Manuscript Rejection 101

A Week of Writing Tips

> My question is - do you think it's worth pursuing the epublishing route

> with this first novel or should I just file it and move on?

Before you do either, I think you should consider some things first.
1) Has this novel been through a crit group (comprised of writers, not family members)? Been revised then through another round of crits? Have you worked though books like Alicia Rasley's THE STORY WITHIN or Margie Lawson's lecture series?

2) Has this novel been entered in a first chapter and a first three chapters contest? Some mss in contests are like putting a square peg in a round hole, but most mss can get valuable feedback from a contest. Did you begin too so or too late? Are your leads GMCs clear or clear enough? Do you show more than tell? Is your narration and dialogue balanced? Do you show character emotions through body language, facial expression, inner body response, physical actions, sensory details, tone of voice, dialogue, silence, and internalization? Or do you rely too much on internalization to show mood? Are your leads likeable and compelling? Does your syno clearly show the external plot and romantic plot progression?

Yes, bad judges do exist. But on a whole, judging feedback (like crits) can give you fresh insight into what works and doesn't work in your story.
Stephie Smith has a great list of upcoming contests.
http://www.stephiesmith.com/contests.html

3) To let one rejection influnce your ms's future gives too much power to that rejection. Editors' likes vary. Same with agents. Persistence is key into finding the right match. And one R does not a bad novel make.

Perhaps your story just needs more layers. Don't file away any manuscript based on one or few rejections...unless the ms doesn't mean much to you. See #1 craft help suggestions.
4) Take a break from ms #1 and read or re-read a good book or two on the craft of writing. Some of my favorites are FICTION FIRST AID by Raymond Obstfeld, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass, YOU CAN WRITE A ROMANCE by Rita Clay Estrada, and SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Browne and King.

Alicia Rasley's Writers' Corner is an excellent online source for writing tips. Her archived articles of the month are some of the best and easiest to understand. And on Charlotte Dillon's website, she has several craft of writing links. Or head over to the Seekers blog (http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/).

Sharpen your mind and either start a new ms whils saving ms #1 for later or go back to ms #1 and revise.
5) The e-pub route is a possibility, but is it a possibility because you think e-pubs are for books that aren't good enough for print publishers?

Some e-pubs and e-pubbed stories...well, their badness can speak for them. But good e-pubs and good e-pubbed stories exist. The growing popularity of digital publishing is INSANE and AWESOME.

However, I think before you consider the e-pub route, you ought to consider #1-#4 first, and if you are still pleased with your story, then go for it!
What was most helpful revision advice you've received?

Happy writing!

-LY Adverbs: Toxic or Trendy

A Week of Writing Tips

> Can someone give me a quick definition as to why -ly words are often

> flagged? Is it because they 'tell' instead of 'show'?

Uggh, quick and me don't mesh, sorry. One of my favorite books is WORD PAINTING: A GUIDE TO WRITING MORE DESCIPTIVELY by Rebecca McClanahan.

Why write "walked seductively" or "said softly" when you can write "slinked/vamped" and "whispered/murmured"? McClanahan also says, "Adverbs like *closely* sneak up on us, and before we know it, we're writing phrases like 'ravishingly stunning' or 'hurrying quickly.'"

Why allow your car to break down in Redundancyville?

High octane words, please, and fill the tank.

Besides -ly words, we're often guilty of adding modifiers/amplifiers, like *very, extremely*, and *quite*. Suzy was very beautiful. Joe was quite handsome. What do *very* and *quite* to the visual image the reader receives? Concrete details paint the picture. Suzy had a Julia Roberts smile. Yes, a little cliched there, but you know the smile.

I'm not saying never use adverbs.

Sometimes they fit.

Into the earthy bed, Joe gently laid the puppy. Slowly, diligently, lovingly, he covered the body with a blanket of dirt. His children wept. He wept. The sun would come up tomorrow, but, right now, this was the worst day of his life.

Just remember that when you limit your use of adverbs, when you do use one, it's impact is greater. Let it create a mood, paint a picture.

Care to share a paragraph from your manuscript where you fittingly used an adverb or few?
Enjoy writing!

Writer's Block is not a real Disease or Excuse

A Week of Writing Tips

> You see, I sit and write something and it seems great. I've got a real
> feel for what I'm writing, but then I come back to it and it seems kinda flat.

Oooh, flat. Bummer. First of all, tell yourself you aren't the first  person to have writer's block. Second, don't fight your picky critic. Be patient and listen.

I've had writer's block because of my inner critic. I've had writer's block becaused I am tired and need a break. Nothing comes out of the pot when the pot is empty. A help I've found is reading a new writing book, especially one that has examples of good writing or reading a fiction outside my genre. Another help is critting other writer's work.

When was the last time you read a novel written by a man? Or a classic? A thriller, a mystery, a horror story? Romance writers who only read romances limit their mind from growing, from creating new scenarios.

According to *Fiction First-Aid* by Raymond Obstfeld,vyou have a several options to getting out of the rut. (I wish I were the brainiac he is, but, alas, I'm not.)

1. Change the name of an important character.

It could give you an added perspective to his/her personality. A boy named Orlando doesn't invite the same curiosity as a boy named Sue (nothing against hot guys named Orlando). Han Solo tells you more about the man than Han Sarasota would.
I did this with my medieval for both the hero and heroine, and, boy oh boy, did it change my perspective of and insight into them.


2. Add a new character trait or detail.

If your character's action isn't believable, then perhaps she's not the person you've so far defined her as. I watched Freaky Friday last night with my kids. Switched minds aside, the mom's new clothes and funky hairstyle changed how other people reacted to her. Oh, and think about the movie Legally Blonde. What would she be like without her mini-dog and her obsession with pink? And later in LB2:RWB, her dog played a major role into the solution of the conflict.

3. Change the setting.

Is the argument with the hero in a bar, a bedroom, a kitchen? What about changing it to someplace different? The library? In a lingere store? Or what about big picture? Perhaps your setting in Houston, TX is lackluster because you live in Houston, TX. What about moving the story to Myrtle Beach, SC? Granted you'd have to do some research into Myrtle Beach, but who knows what you might discover that could add the needed insipration. Did you know there are 150+ golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area (some just miniture golf, but still)?

And for every golf course, there's a gentlemen's club. And the Pacific NW has the highest rate of suicides because of the dreary weather. How does your setting affect your character's moods? Do you need a hurricane to hit?

Granted, any and all of those options would require a bit of revision, maybe a ton of revision. But wouldn't it be worth the extra work if it transforms your stalled story into a best-seller? Give yourself permission, as long as you don't have a publisher deadline, to take more than three months to write a story.

Oh, as far as why I don't think you should ignore your picky critic?

Well, it's telling you something is wrong. Perhaps you have a hole in your plot or inconsistent characters or not high enough stakes or pointless setting or weak dialogue or contrived conflict. With one of my manuscripts, I got stuck on chpt 9. With my crit partner's help, I figured out the solution meant going back to chpt one. I now have a whole new thread that affects chpts 1-9, but that irritating revision only makes my story stronger, my character's motivations more believable, and my plot more detailed yet easier to understand.

When you had "writer's block" last, how did you cure yourself?

Happy writing!

Deep POV and Introspection: A writer's friends or frenemies?

A Week of Writing Tips

I once had a crit partner who wrote pages and pages of introspection. Her heroine was constantly thinking....about EVERYTHING. Shoot, she'd think about what she was thinking about.

At the time I was in a writing group with HQN author Shirley Jump. Being the quasi-bold person I am, I petitioned Shirley for help with a topic I myself couldn't really explain.

Here's her answer:

A good book is like an onion :-) And a good character is like an onion. None of us have that many thoughts running through our head and heck, if we did, we'd be in Bellevue. If you dump too much on your reader too much, you are exposing too much, risk boring your reader and leaving nothing for the reader to discover.

Yes, deep third person does delve into the character's POV. However, regardless of the POV you use, a GOOD book moves forward, with rising stakes and an active character. You can't have that if you have too many thoughts dragging, as you said, the pacing down.

You know how readers make their decision on what book to buy? Besides the cover, they look at the white space inside. Too little of that and they think, OMG, it's another Charles Dickens (and we all remember the horror stories of ninth grade English and reading Great Expectations). And they put it back. Editors think the same thing. Too little white space, they groan and move on to the fast-paced one.

When you dump too much of your character on the page, you are flooding the reader and overloading her senses. She's going to back away. When you peel a layer back scene by scene, chapter by chapter, you are INTRIGUING the reader and asking her to read more. You can do this with Deep POV (Suz Brockmann does it marvelously).

Another trick I learned from the late Cheryl Anne Porter was to act out the scene. She had us all get up in a room one time during a gunfight and had a character doing this long thinking thing. The characters are shooting and then one guy starts thinking "Oh, back on the farm, he had once loved Rose, but she hadn't returned his affections..." and goes on and on.

What's happening to all those gunfighters? They are FROZEN. No action is happening and the whole book is frozen because poor old Clevis is reminiscing about Rose, who's toting a .22 beside him. Same thing happens with the pizza guy example. This guy is standing there, looking at the woman who is mooning over him and running through all these thoughts (time it by standing there to see what I mean) and thinking "this lady's nuts!"

It freezes everything and makes everyone look crazy.

So that's my advice...I do the acting out thing ALL the time to see how long I'm tying up the action with thoughts. Nine times out of ten, the thoughts get cut back and the action propels my story forward instead.

That's, of course, the old axiom of showing. Not telling :-) It's not about voice or style (heck, I do deep 3rd person myself), it's about creating a GOOD BOOK that readers will love.

~*~
 
Does your writing then to be introspection heavy or light? Why? Do you have any tips to help a writer learn to balance narration and introspection?
 
Happy Writing!