More Blogs We Love

Narelle is still feeling poorly, so I’m doing a little subbing for her. Keep your fingers crossed for her.
I have a couple more blogs and websites that I think might be useful. Readers Read and Writer’s Write both have industry news obviously from different points of view. But I liked putting those two titles together. Someone told me aboutthe Writer’s Life where you can list your own writer’s blog and perhaps get a little more traffic. I’m not sure how up to date that one is.
But this Writer’s Life promises tips on book promotion.
And then there’s Writing Fix to help you get the thing written.
What do you want out of a blog? What makes it useful to you? Do you want writing tips or do you need research help? Or are you drawn back again and again by a writer who has been in your shoes and isn’t afraid to tell you. Leave a comment and tell us!

Blogs we love

To make up for my l-o-o-n-g post on why I think writers should consider e-publishing, I’m going to make it short today.–and give you all a break. But I started thinking about this blogging thing and about how much we all get out of it. I like blogging–and reading blogs is my favorite procrastinating activity.

But ask any ten writers what their favorite blog is and you’ll get at least twenty different answers–and reasons why. I tend to gravitate toward mystery writer’s blogs like the Lipstick Chronicles or blogs that will help me as a writer Writer’s Write

So when I started thinking about this post, I was aware of my limitations. Of course I asked around. One blog that kept coming up in other writer’s top ten writer’s blogs was Freelance Writing Gigs. That’s it for non-fiction. Apparently I hang with a bunch of fiction writers only.
Karen Duvall is running an on-line workshop this week on writing description. Participants are in line to win one of three writer’s books.
And I got a suggestion for Romance writers-Romancing the blog.
So now I want to ask you folks. What is your favorite writer’s blog?

Dress your writing in its best before sending it out the door

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Leila Kalmbach to the Rule of Three guest stage.  Leila is a freelance copyeditor, proofreader, and writer.  She produces an excellent newsletter called Typo of the Month, which tells the story of a different embarrassing or expensive typo each month.  Please e-mail Leila directly to sign up for Typo of the Month.  Leila can be found online at www.eyeforink.com, or reached at eye.for.ink@gmail.com.

                                                                                                                                           

When you were little, you were taught not to judge a book by its cover. But you do it anyway, don’t you? We all do. That’s why you wear a business suit when you want to be seen as a professional, a slinky dress when you go to the bar with friends, and an old ratty T-shirt when you’re home alone with no one to see you.

Okay, maybe you don’t do all of those things. But you see my point: You make judgments based on surface details, and you expect others to also.

And yet, when submitting a piece of writing to an editor, publisher, or agent, many people don’t bother proofreading their work. They figure it’ll get proofread before it’s published. They figure these people are trained to look past surface errors and see that the story is well-crafted, the sentences are alluring, and the words pop out from the page.

And maybe they will—but don’t count on it. The surface details of spelling, grammar, and punctuation are like the business suit for your writing. They show the reader that you pay attention to detail, and they allow the reader to get truly lost in your writing. After all, it’s hard to pay attention to the message when you’re caught up in figuring out whether that comma should have been a period, or whether “invenst” should say “invest” or “invent.” In that way, your writing itself is seen as stronger when it’s free of typos even though the content is exactly the same.

With that in mind, I offer these tips for proofreading your work:

-Spend some time away from a piece before proofreading it. When you know what a sentence is supposed to say, your mind doesn’t spend as much time processing the words. This makes it easy to overlook errors.

-Read through the piece slowly, at a time when you feel awake and alert. Reading it out loud may help you to slow down and really look at the words.

-Try to turn off the part of your brain that focuses on meaning, and just focus on the surface details.

-Keep your eye moving steadily by keeping your place on the page with a pen or pencil. When we read, we don’t actually look at every word. Our eyes skip over words and our minds fill in the blanks based on what we expect to see. This is why typos are sometimes hard to catch. Make sure you read every single word, especially very short ones, which our eyes skip over most often.

-If possible, get a friend to read the piece as well.

If you have a piece that really needs to be perfect, consider hiring an editor to proofread or copyedit it. Different style guides have different rules, and a good editor can give you a leg up by putting your piece in the style used by the publication you’re targeting.

Remember, we all judge books by their covers. If you don’t pay attention to typos in your writing, your own book may never get the opportunity to be judged by its cover in bookstores around the world.

Fan Fiction

So there I was, wandering around Arundel Castle, dreamily putting together my blog for tomorrow, when I suddenly realised it was Thursday, not Friday, and I was late, again.

So, what I wanted to talk about was fan fiction. I know what people say, only sad loners write fan-fiction, they haven’t got any imagination because they are relying on other people’s stories yada yada yada.

That’s all wrong.

Fan fiction, for those who don’t know, is writing stories based around the characters and situations of a TV Show, or film, or play, or book. You take those characters, and you play. Now there is some bad fan fiction out there. But there is also some remarkably good fan fiction. The point is, your readers already know these characters. You don’t have to take time to build them up. You don’t even really have to come up with a plot. You just write.

Fan fiction can teach a budding author many things. For a start, it teaches you that you really can write. Nothing beats that feeling of finally putting a story down on paper.

It can teach you about different forms of stories, from full length books, to one-page stories, from complex plots to one character’s musing, from a life-long tale to a ten minute snapshot. One popular form is the drabble – that is a story that is exactly 100 words long – not 99, nor 10,1just 100. Imagine compressing a story down to that. It teaches you just how to express yourself concisely, which words are really important, and which are superfluous, what the heart of your story, or your character, or your moment really is.

It teaches you dialogue. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your prose is, if your dialogue doesn’t sound right the whole story can fail. It must sound exactly like the characters you are writing about – ideally, the readers should be able to hear their voices.

It teaches you about characterisation. One of my favourite ways to write fan fiction was to take a moment, barely a few minutes on screen, or a particular look or phrase, and explore it. What did they mean? Why? Why say it like that? What does it reveal about them? Or take a character that does barely anything but wander on screen, say a few lines and disappear, and flesh them out.

And it gets you used to writing. What transfers well from your mind to the page. What style suits you best. What are you are you really good at, and what are you not so good at. For writers, I think fan fiction can be invaluable training for creating your own worlds.

Fan fiction gives you something else too. I wrote all kinds of fan fiction, from Harry Potter to Law and Order (and it’s here if you’re interested) but what I was most well known for was Stargate, and specifically stories around the relationship of Sam and Jack. At a time when the on screen Sam and Jack ’ship (ship is short for relationship, and people who follow a relationship are shippers) was going through the doldrums, I went to the Ealing Jazz Festival, where I had a Menhdi tattoo done (henna tattoo), and then got drunk. I went home, and wrote a Sam and Jack story, called Mendi. I posted it on fanfiction.net that night, without bothering to re-read it. I went to bed, and slept off my drunkenness.

A few days later, I was on a Stargate forum – and the shippers started talking about stories to help them get over the current bad state of our ship.

8 people in a row recommended Mendhi. And everywhere Stargate I went for the next few days, Mendhi was mentioned, and praised and recommended. And when people noticed I was on the forums, they kept telling me how wonderful it was. One girl even said she was ’starstruck’ to be talking to me on the forums! I went to bed unknown, and woke up slightly more famous than I was before – and it was a heady feeling.

That faded, of course, but I do still get the occasional fan. And that’s the real joy of fanfiction – you get feedback. You get people telling you how good you are, and much your story meant, how talented you are. You don’t put your stories into a void, you put them into people’s minds, and they come back to you.

So go on, give fanfiction a go.

I’d like to remind all our readers that we have a guest blogger at the weekend – she’ll be talking about proof-reading, and it’s well worth a read.

Writer’s Block

Enough said…

E-Publishing–Explored

I feel almost like an ambassador for e-publishing as I write this. But it has come to my attention (ah, what the heck, Narelle told me!) that not every writer knows all that much about e-publishing–except maybe in the U.S. Essentially e-books are books in electronic format which you download. You can read the book on your computer. Or you can read it on a palm phone, or blackberry (there is software which is free to download) or dedicated readers like the Sony e-reader, the Amazon Kindle, or Fictionwise’s ebookwise. I’ll give you four good reasons to try e-publishing.

1. Most e-pubs don’t require agented material. You can submit your own stuff.

2. E-publishers are more likely to cross genre lines or publish manuscripts that are in genres that print publishers are doing away with. Written a cozy mystery? Then you’re probably heard rumors already that although cozies sell well, many print pubs are starting to do away with them. But e-pubs aren’t. Got a vampire romance or a time-travel romance? Think e.

3. E-publishers are smaller establishments where you can get to know your publisher and the staff. You may have input about your cover and your edits.

4. No matter what you think–every author out there today has to market themselves whatever format they publish in–unless you are Stephen King of course. You will find the good e-publishers out there marketing with you. Trebleheart, the publisher of my first book, has even provided marketing workshop opportunities for its writers–telephone chat courses on how to market in this internet age. Call this on the job training.

Now that you’re thinking about it, don’t rush off. Choose your e-publisher wisely.

One of the most important things about choosing a publisher–any publisher is distribution. E-book publishers can put your book out there at Fictionwise, Mobipocket, Palm, Amazon and numerous other sites and formats. Or the book could just be available on their website–so do your homework! Check out the publisher. How do you do that? Go to the website, read some of the sample chapters. Do these books look like they are written by someone who dropped out of fourth grade? Are the covers copies of Microsoft Word illustrations? Is the sample contract (usually posted on the website) asking for your first born child? Move on!

But if the books are professionally written and presented? Do you like the quality of the website and the covers? Then order a book or two. See if it holds up all the way through. Take note of the authors and email them to see if they like their publisher, and ask about contracts and royalties too. Most will give you the straight scoop.

Many e-books are also available in print. Check that out. Who does the distribution? Where are the books available? This is very, very important. If your book can only be ordered on the publisher’s website, it is going to cut into your sales.

Don’t sign with anyone who wants the option on your next book or who wants rights that don’t make sense. If they want the movie rights for example, ask why and try to get that excluded from the contract. Audio rights? Ditto, unless you see that they are producing audio books. Why give away something you can sell elsewhere?

As always check every publisher out with preditorsandeditors.

As to why people read e-books, check myspace.com/christineduncan page
I firmly believe that e-publishing is here to stay and many writers in the future will say “I got my start in e-publishing.” How about you?

The Time Just Flies By

 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in receipt of a fortune, and free time, cannot fail to produce a masterpiece. Netherfield Hall is let at last and … no, wait, that’s not right.

 I firmly believed the above aphorism, just knowing that if I don’t have to work for my living, and had enough money to live on, I could write the most wonderful stories. That is, I believed it until this week.

 

Last week, I had a holiday to prepare for, I had to finish off my last week at work, I had parties to go to, I had so many things to plan, and not only did I get my blog in on time, I also managed to write a little story (not that good a story, actually).

 

This week, and for the next three weeks, I have plenty of money, and lots of free time. I ought to be writing. Yet not only is my blog late (mea culpa!) but I haven’t written a single word of fiction.

 

It started off with chores. Surely, I thought, I had time to clean the flat. After all, I can’t write ALL the time. So I gave the flat a thorough clean – more thorough than any I’ve given in my life. Even the fridge was pulled out so I could clean under it. Then I did all those chores that I’d never got round to when I was working, like hanging up those pictures. Then, with all that money, I could finally afford to buy a sofa, and mattress and all those little things. And of course, with all this time off, I could afford to go and visit a few places – like Battle Abbey, and the BBC – and the result was, I never sat down for a single second to write, and I’m scribbling this now, late, in between wrestling a mattress down four flights of stairs to the garden to be taken away, and moving the bookcases so the new sofa can get in.

 

I guess the lesson is – I shouldn’t be making excuses not to write – free time and money don’t necessarily mean free time to write.

 

On the other hand – all those little chores are done now, so hopefully I should be able to get down to it next week. Except I must go to the theatre, and the cinema, and I have to arrange my trip to Stratford to see David Tennant in Hamlet, and I need new coffee cups….

Sick note

Dear Readers,  please excuse Narelle from posting her blog this week as she is unwell.  She hopes to be back on her feet again in time for her post next week.

Signed: Narelle pretending to be her mum.

A Writer’s Resources

 
All this stuff about writing being a solutary thing is, forgive my french, crap. All writers need help to do what we do whether it’s to gather information for our work in progress (wip), find an agent or get published.
With that in mind, the web sure makes it a lot easier to get this help nowadays. In the U.S., helpful organizations like National Writer’s Union can still help you to figure out whether a contract you’ve been offered is good. And we probably all have gone to Preditors and Editors to see if an agent or a publishing house is legitimate. And most US writers would check the association for authors representatives for agents but would you think to check
Science Fiction Writers of America Writer Beware
Here a couple of other links you might not think of:
Need Information on E-Publishers?
Check out Fantasy Writer, Piers Anthony’s site

Need information on Forensics?
Check out Lee Lofland’s blog

Need tips in your genre?
Check out Moira Allen’s Writing-World

And if you’re quick–thanks to my friend Karen Duvall, for this snippet:
“If you’re looking for an agent, there’s a first page contest going on at the Miss Snark’s First Victim blog. Submit the first page of your completed manuscript by Thursday July 17 and it will be judged by a Secret Agent who the blog owner managed to wrangle for the job. Secret Agent will choose a winner and award a prize, which is still a mystery, but my guess is the prize will be a request for the full manuscript. The Secret Agent’s identity won’t be revealed until after the contest is over. For the complete rules, visit the Miss Snark’s First Victim blog.”

Back to Rule of Three, I visited Shelley Munroe’s blog this week as she hosted Romance writer, Marcia James–who gave tips on promo. Marcia will send you a 150 page document on promo, if you visit her website and request a copy through her contact page. Give it a try, Marcia had some wonderful tips with tons of links.

It occurs to me that a lot of the sites I’ve just given to you might not work internationally. Thank goodness we have Narelle and Michelle to tell you what works in the U.K. and Australia. And hopefully some of you will write in too. What web sites, blogs and yahoogroups get you through your work in project?

Precious Inspiration

 

Books that inspire me – where to start? Well, how do I define a book that inspires me, rather than a book I love?

 

If a book makes me want to pick up a pen, and start writing, then it inspires me. Not all books that I love do that. For example, my favourite book is Jane Eyre – but once I’ve finished reading it, I don’t feel any need to rush to my pad and start scribbling.

 

So – lets start with Jasper Fforde’s books – all of them, but especially the ones with Thursday Next. They are utterly outrageous in the way he plays with literary conventions and stereotypes, and very funny – especially for a bibliophile like me. And Thursday Next herself is a wonderful heroine – human, and flawed, but utterly brilliant when it counts. Every time I finish a book, I want to sit down and play with words and ideas.

 

Georgette Heyer. Those wonderful sparkling Regency romances, with her feisty, clever heroines, and her heroes – some light hearted and witty, other brooding and sexy (Sylvester!). She inspires me to write the most frivolous, funny dialogue, and drown myself in the Regency period until I find myself saying ‘Doing it rather too brown, my Lord!’ to my friends – who, as they are not Heyerites, have no idea what I’m talking about.

 

MR James. The Master (not in a Dr Who sense – although…) He wrote ghost stories. Wonderful, haunting, disturbing ghost stories, lingering in the memory long after I have closed the book. Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad has made me permanently scared to sleep in a room that has an extra, empty bed. He inspires me to write my own ghost stories – tales of ordinary people, caught up in extraordinary, inexplicable events.

 

Dickens. For his ghost stories, for his novels, for his characters. When I read him, I become inspired to invent characters myself, deep, complex, characters, with a life of their own, and let them lead me where their destiny takes me. And he teaches me how characters do not necessarily have to be human – a major character in Bleak House is the City of London itself, in Our Mutual Friend, it is the River Thames. And he teaches me how to use language to invoke and inspire – how to slightly twist words to cleverly evoke a feeling – a prime example being his phrase ‘misanthropic ice’ in Christmas Carol.

 

Those are not the only authors that inspire me. I could mention Tolkien, JK Rowling, Lemony Snicket, Stephen King, Anne Perry, Mark Gatiss – all writers who inspire me to pick up a pen, and create. And for that gift, I am deeply indebted to all of them.