Living, Breathing, Writing: A Lesson a Day
Volume 2
By Chelle Cordero
Copyright 2011 Chelle Cordero
Published by: Vanilla Heart Publishing on Smashwords
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Table of Contents
Where Do Story Ideas Come From?
Thinking Outside The Box & Promotion
Opening The Door With Your Query
Marketing Yourself Online
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words
The Time is Now
Challenge Yourself
Beginning To End
If You Build It, They Will Come
Thinking Outside The Box & Promotion
Be Careful What You Write
KISS: Keep It Simply Simple
Your Editor – And The Final Word
When Life Gets in The Way
Living in Excess
Writing Right
The Three W’s: Writing, Words and Work
Being a REAL Writer...
Manners Matter
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
Working The Network
The Idea Well
Far Reaching Efforts
A Boy Named Sue
Write To Read
D.I.Y. Your Way to A Published Book
It’s Electric
Setting the Setting
Perspective Makes a Difference
Imagery
Back to Basics
Where Do Story Ideas Come From?
Ask a group of fiction writers where they get their ideas for stories and you’ll likely hear about snippets of their day, a childhood memory or a comment they overheard that just stuck with them. So how do these bits and pieces become 5,000 or 50,000 words or more?
Take any event that happened in your day. What? You don’t think anything interesting happened? Everyone has something in their daily life that can be expanded, stretched and skewed into an interesting story. Did you get out of bed today and take some form of transportation to work? Was there a missed train? A near accident in the car? A curb you might have tripped over? Play “what if” with any little incident and imagine big. It may be easier to make yourself into a character that you can “observe”.
Here’s Jim – every day Jim gets up and dresses for work. His wife Peggy makes him coffee in a travel mug which she hands to him as he kisses her and walks out the door. Every day he drives 2.3-miles to work at the bank as a teller, on the way he passes a school building, crosses train tracks, and waves to the minister at the local church. Boring. Or not.
Let’s play “what if”. Today Peggy is annoyed at Jim for some infraction so she neither makes him coffee nor does she receive his kiss as he leaves. He’s disgruntled and distracted on his way to work. He is overly impatient waiting for the school buses to discharge the children and hurries once he can get by. In his hurry he fails to see the train coming down the track.
Now you play what if? Does Jim make it across the tracks? Or does he die when the train hits his car? Maybe he lives but is severely injured and this can become a story of love (as his wife stays by his side), determination and triumph. Or he dies leaving his wife devastated and his employer in the lurch? Maybe someone had previously contacted Jim for an “inside job” at the bank and now that person thinks Peggy knows of the plan? This can become a great crime and mystery novel.
Take a story that’s already been told and have fun playing with the circumstances. Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water – only this time Jack didn’t feel like going up the hill and Jill was alone and defenseless when she ran into a vicious grizzly bear. How does this change Jack? Maybe he feels guilty and lives a solitary life trying to make it up to Jill’s family? Maybe he realizes he would never love someone as greatly as he loved Jill. You can build a story about Jack and the life he leads due to guilt and regrets.
Watch a TV show and change the circumstances for a different ending. Take a random comment you overheard from a stranger and build a story around it. Imagine a different outcome because that thing you “should have said” was said. As a fiction writer the world is malleable in your hands.
Writing exercise: Think of a television series that you watched fairly regularly that has ended its run. Imagine that you can give that TV show one more season. Jot down a few ideas for coming episodes. Are there any changes you would make to the final episode that did run in order to continue the story line?
Writing prompt: Write a complete sentence or two beginning with the words: 1) The last time I was in jail, I… 2) He wouldn’t have believed me anyway so… 3) I was frightened out of my wits when she said… 4) The devil made me do it and… 5) I always _______, but today I…
Thinking Outside the Box & Promotion
There are some really terrific publicity and promotion packages out there with time tested and valuable techniques and they are certainly worth considering whether you pay someone else to handle or do it yourself. While these methods will certainly help to get your name and your book title noticed, if you stick with doing the same thing as everyone else, you won’t stand out.
Blogging is a great method to spread your name out there and introduce yourself as a writer; if you have a published book then shameless self-promotion on your blog is perfectly acceptable so long as it is not merely an advertisement of your book. BUT… just about everyone has a blog these days. According to a recent report from AOL, you have 10-seconds to catch the attention of someone surfing the web and 40-seconds to keep that attention.
Think headlines, titles, catchy phrases, eye-popping graphics and an attractive layout. For your blog to be successful you should be able to answer these questions: What does this blog offer my readers? Are my readers able to expect consistency (subject, frequency, style, etc)? Is there a way for my readers to interact (posted responses and/or emails) and do I respond quickly? If you need to perk it up a bit, check out other blogs and see what works – go “quirky” if that’s what it takes.
Virtual blog tours (guesting on other blogs) and in-person appearances will certainly help gain attention and possibly sales for your book, but again – what makes YOU different?
Mix up your guest posts with different content, if you are posting excerpts, choose different ones to tease. Try letting some of your characters write a posting, or choose an element of your book to expound on; if a character is a good cook then why not offer some favorite recipes? Let your character explain about his/her chosen career as the Happily Ever After blog (http://bit.ly/5zpOmD) just hosted during their highlighted career week – score on both counts, the blog owner AND the guests. Try letting readers ask your characters questions, name your next book title, win a cameo appearance in your next story, or anything that will help keep the excitement up and make the reader more interested in your writing.
In person appearances, although more limiting in response than blogs, are a terrific way for the author to meet the public. Try not to saturate an area though and again, mix-it-up – use book signings, discussions, other talks and presentations, appear as part of a theme with other authors, offer classes and more. If you can imagine it and someone is willing to host you, go for it.
Publicity, different from submitting press releases, should always be welcomed and there are many ways to get terrific exposure for little to no money. Does your book have a relevant topic which can be tied into some local events? Can you donate profits from your book to a related cause? My publisher offered profits from sales of Bartlett’s Rule to the National Domestic Violence Hotline since the subject matter dealt with domestic violence and rape – my book got great publicity and a worthy organization benefited.
Did research for your book make you an expert on a topic? Or did you use already owned knowledge and skills to write your story? Reporters and other authors look for experts to interview; register for sources likeHelpAReporterOut.com and ReporterConnection.comand get your name out there time and time again.
Believe in yourself, in your book and in your writing. Understand what you are offering to the public and then show it to them. Don’t be shy. You might even find yourself having fun.
Writing Exercise: Open the nearest book to page 97 and read the top sentence ONLY. Write a paragraph using that sentence as your first. Do it again with at least two more books. Now, weave those three paragraphs into a short and cohesive story (you can change the wording a little but not the thoughts).
Writing prompt: Describe the taste difference between red and green M&M’s, or different colored Gummy Bears – Come on, you know they taste different.
Opening the Door With Your Query
You’ve written it, now you’ve got to sell it. It takes a great query letter to open a door before an editor will read your work.
A query is an introduction to you and to your writing. The query is your audition, your advertisement, your pitch… You want to hook the editor and make him want to see more.
Make sure of your market – check the publisher’s book catalogue or several issues of a magazine and make sure that what you have to sell is what they will be interested in buying. While you are checking the publisher or magazine out, find their submission instructions; they may have those listed on the website, inside a magazine cover, in a trade magazine or a reference book like The Writer’s Market. If all else fails, make a phone call and ask.
Address your query, whether hard copy snail-mailed or emailed, to the appropriate editor or department. Follow the directions! The easiest and quickest way to get turned down is to ignore obvious directions. Get the correct spelling of an editor’s name, make a phone call and ask if necessary.
Open your query with your hook. We want to know what is your article about, why is it interesting, and what you are going to accomplish. For a magazine addressed to parents of teens, for instance, start with something like “College students need to worry about their grades and not their tuition bills…” Then describe what your article offers such as new funding opportunities, information about refillable credit cards and inexpensive sources for textbooks.
What is your expertise in this area? Are you a school financial officer or a banking official? Maybe you are a parent of a recent college grad or even a college student yourself. What experience do you have as a writer? Have you been published before? If you have a writer’s website, include the link to it especially if you have samples of your writing available. If you are querying by snail mail you can include a tear sheet or two but not a lot; if you are querying by email, do not include any attachments as many email clients will reject those.
Why do you believe that your article would be interesting for the magazine’s readers? Resist telling the editor that this article is better than anything else they’ve printed to date and don’t promise that your article will make the magazine “fly off of the shelves”. For a book, what makes this book different from the others on the market? And above all else, do not tell the editor how to do his job or that your article or book is, or will be, a prize winning bestseller.
If a response time was listed in the submission guidelines allow that time to pass before sending a follow-up if you don’t hear back from them. If there was no specified time and a reasonable time (four to six weeks) has passed without word, send a polite query. Never lose your professionalism. And never lose your confidence – if you are turned down, find another place to query and send it out again.
Writing exercise: Check your favorite magazine, the past few issues if possible. Who do you think reads this magazine? Make a list of what topics you think that magazine’s audience would find interesting. Do you have any expertise in those topics? Try to write an article that you feel would be appropriate for that publication.
Writing prompt: Make up a headline that you would use if you were to write an article describing your day. Try to come up with headlines for the past few days.
Marketing Yourself Online
Repeat this – it is NEVER too early to start marketing yourself as a writer, even if you haven’t yet achieved publication.
Get involved in social networks like FaceBook or MySpace. Look for networks that attract members of your target audience and make yourself known. Remember that Social Networking is a two-way street; it is NOT all about self-promotion. Get involved in discussions, reply to buddies’ comments and respond to comments posted to your attention. Keep in mind that the reputation you build for yourself will stay with you. Don’t whine, don’t be nasty, don’t be conceited – do be approachable, friendly, helpful and cheerful.
It’s alright to post accomplishments and you are entitled to some bragging rights so long as that is not all you do – your “self-centered” posting should be no more than 20-to-30% of your total posts. Unless you are willing to take a public stand (political, etc) and deal with the consequences, don’t get involved in heated debates. No matter how strongly you feel about an issue, don’t earn a reputation for being argumentative and NEVER insult another person’s beliefs.
Social forums are similar to social networks in that they allow for interaction, but they are generally pure discussion based postings and often based on a common interest (ie: professions, alumni) Try the network or forum out for a while, be fair and give it a reasonable chance – if it doesn’t seem to be working for you, it’s okay to back off. Try not to simply drop out, you may decide to return one day.
Establish a blog. These are useful as forms of expression and to demonstrate your writing style. Try to post regularly and keep your content tightly themed – your readership will grow when they know they can count on you to have something new (at least every week) and something that is interesting to them. Use sidebars and widgets to post books, significant links and other widgets.
Make sure you look at your own blog site once in a while to see how it looks – check it out on several different computers and if possible using different browsers. If the print is too small, the colors too glaring, or the contrast between print and background too hard to read, no one will stay long enough to read your posts. Don’t post pure sales pitches, mix it up. Keep you paragraph lengths and language comfortable and readable.
Reply to the comments readers leave on your blog. Be sure to click on visitors’ names and visit (AND comment) on their blogs as well. If at all possible, be complimentary but not falsely sweet. When you post comments be sure to include your name and signature line. A signature line will often include a link back to your blog or website. Follow blogs you like publicly, you will find that folks will click through. Don’t wait for others to visit you, search out blogs of interest and begin introducing yourself to the internet community.
Don’t ignore micro-blogging sites like Twitter. Remember to mix up your posts, retweet and respond to other members. An advantage to micro-blogging is that they often allow automatic postings to status bars on other social network sites and widgets on blogs and web sites.
Finally, get yourself a web site. There are several out there that are user friendly so you can maintain them yourself and relatively inexpensive to get a personalized domain name. Investigate, ask friends what they recommend and what their personal experiences have been.
The web site should allow for multiple pages (parent pages and trees) and should grow with you. Include buy links for books as well as dedicated pages for each book. Include a “media room” (more on that in another post) with news items and links to virtual appearances. Make sure your web-site is personalized with your author pic and bio, easy to navigate, attractive and a one-stop cache of info about you.
Writing exercise: Write a SHORT bio (no more than one paragraph) about yourself. A bio does not need to list your complete credits or background. Make sure your bio includes BRIEF answers about WHO you are, WHAT is your expertise, WHY readers will be interested in you and your writing, HOW they can reach you and just a touch of something personal (such as married and living in New York). This brief bio should show some of your personality but still be short and to the point.
Writing prompt: List between 5-to-10 ACTIONS that would be specific (each) to 1) Anger, 2) Sorrow, 3) Joy and 4) Fear.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Johnny was very angry when he told her to leave. She had never seen him so mad before.
~or~
Johnny slammed the pick-up truck door closed. “Git out o’my sight now. Git out.” He felt the rage build up inside of him. She saw the vein in his temple pulsing and knew that he was serious.
I didn’t use the word angry once in the second example, but it was obvious anyway. Johnny’s actions and physical appearance speaks volumes about his frame of mind.
The 1970’s sitcom “Good Times” depicted a family living in Chicago’s impoverished projects. After a few seasons the father James (played by John Amos) died; the mother Florida (played by Esther Rolle) was stoic and relatively collected – until the scene where she went into the kitchen and threw a bowl to the floor and just cried. That scene was extremely poignant, she didn’t rant about her loss, no one had to say how sad she was, she didn’t have to wail; her one very uncharacteristic act and eventual teary breakdown had every viewer choked with emotion. Words didn’t need to be said.
Don’t rely on flat explanations to describe a scene or tell your readers what your character is feeling. Use actions, tap into the senses, play characters off of each other if need be. Do more than SAY it was a cold night, have your character shiver in the dark. Have your character loosen his belt buckle instead of merely saying he finished a big meal. Let the floor vibrate instead of just saying the music was loud.
Without actions, sights, smells and feelings, the world (and your story) would seem flat. Learn to mix your narrative, dialogue, scene description, and actions to paint an entire picture for your readers to get absorbed in. Think about walking down the street – there are sounds you hear, the sensation of your feet hitting the pavement, a wind that might blow through your hair, smells from open kitchen windows… Instead of saying “Suzy walked past the widow Benson’s house and saw apple pie on the windowsill” try “Suzy stopped skipping when she caught the unmistakable scent of hot apple pie from the open window at the widow Benson’s place.”
When you simply TELL your story you may get your facts across, just like a phone directory. When is the last time that you got excited about reading a phone directory or it made you feel like you were really there? By using a combination of telling and showing you wind up inviting your readers to enter the world you are writing about. Painting a picture with the senses as well as words helps your reader visualize the setting and makes it seem more real.
“She woke up, the clock said 5:34. They were having an earthquake.” –or – “The shaking of the bed startled her. She opened her eyes and tried to focus on the bouncing LED numbers, 5:34AM. Everything was rattling. There was a huge rumble and a vacuum of silence at the same time.”
Which set made you feel more like you were there?
Don’t tell your readers how they should feel about a character, let them decide for themselves. Of course it helps to show facets of the character’s personality to steer the reader into the same conclusion that you have. “He was an uncaring man.” That simple statement means that the reader has to trust you. “He ignored the fact that the poor dog lay dying in the street as he kept driving. The radio DJ made a lame joke and he laughed as he reached for the open bottle of beer.” Yuck, despicable, thoughtless and certainly not very likable – this is a conclusion the reader can reach for herself.
Tell the story but also share the scene with your readers. Welcome them in to your tale and they will want to keep turning pages.
Writing exercise: 1) What is your happiest memory? Describe the sensations, smells, sights and sounds you associate with that memory. 2) List 5 actions each that would demonstrate Anger, Joy, Relief, Sadness, and Fear.
Writing prompt: List the first ten things you saw or heard this morning when you woke up. Using one word emotions, write next to each how it made you feel.