Ten Ways to Write Like a Beginner by Guest Blogger Marsha Hubler

TEN WAYS TO WRITE LIKE A BEGINNER

Let’s see, you’ve had this great idea for umpteen years, and now you’re going to start writing! Or maybe you’ve been writing for a while and you’d like to get your story or book published. Will you be labeled a beginner or an old pro when the agent or publisher looks at your work?


If you can say “yep” to any of the points below, all I can say is “uh oh.”
Go ahead; let’s see how you do:

1. Never read any books in the genre in which you write. You don’t want to steal another author’s ideas.
2. Write when you feel like it, even if the radio or TV is blasting.
3. For your first project, write the next 'Great American Novel' with plots, subplots, foreshadowing, & complicated characters.
4. Start your fiction manuscript with 5 pages of narration and description from 5 points of view. Have 600 pages in your book.
5. Develop a boring plot with no climax, characters with no depth, & dialogue that is flat & the same for all your characters.
6. Don’t get help from a critique group, “how-to-write” books, or writers’ conferences because God told you what to write & how to write it.
7. Send your manuscript everywhere without querying first. Buy the Writers’
Market Guide, start on page 1, and don’t stop until you get a sale!
8. Write query letters that are “you.” Smother them in chocolate or perfume smells and write: “Dear Editor, this is your lucky day. My family has read this, and they absolutely love it.”
9. Send your first draft to a different editor once every six months; then go into deep depression when it’s rejected.
10. Ignore all suggestions any editors or agents make. The manuscript just wouldn’t be “your” work anymore.

If a lot of these pertained to your writing style, perhaps you should take up basket weaving or bowling instead!

Thank you Marsha for this humorous look at the writing life. Please stop by and visit Marsha at the following links.

www.marshahubler.com
www.susquehannavalleywritersworkshop.wordpress.com
www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

God's Publishing Efforts by Guest Blogger Sharon Elliott

Sharon's blog can be read daily at www.sanewriter@wordpress.com

All authors have one ultimate goal in mind – to be published. After all, that’s why we are writing. We actually think other people want to know, and indeed need to hear, what we have to say. We attend writers’ retreats to get tuned in to God’s voice, and we pack ourselves off to writers’ conferences with proposals in hand, seeking the appropriate publisher (or at least a willing one) for our words. We’re concerned about things like capturing our voice on the page, writing tight, weaving humor into serious subjects, and showing not telling. Then once we release our work to the world, we turn our attention to marketing and getting the word out there about our books so people can get the message in their hands and hearts. We pray they understand the takeaway – the main point we are trying to convey.

As an author Himself, God is concerned about these very same things. He was the Ghostwriter for the best-seller of all times, but the published works He continues to produce – those with His personal name on the cover – tend to need more of His hands-on marketing efforts. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (NKJ). That word “workmanship” is poiema in Greek and it literally means “a product, fabric, and thing that is made.” It’s the word from which we get our English word “poem.” In other words, we are literally God’s poem which He is trying to publish and market.

When God reads back over His poem that is you today, has He captured His voice on the page? Can He see that He’s written a tight, easy-to-comprehend message? Does His joy burst through even in these serious times? Has He accomplished the show-don’t-tell goal in you because you are living what He has penned in your heart?

As the personally authored work of His hands, what’s the takeaway people remember when they read you?

Thank you Sharon for once more offering our readers a timely, life changing word.

Reader, please stop by Sharon's blog for daily inspiration for your writers journey.

Diana

Interview with Linda Rondeau- Creator of Pentalk- an online community of writers

With authors seeking more ways to network and share information, diverse creative sites pop up. I would like to share one that is relatively new, created by author Linda Rondeau titled, Pentalk.

Linda , Thank you for being with us today. Can you share with our readers today just what Pentalk is and where you came up with the idea for it.

I noticed that there are myriad writing groups for various genres, beliefs, and age groups. The Lord seemed to ask me if I would start a writing group that would encompass all genres, ages, and belief systems, an arena where Christians could exemplify Christ as they worked together with other writers who may not be believers.

How has it's Growth been and the response on FB to it.

From an initial small group page, Pentalk now consists of a Facebook Community Page of over 200 members, a Facebook networking page of 121, a Yahoo group page for non-Facebook members and a blog, currently with 84 followers, some through Google and others through Facebook. We have a steering committee of four individuals in addition to myself. Carol McClain and Dale Langlois manage the author interviews, Carol Moncado is the editor-in-chief for the blog. Dan Waltz manages our book cover album in addition to art consultation.

Have you had to make any changes to it since you first began?

The group evolved through the needs of its members. Some wanted more than simply a "chat" forum. The community page offers a more professional setting and can be joined by simply "liking" the page. We soon learned that members wanted information and education so we formed the blog. We also wanted to have a communication avenue for non-facebook users. Pentalk is for and about writing by writers. We are committed to helping one another as writers. This includes sharing our blogs, giving encouragement, and posting our celebrations.

Pentalk Community Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pentalk/177705922240597?ref=ts

Pentalk Group (facebook) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_138295856220115&ref=ts

Pentalk Community Blog: http://pentalkcommunity.blogspot.com/

Pentalk Community (Yahoo Groups): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pentalkcommunity/

For more information, contact Linda Rondeau (lrondeau@westelcom.com).

Thank you Linda for sharing with us today.
Please stop by and avail yourself of the terrific resources and advice on Pentalk.
Happy Spring to all,
Diana

For the Love of Words by Diana

I Love Words. Like many of you I read everything. Toothpaste tubes, Cereal boxes and passing buses with their quirky signs. Words have gladdened my heart during times of sadness,inspired me to reach toward new enterprises as well as filled me with inexpressible worship for my God.

This morning I got up early and settled in with a book I have been reading. It is a self help title and has been another fortuitous read I came across by accident. In a used book store. Just what I needed to read at this time in my life.

God is Good, All the Time.

Amongst it's helpful pages this morning was a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson.

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at hand, the path just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life."

Do the thing at hand. That has been a word I have been meditating on the past few months. When our paths are not so clear before us, do the thing at hand.

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on thine own understanding and He will direct your path."
Proverbs 3:5

What wonderful words to meditate on today.

May they be an inspiration to you as they have been to me.

Feel free to share a short word that came to you recently through a book, a friend or a blog.

Spring blessings,

Diana