Penalty! Interference or the Impeding of a Writer by Diana Flegal

We have already established through previous blog posts of mine, that I am an avid football fan. Of the Pittsburgh Steelers in particularly. (Please do not hold that against me, I am a nice and courteous opponent.)

In Sunday’s game this week, we had a 15 yard penalty called against us. I became frustrated. The penalty was impediment. Seriously? The receiver caught the ball. Sheesh.

But, I must be reasonable. The last two years the NFL has implemented new penalties in the hope of protecting players from injury. Apparently this is one of them.

Here is how it reads in the 2015 NFL Rulebook:

Rule 10   Opportunity to Catch a Kick, Fair Catch

Section 1 Opportunity to Catch a Kick / Interference

During  a  scrimmage  kick that  crosses  the  line  of  scrimmage,  or  during  a  free  kick (punt),  members  of the kicking team are prohibited from interfering with any receiver making an attempt to catch the airborne kick,  or  from  obstructing  or  hindering  his  path  to  the airborne  kick,  and  regardless  of  whether  any  signal was given.

Item 1:   Contact with Receiver.

It is interference if a player of the kicking team contacts the receiver, or causes a passive player of either team to contact the receiver, before or simultaneous to his touching the ball.

Item 2:   Right of Way.

A receiver who is moving toward a kicked ball that is in flight has the right of way. If opponents obstruct his path to the ball, or cause a passive player of either team to obstruct his path, it  is  interference,  even  if  there  is  no  contact,  or  if  he  catches  the  ball  in  spite  of  the interference,  and regardless of whether any signal was given.

We (The Steelers) were guilty of Item 2. Which got me to thinking about my clients, and writers in general. (Of course it did- that is all I think about. #ineedalife)

What impedes or obstructs the path of a writer?

Is it direct contact: a rejection from the literary agent you submitted to, a face to face meeting with an editor that results in- nothing, or criticism from a crtique? Or is it indirect interference; self sabotage, poor health, or growing weary that blocks us, even though we might have gainded some success?

Learning any craft is strenuous and takes time. When we grow impatient, we will not ‘receive’ the rewards of our hard work. We will fail to reach our goals (cross the goal line), and fail to score a win.

Take some time to examine what is impeding your success and keeping you from reaching your goals. The New Year is around the corner, and as writers and literary agents, we can reassess our game plan.

  

There, they’re, their. You’re and your. By Linda S. Glaz

Ah, yes. These words have been thorns in author—editors’ sides forever. We see blog posts on them, FB posts on them, and they lead as the greatest pet peeve in most every set of writing tips. They all boil down to one main thing. The individual has not proofread their work sufficiently.

In our rush when someone wants to look at our work, we tend to hurry through the most important process: proofing our work. Anyone can put down words and tell a story, but not everyone can make it shine.

We justify the rushed job by saying the agent or editors wants to see it now. They won’t wait. They might take someone else’s project. And all of these are possibilities. But I would rather someone made me wait than to receive their work done in a haphazard manner.

We write. We rewrite. And then we write again until the product is the absolute best that it can be. It should be. 

As Christian authors our goal can nothing less than our best. Otherwise, we give a poor example to the world of what is possible. And of what we expect of ourselves. And of our true calling. Are we writing to draw others to Christ? Are we writing to make buckets of money? Are we writing to tell stories and entertain people? All reasons should receive the same, meticulous care.

Do your best. If it isn’t the absolute best writing, then address it again. And again. And again. And again, until it is.

Six Steps to a Good Clean Draft by Diana Flegal

Recently I was involved in a discussion about writers knowing when their writing is completed, finished, and submit-able. While many novice writers prematurely submit a first or second draft to an agent or a publisher, other writers  edit, and edit, and edit. Wanting their material to be perfect, they eventually delete the life out of their writing. When is enough, enough? These are the points we all agreed on.

6) Just write and get it all down- this is called a first draft.

5) Send it through spell check- It will highlight the gross grammatical errors.

4) Go back and eliminate unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and replace them with strong nouns and verbs.

3)  Read it out loud or put it through a program that will read it to you. For fiction, this will show you where your plot has holes or your dialog is poor. With nonfiction, you can adjust your sentence structure to better get your point across.

2) Then walk away. After you have walked away from it for a week or a few days you can make a few final edits and pass it along to your critique group. You do belong to one of them, right? They are vital to a writer.

DRUM ROLL: The numero uno way to know your manuscript, article, blog, poem or flash fiction is ready is when you agent or critique partners wrest it out of your hands and threaten your life if you make one more change.  

Read More to Write Better by Diana Flegal

I was amazed the first time an author pitching me his story of a certain genre informed me he did not read stories of that particular genre or really read much at all. It was obvious to me he hadn't and didn't.


While I am sure there are exceptions, and one of you might be that one, I believe strongly that in order to become a good writer one must be a great reader. 


I can't imagine an aspiring pianist having no familiarity with melody.


Assuming you are a lover of words, I am curious to know how you choose your reading material.


I know some who visit their local indie bookstore and ask the staff what they have recently read and liked. Others ask their librarian, and others go with book club picks.


How do you choose, and what have you read recently that you especially enjoyed? What are you currently reading?


I am reading Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller (for the second time), as well as The Aviators Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Four Ways a Mission Statement Helps a Writer by Diana Flegal

I ask my clients to write a mission statement for each book they plan to write. Whether they are writing fiction or nonfiction, they should know and be able to state exactly what it is they want the reader to get from their novel or nonfiction (the take-away value), and why they are the best one to write this title.


One: Writing a mission statement will help you set the vision and reflect on the how of writing the book. Why is it valuable and why is it important to you to write it.


Example: Since King Steven writes thrillers that make you leave the light on at night and his mission is: to scare the begeebies out of his readers and keep them turning the page; he must write believable characters, and convince the reader of the possibility this scary thing could happen in their small town.


Example: A true event happened to you that you would like to include in your novel. But when it is on the page, it sounds UN- believable. Delete the 'little darling'.




Two: A mission statement helps you answer the question, am I qualified to write this book?.


Example: King Steven has a proven track record of having written very scary stories. I can want to scare the wits out of a reader, but if I have a hard time remembering the plot of a good joke, it is not realistic for me. Just sayin'. Scratch that mission and chew my pencil a little longer.


I would like to teach Haitian women how to take better care of their babies. I had a newborn that turned into a toddler with me when I lived there. But it has been 20 plus years since then. Worthy goal, but it would be better if I referred women to those currently there offering these services.


I want to help writers realize their goals. Idea: Write a blog about the value of a mission statement. I teach about this at writers conferences, and have seen the effectiveness of this with my clients. BINGO. Checkmark.


Three: A mission statement will keep you on task and help you evaluate your progress


Example: You want to write a contemporary romance that takes place in Pittsburgh, Pa. The young hero is the son of a retired steel worker. In researching the mills to portray the setting the young man grew up in, you see this:  Iron and steel were Pittsburgh's main industries for nearly a century and a half. The mills along the rivers churned out their products 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It can be said that steel from Pittsburgh mills practically built America. From the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge, steel from Pittsburgh found its way to all corners of the developing nation.


Wow, who knew? You get distracted and begin to make the book all about Pittsburgh's influence in the building of America. Your romance is forgotten UNTIL you go back and read the mission statement: I want to write a romance that showcases two diverse people coming together and realizing that love can supersede prejudice and insecurity. AND you are back on track. By the way: An editor that acquires historical fiction told me research should be the window dressing and the story the window. :-) Keep that in mind and just sprinkle your research in your story to set an authentic placing of your plot, but don't let it overshadow it.

Four: A mission statement will provide incentive to actually write the book  


Writing down your goals is a proven way to realize them. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, found that we are 42 percent more likely to achieve our goals just by writing them down.


I had a goal to share four of the strongest reasons I ask writers to write out a mission statement. Hope this is helpful.

It's Not My Job to Sell Your Book by Terry Burns

What? I thought that WAS the agent’s job.

It can be, but I tell my group that I believe it is OUR job to sell their book, not just mine. I tell them it is a team effort. The clients that I have that are more successful are participating in the process.

It begins before they are ever clients. They place a proposal in my hands that I can see using to sell the project. I can never write a proposal to represent a project as good as the author can write it because I can’t possibly know it as well as they do. 

Once I do accept a client I put them in an online support group that is only open to my clients and those who work with me. It is a friendly, nurturing body. There are two levels of participation, very active, praying for one another and sharing information and support, or simply being in the part of the group that gets the regular updates, announcements of contracts and releases of books by clients, allowing them to know what everyone in the client group is doing and what the marketplace is doing. So they continue to be part of the team effort through support and encouragement of one another.

Clients play a role in the information process. They go to conferences that I may or may not attend, and they are proactive pitching their book. The goal for them is to make a personal contact and get a submission invited that I can follow up on. Sure, I’m doing the same thing, but the more contacts that are made the better the odds. They serve as information gatherers. They gather and report back on any information they run across whether it seems to affect them or not. If it doesn’t affect them it may affect someone else in the group and that client may find out something to reciprocate with.

They read. There’s no way I can read a lot of books in all of the different categories that my clients write in so I encourage them to read in the genre they are writing in. They will find out things that way such as how the books are doing, who is publishing them and maybe even who the editor was. 

I mentioned my clients support one another. This is particularly the case after one publishes. They all talk about it on the social networks helping create a buzz. They interview each other on blogs and share marketing tips. Not that the number of sales represented just within the group is significant but they do tend to buy and read each other’s books.

They continue to write. They don’t just put a project in my hands and sit around obsessing over it, worrying over the length of time it takes to hear back on submissions. They continue to be aware of possible avenues we could pursue with it, but they get on with their next project. I encourage them to keep an idea file so they always have something new to work on.

Books tend to be seasonal. It is not uncommon after spending all the time to get one written that the demand is just not there. Maybe it has been overdone and people who were looking for just that type of book now not so much. Often people’s first books are not the first ones to make it into print. Career writers see books get set back until they come back in season again. Successful writers always have more in the pipeline.

Clients can also help by building their platform. In non-fiction platform is probably as important if not MORE important than the content itself. It is more and more important in fiction as well. Publishers know what they are going to do to market the book, but they want to know how proactive the author is going to be in the process and what connections they have to groups of people who might be potential buyers.

An author who waits until they have a book to promote to start building a website, start a speaking schedule, doing social networking, and other avenues of building visibility and buzz is way behind the curve. A book can run its season in a matter of months without such visibility and buzz to propel it forward. In other words, it could be through before the author is making any progress getting their platform established. That’s why the existence of that visibility NOW is so important to an editor in making an acquisition decision and it should be well demonstrated on the project proposal.

Moral support is no small item, and it seems to mean more when it is client to client instead of just me reassuring a writer. We do have to keep in mind what’s happening in the marketplace as we wait anxiously. It isn't about the quality of the writing, it is about the fit to the market. I like to use the illustration of the skit they used to do at the end of the old comedy show Laugh In where writers kept popping out of windows delivering lines, then another window would open and it'd be something else. That's the publishing industry. The trick is to get the manuscript in the right window at the exact time it is open. At any point in time maybe it only fits one place. It's a miracle we ever make that connection, much less as often as we do. 
 

How about the non-proactive client? I’m still doing everything I can to sell their project, but without the team effort they don’t have as much going for them. Plus, if I am sitting around running through my publishing databases trying to find submission opportunities and a lead comes in where someone else has had a meeting or a contact with an editor and managed to get a submission invited, guess which one I do first? That’s a no-brainer. That personal contact has to be followed up on while it is still fresh in the editor’s mind.

All of the things that I have mentioned above that proactive authors do to advance their cause are missing with the client that just sits and waits for me to do it all for them. It’ll get done, but not as quickly as it gets done for those who are heavily involved.

Defend or Declare by Diana Flegal

How do you handle constructive criticism or rejection?


Do you drive by the editor's house and shoot rolls of toilet paper into their trees when a night rain is expected? Or do you defend your plot twists on FB or Goodreads when someone gives your book a bad review?


Handling these things well is important. One does not want to turn off even one reader fan. They all have friends, and before you know it, your reputation precedes you like the smell of garbage downwind.


One of my authors happily saw the recent launch of her first book. And every review has been favorable, so far. She has been giddy with joy. And I, the voice of doom and gloom, remind her that one of these days, there will be that one reader that will say hurtful, hateful things. It happens to the best of the best, eventually.

“NEVER take rejection of your work personally unless it is accompanied by a punch in the nose”! Paraphrased quote of Ron Goulart 

Ignore them.


And go after some fresh reviews to cover them up in the list.


When someone tells you they loved your book and can not wait to read the next one, ask them if they would be willing to write you an Amazon review. Explain how helpful the reviews are to authors. (the more reviews you have, helps your book rise up in the search engines, and can even convince sites like Amazon to advertise your title for free.)

Kristen Lamb, published author and blogger said: Rejection sucks. There is no other way of saying it. Of course, the clincher is that rejection is not only part of life, but it is a necessary ingredient to the life well-lived. But, how do we handle rejection in a way that is constructive? A lot of how we handle rejection stems from how we view rejection. I have a saying: If we aren’t failing, then we aren’t doing anything interesting.  

“What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius

In, The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials intoTriumph, by Ryan Holiday, he uses three titles in his outline for turning our disappointments into success: Perception, Action, and Will. It is up to us to alter our perception, practice persistence, and love every thing that happens.  Because as Marcus Aurelius also said,  “we can accommodate and adapt.”     

What ways have you found to appropriately handle rejection and bad reviews?

Deadline: Midnight Tonight by Diana Flegal

Deadlines. They blink like a late night neon convenience store light. Or annoyingly buzz like ones bedside pesky alarm, “it’s time to get up!”.

But the mother of them all is midnight APRIL 15^th.  

And if you are self employed and have not set aside your quarterly taxes- it is time to pay up.

If you have had a good year- your pay out is big. If you haven’t – well then it’s still painful.

As a writer, you need to think of your writing as a business. Track your expenses and know what you can deduct, and what your state requires as its percent of your back room sales. I know, I know. But we are to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is Gods.

Tonight at 9:00 PM author Aaron Gansky will be offering an online podcast titled: Death and Taxes. It might behoove you to listen in.

Me? I will be working on filing my extension, so I will more than likely have to listen to it once it is archived.  

Here is the link. Give Aaron a shout out for me, will ya?

Now where are those toll receipts…