Learning How To Write

As a student of Spanish, my goal was to think in Spanish. Skip the word-by-word translation so I’d have the necessary speed to speak and listen. I know words in Spanish that I’d be hard pressed to translate. Usually profanity, I confess. Chingow!

For years my students here in China have studied grammar, and know it better than you or I. They read. They write. But speaking involves moving faster than that. In conversation, we don’t have time to write it first and make sure it’s all grammatically flawless, then read it aloud, perhaps after a bit of rehearsal.

So, I try to give them a chance to practice putting words together on the fly, rules be damned. The rules they’ve internalized will kick in and keep them comprehensible, which will build their confidence in their ability to keep creating conversation that way.

This is not unlike what we go through as authors. First we study rulebooks, perhaps take some classes, and conclude just about everything we’re is doing is wrong. So many rules to memorize.
We might dread sitting down to write with all those constraints.

But really, it’s not about memorizing rules at all. It’s about internalizing the rules, following them (or not if you prefer) without being consciously aware of what they are. They’re there, but in the background.

The story’s what matters. You’re supposed to be having fun, not “working.” At least not during the creation phase.

We don’t always take the time to say, “I’ve written ten active sentences in a row so maybe I’ll whip in a passive one now” or “I need a beat for every X lines of dialogue.” I published four novels and edited dozens more before I learned what a beat was. (It’s a pause so the reader can catch his/her breath.)

And, of course, since it is writing and not speaking, we can always go back and revise later. Then rely on editors to catch what we missed, or at least make us wonder why we wrote it this way instead of that way.

Some authors aren’t even consciously aware of “the rules.” They’ve never taken a class, never read a book about writing. They’re simply avid readers who one day decided to write. But they’ve internalized the rules as well. It comes from reading.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you want to write, you must read. If you don’t like reading, maybe writing isn’t for you. It’s not about writing because you want to say, “I am a writer.” It’s about writing because you enjoy writing.

And, it’s really nice when you’ve been writing for a long time to go back and read a book about how to write. You might find one or two things to tweak in your technique, as opposed to a daunting laundry list of flaws. It’s much easier to internalize one or two new rules than 50 or 100!

By Michael LaRocca

This article is re-printed with permission from Michael LaRocca. If you would like to read more of Michael's articles, please visit: http://www.chinarice.org/articlebank.html

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Learn to let go – the book is finished

Nothing ticks me off more than an Author who is constantly changing and revising their book after publication. Some Authors do this every couple of weeks and it is as though they are obsessed with a perfection very few of them will ever attain. I find it very frustrating and there I am thinking, Go away and stop wasting my time. Eventually I will snap and tell them enough is enough and that they have to pull their heads in or the tiger will come down from the Mountain.

It is easy enough to change e-books but there is still time involved; and it is time that you should not be asking your Publisher to expend. Changing print books is a little more involved (and expensive). There is a more serious reason why we don’t allow constant changing of manuscripts though and that has to do with professionalism. Publishers do not exist to be sounding boards for Writers and Websites (even ones located in Australia) do not exist for Writers to test the waters with their work. By the time you come on board with us it should be a given that you are a writing professional. It is time for the serious stuff and yet so many Writers are blissfully unaware of the message this act of changing their manuscript sends out to both the Publisher and the Reader.

Basically it says you are a dork. No apologies for that. You are unprofessional. You have not finished your job. You are still at the kindergarten stage.

And… you have not learned when to let go. No one will deny the writing process is intense and if you are really good at it you will be consumed by it. Spending time writing a book can be a solitary experience but it is one that can also lead to tremendous insight and personal fulfilment. You generally know you are on a winner if you get to know (and like) your characters to such an extent that they are so real you can have a conversation with them in your head. This is what I call “the higher plane” and once you reach that level you will experience a euphoria that confirms that yes, you ARE a Writer.

The process of writing should begin with a clear idea and lots of planning, drawing up of outlines and character sketches and so forth. The jig-saw puzzle will get bigger every day you write. By the time your book is finished you should know every aspect of it inside out. You should be able to quote whole passages from it and you should know exactly why the character in Chapter Six felt the sudden urge to chop off his mother-in-law’s head. You should know that you will be toying with your Reader’s emotions when you choose certain imagery and symbolism and the reward should be that you can anticipate the effect they will have on your Reader.

Heavy stuff. And when you are “finished” the real work begins. All the analyzing and editing, re-writing, seeking other opinions and road-testing your product. I’d say the majority of Authors who need to constantly change their work do not have enough confidence in their ability to trust their own instincts. So what do they do? Oooooooh, this is the scary bit. They take the plunge… and show their spouse. No one else, just their spouse or some other close relative. Instead of seeking the help of a professional like an Editor or at the very least an experienced Writer, they leave it to someone who is going to say all the right things (read things they want to hear). Hence the questions remain unresolved. The doubt lingers on.

Everyone needs help in these initial stages. The book should be sorted out from a technical perspective before you go off and start garnering interest from potential Readers. I have a person whom I have known for about 25 years who looks at my stuff. I got to know her all those years ago when we were co-editors of a local interest Newsletter. She is a former Tertiary English Teacher who is highly qualified and I do not know anyone more suited to being a literary critic. She is also brutally honest. She does not let our friendship get in the way of her opinions. She has tremendous analytical skills and if something stinks she tells me so – and I respect that. I respect her knowledge of language and the fact that she knows what works in certain situations and what does not. I am very lucky to have her to keep me on the straight and narrow and I would urge all Writers to seek out someone like this.

So… you can get help from a professional but that is still only part of the whole deal. Let’s go back to YOU. Forget talking to other people – the final decision is yours. You have to at some stage be prepared to ask yourself, Is this book the best it can possibly be? Have I done all I can? Am I satisfied with it? If you come up with any negatives at this stage then the answer is:  You are not finished. Put the thing in a draw, take a break and come back and start again and then ask the same questions down the track. A lot of Authors rush in and try and place their work with Publishers before they have resolved all their own writing issues. And sometimes the manuscripts are accepted and the publishing ball starts rolling. And then the trouble starts.

Do yourselves a favour and make sure you are not in the dork category. Your baby has been born, you have fed and nurtured it and the time will come when you have to let it go. A true professional will know instinctively when to let go because they are honest enough with themselves to be able to say that everything feels right. YOU will know after you have done everything you possibly can and you can be satisfied that you have done a good job. That is really all anybody can possibly hope to do – be satisfied. Your book is in the lap of the gods now. It is no longer your property. It belongs to your Readers. Deal with that.

Article Source: http://www.redsofts.com/articles/ L P King is an Australian Writer, Publisher and Principal of Mountain Mist Productions - http://www.1stmist.com

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I Can’t Put It Down – How to Write Compelling Fiction

How many times have you heard people say this about a book? Have you ever analyzed the books that people say this about? I have.

They all share one ‘secret’ in common.

Questions.

Reading is not a passive exercise. Not to the brain, anyway.

As you read and take in the information on the page, the brain is trying to work out where the story is going, what significance certain actions might have. It’s also trying to work out puzzles and generally try to second-guess the plot.

This is human nature. It’s what makes reading an interactive experience–where you have a kind of relationship with the author for as long as you’re reading.
 
Stories that don’t make the reader ask questions are unsatisfying to read, as are stories where the reader guesses the outcome.

Many writers forget this and write aimlessly in the hope that the reader will like their style and want to read on, no matter what.

This is not a strategy for success! In order to be in control of your story–and your reader, you, the writer should feed them questions.
 
This is not as difficult as it sounds.
 
First you need the major question–your book’s reason for being, if you like.
 
This is in essence the ‘theme’ of your novel summed up in one sentence.
 
Questions like ‘Does money create happiness?’ or ‘Will good triumph over evil?’ You should subtly place this question in the mind of your reader quite early on in your book, so that the reader is already on a kind of quest for the truth.
 
Next you have chapter questions that are more specific to your characters. Like ‘Will Alex overcome his problems?’ or ‘Will Sally win the love of her father?’ This gives your reader a reason to read on–just to find out!
 
Then, you should have smaller questions at every point you can – at least one every 500 words.

Here’s an example:

‘Lucy went to see her father. He was angry that she was seeing Brad but she told him there was nothing he could do about it’
 
Obviously this is flat and lifeless prose that invites no great speculation. How about this?
 
‘Lucy stared at her father’s implacable face. When he was like this, she couldn’t gauge his feelings. She swallowed hard. If he was angry, she’d end up with nowhere to live.
 
‘I won’t stop seeing Brad,’ she said, not quite believing her own words.’

You see the difference?
 
In the second passage the reader is forced to ask three questions.
 
What’s her father thinking?
 
Will Lucy get kicked out?
 
Will she carry on seeing Brad?
 
Rather than simply stating what your characters think and do, always try to leave an element of uncertainty in the reader’s mind as to what will happen next.
 
The trick is to get your reader asking questions constantly. Yes – on every page, so that there’s a compulsive need to turn the page, if only to find out the answers.
 
Good novelists do this unconsciously–they know it’s the best way to tell a story.
 
Good crime novelists deliberately get you to ask all the WRONG questions so that their plot twists are far more effective.
 
People keep turning the page in best selling novels because they are in a constant state of limbo–ignorant of what’s coming next but eager to find out. In effect, it’s almost a state of agitation, even frustration that will keep a reader turning the page.
 
Has this happened to you?
 
It’s weird because you almost HATE what you’re reading—there are so many unanswered questions–but you just can’t put it down!

This article is written by Rob Parnell. Visit his website at www.easywaytowrite.com

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The Value of 99 Cents

These days, with so much free–YouTube has free music, Amazon has free downloads, libraries (for the most part) have free books, and the Internet has Free Everything–how does anyone manage to sell their wares?

The answer, from one corner of the creative industries in particular, seems to be pricing countless items at $0.99: ebooks, MP3 tracks, TV shows, etc. But how does one compete in that marketplace if comparing, for instance, one’s two-page short story with the 500-page novel that costs the same amount?

I ran into this dilemma when I put some of my writings for sale on Amazon. For my collections of 10 poems or two-page stories, I was up against literally thousands of free and $0.99 ebooks.

As a fan of Michelle Sagara West, I felt her short stories were worth their $0.99 easily, because her Author’s Notes always gave me insight into her life and inspiration, and her stories (for the most part) were exquisite and I adored them.

Her stories, however, were several pages, so I became obsessed with assembling Author’s Notes to “add value” to my writing (and pages to the product) so that what I had to offer wouldn’t look quite so measly.

My closest friends, upon hearing of his harebrained plan, took me to task. Add value? If my writing couldn’t stand alone, it wasn’t ready for publication yet.

I described my plight at length, but through our conversation, my attitude shifted and I decided to let my stories stand. But the concern remained-how could I pack enough value into two pages so that they would be worth the same as several hours of happy escape through a good novel?

That same night, by coincidence or grace, my friend and editor of SPAWNews, Sandra Murphy, let me know that her four short stories were on sale at Untreed Reads until the end of the month. She had offered to edit my shorts for free, and I wanted to support her so I purchased her stories, all of them a few pages. How did she add significant value to make such a short experience worth the $0.99?

“The Obituary Rule” made me smile, following the sassy friendship of two elderly ladies while one of them rekindles an old love. “Bananas Foster” was hilarious in a Three-Stooges fashion, mildly morbid but quite entertaining. “Superstition”–which slightly annoyed me by creating a twist that left me confused for the second half of the story (until the final reveal)–nevertheless had a haunting rhythm to it.”Sweet Tea & Deviled Eggs” horrified me (in a good, goosebumps-crawling-up-my-arm way), sweeping me off into a southern world where a little girl makes some terrible choices, leading to a fascinating conclusion.

It took me an hour to read through all four of Murphy’s stories. I had been through the paces of apprehension, of shaking my arms out to ease the creepy-creepys, of hearty laughter; I had smiled, felt warmed, chilled, bothered, and delighted. Was that worth $2.77? Yes. (They’re on sale, so I only paid $0.69/story, but the point still stands.)

After my experience with Murphy’s stories, I thought back to my conversation with my friends and I understood the essence of their advice. The only value I can bring to the table is my heart, and whatever skill I possess or can hone in my craft: intuiting a sense of what my readers crave–be it kinship, laughter, disquiet, or that private smile. What’s the price of a belly laugh at the end of a dratted-long day? Who can really assess the value of a perfectly expressed sentence, whereupon the reader knows they’re not the only one who has felt a certain way?

I took to writing because I wanted to reach out to others just as authors, musicians and artists had connected with me. I didn’t care, at the outset of my passion and commitment to this path, if I could be valuable enough to inspire a dollar’s purchase.

So yes, the market for stories and poems is ridiculously oversaturated and underpriced, and anyone in the business of getting their daily bread from selling things that most can get for free (or for cheap) face an uphill battle.

But for me, I will send my writings out into the world and cross my fingers that my best is good enough to spark that sense of connection, joy, or embraced-into-another-worldness that I, as a fellow reader, crave. If I can achieve that, even for a moment, I’ll have given my reader their 99-cents’ worth and more.

©2013 Joanna Celeste. (http://joannaceleste.com/)

[Article originally published on Blogcritics: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/the-value-of-99-cents/.]

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Great Fiction Comes From Writing Lightly

Great fiction appears effortless to the reader. The characters and setting are so real, the story so believable, that the reader is completely unaware of the author behind the words. The smoothness of the text belies the hours of hard work and practice that went into its creation. The authors who achieve invisibility have learned the art of writing lightly; of subtly inserting so much information into the story without adding any new words that the book can’t help but spring to life. Here are some tips to help you write lightly too: Work hard on your opening paragraphs.

Regardless of the age you’re writing for, your first one or two paragraphs set the tone for the entire book. They introduce the main character, point of view, setting, mood, and sometimes the story conflict. The story starts in these first paragraphs– not two or three pages down the road. Grab your reader instantly rather than boring him or her with unimportant background information.

Make your dialogue work for you. Good written dialogue contains the essence of speech, not conversation as it happens in real life. Dispense with the clutter and make your dialogue count. Dialogue should give a sense of the personality of the speaker (through word choices and speech patterns), move the story along (have your characters talk about what’s happening in the book, or what they’re going to do next), and contribute to the visual imagery of the story. The latter can be achieved with “stage directions”; gestures or movements by the speakers, physical reactions of the listeners, or other action that’s happening during the conversation. Break up long stretches of dialogue with action or attach stage directions to the dialogue itself (“I can’t leave now,” she whispered as she parted the curtains and peered down the dark street). Remember, how someone speaks and what they’re doing as they talk all give clues to their emotional state, thus adding layers of meaning to the spoken words.

Choose verbs wisely. Well-chosen verbs can also add meaning to a sentence. How someone moves can show what they’re thinking or feeling. Just as importantly, specific verbs allow you to communicate a scene exactly to the reader. If the wind is blowing outside, your reader won’t know if it’s a good day to fly a kite or if a storm is approaching. However, if that wind explodes through the valley, there’s no room for doubt. Know your setting. Even if your setting doesn’t play a main role in the story, it’s a good idea to have details set in your own mind. What does your main character’s room look like? How big a house does she live in? Does she walk to school or ride the bus? These details will find their way into your story, and add life to the book.

Only tell the reader what he or she has to know. This is important for any age of fiction, but it’s most often abused in picture book manuscripts. Your story takes place during a certain time frame–an extraordinary period in your character’s life. Use only those characters necessary to tell this story; introduce events, conflicts, situations that apply directly to this time frame. If a traumatic childhood incident affects your 15-year-old character’s relationship with her father, then it’s necessary. If her losing the spelling bee in fourth grade means nothing to her now, leave it out.

Write as you talk. You can admire and study other authors, but don’t try to imitate them. The best way to achieve your unique writing style is to write as you talk. Don’t search for words you’d never use in ordinary conversation. Author Stephen King said, “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word.”

Don’t worry about getting too complex with your writing either. Long, complicated sentences filled with dashes and semicolons, or descriptive paragraphs full of flowery prose won’t appeal to your audience. The trick, when composing your first draft, is not to think too much. Norma Fox Mazer, author of over 20 books, said she wears a hat with the brim pulled low over her eyes when writing a first draft. That way she can see her keyboard but not the computer screen, preventing her from getting “housewifey” and wanting to clean up the text. During the revision process you can choose your words more carefully, but if you find yourself stretching for a phrase or description, ask your-self if you’d ever use that in real life. If you were telling this story out loud, how would you tell it and what words would you choose? In the end, it all boils down to writing simply, directly, and making every word count. It doesn’t always come naturally, but if you practice the above techniques your writing will also achieve a light touch.

Laura Backes is the publisher of Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers. For more information about writing children's books, including free articles, market tips, insider secrets and much more, visit Children's Book Insider's home on the web at http://write4kids.com

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Giving Up Too Soon

So you feel beaten up and bruised and you’re ready to quit.  You have no support system or the one you have is pathetically inadequate for the goals you’ve set.  You’re so tired that the couch is looking more and more inviting everyday.  You have bills piling up and you probably ought to get a real job anyway.

The failure rate is statistically high and nobody is going to fault you if you quit.  Who really cares if you give up and quit now?  You do.

Let’s look at each piece one at a time.  You’re beaten up and exhausted.  Congratulations!  That means you’ve been working harder then you’ve probably ever worked in your life.  You wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything of real importance if you weren’t willing to bust your rump plowing through everything on your to-do list.  You may need some lessons in balance and patience, but not in how to apply good old fashioned elbow grease.  If you can schedule a short break to replenish your strength, then do so, but don’t give up and quit all together.  If there’s no way you can stop now because you have too many important deadlines then bust through the deadlines.  Can you speed it up and finish things early so that you could squeeze in a break?  After a full night sleep, do you think that you’d still want to quit or would you be ready to dive back in?  The fact that you’re working so hard isn’t the problem, it’s that you aren’t getting adequate rest and relaxation.  Find a way to create balance.

You have nobody that will pitch in to help you or else the help you have isn’t all that helpful.  Kind of reminds me of when my two year old tries to help with the laundry.  He picks the dirty laundry up off of the floor and stuffs it into the dryer along with the stuff that just finished drying.  Well meaning, but not as helpful as he thinks he is.  I wish I could give you magic solutions as to how to find helpful people when you’re working on your goals and dreams but the truth is, most people are too busy with their own lives to be able to offer much assistance anyway.  Unless you can afford to hire people to help you or you promise to help them on something they’re needing help with, you probably aren’t going to find a whole lot of help.  Also there’s the learning curve and how much time it takes to teach someone how to do what it is you need help with.  It’s a rare and beautiful thing when the perfect person comes along with nothing better to do then to roll up their sleeves and help.  It’s a tough reality, but basically, it’s your goal, your dream, and your job to make it happen.

If the project you are working on means anything to you, then you won’t really enjoy the couch potato solution as much as you might think.  Funny thing about the really big powerful dreams, they haunt us.  Every time you turn around there it is following you around reminding you that you haven’t finished it yet.  It will keep showing up in everything you do and especially in the things that you don’t do.  If it really matters, if it’s your calling, if it’s your life’s work, then it isn’t going to let you become a couch potato.  Laying around not doing your dream will be more exhausting and depressing then when you were working your buns off trying to make it come true.  Take a quick break if you need to, but don’t get too comfy sitting there and don’t even think that you aren’t going to get back up again.  The longer you sit there, the further behind schedule you’ll be and the more you’ll have to do to catch up with where you were when you quit.  You know how it is when you take a week off for vacation.  You have to work two or three weeks to catch up with everything that fell behind.  You have got to take your mental health breaks, but don’t make it a permanent vacation.

What if you have financial problems or family obligations that are seriously nagging at you?  That’s such a difficult position to be in.  Only you can determine what’s in your long term best interest.  Again, a support system would be nice, but if they aren’t there to help, then you have to create balance.  If you give up on your dreams to take care of and support everyone else, you may feel like you’re doing the right thing in the moment, but was your life better off for it?  If you disregard everything in order to stay focused on your dream, will it cost you the companionship of your loved ones down the road?  Who will be there to celebrate with you when you finally do succeed?  Not too easy to find a wealthy philanthropist to support your efforts to live out your dreams without earning a living.  You have to make those really tough choices.  Somehow you have to create balance between your dreams, your ability to keep a roof over your head, and your ability to keep loved ones near and dear.

It’s easy to quit where so many others have already gone and failed before you.  Survival of the fittest dictates that not everyone is ideally designed to accomplish all goals.  Not everyone is supposed to be an entrepreneur.  Not everyone is meant to be a musician.  Not everyone is meant to be president.  The truth is, if you’ve picked a goal that is suited to your own natural talents and gifts and if it’s infused with your own passion and fire, then chances are that you are one of the lucky few who is meant to live that dream.  Just because everyone else failed doesn’t mean that you are meant to fail too.  Statistics don’t mean anything unless you decide to become one.

You are either going to quit or you’re going to find inspiration and keep going.  You can quit if you want, but you already know if quitting will feel worse then trudging through a little while longer.

Somewhere you know deep down if you’re meant to succeed or not.  What if you were meant to succeed and role model tenacity to those around you?  What if that’s somehow the divine cosmic plan all along?  God loves an underdog!  Don’t quit just yet.

Skye Thomas is the CEO of Tomorrow’s Edge, an Internet leader in inspiring leaps of faith. Her books, articles, newsletters, and astrological forecasts have inspired people of all ages and faiths to recommit themselves to the pursuit of happiness. To read more of her articles, free previews of her books, and her astrology forecasts, go to www.TomorrowsEdge.net. To read more about Skye and to sign up to receive her free newsletters, go to www.SkyeThomas.com.

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Give More Than You Get

A member of one of my writing groups confided in me that she was fed up with the way that she was feeling used by other writers. This writer is very talented and accomplished, and she’s a member of a few different groups that trade feedback and critiques of each other’s work. “I feel like I get back 10% of what I put in,” she said. And she was losing her energy, thinking about quitting these groups. As she put it, “I’m getting tired of needy people.”

This writer was the victim of what I’d call parasitic networking. When some people think about networking, they think, “How can other people help me?” They join writing groups, hoping to get feedback on their own work, with no regard for how they can help other writers. They write to experienced authors, asking for leads and free advice, without ever planning on “paying it forward.”

Some people would call it karma. I’m not new age-y enough to use that term, so I’ll just say this: when you help a fellow writer, you help yourself. And if you expect free help from someone, you should be thinking about how you can do something in return.

I’m not saying that we have to be “tit for tat” in our exchanges with fellow writers. But here are some examples from my own life:

I have often traded critiques of screenplays with fellow writers. When I do a critique, I try to be thorough, fair, detailed, and helpful. And when someone gives me that same courtesy in return, I remember it—and I try to pay it back.

I got a phone call from a producer who wanted me to write a script for him. I was too busy with my own work at the time, so I said, “I have a few other great writers who I can recommend to you instead.” I sent this producer a list of about three writers who (a) were very talented writers and (b) had helped me in the past with substantive critiques. The producer wound up using one of the writers I recommended, and the last I heard, the film is now in pre-production. That writer then wanted to do something to pay ME back, so he nominated me for membership in an “exclusive” screenwriting group. See how the circle continues?

I once sent an e-mail query to Men’s Health. The e-mail address I had bounced, so I tried to think of who I knew who had written for the magazine before. I recalled that freelance writer extraordinaire Linda Formichelli had written for them, so I wrote to her to ask if she had a current e-mail address. She didn’t, but she did have a contact at Men’s Fitness, and asked if my idea would be appropriate for them. Of course, I wanted to do something for her in return, so we wound up writing back and forth all morning, trading contact information for editors. I don’t know if anything’s come of it yet for her, but I wound up with my first assignment for Prevention.
Numerous times, when a writer does me a favor by writing for Absolute Write, I’ve referred that writer to one of my editors, or written a letter of recommendation for them to use with potential employers.

A wonderful screenwriter offered to field questions for Absolute Write, and it just happened that he was interested in breaking into writing nonfiction books. I offered him my advice, and mailed him a great book I’d read about writing book proposals.

Ideally, my view is that whenever you seek to network with a writer, you should first think about what you can offer in return.

Now, here’s where some writers get tripped up:

Let’s say I’m an unpublished writer. I desperately need some help—maybe some career advice, maybe feedback on my queries or proposals, maybe a referral to an agent or publisher. I’ve found an experienced author who I want to approach for help.

I may want to do something in return, but I think… “What could I possibly have to offer this experienced author?” Good question.

If the experienced writer in question is a book author, here’s what you can offer:

• You can review her books. You can review them on online bookseller sites like Amazon.com and Bn.com, or you can offer them to e-zines, newspapers, and magazines. Authors are ALWAYS in need of good reviews!
• You can help the author with public relations. Help him her set up a book signing, or offer to put flyers for his books in your doctor’s office, your grocery store, or tack them up around town.
• You can pitch articles about the author to magazines and e-zines. (Ask permission first, of course, but most authors are thrilled to get publicity like this!)

If the writer is a magazine writer, you can offer to help her with research, locate experts for her next article, transcribe an interview, pass along leads, or give her your old magazines (hey, we magazine writers can’t afford subscriptions to all the magazines we want to write for!).

If you have experience in one area (let’s say, magazine writing), and you want to break into writing novels, find a novelist who’s interested in breaking into magazine writing and swap information.

There will be some situations where there’s nothing you can do in return except gush your thanks and promise to someday return the favor by helping another writer. Genuine appreciation is payback in itself. Take a moment to write a thank you card, or send flowers, to a writer who has helped your career.

In this life, I believe you usually get what you give. If you see writers as adversaries and aren’t apt to share your contacts, your feedback, or your advice, then don’t expect anyone to help you, either. But I challenge you to see your fellow writers as cherished colleagues. Whenever you can help someone, do it. Kindness has a way of coming back to you.

Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of www.absolutewrite.com, where you can get a FREE list of more than 180 agents who are open to new writers! She is also the author of OUTWITTING WRITER'S BLOCK AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF THE PEN, as well as other books for writers, which you can read all about at http://www.absolutewrite.com/jenna/books.htm if you want to make her day!

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Got the Contract! Now What?

Hooray! You wrote a great book/screenplay/book proposal/short story/etc., and someone has offered you a contract. Congratulations.

Before you eagerly sign on the dotted line, though, it’s very important to know what you’re signing, and educate yourself about what all the terms mean. If you have an agent or attorney, great. But if not, what do you do?

Publishing and entertainment lawyers can be expensive, and it’s not always necessary to fork over the dough for each project. Consider these options:

The National Writer’s Union
www.nwu.org
The National Writer’s Union offers many benefits for writers, and one of them is contract advice. I’m putting this one on top of my list because I just used their services—an advisor helped me with my latest book contract, and her advice was terrific. She consulted with me, for free, via phone and e-mail, and looked at two different versions of the contract. There is an annual fee for membership on a sliding scale. Check out the website for full explanation of benefits and fees. Also, take a look at their free model contracts for journalists: http://www.nwu.org/journ/jsjc.htm.

The Writer’s Union of Canada
http://www.writersunion.ca/services.htm#CES
Members receive free contract advice and three useful publications about negotiating contracts. Non-members can pay $25 for the publications, or a (pretty steep) fee for the contract assistance. Annual membership costs $180.

Starving Artists Law
http://www.starvingartistslaw.com/
“The launch pad for artists and writers looking for self help legal information.” Who could ask for anything more? Site includes news about recent contract decisions, as well as searchable databases of articles on every conceivable legal topic for writers. Also includes a link to the amazing…

Volunteer Lawyers For the Arts
http://www.starvingartistslaw.com/help/volunteer%20lawyers.htm
An amazing group of lawyers internationally who are available to help artists (yes, that includes writers) who can’t afford legal advice. Search the list to find the branch nearest to you.

Daniel Steven
http://www.publishlawyer.com
If you ARE going to hire a lawyer, I’d like to suggest Daniel Steven. He writes the “Writer’s Legal Corner” for the Absolute Markets newsletter, and he charges flat rates (not hourly fees) for contract advice. You can work with him through e-mail or by phone. Also, check out his website for the funniest articles about publishing law on the ‘net.

Ivan Hoffman’s Website
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/helpful.html
Many, many helpful articles about publishing contracts, such as “The Ten Key Negotiating Points in an Author-Publisher Agreement,” “The Ghostwriter Agreement,” etc. You could spend many hours educating yourself for free at this site.

The Publishing Law Center
http://www.publaw.com
Attorney Lloyd Rich’s website also contains many articles about publishing law, broken down into categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Internet Law, Copyright, Trademarks, Contracts, Fair Use and Right of Publicity, and Privacy.

NWU BITE Contracts Glossary
http://www.nwu.org/bite/gloss.htm
Definitions of terms that are likely to appear in your contract.

SFWA Contract Help
http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America offers a section of “model contracts” for anthologies, agents, hardcover, magazine, paperback, and the web. Be sure to check out their “Writer Beware” section, too: http://www.sfwa.org/beware.

American Society of Journalists and Authors Contract Watch
http://www.asja.org/cw/cw.php
Before agreeing to anything, be sure to check the Contract Watch to make sure your publisher isn’t listed! You can also sign up for free updates.

About.com’s Publishing pages: Contracts and Copyright
http://publishing.about.com/cs/copyright
Focuses on copyright registration and related issues in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., but also has a wealth of links related to publishing law.

Writers Guild of America
http://www.wga.org/forwriters_index.html
For screenwriters. Check out the “Schedule of Minimums” to determine the agreed-upon minimum rates that the Union advises writers to accept. (If the production company is a WGA signatory, they MUST offer you at least the rates posted.) You may also request a hard-copy of this publication.

Adler & Robin Books Literary Agency
http://www.adlerbooks.com/
I’ve featured this site as a “link of the week” before, and with good reason—this company has a wonderful range of contract advice and sample contracts. Be sure to look at “Problems With Publishers’ Contracts” if you’re considering Print on Demand, especially. Also includes a sample collaborator’s contract

Publishing Contract Checklist
http://www.writingschool.com/checklis.htm
Timothy Perrin has written a report in laymen’s terms about contracts for magazine writers: what they are, how to negotiate them, the problem with the “stamped check,” etc. Well worth a read.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Negotiating a Book Contract: A Guide for Authors, Agents And Lawyers
by Mark L. Levine
90 page guide to the author-publisher contract.

Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract: For Authors, Publishers, Editors and Agents
by Jonathan Kirsch
Need a little more? 192 pages that go into more detail about different kinds of contracts.

The Writer’s Legal Companion: The Complete Handbook for the Working Writer
by Brad Bunnin and Peter Beren
Want comprehensive? This is the one. Check out all the five-star reviews at Amazon.com.

The Writer Got Screwed (but didn’t have to) by Brooke A. Wharton

For screenwriters. This one has been on my shelves for years. Includes sample contracts and easy-to-understand explanations of entertainment law.

Wow, you mean you made it to the end of this article? You didn’t start clicking and get lost in cyberspace? Well, good for you! And good luck with negotiating a terrific contract.

Jenna Glatzer is the editor-in-chief of www.absolutewrite.com, where you can get a FREE list of more than 180 agents who are open to new writers! She is also the author of OUTWITTING WRITER'S BLOCK AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF THE PEN, as well as other books for writers, which you can read all about at http://www.absolutewrite.com/jenna/books.htm if you want to make her day!

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Good Reasons Why You Can’t Rely on Your Spellchecker

If you are reading this article, then you probably own a computer (or are at least using a computer to read it). I will make the underlying assumption, then, that you currently use your computer’s word processing software for writing and creating documents. I’m going to stick my neck right into that noose hanging out there on the Assumption Tree and assume that you always run your software’s spellchecker before you send your document along on its merry way. If you aren’t using your spellchecker, then you should get a big black felt-tip marker and a 3 x 3 sticky note and make this note to yourself, “RUN SPELLCHECKER.” Stick the note on your computer monitor (aren’t all computer monitors littered with sticky notes, like mine?).

Spellcheckers are wonderful things. I’ll be honest; my spellchecker has saved my keister a time or two. Being a proofreader by profession, you’d think that I would catch “everything.” I’m here to tell you that I’m only human and there are things that have slipped by me. My spellchecker and thesaurus have also helped out when I’m immediately stumped on a word or need a good juicy word to really drive home a particular point I’m trying to make. It’s easy just to check on a single word for a quick reference. However, you should do this sparingly and only when your brain is really stuck. For the most part, just go ahead and write the thing; let it flow along and don’t worry about the little oopsies that might be tripping off your fingertips. That’s why it is a cardinal rule of mine that nothing leaves my word processor until spellchecker has been run—twice.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you can rely on your spellchecker as your only document check. The English language (especially Americanized English) has multiple layers of nuances and word usages that perhaps no other spoken language has. Our language is also littered with “sound alikes” (homonyms) such as: you’re, your, and yore; its and it’s; they’re, their, and there; wood and would. If it’s spelled right but used incorrectly, then it is not a certainty that your spellchecker will catch it. Another problem with spellchecker is that you might have a correctly spelled word (let’s say “boost”) when actually you wanted a totally different word (like “boast”). And what about horror words like lose and loose? Your spellchecker might blithely sail over these typographical faux pas without so much as a beep.

You must then practice the age-old process of reviewing and rereading your own work. This, surprisingly enough, can almost be as dangerous as relying on your spellchecker as your sole means of review. There are probably ten scientific terms for what happens in your brain when you reread your own work, but the simplified version is that you are “too close” to your own work. Your brain “knows” what it is you wanted to write and it can cunningly pretend that it “sees” the right words.

It is your “short-term memory” (STM) that creates this phenomenon. Somewhere in your brain, some series of synapses get loaded with the text you wrote in your head before your brain transferred it to your fingers and into the keyboard. If you create text like I do, extemporaneously, then your fingers are flying over the keyboard, lagging slightly behind your brain’s capacity to think up the words. So, your STM is being pre-loaded with all the right words, but it’s not a given that all the right words got banged out on the keyboard. If you review your own work too soon after it is written, then rather than opening up a new file and recording what is actually written, your brain will re-open its STM file and “read” the text from there. Your eyes will be “reading” the text—but it’s only for appearance’s sake.

In order to maximize the likelihood that you will catch your own errors, omissions, and other verbal faux pas, you must let your STM “dump” (it’s not called “short-term” for nothing!). After you have completed your text, or the section on which you are working, you need to get away from it. Leave the computer. Go mow the grass. Rearrange your sock drawer. Watch a movie. Sleep. Do anything other than work on that text. Give it at least an hour; the more time you can allow between writing and rereading, the better.

There are a few other tips that will help you to maximize the time you spend proofreading your own work. Before you start to proofread, however, do yourself a big, huge, you-may-be-glad-you-did favor: Make a copy of the file and rename it “1st version” (or something snappy like that), save it to your hard drive, burn it to a CD, or put it on a disk. This will be your safeguard against you hitting some fatal combination of keys that makes your whole file go **poof** and disappear (and we’ve all had that happen…be honest). Now you are ready to start proofreading.

First, as stated, you need to put some time and mental distance in between you and the text you just finished writing. If at all possible, do something other than work on any text at all. Really give yourself a mental break. Second, when you sit down to proofread, don’t read the text from start to finish. Pick and choose paragraphs or sections, and read the text haphazardly. This will help your brain to further ignore any lingering STM you might have. If your brain “stumbles” over a particular sentence, then read it aloud. That’s right, put your index finger right under each word, and say the sentence out loud. Read it slowly. If there is actually some grammatical error, then this method should let you actually hear what is wrong (maybe the tense is wrong, or you are missing a conjunction, or—heaven forbid—you left a participle dangling!).

Third, and if you have the luxury of plenty of time, leave your text again and come back to it in another couple of hours. Then you can read the whole document start to finish. Look for text flow; read for context and content. You’ll be surprised at the small tweaks you will still be making. Next, run spellchecker. There’s little sense in running spellchecker before you do your own proofreading since there is the chance that while doing your proofreading and making corrections, you may be inadvertently creating new errors.

When you think you have a final draft, and if you are not having your text professionally proofread or edited, have someone else read it for you. Doesn’t really matter who—just corral a friend and get a pair of objective eyes to read through it. Make sure you are prepared for that person to point out some final flaws (and correct the errors and say “Thank you” and get over the fact that you left a mistake). Once you’ve made these corrections, run spellchecker again. In fact, I advise that you run spellchecker every time you change or correct your “final” version.

There is just one last piece of advice about this process of proofreading your own work. At some point, you have to stop. You could probably tweak that document another couple of hundred times, but resist the temptation. If you follow the process I’ve outlined above, then you should have a really “final” draft. Don’t be tempted to reread it again and again. You’ll only start to second guess yourself, and make yourself crazy in the process.

Written communication skills are now in demand because increasingly more business is done via the Web and the Internet. Schools, colleges, and universities are scrambling to re-introduce critical thinking and writing skills into their curricula. More people are starting to work out of their home office and are communicating with business partners and associates via email. The written word, therefore, is becoming more important than it ever was. By using these tips, you can make sure your written words really say what you mean for them to say.

For more articles about writing and grammar, please visit Jan’s Free Content, Grammar and Writing, at: http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/#Grammar_and_Writing:

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance proofreader and copyeditor. Visit http://www.jansportal for more information about Jan’s proofreading and copyediting services and Jan's other free resources. Please visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.

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