Do you feel like a writer? What would it take?

Feeling Like a Fraud

by Moira Allen, Editor of Writing-World.com

Reprinted with permission by Joyce L. Shafer

http://newwritertips.blogspot.com/

"I wish I was a real author. I truly do." "I'm sure true authors do not work like this." "I still feel like a fraud."

Do you ever have thoughts like these? Do you, in the dark of night, whisper them to your pillow, or scrawl them in a locked journal? Do you occasionally confide them to other writers? Have you, perhaps, even whispered them (if e-mail can be said to whisper) to me?

If so, you're probably assuming that the opening lines of this editorial came from a writer much like yourself. Probably, you're thinking, some other reader has written to Your Intrepid Editor with a question much like that which haunts your own thoughts: "Why do I feel like such a fraud? When will I feel like a 'real' writer?" And, indeed, Your Intrepid Editor has read similar statements in other writers' newsletters, blogs, and, yes, personal e-mails.

But I did not stumble across those lines in the newsletter or blog of a writer "much like myself" or, perhaps, "much like yourself." (OK, I'm making an assumption about YOU - I can only say with confidence that this writer is, statistically speaking, not so much like me.) They did not arrive in a heartfelt e-mail from a struggling writer seeking to affirm his or her identity.  

OK, enough suspense. The person who wrote those lines was none other than Terry Pratchett ("A Slip of the Keyboard"). Now, if you already know the name, little more need be said. If you do not - Terry Pratchett is "currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US" (Wikipedia). He's actually SIR Terry Pratchett, having been knighted in 2009 for "services to literature." He has sold over 85 million books worldwide.

Well, all right - even someone who goes on to sell 85 million books and receive a knighthood for literature probably had doubts early on, right? Um, Probably. But Pratchett didn't write those lines back in the early 1980's, when he might indeed have wondered whether Discworld would "catch on."  He wrote them in 2004, when, by his own estimation, he'd sold 45 to 50 million books (and was already an OBE, if not yet a knight). Yet he could still say, with complete sincerity, that he felt like a fraud.

My first thought was that if, after 50 million books, Terry Pratchett could feel like a fraud, what hope was there for the rest of us? For I do, indeed, hear many writers say the same thing - including writers whose productivity makes me feel as if I must be spending most of my days in a hammock sipping daiquiris. So why DO we (and I do mean "we") feel this way?

I'm sure therapists could have a field day with the question. For myself, however, I believe the feeling stems from two inter-related causes that are common to nearly all serious writers.  

The first is an inborn love of books. Chances are, you're a writer because, first and foremost, you are, and have always been, a reader. You may not even remember a time when you didn't love books. Perhaps you can remember not only the books that meant the most to you, but even where you were when you read them for the first time! I can still remember the first time I read Mary Stewart's "The Hollow Hills," or E. Nesbit's "The Railway Children," or Tolkien's "The Hobbit," or the way my sister and I practically fought over the right to be the first to read the latest James Herriott. More importantly, I can still remember the feelings of wonder and amazement and - for lack of a better word - EXPANSION - that these books evoked. Reading was sheer magic. If you know what I'm talking about, I don't need to explain it; if you don't, there's no way that I CAN explain it.

The authors of such books seemed to me, and I suspect to many of us, to be scarcely less than gods. How could mere mortals create such worlds, such magic, such wonder? Books took us by the hand and led us places we had never gone or even imagined, opened our minds to ideas that we could never have conceived alone. They didn't simply change our lives; they molded our lives.  

As we took our own first fledgling steps as "writers," that view of "authors" as distant, godlike beings with amazing powers never left us. We might, if we were lucky, MEET the "greats," and perhaps gain an autograph, but live and walk amongst them? Hardly! "Real" writers, "real" authors existed in some distant galaxy. They were not common clay like us.  

Herein lies the first problem. Think for a moment about the book that meant the most to you at some point in your life, a book that you'll always keep on your shelf - perhaps a book you don't even need to read anymore because you have it stored in your heart. Think for a moment what it meant to you and why. Now... Imagine yourself being the AUTHOR of that book. Imagine that it was YOU who created those words, those worlds - you who made such a difference in the lives of your readers.

Not so easy to do, is it?

Now for the second root. Because we admire "real" authors so much, most of us have sought avidly for any bits of advice, nuggets of information, or pearls of wisdom that such authors might cast in the paths of humble would-be writers like ourselves. And many authors DO like to dispense advice. This one writes out scenes on 3x5 cards. That one gets up at 5 a.m. every morning and writes 500 words before breakfast. Another has a rule of writing a certain number of words every day, no matter what. One keeps a dream journal; another carries a tape recorder everywhere. Over time, we build up a mental picture of what "real" writers DO - and what, perhaps, we DON'T.  

Meanwhile, we go through life acting like everyday humans - scratching, sneezing, scooping the cat litter, and, quite often, writing stuff that makes us think perhaps we would have been better suited for a high-tech career in ditch-digging. Whatever we do, we know we're NOTHING like the idols who shaped our lives through the books we adored. And if we're nothing like them, how can we be "real" writers?  

Of course, there are plenty of would-be writers who don't share these feelings of angst in the least. There are those who have scarcely read a book, and pay little heed to the advice offered by "experts." They are also, quite often, those who pay little heed to such trivial matters as grammar, punctuation, spelling or plot - but as they often point out, that's what editors are for! Based on some of the e-mails I receive, however, such writers have no difficulty convincing themselves that they are "real" writers (their main complaint generally being that they haven't, thus far, been able to convince anyone ELSE).

If my theory is correct, then, what gets in the way of "feeling" like a "real writer" is a lifetime of being a "real reader." It's the avid, "don't stand between me and a book" reader who harbors these impressions of authors as being larger than life, impossibly greater than thee and me. But notice that I used the word "feeling" in that opening sentence. Being a "real reader" may,
indeed, help keep one from "feeling" like a "real writer." It doesn't prevent one from actually BEING one.  

If Terry Pratchett can sell 85 million books and get knighted without feeling like a "real" writer, then it seems to me that perhaps I don't have much to worry about. "Just get on with it," I suspect he'd say. In fact, it's rather liberating to realize that, at the end of the day, I don't actually HAVE to "feel" like a "real writer" at all. It doesn't matter. Because Pratchett has taught
me one more thing about "real" writers: 

REAL writers, quite often, feel like frauds!

Copyright 2015 Moira Allen

Moira Allen is the editor of Writing-Wrold.com ( http://www.writing-world.com ) and the author of more than 350 published articles. Her books on writing include Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer, The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, and Writing to Win: The Colossal Guide to Writing Contests.

Setting the Scene: Fiction and Non-Fiction (and Memoirs)

Scene setting, whether that’s for fiction or non-fiction, which includes memoir, is all-important to give readers a sense of time and place as they read. And, you want to provide setting early in each scene or segment, and as you go.

You can provide scene setting through narrative, as well as dialogue. And you need to provide the setting each time characters shift from one scene to another. You never want to leave readers “wandering in the dark,” with no idea where they, through the characters (or the non-fiction writer), are or should be. When you write in first person, your main character (or you as the “star of your show”) provides this information. In third person, the narrator (you) does this.

Here’s a two-paragraph example of first-person fiction from best-selling author James Lee Burke (indents removed for my publishing purposes):

I drove home at 5 p.m. and parked my pickup truck under the porte cochere attached to the shotgun house where Molly and I live in what is called the historical district of New Iberia. Our home is a modest one compared to the Victorian and antebellum structures that define most of East Main, but nonetheless it is a beautiful old place, built of cypress and oak, long and square in shape, like a boxcar, with high ceilings and windows, a small gallery and peaked tin roof, and ventilated green shutters that you can latch over the glass during hurricane season.

The flower beds are planted with azaleas, lilies, hibiscus, philodendron, and rosebushes in the sun and caladiums and hydrangeas in the shade. The yard is over an acre in size and covered with pecan trees, slash pine, and live oaks. The back of the property slopes down to the Teche, and late at night barges and tugboats with green and red running lights drone heavily through the drawbridge at Burke Street on their way to Morgan City. At early dawn there is often ground fog in the trees and on the bayou, and inside it you can sometimes hear a gator flopping or ducks wimpling the shallows.

Burke’s setting gives you a good sense of his home and property and the neighborhood. You can practically see the plants and trees—smell the flowers and appreciate their varied colors and shapes. You can easily imagine yourself lying in bed there at night with the windows open, hearing the sounds created by nature and man.

Setting the scene also allows you to either play out a scene as it happens or summarize what happened, say, the previous night, rather than playing out the scene from the previous night. When this is done, it’s important that whatever is conveyed moves the present story forward. Here’s an example:

Mack’s eyes opened. It took a few seconds for him to remember where he was—he groaned. At the restaurant the night before, Karla had returned to the table and packed up her food in silence. The ride in the pickup truck to the motel was made in silence. She’d carried her small duffle bag and took her room key from him, again, in silence then slammed her motel room door, causing several people to stick their heads out of their own doors to see what was going on and to frown at Mack.

Although the scene above wasn’t played out in “real-time,” you can easily grasp mood; that something happened at the restaurant the previous night, something that caused Karla to stop speaking to Mack—which is unlike her usual chatty self, and to express her feelings by slamming her room door with a great deal of energy. You get enough information to picture a single-story motel at night in your mind, cars parked in front of rooms, doors opening and people looking out to see what’s going on. You even get a sense of what the rooms may be like, based on your own experiences possibly, even though the interior isn’t mentioned.

Time of day and days of the week are something most stories benefit from including as part of scene setting. We all relate to time and timing. The way to do this is to have a system for tracking these. You don’t want to get confused or confuse readers about how much time has passed, or get so confused (or careless) that you mess it up and cause readers to think, “Hey, wait a minute.” I’ve worked with clients who did not pay attention to time and timing, and even as the editor, I had no sense of when (time of day or time intervals) events happened. This can cause the writer to have a character go outside to get something from his car in the morning, which takes just a few minutes, and then suddenly it’s nearly midnight, with no transition provided to justify the time leap. Hours disappear at random, not as part of the plot, but because the writer wasn’t paying attention to the plot and timing thread.

Sometimes the simplest way to start to set a scene is to give the time of day or tell how much time as passed. Examples include:

• It was 9 a.m., and Mary was still asleep.
• Marcus parked his car in front of their house and dialed Mary’s cell phone number. Ten minutes later, Mary, breathless from rushing, got into his car.
• Three minutes after Marcus and Mary headed south on Main Street, their house exploded, sending orange and blue flames and a black cloud of smoke over the treetops, and car alarms screeching.

Here’s a three-paragraph example of setting scene while the characters are directly involved, which is from a novel by Elizabeth George. It’s British, so some of the terms are different—boot rather than trunk (of a car) and torch rather than flashlight, and towards rather than toward, for example. You can see how E. George creates setting as she moves these two characters closer to their destination (indents removed for my publishing purposes).

Robin slowed his Escort perhaps a half mile beyond this village. When he made a right turn, it was into a lane so narrow and overgrown that Barbara knew she would not have been able to distinguish it from the rest of the night-shrouded landscape had she been alone. This lane began to rise quickly towards the east, bound on one side by the glitter of wire fencing, bound on the other by a line of silver birches. The roadway was potted by craters. And the field beyond the fencing was knotted by weeds.

They came to a break in the birches, and Robin turned into it, onto a track that jostled them over boulders and through ruts. The trees were thick here but shaped by generations of wind; they loomed over the track like sailors bending into a storm.

The track ended at a fence of wire and posts. To their right, an old rail gate hung at an angle like a listing boat, and it was to this gate that Robin led Barbara, after rooting through the Escort’s boot and bringing out a torch, which he handed over to her. He himself took out a camping lantern, slinging it over his arm and saying, “It’s just this way.”

Look at how much is provided in this example above: the characters involved, the car they’re riding in, distance, and lay of the land. When the driver makes turns, you make the turns as well. In your imagination, you create a narrow lane with potholes and ruts and overgrowth on both sides of the car. You know it’s nighttime, and that’s they’re in a remote area. When the lane rises, you can relate to what that feels and looks like. Re-read those paragraphs and see how much of the setting plays out in your mind. Feel the mood of how this scene is set. Even if you don’t know the whole story, you can tell it’s not a lighthearted or comedic experience. Is there anything you think you’d remove from this scene because it’s extraneous? I’m willing to say, “Likely not.” George set the scene well. It’s crisp and concise and informative, without too much detail.

Can you see how, why, when, and how much setting may be necessary to make a fiction or non-fiction—including a memoir book a more engaging read? It’s all story. And story is what readers look for, no matter the genre or topic of a book.

I wish you the best with your writing and progress.

Need a Book Doctor or an incentive to write or complete your manuscript? Let Joyce L. Shafer be your writing coach, developmental editor, or provide a critique. Details about her services at http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

Characters and Dialogue

A novel, and even a memoir, will have characters and dialogue. You want to make sure dialogue is easy to read, sounds natural, and does what it’s meant to.

Good character development in fiction includes making characters’ voices so distinctive that readers can tell who’s talking without attributes. I’m not saying that’s required or suggested (see an example at the end), just that it’s a good ideal to keep in mind. What I mean by “voice” is what a character says and how s/he says it. How do you accomplish this, you ask? Know your characters well.

A character’s voice will be influenced by education or lack of it; their past and current place in society; region where they grew up; prejudices; and desires for themselves and their lives. What drives a character will drive their thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. Fictional characters, just as real people, are molded by the environment where they grew up and currently find themselves in. This is colored by personal and indoctrinated beliefs and personal intentions, as well as the vernacular and familiar sayings they heard while growing up and may still hear or use. Yet, even if a number of your characters grew up in the same area, culture, or even home, they will still each have a distinctive voice when they think, speak, or write. Each character’s attitude is as unique and distinctive as each real person’s is.

Once you get the voice down for each character, you then need to focus on dialogue that goes on between characters. Dialogue is a great way to provide information to other characters (and readers) rather than use exposition/narrative to do this. Dialogue needs to move everything and everyone forward and must never drag characters, plot, and pace down.

Dialogue reveals the relationship between characters: Good, bad, or indifferent. Dialogue makes characters come to life on the pages so it must be realistic and come across as natural for each character. This is where dialogue can get tricky. You see, it has to sound natural, but cannot mimic the way people actually speak with all their um’s, uh’s, oh’s, wow’s, okay’s, and so forth (junk words), especially at the starts of dialogue sentences. This is how people speak, but it makes dialogue in novels clunky, tedious, and tiresome.  

Real people may start and stop when they speak, but fictional characters should be allowed minimal opportunity (or reason) to do that. Dialogue that mimics the way many people speak would wear a reader out, not to mention use up page space (in an annoying way) and drag plot and character development, and pace, way down. That’s not good. The exception is if you have a character that is a teen or from a social culture that, like, you know, like, uses a lot of, you know, words like, you know, “like” and “you know.”

Along with giving each character a distinctive voice and making all dialogue sound natural, you need to be certain that ALL dialogue reveals more about what a character is thinking, feeling, and doing as well as moves the plot forward. It must also convey what’s happening in a particular scene and only that scene, but must always relate to the plot (no scene should be included that doesn’t relate to plot and/or character development in some significant way). Dialogue lets you build tension, as needed. If any dialogue does not fulfill these functions, you need to either rewrite it or delete it.

Even with characters’ distinctive voices, what they say needs to be succinct, and fit their personality. A character that is an adventurous type or thrill-seeker is not going to speak the same way a shy character or one who has a deep feeling of duty and responsibility will. It’s also important to realize that people don’t always say precisely what they feel or mean. Often, people speak in subtext, that is, in a roundabout manner, rather than directly to the point. Subtext dialogue demonstrates what is actually going on between two or more characters. You’ve seen this before: A man and woman snipe at each other for pages and pages, the tension builds, and then they kiss, go on a date, or hop into the sack. Despite what their dialogue included, feelings of love or lust were building under the surface of what they said. Of course, it could be apathy or rage that’s building through subtext. The thing to remember with subtext is that you want to demonstrate it through what is said and not through attributions, also known as tag lines (e.g., he said with anger/she said with great passion).

When it comes to attributions/tag lines the simpler the better. Words like said, asked, answered, and replied do something remarkable and wonderful in a novel: They disappear for readers so that only what’s said or asked registers in their minds. You can use other words like moaned, groaned, shouted, sneered, and so forth if they truly add to the dialogue moment. Just know they’ll draw attention to themselves, which means that for even a brief moment (maybe longer), you’ll pull readers out of the reading experience—out of the movie in their minds—in order to focus on how you want them to hear what was said and interpret mood. It’s better if you use words and actions (things characters do while they speak so they aren’t taking heads on a page) that convey mood.

Dialogue may also lead you to deal with dialect. There’s a school of thought that you should indicate dialect then avoid using phonetic and misspelled words afterwards so that writing and reading it is not tedious. And yet we have success stories like Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn written entirely in dialect. And, which Harry Potter fan can imagine Hagrid speaking without dialect. It’s recommended that you suggest dialect rather than use it throughout the manuscript, but use your best judgment about this. If done well, and you feel it’s important for the story, it will add to the story in the way you intend. If you intend to submit to agents, they’ll let you know if they believe it works or not (but listen to your gut—again, imagine if Rowling’s agent had said to get rid of Hagrid’s dialect or if Huck Finn spoke like a well-educated lad). If you decide to use dialect throughout, create a list for yourself so that each time you use words, you’re consistent with the misspellings, and manners of speech.

One more thing about dialogue: Avoid overuse of characters’ names, both in dialogue and in attributions. Make it clear initially who is speaking and use names only if truly needed. You don’t want dialogue to read as follows:

“Hi, Mark. How’s it going today?” Sally said.

“Hi, Sally. It’s going well,” Mark replied.

“Have you had lunch yet, Mark?” Sally asked.
“No, Sally. I haven’t, but I was thinking about it,” Mark answered.

Better:

“Hi, Mark. How’s it going today?” Sally said.

“It’s going well.”

“Have you had lunch yet?”

“No, but I was thinking about it.”

Or:

“Hi, Mark. How’s it going today?”

“Hi, Sally. It’s going well.”

“Have you had lunch yet?”

“No, but I was thinking about it.”

These are not examples of stimulating dialogue, but they get the point across. Because of the way the first sentence or first two sentences are set up, you have no problem tracking who’s speaking. And keep in mind what I said: no talking heads. Even though these examples don’t provide actions for the characters, give them some actions, even small ones, while they speak. Sally might pause and shuffle her feet or fiddle with her hair or pick up something of Mark’s and put it back before or after she asks if he’s had lunch. Mark might lean back in his chair when Sally first speaks to him or before he answers her.

Have fun with your characters and what they say as they and you move your story from one moment and scene to the next and the plot forward to its rewarding conclusion.

I wish you the best with your writing and progress.

Need a Book Doctor or an incentive to write or complete your manuscript? Let Joyce L. Shafer be your writing coach, developmental editor, or provide a critique. Details about her services at http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

How to Develop Strong Characters

People fall in love with novels because of the characters.

Plot development is important, but action and events, alone, cannot hold readers’ interest or keep them interested in a series that involves one or more characters the books are based on. Readers want characters they can feel something about, whether that’s kinship, admiration, empathy, enjoyment—whatever causes them to relate to characters and care about what happens to them or be curious about them. Even antagonists are attractive to readers because they want to know what happens to them: Do they, in the end, get what they deserve, or are they, perhaps, transformed. Characters influence events and events influence characters. Events cause characters to grow and change as the plot develops; sometimes events cause characters to falter or struggle. Either way, this character dynamic is something readers expect to happen. This is how readers learn more about characters they develop a relationship with over time, and what makes characters real to readers.

Characters need to have conflict—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or psychological. They need to be confused at times and have not-nice stuff happen to them, otherwise they are dull—they are cardboard characters—and you never want that to happen. Interesting characters keep readers turning pages and looking forward to the next book in the series, if a series is part of your plan. Conflict that causes characters to experience a process and seek and or find a resolution holds readers’ attention and builds their ability to become attached to characters.

For characters to be more “real,” they have to be flawed. They need to demonstrate who they are through their distinctive words and actions. This means you have to really know your characters so you stay true to who they are when they speak, feel, react, and act—even through what they do when you let them have a quiet or serene moment (but just a brief one, of course). What helps is to create a character sketch for each character. The more significant the character, the more detailed you want his or her sketch to be. You can either create a list that you refer to or write the sketch in essay form to refer to—whatever works best for you. This way, not only do you stay true to them, you keep them true to themselves. Readers will expect this of you.

Here’s a guide you can use for such sketches:

• Character’s name (make sure it fits the personality):
• Occupation (including unemployed) and/or sideline:
• Height:
• Weight:
• Gender (this could also include sexual preference):
• Marital status:
• Children:
• Parents/Siblings:
• Age (be sure to note in your sketch which year the character is that age so that the next story they are included in has their age matching the time period that’s passed since the last story they were included in):
• Birth date (lets you keep track of their age, match their age to events in recent history, and even know their astrological sign so you can pull characteristics from there, as well, if you think that will assist you):
• Birthplace:
• Hair (color, length, cut or style, balding, bald):
• Attire (casual, work, formal, favorite garment—if any):
• Body (athletic, lean, heavy, obese, flabby, corpulent, slender, hourglass, broad-shouldered, curves in the right places, narrow-waisted, long-waisted, short-waisted, pot-bellied, six-pack abs, slender neck, neck as wide as head, neck proportional to head):
• Footwear (casual, work, formal—favorite footwear, if any):
• Face (long, round, oval, triangular, heart-shaped, square, rectangular, square-jawed, pointed jaw, weak-chinned, high cheekbones, full lips (or thin or medium, bow-shaped, straight line when angry, etc.):
• Nose (pointed, upturned, pug, wide, bump on bridge, flat, etc.):
• Eyes (color—includes shades of blue or green, brown, gray, hazel green, hazel brown (gold). Shape—small, average, large, almond, slanted, squinty, close-set, wide-set, etc.):
• Physical peculiarities, if any:
• Body language and poses (how they stand, sit, walk, run, hold their head when speaking or thinking or angry, etc.):
• Arms (muscular, slim, spindly, hairy, hairless, etc.):
• Legs (same as arms):
• Home (where it is; what it looks like inside and out—what’s in each room—furniture, appliances [fridge—and what’s in it or isn’t, stove, computer, laptop, phones, Jacuzzi, etc.], furnishings, fireplace—maybe more than one. Possessions are a clue to lifestyle and personality and even history, e.g., family antiques):
• Favorite room (which it is, where it is, what’s in it, what the character feels when in it):
• View out of the windows:
• Habits (what they do—good or bad—which may include smoking, drinking, nail biting, etc.; what they like—or shouldn’t; what they don’t do but should (exercise, sleep enough, eat right, etc.):
• Vehicle/s (autos, boats, motorcycles, bikes, etc.—make, model, year, color, horsepower, etc.—do they drive a clunker, a classic, or base choices on utility or budget?):
• Motive/s: (What does the character want most in life? What is the character’s core need? How does the character want to feel about himself/herself? How does the character actually feel about himself/herself? What drives the character?):
• Past (What’s in the character’s past that may surface at an appropriate time, place, and manner in one or more scenes (or in a later book)—and contribute to the development of the character and the plot?):
• Significant event that molded the character:
• Significant event that illustrates the character’s personality:
• Educational background:
• Home environment they grew up in:
• Best friend:
• Enemies:
• Ambition in life:
• Gestures s/he makes when talking:
• Gait (short steps, long steps, limps, walks fast, ambles, slinks, hunched shoulders, straight posture?):
• Strongest character trait:
• Weakest character trait:
• Laughs or jeers at:
• Philosophy for life:
• Political leaning (if any):
• Hobbies (if any):
• Meticulous about appearance or sloppy:
• What others notice first about him/her:
• What the character does when alone:
• Are readers supposed to like/dislike this character:
• Does s/he change in the story? How?

Like us, characters are what they read, eat, drink, wear, think, and do. When you know your characters intimately, you’re better able to show, not tell readers about characters. Like us, characters have specific behaviors for their internal and external selves and lives. Their behaviors contribute to and drive plot. Readers won’t mind if a character occasionally surprises them—in fact, they’ll enjoy it, if it’s appropriate to the plot development, but they’ll want even such surprises to be in character.

Have fun developing your characters. Doing this ahead of writing the first draft will assist you with plot development as well, though that is a different topic I’ll cover in the near future, because you don’t have to figure out what your characters will do or how they’ll behave as you write—you know this ahead of time—even if your characters surprise you, which can happen, especially if they’re real to you too.

I wish you the best with your writing, process, and progress.

Joyce Shafer

“Editor, Joyce Shafer. What can I say? Simply put, no Joyce, no book. Part editor, part coach, part teacher, Joyce was absolutely phenomenal throughout the entire editing process. Working with Joyce was like taking a graduate course in writing with your all-time favorite teacher and you were the only student. I just can't say enough good things. Allow me a shameless plug for her services at http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/ ~ Eric Berbig, Author of The People’s Will

Are you a writer or an author?

Here’s something from author Elizabeth George about writing:

“Lots of people want to have written; they don’t want to write.  In other words, they want to see their name on the front cover of a book and their grinning picture on the back. But this is what comes at the end of the job, not at the beginning. To reach that end, you have to be willing just to set it aside, knowing that it may never happen at all but not much caring because it’s the writing that matters to you; it’s the mystery and the magic of putting words on paper that are truly important. If you don’t feel this way, then you want to be an author, not a writer.

Authors are those guys who hope to get rich quick with a big sale to a big publisher followed by a lucrative movie deal. They write the same novel over and over and they declare at the beginning of their careers that if they don’t get published, they’ll give it up.

Writers, on the other hand, are those guys who’d write anyway. They have to breathe, after all. They have to live.”

Proper Use of Abbreviations in Fiction and Nonfiction

In this day and age of texting, people are becoming adept at using abbreviations. However, this is not appropriate, for the most part, when writing fiction or nonfiction, unless your characters have dialogues that involve texting.

You have to spell out the words. For example, if you want your character to drive a vehicle or motorcycle fast, you might be tempted to write… Jake put the pedal to the metal. His bike lurched forward. Soon he was cruising at 95 MPH. But, that wouldn’t be correct. You need to say he was cruising at ninety-five, believing your readers know you mean at what speed; or write that the numbers on the speedometer hit ninety-five; or write that he was cruising at ninety-five miles per hour. [Notice that 95 became spelled out, as well. Numbers under 100 are to be spelled out, unless other numbers in the same paragraph are 100 or higher.] It’s the same for other words people tend to abbreviate, like pounds (lbs.), number (#), and so on.

Technical writing and nonfiction still have rules, but you can use common abbreviations. You must spell the words out the first time and show the abbreviation in parentheses next to it. Example: RAdio Detection And Ranging (Radar) or Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Once you do this, don’t go back and forth between use of the full term and the abbreviation—use the abbreviation, unless it is used at the start of a sentence.

What about Addresses?

When an address is part of text, spell it out: Avenue, Boulevard, Building, Circle, Court, Drive, Lane, Parkway, Place, Road, Square, Street, Terrace. Also spell out directions that are part of an address, like North, South, East, and West (e.g., South Parkway). You don’t spell directions out when the address includes NW, NE, SE, SW (e.g. Aerie Parkway NE).

What about States?

Anytime you write a state name by itself, it should be spelled out (New York, not NY). When you write a state name after a city, it’s still preferred to be spelled out (Rome, Georgia)—except for the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.). However, some cities are so well known that the state or country does not need to be mentioned: New York City (you need to add “City” to clarify between the city and the state—or if you mean a particular borough of the city (there are five), use the specific one: Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens); Atlanta; New Orleans; San Francisco; Paris; London; etc.

I wish you the best with your writing, process, and progress.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers:

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4 steps to get your fiction, nonfiction, or memoir self-published or agent-ready that I can help you with:

1) Get your manuscript right,

2) Get it formatted,

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4) Get your book published and onto your retail page, Amazon, etc.

*Some publishing sites offer free book cover services, or maybe you know how to create one, or I have a reliable designer I can recommend.

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When a Sentence Begins with an Abbreviated Word Using an Apostrophe

Sometimes your characters speak in slanguage. This means one or more of them may not say something like Because at the start of a sentence—that’s too formal for them. So, you want to write it right.

If you read British novels, you see that they capitalize the first letter that comes after the apostrophe. Example: “’Cause I said so! That’s why.”

However, the American tradition now prefers that “c” to be lower case:  “’cause I said so! That’s why.”

It’s important to make sure you aim the apostrophe in the correct direction, which is toward the missing letter or letters.

To get this right, type

“Be’cause…”

Then delete the B and e: “’cause…”

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

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~Need a nudge or guidance to get your book written? The Chapter-by-Chapter Get-Your-Book-Written Writer’s Incentive Coaching Program can help!

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~What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

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Tips on Italics or Quotation Marks for Titles

It can be confusing to know what to do with titles when you include them in a manuscript or article. Here’s a guide you can copy and keep on hand.

Titles of…

• Works of Art – Quotation Marks
• Television and Radio Episodes – Quotation Marks
• Television Shows and Movies – Italics
• Song Titles – Quotation Marks
• Short Stories – Quotation Marks
• Ships, Trains, Airplanes, Spacecraft (names of) – Italics
• Plays – Italics
• Poems (long) – Italics
• Poems (shorter) – Quotation Marks
• Magazines, Newspapers, Journals – Italics
• Newspaper or Magazine Articles – Quotation Marks
• Chapter Titles – Quotation Marks
• CDs – Italics
• Books – Italics

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers

Find more helpful tips for new writers and writers who wish to self-publish in WRITE, GET PUBLISHED, AND PROMOTE (covers the basics for beginning writers—Also available on Nook) http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/jls1422

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes. Learn more about which services will assist you and your manuscript best at

http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

Are you a self-published author (or publishing-house author) who needs or wants your book reviewed and reviews published?

Self-Published Authors Book Review Service

http://Self-PublishedAuthorsBookReviews.weebly.com

Tips on Abbreviations in a Manuscript

It’s best to avoid abbreviations when you write, but sometimes you do need to use them. Here are some common instances to be aware of. Know that in nonfiction, there are technical terms that can be abbreviated, but the entire word or phrase must be spelled out in full the first time it’s used, with the letters in parentheses following. Example: This car accelerates to 70 miles per hour (MPH) in 6 seconds. Last year’s model of the same car accelerated to 55 MPH in 6 seconds.

First Words of Sentences

Sometimes a character’s dialogue line starts off with an abbreviated word that leaves off one or two first letters: Because might be ’cause instead. Example: “’cause I said so, that’s why.” Notice a few important things about this. The apostrophe represents the two missing letters, and it faces the direction of where the two letters are supposed to be. To get the apostrophe facing the right way, you can type ecause then insert the apostrophe (e’cause) and then delete the “e.” Also notice that the “c” of ’cause isn’t capitalized. This is because the apostrophe replaced the “Be”. 

Measurements, weights, or speed, and so forth: Spell it out.

Incorrect: I drove 40 MPH the entire way. Correct: I drove forty miles per hour the entire way. (See above for nonfiction use.)
Incorrect: He weighed 180 lbs. Correct: He weighed one hundred eighty pounds.
Incorrect: She finished 1^st in the race. Correct: She finished first in the race.

Addresses

Spell them out: Avenue, Boulevard, Court, Drive, Street, Lane, Parkway, Place, Square, etc. Also spell out North, South, East, and West—except when the address is NW, NE, etc., after the street name: Park Street NW.

State Names

Always spell out the state name when using it by itself. Incorrect: He’s live in FL for ten years. Correct: He’s lived in Florida for ten years.

Always spell out the state name when it follows the city, with two exceptions: Use D.C. rather than spell out District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) and leave out the state for cities that are well known enough to not require the state be included: Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, Las Vegas. Make sure the city you mean to use is quite clear (Athens, Greece vs. Athens, Georgia). And the first time you mean New York City, write it out that way so readers don’t confuse it with the state of New York. Or, you can be specific about which New York City borough you mean: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, or Staten Island.

Ampersand: Spell out the word “and” rather than use “&”—unless it’s part of a title, say, of a restaurant in your novel: Bob & Sam’s B-B-Q.

ID: It’s an abbreviation for one word—identification—so should never be written as I.D.

Sr., Jr., II, III, IV: Use a comma after the name when you refer to senior or junior, but not when you use Roman numerals (This is Samuel Jones, Sr., and walking toward us is Samuel Jones, Jr. The young fellow behind him is Samuel Jones III.)
There is a lot more to know about abbreviations in creative and formal writing, of course, but these are several common occurrences writers are sometimes unfamiliar with or confused by.

Find more helpful tips in WRITE, GET PUBLISHED, AND PROMOTE (covers the basics for beginning writers—Also available on Nook) http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/jls1422

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes. Learn more about which services will assist you and your manuscript best at

http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

Are you a self-published author (or publishing-house author) who needs or wants your book reviewed and reviews published?

Self-Published Authors Book Review Service

http://Self-PublishedAuthorsBookReviews.weebly.com

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers

Tips for Creating and Proofreading Your Manuscript Draft

Many writers impede their progress and stifle their creativity by not doing two particular “somethings” while writing their first draft and once their draft is completed—and waste time and energy by not doing them.

Author James Michener said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”

Writing the Draft

A writer can feel about a blank page of paper or computer screen the way an artist may feel about a blank canvas: stymied or hesitant to start. The way an artist gets going is to make a first stroke. Notice I didn’t say make “the” first stroke, but “a” first stroke. Write anything, even if it’s something like “I haven’t got a clue what to call this book, but I’ll figure it out eventually.” It’s more important to get your fingers typing or writing than to insist that what you write be perfect the first time (it likely won’t be).

It’s also best if you just write and keep on writing, without stopping to reread and edit what you’ve written, as tempting as that is. You can use up a lot of time and energy by writing, rereading, and editing the sentence or paragraph or chapter you just wrote (perhaps over and over). During the first creative writing course I took a few decades back, we had to read something we wrote aloud to the class. One participant read the first chapter of the book he was writing. It was brilliant, engaging, and well crafted. We enjoyed it so much that we begged him to read the second chapter to us at the next class. He admitted he had only the one chapter—and that he’d been working on it for two years. Two years! At that rate he’s probably still not finished.

Get your first draft written then focus on needed edits and revisions. Which leads me to…

The Best Way to Check Your First and Subsequent Drafts

• After you finish your first draft, print it out. You may want to double-space it first, if you believe you may need or prefer to have the extra space to make notes.
• Put the draft aside for one week. I’m serious. Mark a time on your calendar to work on your draft the following week and go do something else. If you happen to think of something to include or change, make a note on a piece of paper or a computer document, but DO NOT work on your draft.
• It’s now a week later and time to look at your draft. Find a place that’s comfortable, quiet, and where you can work as uninterrupted as possible or feasible.
• Get your draft copy and a pen or pencil and eraser.
• Read your draft aloud. I cannot emphasize enough how important and helpful doing this is. It makes a real difference. You need to hear how what you wrote sounds… because that’s how readers will hear it in the movie in their minds when they read your book. Reading your draft aloud—and not at a fast pace—not only lets you hear how what you’ve written sounds, but also brings typos, spacing, and other issues to your attention. You want to wear your editor hat, not your look-what-I-did!-author hat for this read-through.
• Makes notes on the pages and on the backs of the pages. Pay attention to indents, punctuation, content organization, and clarity, as well as creative aspects of what you’ve written. This may take more than one period of time to complete. Allow for this, but stay committed.
• Once you’ve done this process all the way through your manuscript, make the changes and revisions. This also may take more than one period of time to complete. Allow for this, but stay committed.
• Repeat this process for each revision until you feel it’s time to get either a reader you trust to read it and comment or get a developmental evaluation (critique) from someone who knows how to do this. Or you may feel it’s time to use the services of a developmental editor (or proofreader—if you’re genuinely confident about your technical skills) to polish it and or bring your attention to anything you may need to be aware of. Whichever one of these next steps you take, you’ll need to repeat the process for going through your revised draft.
• Once you feel your draft is a final one, after you’ve made your latest revisions and tweaks, let your proofreader or editor proofread it one more time. Too often I have self-published clients who skip this step, only to see “oopsies” that could have been taken care of before the book went into print.

A few other tips that will benefit you are…

Work on your manuscript every day (or at least 5-6 days a week), even if one hour is all you have that day. If all you have is five minutes a day, use it. You can find a number of authors who’ve shared that this daily incremental writing pattern is how they got their books written. An hour (or five minutes) a day gets it written faster than zero minutes of writing a day.

Take needed breaks! Writing, proofreading, and revising use brain energy. If you feel your energy flagging, pause for a refresher break or start again the next day.

Find more helpful tips in WRITE, GET PUBLISHED, AND PROMOTE (covers the basics for beginning writers—Also available on Nook) http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/jls1422

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes. Learn more about which services will assist you and your manuscript best at

http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

Are you a self-published author (or publishing-house author) who needs or wants your book reviewed and reviews published?

Self-Published Authors Book Review Service

http://Self-PublishedAuthorsBookReviews.weebly.com

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers

Some Tricky Words for Writers

Let’s face it: Some words and their uses confuse us. We believe we know how to use them correctly, but that’s not always the case. Here are some commonly-used words that can be tricky for writers. (Also see the Blog post below, “Words Often Misused,” for other words that confuse writers.) Never hesitate to turn to a dictionary to confirm that the word you wish to use is the right one and is spelled correctly.

Acknowledgment/Acknowledgement: Each is spelled correctly, but the first version is for the U.S., while the second is for British use.

Acute/Chronic: Acute is used for a brief illness (disease) that reaches severity or crisis quickly. Chronic is used for a long-lasting illness or health condition.

Adrenalin/adrenaline: Adrenalin is capitalized and without the ending “e” and is used for the pharma version of adrenaline (not capitalized and with the “e” at the end), which is produced naturally by the body’s adrenal glands.

Aggravate/Irritate: Aggravate is used to indicate making something worse (If you don’t stop scratching, you’ll aggravate that rash); irritate is used to indicate annoyance (The noise you’re making is irritating me).

Alright/All right: All right is the correct version to use; alright is considered substandard English.

Alter/Altar: Alter means to modify or change; altar is a structure used in ceremonies, usually religious or spiritual in nature.

Amid/Amidst: Amid is used in the U.S.; amidst is British.

Among/Amongst: Among is used in the U.S.; amongst is British.

Among/Between: In the U.S., among is used when referring to more than two people or items (Divide these leaflets among the five of you); between is used when referring to two people or items (Settle this disagreement between you). British writing uses between, even when referring to more than two.

Amount/Number: Use amount when you can’t count something (No amount of kindess will please her). Use number when you can count whatever you refer to (The number of beers he’s had so far is six).

Anxious/Eager: Anxious is used to refer to anxiety, unease (I’m anxious about flying in bad weather); eager is used to refer to anticipation or expectancy (I’m eager for Jane’s plane to arrive).

Around/Round: Use around when referring to, well, going around something, like a street corner or a table. Use round when referring to a shape, gathering cattle, or rounding a number up or down.

Beside/Besides: Use beside to refer to alongside (He sat beside her). Use besides to indicate in addition to (What are you cooking besides a roast?).

Can not/Cannot: The correct use is cannot.

Continuous/Continual: Use continuous to indicate something is uninterrupted, has no break. Use continual to indicate repetition or something that happens over and over.

Dark/Darkened: Use dark to indicate having little or no light. Use darkened to indicate making something darker.

Every day/Everyday: Use every day to indicate that you mean each day (I go there every day). Use everyday to indicate something that is commonplace (Use this jacket for your everyday wear).

Gray/Grey: The preferred spelling in the U.S. is gray. British use tends to be grey.

Jeep/jeep: Use Jeep to indicate a brand of vehicle or a non-military vehicle. Use jeep when referring to a military vehicle (but not as a brand).

Fewer/Less: Use fewer to indicate things that you can count (There are fewer people at the meeting than last month), and less to refer to quantity (There was less paper in the photocopier than she thought).

Nauseate/Nauseous: Use nauseous to refer to causing nausea, and nauseated to mean once nausea has started.

Okay/O.K./OK: Each is acceptable. Just choose one form and be consistent about its use.

Prone/Prostrate: Use prone to indicate someone lying on their back, and prostrate to indicate someone lying on their stomach.

Slight/Sleight: Use slight to refer to a matter of degree, and sleight to refer to dexterity or deftness.

Tack/Tact: Use tack to refer to the item you use to keep papers and such in place on a board or wall—or as a nautical reference, and tact to indicate sensitivity.

That/Who: Use that to refer to a material object, organization, or a moment in time. Use who to refer to a person (It was Sally who showed up first / It was the plumber who turned off the water).

Throw/Throe: Use throw to indicate tossing something, and throe to indicate struggle or turmoil.

Toward/Towards: Use toward for U.S. writing. Towards is used in British writing.

Unbeknown/Unbeknownst: Use unbeknown for U.S. writing. Unbeknownst is a British usage.

Inexplicable/Unexplainable: Unexplainable is being used more and more, but inexplicable is the preferred word.

Who/Whom: Use who when you refer to someone doing the action (Jeff is who will speak first), and whom to refer to the person on the other end of an action—the recipient (Whom do you wish to speak with?).

Who’s/Whose: Use who’s as a contraction for who is (Who’s coming with me to the store?). Use whose to refer to possessive case (Whose bag is this?).

What Kind of Editing Will You Need?

Eventually, every manuscript needs an editor’s eyes. Learn more about which services will assist you and your manuscript best at

http://editmybookandmore.weebly.com/

Are you a self-published author who needs your book reviewed and reviews published?

Self-Published Authors Book Review Service

http://Self-PublishedAuthorsBookReviews.weebly.com

I wish you the best with your writing and process.

Joyce Shafer

Services for Writers