Finding Good Test Readers

I believe that although having your family and friends read your work could sometimes be useful, most of the time it’s not. As a writer we need constructive criticism and our family and friends are not usually able to give it.

This isn’t always true, of course, and if you have someone close to you who will read your work objectively and give comments that will help you improve your work – well, my advice is to go with it and let them.

This is not usually what happens though. Have you ever let someone read one of your stories and they come back to you and ask: “Was that character based on Joe, because he wouldn’t act like that? You must have misunderstood something he said.” That is so frustrating. There might be one action that Joe does which you included in your story and instantly someone picks up on it and thinks you’re living out your problems through your writing. They don’t seem to realise that the character may have a characteristic of Joe but is NOT Joe!

Also, your family and friends don’t know what to look for, in your writing, to improve it. Yes, they can tell you if it’s readable or not and that is the first step but after that you need to know if you’ve got grammar problems, plot holes or inconsistencies.

So what do you do?

It’s hard to know exactly because you must remember that not everyone can be trusted and you certainly don’t want someone else stealing your idea. So talk to other writers (who you trust) and find out if they can recommend a writers group that will help you turn your draft manuscript into a polished manuscript that can be sent to an agent or publisher.

You can also join a message board that has a protected area where you can share your work with the other members yet no one else can view/steal your story. Remember, it’s common curtesy to return the favour too. If you are receiving good critiques on your work, you should endeavour to do the same thing for other people. In fact, doing this often changes your view of writing and this will help you see your own work through fresh eyes.

There are a lot of resources on the Internet which will be very helpful. Some critique groups expect you to critique three other stories to get a critique in return. Others allow their members to critique the stories they are interested in, only when they have the time. Yet there are groups where members seem to love to “flame” other members – these groups should be given a wide birth. No one should ever flame another person’s work – NEVER!! There is good and bad in all of our work and both of these things should be pointed out in a friendly helpful manner.

Write a Chapter a Week

Imagine… if you could write one chapter a day – a first draft – you’d have your first completed (draft) manuscript finished within a month.

Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? You’d think it would be easy to write say 10 or 12 pages a day. Simple! For some this may be the case but for most, it is not.

OK, let’s be more realistic. Let’s say that we can write one chapter a week. Now this is setting a much easier goal and it’s more likely you’ll achieve it. If we did this we’d be writing a complete manuscript in roughly six or seven months. This would mean a word count of approximately 100,000 words and as unpublished authors, this is the recommended length of our first unpublished manuscript.

With the first draft down on paper, you will be able to go back and revise efficiently because not only are you still feeling enthusiastic about the storyline, you will be able to remember most of it! Some of us (yes, I include myself here) take so long writing our precious masterpieces that we actually forget how the story started – that’s how long it has taken to write the thing.

There’s nothing worse than reaching the revision stage and then thinking – “I am so sick of this story!” Of course you are, you’ve been writing it for 2 years (maybe even 5 years). You need to write something new and exciting. So, if this sounds like you – maybe the “one chapter a week” method is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

Writers Burnout

Note: I do not have burnout. This is only information I’m sharing after researching the topic.

What is burnout?

Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, usually coming immediately after an extended period of overwork.

Many people can suffer burnout, but I’m only interested (at this stage) with writers burnout. It is more common than you might think for a writer to just put down their pen and call it quits. For those who have never suffered burnout, this scenario is hard to imagine but even you could one day come face to face with this dreaded monster.

Why does it happen?

A writer usually has a multitude of ideas running around in their head. It’s only natural to try and put those ideas on paper. However, most writers have other responsibilities too. They might work full time, or even part time. They may have families to look after, as well as homes and pets. There’s always chores to do, places to go and people to meet. There are sporting events to attend, social evenings and children to play with. And then there’s the writing that person wants (or needs) to do to fulfil their creative side, or just because they have a wonderful story to tell.

All these things are important, yet there are only so many hours in a day for our use. Many writers are tapping away at their keyboards while their family is peacefully asleep. They plot stories while doing the washing, or go over dialogue while cooking the family dinner. They jot down a scene while waiting for a bus, or when sitting in the doctor’s waiting room. More ideas jump out of the TV or from the pages of the novels they read. It’s a never ending stream of scenes, characters and plots. It’s exciting and the rush of each chapter being finished drives them on.

They pressure themselves to write more and believe their writing should be better. Family and friends in their belief of being supportive, can place even more pressure and demands on the writer’s shoulders. Or, they can pour doubt in the writers direction, leaving them determined to prove themselves, which means they work harder.

The writer neglects their health. They sleep less because night time is the only time they get to write, and when they do go to bed their mind will not stop churning over and over and over. They push themselves to the limit and then…they break.

What are the warning signs?

1. Physical, Mental and Emotional Exhaustion.

2. Shame and Doubt.

3. Cynicism and Callousness

4. Failure, Helplessness and Crisis.

I’d be surprised if anyone hasn’t suffered at least the first stage of burnout. I have. In fact, I’m quite sure that I was close to stage three (but not quite, after doing NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago). It took me almost a year to turn that exhaustion and doubt around. That’s almost a year wasted! I didn’t know what was happening to me and without help I pulled myself out of the pit and continued on.

If you suspect that you’re suffering from writers burnout then you need to do something before it’s too late. Don’t continue on as you have been because that will only make matters worse. Stop! Now do something about it. Do it today.

Firstly, take a holiday. Even if you don’t go away (but it’s better if you do), take some time off work and break the everyday routine. Go out to new places on day trips, spend time doing something different. It’s all right to be selfish once in a while. Take yourself off to a spa, or a facial, or a massage. And don’t forget to spend time doing absolutely nothing. Let your body relax and recharge.

That’s a great start, but it’s not a long term solution. Next you need to find out about yourself. Often burnout is related to stress, and you need to work on the issues that have been and will probably continue to cause you stress (unless you deal with them). Start a private journal, write down your problems instead of letting them ferment in your mind, which will only poison your body. Identify the problems and then deal with them. By making yourself emotionally healthier, you will be helping yourself be mentally happier and more able to cope.

Next, you need to know how to deal with criticism. As writers we receive criticism on, almost, a daily basis. This can drain our energy emotionally and mentally. You cannot turn your back on criticism because by doing this, you’re turning your back on valuable feedback. However, you do need to recognise good and bad comments, and be able to reject the useless comments without it effecting you or your creativity. Once you learn to do this, you’ll discover your energy levels will remain higher for longer. One tip is never show anyone the first draft of your work. This is just asking for bad feedback.

Accept that you’re not perfect and that your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, and learn to experiment and take risks with your writing. Writing, like life, can become humdrum and routine. Break habits and do something different.

Finally, relax. We are busy people, with busy lives, but we all have to learn to relax on a regular basis. Allow your body the sleep and nouishment it needs and deserves. Take walks in the sunshine. Smile and laugh. Read books and watch movies.

And then write!

Grouping Your Characters

Not all your characters are important. They cannot all have the starring role, or even the supporting role, but they should be important in their own way to the story. With this in mind, how do we sort the characters into groups in order to find out who should be there and who should not? To find out, we need to know what the different levels of significance are:

Level One:

These are the central characters – the main characters. These are the people the story is about, revolves around. There may only one main character or several – depending on the story. Usually short stories have a limit of one or two main characters, but novels can have several. However, each scene should focus on, or be from the point of view of, only one character.

Level Two:

These characters are essential to the story too. They often supply the conflict. This might be the third person in a love triangle or the detective in a mystery. These people can, and usually do, have a sub-plot of their own.

Level Three:

These characters are lesser characters who are shown throughout the story, but are in the background. They play a part in the story such as the murder victim or they might act as a catalyst which triggers events. They can create joy, sadness or tension, but they don’t remain for the duration of the story.

Lever Four:

These are the more incidental characters to the plot and only occur occasionally in the story. These people do things in the background to make the setting more realistic and descriptive. They are the drivers, the servants, the shopkeepers, etc and they don’t usually say much and don’t need a name.

Six Steps to Rewriting Your NaNo Manuscript

Originally written on 8 September 2007.

Last night, I finished reading No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty.

There’s a section at the end of the book that gives tips on rewriting your NaNo manuscript if you think it’s got potential. There are six steps to the rewrite, and in summary, they are:

• Read your manuscript through from first word to last and make a note of each scene on the manuscript itself in any colour pen except red (red is strictly for editing). At the beginning of each scene write down who is in the scene and a brief summary of what happens in the scene.
• Transfer these notes onto index cards (or a spreadsheet) exactly as you wrote them. Now lay the cards out in the order they appear in the manuscript, using a vertical divider (Chris recommended a pencil for this) to group the scenes into chapters.
• Scan the cards, removing any that don’t move the story forward. Check the remaining for characters that don’t seem to do anything or are doubles of other characters. If a character doesn’t have a reason to be in the story, get rid of them. However, if the character is needed but their story arc isn’t properly represented create new cards and place them where they should go. Ensure all characters are well developed on the cards before moving on to the next step.
• Now shuffle the cards and place them down in alternate ways to ensure you have the best storyline possible; not forgetting to ensure you have the best pace and tension too. You may find you have to slice and dice some more scenes/characters when you finally decide on the best layout, so delete and create more cards if necessary.
• Now return to your manuscript and cut and past the document so that the scenes are in the order you decided was best with the cards. Don’t edit! Just put everything in the right order. If you have added scenes, type in a place marker by writing four or five lines of a quick description of the scene. Remove the scenes that you no longer need.
• Rewrite (or edit) your story – slowly and line by line.

Why do we edit?

Editing means that we try to make our story as flowing and reader friendly as possible. It means that we take away the confusion of awkward sentences, bad grammar and spelling and allow our readers to enjoy the story. Constant mistakes will distract the reader and eventually they will focus on how terrible we write, instead of the plot. No writer wants this, so editing is essential.

The first thing we must do is read the entire manuscript through, just like we read any other book. As we read, we should use a red pen to mark problem areas – confusion, something missing, waffling, point of view shifts, format problems etc. Don’t stop to fix them yet, because that will stop the flow. Just mark the area and keep reading. If it doesn’t sound right to you, the author, then it’s going to sound even worse to the reader.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

1. Is the style and voice consistent?
2. Do I use the best word possible in every single sentence?
3. Is the flow smooth?
4. Do I use proper sentences?
5. Is the point of view consistent?
6. Am I using passive sentences?
7. Are the events in the right order?
8. Do I have plot holes?
9. Are my characters realistic and growing?
10. Does every scene move the story forward?
11. Is the dialogue natural?
12. Is there enough description, without going over the top?
13. Is the title appropriate?
14. Is the opening sentence catchy?
15. Will the resolution leave the reader satisfied?

Now work through the manuscript again (is it any wonder we end up hating the story?), and this time, fix the errors. Take your time. Be careful, don’t trust your spell checker, so watch for words that sound alike, ie their/there/they’re. And don’t be afraid to cut huge chunks of writing, even if it is your favourite part of the story. If it doesn’t move the story along, delete it.

When you’ve finished, you should have a polished manuscript. However, if you’re like me, you won’t be able to rest until you read the entire manuscript again, and hope with all your heart that you don’t find any errors. If you do…you know what needs to be done!

Love and Skill

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
~John Ruskin

Love of the story and of the craft itself, together with the learned skill of writing can be a powerful commodity. One without the other can lead to poor results, which can then lead to misery, depression and, worse of all, hatred for what we are doing.

A writer must love what they are doing, or why write in the first place? However, a writer must be open to the fact that there’s always something more to learn. Fashions change, procedures change, and we must be vigilant so that we know when these changes take place.

Visualise yourself holding a copy of your published book. Isn’t the sweat and tears worth that moment becoming a reality?

Where to Start

As a reader, no matter what I’m reading – a children’s book or a book for adults – I always enjoy the books that start right in the middle of the action. It’s exciting! It makes me keep reading to find out who the characters are and what is happening to them. Yet as a writer, I sometimes feel the need to “set up” the character and setting first.

Excerpt from Writing a Children’s Book: How to Write for Children And Get Published by Pamela Cleaver.

Begin at the moment of change or crisis in the key character’s life. Don’t start with an explanation with his circumstances, or a description of where he lives. If you feel you need scene setting or character establishment to get you going, write it for yourself and go on until you reach an action point. This is where your story should start:

• Start where the trouble begins.
• Start on the day that is different.
• Start where the main character comes up against something he can’t stand.

Don’t discard the previous material but feed it into the narrative as snippets as the story unfolds.

I found this advice by using Google Book Search.

Being Invisible

Excerpt from The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author’s Tips on Writing Children’s Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids by Aaron Shepard.

All at once, in the middle of the story, I “woke up” with a shock. For just a few seconds, I had completely forgotten I was sitting in a hot tent with a thousand other people – forgotten even that I was listening to Connie Regan-Blake. She had drawn me into the story so completely that I was aware of nothing but that story’s unfolding within my own mind.

That moment taught me that the height of storytelling – oral or written – is when the teller becomes invisible.

Part of becoming invisible is to engage the reader’s imagination with concrete images, as discussed earlier. If the imagination is busy enough, it will wrap the reader up in the story and draw attention away from the writer.

Have you read a book where this has happened to you? I have and I found that I felt that I was part of the story. In fact, I was part of the story. I tend to imagine myself as one of the characters and I ‘live’ the plot.

The difference it makes to the story is enormous. The pages turn automatically, the setting and characters move before your eyes. And before you know it the story has come to an end and you are left with a feeling of wonder…and disappointment because it’s over.

On the other hand, I’ve read plenty of stories where I find myself flicking forward to see when the chapter ends. Or I might continually look down at the page number to see how I’m progressing. Naturally, doing these things means I’m not right into the story. I’m distracted by the words, the author (maybe), everything around me, because something about the flow or plot doesn’t grab my total attention.

As a writer, being invisible must be a talent because I think it must be hard to do. I can’t say that I’ve tried to achieve this when I write, but I certainly would take it as a compliment if someone told me this happened to them whilst reading one of my stories.

Writing is like painting a picture. An artist uses colour to place an image before our eyes, whereas, a writer uses words. To become invisible, we have to pick the right words, a good balance with description and setting, rounded characters and realistic dialogue and action. It’s not easy, but can you make yourself invisible when you write?

How to Plot Your Novel

I’ve been plotting novels and short stories for some years now, but that doesn’t mean I think I know everything that needs to be known on the subject. Because of this, I continually borrow books from the library, or purchase them if they are being sold at the right price, to ensure I’m not doing things the hard way, or I’m not forgetting to do something altogether.

I recently borrowed a book called How to Plot Your Novel by Jean Saunders. It’s a relatively old book, but in this case the content is still viable. I didn’t read the entire book (and rarely do with this type of book as I usually pick out the sections of interest to me), but I wanted to share – in point form – the main items I got from the book.

• Find a theme you are passionate about.
• Know the kind of book you want to write.
• Keep the proposed length within publishing bounds and plot your novel to appeal to the widest audience.
• Create good characters, who you know well, and who have real motivation and goals.
• Learn how to ask yourself questions such as “What if…?”
• Scenes and chapters should be linked together.
• Throw the reader a curve now and then, without relying on coincidences.
• Don’t allow your story to sag in the middle by sustaining pace and keeping control of your characters.
• Dramatic scenes need their calming counterparts.
• End your story without leaving loose ends, and leaving the reader feeling satisfied.

I believe the points outlined above are common sense, but should be reiterated often because it seems that many books being published these days are not paying attention to these important details. Hence, the quality of reading is lowered and the chance of the author becoming a best seller slim.

If you’re a writer and you can place a tick beside each of the above, then you’re off to a great start. Naturally, there are other items that could be put on the list too, but these are the essential ones, in my opinion.