We walk through a bookstore and imagine the day we can pull a book off the shelf, and read our name on the cover. The euphoric feeling of becoming a published author enables us to type the next ten pages, or address another brown envelope and resubmit our next story.
Writers do not count the hours needed to reach their goals. The journey becomes a forgotten memory when the goal is reached. Unfortunately, many writers walk this road for years before realizing that publishers are more interested in profits than creativity.
The writer learns how easily a good story can be changed into a marketable story. There is no magic formula. Reading another ‘how to’ book will not unfold a new secret. A writer only needs to copy successful writers to shorten their journey between creativity and publication. The following are four basics shared by successful authors.
Write
There is no getting around it. If you want to be a published author, you must write every day. As obvious as this rule is, many writers only write occasionally. It takes practice to teach a writer to think in complete sentences. Writing hones our grammar skills, and improves our style. Eventually, we can eliminate most mistakes in the first draft.
A new writer often takes ten drafts to finish a marketable story. Experienced writers can finish the same story in five drafts. Talent and education does not divide these two groups. The only consistent is practice, and daily writing.
Polish
This is the first lesson we learn, and the last technique we understand. Writing a good story is a growing process. We learn new things as we write.
I see this in the manuscripts I critique and edit. In most cases, the last fifty pages of a story are a hundred percent better than the first fifty. This is the result of practice, and application. The author learned to self-edit as they wrote. Authors who do not take the time to learn the art of editing remain blind to common mistakes in their own work.
We often make the mistake of editing too much. There is no rush when polishing. It is better to read the entire manuscript, looking for one or two problems, than it is to correct everything in one or two rewrites. Our distaste for editing causes us to miss common mistakes, which will result in another rejection letter.
Read
How to get published? Learn what publishers are releasing. No ‘How to’ book can promise a ‘one size fits all’ manuscript. Each publisher has their own style, vocabulary, and structure. An experienced author looks for strong similarities between their manuscript and a publisher’s recent releases. When they find a close fit by reading new releases, they send that publisher a query. New writers sabotage their efforts by playing submission roulette with the newest publisher’s directory.
Fact: Avid readers make the best writers.
I asked several published authors how many times they rewrite before submitting. The answer is a shocking ten to fifteen times.
Promote
The best time to start promoting is now. Promotion has several advantages. It builds a fan base. It helps us overcome the fear of submission and sales, and it changes our attitude.
A positive, professional attitude is invaluable when it is time to submit. Our promotion attempts may start small, like forming a book club at our library, but soon we start seeing ourselves as professionals. This changes us from hopeful wannabes, seeking a publisher’s affirmation, to professional authors. When this happens, we do not need publishers with national distribution to earn enough money to write full time. We have enough momentum to drive our own careers forward.
It takes time to learn we can weave these four elements together. The only way to fail is to quit. Everyone starts a career by setting a goal. After choosing a direction, they invest time studying and working to make that goal a reality. Writing is no different. Our goal is much simpler than most people’s, to become a successful writer.
Write, read, and have fun.
Learn More from Suzanne James at www.writer-writer.com
Do you like to write letters to those who have meant something to you? Do people like receiving your letters? Have others said they always look forward to your letters?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions you could be an Epistolary Novelist.
This novel approach to fiction writing is unique in that the entire novel is composed with letters written between main characters or a solitary writer.
One of the classic Epistolary Novels in Christian fiction is the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In this work two demons are conversing by letter to learn ways to frustrate Christians. These letters provided unique insight into the lives of Christians and how we respond to the world around us and the frustration we sometimes feel when dealing with other Christians.
One element that is totally removed from an Epistolary Novel is the narrator. Each chapter is composes specifically of a letter from of the novel's main characters and presents a perspective unique to that author. There is no tool to lead the reader in any particular direction; they are influenced only by the words of your fictional character.
Another benefit of an Epistolary Novel is that you can present many unique points of view because each letter contains a prospective unique to the fictional author.
It may be difficult to think about how to manage a series of letters, you must learn how to take your plot and direction through the use of one or more voices. You have to work at keeping the characters and voices separated so each letter (chapter) bears the unique stamp of the character you have developed.
It is possible to develop an Epistolary Novel using only one character. In this scenario the novel may read much like a journal with an entire series of events being passed along in a time stamped dateline.
You will find there are several issues in the story that may not be resolved in subsequent letters. It may be several letters before an issue addressed in one letter is finally clarified. The intent is to present a realistic representation of the manner in which letter writing takes place.
A few authors have used the Epistolary Novel approach using email correspondence instead of standard form letters, but the truth is you can set your work of fiction in virtually any time period you choose.
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It’s an open secret that fiction is the most notoriously difficult of genres to break into as a writer aspiring to achieve the recognition that leads to publication.
The biggest majority of competent wordsmiths activate their innate skills for years on end but all they have to show for persistent effort is a never-ending stream of rejection slips.
And it's getting more difficult with each day that passes. The book trade is now almost totally geared towards bestsellers and so-called celebrities. Breaking in new fiction authors and placing their work in bookshops is no easy matter.
But it was ever thus in the publishing industry. What for example do these celebrated authors have in common?
Alexandre Dumas
D.H. Lawrence
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Rice Burroughs
George Bernard Shaw
Gertrude Stein
James Joyce
John Grisham
Mark Twain
Mary Baker Eddy
Rudyard Kipling
Stephen Crane
Upton Sinclair
Virginia Woolf
Walt Whitman
William Blake
Zane Grey
These famous masters of fiction were all obliged to take the route of shelling out hard cash to have their debut novels printed before they acquired celebrity status.
So what, if anything, can contemporary scribes do to circumvent this seemingly insurmountable barrier?
They can add a vital edge to their fiction; a cutting edge that will transform them from hopeful writers into published authors aspiring to bestseller status; a cutting edge developed by an author who first made his mark with a stream of bestselling books in the realms of non-fiction and who is now duplicating that success with his fictional output; a cutting edge that will do the same for any writer.
If you would like to read more of this author’s thoughts on cutting edge fiction visit his website.
JIM GREEN is a bestselling author in the realms of both fiction and non-fiction. http://how-to-write-cutting-edge-fiction.com
Urban Christian Fiction is a genre of emotional, vivid and conflicting stories that mixes God, faith and the urban church. It does not purposely exclude violence or sex from its story line, but weaves it into the plot based upon its relevance. It closely resembles Urban Fiction or Street Lit except, God is the center of the character’s lives. Urban Christian Fiction usually portrays characters of African or Latino depicting urban culture.
Two Main Elements of UCF
Raw Honesty – characters do not water down their feelings as it pertains to God, themselves, or the people in the church; however, blasphemy is not acceptable.
Drama – UCF would not be what it is if the story did not involve a little “drama” in the church. Drama in the church is real people doing real things while serving a real forgiving God. In short, the characters don’t always do it right and sometimes they get caught doing it wrong.
Urban Christian Fiction does not hide sin or cover it up. It exposes the sins, the faults and the shortcomings of its characters while exposing the world to an all powerful God.
Characteristics of Urban Christian Fiction
• It is unpredictable, gritty and raw
• Protagonist experience some form of “church hurt” and tries to discover a way to get over it with the help of God
• Protagonist does not always resolve his/her problems in a cookie cutter manner
• Forgiveness of hurt is real and raw, sometimes not forgiven easily
• Church scandal is eminent and unavoidable – it adds the element of drama to each story.
• The protagonist has an intimate relationship with God. God is the center of the protagonist’s heart. He or she lives, moves and breathes their relationship with God.
Urban Christian Fiction speaks to the inner soul of the reader that longs for answers to forsaken questions. These life-changing and thought provoking stories leave the reader saying, “Thank God I’m not in this by myself.”
Wanza Leftwich is the Gospel Writer. To receive free tips on writing Urban Christian Fiction go to http://www.thegospelwriter.blogspot.com
Among good reads, the classic detective fiction novel should come in somewhere near the top, mixed with various other genres. Such collections as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is still a good seller and can be found at nearly any bookstore due to the still common popularity. Such readers may occasionally have to special order some items though; due to the length of time those novels have been in existence. If there were more good fictional detective novels gracing the shelves of the bookstores today, there would not still be the demand for those fantastic pieces that were created so many years ago.
The reader requires constant entertainment and most of these classic detective fiction novels can provide that to them easily. Although some of the terms and phrases are now somewhat outdated, it is still a most interesting read for the well versed reader to pick up and follow. The books that aren't exactly highlighted or featured any longer always pique the interest of the most self respected reader. To find such books, one must simply do the research and ask if need be since there are many that are still in print.
In these stories, the reader embarks upon an interesting journey through time to a world where things are still much simpler than the life of today. There are still crimes however, since that is what the book focuses on in depth. A theft may have occurred and subsequently caused a murder. The hero is, of course, the detective. This character is proficient in the means of detecting crime. His attitudes and morals can be described by the author in several different ways, but the general view of the detective is intelligence. If the detective is not perceived as intelligent, how should he be able to solve the crimes that the police cannot? The author makes it interesting of course, using clever phrases and great character descriptions to involve the reader as much as possible in the storyline. The reader often thinking or trying to figure out who the culprit is that committed this crime.
This is why a lot of these novels are referred to more commonly as the "Who Done It" type of book. The author creates an issue, a crime, and the reader is ultimately trying to figure out who committed the crime all throughout the book. If it is written in any great detail whatsoever, the reader will be roped into the book in no time flat; desperately reading on to try to figure out which character committed the crime and exactly how it was pulled off by that character.
Doyle was definitely one of the leading writers of the fiction detective novel with his amazingly unusual novels portraying crimes that some would not have thought about being committed. But Doyle could not have accomplished the worldwide recognition of such stories without his leading character, Sherlock Holmes, gracing the pages and solving the crimes at just the right point in the story. This is one of the reasons that his character is so loved, and has to rate today as the classic detective in the classic detective novel.
Chris Haycock is an information publisher, and a real fanatic about early detective fiction. Having amassed a large collection of early detective/mystery novels. A particular favourite is Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For more information, and details of an offer not to be missed why not go now to http://www.sherlockandwatson.com
Science fiction books have been my favorite reading since my childhood days. I was introduced to the world of science fiction at the good young age of eight, when I was introduced to a science fiction book club. We children enjoyed good time reading classics like ‘The Time Machine’, ‘Invisible Man’, Journey to the Center of the Earth’, and a whole lot of science fiction books. The experience of reading them was so unique that I cant really forget the story line and characters in space operas like ‘Citizen of the Galaxy’ by Robert A. Heinlein, ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card, etc.
I always liked to anticipate the unpredictable, see the future. It is the epic scope of the science fiction books that attracted me. The books of a specific kind called speculative fiction try to tell today what the world looks like tomorrow. Space opera captured my childhood fantasy and still continues to. Whole galaxies lining up for a war, one party to establish supremacy and the other one defending their ground; there is suspense, thriller, unpredictability, and everything you need to unleash your fantasy. Alien races from a different dimension, prophecies, betrayal, love, honor, etc made science fiction books playing with my emotions for many years now.
Many that become sci-fi lovers asked me suggestions on science fiction books. My advice to them is to browse through collections. Science fiction books are the best categorized form of fiction writing. There come dozens of new collections every year. You can find them in different combinations. While making you choice from among the variety of available science fiction books, always make it a practice to skim through the content. At first read excerpts from all science fiction genre, and without much delay you will identify the science fiction books that are really suited for your taste. Just go with your heart – do you find it interesting to read a story? Pick it. Do you find the storyline tough? Drop it. It is that simple to make your choice.
Fantasy books sometimes overlap with science fiction books, although they are always not the same. If you have a taste of fantasy, chances are higher that you have a heart for sci-fi too and vice versa. You can clearly distinguish between fantasy and sci-fi in most cases, but there are no rules to distinguish them. Harry Potter series is pure fantasy while Time Machine is purely sci-fi. Fantasy books come with some magic, supernatural powers etc, while sci-fi characters are made more believable by defining technology, timelines and possibilities and the topics sci-fi writers choose generally will be of interest by common man.
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning books. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting Science Fiction Books
Women's fiction and romance have similarities, but also distinct differences. While many of the publishers may be the same for both genres, editors are looking for the key elements that make for compelling women's fiction. (Lisa Craig, Inkspot copyright 2000).
From the research I have completed, women's fiction may have romance as a component, but it is not the complete plot, just a part. Women's fiction revolves around a story-line that women (perhaps more than men) would enjoy reading. The issues involved should appeal to a woman, including the enpowerment of women.
Quoting Lisa Craig again: "Women's fiction, however -- like the women who read it -- has evolved to include subjects and themes that range far beyond romance."
In Craig's article, she quotes Literary Agent Linda Hyatt of the Hyatt Literary Agency: "Good women's commercial fiction usually touches the reader in ways other fiction cannot. Relationship stories, generational sagas, love stories and women's commercial fiction must touch on subjects women can relate to in their real lives. Whether there is a happily ever after ending, or a bittersweet one, whether the reader laughs or cries, women love reading stories that touch their emotions - and tug at their hearts."
I like the way author Eileen Goudge explains, first by quoting advice from her editor. "Think of your novel as a tapestry, woven with multicolored threads of various warps and wefts." Then Goudge compares women's fiction with that tapestry, saying the more intricate the tapestry of this genre, the richer it is. Each subplot starts as thread on the loom of imagination. The author's job is to weave the threads together in a way that's not only coherent but engrossing to the reader.
Her explanation actually applies to any writing, not just women's fiction, but she does give the picture of a plot more entailed than a straight romance plot.
Goudge later in her article (Women's fiction vs. romance, The Writer April 2007) states that the writing separates the two genre. Romance writers, she says, indulge in "verbiage that borders on purple prose." In women's fiction, flowery descriptive passages, unnecessary adverbs and love-scene metaphors are cut.
Although, differences may exist, the relationship between the genre is close, and they often overlap. Appealing to both audiences is possible and often desirable.
After teaching composition for twenty-five years and becoming an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ a site for Poetry, Vivian Gilbert Zabel, also writing as V. Gilbert Zabel, produced Hidden Lies and Other Stores, Walking the Earth:, and The Base Stealers Club, which can be ordered through most book stores and on Amazon.com.
Classic detective fiction is the type of fiction that really makes a reader focus on the pages. These types of stories are not generally very gory or bloody as such stories can be today, but they do hold some blood and gore inside the pages; they just release it shortly and at proper intervals. The history of classic detective fiction is interesting to say the least.
Most critics agree that classic detective fiction rose from the pages around 1841 when the famous Edgar Allen Poe wrote the story of The Murders in the Rue Morgue. His character, Dupin, is able to solve the crimes that were unable to be solved by the police thereby paving the way for future detectives to come along and do the same. He created the dazzling detective who attempts to solve the perplexing crime and the aloof colleague (or friend) who records every bit of the case in detail. The police, of course are lost. They appear to be unsure of which road to follow and by the end they are completely astonished as everything is laid out before them by the hero (the detective).
After Poe's discovery and subsequent tale, there were many attempts at successful detective fiction but none were notable until Recollections of a Detective Police Officer by Waters. At this point, the stories had become almost unreadable since there really was no literary attempt. The end to hack writing came in 1859 when Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White forced other writers to show some sort of a literary effort to be able to compete. The other notable novel that followed in Collins' footsteps was Hugo's Les Miserables (1862) which is still immensely popular in theatre today.
Novels such as this were published for years, giving the public reason to believe that there would never be an evolution of the genre. However, in 1887, Sherlock Holmes emerged from the pages of Beeton's Christmas Annual. Unfortunately, the original story did not take off at first. The intricate character had seemed doomed to fade into the pages and be lost forever. Four years later, in 1890, Lippincott picked up Doyle and put him on contract to write more Holmes stories. Strand magazine also began publishing Doyle's detective stories. This is when the craze began. The first stories were combined into a book to form a series. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was enormously successful, and so was the following series, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, even though Doyle made a decision to kill of Holmes in this series. Of course, since this was now a very popular character, the death of Holmes generated anger and protest among the public. The demand for Sherlock Holmes was greater than ever. Although Doyle obviously did not want to do it, he was finally forced to bring the character back to life around 1905 to appease both the public and the publishers.
This character and the cases that he participated in changed the way that detective fiction would be written from then on. Doyle is now considered to have paved the way for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
Chris Haycock is an information publisher, one of whose many hobbies includes crime fiction. Early detective fiction in particular. A particular favourite is Sherlock Holmes. If you would like to know more about Sherlock Holmes and an excellent offer, why not go now to http://www.sherlockandwatson.com
It is difficult to have a discussion with someone about science fiction if they are not familiar with the works of Arthur C Clarke. The concepts are not too awfully difficult to understand and not nearly as complex as reading Issac Asimov for the science fiction novice and anyone can enjoy Mr. Clarke’s works. If you are interested in science fiction, I recommend this set of audio tapes:
The Arthur C Clarke Collection, including “2001 A Space Odyssey” “Transit of Earth” “Fountains of Paradise” and “Childhood’s Earth”
They are available all together in one easy to listen to collection. It will be an excellent review of Arthur C Clarke’s works. Arthur C Clarke is one of the great science fiction writers of all time and much of his work is now been set as a goal for scientists to make into reality. It was a pleasure to review all of these works in this rather long audio series and there was rarely a dull moment. It is interesting to see how the science fiction of yesterday becomes the reality of today and how the same science fiction today is becoming closer and closer to tomorrows reality. It was read in the authors voice and it made it that much more real. Arthur C Clark is not only brilliant, but we are lucky to have had him on the planet. Order these audio tapes today and you will be glad you did.
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington
OK, you don’t get much time to read novels anymore. You used to but that was another life. Before you could pick up something that appealed and because you read so much, you weren’t too disappointed if it didn’t grab you like you thought it would. Things have changed. Now when you pick up a novel to read it has to get you in quickly or it will collect dust on your bedside table. There are too many other things demanding your attention…like sleep!
And when you go to the bookshop sometimes its hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of books on offer, especially with the big mega stores becoming the norm. So what to do?
I’ve put together a checklist that with a little bit of preparation can help you wade through
the sea of books and help you pick a surefire winner: a novel that will captivate YOU.
1. The best place to start is to look out in magazines, newspapers and online for book reviews – see what is being billed as the latest must read. Even if you don’t have time to read the whole review, jot down the title and author as one to look out for.
2. Ask friends for the best book they have read in the last few months or this year or the last few years if like you they really are struggling with the whole when-am-I-going-to-find-time-to-read-a-novel?-thing. Don’t just ask them what book was their favourite; ask them why they liked it. Was it an unusual story, was the pace so fast they needed a crash helmet, did it have edge of the seat suspense, did it remind them of growing up? You want to know what exactly made it a great read for them. This will help you to refine your search, especially if they say they liked the quirky twist in the ending and you don’t do quirky. Just because you’re close friends doesn’t automatically mean you like the same books.
3. Ask the people behind the counter at your favourite bookshop what they enjoyed reading and get them to take you to it or give you a specific reference number so you can find it easily yourself.
4. When you get the book in your hands look at the cover. Is it a catchy title? Does the cover appeal to you? Despite the old saying about not judging book covers, publishers put a lot of time and effort into creating a captivating cover and title. Does it work for you?
5. Turn it over and read the back. Does it still appeal? Do you only like reading modern books and this is set in the 1800s? It’s important to be fairly ruthless at this stage. If the premise for the story doesn’t leave you wanting more, chances are the writing probably won’t either.
6. Look at the size of the book. I know this isn’t something for the purists but if you don’t get time to read many novels, don’t launch back in with a 700 page tome or it will probably take you all year and then you’ll be frustrated and annoyed at wasting time and money on something you haven’t enjoyed.
7. The next step is crucial. Read the opening – does it get you in straight off? Novels have a bit more time to seduce you than a short story but not much these days. A good opening is like someone placing a thread around your finger and gently tugging on it. They’ve got you but can they keep you?
8. Has the author mentioned 10 characters and 5 different place names in the first 3 paragraphs? You want to be captivated not confused, remember? If your main reading time is before you drop off to sleep, books that have lots of characters and places or even a family tree at the beginning are a warning that it gets complicated and you need to keep track of who is who and what they’re up to.
9. Are there lots of long sentences or are they short and sharp? Lots of short sentences usually mean action and pace. Something. Is happening. Right now. Usually it’s best to go for a story with a combination of both – one that suits your preferred action/background information mix.
10. If you still think the book in your hands is worthy, randomly flip open the book in 5 places and see whether it is densely packed with text. Is there dialogue at each page you stop? No dialogue usually means that a book is more descriptive rather than direct scenes. If you want a compelling read then go for something with a fair amount of dialogue; if you don’t mind a slower pace then bits of dialogue here and there is probably enough to keep you going.
If it all stacks up, buy it and enjoy. Just one more tip though. If it doesn’t captivate you in the first 100 pages and you find reading it a chore, give it up. Don’t keep persisting just because you don’t like leaving things unfinished. The book won’t feel hurt if you don’t finish it. And the author will never know.
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