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Agent Q&A

By Nephele · Comments (16)
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

It’s time for another Agent Q&A session! For those of you who haven’t participated before, it’s very simple. Just leave your questions about publishing, finding an agent, writing, and so on in the comments section of this thread. I’ll com

e back late tonight or early tomorrow and answer at least three of them — more if time allows.

Be sure to check back to see what everyone else has asked

(you may share a few of their questions) and to read my replies! You can also visit previous Q&A posts for a quick round up of information.

~Nephele Tempest

6/27/2012

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Firming Up Your Foundations

By Nephele · Comments (5)
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Writers talking shop can discuss many aspects of the business, from whether or not to outline, to how to find a good critique partner, to the merits of various forms of social media when it’s time to promote their books. But today I’d like to

address something a bit more basic, something that lies at the very foundation of your career. It might seem like a gimme—something you learned so long ago that it rarely crosses your mind when you sit down to write. And that’s the problem. I’m talking about basic grammar skills.

We learn grammar in school, in drips and drabs over the years, sometimes from text books in formal lessons and sometimes in practice as teachers mark up essays where sentences have strayed from the proper path. There are a bunch of rules that may or may not get drilled into our heads, but it’s more likely that we learn from example and from doing—from reading and writing and getting a feel for the way the language works. But let’s face it; not everyone pays attention to every lesson in school. Bits and pieces go in one ear and out the other, or else are simply forgotten after decades out of the classroom. And for most people it’s not much of a problem. They manage to sound intelligent and educated, and if they occasionally dash off an e-mail that’s less than grammatically correct, well, no one’s going to fuss over something so small.

That’s not true for writers. For a writer, grammar is the building material that forms your product—the stuff that strings together words and ideas into fabulous stories. As such, it’s an important tool, and the better your skills with that tool, the more refined and well-crafted the end result. Proper grammar creates a seamless

sentence that coveys a message beyond the story; it tells the reader that they are in capable hands.

There are times, of course, when you might deliberately subvert the rules for stylistic purposes or character building. Grammatically incorrect dialogue, for instance, can tell a reader much about a character’s background. But this only works if the structure around that dialogue is flawless. You cannot break the rules until you know what they are.

Most writers make a good effort to use proper grammar in their writing, but they also rely on the publishing process to help them with any mistakes. After all, that’s what editors are for, right? To catch any niggling problems that might slip through the cracks? But that supposes that an editor will be reading your work. What about your blog posts? Your notices on Twitter or Facebook? More and more, writers are producing additional material for websites and social media, and that writing goes out into the world unedited, making it that much more important for you to brush up on your grammar skills.

No one expects writers to be perfect. Everyone is prone to typos or the occasional error in their work. But as a professional or aspiring professional, you are going to be held accountable on some level for

all of the writing you send out into the world. If you don’t know the difference between making a word possessive or plural, if you make repeated mistakes regarding pronouns—the gaps in your knowledge will become obvious. More and more, I see submissions that offer up compelling stories, but that are so riddled with errors that it detracts from the reading experience. These writers are doing themselves a grave disservice.

So take the time to review your grammar skills. Read through a couple of good grammar and style guides to make sure you remember the basics, and pay attention to any consistent errors that you make when edited manuscripts come back from your publisher. Be respectful of your readers’ time no matter what sort of project you’re working on, and produce the cleanest, smoothest text that you can manage. Build your career on strong foundations and continue to aim high.

~Nephele Tempest

6/13/2012

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Thrum Me, Baby, One More Time

By Deidre · Comments (36)
Monday, May 14th, 2012

I’m currently reading a novel by an author who is always an auto-buy for me. I have probably purchased some twenty novels by this writer and I think she’s capable of basically blinking and producing fairy dust. So before I get started, don’t get me

wrong. Love. This. Author.

That said, as I was reading along last night in bed, darling husband beside me beneath the fluffy covers, I pointed to my Nook. “See, this is what I mean,” I said. “The entire state of editorial is getting sloppy.” He’d been reading a book, too, and had already—thirty minutes earlier—pointed to the misuse of Gallic instead of Gaelic in his own novel. I think we all know that there are fewer people editing more books at the big publishers. And with self-published books, due diligence in details can be overlooked occasionally. But that’s not what this blog is about. It’s about how important it is for a writer to watch their own backs, because in the end, authors are responsible for what they put out. It’s their baby, no matter who publishes it.

In the case of my auto-buy author, I explained to my husband what was frustrating me: multiple characters were using the same dialogue pattern. Let’s say I, Deidre Knight, am prone to saying, “Well, aren’t I a monkey’s banana?” If I’m a fictional character, I should be the only person using that phrase. If some other character also says, “Well, aren’t I a monkey’s banana?” or “Well, aren’t I a doggie’s biscuit?” then it creates a disruption for the reader. We the people no

longer buy into the author’s world if every character or numerous characters are using the same phraseology pattern. Even worse, we no longer buy the characters. It shatters the illusion we’ve stepped into.

The same problem occurs if an author is fond of tagging his manuscript with a particular favorite word. I used to be really attached to the verb “thrum”. His body thrummed with energy. My manuscript thrummed with a preponderance of thrumming. A friend would give me “thrumming alerts” when she read over my manuscripts, pulling back my overusage until finally I weaned myself off that word. But let’s use another example. Say, how many times do you think or use “trifecta”? If you do, what are the chances that your co-worker does as well? Or, say, “hoary”? My brainiac husband might look out on a winter’s morning and say, “Look, doll, there’s a hoary frost!” But I doubt anyone else within a ten mile radius would do the same. So just because the author is fond of a more poetic word does not mean that three characters in the same fictional world would be. That’s the distinction: is it a word that the author is imposing or a word that naturally spills forth from character?

Word repetition (called an “echo” by copy editors) is something that generally causes a disconnect for readers. It’s not just sloppy–it’s jarring after a while. What do I mean by an echo, you ask? If you use any word several time or more in a short few pages, say, vampiric. “His vampiric bride wasn’t sure how to bed and handle her vampiric husband’s needs.” But the repeated usage need not be so close together. In the case of a fairly unique word such as “vampiric”, if it appears even five or six times in a few short pages, that would be too heavy-handed.

Beware, too, the word that you the writer tend to use as filler. I discovered that I was prone to some variation of “just” and started search/replace every time I finished a book. Especially if I was writing in first person, present tense, for some reason, I “justed” all over the place: “He was just a man, nothing more.” “It was just a Monday, the least exciting day of the week.” (Bland examples, but you get the point, I’m sure.) I believe there are computer software programs that will even analyze your manuscript for phraseology and key words that tend to repeat too much. But the best cure, even if it’s the old-fashioned one, is to do what I do: read aloud. You’ll hear the nuances and problems that your mind’s eye naturally corrects when you only read on the page.

Editing is a vital part of the process, and it starts and ends with the author themselves. Even if you think your eyes cheap viagra online might bleed, read over your material just one more time—read it aloud to your husband or best friend. And it’s especially good to give it that final go-thru after you’ve stepped away from it for a few weeks.

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The Last Pass: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission

By Nephele · Comments (22)
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

It seems like forever since you started your novel. You completed a first draft, reread, revised. You tore it into pieces and put it back together again. Your critique partners have given you tons of advice, and your mother — naturally — th

inks it’s a perfect work of art.

But is your manuscript actually ready?

By ready, of course, I mean ready to submit to agents. There’s nothing more frustrating than having an agent love your query, praise your opening chapters, and then reject your completed manuscript. It happens. It happens often, in fact. Even once I’ve requested the full, there’s an excellent chance I’m still going to pass, for any number of reasons. Sometimes it becomes clear fairly early on that the first chapters got most of the attention, while the rest of the story still needs some serious work. Other times the pacing lags — the middle is dull, the characters go off in some inexplicable direction, or the elements of the story start to fall apart. Occasionally weird things start to happen and I find myself scratching my head, wondering if I mistakenly picked up a different book part way through.

The saddest rejection for me to write, however, is for the manuscript where I read from start to finish and discover it’s just not quite ready yet. Perhaps the ending was unsatisfying or anti-climactic. Or the story worked, but the writing itself feels unpolished and unprofessional. With these sorts of reading experiences, I will try to send the writer some helpful suggestions and encourage them to resubmit if they’re willing to do the work. Occasionally I see the project again, but more often I don’t.

Ideally, you will cut these problems off at the pass, long before you put your precious baby into the hands of your dream agent. One more pass through the story can make or break your chances for success. Here’s a list of things to look for when you feel like your manuscript might be finished:

  • Do you start your plot early, but not so early that the reader has no idea who your protagonist is? Early action is great — and important to engage the reader — but a sense of the status quo before the events of your story is necessary as well.
  • Does your protagonist experience ups and downs along the route of the story, with tension climbing toward the

    climax?

  • Does your protagonist have some flaws or are they too perfect? Likewise, does your antagonist have some redeeming qualities that make him/her realistic? Are these revealed through their emotions and actions?
  • Is your point of view consistent throughout the book? (Meaning, do you maintain your chosen system of POV,  not necessarily that you only have a single POV.) Have you kept your tenses straight throughout as well?
  • Do all your characters have something they want/that motivates them, not just your protagonist and antagonist? Are these characters all distinguished from each other and necessary to the story?
  • Does each scene advance your story in some important way, even sex scenes (if you have them)?
  • Have you reviewed the entire manuscript for your own personal “favorites” — those words you tend order viagra to use too frequently? Have you cut out unnecessary adverbs, dialogue attributions (he screamed, she exclaimed, they questioned…), facial expressions used as filler (blinking, smiling, grinning, frowning, biting of lips, etc.)?
  • Does the pacing of the story feel consistent and appropriate to the action?
  • Is your conclusion satisfying? Do you tie up all the ends without relying on conveniences or coincidences? Have you left any major questions unanswered?
  • Has your protagonist achieved their goal/learned his/her lesson/come out the other side of this adventure truly changed?

It often helps to set aside your completed manuscript for a few weeks before tackling this list. That way you can come at the material with fresh eyes and any issues will be more likely to jump out at you.

 

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