First Word

  Today I wanted to discuss challenges every writer faces. I’m going to discuss them in no particular order or emphasis.   Lack of confidence – many writers don’t get published or even try to publish due to a lack of confidence in their talents and skills. I’ve published hundreds of articles and books, and yet I still struggle with confidence in my work. Writing requires readers, and readers can be critical. It can be difficult to put your work in the public eye and not feel sensitive about it. One thing that helps me is to be open to improvement. When someone gives me feedback – and as long as it’s done in a productive manner – I’m open-minded about it and don’t take it personally … anymore . I used to feel like an abject reject lol … age and wisdom have taught me the phrase “it’s all good.”   Uncertainty with a story idea and whether or not it will be a commercial success . Over the years, I have learned that when a story is going to be a hit, it will ...

  Today’s topic is about using the point of view and the feelings of the character to apply it in how your descriptions unfold. In writing One Little Lie , I am writing in the first person. I chose the first-person narrative so I could convey the depth of the character’s feelings, but also to allow the prose to unfold from that person’s perspective. You have to remember that if you decide to use the first person narrative, you will be restricted to the knowledge of that person. You’re up in the narrator’s head, and the narrator only observes and hears from the other characters.   I’ve used several types of techniques. I decided to use first person in One Little Lie , because it’s a deeply personal and emotional tale. The story revolves around one character’s story of transformation, from open naivete and hopeful trust to the rude awakening of a narcissistic liar’s duplicity. You go through the experience of her transformation with her and see it unfold throu...

This week's topic: writing from experience. Many years ago I went and listened to Alice Walker , who wrote The Color Purple , speak about writing. I was in my twenties and eager to make it as a writer. As is the case with most young people, I thought I had the emotional depth to tackle any subject. Walker said she didn't hit her stride as a writer until she hit her forties. Screeeeeccchhhh! What? She added, she didn't feel she could have written her great works as a young writer without experience to tell the story right (I'm paraphrasing).   I was young. I wanted to write - and I wanted to write something that would resonate with people, make them think. Was I too young, as Walker was suggesting? The answer is complicated. As writers we do need experience to pull from, which gives us a frame of reference. Can you still write about something you've never experienced? Yes, but it's still based on a frame of reference. You write from your knowle...

My partner Scott D. Roberts and I do book coaching as part of our services at 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). An interesting weakness we often see in writers is the inability or skill to pace their books. Here are three tips about pacing: #1 -- Using Too Much Exposition . A big no-no is too much exposition in the narrative that bogs down the writing. You have to keep your eye on what you're trying to accomplish on each page. Each scene, each moment needs to move the story forward or have a purpose in the story. We often see new writers who mistake a great description as building a colorful setting. Your description should only feature that which does the following: #2 . Helps define the scene so the reader understands the place . For example, if you have a scene in an office you need just enough exposition to convey the nature of the office and that's all. This gives the reader an idea of it so they can picture it in their minds. For example, a lawyer's office ...

When I work with writers I am reminded of things I've learned over the years that help improve my work. We had our monthly Writers Who Mean Business meeting last night, and I thought some great "reminders" came out of it to spark this blog. The Book's Opening Line : did you know some places hold contests asking for the best opening line of a book? In the 3L Publishing catalog Scott D. Roberts' book Vengeance is Now has the best opening line of the catalog: You've never really lived until you seen the life leave another human being .Your opening line should be that alluring, unique, fascinating and intriguing. The idea is that it be provocative enough to get the reader engaged and wanting to find out more. Paring down your writing : too many writers fall in love with their own words. The love affair often results in wordiness and too much exposition. A great exercise is to write 1,000 words and then cut 100 words and then 200 words. See how much easier you...

A novelist friend of mind mentioned she had writer's block. So I thought it was time to once more explore how to overcome writer's block. Before I discuss the subject, I do want to say something about accepting the "blockage" versus battling the clog. I didn't write anything major for two years after suffering some major losses in my personal life. Writing is a creative, intellectual and mind-intensive process. If your emotional house has been emptied of the furniture, so to speak, maybe it's time for you to sit Zen-like in that house and accept it. I wanted to say this because writer's block due to a pure emotional depletion isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's your mind's way of saying, "Whoa! Wait sister or brother give me a vacation. I don't have anything left to give." I just couldn't write anything major simply because I lacked heart and motivation. My distraction and life re-build took front and center. I was focused o...

I have this famous saying about editing: If it's wrong yesterday it's still wrong today. What does that mean? When you're editing a manuscript and you spot a mistake, but you're not certain you don't overlook it and keep going. You use a resource like Grammar Girl to confirm your suspicion about whether it is right or wrong. Why? Because if it's wrong, it's wrong, period. The infamous grammar police aren't going to write you a kind note that says: Dear Michelle, I suspect that the mistake on page 10 was something you questioned and then overlooked, but you did know it was wrong, right? So we're giving you a pass. All our best, Grammar Police The real trick is to know it could be wrong . I once played that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire board game with my family. I almost always won. Why? Not because I was the queen of trivia by any stretch of the imagination. It was because I knew what I didn't know -- and I knew to "phone a frie...

One of the hardest things to do when writing fiction is to create unique voices for each character. If you make all the characters sound alike it makes the writing flat and uninteresting. It also makes it difficult to get to know a character -- they all sound like the same person. When I teach my fiction writing workshops, I always teach writers the following concepts to help create a voice for each character. Phone a friend -- I'm being cute ... what I really mean is pick someone you know in real life. Hear how he or she talks. Take this person's voice and apply it to one of your characters. If you don't know someone who would "fit the part" then take an actor or actress or even a public figure and listen to how this person talks. Mimic their inflections and phrases in your character(s). My biggest insight: really listen and repeat. People have their own ways of saying things. So, you want to capture the unique essence of the voice. Formalism in modern writ...

Some writers have a bad habit of doing what we call "telling and not showing". They will do this in two different ways: #1 Underdeveloped scenes aka as impatient writing -- to progress a story faster than an ice melting on 220-degree pavement, writers will in one sentence or less tell you a major plot point. I call this impatient writing. The writer is often much more excited to get to the action and climax then to develop important plot points. For example, telling us a character got summoned to the police station for questioning and then just skipping to the after scene and briefly saying what happened. A police questioning scene is ripe for drama. Why would you skip over it, especially if it's an essential plot point. Sometimes writers just aren't as fascinated or excited about the scene so it's easier to just jump over it. This leads to... #2 Lack of story development -- when you skip really fast over important plot points, you are making your storytellin...

My associate and author Scott D. Roberts calls this too much exposition. I am a little simpler: I call it too much minutia. One of the biggest mistakes I see writers make is to bog down their writing in what Roberts aptly puts as too much exposition. What this means is that writers tell the reader everything and anything to "decorate" a description -- and it has absolutely nothing to do with storytelling. For example during a critical scene you start describing what the character is eating, how he/she enjoys it, and it has absolutely nothing to do with driving the story forward, then the real question is: why is that in there? Ask this question for every scene: is it relevant to the plot? If it's nothing but an interesting piece of fluff -- or your writer's ego enjoyed writing about the pie in the window that had nothing to do with the story, take it out. Every element of every scene or chapter should be a part of the story -- and it should drive the story forwar...

I had this great writing class in college. I will never forget this excellent exercise. The professor taught us how to "trim the fat" to tighten our writing. The major tip is to look for the excess and unnecessary words. It will sharpen your writing, and it makes it easier to read. I'm going to show you an example of how it's done.  This sentenced is pulled from my own newsletter (you can sign up at www.3LPublishing.com ... look for the First Word button).  Exercise: Trim five words from this sentence: Speaking of warmth, let's discuss what isn't particularly warm, but perhaps slightly "cold" and maybe even bad for business. Speaking of warmth, let's discuss what isn't warm, but "cold" and bad for business. You can clearly see how much better that sentence is. Now here is why I didn't write it that way in the first place: voice. The "excess" "fat" in that sentence conveys my voice. In a person...

Having trouble getting your creative spark lit? I have trouble all of the time. Yes, I'm super prolific and I write every single day. I have to write this blog every day, too. Do I make it look effortless? Well, sometimes I start with nothing. I got nothing! Today ... I got nothing except last night's weird dreams to fuel my ideas. Yes, I had a super weird dream, something about a story about animals and my fellow writing friend's desk. The manuscript was sitting on his desk, and it was a song ... all right what is my point? I don't have a point LOL, but I do have some great tips to kickstart your creativity if you're having writer's block. Let a title define your project . The title of my book California Girl Chronicles came to me first. I actually built the story around the title. For some writers this would be backward, but for me it worked. Just start writing from an unconscious level . Just sit down at your desk and let your fingers type and see where ...

You're an aspiring writer. You already write, but you want to improve. You just didn't know what I'm about to share LOL ... okay, all qualifiers done now. Here are three tips to improve your writing. Words, words, everywhere too many so let's spare the air (see I'm feeling humorous today) . Wordiness! Wordiness bogs down your work. Wordiness makes your sentences longer. And wordiness makes your editor have to bring out a major chainsaw to hack your work down to the message. Here is an absolutely fantastic exercise. Take a paragraph from one of your works. Look at how many words could be easily deleted. Delete them. Now repeat. Keep going until you have only the "bones" of the sentence left. Now read it. How much easier is that to understand? The biggest offenders tend to be too many adjectives and adverbs. Dialog or Shakespeare . I see so many writers who write their characters' dialog like it's a Shakespearian play. The formalism makes it soun...