Writing Websites

This is a continuation of a series of posts about finding place to get feedback on your novel.

A quick search of the internet will lead you to a ton of writing websites. Everything from http://querytracker.net/forum/ to http://www.hatrack.com/  You can find websites based on your genre or your location or your love of writing plus cats (I’m sure that’s out there somewhere). On most of these websites, is a place to ask for feedback. Some even have specific places to post query letters or the first page of your book.

With writing websites, you can get a lot of feedback fairly fast. Since most of the time, these people aren’t familiar with your book, it’s a great way to get a first impression. Also, as you get to know people, you may form a formal critique group (see last Wednesday’s post) or at least close writing friends.

The downside to getting feedback from writing websites: Not everyone is on equal ground as far as writing experience, so not all of the advice you get will be sound. Also, with a lot of feedback comes a lot of conflicting opinions, so you will have to shuffle through to decide what you want to do.

Tips for getting editing help from writing websites:

1.      Be careful where you post and who you communicate with. This is on-line and not everyone is as honest as they say. Be sure not to give out personal information.

2.      Give more than you get. If you help other writer’s with your work, when you need help, it will be there. Plus, like with critique groups, sometimes you learn more by helping others than you do by having someone critique your book.

Tune in next time for the last installment of this riveting three part series on where to get critique help!

Happy writing.

No Pressure, but it has to be Perfect

As writers, we tend to strive for perfection. I can’t send my query until it is absolutely perfect. I can’t show this story until it is flawless.

That puts a lot of pressure on our already-stressed-from-lack-of-sleep minds.

My advice: Relax!

Not saying that you shouldn’t make your story the best that it can be. You most certainly should do that. You must grow and stretch yourself with every draft.

But don’t stress about making it perfect.

Here’s the big secret: It will never be exactly perfect.

No matter how much you tweak it and polish it, someone somewhere will find something wrong with it.

Don’t believe me? Go to Amazon or Goodreads or any other book-selling website and read the reviews of your favorite book.

It will surprise you how much people loath what you find to be awesome. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a book on this planet that everyone will love.

So when you are feeling the pressure to achieve perfection, take a step back (and perhaps a deep breath) and focus on what you’re doing right. Plan how to make it better and don’t be discouraged.

Awesome and perfection are not the same thing. Write an awesome book, not a perfect one.

Happy writing!

Oh I See

I’ve heard it said that you should vary your sentence structures. When I first heard that advice, I thought, “Oh I do that.”

Not so much.

Word has a handy feature that lets you change the color of your words. If you want to see how varied your sentence structure is color all of one particular structured sentence blue and another red and another green.

Once it’s done, it’s a fast way to determine if your story is balanced. For example, if you see three pages of solid blue, maybe change it up.

Changing the color of the sentences can also be very helpful to see other patterns in your writing. Try highlighting all of the dialog one color, all of the descriptions another color, and all of the action another color. Change the color of every sentence that starts with she or every sentence with an m-dash or that trails off.

By using colors, you can visualize areas of weakness (and strength) in your writing.

Happy writing!

Scary!

Writing isn’t in itself scary. But there can be rather worrisome moments. If you don’t believe me, check the heart rate of any author who has just sent out a bunch of queries. Or even worse, when the query response has come back and it’s sitting in your e-mail inbox, unopened, waiting.

Rejection can sting, so perhaps that’s why it’s so scary to submit.

One day nearly five years ago, I was walking my dog (This will connect back to writing, I promise). Anyhow, Lucy, in her excitement to smell some awesome aroma, stuck her head into a shrub. This particular plant had a branch that stuck straight out—which poked Lu in the eye.

She was fine, but to this day (Note: five years later), Lucy refuses to walk past that particular stretch of shrubs.

Moral of the story?

Sometimes things (rejected queries) hurt, but it’s foolish to let something like that paralyze you. Keep sending.

Second moral of the story?

Chihuahuas never ever ever forget.

Happy writing!

Who in the World is Narrating this Story?

You want your readers to get to know your characters. That’s crucial for establishing a reader-main character connection. If that connection is not there, your reader might not continue reading.

But you can’t make a laundry list of who your character is. No one wants to sit through even a paragraph of: Character A loves the color green, has an irrational fear of puppies, and not so secretly wishes her sister would clean her half of the room. Bored yet?

In my last post, I mentioned using details to show things about the characters. But how do you do that?

Think about the color green. What is your reaction to someone giving you a green shirt? If green is your absolute favorite color, you’d see it and be excited. If you loathe green like no other color, you’d note it and perhaps be annoyed. If you are completely indifferent to the color green, then you might not even think about the color.

Or with puppies. Someone who is deathly afraid of puppies will describe a great dane puppy galloping towards them entirely different from someone who adores dogs. With that detail and how you describe it, you wouldn’t necessarily even have to tell the reader that Character A is scared of dogs. If the reader sees the sharp toothed, glinty eyed beast charging and the character nearly peeing themselves, then they know that Character A is scared of dogs.

In my last post, I asked if you should describe tattered, stained carpets. How would the carpet be described by the following characters:

A young couple walking into the house they just bought.

A little kid who has lived there his entire life.

A frazzled mother whose in-laws are coming over in an hour.

A hostage.

Each of these characters would describe the same tattered, stained carpets entirely different. I’m not completely certain the kid would even notice or describe the carpets unless a. the stains were shaped like Mickey Mouse or b. In the very very recent past, they caused one of the stains.

Any other thoughts on letting the details work to show your readers your characters?

Happy writing!

Lessons from Angry Birds: Details

How many details do you put in your novel? Do you describe the textured walls or leave that out? What about the tattered, stained carpets?

No reader wants to spend page after page reading about the room, but then again, they also don’t want to feel like they are in a white box with nothing around the characters.

Details give the reader a sense of where the characters are. The way you describe things can show things about the characters based on what they observe and how they describe it.

But how much is too much and how much is not enough?

The answer can be found in Angry Birds. If you’ve ever played the game (or even just seen the game), you’ll notice that the birds don’t have any wings. That would seem to be a crucial detail that is missing. They’re birds after all!

But really, they have slingshots. Are the wings necessary?

And that is the answer to how much detail to add.

Put in only what you need. If something isn’t doing work for your story, then you don’t need it. Meaning, if the description isn’t showing the reader something important that they need to know about the setting or showing them insight into your character, then it isn’t doing anything for you.

In Angry Birds, the wings aren’t needed. The birds have a slingshot to fly. Nothing changes about the game because the birds don’t have wings. It isn’t important.

So remember with details, put in only what you need and make sure it is doing work for your story.

Happy writing.

You Already Said That . . .

I tend to overuse words. A lot. I have my favorites and they just happen. As writers we need to be wary of this. Some words you need to use a word ton. Like the and a. Others not so much. As I recently blogged about, I had serious issues with the word eyes in my latest work in progress. Three hundred and fifty uses of the word eyes in an 80,000 novel is a bit much.

You can google lists of overused words in fiction, but you should also pay attention to your own word usage. You may pick up a word and use it constantly that isn’t on one of the lists.

Usually, I start my own list of words to seek and destroy. Do this and create a new list often. I tend to have word trends or words of the month. A few months ago, the word was fool. In my novel, everyone was a fool and calling each other fools. Another time, it was almost fell. My characters were slipping and sliding and almost falling all over the place.

As you are editing your novel, pay attention to the words you use. If you are uncertain if a word is being used too often, use the find all function of your document. Seeing them all highlight can make a difference.

Happy writing!