Top 5 Reasons to Read your Genre

I just talked to a writer who said she wanted to write for young adults. When I asked what she thought of the Twilight series she told me, “I try not to read young adult books.” When I asked why not, she said, “Because I don’t want to accidentally copy another writer’s style.”

   That’s a common reason for not reading your genre, but the reasons FOR reading your genre greatly outweigh those AGAINST.    

Top Five Reasons Why You Should Read Your Genre 

No. 5 - Spot trends. See what’s considered cutting edge in your corner of the world. 

No. 4 - Avoid copying a story line. You’ll be able to quickly tell if your story is unique and fresh. 

No. 3 - Avoid mistakes. By critically critiquing other writing, you can avoid making the mistakes of other writers. 

No. 2 - Publisher favorites. Quickly spot what types of books certain publishers favor. 

No. 1 - IT’S FUN!!   

 “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot . . . reading is the creative center of a writer’s life . . . you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.             Sam Armitage   

Steal Scenes from Your Own Life

I’m writing a humorous story about a woman, who at this point in the tale is having problems constructing something. A humorous accident needs to take place where she’s left in danger. What I’d written though felt a little staged or cliché. I needed something fresh.

Struck by an Idea

Then, last night, as I was on ladder trimming honeysuckle growing on a tall trellis, the answer came to me. One of the ladder legs fell dropped into a mole hole and I was pitched off. On my way down I grabbed one of the trellis support beams but it broke off.

I hit the ground (less than gracefully) and the beam followed, clobbering me on top of the head. It rung my bell a little, and I felt a little Wile E. Coyote-esk, but I was in one piece.

I stood up slowly, checking for broken bones, but there were only scratches, a growing lump my head . . . and the answer to my story dilemma. My character could fall off a wall, the toolbox would follow, hitting her in the head and knocking her out!

Steal from Life

Hopefully, you don’t have to fall off a ladder to find your solutions, but you should feel free to steal shamelessly from events in you and your friends’ lives. It gives your stories a sense of realism and there is a never-ending supply.

So have fun stealing scenes. In fact, knock yourself out!

Protecting your Writing from Plagiarism

I've written things that have shown up on other websites. As flattering as it is that a person or company liked my writing enough to put in on their website, it's illegal and hard on a writer who is trying to get paid for their words.

Unfortunately, people tend to look at the web as one big freebee — text there for the taking. That's why it's important that you take time to protect your work.

Protecting yourself

• Copyright. You can copyright your writing. I say that, but at $45 per pop this can be cost prohibitive if you're not  being paid much for your work.

• Educate the offenders. You can contact the company or person posting your work and explain that what they are doing is illegal.

You’ll be surprised how many people/companies don't know this and are willing to take steps to right the situation. You may want them to give you credit, put a blurb about your piece and link back to your site, or just take it off. 

• Diligently Monitor. Keep tabs on your writing. To see if people are using my work, I'll Google some unique excerpts from my text and see if and where they shows up. It's pretty low tech, but it works.

In T. McSpadden’s article, Tips on Protecting Your Writing from Plagiarism, he talks about other monitoring options, like Copyscape, where you type in your domain name and at no cost other sites as searched for identical content. There are other sites like Plagiarism.org that will search for a fee.

When you Find Them

So far (knock on wood) I haven’t run into an issue where someone wouldn’t remove the text or wouldn’t link back to the original text. 

I’ve heard stories though where writers have contacted the hosting company and insisted the offending party’s website be taken down. Or, if you’re the Associated Press, you might even sue.

It's not healthy to walk around completely paranoid, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. 

Am I a Writer?

Recently several writers have told  me they would consider themselves “real” writers when they were published (or produced).

This is dangerous thinking because publishing is out of your control. And who wants to wait that long to call themselves a writer? 

Sure, publishing should be a goal, but it shouldn’t define you. I’ve talked to a lot of agents and publishers over the years. Each one has told tales of those great books that made their way to the shelves, but they also told tales of fabulous books that sadly were never published.

It’s just my humble opinion, but I believe it's healthier to define yourself as a writer that is working toward publication (or production). One who is dedicated to the craft, developing her skills and telling stories. 

Agree? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Getting the Most From Your Writer’s Group

I love my writer’s group.  Each week we bring our pages and listen as the other writers read them aloud.

After the read, they tell me what they think. They don't try to save my feelings, just give it to me straight (or at least I hope they do).  But what they might not know is that its' watching and listening to them while they read my work that's sometimes even more helpful.    

Listening 

I listen to hear if the readers are: 

• stumbling over dialogue that needs to be smoother or more natural 

• finding it hard to navigate through awkward sentences 

• not laughing during humorous moments (not a good sign) 

• laughing during dramatic scenes (even worse)   

Watching 

I also watch readers to see: 

• when they enjoying the experience 

• when they look confused 

• when they seem to lose interest 

• and lastly, when they are already searching for a way to give me that bad news about my pages.  

Their comments over the years have helped me hone my skills, improve my characters and sharpen plots, but it’s been watching their expressions and initial reaction to my work that’s been truly priceless.  

I highly recommend it!

Developing Characters on the Web

My Webster’s dictionary is getting dusty. I used to love leafing through the pages to find a definition or correct spelling. Now the only times I grab it are to challenge my husband during wicked games of Scrabble. Like everyone else, I’ve turned to the web.

Researching Words

If it were just about the definitions, I might still be using Webster’s, but the beauty of the web is seeing the words used.

When you’re writing fiction this is invaluable. We work hard to give our characters — that can range from local butchers to marine biologists — the right vocabulary. However, it we don't understand the vocabulary is used, when they start speaking on the page they can sound stilted, or worse, mentally challenged.

The web now allows us to see people using our new vocabulary words. For example:

 • I came across the word “meme” with respect to a website. As a techno-dork I didn’t know what one was, but was sure the website designer in my story would be familiar with the term. And even as techno-challenged as I am, I was confident he’d never utter sentences like “I’ve got a bunch of memes in my pocket,” or “Hey, you got some memes for sale.” So I hit to the web.

 • Wikipedia was my first stop, but the definition was too general.

• Next I Googled “What is meme”.

 This time I found out from Chrisg.com that “for bloggers Memes have become synonymous with internet quizzes, surveys, and novelties that people link to and pass around on their blogs, forums and via email, things like the “which superhero are you most like” test…”

 • Finally (and this is cool part) I started reading the comments. Now I could see people using the term in casual conversation. Jackpot!

Could my Webster’s have done that? No. But if I'm going to beat my husband at Scrabble I'm still going to have to keep it close. 

Don’t Let Your Inner Critic Stop You from Writing

Starting a novel or script is exciting. We can already see our finished story with its page-turning plot and well-rounded and entertaining characters.

But as the story makes it way from mind to page, reality begins replacing our ideal. Within the pages we can see the book/script/play is far from perfect.

It’s easy to start beating ourselves up. Why finish is when it’s nothing like we imagined? Who’s going to read this?

If the Inner Critic Takes Over

It’s important to stop the inner critic in its tracks. Why? The reasons are numerous:

• You’re unfairly judging the first pages against an ideal (would you judge a cook as they were mixing the ingredients together?).

• You’re not allowing yourself to imagine the positive directions your manuscript might take.

• It’s hard to write while beating yourself up.

• You’ll probably quit writing before you even get through the first draft.

Gagging the Critic

How do you quiet that inner critic?

It’s not easy. But the first step is to recognize the critic when it enters the scene. Let it know there will be a time and place for a sharp, critical eye, but now is NOT the time.

Stay tuned for more tips for quieting the critic in the next blog.

di

 

25th Anniversary of Ghostubusters

Hi,

June 8th has been circled on my calendar for quite a while. It's the 25th Anniversary of the release of Ghostbusters — a defining day in my writing life.

In 1984 I knew I wanted to write scripts, but I hadn't started yet. Sitting in the theater, watching Ghostbusters as it headed toward the climax, I was thinking, "This is a GREAT movie. It's funny, the story's cool, the characters are awesome, but there's no way they're going to be able to pull of a great climax. How can they top what we've already seen?" 

That's when the a 60-foot Stay Puft Marshmallow Man appeared. I literally jumped out of my chair and cheered. It was perfect.  To this day, I have a small Stay Puft Marshmallow man on my desk to remind me what I'm supposed to achieve in the third act. 

It's been a long haul since 1984, but my first movie is probably going to be shot late this summer. I owe a debt of gratitude to a lot of movies, but especially Ghostbusters.  

Do you have a life-changing movie?  Would love to hear your story.

di

Pick up that Pen!

A few inspirational words today from Mr. Thomas Edison  . . .

"Vision without execution is hallucination."

Have fun writing this weekend.

di

Spicing Up Your Research

Hi,

Does all your research take place in a library or in front of a computer? Try spicing things up. 

Jump in the Car

If you're writing a scene that needs a little local flavor, check out the local flavor firsthand. Even if you've been to the location before, I guarantee it'll be different visiting it as a researcher.

One I needed to write an action scene that took place at the State's Capital. I used to work there and thought I knew it pretty well. But once I arrived and looked at it through the eyes of my characters, it was a whole new experience. Objects I'd never paid much attention to, like fire extinguishers, ceiling-high banners and stone vases, all became props my characters ended up using  in an elaborate chase scene.

Be a Spectator

What if your character is experiencing something you're likely never to experience . . . screwing up a piano recital, painting a mural or arresting a bad guy? It's easier to write something when you've been an eye witness, and you can often use your writer status to get a front row seat. 

Personally, I enjoy ride-alongs. I've ridden with a police man, a pizza delivery guy and even a beekeeper taking bees across country. I enjoy it so much, I'll ride along with someone just IN CASE I need it for future research. 

Talk to a Live Person

To heck with chat rooms! If your dairy farm scene feels a little flat, go talk to a farmer. You'll now only find out about milking cows and row crops, you'll learn the latest dairy jargon and what makes a diary man tick. 

Research can be a blast! And adding life to your research can only add life to your writing.

Have fun!! 

di

Accepting Rejection Letters

The badge (or should I say badges) of a real writer are rejection letters. You can't become a writer without receiving them — probably a box full. You don't have to like them, but everyone gets them, even the big guys.  It's just how the game's played. 

I try to have a little fun with them — rating them  by their pain factor. 

Least Painful

If they aren't going to buy my story, I prefer the generic: "Thank you for your submission, but it doesn't meet our needs at this time. Good luck." Unfortunately, the letter doesn't give me much insight into what they didn't like about my story, but it's easy read. 

More Painful

"Not interested" scribbled across the cover page is worse. On the bright side, it's green — it doesn't waste paper — and it does get the message across, but why so angry? What's wrong with "No thank you"? 

I once received a rejection from an agent on a piece of paper about half the size of a business card. It came in a standard size envelope and on one side read, "Not interested" and on the other was printed the name of the agency.  The sorry piece of paper looked liked it had been copied a 100 times. I could easily imagine 100's of these tiny rejections printed on a sheet of copy paper and some poor receptionist cutting them out and mailing them off. 

Dagger to the Heart

The most painful letters are those that go into detail about what's wrong with your story. Oddly, these are the best letters. They give you much needed feedback, and show that the publisher/agent/producer really cares about the story.  If you get one of these, smile and celebrate -- that's after a good cry. You're making headway.

Horrific

Of course, once in a while you get an agent that just has to tell you just how terrible your story/idea/writing/character really is. Not much you can do about these, but save it so you can can rub in that person's face when you're famous.  

To cheer me up, I like to read Pushcart's Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. You'll find  great rejections dished out to everyone from Emily Bronte to Dr. Seuss. If memory serves, Dr. Seuss received over 80 rejections before being published. 80!! One of his rejections read:  "too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling."

So join the club of writers. Collect your badges of honor and keep writing! 

di