Never Use "Was"

By Julie Daines

The Ten Commandments of Writing and When to Break Them

Writing Conferences. We go. We listen. We obey. Maybe sometimes we obey too much.

My next few posts will be about when to break the writing commandments.

Comandment #5

Thou Shalt Not Use the Word Was

As with all of the posts in this series, I agree with this commandment on most levels. However, as with other commandments, the problem comes when writers take this rule too far. 

Usually, the best way to say something is the simplest and most direct. Writers who beat around the bush with fancy words are guilty of what is known as purple prose, which I define as trying too hard to make each sentence a work of art unto itself. Each sentence's purpose should be in contributing to the beauty of the whole.

Example:

From the first bite, the rich, chocolate cake saturated his tastebuds with mouth-watering flavor. 

First of all, this doesn't sound at all like what a MG or YA character would say. And secondly, it sounds forced. So unless your character is Anne of Green Gables, simple and direct is best. 

The chocolate cake was delicious. 

Straight and to point. We get it, and now the story can move on. 

The object of avoiding the use of the word was is not to write forced prose, it is to use a stronger, better, more descriptive verb. So try to replace was with something better.

The chocolate cake tasted delicious. 

Or rewrite the sentence in a way that says the same thing, only better.

Mack loved that chocolate cake from the first bite.

If the tasting of the chocolate cake is the pinnacle plot point to your story, then go ahead and elaborate. If it's a passing part of dinner, keep it short and simple. 

Example 2:

The sun beat down on the road. When I opened my car door, the heat assaulted me, wrapping its burning fingers around me and choking me. The hot asphalt attacked my bare feet trying to burn its way through my skin. 

At first glance, this may seem ok. But it's a problem I see a lot in descriptions. Whether it's meant like this or not, the entire paragraph is personification--a type of literary device.

As with all literary devices, it should be used judiciously. Save it for the important parts of you story. 

If Cami just ran out of gas in the middle of the desert and she faces imminent death by heat stroke, then this example is ok.  

If all you want to do is get across how hot it is when Cami pulled up to the swimming pool, then keep it simple and direct--even if it means using was. 

By the time Cami pulled up to the swimming pool, it was beyond hot.  

Bottom Line:

• Use was, but only when it's the best and simplest way to get your point across. Sometimes, there is no better substitute. 

• If you can, use a stronger verb in its place or rewrite the sentence. 

• When you need to describe something important, pull out all the stops and elaborate--always keeping in mind the YA or MG voice.

As you're reading, watch for when the author uses was appropriately, and when they should have used it, but instead made one of these mistakes. 

What are your thought on using the word was?

My group

My critique group is fantastic.

We’ve only been meeting for sixth months or so but we clicked at the outset. Our schedule is ideal – often enough though, not overwhelming. We deal with something regularly, sending 2000 words one week, meeting live to discuss them the next. It keeps us on task and with only four of us, time is very manageable.

It’s a drive for all of us, arriving from Brigham City to Salt Lake and points in between. But they’re worth the trip. We’re dedicated writers, committed to craft. We all attended WIFYR this summer. We view the world from differing time frames, with one each in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s (until one of us messed that up by advancing to the next decade). We vary in culture and lifestyle as well. Each brings to the table a unique perspective. And they are sharp.

After WIFYR, we dispersed. Summer family plans made critiquing hard to arrange. We’re back now and these people are just as good as they were last June. I was ready for a beta read to which they readily agreed. Explicit instructions were for them to take their time, a full MS more than our 2000 word limit. That would give me time to spend on a new endeavor.

Those little over-achievers didn’t listen. They returned it the next session. And they’ve forced me back into the old project. I’m really tired of that timeworn thing, but their counsel is amazing, advancing it toward completion.

Yet, at times their guidance is discomforting. They tell me things I disagree with or don’t want to hear, things that chip away at the story’s foundation. A few days later I come around to see they are right. Or I figure out a way to ignore them or work around their ideas. But mostly they’re right.

I’m revising now, as per their suggestions. The rougher edges are being smoothed out, the wholes getting plugged. I’m free to disregard their suggestions or be impressed by their insight. I hope I contribute as much as I take.

Thanks, people.

Hairy Little People: An Anniversary

by Scott Rhoades

Today is the 75th anniversary of the publishing of The Hobbit. Tomorrow is September 22, the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

Back in junior high school, like many boys, I had pretty much stopped reading, even though it had been one of my favorite things to do since I was four. It wasn't that I no longer liked to read. I was too old for the books I used to enjoy and had not yet discovered something older that excited me, other than some Twain and a few other classics.

Then, one day, I came across The Hobbit, which my younger brother had brought home from the library as a reading assignment, although I don't think he ever actually read it. I was instantly hooked, from that brilliant first sentence that so many of us know by heart.

I became a Tolkien geek before I was even aware that such a thing existed.  I would love to be able to read this book and The Lord of the Rings for the first time again. I devoured them and was amazed that such books existed for so long without my knowing it. I still have those ragged first copies I bought, and I don't plan to ever get rid of them. Few books have been such a big influence on my life.

For quite a while, much of my leisure reading was fantasy, with a few classics mixed in. Tolkien's books led me to look at his sources and influences, a major factor behind my raging fascination with medieval literature, which continues to this day. If not for Tolkien, I would never have discovered Beowulf before being required to read it in class. My introduction to that poem was to read it for fun. As a result, I've always loved it. For a number of years, I've read it at least once a year. Beowulf led me to the Icelandic sagas, which have become chocolate for my reading soul. The sagas in turn led me to one of my very favorite novelists, Halldor Laxness.

If not for Tolkien, I might not have become fascinated with the Sigurd/Siegfried legends and might not ever have discovered Das Nibelunglied, Volsunga Saga, Thidrekssaga, and other forms of the legend, as well as non-fiction explorations of those stories. I almost certainly wouldn't have discovered The Kalevala. I might never have gotten into Welsh and Irish myths and legends.

Much of my education would be vastly altered, including my post-collegiate self-education. My first novel might not be a Viking story. It started out as a retelling of the Sigurd legends, but then I changed my mind and did something else, although that influence remains in some scenes. A Sigurd retelling is still in my mind and could still happen sometime, although  have several original ideas in my files. Those legends are to me, though, what the King Arthur stories were to Steinbeck, and pop up in various ways in much of my writing.

There are a lot of books that have influenced my thinking and how I look at the world, and that have inspired me in various ways. But few secular books, and maybe none, have had the impact on my life that The Hobbit has had. I have gone from Tolkien geekdom to mere fandom over the years, but I treasure The Hobbit and what it has done to my life.

So, happy anniversary to a book that has meant so much to my life, and happy birthday, one day early, to those most wonderful Bagginses, Bilbo and Frodo. May the hair on your feet never fall out.

First book, first love

Maybe it's the arrival of Fall, the need for comfort food and comfort books; the thing is, every September, I go back to my favorite stories and authors. I have a long drive to my kids' school, and on the days that my baby isn't crying in his carseat, I listen to The Shadow of the Wind audiobook.

The other day, this paragraph went straight to my heart:

"Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer
say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the
first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first
images, the echo of words we think we have left behind,
accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our
memory to which, sooner or later - no matter how many books
we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or
forget - we will return. For me those enchanted pages will
always be the ones I found among the passageways of the
Cemetery of Forgotten Books."

I have a hard time falling into a book these days, but The Shadow of the Wind with its intricate plot, the real life characters and the compelling voice of the narrator is the very reason I love books. The first book that I read and touched my heart in this way was Little Women. But the book I really loved as a kid was Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach. I know, I was precocious and very much lacking in fun, appropriate for my age books. I've been making up the lost years of no middle grade or young adult. However, I gravitate to books that make me think and leave with the feeling that this beautiful life is a grand stage on which we practice for what comes next.

What was/is your first book love?

Finding the Words

by Deren Hansen

Just as many of us suffer from innumeracy—the inability to think rationally about large numbers—many of us also tend to assume that if something has been a certain way for a long time that is how the thing is supposed to be. This is very much the case right now in the world of publishing.

For a substantial portion of the last century and most of the first decade of this, the publishing industry has been defined by the logistics of distributing books to bookstores and the companies controlling that channel. There were innovations, like mass-market paperbacks and book stands in supermarkets and big-box retailers, but none of these changed the fundamental distribution pattern. Setting yourself up as a publisher required a second-mortgage-level investment to print books and a tremendous amount of legwork to arrange for distribution.

Everything changed with the advent of electronic publication. The barrier to entry was reduced to little more than the time and effort required to write the book and some initial, minimal expenses like purchasing ISBN numbers. While electronic publishing doesn’t provide an easy avenue into bookstores, for a variety of reasons their importance has waned in the last few years. The number of new, e-book-only small presses attests to the viability of the new model.

Change is difficult for many reasons. One of the subtle but most vexing ones is that our ability to describe and define the change always lags the change itself. What we used to call simply publishing (or commercial publishing if we needed to distinguish between the standard pattern, where authors were paid by publishers, from vanity publishing, where authors paid publishers) now gets qualified with words like, “traditional,” “legacy,” or even, “dinosaur.” The swelling ranks of individuals taking advantage of the opportunities offered by electronic publishing use these terms to help define what they are doing differently. And now we're awash in terms like, “self-publishing,” “independent” or “indie publishing” (an attempt to align with the success and credibility of independently produced, or indie, films), and even arguments that trading a 70% royalty for a 15% royalty and recognition by a publisher is a new kind of vanity publishing.

The problem with all those labels is that they speak primarily in terms of how you are not publishing. “Traditional,” implies you’re not publishing through the new electronic media, or that you’re not using those channels well. “Self,” and, “Independent,” imply that you’re not publishing with partners.

So how are you publishing if you choose to do it yourself?

The label that fits best is, “Artisan Publishing.”

An artisan, according to Webster, “is one trained to manual dexterity in some mechanical art, mystery, or trade; a hand-craftsman; a mechanic.”

In its current usage, “artisan,” suggests craftsmanship and pride in one’s work, which of all the reasons bandied about for undertaking to publish your own work is the only one—as we shall see in the coming weeks—that stands up to scrutiny.


Deren Hansen is the author of the Dunlith Hill Writers Guides. Learn more at dunlithhill.com.

No time

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I’ve had an alteration of my daily schedule and it’s really getting in the way of my writing.

I didn’t have enough time before and have precious less of it now. The sad part is I was on a roll. Not to say people are banging on my door to read my stuff, but the writing was working. I’m getting it. I’m finally figuring out how to do the kind of writing I want to do.

And then they took away my time.

One of my favorite WIFYR people, Claudia Mills, offered a breakout session once. She called it something like 60 Minutes A Day. The gist of it was to find a minimum of sixty minutes each day to work on your story. An hour a day makes for a good goal. It’s sometimes hard to find sixty minutes in a busy life. Conversely, it may seem too little to get anything done. But it’s ideal because it forces you into your story without taking a huge block of time. Unlike a set number of words per day, one hour has a definite stopping point. Chipping away, day after day could give you a rough draft in a few months. I’ve been a weekend warrior before, writing several hours at a time on a Saturday afternoon. Writing daily keeps the story fresh, your brain working on it as the story percolates in the subconscious.

I came away from that conference singing the 60 minutes a day mantra and managed to get it in most days. There were some days when it didn’t happen, but mostly it worked and one day at a time, my story grew. There were days when the rest of my life got in the way and I would go a week or more before remembering I need to write an hour daily.

The story doesn’t get done, “the end” doesn’t get written, the book doesn’t get published until there is some serious seat-planted-in-a-chair time. If you have to start small and build it up to 60 that’s okay. Claudia gets up early to write before heading out the door for her college teaching day job. Early isn’t my best time. I do better in the evening, after things settle down. Some days they never do and that’s okay, too. The key is to get into a routine of writing every day. When you are there, those days you can’t fit it in becomes a minor interference, not a bad habit. Dedicating sixty minutes daily may seem impossible, but if you can figure out a way to eek that much time out, you should do it.

Feeling Fortunate

by Scott Rhoades

Today I want to write about a topic I know better than any other, one that brings me endless hours of fascination and enjoyment.

Me.

But stick with me. There's a point to this self-reflection.

This month (if I remember correctly, this coming week, to be exact) marks my 24th anniversary as a professional writer, one who makes all of his living from the written word. It's not the kind of writing that I dreamed of as a youngster, perhaps, but it's been a good gig and I'm happy to have it.

When I was hired that September day by Atari as an editor with additional writing responsibilities, it was with mixed feelings. I wanted a job where I used my writing skills, but, being in my twenties, I felt like corporate writing was kind of a sell-out, and I only planned to do it long enough to get my "real" writing career off the ground. I was, of course, going to be a famous-but-somewhat-reclusive novelist. Never mind that I had never written a novel, and didn't really know how. How was I to know it would be almost fifteen years before I made my first serious attempt at writing one, my first try that amounted to more than a few notes and ten pages or so of actual writing? I was writing poems at the time, and an occasional short story, so how hard would it be to turn that into a career as a novelist? Publishers would jump at the chance to help me live my dream.

Of course, it doesn't work that way. For one thing, to become a novelist (a famous but somewhat reclusive one, remember, with an emphasis on keeping my privacy intact), one must write novels. One must also be willing to sacrifice other priorities, and these were my starting-a-family years.

So, this short-term sell-out job turned into a career, and nothing has been better for my writing. Atari gave me an opportunity to be creative, especially when writing story lines in game manuals, or when designing and writing the stories for comic book posters that came with some of the games. More importantly, it taught me how to treat my writing like a professional, to work toward deadlines, and to work with people who wanted to change my precious words.

It was after I left Atari, by then a sinking ship, two years later, that I took my first writing contract, doing freelance technical writing on the side while working a day job. I wrote for other companies and edited for a book publisher, all as a contractor. I had to manage my freelance work along with my "real" job, learning how to manage my time, and how to keep plugging along even when I didn't feel like it after a long day of writing at work.

This was a busy time for me, with all that work. Unexpectedly, it was also a very productive time for my creative writing. I don't know how I found the time, but somehow I wrote several short stories that were actually pretty good, and poetry besides, all while getting up at 4:30 in the morning to work on my freelance stuff, then working all day at my day job, and coming home at night to a wife and two, then three, children. Still no novels, but I felt like a real writer.

That was still a long time ago. As the years passed, I started earning enough to rely less on freelance work. Around my fortieth birthday, I finally got serious about a novel. The skills I had picked up over the years were a big help. On the other hand, I must admit, it is not always easy to write in my free time when I spend all of my work time writing. Several more hours in front of a computer is not always an attractive prospect. But I suppose that's the life of an adult. Coming home from work often means doing more work of one kind or another.

Here's the thing. I no longer viewed my career as a sell-out. I had a writing job, a good one that used many of my skills (although it wasn't particularly creative in the way I had hoped my career to be). My buddies from school who had planned to be writers all had other jobs that had little or nothing to do with writing. I was a writer. I felt like one. My family was supported by writing. I could afford to buy a home. I finally realized how fortunate I was.

I said there was a point to this, and I suppose it's about time I got to it.

Just about everyone who participates in this blog, either as a writer or a reader, does so out of some hope to become a writer, and probably because we are working toward that goal. Usually, being a writer means only one thing to us, to write stories or books. To become famous, or at least to be known. That's a noble goal, and I'm still pursuing that dream myself. But there are many ways to be a writer. Companies need people who can write instructions, training material, marketing copy, Web site copy, and many other kinds of writing. You'd be surprised how few good writers there are in the corporate world, and how many positions require good writing skills. Magazines and newspapers might be struggling now, but they are still pumping millions of words each month into our cultural sphere. Educational publishers need people who can write. True, we live in an area where there are relatively fewer companies and fewer opportunities than in major urban centers, but many companies are becoming more open to remote workers, if the skills are a good match. To be real about it, these days there aren't exactly thousands of doors that open automatically just because a person can write, but writing is still a valuable skill and the opportunities are there if you're willing to do the work to get there.

Really, the opportunities are nearly endless. If you want to be a professional writer, there are many ways to do it beyond that novel or picture book you want to write, and most of them pay a lot better. By all means, keep the dream of being a creative author and work toward it, but don't be afraid to "lower yourself" to take on a writing job. In addition to paying your bills, you'll learn valuable skills that will help you take a professional attitude toward your "real" writing.

So, take it from me. If you want to be a professional writer (or if you have a young person in your family who wants to write), and you have the skills and the willingness to work at it day after day, you can probably find a way to do it. You just have to adjust your dreams a bit, and look at different things that "professional writer" can mean. Of course, there's nothing wrong with concentrating solely on creative writing if you can afford it, and if you are one of the lucky few that manages to live the dream, you'll be the envy of a huge percentage of corporate writers who are spending our days pumping out words for other people. But there are many ways to be a professional writer, and one of them might just be a surprisingly good fit.

And, then, if you are a very lucky person, as I am, you can sit in your chair 24 years later and write about how fortunate you are to have found a way to make a living from your writing.

An Announcement and a New Topic

by Deren Hansen

We don't do much self-promotion here on the Utah Children's Writers blog, so I'll be brief: I have published a series of writers guides that incorporate much of the material I've shared on this blog. You can learn more at dunlithhill.com

While I would be thrilled if you were to rush out and purchase my guides, devour them in one sitting, give them glowing, five-star reviews, and evangelize them to all and sundry, my reason for mentioning their release is to explain why I'm going to run a series of posts to share what I learned through the process of producing and publishing the Dunlith Hill Writers Guides.

You see, when I began collecting, arranging, revising, and expanding the material for the guides, I guessed the project would take two months. That was nine months ago. As much as we feel entitled to grouse about how slow things move in publishing, I now have a bit more sympathy for the production side of the process.

But I'm not going to cover the how-to's. There's a wealth of information on formatting e-books, cover image dimensions, pricing and promotion strategies, and so on. Much of it is confusing or contradictory because the details frequently change.

I'm going to discuss the why- and why-not-to's--something I considered a number of times when I felt I was stuck in an editorial quagmire and the project would never see the light of day. What I discovered is that the single most important factor in completing such a project is to be very clear about why you're doing it and what you hope to accomplish.

I call what I learned, "Artisan Publishing." I'll begin to explain what that means next week.


Deren Hansen is the author of the Dunlith Hill Writers Guides. Learn more at dunlithhill.com.

Help! How Do I Write a First Draft?

By Julie Daines


So, I've written three complete novels. One to be published late next year.

I just finished my third a week or two ago.

And now, as I stare at a blank Scrivener document, I can't remember how to write something new.

Oh sure, I have lots of stories percolating in my brain. I don't have writer's block per se.

I just can't remember how to get the ball rolling.

So I need your advice.

What are your tips and trade secrets to spewing out that first draft? Do you outline? Do you wing it? Do you write without chapter divisions? Do you write in scenes? Where do you go to generate plot ideas? What is your one, fail-proof step that helps you get the story flowing?

Please feel free to elaborate!

How Do You Find Your Writing Voice? with Author Maggie Lyons

I’m lucky to work with so many authors at Stories for Children Publishing and the World of Ink Network. I learn so much from them and I find it helps my personal writing. Not many authors get to sit on both sides of the writing desk like me, and so when I get the chance to share some great advice I learn from an author I’m working with like Maggie Lyons, I’m happy to post it here.

Maggie Lyons is one of the few authors I have had the chance to see grow as a writer. She was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder!

Maggie is very talented but is always looking to grow as a writer and when we started chatting about the different types of voices authors have when it comes to writing, her comments inspired me. I asked her to share some of those thoughts with you today.

How Do You Find Your Writing Voice?

with Author Maggie Lyons

I’m still in the process of finding my writing voice. Finding is the key word here. I can’t force my writing voice to shoot up like a hothouse plant. I can’t learn it like a foreign language. It’s not merely about writing techniques—asyndetons, paraprosdokians, zeugmas, and that fun bunch of language tricks. It’s not about narrating in first person, third person, or even second person. I have to let it appear in its own good time. That’s because a writer’s voice grows from experience. It represents everything the writer has absorbed and synthesized over time. It’s about what the writer chooses to write about and how the writer expresses the results of that choice. It’s about how fictional characters express themselves and the approach a writer takes to reach the target readership. In the words of literary agent Rachelle Gardner: “Your writer’s voice is the expression of you on the page. It’s that simple—and that complicated. Your voice is all about honesty. It’s the unfettered, nonderivative, unique conglomeration of your thoughts, feelings, passions, dreams, beliefs, fears and attitudes, coming through in every word you write. Voice is all about your originality and having the courage to express it.” (http://www.rachellegardner.com/2008/06/the-writers-voice/):

The online researcher is presented with a plethora of advice for writers intent on finding their writing voice. Some say that finding your voice is about finding out who you really are—which may be an unnerving experience, so the idea of courage pops up frequently. “Don’t be nervous,” Henry Miller advised. Jeff Goins claims that being afraid means “you’re on the right track … Fear is good” (http://goinswriter.com/writing-voice/). Writer Holly Lisle insists that “Voice is bleeding onto the page, and it can be a powerful, frightening, naked experience” (http://hollylisle.com/ten-steps-to-finding-your-writing-voice/).

Is all this suffering really necessary?

I have not bled all over the pages of my manuscript. I have not consciously sought out the inner, “real” me, and therefore have not challenged myself to a battle with fear. I have written “joyously” as Henry Miller once advised. Does that mean my book does not have voice?

Others say it is not and never could be about your authentic self because, as Steven Pressfield puts it, voice is “artificial” (http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2009/08/the-writers-voice). It’s something the writer has crafted to convey a particular impression. Put another way, writers must follow the dictates of their material, a classic example being J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye with its angst-driven teen narrator, Holden Caulfield.

But isn’t this a chicken and egg situation? My writing voice was driven by the characters and the situations they found themselves in. Yet the plot, settings, characters, dialogue, actions, and thoughts are still products of my imagination, even when my characters take control. Isn’t that also what people mean when they say the writer’s voice represents what the writer is all about, or am I believing too many impossible things before breakfast, to misquote Lewis Carroll?

Conscious of my readership, as we writers should be, I crafted story, characters, dialogue, and narrative style in a way I hoped my middle-grade readers could relate to. That has to affect the writer’s voice too and, along with the dictates of the material, can change the writer’s voice from book to book. This is totally obvious when the narrative is written in the first person, but voice can be customized in a third-person narrative just as readily. Jerry Spinelli voice riproars its way through his middle-grade landmark Maniac Magee but treads softly and fearfully in his heart-aching Wringer. Yet, both books are recognizably Spinelli’s. His voice doesn’t lose its flesh and blood. It simply changes its outfit. That has to be the mark of a real writer’s voice that even a bad editor can’t obliterate.

_____________

Maggie Lyons hopes her stories encourage reluctant young readers to turn a page or two.

Her middle-grade adventure story Vin and the Dorky Duet is available as an e-book at MuseItUp Publishing’s bookstore (MuseItYoung section: http://tinyurl.com/bms7oba), on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AK7ALE, and as a paperback at Halo Publishing International at http://halopublishing.com/bookstore/Maggie-Lyons, and on Amazon at  http://tinyurl.com/9g5oc3c.

Her middle-grade adventure story Dewi and the Seeds of Doom will be released by as an e-book by MuseItUp Publishing in October and Halo Publishing International will release the paperback.

More information at: www.maggielyons.yolasite.com, and

http://www.facebook.com/MaggieLyonsChildrensBooks

You can find out more about Maggie Lyons and her book through her World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/9t24kgy

 

Now what?

You’ve just spent the last umpteen months pouring your heart out, bringing life to a main character, giving them purpose, and perfecting the wording. Where do you go from here?

Personally, I want to write some more. I enjoy the process. Except for the frustrations that melt away upon completion of a piece, it is a satisfying endeavor. I’m on a roll. I’ve got more story left in me. I don’t want to stop and try to sell the thing. I want to write.

But sell you must if you want to see it published. Stage two of book writing is not nearly as enjoyable as the initial creation phase. The business end of it is a different animal. You’ve got to convince someone your work is publishable. You know it is. Can’t they just take your word for it?

Not that I speak from experience. Rather, it is where I now find myself. I’ve been here before. I finished one story and jumped right into the next. I made only a heartless effort to push that story because I write. Sales is not my thing.

The first step is to find an agent or editor that prints the kind of stuff you write. Gone are the days when writers sent out willy-nilly to any and every publisher. One should study what kind of stuff they prefer. If a house specializes in YA romance, don’t waste their time with an MG boy story. Research publishers until you find a list of houses that would likely be keen to your work. Find out if they even accept un-agented stories. If they don’t, repeat the vetting process with agents. Investigate the guidelines a particular house has for accepting work.

With a target in mind, create a query letter for that publisher or agent. A query is a business letter asking permission to send a manuscript. You’ve got only one chance to make a first impression and the query letter is it. Agents and editors receive hundreds of requests and have strategies for navigating through them all. They will look to see if its something they normally publish and check that you’ve followed their guidelines – where your research pays off. They’ll look at grammar and spelling and conciseness of writing. A mere ten seconds is all that is needed to reject months and months of hard work.

The first line of your story should entice the reader to read more and likewise, the query letter is should hook the agent/editor to read on. It should be written in the same tone as the manuscript itself. You’ve got a few sentences to reveal the plot and full disclosure is what they want. You’re not writing the jacket blurb to draw the reader in. The agent/editor wants to know precisely the story you want them to take on. Tell the genre, word count, and target audience of the reader and why you chose them. Finally, a query should reveal a little about yourself, especially of anything you’ve published. There is Internet and hard copy resources to better acquaint with how to write a query letter.

Pushing your work is an unfortunate necessity. After you’ve written those magical words, “the end,” you’re not really finished. But before you can quit your day job and stay home and write, you need to venture into sales.

Shakespeare's Query Letter for King Lear

William Shakespeare to the Most Noble Agent, John Smythe,

Thou camest to my attention when I saw in thy blog that thou seekest tales in which parental love is tested by ungrateful children. I therefore wish to bring to thy attention my latest play, The Tragedie of King Lear. It is my sincerest hope that thou considerest this play, as mine previous agent hath met an untimely death due to Plague and an excess of Gin.

In this play, King Lear, who in his old age hath divided his kingdom amongst his daughters three. The first two of these daughters flattereth him and pleaseth him well to gain their doweries and the power that therewith comes. However, the youngest, Cordelia, Lear's favorite, refuseth to flatter, speaking only the truth. Lear misunderstandeth her words, believing them to be a sign that she loveth him not, and taketh from her her part of his kingdom, after saving for her the best. Cordelia retreateth to France, where she marrieth the French King, who desireth her despite her poverty and lack of dowery. 

Her two elder sisters, on the other hand, seizeth all power from their father and taketh from him all but one servant. The pain of such treachery maketh Lear mad, and he goeth out into the weather with only his Fool beside him. War breaketh out and Cordelia returneth unto England to win for her father his kingdom back. In the ancient tale, she succeedeth and liveth happily with her father, the restored king. However, in my play, Cordelia and her father and almost everybody else upon the stage and off cometh to a bloody and most tragic end, as pleaseth the audience of such a play.

For this work, I have drawn upon the ancient legend of King Leir and also upon a tale in Philip Sidney's Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. 

I have written and produced a good many plays of diverse nature, many of which have played to much success in The Globe and other theatres. Most recently, I am the leader and chief playwright of The King's Men, a troupe that playeth oft for His Majesty King James and others of the court.

Right Worshipful, My humble duty remembered, hoping in the Almighty of your health and prosperity which on my knees I beseech him to long to continue, from London, the Playwright,

(Written by Scott Rhoades)

Wendig on Six Reasons to Stop Writing

by Deren Hansen

One of the secret fears that haunt us would-be scribblers in the wee hours of the morning, when sleep is scarce and we have no choice but to peer into the existential abyss, is the question, "Is anything going to come of my writing, or am I simply wasting my time?"

The good news is that this fear is natural and common to our species. In fact, it's necessary: we'd never bother to revise and improve if we didn't have the slightest doubt about the perfection of our writing.

The bad news is that sometimes the answer to that fearful question is, "Yes."

As Chuck Wendig explains in a PG-13 post about six signs that it's time to give up writing:

"Writing is a career that offers a tireless parade of moments emblazoned with self-doubt and uncertainty where you’re forced to ever reevaluate who you are and why you do this. You’ll often have to hold up your dream and examine it in the harsh light of day just to see how substantial it really is."

So how do you know if you'd be better off doing something else?

Chuck offers the following six signs:

1. You’d Much Rather Talk About Writing Than Do Actual Writing
2. You Spent Your Time Doing Everything But Putting Words On Paper
3. Your Production Levels Are ... *Lone Coyote Howling*
4. That Teetering Tower Of Rejections Threatens To Crush You And Your Cats
5. You Got The Wrong Idea About Writing
6. Writing Is An Endless Sisyphean Misery

(The "Wrong Idea About Writing," by the way, includes things like you love books, you want to work from home, you want to be rich and/or famous. "Writing," Chuck succinctly explains, "is about writing. It's about telling stories. That's why you do it.")

My aim in highlighting Wendig's signs isn't to depress you, but to make the point that until you're under contract you have no obligation to write. Specifically, you have no obligation to write novel length manuscripts and attempt to sell them to traditional publishers.

We live in a time when there's almost no limit on ways in which you can express yourself. From blogs to videos (with a detour through flash mobs somewhere in the middle), the opportunities to shout your barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world are multitudinous. (We'll ignore, for a moment, the fact that a multitude is simultaneously yawping.) Perhaps there are other media that are a better fit for your particular genius.

And if you return from the abyss with your dream intact, then it's a substantial dream that's worth pursuing.

Ain't it wonderful?

Technology has come a long way and writers are among the many who have benefited. Gone are the days a writer scribbled her words on paper, replaced by the typewriter. Then to have an electric one, with self-correcting tape was heaven. With a keystroke or two I can spell check, use a thesaurus to find a better word, and easily pick up text and rearrange in a more suitable spot. Of course, future generations will not find our tattered hand-written manuscripts hidden away in some attic, a small price to pay for progress.

Should we need to check accuracy on details in a story, a quick Google search can provide the facts as well as a distraction from the writing at hand. Wikipedia can tell you anything from aardvarks to zebras.

But the real advantage is in the form of social media. There are forums, blogs, and videos for every human endeavor imaginable: quilting, sports, gardening, gaming, and of course, writing. There are how to instructions for drafting, composing, editing, or for writing a query letter or synopsis. You can go online and discover which houses most likely would be interested in your work.

And there are plain old blogs. The Utah Children’s Writers blog is one that comes to mind. Perhaps you’ve read it? Go there and you can find a list of 30 or more other blogs. Most blogs have a link where you can subscribe, which gives you an email and link when a new post goes up.

There are others. You can enjoy the thoughts of local writing goddess, Carol Williams. She is accompanied by and Ann Dee Ellis and Kyra at http://throwingupwords.wordpress.com/ . Sometimes it is the only way.

Another I subscribe to is From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors. These talented writers, including Utah’s own Elissa Cruz, focus primarily works for upper elementary children. Yet they have so much more, including book lists and special pages for children, teachers and librarians, and other writers. The URL is http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/

Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents blog features timely information when you’re ready to publish. In addition to various articles, several times a week, he mentions new agents and lists the kind of writing they are interested in. You can view it at http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents

There are others, too numerous to mention. I like Mary Kole’s http://kidlit.com/ and the Children’s Book Insider http://cbiclubhouse.com/ although the latter is a for profit site. The http://www.wifyr.com/blog/ can keep you abreast of news about WIFYR. The list goes on and on.