point at which the outcome is to be decided.

Closing scene: This is one of the most important parts of your story. It’s the last chance to make your point and leave the reader with a valid emotional sense of completion.

Colloquial: Conversational dialogue. An informal way of communicating; the way people really talk to each other, as opposed to the more formal “written English.” Uses lots of contractions and slang expressions.

Coming-of-age story: A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence.

Commercial novels: Novels designed to appeal to a large audience. Academics tend to disdain commercial fiction in favor of “literary” fiction.

Complication: Intensifying the conflict; usually the protagonist meets an unforeseen obstacle.

Conflict: A complication that moves to a climax. Conflict is the opposition presented to the main character of a story by another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some act of the main character’s own personality or nature. More loosely defined for contemporary fiction, it is the problem or tension that must be dealt with by the end of the story. A plot needs plenty of conflict in order to be interesting. Conflict is what drives a story forward.

Copyright: “All beginning writers fret over this concept because they’re worried about their work being stolen. By U.S. law, anything you write is automatically copyrighted as soon as you write it. But when your work is published, it should be accompanied by the standard notice, Copyright © DATE by AUTHOR’S NAME.” (Tom Monteleone)

Crucible or cauldron: “A locale or situation that embroils and holds together characters as the conflict in the story heats up.” (Morrell)

Denouement: The resolution of a story. Unraveling or untying the knots in a story’s ending by sorting out the details and solving the questions and issues raised.

Deus ex machine: Latin for “a god from a machine.” Borrowed from Greek drama in which a god descended or arrived onto the stage to resolve problems. In modern fiction, problems that are solved by coincidences or acts of nature. To be avoided.

Dialogue: Capturing what your characters are saying and surrounding it with quotation marks. Be sure to use colloquial language, not formal language for dialogue.

Dialogue tag: (also called “speech tag” or “tagline”): “Phrase that accompanies dialogue and tells who’s talking, as in he said or she asked. In general, speech tags should be invisible and exist only to prevent confusion.” (Jessica Page Morrell)

Draft: Usually preceded by the word “rough.” It’s generally an early version of a story, outline, or chapter of a novel. Early drafts work on plot, characterization, and pacing, rather than style and grammar.

Dramatic arc: “A narrative journey of discovery that carries your reader from the first to the last page. Arcs state the problem to be solved and work toward the resolution. You can actually have more than one dramatic arc in your novel. It’s probably better that way.” (Tom Monteleone)

Dramatic irony: The contrast between what the audience knows (a murderer waits in the bedroom) and what a character says (the victim enters the bedroom, innocently saying, “I think I'll have a long sleep”).

Dramatic narrative: The kind of story that makes a good novel. It uses dramatic tension to keep the reader involved.

Dramatic summary (or just “summary,” as opposed to “scene”): A quick summary of the key points of a scene or event, rather than giving a play-by-play account of the action and events. As in, “She got up, got dressed, had breakfast and dashed out the door.”

e-book (eBook) or electronic book: A book published in electronic format rather than on paper. Usually appears on a website or on a CD-ROM, and can be downloaded to computers or portable readers (e-readers) such as Kindle.

Editing: This is what makes your writing better. It is more than just checking for grammar, logic, and factual errors. It’s also looking for subtle ways to improve the narrative.

Entry point: Where you decide to start your story – the opening scene. This is an important choice. Once you’ve written your novel, you may decide to go back and change the entry point, for greater impact, to create a compelling “hook” for your readers.

Epilogue: Tacked on to the end of a novel, to tell readers what happened after the final chapter of the story. Some writers use it as a “wrap-up” chapter.”

Epiphany: A moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character’s life or view of life is greatly altered.

e-publishing: Any type of non-paper publication, in digital format.

Exposition: Info presented on the characters and story world.

Falling action: The action that follows the climax and moves the story toward its resolution.

Final draft: The final version of your manuscript after all the editing, revising, copyediting, and proofreading has been done.

First-person point of view: A narrative style in which the story is told by one character, who refers to himself as “I”. Some examples of well-known novels written in the first-person: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas series, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, and White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

Flashback: An interruption of the main (front) story by inserting a scene that happened in the past. Flashback techniques include memories, dreams, stories of the past told by characters, or even author intrusions.

Flash fiction: Fiction under 500 words long.

Flat character: A character that is not sufficiently developed; not complex enough to be interesting or intriguing. Also known as a “cardboard character.” You can round out a flat character in your story and make him more interesting and compelling by giving him motivations, hopes, fears, insecurities, weaknesses and strengths.

Foil: A character that is used to reveal qualities in the protagonist by holding the opposite qualities; for example a stingy character would underscore the main character’s generosity.

Foreshadowing: Introducing clues or hints to suggest later interesting developments. Used to heighten reader interest and intrigue.

Formulaic fiction: “Fiction that follows a familiar formula. The evil scientist who tries to take over the world and is destroyed by his own creation is a very old formula. The “odd man” who rebels against his oppressive society is another.” (Tom Monteleone) Most romances follow a formula.

Genre: Also called a category. A specific type of fiction, such as romance, thriller, mystery, science fiction, horror, gothic, western, erotica, historical fiction, or fantasy.

Ghost writer: A professional writer who writes the story of a well-known figure, or anyone who writes or rewrites someone else’s story. Ghost writers don’t usually get the credit (or enough credit) for their writing.

Gothic novel: “A genre that tells a story involving a pretty young woman, a castle or mansion, a menace, and a hero. This is one of the most well-known genres because it’s considered the oldest form of the novel.” (Tom Monteleone)

Graphic novel: A hybrid made by using comic book features to tell a story. Usually contains boxes with illustrations and balloons for dialogue, plus narration along the bottom of each box.

Guidelines (GL): The set of instructions an agent, publisher or editor gives out to writers for submitting their manuscript for consideration, often tailored to the particular market.

Historical fiction: Fiction set in the past. In order to be succeed in this genre, it’s important to really do your research into the period in history in which your novel is set, so your story is credible. Be careful not to use expressions that weren’t in use at the time.

Hook: An effective opening (first sentence and first paragraph) that creates a question or suggests conflict to come, and piques the reader’s curiosity and interest, so he or she wants to keep reading.

Idiomatic expression: An expression that is particular to a certain language and cultural usage, for example, “get your goat” when it means “make you angry.”

In media res: Latin for "in the middle of things"; starting a story or scene in the midst of ongoing action. An effective technique for hooking the reader in at the start of a novel.

Inciting incident: The precipitating event that sets the story in motion, disrupts the status quo, and threatens the protagonist.

Inner conflict: A character’s confusion, resistance, or doubts about his goals and direction.

Interior dialogue or monologue: Revealing a character’s thoughts.

Literary fiction: A term used to distinguish so-called “serious” fiction (that is, work with claims to literary merit) from other types of genre fiction. In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, whereas mainstream commercial fiction (the “page-turner”) focuses more on narrative and plot.

Main character or protagonist: The person in your novel through whom most of the narrative is experienced or told. It is the person we root for and care about the most.

Manuscript: Your story, typed, in pre-published format.

Melodrama: “Using or exploiting implausible, sensational, sentimental, or emotionally charged aspects in a story to create drama.” (Morrell) To be avoided.

Memoir: A narrative of a writer’s (or fictional narrator’s) family history or personal background.

Mid-list: A publishing buzzword that refers to books that aren’t best-sellers.

Motivation: A character’s drive that builds throughout a story and provides plausible explanations for actions and goals. The external forces (setting, circumstances) and internal forces (personality, temperament, morality, intelligence) that compel a character to act as he or she does in a story.

Multiple viewpoint: The point of view rotates among the characters; the readers see into the thoughts of more than one character. Best used to illustrate conflict, contrast, misunderstanding and deception among the characters.

Narrative: The story, or what happens (both fiction and nonfiction).

Narrative distance: The degree of access that the reader is granted to the characters’ thoughts, perceptions, and knowledge. Today’s readers and publishers prefer a close narrative distance – more intimacy with the main character.

Narrator: The voice and implied speaker in fiction who tells the story – this is not the writer. The narrator can be an insider in the story – a major character, a first-person character, or a minor character.

Novel: A fiction book that’s usually a minimum of 50,000 words (less for YA fiction and middle-grade novels). If yours is over 110,000 words, it probably needs some revisions to tighten it up.

Novelette: A story of about 8,000 to 20,000 words.

Novella: Fiction generally between 20,000 and 50,000 words, but can vary.

Opening: The first few pages of your novel. Especially the first paragraph and first page – very important.

Outline: A plan for your story. Can take several forms, such as written in paragraphs or point-form. Some writers do a scene-by-scene outline; others just do a rough synopsis of the main plot. Character outlines are also very useful.

Pace: The speed at which a story unfolds. Varies within the story, but certain genres, like suspense thrillers, are generally faster-paced.

Passive voice: A way of describing action in which the subject receives the action instead of performing it. Weakens the impact, so to be avoided. Use active voice instead. Passive: “The ball was thrown by the boy.” Active: “The boy threw the ball.”

Pen name or pseudonym: When the writer makes up another name to use as the author of his books. Usually used when the author doesn’t want his/her real identity known. Some authors write different genres under different names.

Plagiarism: “Stealing someone else’s work, usually word-for-word, and publishing it as your own work.” (Tom Monteleone)

Plot: A series of causally-related events with ever-intensifying conflicts, which forces the characters to take action to resolve the conflicts.

Plot line: The series of events that push a story forward.

Plot point: “Crucial events in fiction from which there is no turning back and which crank up tension and introduce new elements and complications.” (Morrell)

Point of view (Viewpoint): “Perspective, vantage point, or filtering consciousness from which the story is presented.” (Morrell) Point of view refers to who is telling the story and how it is told. The point of view character is the character whose thoughts, feelings and perceptions are revealed to the reader.

Premise: Who and what the story is about. You should be able to state the premise of your story in a sentence or two: Who does what, and why? The premise brings out or hints at the main conflict.

Protagonist: The main character in fiction that the reader comes to know intimately, and who is most changed and hurt by the events of the plot. The protagonist or hero/heroine is the central character in the story who engages our interest or sympathy.

Purple prose: "A term used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader’s response." (Wikipedia)

Resolution: The ending in the story after the climax, when the situation is sorted out.

Reversal: The moment in a story when an unexpected event occurs, changing the plot direction.

Revising or Revision: Making changes to your manuscript to improve the plot, characterization, dialogue, point of view, pacing, style, voice, etc.

Rising action: The events, conflicts, and crises that happen in the story leading up to the climax.

Round character: A well-developed, complex, compelling character with motivations, hopes, fears, interests, insecurities, strengths, etc. A round character is multi-dimensional, as opposed to a one-dimensional “flat” or “cardboard” character.

SASE: self-addressed stamped envelope

Sense impressions: Describing or showing what your character is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. An effective technique for pulling the reader more completely into your story.

Scene: “A structural unit in fiction, set in a precise time and location and made up of action, description, and sometimes exposition. A scene is an event that is essential to the plot, is based around a goal or purpose, meeting some form of opposition, and usually contains some form of emotional reversal.” (Morrell)

Sci fi: Science Fiction

Secondary characters: They have roughly the same role as “supporting actors” in films. Their role helps develop the main characters as well as the plot and subplots.

Sequel: Within a novel, a section that follows a scene, where a character reacts to the events of the preceding scene. Also refers to other stories that follow the character(s) of the first, on new adventures.

Setting: Time and place of a story, including geographical location, terrain, urban/rural, weather, interiors, epoch, year, season, day/night, lighting, and other factors that establish credibility and context. The locale, time and social circumstances of a story.

Short short story: Fiction story that is under 1,000 words.

Short story: Fiction story that is under 10,000 words, but is often much shorter. Usually less than 7,000 for most markets.

Slush pile: The pile (or electronic files) of unsolicited manuscripts sent to an agent or publisher, who will slowly work his/her way through them, often getting “readers” to rate them first.

Speculative fiction: Fiction dealing with realities other than our own. Science fiction.

Speech tag: See “Dialogue tag.”

Static: A scene that lacks action, dialogue and tension, and doesn’t move the story forward. Take out all static scenes or summarize them in a few sentences instead.

Static character: A character who remains unchanged throughout the story. Generally to be avoided.

Stock characters: Minor characters who occupy traditional roles, such as nosy neighbour, sassy waitress, cynical cop, etc.

Story line: “The series of linked events that follows a protagonist pursuing the story goal toward a resolution and fulfills the story’s promise, thus making it emotionally satisfying.” (Morrell)

Style: “How a writer uses language to communicate ideas or a story. Includes voice, syntax, diction, sentence length and structure, and figurative language.” (Morrell)
The way in which an author uses words that give his or her work a distinctive manner of expression. It is the combined qualities that distinguish one writer’s work from another’s. Closely related to “voice.”

Subplot: Secondary or minor plot in a story, usually related to the main plot.

Subtext: The story within the story. “The river of emotion that lies beneath scenes. Usually what is unspoken during dialogue, often because it is too dangerous to speak of.” (Morrell)

Suspense: The pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens our attention to the story. Anxiety about what will happen next in a story. “Creating curiosity, worry and involvement by withholding and delaying information and resolutions.” (Morrell)

Symbol: “An object, action or image imbued with meaning; it stands for something beyond itself.”

Synopsis: Similar to a plot outline. Usually sent to agents and publishers along with a query letter. The main points of your story, told in narrative form (not point form), but in present tense. Usually around one to ten pages long, depending on the submission requirements of the particular agent or publisher.

Tagline: See “Dialogue tag.”

Telling: “Can refer to relating information that happens offstage or a habit of summarizing rather than dramatizing action, emotions, and information.” (Morrell)

Third-person point of view: The point of view most writers use. The narrator describes the action by using he, she, it, they, etc.

Tone: The prevailing mood or atmosphere in a literary work – joyful, sad, brooding, angry, playful, and so on. A writer’s tone can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.

Transition: A technique used to move the reader quickly from one scene to the next. “Telling” rather than “showing”.

Unreliable narrator: “A narrator who intentionally or unintentionally misleads the reader. Often has a hidden agenda, secret, or specific reason for misleading the reader.” (Morrell)

Vanity publishing: Books published at the total expense of the author.

Voice: Has two meanings: a) the author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character; or b) the characteristic speech and thought patterns of a first-person narrator; a persona. (from About.com, Fiction Writing)
Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements of a piece of writing.

Wraparound structure: A story that begins near the climax, then returns to the opening scene or inciting incident and proceeds toward the end.” (Morrell)

Word count: The number of words in your manuscript. If it’s not visible in the bottom left corner, just click on Control + Shift + G (all three at the same time), and a box will appear, giving you the word count of your whole document, or that section of it that is open in this file.

Wordiness: a sloppy kind of writing, where the writer uses many more words and repetitions of ideas than is necessary to get the meaning across. Slows down the pace and bores the reader. This type of writing needs to be revised and tightened up.

YA (Young Adult) fiction: The category of fiction for young adults, ages 12 to 18 (some publishers say 12 to 16). YA novels are often between 20,000 and 50,000 words long, but can of course be longer.

Resources used: Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, by Jessica Page Morrell; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel by Tom Monteleone; and various other readings, including a few online sources.

fiction terms; terms used in fiction; literary terms; fiction definitions; literary definitions, fiction lingo.

WRITERS’ CONFERENCES IN 2011

2010-12-17T20:10:00.025-05:00

Here’s a sampling of some of the writers' conferences to be held in North America in 2011 (and a few free book festivals). Please let me know of any I’ve missed, and I’ll be glad to add them to the list.

JANUARY 2011:

Jan. 6-9 and 13-16 – The Key West Literary Seminar, http://www.kwls.org/lit/

Jan. 20-24 - Florida Romance Writers' Fun in the Sun Writers Conference Cruise. http://www.frwriters.org/; http://frwfuninthesunmain.blogspot.com/

Jan. 21-23 – Writer’s Digest Conference – Sheraton Hotel, New York City. www.writersdigest.com/events .

Jan. 28-30 – San Diego State University Writers’ Conference, Doubletree Hotel, San Diego’s Mission Valley. www.ces.edu/writers

FEBRUARY 2011:

Feb. 5 - Cape Fear Crime Festival; http://www.capefearcrimefestival2.com/

Feb. 16-18 - Writer's Symposium, San Diego - www.pointloma.edu/writers.com

Feb. 18-20, 2011– The Southern California Writers Conference (SCWC) - http://www.writersconference.com/

Feb. 18-20 – San Francisco Writers Conference - http://www.sfwriters.org/

Feb. 18-20 – Savannah Book Festival 2011, Savannah, GA. Free and open to the public. http://www.savannahbookfestival.org/

Feb. 18-20 – San Miguel Writers Conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. http://www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org/

MARCH 2011:

March 3-5 - Sleuthfest 2011, Deerfield Beach FL. Florida’s premier mystery writer’s conference,
Workshops and expert panels. See www.mwaflorida.org/sleuthfest.htm .

March 3-6 - Desert Nights, Rising Stars - Arizona State U., Tempe, www.asu.educ/piper/conference/2011.com

March 4-6 – New York Writers Perfect Pitch Fiction Conference, New York, NY; http://www.newyorkwritersworkshop.com/pitch_fiction.html

March 11-12 - 6th Annual Northern Colorado Writers Conference on March 11-12 at the Fort Collins Hilton,

March 12-13 - The Tucson Festival of Books, University of Arizona campus, Tucson, AZ.

March 18-20 – The International Women’s Writing Guild Conference, Santa Cruz, CA - https://www.pw.org/content/international_women_s_writing_guild_conference

March 18-20 - Tallahassee Book Festival and Writers Conference. http://www.twaonline.org/

March 19 – Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference, Iselin, NJ. http://www.libertystatesfictionwriters.com/lsf-writers-conference/

March 24-27 – Left Coast Crime 2011 – The Big Chile – Santa Fe, New Mexico. http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2011/index.html

March 25-26 - The Write Stuff, Allentown, PA. http://www.glvwg.org/

APRIL 2011:

April 1-3 - Whidbey Island Writers Conference in Coupeville, WA; http://www.writeonwhidbey.com/

April 1-3 - The Maine Festival of the Book, featuring some 50 authors. Visit http://www.mainereads.org/

April 6-10 – Romantic Times Book Lovers’ Extravaganza, Los Angeles, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/

April 8-10 - Missouri Writers Guild's “Just Write!” Conference at the Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel in St. Louis County. http://www.missouriwritersguild.org/

April 8–10 - uW-Madison Writers’ Institute, Madison WI. “Writers helping writers” will have seminars,panels, agents, accepting pitches, manuscript critiques, speed coaching, and more. For
more information see http://www.uwwritersinstitute.org/

April 9 - Writers Foundation of Strathcona County's annual conference. Sherwood Park, Alberta. http://www.wfscsherwoodpark.com/

April 9 - Unicorn Writers' Conference, Portland, CT. http://www.unicornwritersconference.com/

April 9 - 21st Annual TMCC Writers’ Conference, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV. http://www.tmcc.edu/wdce/conferences/writers/

April 9-10 - The Screenwriters Summit in Toronto: http://www.screenwriterssummit.com

April 11-16 - Philadelphia Book Festival – free – http://libwww.library.phila.gov/bookfestival/

April 14-16 – Las Vegas Writers’ Conference, Sam's Town Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. http://www.lasvegaswritersconference.com/

April 15-16 - Kentucky Writers Conference, Bowling Green, KY - Free! – Southern Kentucky Bookfest, http://www.sokybookfest.org/KYWritersConf

April 16 – Alabama Book Festival, Montgomery, • Free Admission, http://www.alabamabookfestival.org/

April 28-May 1 - Pikes Peak Writers Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado; http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/

April 30 – Ontario Writers’ Conference – Garden Hilton Hotel, Ajax, Ontario, Canada. http://thewritersconference.com/Ontario-Writers-Conference.html April 30-May 1 - Central California Writers’ Conference, near Yosemite National Park in Oakhurst, CA.

April 30-May 1 - American Society of Journalists and Authors’ 40th Annual Writers Conference for nonfiction writers in NYC: http://www.asja.org/wc/2011/

MAY 2011:

May 2-8 – CanWrite! 2011 Conference – Canadian Authors Assoc., Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada; http://www.canauthors.org/canwrite/index.html

May 5-7 - The OWFI Conference, Oklahoma City. http://owfi.org/

May 7 - Houston Writers Guild Conference, Sugar Land, Texas. http://www.houstonwritersguild.org/welcome.html

May 6-8 – The Algonkian Writers Conference; http://algonkianconferences.com/

May 13-15 – 2011 SC Book Festival, Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina. http://www.scbookfestival.org/

May 13-15 - Pennwriters Conference in Pittsburgh. http://www.pennwriters.com/Conference/

May 26-28 - 2011 Backspace Writers Conference, New York City. http://www.backspacewritersconference.com/

JUNE 2011:

June 3–5 - Bloody Words, Victoria, BC, Canada. Includes panels, agents, a short story contest, and forensics. See http://www.bloodywords2011.com/.

June 3-5 - Wyoming Writers Inc., conference, Ramada Plaza Riverside Hotel and Conference Center in Casper. The conference will feature presentations, workshops, agent pitch sessions, and open mic readings. http://www.wyowriters.org/conference.html

June 11–12 California Crime Writers Conference, Pasadena, CA. Workshops, a cocktail party with agents, manuscript critiques, and keynote speakers. http://www.ccwconference.org/.

June 10-12 – Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference, Hyatt Regency, Austin, Texas.
http://www.writersleague.org/

June 10-14 – Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Lands End Resort, Homer, Alaska; http://writersconference.homer.alaska.edu/

June 17–19 - Historical Novel Society Conference, San Diego, CA http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/.

June 18-23 - Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Santa Barbara, CA. http://www.sbwriters.com/

June 21-25 - Western Writers of America convention; Bismarck, North Dakota; http://www.westernwriters.org/2011_convention.htm

June 23-26 - Jackson Hole Writers Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. http://www.jacksonholewritersconference.com/

June 28-July 1 - Romance Writers of America Annual Conference, New York, New York; http://www.rwa.org/cs/conferences_and_events

JULY 2011:

July 6-9 - Thrillerfest – International Thriller Writers annual conference, New York, NY. http://www.thrillerfest.com/

July 9-15 - Antioch Writers’ Workshop, Yellow Springs, Ohio. http://www.antiochwriteresworkshop.com/

July 14-17 - Public Safety Writers Conference, Las Vegas NV. Open to those writing fiction or non-fiction about or for any public safety field. Conference speakers include a coroner, firefirefighters, police officers, and others in the writing field. See http://www.policewriter.com/.

July 13-15 - The Clarksville Writers Conference, Clarksville, Tennessee. http://www.artsandheritage.us/writers/

July 24-29 - Napa Valley Writers' Conference - http://www.napawritersconf.org/.

AUGUST 2011:

Aug. 4-7 – Pacific Northwest Writers Association summer conference, Bellevue, Washington, http://pnwa.org/

Aug. 5-7 – UNF Writers Conference – University of North Florida, Florida Writers Association, http://www.unfwritersconference.com/

Aug. 6-11 – Gideon Media Arts Conference & Film Festival – holds workshops in script writing and graphic novels. http://www.gideonfilmfestival.com/Home/

Aug. 21-26 - Live Free and Write, Sunapee, New Hampshire. http://www.murphywriting.com/

SEPTEMBER 2011:

Sept. 9-11 - Seascape “Escape to Write” Writers Retreat, Chester, CT. Participants in his non-conventional conference will pre-submit 25 pages of a work-in-progress (WIP). S. W. Hubbard, Hallie Ephron, and Roberta Isleib will lead focus groups which will examine the WIP from different perspectives. Full details can be found at www.robertaisleib.com/seascape.html.

Sept. 15-18 – Bouchercon, St. Louis, MO. “Spirits of St. Louis” will convene at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel. http://www.bouchercon2011.com/.

Sept. 16-18 - Fall in Love with Writing: A Conference for All Genres and Awards Banquet, Albuquerque, NM

Sept 22-24 - Hampton Roads Writers Conference, Virginia Beach, VA - http://www.hamptonroadswriters.org/

Sept. 23-25 - Writers’ Police Academy, Jamestown NC. Hands-on, interactive and educational experience for writers to enhance their understanding of all aspects of law enforcement and forensics. http://www.writerspoliceacademy.com/.

Sept. 30-Oct. 1 - Central Ohio Fiction Writers Conference - http://www.cofw.org/conference.html

Sept. 29–Oct. 2 - Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Atlanta, Georgia; http://www.georgiaromancewriters.org/mm-conference/

OCTOBER 2011:

Oct. 1-2 – Write on the Sound – Edmonds, WA - http://www.ci.edmonds.wa.us/ArtsCommission/wots.stm

Oct. 21-23 - Surrey International Writers Conference, Surrey, BC, Canada. http://www.siwc.ca/

Oct. 21-23 – Florida Writers Conference http://floridawriters.wordpress.com/about/

Oct 21-23 - South Carolina Writers Workshop, Myrtle Beach, SC - http://www.myscww.org/

Oct.27-30 – World Fantasy Convention, San Diego, CA: http://www.wfc2011.org/

Oct. 28-30 - Emerald City Writers' Conference (Romance Writers of America), Bellevue, Washington, http://www.gsrwa.org/conference.php

NOVEMBER 2011:

The La Jolla Writers Conference - http://www.lajollawritersconference.com/

The New England Crime Bake Conference, Dedham, Mass. http://www.crimebake.org/

DECEMBER 2011:

JANUARY 2012:

– Writers Digest conference, http://www.writersdigestconference.com/

FEBRUARY 2012:

Love Is Murder, Chicago, IL. Provides an educational forum to writers and readers to further their knowledge of writing, publishing, and the business of book production. http://www.loveismurder.net/.

MARCH 2012:

March 10-11, 2012 - Tucson Festival of Books, University of Arizona campus, Tucson, AZ. Free and just excellent!

writer's conference, writers' conference, writers' conferences, conferences in 2011, writers conferences in 2011, conferences for writers, fiction writing conference, fiction writing conferences, conference for fiction writers.

List compiled by Jodie Renner, of Jodie Renner Editing, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

STEVE BERRY'S EIGHT RULES OF FICTION

2010-12-17T19:45:00.000-05:00

When I was at Thrillerfest, the International Thriller Writers' Annual Writing Conference, in New York City last July, I attended an excellent workshop by bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry. He gave us eight key rules that all successful fiction writers should know and follow:

1. There are no rules. You can do anything you want as long as it works.

2. Don't bore the reader. You can bore the reader in a sentence, in a paragraph, by misusing words, poorly choosing words, using the wrong length, etc.

3. Don't confuse the reader. Don't misuse point of view. Don't do too much at once.

4. Don't get caught writing. Don't let you, the author, enter the story. (E.g., "And he never would see Memphis again." How would anyone other than the author know that the character would never see Memphis again?)

5. Shorter is always better. Write tight. It makes you use the best words in the right way.

6. Don't lie to the reader. It's okay to mislead, but don't lie. If you say the character's motivation is A and it turns out to be B (and you haven't foreshadowed it at all), the reader will feel cheated.

7. Don't annoy the reader. Don't use names that are hard to pronounce or write choppy sentences throughout the entire book. It keeps people from getting close to your characters.

8. You must tell a good story. Bad writing can be forgiven with a good story. A bad story with the most beautiful writing cannot.

TERMS IN FICTION

2010-12-10T19:32:00.002-05:00

Here are some terms that apply to works of fiction such as novels, novellas and short stories. Also, please see my much more detailed and comprehensive list of Fiction Definitions at http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2010/12/fiction-definitions.html

PREMISE: Who and what the story is about. You should be able to state the premise of your story in a sentence or two: Who does what, and why? More concrete than "theme."

THEME: the central idea or meaning of a story; what the work is about. When you express the theme in your own words, it should be worded in a complete sentence and universally expressed.

CHARACTER: an imagined person in a literary work. Some famous characters in fiction: Romeo, Juliet, Jay Gatsby, in The Great Gatsby, Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye, Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Atticus Finch, in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Flat character: a one-dimensional figure, with a simple personality. Flat characters, also known as “cardboard characters,” show none of the human depth, complexity, and contrariness of a round character or of most real people. You can round out a flat character in your story and make him more interesting and compelling by giving him hopes, fears and motivations.

Round character: a full, multidimensional character whose personality reveals some of the richness and complexity we are used to seeing in real people, rather than the transparent obviousness of a flat character. We often see a significant change take place in a round character during the story.

Protagonist: The protagonist or hero or main character is the central character in the story who engages our interest or sympathy. Usually the “good guy.”

Antagonist: the character who opposes the protagonist. The “bad guy.”

Examples: In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief Bromden in the narrator, McMurphy is the protagonist, and Nurse Ratched is the antagonist.

Character Arc –the status of the main character as it unfolds throughout the story, the storyline or series of episodes. Characters begin the story with a certain viewpoint and, through events in the story, that viewpoint changes. Some examples include:

• In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman’s character begins as a misogynistic chauvinist but when he is forced to play the part of a woman, he also experiences a change in how he views women and becomes a different character by the end.

• In Empire of the Sun, Jim begins as a carefree young boy. After the Japanese take over Shanghai and he is separated from his family, he is forced to suffer trauma because of the war.

• In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle degenerates from a somewhat disturbed, highly disorganized Vietnam veteran into an extremely highly-organized, full-blown psychotic.

Motivation is the external forces (setting, circumstances) and internal forces (personality, temperament, morality, intelligence) that compel a character to act as he or she does in a story.

PLOT: The events that unfold in a story; the action and direction of a story; the story line. The events can be presented in a variety of orders:

Chronological: the story is told in the order in which things happen. It begins with what happens first, then second, and so on, until the last incident is related.

In medias res: Latin for “in the midst of things.” We enter the story on the verge of some important moment.

Flashback: the returning to an earlier moment in literary time, usually through a character’s reminiscing. A device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of the current narration or the current events in the fiction. Flashback techniques include memories, dreams, stories of the past told by characters, or even author intrusions. (That is, the author might simply say, “But back in Jake’s youth….”) Flashback is useful for exposition, to fill in the reader about a character or place, or about the background to a conflict, but be careful not to overdo it.

Exposition: the opening portion that sets the scene, introduces the main characters, tells us (briefly) what happened before the story opened, and provides any other background information that we need in order to understand and care about the events to follow. Today's bestselling authors spend much less time setting the scene and providing background information; they tend to jump to a the first conflict (main) quite quickly.

Rising action: the series of events that lead to the climax of the story, usually the conflicts or struggles of the protagonist. During rising action, the basic internal conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts, including various obstacles that frustrate the protagonist’s attempt to reach his goal.

Conflict: a complication that moves to a climax. Conflict is the opposition presented to the main character of a story by another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some act of the main character’s own personality or nature. More loosely defined for contemporary fiction, it is the problem or tension that must somehow be addressed (if not perfectly resolved) by the end of the story. A plot needs plenty of conflict in order to be interesting. Conflict is what drives a story forward.

Suspense: the pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens our attention to the story. Anxiety about what will happen next in a story. In Poe’s short story, The Pit and the Pendulum, the main character is strapped to a board in a dark cell while a pendulum in the form of a steel blade swings over him. With each swing, the pendulum descends closer to his body. The reader is kept in suspense about how the character will free himself.

Foreshadowing: The indication of events to come later in the story. The introduction of specific words, images, or events into a story to suggest or anticipate later events that are central to the action and its resolution. The presentation of hints and clues about later events in the story. Often used to “tease” the reader and heighten her interest.

Climax: The point of greatest tension in a story. The turning point in the action; the point at which the outcome is to be decided. The climax is the turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s affairs. In a plot line, the climax occurs after the rising action and before the falling action.

Falling action: The sequence of events that follow the climax and end in the resolution. During the falling action, or resolution, which is the moment of reversal after the climax, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action might contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt. Summary: The falling action is that part of the story where the main part (the climax) has finished and you’re heading to the conclusion.

Examples of falling action: In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling, the falling action occurs after the climax of Professor Snape's apparent hex upon Harry during the Quidditch match: Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn about the Sorcerer's Stone; Voldemort attacks Harry in the Forbidden Forest; and Harry faces Professor Quirrell and Voldemort.

Denouement: (French for “untying of the knot”) The series of events that follow the plot’s climax. It is the resolution of the story, its conclusion or outcome. In a murder mystery, the denouement may outline the clues that led to the capture of a murderer. In a romance, the hero and heroine finally resolve all the conflicts that were keeping them apart and experience their “happily ever after” moment.

Resolution: Same as denouement: The part of the story’s plot line in which the problem of the story is resolved or worked out. This occurs after the falling action and is typically where the story ends.

Subplot: Secondary or minor plot in a story, usually related to the main plot.

POINT OF VIEW: The vantage point from which a story is told. Point of view refers to who is telling the story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a story are shaped by the perceptions of the point of view character(s). We, the readers, are aware of the point of view character’s thoughts, feelings and motivations.

In the first-person point of view, the narrator is a participant in the story. A story told by a narrator who is not one of the story’s participants is called third-person point of view.

NARRATOR: the teller of a story (not the author, but the invented speaker of the story).

Third-person narrator - uses “he,” “she,” or “they” to tell the story and does not participate in the action.

The first-person narrator - uses “I” and “we” and can be a major or minor participant in the action. With a first-person narrator, the “I” presents the point of view of only one character’s consciousness. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that single character.

A second-person narrator, “you,” is possible but rarely used because of the awkwardness in thrusting the reader into the story, as in “You are minding your own business on a park bench when a drunk steps out of the bushes and demands your lunch bag.”

Omniscient narrator - takes us inside the characters. Omniscient narrator is all-knowing.

Editorial omniscience: the narrator not only recounts actions and thoughts, but also judges.

Neutral omniscience allows characters’ actions and thoughts to speak for themselves.

Selective omniscient or limited omniscient: the narrator takes us inside one or two characters. The selective omniscient narrator is much more confined than the omniscient narrator. With selective or limited omniscience, the author often restricts the narrator to the single perspective of either a major or a minor character. The way that people, places, and events appear to that character is the way that they appear to the reader.

Stream-of-consciousness: when limited omniscience attempts to record mental activity ranging from consciousness to the unconscious, from clear perceptions to confused longings.

Objective narration - the narrator is outside the characters. Objective point of view employs a narrator who does NOT see into the mind of any character. From this detached and impersonal perspective, the narrator reports action and dialogue without telling us directly what characters feel and think. This point of view places a heavy emphasis on dialogue, actions, and details to reveal character.

An unreliable narrator is a fictional character whose interpretation of events is different from the author's. One type of unreliable narrator is the naive narrator (the innocent eye) who lacks the sophistication to interpret accurately what he/she sees. The reader understands more than the narrator does.

SETTING: the total environment for the action of a fictional work. Setting includes the time period (such as the 1890s), the place (such as downtown Warsaw), the historical milieu (such as during the Crimean War), as well as the social, political, and perhaps even spiritual realities. It’s the locale, time, and social circumstances of a story.

Examples of setting:
An Eastern U.S. town in winter, about 1950, in an upper-class private girls’ school.
Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is set in Newfoundland in the early 1990s.

Tone: the prevailing attitude (for instance, ironic, compassionate, objective) as perceived by the reader; the author’s feelings toward the central character or the main events. The tone is the prevailing mood or atmosphere in a literary work – joyful, sad, brooding, angry, playful, and so on. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.

Style: the way in which an author uses words that give his or her work a distinctive manner of expression. It is the combined qualities that distinguish one writer’s work from another’s. For example, Hemingway’s use of short words and simple construction make his style markedly different from that of his contemporary, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mark Twain has a very distinctive, relaxed, regional style in his novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Style is the manner of expression of a particular writer, produced by choice of words, grammatical structures, use of literary devices, and all the possible parts of language use. Some general styles might include scientific, ornate, plain, emotive. Most writers have their own particular styles.

Cliché: Overused expression. Examples: raining cats and dogs, snug as a bug in a rug, chills running up and down my spine, warm as toast, short and sweet. Writers should avoid using clichés whenever possible.

Irony: a contrast of some sort; reveals a reality different from what appears to be true.

Verbal irony: the irony is between what is said and what is meant (“You're a great guy,” meant bitterly).

Dramatic irony: the contrast is between what the audience knows (a murderer waits in the bedroom) and what a character says (the victim enters the bedroom, innocently saying, “I think I'll have a long sleep”).

Situational irony: when an incongruity exists between what is expected to happen and what actually happens (Macbeth usurps the throne, thinking he will then be happy, but the action leads him to misery).

Symbol: a person, object, action, or situation, that, charged with meaning, suggests another thing (for example, a dark forest may suggest confusion, or perhaps evil), though usually with less specificity and more ambiguity than allegory. In a literary work or film, a symbol is a person, place, thing or idea that represents something else. Writers often use a snake as a symbol for evil, as in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. Commonly used symbols include the eagle (strength), a flag (patriotism), and the sea (life).

Epiphany: a moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character’s life or view of life is greatly altered.

fiction terms, fiction definitions, literary terms, literary definitions. See also http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/2010/12/fiction-definitions.html

http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

10-MINUTE FIXES TO 10 COMMON PLOT PROBLEMS

2010-12-07T19:35:00.001-05:00

December 07, 2010, by Elizabeth Sims

This is excerpted, by permission of the author, Elizabeth Sims. Read the full article, complete with all of Elizabeth Sims' excellent wisdom, at Writer’s Digest online: http://writersdigest.com/article/10-minute-fixes-to-10-common-plot-problems/?et_mid=38382&rid=3044016

"Structural problems can sink a novel. Let’s look at 10 common plot problems and how to quickly fix them.

Good fiction takes time. You cannot sit down at the keyboard and pound out the Great American Novel in one or two sessions. (Take it from me; I’ve tried.)

No, we must be patient with our art and our craft, we must read, we must study, we must write. And write, and write. Then we must think, cut, rewrite, polish and look again.

But there’s such a thing as agonizing too much over your writing. Just as excessive reworking with charcoal and gum will ruin a drawing, too much scrutinizing and amending will sap the vitality of your original words. Most aspiring authors fall victim to this from time to time, causing needless pain, delay and, frankly, stunted results.

It’s the hard parts that get you. When you come up against a knotty structural problem, take a breath and do what professionals do:

• Calmly evaluate the problem.

• Decide whether it really is a problem.

• Work out a solution.

• Implement it.

• Move on.

• Revisit the situation later.

Did you pick out the key phrase in that list? It’s a solution. Not the perfect solution, but a solution. There is no single best way to solve any given writing quandary. What seasoned writers know—and what we can all take comfort in—is that there are lots of fine ways to solve them all. So when a problem arises and threatens to slow, divert or even stop your creative flow, you simply need to find one of those solutions so you can keep writing—it’s as simple as that.

Not every problem can be solved in minutes, of course; situations like editing out a main character or completely reworking a plot cost plenty of time and effort. But surprisingly many structural problems can be dealt with more quickly than you might think.

Let’s look at 10 common plot problems you can tackle in a flash—and then find out how to do it.

1. I’M MISSING A CRUCIAL PIECE OF INFORMATION.

You’re writing a key scene, and you realize that you really need to know something, but it’s either impossible to find out or too costly in time or money to do so.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: If you can’t find the exact data you need, get as close as you can and wing the rest.

Recently I was on a conference panel with other authors discussing intensive research, and after everybody shared exciting (or humiliating) stories about our quests for authenticity, we all agreed on one thing: When the chips are down, make it up.

Let’s say you need to present exact details about the innards of a nuclear bomb. Current atomic devices are top secret, but you can learn a lot online about outdated ones. Then, use common sense and your imagination to take it from there. What might be different today in a bomb? Well, you can bet the electronics are smarter and smaller. With the addition of fictional details, you can BS your way convincingly through the scene:
[...]

You might be surprised at how much you can make up in a convincing way. Maybe you need a recipe for the perfect poison and have no idea where to begin. Invent a character who’s a chemist, and have that character develop a poison that’s as lethal as cyanide, as innocent-smelling as strawberries and as traceable as water.

Be bold!

2. MY ACTION IN THIS SCENE DRAGS.

We’ve all been there: You’ve got an action scene that’s starting to bore even you. Granted, your story is moving forward, but it feels cumbersome.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Resist the urge to pile it on; rather, tighten what you’ve got.

You could spend hours—days!—trying to inject more life into a scene, but the best solution is often just the opposite. Usually a quicker pace will do the trick.

One of the easiest, most effective ways to tighten prose is to turn full sentences into fragments and opt for one-line paragraphs.

If you start with this, for example:

The thug was much taller and heavier than Jamal. Looking up, Jamal thought: If I don’t figure something out fast, we’re all dead meat. There was the pool cue, propped against the table, his only available weapon. He grabbed it, wound up as the big man began to react, and swung. It was with a tremendous sense of satisfaction that everybody in the bar heard a crunching sound.

Turn it into something like this (and be sure to drop the “dead meat” cliché):

Jamal looked up.

A giant.

Without thinking, he grabbed the pool cue and swung, eyes closed.

A satisfying crunch!

You shouldn’t try to write a whole book this way, but rat-a-tat passages like this will bring variety and movement to your fiction.

3. ONE OF MY CHARACTERS IS STARTING TO SEEM LACKLUSTER.

Sometimes you get too careful with a character, especially if you’ve based her on yourself or a close friend or relative. If this seems to be the case, consider adding weirdness.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Give her an obsession.

Obsessions are great because they’re simple to drop into a character’s personality, and you can use them repeatedly to spice up your plot.
[...]

An obsession gives a character a sort of schizophrenic point of view that can be used for comic relief, extra conflict, inner turmoil or all three: [...]

An added bonus to this strategy: It’s fun.

4. I HAVE TO COMMUNICATE A LOT OF INFORMATION, AND IT’S OVERKILL.

You’re at a turning point in your novel, and you’ve got one character revealing information to another, or making connections in his head as the puzzle pieces fall into place. Or your omniscient narrator is explaining a lot of stuff to the reader. And it doesn’t feel natural.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Turn narrative into dialogue.

Don’t underestimate the modern reader’s ability to infer, generalize and make connections. A professional’s first instinct is to cut exposition, but when you’ve sliced away all but the essential and you’re still looking at an awkward block of text, turn it into dialogue.

Scope around for a handy character for the first one to talk to. Then, give the two some back-and-forth, something to disagree about. Create a little conflict while delivering your basic facts. Or, if your character is alone, make him have an internal argument, as in this example:

I ought to confront Otto with what I know about Tim’s death.

Wait a minute, shouldn’t this be a matter for the police?

To hell with the police! They don’t know he worked for the bank five years ago. Plus—

Don’t get upset. Stay cool.

I’m cool, OK. I just want him to know I’m onto him,

and if he tries anything with Selma or Johnny, I’ll be in his face.

This technique has served me well in several of my books. (I stole the method after seeing Erica Jong employ it so well in Fear of Flying. Of course, she probably ripped it off from Shakespeare—all those soliloquies …)

5. I DON’T KNOW WHAT SHOULD COME NEXT.

You’re writing something new; perhaps you even have a rough outline. You’re galloping along, happy and breathless, and you finally bring a scene or chapter to a satisfying conclusion. Then you get that uh-oh feeling.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Have a 10-minute brainstorm.

I actually feel great in this situation: I love to brainstorm, and I know I’m about to have ideas I’ve never had before.

Flip to a fresh page in your notebook or computer notepad, check the time and give yourself 10 minutes to write down anything and everything that might come next. Record every idea that comes to you, even if it seems ridiculous or awful. Keep going. If you do this with a feeling of open exploration, you will come up with a good idea of what should come next.

[...]

6. I’VE GOT A COMPLEX PLOT, AND ALL MY FINAL UNRAVELING FEELS FORCED.

You’re proud of your plot, and you want to show the reader that you’ve thought of everything. This one’s as tight as a drum! But now it feels as if you’re ticking off boxes on a checklist, and the effect is artificial.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Choose some loose ends to leave loose.

Readers will know they’re in good hands if you pay off your suspense. This is key, and it bears repeating: Suspense is the most important aspect of a book to build and bring to a satisfying climax and conclusion. This holds true in any genre; even the most sedate literary novels are built on a foundation of suspense. In this way, Mrs. Dalloway and her flowers have everything in common with Hannibal Lecter and his fava beans.

It follows, then, that not every loose end needs to be tied up. Granted, some bestselling authors commonly knot theirs meticulously—Harlan Coben comes to mind—but others, like Elizabeth George, make a point of not doing so. Leaving your readers with a little bit of hmmm can be a good thing (especially if you’re writing a series).

[...]
Challenge your impulse to wrap up everything with a bow, and you might achieve a more natural result.

7. I NEED A BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO SCENES, BUT I’M AT A LOSS.

Transitions can be the bane of fiction writers. I think this goes back to composition teachers in high school, who insist that there “be a link” between every idea. Oh, the contortions we used to go through to satisfy that requirement!

Forget it.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Insert a chapter break, or use the magic word: "meanwhile..."

An excellent way to bridge two scenes is to actually separate them. A chapter break can eliminate the need for a bridge altogether. [...]

The magic word is meanwhile. Rather than a big-deal transition, meanwhile might be all you need.

8. MY ENDING MADE MY CRITIQUE GROUP GO, “SO WHAT?”

You’ve written your novel, you’re at the point of bravely hearing any and all criticism, and you’ve just found out that your ending leaves your writing buddies cold. You feel (understandably) frustrated, and maybe a little angry. Now what?

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Add passion, violence or both.

A weak ending, of course, may signify major problems with the rest of the book. But not necessarily. If you’ve built convincing characters and worked out a believable, suspenseful story, but things still fall flat at the end, this could be because you haven’t gone far enough. Some authors simply take their foot off the accelerator toward the end, either from fatigue or from an unnecessary sense of restraint. Whatever the case, if you discover you’re one of them, you’ve got to ramp up the emotion.
[...]

So try heightening the ending you’ve already got. A good way to do it is to add passion or violence—or both.

[...]

9. MY AGENT/EDITOR WANTS ME TO CUT 10,000 WORDS!

Many authors on the brink of getting published are told by a prospective agent or editor, “I love this novel, but it’s too long. If you can cut it by about 10,000 words (or whatever terrifyingly high number), I think I can sell (or publish) this.” They don’t want any specific cuts at this point; they just want the manuscript to better fit a common format.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Micro-edit your way to success.

You can spend lots of time rereading your manuscript and painfully strategizing what hunks to cut, but an excellent way to quickly trim it to size is to cut one word per sentence. This technique is pure magic. Or, you can divide the number of words you need to cut by the number of pages you have, and come up with an average words-to-cut per page. Of course you won’t be able to whittle down your whole manuscript in 10 minutes, but take it as a challenge: Time yourself, and I bet that once you get the hang of it, you can blow through 10 pages of a draft in 10 minutes. This is a job you can do in the interstices of your day; you don’t have to find large spans of time for it.

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, I got good at cutting excess verbiage early in my writing career. But every so often, for the heck of it, I challenge myself to cut one word per sentence. If I can do that too easily, I know I’ve gotten sloppy.

10. THE WHOLE THING STINKS.

Every author is stricken, at least once per book, by Creeping Rot Disease. CRD begins as a dark feeling that takes over your mind and heart when you least expect it. You look at your manuscript and the feeling creeps over you that all you’ve done is foul a perfectly good stack of paper. It’s lousy. It’s not original. It’s nothing any agent, let alone editor, would look at twice. I’m wasting my life, you think. I’m a fool.

10-MINUTE SOLUTION: Take a break!

Believe me, when CRD strikes, you are in plentiful, excellent company. Terrific authors have drunk themselves to death trying to self-medicate against CRD.

The better solution is to take a break. Turn off your computer, close your notebook, cap your pen (because the problem is not with your manuscript, it’s with you) and do something completely different, like:

• Walk outside. Pay attention to the first great-looking tree you see. Hang out with it for a while.

• Get some good coffee.

• Phone a friend and spill your guts.

• Prepare a mini picnic lunch and open the window.

• Make a sketch of a simple object, like a bowl or a bottle.

Or do anything else you can to break the stream of negative thoughts.

Can you become a great author in 10 minutes? No, but between careless abandon and paralyzing overanalysis, you can find a lot of solutions to help you move forward. The goal is to work past problems as they arise so you can keep writing. You can always go back and smooth over any rough edges later."

by Elizabeth Sims, from http://writersdigest.com/

POINT OF VIEW - HEAD-HOPPING

2010-11-14T15:44:00.004-05:00

Deep Point of View or How to Avoid Head-Hopping

The issue of point of view (POV) or viewpoint can be a difficult one for new novelists to get a handle on, but it simply refers to the character through whose perspective the story events are told. We see, hear, smell, feel and experience events as that character would—with no additional information provided “from above” by the author.

In other words, if you’re writing a romance, and you’re in the heroine’s point of view (which you should be most of the time, as it’s her story) you’re not going to mention her blue eyes or long, blond hair unless she’s looking at herself in a mirror – and that one’s been overdone. (Besides, how many of us consciously think about our eye or hair color when we’re looking in the mirror?) At this point in the story, you’re seeing the world through the heroine’s eyes, so you see and hear only what she would see and hear. If she’s talking to someone else, you’re probably not going to mention her freckles or her tousled hair, unless she’s wondering if she looks okay. (Or you could have her sister, bff or the hero mention them.)

Need to tell what your hero is thinking in the middle of a scene that’s in the POV of your heroine? Tell your readers this by what the heroine is perceiving: his facial expressions, movements, attitude, body language, tone of voice and what he says—or leaves out.

As Jack M. Bickham says, “You’ll never have problems with the technique of viewpoint again if you simply follow this advice: “Figure out whose story it is. Get inside that character—and stay there.” Of course, you don’t have to stay in your protagonist’s point of view for the whole story, but well over half the story should be from the main character’s POV, so that the reader can identify with him/her and begin to care what happens to him/her.

As Bickham explains, “I’m sure you realize why fiction is told from a viewpoint, a character inside the story. It’s because each of us lives our real life from a single viewpoint – our own – and none other, ever. The fiction writer wants her story to be as convincing and lifelike as possible. So she sets things up so that readers will experience the story just like they experience real life: from one viewpoint inside the action.”

If your fiction is to be effective and your lead character is to come alive and matter to the reader, you’ll need to accomplish this by showing all the action from inside the head and heart – the thoughts, senses and emotions – of the person you have chosen as the viewpoint character.

To quote Bickham again, “In a novel, there may be several viewpoints, but one must clearly dominate… It’s a fatal error to let your viewpoint jump around from character to character, with no viewpoint clearly dominating…. To put this in other words: even in a novel of 100,000 words, well over 50 percent – probably closer to 70 percent – should be clearly and rigidly in the viewpoint of the main character. That character’s thoughts, feelings, perceptions and intentions should unmistakably dominate the action.”

So, in order to draw the reader in and grab him emotionally, every story must have a clearly dominant viewpoint character. When we see the story through his eyes, reacting as he does, it’s like we’re in the story.

But how do we as authors go about this? Let’s suppose you’re writing a story about Jason, and you have decided that he is the viewpoint character. How do you make sure that your handling of his viewpoint is as powerful as it can possibly be?

The first thing you need to do is imagine the setting, people and events as they would be perceived by Jason, and only by him. As you write the story, you the writer must become Jason. You see what he sees, and nothing more. You know what he knows, and nothing more. When Jason walks into a room, for example, you do not imagine how the room looks from some god-like authorial stance high above the room, or as a movie camera might see it; you see it only as Jason sees it, walking in.

And of course include his reactions to the other people in the room. Show Jason’s feelings (and only his) about what and who he’s seeing, and his reactions to the situation. Instead of saying “the room was stuffy,” say “Jason felt the stuffy heat of the room close around him.” By using words like “Jason felt” and “he knew,” you’re helping the reader get inside Jason’s head and identify with him, which is vital if you want your reader to care about your protagonist and get engaged in your story.

But you need to go even further – you need to describe what he’s seeing and feeling by using words and expressions that he would normally use. If your character is a blue-collar worker and high-school dropout, you’re not going to describe the scene or his reactions in highly educated, articulate, flowery terms.

It’s also important to be vigilant that your viewpoint doesn’t slip, so you’re suddenly giving someone else’s opinion about Jason, or telling about something that’s happening in the kitchen, when Jason is in the living room. You can let the reader know other people’s reactions to Jason by what Jason perceives – he sees their looks and body language, hears their words and tone of voice, etc.

If you’re writing a romance, and you’re in the heroine’s point of view, and the hero is angry, you will show his thoughts and reactions, not from inside him (“That jerk! he thought, I’ll show him!”) but by what the heroine is seeing and perceiving – his tense posture, hunched shoulders, clenched fists, furrowed brows, set mouth, clipped tone of voice, angry words, etc.

The general rule of thumb is “one scene, one viewpoint.” Or even better, wait for a new chapter to change the point of view to someone else’s. If you change the viewpoint within a scene, it’s best to do it only once, and leave a blank space before you start the next person’s point of view. Ping-ponging back and forth can be jarring and confusing to the reader. This is what’s referred to as “head-hopping.”

So why is it so important to avoid switching viewpoints (head-hopping) within scenes?

According to Cynthia VanRooy, “When a reader becomes emotionally engaged in a book, he or she enters into the story. The writer has hypnotized the reader into participating in the illusion of the fictional world. The reader understands the book world isn’t real, but in order to fully enjoy the story, he or she chooses to temporarily pretend otherwise, or to suspend their disbelief. […]

“Every time you shift the reader from one character to another, they are jarred out of their suspension of disbelief and reminded they aren’t actually living in the fictional world you’ve created, they’re only reading a story. Do that often enough and they’ll stop reading your story. Scene changes or new chapters are the best and least disruptive places to change POV.

“…Deep POV gives the reader a chance to really identify with a character, something you aim for as an author. Even Nora Roberts, famous for her frequent changes in POV, lets the reader stay in one character long enough to become thoroughly hooked.”

A quick way to check whose POV you’re in is to get out the markers and choose a different color for each of your main characters. Pick your protagonist’s color, then start highlighting sentences that describe scenes, people and perceptions strictly from his POV. Do the same for other characters, with their color. When you’re done, you should have paragraphs, and preferably scenes, of only one color. If you have another color creeping into that scene, see if you can rewrite those sentences from the dominating character’s POV. If you have a number of colors within one scene, you’ve got some revisions to do. And as Stephen King says, “Writing is rewriting.” Keep on writing!

By Jodie Renner, www.JodieRennerEditing.com, November 2010

Resources: The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) by Jack M. Bickham; “POV or: Whose Head Am I in, Anyway?” by Cynthia VanRooy http://www.cynthiavanrooy.com/.

point of view, viewpoint, POV, head-hopping, point of view shifts, meandering point of view, head hopping, advice for writers, tips for writers, fiction writing, writing your novel, tips for fiction writers

GREAT FIRST LINES IN FICTION

2010-11-13T20:07:00.005-05:00

As a follow-up to my article on grabbing the reader with a compelling first page, entitled "Act First, Explain Later", here are some memorable first lines (and first paragraphs) of novels, starting with a few recent bestsellers, then going back to some classics:

“I’d never given much thought to how I would die—though I’d had reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.” – Stephenie Meyer, Twilight

“Nat Greco felt like an A cup in a double-D bra.” – Lisa Scottoline, Daddy’s Girl

“Cooper Sullivan’s life, as he’d known it, was over.” – Nora Roberts, Black Hills

“When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news.” – Anthony Horowitz, Storm Breaker

“It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.” – Diana Gabaldon, Outlander

“Happily unaware that he’d be dead in twenty-three minutes, Henry W. Wyley imagined pinching the nicely rounded rump of the young blonde who was directly in his line of sight.” – Nora Roberts, Three Fates

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” – J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” – Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

“You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.” – Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

“Inspector Salvo Montalbano could immediately tell that it was not going to be his day the moment he opened the shutters of his bedroom window.” – Andrea Camilleri, The Voice of the Violin

“If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.” – Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964)

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” – J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

“You better not never tell nobody but God.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)

“Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.” – William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot, dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.” – Raymond Chandler, Red Wind

“Mother died today.” – Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942; trans. Stuart Gilbert)

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” – William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” – James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

"They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them." – Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unattractive man, I think my liver hurts.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From The Underground

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” – Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“On the morning of her ninth birthday, the day after Madam Francoise Derbanne slapped her, Suzette peed on the rosebushes.” – Lalita Tademy, Cane River

“Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.”
– Ruth Rendell, A Judgement in Stone

“They shoot the white girl first.” – Toni Morrison, Paradise (1998)

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” – C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

“He should never have taken that shortcut.” – Michael Crichton, Timeline

“I don’t think my stepfather much minded dying. That he almost took me with him wasn’t really his fault.” – Dick Francis, To the Hilt

“The second time Ian Dunne came into my life, I was trapped under a pile of bodies, behind a sheet of plate glass.” –Lee Nichols, Hand Me Down

“The night of my mother's funeral, Linda Dawson cried on my shoulder, put her tongue in my mouth and asked me to find her husband.” – Declan Hughes, The Wrong Kind of Blood

“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” – Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)

“Three days ago Emily Thompson had been Southside’s heir apparent. Every soldier in the city had been hers to command. Now the guards outside her door were the only people she had seen since her arrest.” – Sean Stewart, The Night Watch

“He hardly felt the hit, but he heard it. The muffled roar shook the stick slightly, and he looked out to see the end of his right wing shatter and flake away.” – William Diehl, Thai Horse

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.” – Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)

“We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.” – Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988)

“It was a pleasure to burn.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

“The gale tore at him and he felt its bite deep within and he knew that if they did not make landfall in three days they would all be dead. Too many deaths on this voyage, he thought, I’m Pilot-Major of a dead fleet.” – James Clavell, Shogun

“A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” – Graham Greene, The End of the Affair (1951)

“I have never begun a novel with more misgiving.” – W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge (1944)

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” –Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)

“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up.” – G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)

“I woke this morning with a stranger in my bed. The head of blond hair beside me was decidedly not my husband’s. I did not know whether to be shocked or amused.” – Tracy Chevalier, Falling Angels

“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” – James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss (1978)

“You weren’t supposed to have favorite children. If there was one thing Margaret Porter knew, it was that nothing could divide a family faster than showing favoritism, even in the most minor circumstances.” – Luanne Rice, Dance with Me

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

"To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die." —Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (1988)

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.” – Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)

“Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden.” – David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

“Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.” – Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear it Away (1960)

“Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me.” – Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959; trans. Ralph Manheim)

“When Dick Gibson was a little boy he was not Dick Gibson.” – Stanley Elkin, The Dick Gibson Show (1971)

“He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull.” – Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900)

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” – L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)

“Justice?—You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.” – William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own (1994)

“Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash.” – J. G. Ballard, Crash (1973)

"He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters."
– Virginia Wolff, Orlando

“Five weeks after Kirsten Waller's body was found in a clifftop cottage in Cornwall, Grace Hobden cleared away the lunch, checked to make sure her three children were playing on the climbing frame at the bottom of the garden, then went indoors to murder her husband. Paul Hobden, a large, blubbery whale of a man, was sleeping off the effects of a boozy lunch. In the corner of the room, a black and while film involving much swash and buckle was chattering away on the TV. While Douglas Fairbanks Jr swished his sword with laughing, lethal accuracy, Grace Hobden picked up a Sabatier filleting knife from the rack in her kitchen, went into the living room and, without hesitating for a moment, plunged the blade into the soft mound of her husband's chest.”
– Joanna Hines, The Murder Bird

“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” – Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

"When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." – Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (1983)

“It was just noon that Sunday morning when the sheriff reached the jail with Lucas Beauchamp though the whole town (the whole county too for that matter) had known since the night before that Lucas had killed a white man.” —William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust (1948)

“Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women.” —Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)

“I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.” – Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

“In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together.” – Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

“They say when trouble comes, close ranks, and so the white people did.” – Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)

“The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.” – Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” – Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

“All this happened, more or less.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

- compiled by Jodie Renner, November 2010, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

ACT FIRST, EXPLAIN LATER

2010-11-12T13:48:00.003-05:00

by Jodie Renner, freelance manuscript editor, www. JodieRennerEditing.com

Gone are the days when readers of fiction were willing to read pages of description and lead-up before being introduced to the characters and the plot. Readers, agents, and publishers today don’t have the time or patience to wade through pages of backstory and description, so you need to grab their interest right from the first sentence and first paragraph of your story.

As James Scott Bell says in Revision and Self-Editing, about the opening paragraphs, “Give us a character in motion. Something happening to a person from line one. Make that a disturbing thing, or have it presage something disturbing.”

Here are twelve dos and don’ts for making the first page of your novel more compelling:

1. DON’T begin with a long description of the setting or with background information on your main character. DO begin with dialogue and action; then add any necessary backstory or description in small doses, on a need-to-know basis as you progress through the story.

2. DON’T start with a character other than your protagonist. DO introduce your protagonist right in the first paragraph.

3. DON’T start with a description of past events. DO jump right in with what the main character is involved in right now, and introduce some tension or conflict as soon as possible.

4. DON’T start in a viewpoint other than the main character’s. DO start telling the story from your protagonist’s point of view. It’s best to stay in the protagonist’s point of view for the whole first chapter, or most of it, and don’t change the point of view within a scene.

5. DON’T delay letting your readers get to know your protagonist, or present her in a static, neutral (boring) situation. DO develop your main character quickly by putting her in a bit of hot water and showing how she reacts to the situation, so readers can empathize and “bond” with her, and start caring enough about her to keep reading.

6. DON’T start with your character all alone, reflecting on his life. DO have more than one character (two is best) interacting, with action and dialogue. That’s more compelling than reading the thoughts of one person.

7. DON’T start with your protagonist planning a trip, or travelling somewhere; in other words, as a lead-up to an important scene. DO start in media res – jump right into the middle of the action. Present her in a meaningful scene.

8. DON’T introduce a lot of characters in the first few pages. DO limit the number of characters you introduce in the first few pages to three or less.

9. DON’T leave the reader wondering what the characters look like. DO provide a description of each character as they’re introduced, so the readers can form a picture of him or her in their minds.

10. DON’T have the main character looking in the mirror as a device for describing him/her. This had been overdone. DO work in the description by relating it to his or her actions or interactions with others.

11. DON’T wait too long to introduce the hero (love interest), in a romance or romantic suspense. DO introduce the hero by the end of chapter one.

12. DON’T spend too long leading up to the main conflict or problem the protagonist faces. DO introduce the main conflict (or at least some significant tension) within the first chapter.

Remember, you can always start your story wherever you want in the draft stage, if it’ll make you feel better. Then in the editing stage, you can go back and cut out the first several paragraphs or pages or even most of the first chapter, so that, in your final draft, your actual story starts after all that lead-up (some of which may appear later, in snippets here and there).

In conclusion, here’s a little rule for writing compelling fiction: Act first, explain later.

by Jodie Renner, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/, copyright August 2010.

opening, first line, first paragraph, first page, tips for authors, advice for writers, advice on writing fiction, tips for writers, hook your reader

Threads West, an American Saga - Interview, Part 3

2010-10-12T11:22:00.003-04:00

Eve Paludan: Welcome back, Reid Rosenthal, author of Threads West, for part 3, the final part of this interview. It’s all about passion, of the people and of land and country. First off, how does a male author write so well about love and sex from the women characters’ point of view?

Reid Rosenthal: Ahhhh…inquisitive minds want to know?

Eve Paludan: A lot of readers have asked about this aspect of your writing.

Reid Rosenthal: I am chuckling. Would you believe I am in touch with my feminine side? Truth be known, there are portions of the female voice I think I handle well, but there are segments of the female psyche that I truly believe no man fully understands. It helps that I have spent a good deal of time with (for the most part) some truly exceptional gals during my life. I have learned from them.

I have been a rapt observer of mannerisms, thought processes—well, at least a portion of “female think”—and I have watched many women, from all walks of life and completely disparate backgrounds react to both the mundane and the serious—be it passion or pathos within their own lives and their interactions with others.

Eve Paludan: So, I suppose it’s no stretch of the truth to say that you are something of a student of Mars versus Venus?

Reid Rosenthal: I do find the differences between the genders fascinating. I spent a great deal of time writing certain sections of Threads West to ensure real and true interaction among the ladies themselves, and with the male characters.

Eve Paludan: You do it well. I keep going back to read the romantic interludes. They’re poignant and moving.

Reid Rosenthal: Ah, the steamy heat of passions, the red glow of touch, the wonder of magnetic attraction are all things I—and I believe all of us—have experienced. Those always mystical experiences are the basis for the sensuality of certain moments in the book.

Eve Paludan: Was it difficult to write in your female characters’ voices?

Reid Rosenthal: Not really, though I struggled with a few scenes in which the female reaction, both internal and external, probably could never be fully understood by a male. In those cases, I would turn for guidance to my great editor, Page Lambert.

Eve Paludan: Is that Page Lambert, the author of Shifting Stars?

Reid Rosenthal: Among many other books, including fiction, nonfiction, short stories, you name it.

Eve Paludan: So what do you and Page talk about?

Reid Rosenthal: The conversation in those instances was invariably something like this: “So, do you think that is realistic?” I would query. “No” would be Page’s response. A protracted silence would follow.

Then I’d continue, “Okay—why would she not have reacted that way? That’s exactly what my reaction would have been if I was her, based on her personality.”

Page’s reply: “You can’t be her. You are not a her. Draw on your experience, metamorphose into the state of being of the other, and then write the scene again.”

And with that, I would start over, trying to put myself in the mind and heart of a woman in a particular situation, drawing deep into the energies around me to ferret and sift out the essence, the true essence of thought, emotion and action of a lady in such a setting. Sometimes I play-acted, unilaterally acting a dialogue and a scene down to props.

Eve Paludan: That sounds like a great way to connect with your characters. The women felt genuine to me.

Reid Rosenthal: I am pleased you thought the female voices rich, non-stereotypical, and believable, whether in joy or dangerous adversity from a female reader’s perspective.

Eve Paludan: Readers want to know: In Threads West, which one of the men characters is you?

Reid Rosenthal: I am laughing. There have been scores of folks—no, make that hundreds—who have earnestly inquired as to which character I am, or most resemble. They usually await my answer with a slight forward lean and intent stare. I am none of them. I am all of them. We are all a part of them and they of us.

Eve Paludan: It is true about readers connecting with the characters in the book, relating to their passion and their pain.

Reid Rosenthal: That each reader and the author can identify with traits, actions, thoughts and feelings of the personalities of Threads West might be why I find readers truly care for and about these characters.

Eve Paludan: I do care about them. I wonder why they did this or that, when they could have done things differently.

Reid Rosenthal: We cluck disapprovingly when they make poor or disappointing decisions, scream warnings as they head obliviously into danger, shake our heads when they miss their cues in personal interactions—particularly with the opposite sex—tremble as they encounter adversity, and cheer when they exhibit courage.

We feel their passions, palpably sense their yearnings, and identify with the turmoil of their inner conflicts—In Rebecca, Sarah, Reuben, Johannes, Zeb, and Inga, we see ourselves, perhaps in some more than others depending upon the reader. But there is undeniably an empathy, that mirror and portal, time and energy warp that we spoke of earlier. We truly care about them and for them. And this interest extends even to Jacob, though that may be more of a wish to see justice served.

Eve Paludan: The characters are passionate, not just about each other, but also about the land.

Reid Rosenthal: Some begin that way, others will learn. The land is the source of energies, and the creator of moods. It is the mystical stage that shapes the personalities, ambitions, duplicities, and triumphs of the players who line dance fleetingly upon it until retired by the shoulder taps of successive generations. It can be the catalyst of enmity, greed and conflict, and is always the backdrop of love, passion, lust and personal interaction. The Land is all this, and more.

Eve Paludan: You paint such a seductive land, as well as its people.

Reid Rosenthal: I will borrow a paragraph from the inside back cover of the book: If the mind and spirit are seduced by images of windswept ridge tops, shiny flutters of aspen leaves caressed by a canyon breeze, and crimson tendrils of dying sun...if the fingers feel the silken skin pulse of a lover and the lips taste the deep hot kisses of building passion... If nostrils flare with the conjured scents of gunpowder and perfume, sagebrush and pine, and the ears delight in the murmur of river current...if the heart pounds with anticipation of the outcome in the realistic clash of good and evil...if the gut boils with care about the lives, conflicts and interaction of the characters...and if the head nods with understanding at the authenticity of the scenes and personalities, then as a fiction author, I have accomplished my mission.

Eve Paludan: That’s the kind of imagery that makes your novel breathtaking.

Reid Rosenthal: I appreciate that thought, Eve, thanks!

Eve Paludan: I think when readers finish a book and feel like it was true, that speaks of the author’s talent for realism, especially in relationships. The male characters in Threads West are just so appealing.

Reid Rosenthal: I'm not surprised that you found the male characters sexy, each in his own way. Not that I concur, but I am flattered that some readers insist on parallels between my masculinity, or their perception of it, and the magnetism they feel toward or from the men in the novel. I have been told much the same by male readers relative to the females that populate the pages of the book. It would be difficult indeed to have a romantic adventure—or is that an adventurous romance?—without sex appeal!

Eve Paludan: Very few male authors can pull off a romance, but you did it with finesse and, dare I say, with heart?

Reid Rosenthal: Romance is the universal language, and in my personal opinion, it’s the interpersonal energy that most resembles the energy of land. Perhaps that is why stories that mingle those two very primal forces, which are essential parts of us all, resonate to some deep and meaningful inner core of our beings.

Eve Paludan: That’s beautiful. If I could take away one thing from your book and inject it into my own work, it would be the indefinable but real energy that surrounds these characters and their physical settings.

Reid Rosenthal: It is all energy! Steamy, exciting, absorbing insight into the real American West, and the life threads of these driven men and feisty women—the vanguard of generations who braved the unknown, and shaped the heart of a great nation! This is our story.

Eve Paludan: You had me at “This is our story.”

Reid Rosenthal: As it should be.

Eve Paludan: I know that you love to hunt and fish and ride. I know you'll also jump in a bush plane to go see the aurora borealis or ride miles on horseback to get a photo of a rainbow. Can you share one or two of your exciting outdoor adventures that inspired a scene in Threads West?

Reid Rosenthal: Life is an adventure. It is to be lived. My grandfather once told me that we all have a million miles to burn and we can burn them fast or slow. I don't plan on sliding into home plate with a clean uniform. It is the quality of the experience—although when speaking of places wild and remote, qualitative aspects range from good to great. Sometimes one must travel far to find the truly special. Generally speaking, those are places without people and the seldom if ever seen human footprint. It is locations where the only lights in a never-ending expanse of black night are stars peeking over ridge tops. I suppose some would say it’s adventure, but to me it’s just life.

Eve Paludan: I heard a rumor that some people in high places are interested in your Threads West series for its many messages of love, hope, and struggles for the American dream, which is to own land of their own. How is the Threads West novel series a backbone or inspiration in that regard?

While I hope that this novel will capture the hearts of female romance lovers, and ignite the macho adventure streak in the men who read the book, in macro context I want this story and the entire Threads West, An American Saga series to remind people of our origin, of the fire and struggle that have shaped our American spirit. Perhaps it is that recall that will help rekindle the fervor of pride, hope, and the can-do, can-overcome attitude that has been—and can be again—the marrow of America.

Eve Paludan: Thank you, Reid Lance Rosenthal, for this amazing interview series.

Reid Rosenthal: The pleasure was all mine. Thank you for the interview and for the book review. And thanks so much to Jodie Renner for allowing us space for this guest blog.

Readers, October 12th, TODAY is the book launch! Threads West will be available for the first time in print on Amazon.com. Other outlets will carry the novel as well, over the coming months. However, this is the very limited first printing, just 4,500 copies, and as of this interview, it appears that more than half have already been reserved. So, folks should go to: http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/

Interview of Reid Rosenthal, author of Threads West - Part Two

2010-10-11T16:23:00.007-04:00

Eve Paludan: Reid Rosenthal, author of Threads West, welcome back to Jodie Renner's blog for part two of this interview! I’m sure readers want to know more about the creation of the Threads West series and about your life as a fourth-generation land and cattle owner. Can you tell us more about who you are and what you do?

Reid Rosenthal: In the simplest terms, Eve, I am just me. As with all others who share this planet, I have my shining, and less illustrious sides. I am a type Triple-A personality and with that comes both the good and less than good, inherent to those who suffer the same 24-7 demeanor. Yes, I am driven. I believe dreams are but the precursors of reality. One has only to make them so.

But I love the land, its special energy, solitude, space, and soul succor. Alone and far from others, whispers of canyon breezes playin’ oh so gentle’cross my cheek, the smell of earth, sage, leaves and horse sweat might just be the only time I truly relax. It is those moments, high atop a windswept ridge, rifle nestled in the leather of the scabbard, that I am transported to ten thousand years ago where I am a native sojourner, clad in a hide loincloth and carrying a spear in quest of fresh meat for the clan. It is cleansing, and real, this time machine of earth energy. The hum of it brings me back full circle to my very roots as a human being. These are the feelings of which I write, and they are universal in their truth of any historical era, though less realized today than at any other time in man's history.

Eve Paludan: That kind of vision into the past is truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing what makes you tick. Could you talk more about living off the land, as our pioneers did and how that translates into modern-day conservation?

Reid Rosenthal: He who lives on the land, lives off the land, and he who calls the land his home is by definition a steward of that little piece of the planet. The conservation and enhancement of resources is fundamental to good stewardship. Love the land and it will love you back. I strive in my fiction writing to first pen a great story, a page-turner that is both a mirror and a portal.

Eve Paludan: I love that! What a visualization with seeing messages from the past and then they reflect on the present.

Reid Rosenthal: Yes, there are messages in my writing, subtle and subliminal in some respects, but those manifestations of my core principles are in there. And respect for the land and property as the foundation of America, her spirit, the aspirations of her generations, and as the symbol of our individual freedom is more than a whisper in Threads West, and all the successive books of the series.

Eve Paludan: It makes me think about where we came from, as a country. As well as where we’re going.

Reid Rosenthal: It’s time we returned to our roots. I hope Threads West, while it entertains and captivates readers, imparts that sense of “back to American basics” using the land, and the characters’ interaction on and about the land as the touchstone of that reminder.

Eve Paludan: In part one of this interview, you talked a little bit about your research. How much of that came from your family’s roots?

Reid Rosenthal: Much of the vine of fiction in the series is based on seeds of fact. For instance, my father is from Germany, in fact from a cattle operation on the Lahn River in the little village of Villmar. My mother’s family hailed from England, centuries ago. My grandfather’s name was indeed Ludwig, and on my grandmother’s side, her brother was Hermann.

Because I am wed to and intrigued by both the challenge and the unique reward of writing in the style of converging threads, the lives, loves, struggles, and exhilarating triumphs of the 38 primary characters who people the four generations of the series are destined to always be interwoven by the loom of the land and fabric of time. The old cliché— “six degrees of separation”—might well be said to be the platform of converging threads of lives in fiction styles like my own.

Eve Paludan: Humanity is really a web of people, and we are all interconnected. I like the way the characters in your book meet each other and develop relationships. That must have been difficult to decide who connects and how their stories interconnect in the big picture.

Reid Rosenthal: The daunting challenge is to provide a seamless plot, realistic motivation, emotion, imagery and setting, and believable convergence and re-convergence of the threads of personalities over time and distance.

Eve Paludan: May I say that I love how you accomplished all of this so well. The characters are all individuals and they have their own quests and life paths.

Reid Rosenthal: I tried to create an epic tale of unforgettable characters whose personalities are forged over generations on the land’s anvil—fused by an emerging nation, imbued with the romance of America, her spirit, her people and the West. To the extent that I have succeeded thus far, I owe the great writers before me—and all of my great team—a humble thanks.

Eve Paludan: The result of such great team support is a book that transcends the genre of historical Western romance and goes beyond fiction to affect readers in their real lives.

Reid Rosenthal: Threads West, An American Saga is meant to be far more than the tale of the characters. I hope readers realize that Threads West is, in truth, our collective story.

Eve Paludan: Could you tell me more about your author inspirations?

Reid Rosenthal: We spoke at some length in the first part of the interview about which authors have inspired my writing. I would add that it is an honor and a privilege to even be mentioned in the same sentence as these legendary storytellers. To be asked to discuss which of their works most influenced me is merely a tribute to them, these silent mentors who never met me, did not know I exist, and most likely—those who are still alive—rightfully have no clue as to "Reid Who?" 

Eve Paludan: I think that very soon, people are going to stop saying "Reid Who?" and your name will be recognizable to readers around the world. When did you start reading those Westerns?

Reid Rosenthal: I read many of those books for the first time of a dozen re-readings in elementary school. Many is the night I would huddle under the blankets—dim light of the flashlight I had snatched from the kitchen tool bag—fading and flickering as morning approached. I eagerly turned pages of the books, once in a while poking my head out to study the approaching light from the East, filled with youthful resentment that my reading time was coming to an end for another night. It was that time, around the age of nine, in fact, that I vowed to myself that, I, too would write novels, spin stories, furrow the brows of readers with empathy for the characters, and transport them into the arc of the tale.

Eve Paludan: What were some of those titles that kept you up all night?

Reid Rosenthal: Mila 18, Exodus, Battle Cry, and The Young Lions by Leon Uris. The Old Man and the Sea, and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. These would be the works that I draw upon stylistically and, in different ways. I have read each and every one of Louis L'Amour's Westerns; I have his entire collection. So, too, I devoured Larry McMurtry's stunning Lonesome Dove and Max McCoy's two Spur award winners, one of which is Hellfire Canyon. Each book has contributed to my own craft of words and story, style and structure, some—like Uris and Hemingway—more than others.

Eve Paludan: This is a great tip for writers that they don’t spend all of their time writing, but must also read to be immersed in the styles and plotlines of the great writers.

Reid Rosenthal: I muse at times about this tremendous gift these men have given me without ever knowing it. I wonder if—should I be so lucky as to enjoy even a modicum of their great and well-deserved success—if readers of Threads West will read this book and make promises to themselves about writing their own books. I surely hope that kind of energy springs from my novels. And so, threads will once again converge. There is a symmetry to it all that appeals to me. Writers inspire each other. No doubt about it!

Eve Paludan: They do! I know you work from many outlines, so that you can keep control of the plot elements. Do you ever deviate from your outlines when you get inspired to go in a different direction? And if so, how do you retool your characters and plotline on the fly so that you don't get off on a tangent and lose track of your goal for the chapter?

Reid Rosenthal: I don't write detailed outlines. I have been writing these books in my head for decades. My outlines are rarely more than three pages for a book. And, yes, as the characters tell me their stories, like the simple scribe I am, I merely write it. They rely on me only to portray the setting, to create the stage of mood that flows from scene. I follow their dictates in the twists and turns of the storyline, which remains true always to the basic center of the yarn, but will absolutely deviate in delightful, frightful, and deliciously unanticipated ways, just as life does.

Eve Paludan: Thank you for those insights. I wanted to ask a technical question. You're the only author I know who uses Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software to dictate your story aloud. How did you come to start using it? How has this technology helped your writing?

Reid Rosenthal: I'm laughing. Truth be known, I dictate because I can't type. Actually I can type about 150 words per minute. Unfortunately, that includes 10 typos (at least) per line. I am also not a big fan of spell check. It is the big paw, little keyboard syndrome. Also, I spend so much time traveling between ranches, or in locations without power, that recording thoughts for later use became a necessity in my teens. The prehistoric full-size cassette recorders of the 70s were quite something. Good ones were the size of small briefcase. Then along came the micro-cassette recorders. If I was in heaven then, the current digital technology is pure nirvana.

In the “old” days—up to two years ago, I would dictate and give tapes to my staff to transcribe them. With the voice recognition systems, this step is eliminated. I dictate, the software types (what a pleasure!), I print the hard copy, fax the first edits to them shortly after, and poof! —we have a draft! I think this system works well for me because I am so used to “writing and composing” via speech over almost forty years. I can express myself in a stream of consciousness, almost like real conversation, albeit a unilateral discussion of characters. Other than edits, and perhaps twenty pages of the book, Threads West was entirely written using this system. Matter of fact, more than half the book was written while guiding the one-ton truck through the beautiful wild and remote stretches of the West that lie between our ranches! I must admit to occasional breaks in the machine scribed drafts that exclaimed, “Oh, damn, was that a cop?” or “Hey, how about using a blinker, you moron!”

Eve Paludan: That’s pretty funny! And what a unique way of writing a book, in your truck while driving while your laptop types what you say! How’s that for irony? Using twenty-first century technology to write about nineteenth-century stories.

Reid Rosenthal: It is a delicious and fascinating irony.

Eve Paludan: Thanks for Part 2 of this interview, Reid. Readers, stay tuned, because the next part of the interview is going to rock and roll like Reid on the back of a Brahma bull chargin’ out of the chute.

Reid Rosenthal: That’s right, Eve. Part three of this interview is going to be all adrenaline and passion.

Eve Paludan: Can readers still reserve books before tomorrow’s big release?

Reid Rosenthal: Yes ma’am! We have a few left but not many! Threads West will be available for the first time in print on October 12 on Amazon.com. Other outlets will carry the novel as well, but Amazon is exclusive for the first printing release. Just 4,500 copies, and as of this second part of the interview, it appears that almost two-thirds have already been reserved. So, folks should go to: http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/

Eve Paludan: I heard you’re throwing a “Branding Party” for the book launch.

Reid Rosenthal: There’s going to be lots of fun stuff, reviews, photos, excerpts, and some great ranch theme contests good only on October 12. There is an easy reserve-the-book system and then, on Tuesday, October 12, the link on that site will whisk readers to the Threads West page on Amazon.com to purchase the books (or books with Christmas coming up). Yes, I am excited :-)

INTERVIEW WITH REID ROSENTHAL TO BE CONTINUED…

BOOKMARK THIS BLOG!

Note from Jodie: See Eve's Oct. 5 guest blog below for her review of Reid's book.

The All-Important First Chapter

2010-10-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

Here's an excellent article on writing a compelling first chapter that also gives the reader a good idea of what to expect as far as your genre, style and content - a chapter that's a promise of what's to come.

This article, by Valerie Kemp, appears today on the blog of Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent. Check it out at: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

Interview of Reid Rosenthal, author of Threads West

2010-10-10T09:09:00.007-04:00

Interview of Reid Rosenthal: Part 1 (A Guest Blog by Eve Paludan)

Eve Paludan: Reid Lance Rosenthal, author of Threads West, welcome to Jodie Renner's blog! I'm here as a guest on Jodie's blog today and I'm so excited to have you join me for this interview. I'm really excited about learning inside information about the creation of your Threads West series and about your life as a fourth-generation land and cattle owner.

Reid Rosenthal: Howdy! I’ll be glad to fill you in on who I am and what I do. And since this is a writing and editing blog, I’ll focus on aspects of the creative writing process, so long as everyone understands that this is all the view of a neophyte. I am under no illusions! I’m still at the point when folks say, “Reid who???”

Eve Paludan: Thanks! It's great to learn new things about you. I tumbled on your pages on Facebook quite by chance. Your breathtaking photos of rainbows caught my attention. From there, I bought and read your short story on my Amazon Kindle, and then—intrigued—I decided to buy and read your Threads West ebook. And then, I loved it so much that I reviewed it!

Reid Rosenthal: That was a wonderful review, and I was surprised that you reviewed Threads West.

Eve Paludan: As a two-time #1 national best selling author (Writer’s Digest Book Club), a publisher, and an editor, I sometimes give national reviews, but I don't warn the author! I was so swept away by Threads West. It’s one of those rare reviews that I couldn’t wait to write.

Reid Rosenthal: Thank you very much, Eve. I’m truly tickled you enjoyed reading it.

Eve Paludan: I sure did. However, it was your photography that first caught my attention. You've captured some of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen of the American West, from land to skies and rustic buildings to horses but especially those rainbows; they were just magical. I wondered, how does your professional outdoor photography influence your fiction writing?

Reid Rosenthal: A perceptive query, Eve. In fact, they’re inextricably intertwined. I'm a landscape photographer. I’ve always been enamored and enthralled with the moods of land and environment, and the palpable energy of the Earth. It is, in my opinion, the root and source of all things, including the lives and struggles of the people who fleetingly line dance upon its stage until tapped on the shoulder by successive generations.

Eve Paludan: You do have such a way with words. So, the rainbows inspire you?

Reid Rosenthal: When a moment speaks to me...that peculiar angle of the sun, bursting sky prisms following a rain, shadows creeping with the angle of the waning sun, I must say I’m compelled to capture the image in every way possible. Many times, due simply to the wild and remote places where I spend many of my waking hours—the sheer right-time, right-place luck—I’ve been fortunate to record the power of scenes so vivid as to be mesmerizing. The thrill of knowing that I have recorded a split second that is never, ever, to be repeated as to the angle, time, season, event, or light, makes it all doubly exciting and satisfying. It is these scenes captured on photo frames, and those never-to-be repeated moments like them that underpin the descriptive portion of my writing. When I write to a mood, to a setting—a snapshot of the earth—it’s all there in a picture, somewhere deep in my soul. The pen becomes merely the shutter, and the paper the film.

Eve Paludan: That is truly inspiring. From the very first page of Threads West, I was completely hooked. Most writers have "first-page panic" trying to decide where to start a novel. From all of the places to start your story, how did you choose this sexy opening love scene to grab your reader's attention?

Reid Rosenthal: Ahhhh! Romance is a wonderful thing...primal like the land, and universal in its appeal and life experience. What better way to start a great story? If the truth be known, one of the few things I did struggle with in writing this first book of the six-novel Threads West, An American Saga series is which chapter to begin the story.

Eve Paludan: I noticed your unique writing style. Could you talk about that?

Reid Rosenthal: Because I write in the rarely used style called converging threads, any one of the first eight chapters, one on each of the primary characters in book, could have been the lead off. I vacillated between the stories of Reuben, Inga, Zeb, and Rebecca. But in the end, I chose Johannes because in many ways he has the traits of virtually all of the characters.

Eve Paludan: Johannes is my very favorite character in Threads West. But I guess that’s no surprise, since romance is my favorite genre and he’s a classic historical romance hero.

Reid Rosenthal: He's a rogue all right, and undoubtedly has more than his fair share of courage, a great sense of humor, and irreverence towards himself and life. He is a ladies’ man, treadin’ life's water, beset by inner conflict, about to be swept—unknown to him—to a far-off frontier by the mysterious currents of fate. So, while the opening scene most definitely catches people’s attention, the choice of Johannes was more, much more than that. Although it could be argued that he’s not really the main male character, he single-handedly sets the tone for the adventure, the times, theme, and the passions of Threads West.

Eve Paludan: I would agree with that. His character is strong and solid and does set a precedent—and a high bar—for the rest of the book. That first-chapter advice is so helpful to other writers. Thank you for sharing it. Now, I know you have interests in a lot of ranches and are heavily into conservation of natural resources. You've even created bodies of water where none previously existed in order to enrich the land. How do your conservation activities in real life affect what your characters do in the novels?

Reid Rosenthal: Life is half-art, half-science. Emotions mix with empirical experience and knowledge. The energy input and output of the spirit and from all things animate and inanimate blends with the progression of the mind. I guess that’s why the influences on my writing all flow from the land, and personal interaction with real personalities I have known—you might call that the science portion of my wordsmithing. The art ingredient, or presentation, is borne of many influences.

Eve Paludan: The land, in and of itself, almost stands as a character in your book. Can you tell me more about the land and the people who love it?

Reid Rosenthal: The weave of Western relationships is always the land. The intertwined twists of ranch and romance are fascinating threads that define the men and women of the West. The foundation of my stories is that reality. There is intrigue, adversity, vicious duplicity, and triumph that few know of, but which are always at play beneath the idyllic mosaics of inviting canyons and sun drenched plains.

Eve Paludan: You speak as beautifully as you write. Could you please tell me about your favorite authors?

Reid Rosenthal: I’ve been influenced by many great authors. Crane, and Hemingway, whose detailed description of scenes and circumstances have always enthralled me, Uris (whose brilliant themes of converging threads of lives have had major affect on my presentation in my novels), and McMurtry, L'Amour, and Max McCoy.

Eve Paludan: Max McCoy?

Reid Rosenthal: Yes, particularly as to McCoy’s dazzling, principled dedication to historical context. Along the way, I have been blessed to have great teachers and mentors, too many to mention here, save one: Thank you to Mrs. Jane Karsten, my independent study creative writing teacher in my junior and senior high school years. It is she who whispered incessantly in my ear, sometimes kindly, at others more cajoling: "You can do this...you must do this…It is your calling."

Eve Paludan: What a profound experience with your writing teacher. I have a great teacher story, too. Someday I’ll tell it. You've said that authors should write what they know and you revealed that many of the events in your novel are true. You must be quite a fan of genealogy and a history lover.

Reid Rosenthal: I am!

Eve Paludan: As you did your research, what aspects of the history were a surprise to you when they unfolded on the page?

Reid Rosenthal: Did I research this! It was a bigger task than I anticipated. Though I thought I was familiar with this magical moment in American history, I was mistaken. 1855 may be one of the single most difficult years of which to write in the history of this country and the West that I have experienced. The great westward migration was in its infancy. The later turmoil between the Northern and Southern states was just beginning to darken the whispered rhetoric of both sides. Native Americans had rightfully lost trust in the promises of the white men. The Indian Treaties of the years prior, and indeed the compacts between the states as to abolition, had all been broken by one or the other party just within the previous twelve to twenty-four months. So this was the year just prior to the discovery of gold in Colorado, the real precipitator of the tidal wave of westward migration that began in 1858.

The Singer sewing machine had just been invented, revolvers were only a few years old, and the repeating rifle was still just a few years out. It was the year that the world—and America—breathed in, held their collective breath, and readied to exhale with a rush towards the Great Plains and Rockies.

Eve Paludan: That’s some very detailed and rich research. I hope you had help!

Reid Rosenthal: I was assisted by several researchers, to whom I gave very specific tasks. They are acknowledged as to their contributions in the enhanced ebook under “Additional Acknowledgments.”

Eve Paludan: And did you also use the web and libraries?

Reid Rosenthal: Most definitely. I drew on scores of printed and web sources, and several great nonfiction and memoir historical works of that very specific time period. It was fascinating and immensely rewarding, and I hope this research affords the historical texture of Threads West at a macro level the depth, detail, and scope not typically found in historical Western novels.

Eve Paludan: It most definitely does. I can tell by the book that you found that era fascinating.

Reid Rosenthal: Truly! It was a time of both promise and fear, and the beginnings of the second great European immigration, a critical timeframe just prior to the switch of reels in the living movie of American history; Reel one, the East. Reel two, the West.

Eve Paludan: That is a great way to put it! And with that, I’m going to invite readers to stay tuned for Reel Two of this interview, which will be continued on Jodie Renner’s blog very soon! In the meantime, how can readers get a copy of your first printing?

Reid Rosenthal: I’m absolutely delighted that Threads West will be available for the first time in print on October 12 on Amazon.com. Other outlets will carry the novel as well, over the coming months. However, this is the very limited first printing, just 4,500 copies, and as of this interview, it appears that almost half has already been reserved. So, folks should go to: http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/

Eve Paludan: I heard you’re throwing a “Branding Party” for the book launch. Can you tell us about that?

Reid Rosenthal: There’s going to be lots of fun stuff, reviews, photos, excerpts, and some great ranch theme contests good only on October 12. There is an easy reserve-the-book system—though not mandatory at all—and then, on Tuesday, October 12, the link on that site will whisk readers to the Threads West page on Amazon.com to purchase the books (or books with Christmas coming up). Yes, I am excited :-)

INTERVIEW WITH REID ROSENTHAL TO BE CONTINUED…

BOOKMARK THIS BLOG!

Note from Jodie: See Eve's Oct. 5 guest blog below for her review of Reid's book.

Why You Still Don't Have an Agent

2010-10-09T17:46:00.000-04:00

Here's a great website: http://www.howtowriteaqueryletter.com/. Excellent articles of interest to aspiring authors of fiction, by Jeff Rivera of Gumbo Writers - http://www.gumbowriters.com/.

The two most recent, very useful articles: "Genres Agents Are Dying For" and "Why You Still Don't Have an Agent."

Checklist from Publisher

2010-10-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

Great checklist for fiction writers on Blood-Red Pencil today: http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2010/10/publisher-evalutions.html

Review of Book One of a new Western Saga

2010-10-05T12:38:00.004-04:00

Here's author and editor Eve Paludan’s review of Threads West - An American Saga, by Reid L. Rosenthal:

The last time I fell madly in love with a Western historical saga, the title was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry; it won a Pulitzer in 1986. The splendor and adventure of Threads West…An American Saga, Novel One, has now surpassed my long-ago love affair with McMurtry’s Western saga. Reid L. Rosenthal, cowboy and rancher, has written a novel that spirited me away to the 1850s–1860s era and provided me with gripping hours of authentic Western history, action, drama, heartfelt romance and something extra special and seldom seen in literature of this caliber: well-written, sizzling sensuality.

What separates a good novel from a great one? I close a good novel and feel satisfied. When I close a great novel, like this one, I feel sad that there are no more pages to read. From the first time each character appears in the book to the last time they fade from the pages, I was immersed in the personal stories of the heroes, the heroines, the bad guys, the powerful, the vulnerable, and the brave. I cared about their lives and loves, strengths and weaknesses, and their strife and successes. As they head for their compelling shared and undiscovered destinies, their paths unfurl like a Western sunrise in this new saga of the American West.

The Threads West series opens with a bang and closes with a promise of more excitement to come. The story of these enduring characters is destined to stamp its imprint on the spirit and heritage of readers' hearts.

The writing is incredible. I'll leave you with this small taste from Reid Lance Rosenthal’s pen: “Dawn on the day of departure was a brilliant palette of indigo in retreat to the west and blossoming fire orange to the east. The Mississippi had a slight chop from the morning wind, the surface ripples reflecting the burgeoning day in a shimmer of color.”

Five stars are not enough. One book is not enough. Let there be more Threads West. Soon!

~ Eve Paludan was twice a #1 Writer’s Digest Book Club national bestselling author of The Romance Writer's Pink Pages, a three-book series from Prima. Paludan is also an editor of scholarly work at a state university, as well as a freelance fiction editor, e-publisher at NoTreeBooks.com, and a book reviewer. She is also the author of the novel, Letters from David and the novel manuscript, The Man Who Fell from the Sky, which is currently under serious consideration by a print publisher and a top literary agent. (Blog owner and freelance editor Jodie Renner edited the first draft of The Man Who Fell from the Sky.)

Stay tuned here for more info on this fascinating book. To reserve a copy of the book now for purchase on Oct. 12, Ilimited first printing), go to http://www.threadswestamericansaga.com/

The Blood-Red Pencil: Tips For Writing Effective Dialogue

2010-10-02T17:53:00.000-04:00

The Blood-Red Pencil: Tips For Writing Effective Dialogue

14 TIPS FOR BREAKING INTO THE ROMANCE GENRE

2010-10-02T09:58:00.018-04:00

Romance novels outsell all other genres, making up about 40% of all fiction sold in North America. If you’re an aspiring writer trying to break into the romance genre, here are some tips to help get you on the road to publication.

1. Know the genre. Romance has its own set of rules. If you’re writing a romance, your plot has to revolve around the romantic relationship between your two main characters: a likeable heroine and a strong, charismatic hero; you need a happily-ever-after (HEA) ending; and your subplots must support the central love story.

2. Familiarize yourself with the market. Read a lot of recently published romance novels in a series, category, or subgenre you’d like to write; for example, contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, sweet romance, inspirational romance, paranormal romance, erotic romance, Western romance, romantic comedy, or young adult romance.

3. Read the publishers' submission guidelines. Check Harlequin’s guidelines for writers of romance at www.eHarlequin.com, as well as those of other publishers who specialize in or accept romance novels. You can do a Google search to find them. For example, here's where you'll find the guidelines from Carina Press: http://carinapress.com/blog/submission-guidelines/#romance.

4. Join a writers’ group, either local or online, such as the Romance Writers of America, or your local chapter of the RWA.

5. Read some good books about writing romance. Two books I highly recommend are: On Writing Romance, by Leigh Michaels, and The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel, by Christie Craig and Faye Hughes. For more books on the craft of writing romance, see my list of resources below.

6. Know your readership. More than 90 percent of regular readers of romance novels are women. Figure out a subgenre you’d be comfortable writing in that appeals to a target group of mostly women.

7. Develop two interesting main characters. Your protagonists need to be charismatic and appealing; likeable but with some insecurities and flaws. Don’t make them too perfect – perfect is boring! The hero and heroine need to have inner conflicts and insecurities, etc., but don’t give them major character flaws or annoying habits that will turn off your reader. And make sure they’re both worthy of the other’s love. They both need to have enough going for them (not needy or users or whiners, etc.) and be basically good inside and “keepers,” otherwise your reader won’t root for them or care what happens to them.

8. Bring them together quickly. Introduce your heroine in the first paragraph. Put her in a scene with inner conflict. Introduce your hero before the end of Chapter One. Make them attracted to each other, but put a roadblock in their way. As Dawn Arkin says in her article “Romance 101” on Fiction Factor, “The main characters should meet as soon as possible and find themselves in conflict with each other right off the bat. Their first meeting should be explosive emotionally. It should make them be attracted to, and hate, each other from the beginning.”

9. Make something interesting happen to them, with plenty of inner conflict. Your storyline should have some original elements, and must of course include plenty of conflict that is emotional and character-driven. A good villain helps with that essential conflict. But remember that, unlike action-adventure or suspense novels, which rely heavily on external conflict, internal conflict is the main focus for romances. Two or three conflicts over the span of the novel work best. Include emotional highs and lows.

10. Tell us how they're feeling. Romance novels need emotion, and lots of it. “Emotion,” stresses McGregor. “Don’t back away from it, because these stories need it. To me, romances are character stories. They may have a complex plot, but it's the characters the readers want to love and get involved with.”

11. Include natural-sounding dialogue. Each character should use slightly different pet words and phrases. To guard against your dialogue sounding stilted, use lots of contractions, incomplete sentences, one-word answers, silences, and body language. Women tend to speak in more complete sentences than men do, and they express their feelings more.

12. Bring them together at the end. The romance genre calls for a Happily Ever After ending. Your readers demand an emotionally satisfying conclusion – not necessarily wedding bells, but a positive, uplifting ending with a promise of lasting love and happiness.

13. Revise, revise, revise! Now that you've written your first draft, time to go in and polish it up. Tighten up the language, use all senses, deepen your characters, and add some more conflict and intrigue.

14. Get a second opinion by an expert. To increase your chances of getting published, hire a freelance editor who's familiar with the genre (like me) to go over it and look for inconsistencies, plot holes, stilted dialogue, head-hopping, etc., and generally polish it until it shines!

Copyright © Jodie Renner, October 2010 http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Some excellent resource books on writing romance novels: On Writing Romance – How to Craft a Novel That Sells, by Leigh Michaels; The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel, by Christie Craig and Faye Hughes; and Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger.

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Top 25 Reasons Your Submissions Are Rejected

2010-10-01T22:00:00.002-04:00

Here's a great post that appeared on Blood-Red Pencil a few days ago, by Heidi Thomas. Excellent points for any author trying to get published!

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2010/09/sept-2-top-25-reasons-your-submissions.html

STYLE FAUX PAS

2010-09-27T20:37:00.009-04:00

Style Blunders in Fiction

No, I’m not talking about the fashion police coming after you. I’m talking about those little errors and bad habits that creep into your manuscript, weaken your message, and add up to an overall feeling of amateurish writing. The good news is that, unlike the more critical creative flow of story plot and character ideas, these little bad habits are easy to correct, resulting in a much more polished, compelling manuscript.

Here are some of those nasty little weeds to find and yank out of your literary garden, to be replaced with unique, striking blooms that will be the envy of the neighborhood:

1. Take out wishy-washy qualifiers like quite, sort of, almost, kind of, a bit, pretty, somewhat, rather, usually, basically, generally, probably, mostly, really, etc. Forget “He was quite brave,” or “She was pretty intelligent” or “It was almost scary,” or “Nala could kind of feel a sense of foreboding.” These qualifiers dilute your message, reduce the impact, and make the imagery weaker. Take them out. Even very is to be avoided – it’s like you’re saying the word after it needs reinforcing. “She was beautiful” packs more punch than “She was very beautiful.”

2. Avoid –ing verbs wherever possible. Use –ed verbs instead – they’re stronger and more immediate. “He was racing” is weaker than “He raced.” “They searched the house” is more immediate than “They were searching the house.” Rewrite -ing verbs whenever you can, and you’ll strengthen your writing and increase its power.

3. Show us, don’t tell us how your characters are feeling. Avoid statements like “She was depressed,” “He found that funny,” or “The little girl felt sad.” Show these emotions by their actions, words, and body language: “Eyes downcast, shoulders slumped, head down, she refused to answer as she pushed her food around the plate.”

4. Avoid colorless, overused verbs like walked, ran, went, saw, talked, ate, did, got, put, took, turned. Get out your thesaurus (or use the MS Word one. Hint: look up the present tense: walk, run, eat, say, etc.) to find more expressive, powerful verbs instead, like crept, loped, stumbled, stomped, glimpsed, noticed, observed, witnessed, spied, grunted, whimpered, devoured, consumed, gobbled, wolfed, munched, bolted, raged, or grabbed.

5. Keep adverbs to a minimum. Instead of propping up a boring, anemic verb with an adverb, look for strong, descriptive, powerful verbs. Instead of “He walked slowly” go for “He plodded” or “He trudged” or “He dawdled.” Instead of “She ate hungrily” say “She devoured the bag of chips,” or “She wolfed down the pizza.” Instead of “They talked quickly,” say “They babbled.”

6. Use adjectives sparingly and consciously. Instead of stringing a bunch of adjectives in front of an ordinary, overused noun, find a more precise, expressive noun to show rather than tell. Overuse of adjectives can also turn your writing into “purple prose” that is melodramatic and overly “flowery.”

7. Dialogue tags – Stick with the basic he said and she said (or asked) wherever possible, rather than “he emphasized” or “she reiterated” or “Mark conjectured" or "Lisa questioned,” etc. These kinds of words stand out, so they take the reader out of the story, whereas “said” is almost invisible. However, I like dialogue tags that describe how something is said, as in he shouted, she murmured, he grumbled, she whispered, he stuttered, she muttered, he yelled. You can often eliminate the dialogue tag altogether and just use an action beat instead: He picked up the phone. “That’s it. I’m calling the cops.”

8. Describe the stimulus, then the response: When writing an action scene, make sure your sentence structure mimics the order of the actions. The reader pictures the actions in the order that she reads them, so it’s confusing to read about the reaction before finding out what caused it. So describe the action first, then the reaction: Instead of “She screamed when the door slammed on her finger,” write: “The door slammed on her finger and she screamed.” (or “causing her to scream,” or whatever.)

9. Avoid the passive voice: For greater impact, when describing an action, start with the doer, then describe what he did, rather than the other way around. Use the more direct active voice wherever possible, for more impact. Instead of “The house was taped off by the police,” write “The police taped off the house.” Also, avoid empty phrases like “There is”, “There was,” “It’s,” “It was.” Jump right in with what you’re actually talking about.

10. Avoid negative constructions wherever possible – they can be confusing to the reader. Instead of “I didn’t disagree with him,” say “I agreed with him.”

11. Avoid frequent repetition of the same word or forms of the same word. If you’ve already used a certain noun or verb in a paragraph or section, go to your thesaurus to find a different way to express that idea when you mention it again. Also, avoid repetition of the same imagery. Whether you’re describing the setting, the weather, or the hero or heroine, vary your wording.

12. Avoid formal sentences and pretentious language. Rather than impressing your readers, ornate, fancy words can just end up alienating them. As Jessica Page Morrell says in Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us, “if a reader is constantly consulting a dictionary when reading your prose, you’re dragging him from the story. Words in manuscripts such as capacious, accretion, plangent, occluded, viridian, arboreal, sylvan, verdant, obdurant, luculent, longueur, rubescent, and mendacious always pull me from the story. Just say no to showing off.”

As Morrell points out, “Simple words are close to our hearts and easily understood.... simpler words are unpretentious, yet contain power and grace….Pompous words are alienating, boring, and outdated.”

13. Avoid being overly wordy. Don’t clutter up your sentences with a lot of extra little words. For example, instead of writing in the vicinity of, just write near. Instead of as a consequence of, just write because. Instead of a large percentage of, just use many. Instead of “The sword that he was holding was knocked to the ground,” just say “His sword was knocked to the ground.” Extra words drain life from your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has.

Copyright © Jodie Renner, September 2010 http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Resources: Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, by Jessica Page Morrell; Manuscript Makeover, by Elizabeth Lyon; How NOT to Write a Novel, by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman.

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CLEAR, CONCISE, POWERFUL NONFICTION WRITING

2010-09-25T20:37:00.033-04:00

OR: USING "PLAIN LANGUAGE" TO COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY

"Are you excavating a subterranean channel?" asked the scholar. "No sir," replied the farmer. "I am only digging a ditch." - Anon

Today’s post is mainly aimed at nonfiction writers, for a change. Have you ever read a legal document that was incomprehensible to you? Sometimes even magazine articles seem to be far more stiff and convoluted than they need to be.

Readers today are deluged with documents to read and information to assimilate. They don't want to have to wade through a thick pile of verbiage, long, complicated sentences, and unnecessarily fancy words to get the info they're looking for. They want you to state your points clearly and succinctly (with maybe even a touch of humor), so they can get on to the next chapter, document or article.

Language is all about communication; and as such, written language should be easily understood by most of the population, or at least by everyone in your target readership. If you’re sending your average reader to the dictionary more than once or twice in your article, or if they have to stop and re-read a sentence because it’s way too long and complex, you’re not communicating in a clear, direct way, and you’re likely to turn off your readers. Or, worse, you’ll just come across as pedantic and pompous.

According to Wikipedia, “Plain language, sometimes called simple language or clear language, is lucid, succinct writing designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly and completely as possible. Plain language avoids complications created by verbose, convoluted writing common in technical, legal, and other fields.”

Dr. Robert Eagleson defines plain language as “...clear, straightforward expression, using only as many words as are necessary. It is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and convoluted construction. It is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of...language.”

Here are some tips for communicating clearly and effectively in your writing:

1. Avoid unnecessarily long sentences and excess wordiness.

Excess or elaborate words make your writing weaker. When tempted to use a wordy phrase, choose a concise alternative instead. As Robert W. Harris says, “Concise sentences have a force that wordy sentences don’t have. Extraneous words merely take up space and dilute the impact of the idea being expressed.”

Harris gives the following examples in his book, When Good People Write Bad Sentences:
Wordy: “Consuming excessive calories at breakfast, lunch and dinner can lead to an increase in blood pressure.”

Concise: “Overeating at meals can increase blood pressure.”

Wordy: “Owing to the fact that my car is not the most reliable of machines, I often show up for appointments after their scheduled commencement times.”

Concise: “Because my car is unreliable, I’m often late for appointments.”

Government writing in particular, is often too wordy. Here are some examples from www.plainlanguage.gov of excess words in government writing and plain alternatives:

Original: "At the present time, the FAA in accordance with new regulations will on a monthly basis conduct random security checks in the event that there is a terrorist alert."

Revised: "The FAA under new regulations will conduct monthly random security checks if there is a terrorist alert."

Some examples of wordy phrases to avoid, and straightforward, clear alternatives:

Wordy phrases ---- Plain Alternatives
as a consequence of -----because
in the vicinity of ---------near
on a regular basis ------- regularly
as a means of ----------- to
as prescribed by --------- in, under
at a later date ----------- later
at the present time ----- now, currently
despite the fact that ----- despite
for the purpose of ------- to, for
in accordance with ------ under
in the event that ---------- if
in the not-too-distant future - soon
has the appearance of --- looks like
on a monthly basis ------- monthly
owing to the fact that ---- because
pertaining to -------------- of, about
should it appear that ----- if
with regard to ------------ about
drew to a close ----------- ended
on an annual basis ------- annually

Notice that the extra words in the first column above don’t help the meaning or add anything of significance. The wordy phrases are no more serious, compelling, or informative than their concise alternatives. In fact, extra words drain the life out of your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has.

2. Use active voice instead of passive voice.

Passive: The tests were graded by the teacher. The ball was kicked by Paul. The motion was passed by Senate.

Active: The teacher graded the tests. Paul kicked the ball. Senate passed the motion.

Because the active voice emphasizes the doer of an action, it is usually briefer, clearer, and more emphatic than the passive voice. Whenever possible, use active voice in your writings.

3. Avoid redundancies and unnecessary qualifiers.

It’s a mistake to think that in order to make an idea clear, you need to state it in several different ways. Using different words that mean the same thing can actually make your document harder to understand. To avoid repetition, if you are thinking of describing something with two words that have the same meaning, use the word that sounds more powerful.

Original: Because you are an experienced senior, you should help aid the new incoming freshmen.

Revised: Because you are a senior, you should help the incoming freshmen.

Also, unnecessary qualifiers add no additional meaning to a sentence, so avoid redundant phrases such as:

absolutely necessary, advance warning, basic fundamentals, close scrutiny, final outcome, future plans, honest truth, joint collaboration, overused cliché, past history, regular routine, unexpected surprise, etc.

In all of these cases, it’s best to just use the second of the two words in each phrase, as none of these words needed qualifying.

4. Don’t use multiple negatives

Using more than one negative muddles the meaning of a document. Accentuate the positive when you can. Here’s an example from www.plainlanguage.gov:

Original: No changes will be made to the Department of Transportation’s regulations unless the administrator reviews them and concludes that they are not lacking any important information.

Revised: Changes will be made to the Department of Transportation’s regulations only if the administrator reviews them and concludes they are lacking important information.

5. Don’t use a pretentious word or phrase when an ordinary one will do.
“I always endeavor to utilize multisyllabic words. It is the manner in which sophisticated people write.” – from When Good People Write Bad Sentences
Pretentious language, rather than impressing or intimidating readers, just makes the writer look like a pompous show-off. High-sounding words can suggest that one’s ideas aren’t interesting on their own so they need to be “enhanced.”

Here are some overly fancy words and their down-to-earth alternatives:
altercation – fight; appellation – name; domicile – home; capacious – roomy; facilitate – aid; impecunious – poor; jocular – witty; masticate – chew; perambulate – stroll; modification – change; pusillanimous – timid; recapitulation – summary; sobriquet – nickname; vicissitude – hardship; vociferate – shout. (The list goes on, but you get the picture.)

6. Finally, wherever possible, write in a visually appealing style.Use headings, subheadings, bulleted lists, numbered lists, sidebars, graphics, tables, and parallel phrasing to make it easier for your readers to find the information quickly.

Remember, the purpose of writing is to communicate your ideas as clearly and as easily as possible – not to impress your readers with your erudition!

Copyright Jodie Renner, http://www.jodierennerediting.com/

Sources: When Good People Write Bad Sentences, by Robert W. Harris; www.plainlanguage.gov; and Wikipedia.

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