READY…SET…WRITE!
Getting Your Act Together

Reading voraciously from an early age is what inspired me to become a writer. The same can be said for many of my published friends. Many of you are also avid readers who dream of writing your own novel and seeing it published.

It takes a dream to become a published author. I’m a true believer in dreaming big and visualizing your dreams coming true, but the road to publication also requires a tremendous amount of work and self discipline. As with any other profession, you need to have all the prerequisites in place for your dream to become reality.

If you are reading this right now, you are literate and can most likely write, too. But do you have the necessary skills needed to keep your manuscript out of an editor’s “recycle” bin? No one decides to become a brain surgeon and then goes out and opens up someone’s head—unless of course she runs across a volunteer with a death wish! The same goes for writing. You have to have the know-how.
Do you have the basic grammar and punctuation skills you need? Have you ever taken a writing course or workshop?

If not, or if you feel the least bit rusty, you need to brush up on your skills before you begin.
I taught elementary school for nine years before I decided to pen my first full length novel. Though I started writing plays and poems and stories at a very early age, and had taken some journalism classes in high school--my B.A. degree is in History—not English. I enrolled in a local junior college extension night class that was fairly inexpensive and accessible. The class not only enabled me to refresh my skills, but taught me some things I’d never learned.

We covered point of view, (if you don’t know what that is, you definitely need some help) characterization, tone, and adding texture and description. For my end-of-the-term project, I made a commitment to myself to complete a historical romance novel.

After that initial class, I went on to enroll in a critique workshop. This second extension course was filled with adults with various degrees of writing skill and talent. The class was entertaining and eye-opening, and I learned a lot—not only about writers’ fragile egos, but about my own work and my own reaction to criticism. Not everyone in the class enjoyed reading historical romance—(or any romance, for that matter) especially the hard core leather clad biker and also the retiree who was writing a gritty, fictionalized version of his childhood experiences and his years in the Navy during WWII.

I learned to take criticism, to listen and make changes when I heard the same comment repeated more than twice (comments such as; this scene moves too slowly, or the character’s motivation isn’t clear, or this character just isn’t sympathetic enough).

Frank Gaspar, an accomplished poet and novelist himself, is a fabulous writing teacher. He taught us so much about adding texture to our work that I always credit him with the success of my first published novel, SUNFLOWER.

You notice I said first published novel. The very first novel I fully completed is still in a box under the bed. Since then, I’ve learned this is the case with many, many writers. They completed at least one, if not more, full length novels before the big call came and they were offered a contract. One friend of mine wrote ten books before she sold her first!

Read, Read, Read

Along with honing your writing skills, you should be reading anything and everything you can get your hands on.

If your dream is to publish in genre fiction—mystery, romance, science fiction, as well as sub-genres such as chick lit, and paranormal—then you should definitely be reading as many of those types of books as you can.
That’s not to say you should ignore the books that make the major bestseller lists such as the New York Times and the USA Today lists. The writers who are at the top of those lists might not be your favorite writers, and maybe their books aren’t exactly your cup of tea, but those books are selling for a reason and you need to determine what those reasons are.

Best-selling authors make lists because readers can depend on them for a good read time after time. Readers know what to expect from a bestseller and they believe that writer will deliver a compelling read.
So what makes a compelling read?

I think its many different things rolled into one. One element is certainly characterization—characters who come alive on the page give the readers someone to attach themselves to, someone to follow through the story, someone to root for. Well drawn characters become the backbone of best selling series because readers hunger for more stories about protagonists they’ve come to care about.

Another quality is pacing, which ties in with plotting. A book should have you furiously turning the pages as the author takes you from one crisis situation to another--either crises that are action oriented or emotional or both. I believe the best compliment an author can hear from a reader is, “I was up all night long. I couldn’t put your book down!”

Unique ideas or situations that haven’t been used before also make for compelling fiction i.e.; The DaVinci Code, or Jurassic Park.

While you are reading, you need to read like a writer.

Study the dialogue and note how your favorite authors move the story through conversation. How do they deal with the characters’ voices? How does each character’s voice stand out from the others?
Does the author use a lot of narrative description? Is the book emotional, or is it all action, or both? Does the author let the characters do the talking? Is there more action or introspection? How does the author balance all of the above?

How many characters in the novel have a point of view? Does the author use one point of view per scene, or does she “head-hop” going back and forth, giving you two (or even more) characters’ thoughts and perceptions at once?

How much “white space” is on the page? Does the author use long paragraphs with few breaks between them, or shorter paragraphs and lots of dialogue on each page?

Above all, take the time to read a few books on the craft of writing, too.

You’ll find there are many “How To” books out there. Every author has his or her own favorite books on the craft of writing. Most writers will tell you that, unfortunately, there is no one way to go about it. You have to decide what works for you—and sometimes discovering what works for you is quite a challenge.
Here’s a list of books I would like to recommend. These books talk about technique as well as give glimpses into the writing life.

You may enjoy and be inspired by some of them. Some may not help you at all, but I think they are worth taking a look at.

On Writing by Stephen King
The Art Of Fiction by John Gardner
Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
The Writer’s Chapbook by George Plimpton
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Another thing you might want to consider is joining a writers group near you. Often writers will meet at bookstores, cafes, or hold monthly meetings at libraries. Check the events calendar in your local paper. If you are interested in writing a romance, you might live near one of the local chapters of Romance Writers of America. The national organization offers all kinds of help to those seeking to be published. To find out more, go to www.rwanational.org.

Wow. I’ve given you a lot to do and think about for a while, so I’m going to take a breather and get some of my own writing done. While I’m at it, get down to basics; polish your skills, and read, read, read.
Watch this page for additional information. Next time I’ll talk about Setting Writing Goals and what to do when you’re ready to submit your work to publishers.
Until then….aloha!