Every Careless Word by Andy Scheer

Yes, you’re judged by your spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

 

Last week, several authors’ Facebook posts took issue with grammar-shamers. They wanted to be judged by their online substance, not their delivery.

 

They’re missing the point.

 

If an error — of any kind — distracts a reader from your message, then you’ve failed to communicate clearly. Authors are judged by their written words. Once you put out your shingle as a professional, anything you write can be used as evidence: for you or against you.

 

The same day as the Facebook rant, I saw this post from professional writer Bob Hostetler: “I don't care how brilliant your meme is, if it contains poor grammar or a misspelled word, I can't like or share it.”

 

And this from publishing executive Dan Baker: “Job hunting tip: Applying for a position at a publishing house? Try very hard to submit a cover letter that's free of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.”

 

A few posts below Dan Baker’s was this (in ALL CAPS) from a novelist:

 

DONE - SENT NOVEL TO MY AGENT TONIGHT WITH ALL IT'S CHANGES - TIGHTENING - DEEPENING - STRENGTHENING- and a BIG DOSE OF SIGH-WORTHY ENDING - whew -
Now I GET to write two syonses for the next to stories in the trilogy.

 

I hope her agent likes the syonses — whatever those are.

Not convinced? Consider this from Julie Powell in Cleaving: A story of marriage, meat, and obsession.

“Many people will argue that email ... and instant messaging and all the rest of it have destroyed our capacity as a race for gracious communication. I disagree. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we’ve entered a new golden epistolary age. Which is another of the reasons I hardly ever use my phone as a phone. Why stammer into a headset when I can carefully compose a witty, thoughtful missive? With written words I can persuade, tease, seduce. My words are what make me desirable.” 

So We Have Another Time Change by Linda S. Glaz

And here we are. Sleepy, grouchy, and waiting breathlessly for a full pot of coffee. Daylight Savings has done it again. Our bodies scream what?!?, our minds are fogged for at least a week, our systems simply won’t do what we ask of them. 

Help!

I’m always looking for real things to add to my characters that will make them jump off the page. When I watch an action flick and see a guy who has been hospitalized while they stalk him, and then suddenly, he jumps up, pulls the IV from his arm, and is on the run once again, I groan. Reality? I think not.

So how do we make the character real while keeping tension flowing along with his red cells? And do it without cheating…

Take the opportunity to place your character in a situation that changes his body functions against his will. He might work out in a gym, eat healthy, and sleep exactly 8.2 hours a night. What can you do to throw off his normally healthy body?

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.

Now you have the nut that won’t fit the bolt. He can no longer function correctly despite his wholesome lifestyle. And you can use that to ramp up tension like nothing else.

Suddenly she looks for the opportunity to take a ten-minute power nap, she slogged through her morning while the bad guy gets a two-hour head start, she can’t make logical decisions on the fly.

You’ve given her a wonderful reason to lose the fight!

Are you constantly searching for unique ways to stop your character from winning?

Try the everyday, overlooked, wonderful choices at hand. Look to life.

Daylight Savings Time, anyone’s nemesis!

Salmon and Fields: A Journey in Mixed Metaphors by Jim Hart

It’s writer’s conference season, and soon there will be multitudes of writers coming home to start blogging as if their lives depended on it. It makes me think about salmon swimming upstream to spawn. All of these writers are in the same stream, struggling towards the same destination. And now the stream of the world-wide-web is full of authors who are building their platform, and are struggling to reach the same readers as all of the other authors in the same stream who are building their platform.

Rob Eagar’s marketing blog recently addressed something similar to this in what he calls ‘preventing sales burnout.’ He cited “publishers who try to sell more books to the same readers” as an example of sales burnout.  He says “modern-day farmers know that trying to harvest too many crops out of the same field creates negative consequences. Over-farming can extract too many nutrients from of the soil, eventually leaving a field barren and useless. To maintain a good harvest, farmers will rotate crops, let fields rest, or expand their acreage to prevent one area from burning out.”

So it may time for you to ask yourself if you're wearing out your current network, and how can you expand outside of your current network?

Blogging is still a great way to build, and maintain your platform, especially when used to collect subscriber’s e-mail addresses. But it has to be more than that if you want to engage those readers on a regular basis. You’ve got to offer not only something of value to your intended audience, but also something unique that blog readers may not be able to find elsewhere. If all you do is write about writing, and post it on Facebook, well – you run the risk of just being another salmon swimming upstream.

Here are two things to consider:

1) Blog in another field. Is there a hobby or skill that you are competent in, beyond writing books, in which you could write about? What have you learned, or experienced in some other area of your life that could be of real value, and a service? There could be an untapped community just waiting to hear from someone like you. Look for opportunities to be part of a new community and that will naturally add to your platform. 

Writers spend so much time in research - what interesting things have you uncovered that could be shared in a blog or other social media post?

Some other ideas would be: devotions, healthy living tips, recipes, crafts, social concerns, raising a family, vacation tips, life hacks, banjo lessons - tell your readers how-to, where-to and why-to.

2) Let the field rest. Try another different social media platform. If you’re starting to get burned out on Twitter and Facebook (can I get an “amen”), don’t give up on them or forsake them, but try something different like Pinterest, Goodreads, YouTube, or even pod-casting.

Or get out from behind the keyboard and take part in, or host, public events at your library, church, bookstore, or coffee house. The key is to have content or a presentation of value. This is a great way to connect on a personal level. Don’t worry that this could be just be local exposure, because someone in attendance could go home and post about the event on their Facebook page, gaining you exposure that you would not have gotten on your own.

So here's where we really mix our metaphors: Salmon can live in both salt water and fresh water. If they couldn't make the transition from the sea to the stream, there wouldn't be any more salmon. Learn to naturally navigate through different platforms and media. But like the salmon, and the farmers, you have to have a plan and a schedule.

You want new people (readers) to find you naturally without forcing them to wade through post after post on Facebook and Twitter encouraging them to “buy my new book”.  There definitely is a time and place for announcing your new title, or if your e-book is on sale for the next 48 hours, but that can’t be all you post, or you risk burning out your audience.

So work to increase your audience with people who discover you by reading something totally unrelated to your new book, or WIP. The beauty of this is now you’ve created an opportunity to hook a reader, and down the line, when you do need to announce your new book to the world, you can set the hook and reel ‘em in.

What have you done to expand you current on-line reach? Have you enjoyed blogging about topics unrelated to your writing endeavors?

The Trouble with Real Life by Diana Flegal

Truth is often stranger than fiction.

I have received countless promising submissions that I end up turning down for this reason; the character encountered a situation, and dealt with it in an unbelievable manner.

When questioning the writer about this part of their story they often tell me, “But it really happened like that!” I have no reason to doubt them. My own personal story holds many such incredible circumstances, but they would not come across as believable by any stretch of the imagination to a reader of fiction.

“It’s no wonder truth is stranger than fiction, fiction has to make sense.”― Mark Twain  

A writer must be willing to edit out the unbelievable. And for some, that feels like they are being untrue to themselves. But if their personal life experience brought them to a good story, it has served a grand purpose and the writer needs to be content with this.

Cardinal Rule: A good writer must keep their reader in mind.

“Sometimes the truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded”. – Batman-The Dark Knight

Remember: ALWAYS keep your reader in mind. And be willing to cut those unbelievable segments of your story out.

Here is a list of articles a Google search supplied on writing believable characters.

Read through a few when you have the time. There will certainly be a nugget or two here that might, when applied, strengthen and enrich your story and characters.    

And be encouraged, Spring is around the corner!

This Stinks. Publish It. by Andy Scheer

Being in print doesn’t mean it’s good.

A few weeks ago at a used bookstore, I bought a mass paperback by a “New York Times Bestselling Author.” I didn’t recognize the name, but the title and blurbs promised a story that fit my mood.

My mistake. From the first page, I found myself accosted by the litany of amateur techniques cited in courses for novelists.

I should know. For ten years I edited courses and mentored students for a legitimate writing school. The first fiction lesson advised immersing readers in the world of your story. He advised authors to avoid any device that reminded people, “you’re only reading a book.”

No matter how amazing the plot or imaginative the action, stories depend on the mortar of dialogue to hold their elements together.

That’s where so many newbie authors fail: not trusting readers to catch the meaning from the characters’ body language and their words. Rather than use a simple “she said,” they slather on telling descriptors and hyperactive action tags.

Then for fun, they add awkward characterization and backstory dumps. Here’s glimpse from page 20:

… Gathering up her notes, she left her office – only to encounter an unexpected face in the corridor.

“Matt!” she exclaimed. “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks!” replied Matt Trulli, giving her a hug. The spike-haired, slightly overweight Australian submarine designer had helped Nina on her previous adventures, risking his own life to do so, and on her recommendation had decided to accept a somewhat quieter job at one of the IHA’s sister agencies. Nina still wasn’t used to seeing him in suit, although he retained some vestiges of his old beach-bum look – today his shirt had three open buttons and his tie’s knot was about level with his heart. “You and Eddie just got given the keys to the country. Nice one.”

“Thanks. What’re you doing here? I thought you were in Australia with UNARA.” The United Nations Antarctic Research agency was gearing up to explore the unique ecosystems of the prehistoric lakes beneath the ice sheets of the South Pole.

(I assume Matt is a spike-haired slightly overweight Australian —not a designer of slightly overweight Australian submarines, but who cares.)

Beneath the clunky technique, there may be a fun story. But it’s not one I’ll try to excavate from the debris of clichés and amateur mistakes.

Some aspiring authors try to learn their craft from what’s in print. But what sells isn’t always the measure of what’s good. (Think of the nearby eatery that sells the most hamburgers, versus who makes the best burger.) This mass paperback, from a major publisher, was this author’s third title. And this book was in its fourth printing. The publisher was on to something.

The craft stunk. They published it anyway. People bought it.

But I won’t read it. Based on that sample, would you?

When the Canvas is Blank by Linda S. Glaz

What keeps writers going when they wake up, look at the monitor, and absolutely nothing is there? Like a blank canvas staring. Not a thing.

Some call it writers block, others…names I won’t repeat! But it means we suddenly have a disconnect when it comes to our work. Frustrating and oftentimes debilitating, to say the least, we have to find a way to push through it. To make the words come.

What would Van Gogh do?

I’ve asked this question of writers and the responses are as plentiful as the blocks: I grab for the coffee, dig in my desk for chocolate, take a walk, put the work away for a couple days, work on something else, go to a movie, read a book, EAT! 

In my own writing, I’ve found that I tend to make more of a glaring monitor than it deserves. I might be worrying about paying bills, grocery shopping, or any number of daily things that pre-occupy the mind. So I work on something else even if for a few minutes. Other days, I’ll simply push through it. Keep writing.

What do you do when the canvas is blank?

4:00 a.m. Writing by Andy Scheer

What do you do with a nighttime idea?

The wind woke me at 4:00, rattling the downspout outside our bedroom window. I tried my usual methods to get back to sleep. Then it happened: I got an idea for my writing.

Like an itch I couldn’t reach, the idea grew. Fresh examples and new sentences kept tumbling out. I didn’t want to loose them.

Would I still remember them when the alarm sounds?

Either I’d stay wide awake – mentally writing and editing – or I’d drift off, and at dawn the ideas would have faded.

Time for my standard solution. I reached the stack beneath my nightstand page-a-day calendar, found one of my favorite pens (a subject in itself), and slipped into the glow of a bathroom nightlight. A few minutes’ scribbling preserved the hook, opening sentence, and key examples. Enough that my mind could relax.

Not quite. Back in bed, ideas kept rushing though my brain. Again I checked the alarm: 4:30. This isn’t working.

I rolled out of bed and slipped on my glasses, ready to tiptoe downstairs.

“Are you going downstairs to read?” my wife said.

“No. To write.”

And I did.