Aspiring autrhor Leslie Dow did a post on Savvy Authors today about being savvy in the business of writing called "What I Learned from Lori Wilde." Lori offers a write-a-novel-in-six-months class through Savvy U.that Leslie took and enjoyed a lot.
You can read Leslie's full post at Savvy Authors here.
Pearls from this post follow. Lori says, "Your writing is neither as bad as you fear nor as good as you hope." The truth is likely somewhere in between and can be controlled by hard work and perserverance in honing your craft. Writing is a businesss in which an author produces a product for the marketplace. You can produce the finest writing in the world, but if there's no market, you have no sale. Study and apply techniques from authors who are at the top of their genre. And network, even if you are the world's greatest introvert. It takes people besides ourselves sitting day in and out at your keyboard to succeed in this business!
Great tips to remind us that we can't write in a vaccuum.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
SEP's Character Description--Why I Think It Works
The reason I think this description (see post from earlier today) is so fantastic is that SEP describes our hero not by looks alone but by his looks as they relate to his personality.
--The heroine assumes there is something about him that proclaims he was not born into blue blood--but had a rough past.
--His hair color is the color of brown between a glass of Bud and a leather portfolio--he's surrounded by leather in his office, the glass of Bud she can picture him enjoying
--The other comments pertain to the obvious level of success he's attained, the hard work he does and his passion for it.
A description like this would never be possible on a first draft (at least for me). You really have to know your character spot on to do such a concise description like this!
--The heroine assumes there is something about him that proclaims he was not born into blue blood--but had a rough past.
--His hair color is the color of brown between a glass of Bud and a leather portfolio--he's surrounded by leather in his office, the glass of Bud she can picture him enjoying
--The other comments pertain to the obvious level of success he's attained, the hard work he does and his passion for it.
A description like this would never be possible on a first draft (at least for me). You really have to know your character spot on to do such a concise description like this!
How to Describe Your Hero (the Susan Elizabeth Phillips Way)
I've been doing a lot of judging lately--for the GH, for my local chapter contest. And a lot of editing on my own manuscript.
Here's what I'm noticing: a lot of writers, myself included, prefer dark haired heros with dark eyes.
After a while, how sick can you get of describing ebony, black as night, jet black, dark, brown, mysterious, black as midnight, exotic--you know what I mean. Seems like you just drain yourself (and thesaurus.com) of words to describe your hero's dazzling, ever-changing hair and eyes as you're writing him through the 300+ pages of your manuscript.
But then I read this. This passage is taken from page 7 of Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. What follows is the very first description of the hero, Heath Champion, also known as The Python, through the eyes of the heroine Annabelle Granger, who is just taking over her grandmother's matchmaking business. He does sports PR at the highest level--the same job as Jerry MacGuire. She first sees him sitting behind the desk in his very high-end office:
(I had to take a deep breath and stop reading after this paragraph. It just bowled me over!)
"He was square-jawed and tough, everything about him proclaiming a brash, self-made man--a roughneck who'd flunked charm school the first couple of times around but had finally gotten it right on the third pass. His hair was thick and crisp, its rich color a cross between a leather portfolio and a bottle of Bud. He had a straight, confident nose and bold dark eyebrows, one of which was bisected near the end with a thin pale scar. The firm set of his well-molded mouth proclaimed the low tolerance for fools, a passion for hard work that bordered on obsession, and possibly--although this might be her imagination--a determination to own a small chalet near St. Tropex before he was fifty. If it weren't for a vague irregularity to his features, he would have been unbearably gorgeous. Instead, he was merely drop-dead good-looking. What did a man like this need with a matchmaker?"
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Match Me If You Can
Writing like this is why SEP is a goddess!
What makes this different--what makes it stand-out writing?
(I'm going to come back later and tell you why I love this so much.)
Here's what I'm noticing: a lot of writers, myself included, prefer dark haired heros with dark eyes.
After a while, how sick can you get of describing ebony, black as night, jet black, dark, brown, mysterious, black as midnight, exotic--you know what I mean. Seems like you just drain yourself (and thesaurus.com) of words to describe your hero's dazzling, ever-changing hair and eyes as you're writing him through the 300+ pages of your manuscript.
But then I read this. This passage is taken from page 7 of Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. What follows is the very first description of the hero, Heath Champion, also known as The Python, through the eyes of the heroine Annabelle Granger, who is just taking over her grandmother's matchmaking business. He does sports PR at the highest level--the same job as Jerry MacGuire. She first sees him sitting behind the desk in his very high-end office:
(I had to take a deep breath and stop reading after this paragraph. It just bowled me over!)
"He was square-jawed and tough, everything about him proclaiming a brash, self-made man--a roughneck who'd flunked charm school the first couple of times around but had finally gotten it right on the third pass. His hair was thick and crisp, its rich color a cross between a leather portfolio and a bottle of Bud. He had a straight, confident nose and bold dark eyebrows, one of which was bisected near the end with a thin pale scar. The firm set of his well-molded mouth proclaimed the low tolerance for fools, a passion for hard work that bordered on obsession, and possibly--although this might be her imagination--a determination to own a small chalet near St. Tropex before he was fifty. If it weren't for a vague irregularity to his features, he would have been unbearably gorgeous. Instead, he was merely drop-dead good-looking. What did a man like this need with a matchmaker?"
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Match Me If You Can
Writing like this is why SEP is a goddess!
What makes this different--what makes it stand-out writing?
(I'm going to come back later and tell you why I love this so much.)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Top Ten Stories Announced in Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest
The top ten stories selected by popular vote in the Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest have just been posted by editor Laurel Ann Nattress--AND MINE IS ONE OF THEM!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHOM I TORMENTED MERCILESSLY OVER THE PAST TWO WEEKS TO VOTE FOR ME. AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO MAY HAVE LIKED IT WHO IS NOT RELATED TO ME. Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
CONGRATULATIONS, Everyone!!! Be sure to go to pemberley.com to read these stories--one will be selected for the Jane Austen anthology coming out this fall by Ballantine books! And don't forget the other 78 unique and creative stories still posted as well. All so well done!
The Top Ten stories listed alphabetically by author are:
54 - Sophy and the Armada, by K. Ann Adams
56 - The Love Letter, by Brenna Aubrey
25 - The Marrying of Margaret, by Tracie Banister
78 - Assuming: A Tale of Persuasion, by Hannah Cowan
23 - Carpe Diem, by Jane Greensmith
85 - Mary Bennett Falls Head Over Heels, by Jenni James
70 - The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen, by Miranda Liasson (THAT'S ME!!!)
31 - Attempting Elizabeth, by Jessica Melendez
04 - Spinning White Hair Gold, by Megan Snider
16 - Mr. Collins Last Supper, by Shannon Winslow
THANK YOU TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHOM I TORMENTED MERCILESSLY OVER THE PAST TWO WEEKS TO VOTE FOR ME. AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO MAY HAVE LIKED IT WHO IS NOT RELATED TO ME. Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
CONGRATULATIONS, Everyone!!! Be sure to go to pemberley.com to read these stories--one will be selected for the Jane Austen anthology coming out this fall by Ballantine books! And don't forget the other 78 unique and creative stories still posted as well. All so well done!
The Top Ten stories listed alphabetically by author are:
54 - Sophy and the Armada, by K. Ann Adams
56 - The Love Letter, by Brenna Aubrey
25 - The Marrying of Margaret, by Tracie Banister
78 - Assuming: A Tale of Persuasion, by Hannah Cowan
23 - Carpe Diem, by Jane Greensmith
85 - Mary Bennett Falls Head Over Heels, by Jenni James
70 - The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen, by Miranda Liasson (THAT'S ME!!!)
31 - Attempting Elizabeth, by Jessica Melendez
04 - Spinning White Hair Gold, by Megan Snider
16 - Mr. Collins Last Supper, by Shannon Winslow
Release Day for Tamara Hogan's Taste Me
A hero who experiences the world through TASTE? Who is also an incubus. And a heroine named Scarlett in a rock band called Scarlett's Web who is a siren, able to amplify emotional energy with her voice.
WOW.
Put these two together in a dangerous underworld and you've got 2009 GH Finalist Tamara Hogan's sizzling new debut novel, TASTE ME, a sexy, fast paced urban fantasy out from Sourcebooks TODAY.
I'm especially excited for Tammy because I've been following her progess over the past year and a half or so on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog--from GH winner to publishing contract to revisions to--waalah--gorgeous novel!
Read an interview with Tamara on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog here and visit her website here. And then run out and (or click to) buy her book! I can't wait to read it!
Congratulations, Tammy!!!
WOW.
Put these two together in a dangerous underworld and you've got 2009 GH Finalist Tamara Hogan's sizzling new debut novel, TASTE ME, a sexy, fast paced urban fantasy out from Sourcebooks TODAY.
I'm especially excited for Tammy because I've been following her progess over the past year and a half or so on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog--from GH winner to publishing contract to revisions to--waalah--gorgeous novel!
Read an interview with Tamara on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog here and visit her website here. And then run out and (or click to) buy her book! I can't wait to read it!
Congratulations, Tammy!!!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Voting ends tomorrow in the Jane Austen Short Story Contest at pemberley.com
You have until tomorrow at midnight Eastern time to vote for your favorite Jane Austen-related short stories at pemberley.com.
There are almost ninety! I'm still reading them all!!
My story is #70, The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen.
The top ten winners of the popular vote will be announced Tuesday.
Oh, and who are you rooting for tonight?!
There are almost ninety! I'm still reading them all!!
My story is #70, The Lost Portrait of Jane Austen.
The top ten winners of the popular vote will be announced Tuesday.
Oh, and who are you rooting for tonight?!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
What I Wish I Could Say to the GH Entrants I Judged
I've been judging contests for a couple of years, but this is the first time I volunteered to judge the Golden Heart, RWA's prestigious contest for new writers. There are over 1000 entrants or more per year, in ten categories, and the first-round judging is done by members all over the country.
No feedback is given in this contest--you simply get a list of six numerical scores, 1-9.
I long to give feedback to everyone, to tell them what exactly it was that made me score them as I did. I believe the purpose of contests is to mentor and teach--not to knock people down. But this contest does not give you the opportunity to do that. So...
Here's what I wish I could say to the entrants I had the honor of judging:
--Conflict drives a story and if you have no external conflict, but focus only on the internal, the reader soon becomes bored. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Don't replace your external conflict with strange, unlikely events that happen suddenly that would never happen in real life (unless you are writing paranormal). This is an attempt at trying to make the story exciting but it falls flat because it is forced. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Pacing has to be fast to keep your readers' attention. I think writers often lose track of pacing because we are so submerged into the story and want to be careful to explain many different things so as to not lose our readers. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Inserting emotions that are way over the top doesn't add excitement to the story. If the heroine squeaks, bursts, or prances, the reader can only wonder if she is human. AN EASY FIX!
--Does your heroine make bad decisions based on low self esteem that are hard to understand or are not explained well? The reader has to have immediate sympathy with your heroine and if she/he doesn't, it may be because the decisions she makes are not explained well. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS, TOO!
--If you are making jokes in your writing, they may fall flat. Humor is hard to write.
--One story had an incredible amount of heart but the writing had many flaws (and I don't mean grammar, etc. I mean story structure problems.) But the heart of the story was so good, I wished I could score it higher.
--What's the cure for all these things? Critique partners and Readers. Readers that read a lot of the genre you write in and feel free to tell you honestly, hey! this just did not sit well with me. Especially in the entry with a lot of heart, this writer will never know by numerical score how much possibility her entry has. That she can easily improve her story, polish it up and get it out there again.
--I am always amazed at how blind to my own story problems I become. The total immersion it takes to build a story world becomes blinding after a while. I had to force myself to let other people read my work, but you know what? It gets easier all the time. Because the only way to get better and better is to put yourself out there.
No feedback is given in this contest--you simply get a list of six numerical scores, 1-9.
I long to give feedback to everyone, to tell them what exactly it was that made me score them as I did. I believe the purpose of contests is to mentor and teach--not to knock people down. But this contest does not give you the opportunity to do that. So...
Here's what I wish I could say to the entrants I had the honor of judging:
--Conflict drives a story and if you have no external conflict, but focus only on the internal, the reader soon becomes bored. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Don't replace your external conflict with strange, unlikely events that happen suddenly that would never happen in real life (unless you are writing paranormal). This is an attempt at trying to make the story exciting but it falls flat because it is forced. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Pacing has to be fast to keep your readers' attention. I think writers often lose track of pacing because we are so submerged into the story and want to be careful to explain many different things so as to not lose our readers. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS!
--Inserting emotions that are way over the top doesn't add excitement to the story. If the heroine squeaks, bursts, or prances, the reader can only wonder if she is human. AN EASY FIX!
--Does your heroine make bad decisions based on low self esteem that are hard to understand or are not explained well? The reader has to have immediate sympathy with your heroine and if she/he doesn't, it may be because the decisions she makes are not explained well. BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS, TOO!
--If you are making jokes in your writing, they may fall flat. Humor is hard to write.
--One story had an incredible amount of heart but the writing had many flaws (and I don't mean grammar, etc. I mean story structure problems.) But the heart of the story was so good, I wished I could score it higher.
--What's the cure for all these things? Critique partners and Readers. Readers that read a lot of the genre you write in and feel free to tell you honestly, hey! this just did not sit well with me. Especially in the entry with a lot of heart, this writer will never know by numerical score how much possibility her entry has. That she can easily improve her story, polish it up and get it out there again.
--I am always amazed at how blind to my own story problems I become. The total immersion it takes to build a story world becomes blinding after a while. I had to force myself to let other people read my work, but you know what? It gets easier all the time. Because the only way to get better and better is to put yourself out there.
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