Overcoming Disappointment: Contests

• Sunday night I watched the season finale for Celebrity Apprentice. Sixteen proven celebrities, from the very well known to the lesser lights, competed for the opportunity to win money for charity. Fifteen proven winners turned into "losers" over the course of several weeks. In the end, Donald Trump chose Brett Michael as the winner.
  
  Any time we enter a contest, numbers predict we will lose. Yet it's always hard.
  
  One of the big contests for Christian writers, the Genesis contest for unpublished novelists sponsored by American Christian Fiction Writers, announced finalists a few weeks ago. My local ACFW chapter had finalists last year and this; it makes me proud to be a part of such a great team!
  
  (And speaking of finalists, Sandi Rog of Book Doctor was a finalist last year!)
  
  But five finalists per genre leaves scores of people who received no satisfaction from the contest beyond a score sheet with comments from judges. It hurts not to win.
  It's excruciating to receive comments that suggest you made a mistake to try.
  
  So that's the question I'm addressing today: What can you do with the not-so-good and downright-awful comments you received?
  
  Here are some tried-and-true ways I've discovered for turning disappointments into positives.
  
• Do nothing for as long as it takes to gain perspective. When I first receive a response from an editor, I zero in on one statement, good or bad; I rarely get the true gist of their comments upon first reading. So, let it set before you take it out again.
• Congratulate yourself for entering! You took a leap of faith.
• Consider that contest entry fee as a paid critique.
• Now go back to the comments.
• What was your score? Anything over 50% says you got more right than you did wrong. As agent Terry Burns told our OCFW group on Saturday, "A lot of people write good books. You need to write an excellent book." You may be (probably are) in the good-but-not-yet-excellent category.
• Don't let negative comments outweigh the positive. Put the positive comments in a "warm fuzzies" file. "She said I wrote natural-sounding dialogue." Breathe it in. Accept it. Give yourself peptalks: I can write great dialogue!
• As for the comments, if all of the judges make the same comment or give you the same low score, there's a problem.
• If only one judge makes a comment, take it or leave it.
• If 2 judges agree? Something about it isn't working. Look, then look again.
• The judges' comments may suggest they don't understand what you were trying to say. The problem isn't their understanding--the problem is with your communication. Is it a regional expression? Can the character's words or gestures be interpreted more than one way?
• Dig into your resources to develop your weak areas.

Above all--need I say it?--keep on writing!

Put Your Reader to Sleep

Yes, you read the title correctly. Put your reader to sleep. Okay, maybe not completely to sleep, but at least allow them to dream. What does dreaming have to do with writing? Everything. The dream I’m referring to is the fictional dream. If you’ve never heard the term before, don’t worry. I guarantee you know what I’m talking about. I think author, John Gardner says it best. “What counts in conventional fiction must be the vividness and continuity of the fictional dream the words set off in the reader’s mind.”

A fictional dream occurs when the world in the story you’re reading becomes more real than the physical world around you. We’ve all be there at one time or another—transported into another time or another place by an author’s well crafted words.

This experience is one that we try to create for our readers. And it’s one of the biggest differences between a good book and a great one. So how do we create this dream world? We do it by paying attention. Notice where you are right now. Are there sounds? Smells? Even if you’re not overwhelmed by your setting I bet you’re aware of it. The same thing is true for our characters. If we neglect those details, we deny our readers the chance to be transported.

Even more important than what we do to put our readers to sleep is what we DON’T do. I think writers are far more often guilty of waking a reader up. We, as the author, have an obligation to not jolt our readers out of their dream world. So what are some things we do that interrupt pleasant dreams?

• Bad Grammar—I’m not talking about a missed comma or two. I’m referring to sentence structure that’s difficult to read, modifiers that modify the wrong thing or even complicated punctuation. All of these things can cause a reader to stop and ponder what you’re trying to say. Once they stop you’ve lost them, they’re awake.
• Confusing Dialogue—This can include things like long sections of dialogue with no speaker tags or beats. If the reader has to go back and figure out who’s speaking it means you’ve either not put in enough tags or your characters don’t have unique enough voices to be identified. One word of caution, overuse of ‘said’ instead of interspersing with speaker beats can be just as jarring.
• Creative Speaker Tags—Anytime you use a speaker tag other than said or maybe asked you run the risk of making your reader stop. The word said is so common place in literature that it’s almost invisible. The reader skims lightly over it, uninterrupted. If, on the other hand, you pull out your thesaurus and try to find other words to use in its place you end up with jarring prose that tells the story through speaker tags instead of dialogue.
• Characters who don’t act right—I’m not referring to moral actions. We’ve all read stories where a character does something and we find ourselves shaking our heads. Know your characters well enough to keep them from acting out of character.
• Overwriting a dialect—I’m not against allowing your character to speak with an accent or in a dialect, but be careful how you do it. When the character is first introduced you can use a heavier hand with the spellings that denote dialect, such as learnin’ instead of learning. But after the reader gets to know the character they can hear the character speaking in their head and you don’t have to use spelling to convey their voice. In fact, if the reader has to work too hard to decipher your intent they will never even make it into the fictional dream.
• Head Hopping—This is when you switch POV (point of view) from one character to another without a good reason. The rule of thumb is that each scene should have a single POV character and that should be the character with the most at stake.

The storyteller who can invite the reader into his world and make him believe it's real has captured the essence of what it means to be a great writer.

Perseverance

Friday I completed a monumental task: I completed the rough draft of the longest book I've ever written. All writing is work, but this particular story has felt like a spell in a Siberian labor camp.

Different things made it difficult. Do any of these sound familiar?

• Self doubt
• Lack of focus
• Lack of plot direction
• Risk

If you're a writer, you've experienced at least one of those roadblocks in your work. What sets most published writers from pre-pubbed can be summed up in one word: perseverance. As Thomas Edison said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent persperation."

What keeps you going when you're ready to give up? Some things that helped me reach my goal:

• Trusting this is God's work--not my skill
• Work on one project at a time (kudos to those who can do more!). Use those between-book lags to to benefit.
• Work and rework the plot and characters until they work
• Accept risk as a consequence of growth

Whatever happens with this story (an editor requested the full manuscript)--I have succeeded in pushing past my fears.

Do you have a project that you're ready to abandon? What makes you feel that way? What can you do differently to finish it and move on?

Note: Stop by and leave a comment on my blog darlenefranklinwrites@blogspot.com for a chance to win one of my books and a couple of other featured books.

Make Your Settings Count

The writing world is cyclic, just like everything else. Right now, the cautionary phrase on the tip of every critique partner’s tongue is show don’t tell. They’re right, of course. Showing draws the reader deeper into the story, and adds an immediacy to the reading experience. But many well-meaning crit partners often label narrative or exposition as telling.

Narrative is an integral tool that a writer uses to make the scenes come alive. Without good narrative the story isn’t grounded. So how do we make our settings come alive? We let the reader view the story’s settings through the filter of the POV character’s emotions, experiences and beliefs. Look at the examples below to see what I’m talking about.

Example 1
Catherine looked at her lovely childhood home. She saw the horribly neglected yard and remembered a happier time. Her feelings of despair almost overwhelmed her. She knew she would find a way to get through the next few weeks, but it wouldn’t be very easy.

In this example the setting is described in a cold and distant way. When I first began writing, I thought this example was good writing. It is good—but it could be great. Watch what happens when we delve into Catherine’s emotions and experiences

Example 2
Catherine peered out the car window at a past she never thought to face. Overgrown trees and bushes loomed down at her as she got out. She explored the once happy yard, games of tag and kick-the-can echoing in her mind. The familiar bench, half hidden by an overgrown wisteria bush, beckoned with promises of rest and peace. She shook her head. Peace would be hard to find without Tom beside her. How would she get through the days to come? A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. She could almost hear Tom’s voice, “Work, my dear, it keeps the hands busy and the memories at bay.”

Do you see the difference? When we look at the setting through more than just Catherine’s vision it comes alive and resonates with the reader.

There are some things we can do to insure this kind of depth to our settings.

• Utilize the five senses. This will add depth to the scene.
• Tie the setting to a dream or a memory.
• Focus on the emotions your POV character is feeling and let that color how she sees her surroundings.

So next time you start to describe the setting in your story, slow down, take a good look at what your character is seeing and feeling. Then let the reader experience the setting through the character’s senses and emotions.

Please welcome Edie Melson, our new Book Doctor

We're excited to introduce our new book doctor, Edie Melson!

Edie, thank you for joining us and being willing to donate your time to help writers improve their craft.

***

Edie Melson is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for life’s stories. She loves to share her 16+ years experience in the field of writing through mentoring and teaching others. She began as a technical writer in the 80’s and quickly moved into freelance writing, a perfect fit for someone who loves new challenges. Numerous articles and devotions, including those for Focus on the Family, Crosswalk.com, Christiandevotions.us, Inspiredmoms.com as well as Bible studies have flowed from her pen to her audience.

She also has a thriving copy writing business with multiple clients and teaches others how to write for the internet with an emphasis on SEO/keyword formatting. She began sharing her knowledge of the writing industry with other writers in 2001, by starting a local writer’s group, The Christian Writer’s Den, with colleague, Vonda Skelton. They have also co-directed and taught an annual writer’s retreat since 2002 and are members of a weekly, fiction writers critique group. From March of 2009 through March 2010 she worked as Managing Editor for Centered Magazine. She has a popular writing blog, www.thewriteconversation.blogspot.com.

She’s a member of several professional writing organizations, including The Christian Pen, The Christian Writer’s View I and ACFW, where she serves as the Editor for the Southeast Zone Newsletter and staff reviewer for Afictionado Magazine. Married 29 years to husband, Kirk, they have raised three sons.

Please welcome Edie, everyone. We're so happy she can join us!

Researching Publishers

What publisher are you targeting?

The first time I heard that question, my reaction was “Anyone who wants my book!” I suspect several of you feel the same way. We’ve all heard the stories of authors like Frank Baum and Madeleine L’Engle who received dozens of rejections before finding a publisher. They obviously didn’t write for a specific publisher.

Two thoughts: As a writer, I’m not in the same class as Baum and L’Engle.

Second thought: To quote an old adage, if you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it.

As authors, we’re supposed to know our audience. We also should know our publisher. But how?

Ideally, we have a publisher (or a “short list” of potential publishers) in mind before we begin writing. Let’s start with some easy differences between publishers: Length? 1st or 3rd person? Number of POV characters? Genre? Flipping through a few books from that publisher and studying the market guide will answer most of those questions.

Once you’ve identified a publisher that you believe might work, the hardest work lies ahead of you: read their books. If the publisher has a book club, subscribe for several months up to a year. . .and read all the books. If they don’t, obtain several books by different authors in your genre. What feeling do you get for style, conflicts, characters? If you write angst-ridden fiction and the publisher focuses on light-hearted romance, your story probably won’t fit. When reading, pay as much attention to the publisher as you do to the author.

Once you’ve read enough from a particular publisher, you get a sense of what they are looking for in a manuscript. For instance, what sets apart Barbour’s Heartsong Presents, Harlequin’s Love Inspired/Historical/Suspense, and Summerside’s Love Finds You from each other? How has each publisher distinguished itself from the other and found a thriving market in their overlapping genres? The answers may surprise you.

The same basic story might fit any of those publishers, but you will have a better chance of selling it if you tweak your story for their specific audience.

I read Heartsong books for years before I made my first sale. I have yet to sign on the dotted line with any publisher other than Barbour, but I am getting close. Within the past year, several publishers I have studied extensively have asked for manuscripts. One has even penciled me in for 2012. So I’m a living testimony to the fact it works.

Have you ever experienced this yourself? Let us learn from each other.

How to Define Foreign Words in Prose

If you decide to put foreign words in your fiction, it's best to italicize it the first time, but after that, leave it alone/don't italicize it.

When defining the foreign words in our prose, it's best not to stop everything for the definition.

Here's an example of what not to do:

He swung the parma. A short curved sword.

It's obvious that the writer it "telling" us what a "parma" is. Blaaack! All this does is remind our readers that they're "reading," pulling them out of the story by creating a speed bump.

Here's how to do it instead. The following keeps the story moving forward and doesn't stop the action.

He swung the parma, the short curved sword sliced into the enemy's armor.

See how we've defined the word "parma" without stopping the pace, without holding up the action? I love it when writers do this!

In the following example we have a Native American boy who is half white, speaking/thinking in Cheyenne.

He tied the knot fast and rubbed his hand along the soft fur. The skins would make a good muff for Grandmother this winter. He’d seen many white women wear them; they looked warm and his heveškemo deserved the best.

Notice here how we define the word "Grandmother" in the last line of the text.

Here's more:

He could still feel Mamma's hand in his. Could feel her letting go as the soldiers pulled her away. Could feel her stola ripping as he clutched it. All he had left was the shredded fabric from her dress still in his hand.

Here we know that stola means dress.

Another:

Titus ordered the new slaves to stand in the center of the atrium next to the impluvium. David ran his hand along the smooth edge of the large marble fountain that collected rainwater from an opening in the roof.

And another:

After the slaves were led away, and she was safe from being seen by Grandfather, she crept into the tablinum. She slipped through the heavy crimson curtain and into the small room between the atrium and the indoor courtyard.

She held her breath when she saw Grandmother and Aunt Fabia kneeling before the shrine. Usually they prayed in the morning.

Notice here how tablinum is defined in two paragraphs. The first by saying it's a small room between the atrium and the indoor courtyard. The second by showing what it's being used for: they're kneeling before the shrine. So, the reader sees that it's not only a small room, but it's a room with a shrine and where people pray.

Last but not least:

Before Grandmother could respond, Alethea slipped through the curtain on the other side of the tablinum and entered the peristyle. Flowers filled the indoor courtyard with a sweet fragrance. She especially liked the jasmine and breathed in its scent as she wandered between the plants and marble statues, following the patterns of flowers in the colorful mosaic on the floor.

This not only defines the peristyle, it shows us what it is.

Notice in all these examples how the writer also captures the emotion of the character/scene, rather than just stating a word's definition.

So, if you have foreign words in your manuscripts, have fun with them, don't just define them. Get creative, make them "move."

Tip: This can also apply to difficult words in children's fiction.