08.01.10
Posted in Writing at 11:00 am by Administrator
Embarrassing but true; one of the biggest mistakes we all make when we first start writing is with our speech tags. There is the tendency to make our characters cry, yell, exclaim, retort, whisper, slur, snap or beg.
The truth is said can cover all these things and many more. The action surrounding the speech, or the punctuation used should be enough to indicate if something is a question or if it is said in anger. You do not need the fluff!
We learn pretty quickly that repeated words look weird on the page, and some can “sound” weird in the reader’s mind if repeated too closely on the page (or horror of horrors, in the same paragraph), but ‘said’ is a strangely invisible word. Just like the character’s name in a story, it is one of those words that the brain will happily skip over, no matter how often it is repeated.
If you don’t believe me pick up the book you are currently reading (unless you are reading ‘The Dummy’s Guide to Mulching’ or some other non-fiction book) and turn to a page of dialogue. Pay attention to the number of saids on the page. Stand out like dogs… bowls, eh? Imagine if the writer had highlighted all those tags by using words like ‘gasped’ or ‘chortled’ it would have looked a bit clunky!
So as much as it can kill you when you are starting out, drop the superfluous speech tags and go with said. Then you will also be able to more easily see all the places where you don’t actually need any speech tags at all. Trust me, your writing will be much stronger for it.
“And that’s all I have to say on that topic,” said Nat.
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07.28.10
Posted in Writing at 5:00 pm by Administrator
One of the options I mentioned in the previous post was self-publication. One of the cheapest and easiest ways of self-publishing is epublishing (online). But when is it right to shun traditional publishers and go it alone?
The fact is you need to ask yourself if there is a reason you work hasn’t been picked up by another publisher. Maybe there actually is something wrong with it? And if there is, then it needs to be fixed before it gets published! It can be hard to pick up when you have a problem with a story because writers tend to fall into two buckets; those who think everything they write is great, and those who think everything they write is crap. Many vacillate between the two, but never sit in the middle ground.
So the best way to work out if your work is ready to be self-published is to look at external feedback. This could be a writers group, it could be an editor who you pay to look at your work, or it could be ‘positive rejections’ from publishers. Believe it or not, sometimes publishers will say great things about your work, and then still reject it. If you have started getting those rejections, it might be time to consider epublishing.
I have to admit I fall into the group who believe you should exhaust all other options before self-publishing, but remember that other options include non-paying markets. While not always as competitive as the paying markets, they are still competitive, and that means only your good stories will be picked up. After all, you never know which story will be someone’s first exposure to your writing, so it is important that everything you have out there is the best that it can be, and that requires another set of eyes.
Happy writing!
Nat
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07.25.10
Posted in Writing at 12:08 pm by Administrator
The fact is you have three options for publication;
- Get others to publish your work
- Publish it yourself
- Don’t publish
Given that a lot of us are trying for the first option, it means those who do the publishing have a lot of options. A **LOT** of options. So when they put out a call for submissions (and even when they don’t) they have hundreds or thousands of pieces to choose from.
Most publishers will also insist on no multiple or simultaneous submissions (that is, you need to wait for them to reject/accept your story before you can submit another, and what you submit must not be on offer to any other publisher). This can mean your story can take years to do the rounds, and for a novel, double that.
The longest I’ve ever waited for a publisher to get back to me (not including those who just didn’t get back to me) is twelve months. Others in my writers group have waited two years. I wrote a virus story which I sent off to a magazine, six months before the movie ‘Outbreak’ was released. Suddenly my story got rejected saying it had already been done. Not six months earlier when I sent it! Grrrr.
I think all writers have at some point fantasised about the day when they can pick and choose their publisher, especially after a nine month wait with only a form letter rejection at the end. But the reality is, there are thousands of writers out there trying to get published. I actually heard a publisher once lament that there seemed to be more people writing books than reading them. So if you decided to hold a grudge against everyone who left you waiting too long, you would end up with the entire publishing community on your black list.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is the waiting game is part of the writing game, and it is probably this more than anything that sends so many people to ebooks as an alternative. But, to those of you who are currently going through this, take heart in fact that the length of your wait is not indicative of your chance at success. Some of my acceptances came in the same week I submitted them, while just as many others have taken well over three months. The key is keep writing, if you have lots of stories circulating, then the wait is not so obvious.
Happy writing!
Nat
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07.21.10
Posted in Writing at 9:38 pm by Administrator
Titles, they are one of the first things you notice about any story. So if your title doesn’t command attention you are at risk of losing a significant slice of the market before they have even read that crushingly great first line that you spent three months perfecting.
So what makes a good title? Obviously it must stand out, that goes without saying, but it also needs to be relevant. For example, I’m not going to mention anything about a crayon in this post, deadly or otherwise. Feel that flash of disappointment? You don’t want that to be someone’s reaction to your story.
I should point out, before you get too excited about the prospect of me giving you the formula for finding that perfect title, that I have a problem with titles. I have a novella with a working title of ‘science fiction story’ another is called ‘future story’ and a YA novel I’m 60,000 words into is called… ‘YA novel.’ Someone in my crit group recently subbed a first chapter of their book called ‘the New Novel’ so at least I know I’m not alone with this problem.
But bad-titleisis is not just an affliction of the unpublished. The following are examples of the author’s original title, as well as that which it was finally published under (or at least their English translations):
Something That Happened – Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
First Impressions – Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austin)
Men Who Hate Women – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
But perhaps my final word on titles will go to Dan Brown. He wrote an intriguing little story about the Catholic Church, and puzzles and death and stuff called Angels and Demons (ho hum). It sold less than 10,000 copies before the release of the next instalment; The Da Vinci Code. Now this title hinted at puzzles and intrigue, and has sold 81 million copies to date. I rest my case.
So don’t throw away your first and best chance to grab a reader. And don’t release a story called ‘Future Story’ –because I’ve got that one.
Nat
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07.11.10
Posted in Writing at 12:56 pm by Administrator
When investigating ‘how to get published’ one thing you are sure to come across is the advice to write for your audience. But until you have an audience, how do you know who your audience is? I write this blog each week, yet (with the exception of Nick who I grill every Monday to make sure he has read it) I have no idea who is reading it.
So who is reading? Some friends (maybe), some writers from my crit group, some people who were actually looking for ‘the novels of Natalie Hawthorne’ and a few people who have read one of my short stories and clicked on a link. And what demographic do all these people fall into… Human beings. That’s about as far down as I can narrow it.
So what does this mean for finding your audience? Well the fact is, for an unpublished author, the known audience is you! So write what you want to read, and let the audience find it. Your passion for the project will always shine through so much brighter if you love what you are writing. If you write what you think people want to read, your work will be the average of everything before it, and offer nothing new to the reader.
True, you could target a known audience in the hope of getting a ready-made following, for example; you write a novel about a boy wizard who is bitten and becomes a vampire. Just for the sake of it, let’s say your novel finds a publisher and sells well. Then you must write another book in the series, and another. No one is interested in the novels you actually want to write, just the boy-wizard-vampire books. Is that what you want? And remember we are ignoring the fact that right now there are probably over a thousand similar books trying to find homes with publishers.
Having said that, I wouldn’t suggest you purposely not write for a popular market, but if you do, ensure that you can fall in love with your story. You might spend a lot of time with these characters, they might pull you away from the other novels you want to finish, so make sure they are the characters you want to hang out with. If you are writing something you hate, you might as well stay in your day job.
Happy writing,
Nat
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07.04.10
Posted in Writing at 12:51 pm by Administrator
My quest to become a more tech-savvy writer has sent me in many directions this week, none of which were actually to the keyboard to write. But I have learned a lot about tweeting, blogging, commenting and following.
And this helps you how? Because now it is time to share what I have learned, to help build your online following;
- You need to blog at least twice a week. (My Freecell game will surely suffer).
- You need to keep posts under 500 words, unless about a technical subject where people need more in-depth information.
- Put your blog/twitter links in your email address signature. (Yes, seems blindingly obvious now eh?)
- Comment on other people’s blogs. (But try to make intelligent comments, you don’t want people going to your blog to see if you really are as silly as you seem)
- Edit your blog copy, edit it again, then put it away for a while and come back to it, and then edit it again. Only then is it ready to publish.
- Take time to write your post (at least an hour, but ideally over two).
- Include pictures, links and videos, but only when relevant. (So don’t post your cat pictures –unless they are doing something silly, but not cute, no one is interested in cute, but funny cat photos never get old. Or is that just me?)
- Use dot-points
I’m not sold on the last point, but I think it is wise to pay attention to those who have gone before me, so I included it. This list is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot of great information out there and you can be as active as you like in building your profile.
If you would like more advice on blogging specifically, or online writing in general, check out Copyblogger. While this was not my only source, I did find that I ate up huge chunks of writing time (and even a little work time) reading some of the articles.
So I guess from now on you will be seeing me mid-week. I’ll have to come up with a Wednesday theme… Any suggestions?
Happy writing!
Nat
Find me on Twitter @nataliejepotts
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06.27.10
Posted in Journal, Writing at 12:37 pm by Administrator
I don’t think there is such a thing as shameless self-promotion for anyone who is serious about selling anything to the public. In a world of tweets, Facebook updates and iEverything it is only with self-promotion that you can hope to stand out from a very noisy crowd. The days of being the reclusive writer who never ventures out are gone. Now you need to understand and leverage off media other than just books or even traditional print.
Here is a great example of what I am talking about:
This is a book that is being released on July 1st by Kirstyn McDermott from my writers group. I love this idea of a movie-like trailer for a book, and had already scripted one for my own book Paragon (yet to be picked up, so if you are in the market for a post-apocalyptic YA novel, please contact me). Little did I know that people had already carved out careers creating these things!
So now for a little self promotion of my own… I have just opened a twitter account, so if you would like to follow me, please just look for ‘nataliejepotts’ and I promise I won’t tell you when I’m getting myself a coffee or going to bed. It will be writing stuff only!
On the writing front; I have a short story in Aphelion (June/July edition), so read it here for free until mid next month. I also have a flash fiction piece coming out in the Short & Twisted anthology – volume 3, being launched today.
So, now all I have to do is finish building my new website, learn how to eBook my novels and create my book video for YouTube. Hmm I’d better get moving if I want to have something to show you by next week!
Happy writing,
Nat
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06.20.10
Posted in Writing at 10:06 pm by Administrator
A few weeks ago I talked about the importance of keeping your eye open for accidental homonyms, but I realised that piece of advice was really most important for those of you who want to get published. What about those of you who are just interested in getting started in writing?
Well for you I would like to pass on this piece of advice, perhaps the number one golden rule for writing; give yourself permission to write crap. Yes, you read that correctly. The most important thing about writing is… writing. So if you want to write, then you need to… (you guessed it) write. Getting words on the page is the only thing that will make you a writer, and it is the only thing that will get your story finished.
If you start editing and labouring over getting the perfect turn of phrase from line one, after several hours of ‘writing’ you might find yourself with one lovely paragraph and not much more. To make matters even worse, the next day when you look at that previously perfect paragraph, you will see that it is very overwritten, you will hate it, and spend your next night’s writing trying to fix it up.
Even if you do still love that paragraph, a perfect paragraph does not tell the story (unless you are writing flash fiction). You will still have a long way to go and will more than likely burn out before you get to the end.
If you give yourself permission to write badly, then you can concentrate on getting the story out of your head and onto the page where it belongs. Only once it is finished should you go back and start your edit, and let me stress here that you SHOULD go back and edit your work.
So I guess really there are two golden rules here; give yourself permission to write badly, and never send off a first draft! Editing can be tedious and frustrating, but it is also necessary if you are serious about making your writing the best that it can be.
By the way, my ‘fear’ that I faced this week was signing up for my new web hosting service. So now I’m committed to my new website, very exciting!
Nat
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06.06.10
Posted in Writing at 11:19 am by Administrator
Yes, it sounds like something that would be said by a member of the generation that were given participation awards at school, but I can assure you that I’m firmly in the Gen X category where the ribbons only went down to third place and sometimes a wooden spoon was handed out for coming last so you had a memento of your humiliation. However the statement about great writers is true. But perhaps I do need to tack a little bit on to the end of that… All writers are great to someone.
I am amazed at how often I can be glowingly recommended a book which I cannot force myself to finish, likewise a book I love is slagged by others. It is uncanny how often a writer taps into the global ‘love’ list while also squeezing themselves into the dreaded (but apparently profitable) ‘hate’ list as well (Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer, anyone who has a number 1 bestseller basically).
So what am I saying? That you don’t need to try, someone will love the words you chuck together? NO! What I’m saying is that if you love your stories, then others will too, just not everyone. Rejections will come, people will slag and stories will be placed forever in the bottom drawer… But someone will love your work, someone will want to publish your work and someone will silently thank you for inventing a story that resonated on such a personal level with them. It might just take time. After all, there must be some truth to the oft’ quoted saying (attributed to so many people that I just had to pick one from a long list):
“There is a word for a writer who never gives up; published.”
– J. A. Konrath
Finally, love her or hate her, I think J. K. Rowling wrote some great books and here is a commencement speech she gave at Harvard University in 2008. If you haven’t seen it I think it is well worth watching:
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05.30.10
Posted in Writing at 6:37 pm by Administrator
May has been a month of deadlines. One of these deadlines was for a novel development program, open to any genre. Keen to get advice from other writers and editors about how to write a better book, the first decision I had to make was which partially written novel to submit.
This was a bigger challenge than you might expect given how many novels I have started over recent years. I kid you not, I have six novels actively on the go right now. They are in different genres, aimed at different readers, written in very different styles. The one thing they do have in common is that they all stop after the fifth chapter. Why? Because for me, that is when it really starts to feel like a novel and I begin to fall in love with it. So naturally I become terrified that I’m going to stuff the rest up and will find any excuse not to go back to it.
I have long known of this is a particular affliction of mine, and I have read other blogs by other writers who have similar problems, but at different parts of the book. But gratefully for this novel development program I could ignore the bits past chapter five and just pull together the first few chapters for my submission.
Here was my surprise. The first five chapters weren’t great. In fact the first five chapters weren’t even good. They were actually crap. I had spent three years avoiding this book because I loved it so much that I didn’t want to bugger it up, and it turns out that by neglecting it that was exactly what I had done.
What was meant to be just a weekend of work turned into about 25 hours of re-writes and hard edits to get my chapters up to scratch in time for posting on Friday. But what’s even better is that I’m raring to go on chapter six and beyond! So even if the development program doesn’t come through for me, at least I now stand a chance of finishing this book!
So now I guess I have nothing to worry about… Until I hit the curse of the ¾ mark –where you become convinced that your novel is crap. But we’ll cover that in another blog.
Happy Writing!
Nat
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