Back To The Future – On Writer’s Block & Editing

Sometimes finding that next word or that next sentence isn’t so easy. This can happen 10k or 50k words into that work-in-progress. If you’re lucky, it never happens, but for the majority, there is always that moment that catches us. That makes it hard for fingers to brush over the keyboard in fluid movements. Instead, it’s jagged tap-a-taps before hitting the backspace key–and somewhere in between is usually the overwhelming urge to throw said keyboard out the window. Not that the sudden block is the keyboards fault, but let’s face it, keyboards probably get more abuse from writers than anyone else. Mine has so much wear and tear that the letters have worn off the keys, and honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t cracked the damn thing. The keyboard is the medium from which we transport our thoughts to the screen–and sometimes, we’re very, very mean to it when we can’t make the correlation.

So, what can we do to not only keep the words flowing, but to maybe not beat up the poor, innocent, and too-often abused keyboard?

Well there are some tactics. Maybe pushing forward works for you. Writing crap upon crap until finally it gives way to the diamonds in the rough that make the story flow again. Most times those original craptastic words are deleted and rewritten later, but if that’s the method that works, then that’s the method that works.

I tend to be the person who stares and stares and stares and wonders why my fingers aren’t moving. Then I note twenty-minutes have passed and the most I’ve achieved is three words and being mesmerized by the cursor blinking on the page.

Realizing that this method is not helping me get any work done, I’ve opted to try something new.

GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE!

 

So what does that mean in writer terms exactly? Well, I was listening to K.M. Weiland’s podcast and she mentioned that about every third of her manuscript she goes back and edits. She also mentioned that some authors get caught in a sort of loophole where they forever edit what they already have and never continue on. I used to be that writer, so going back to edit while writing makes me reluctant. I don’t want to fall in that loophole again.

However, when I can’t push forward, it makes me wonder if something has gone wrong in what I already wrote, or rather, in the past of my manuscript. How have I wound up struggling so hard to write that next line? Well, the only way to figure that out is to go to the past–or what I’ve already written in the world I’m working on. To read over what I already have and see if I need to change something, or, what’s more likely, I may have forgotten a detail that’s meant to push the plot forward. Weaving together a plot is pretty damn hard. So by going back and rereading what’s already there, details that are forgotten in the whirlwind of the rough draft pop back out, and things are remembered, thus I can change the future of my manuscript. Making notes in the sidebar (I have Scrivener) can definitely help the process of not over editing–something that may keep you stuck in the past.

Instead of adding the actual detail that may be needed to enhance a scene, jot a note down so when you’re going through your first round of revisions, you remember what you need to do. Sure, fix a misspelled word, or maybe add a bit of dialogue if it comes to you, but don’t DO all the actual editing–at least if you’re like me and will get caught in that forever-editing-loop instead of finishing the manuscript.

By reading through the past, new ideas pop to mind. New avenues to take, paths to carves, characters to enhance or create. You may get through one chapter or four before that “GREAT SCOTT!” moment hits and you’re jumping back to the future of your manuscript to work on that scene with renewed vigor–and a safely intact keyboard.

I’ve learned this method keeps my mind in the manuscript, makes the gears spin in regards to the what has happened as well as what needs to happen, and helps me come up with ideas of where to take it based on where I’ve already been–and just like Marty and Doc, sometimes I wind up finding a nugget that with a little tweaking, lets me change the future into something much better than I originally imagined.

At the very least, I’ve got some notes jotted for when I actually start the full editing process.

Give it a shot. If nothing else, your keyboard will thank you.

P.A.G.E.S. – Making The First 250 Great!

Many of the writing competitions out there require a query and the first 250 words of your manuscript. That means not only one, but both need to be as strong as you can make it. As a judge for multiple writing competitions, I’ve seen some common mistakes in the first 250 that tend to bog it down. Sure, some people take longer to settle into their voice when they first start a new project. I tend to start in the wrong spot all the time. Editing and getting feedback before entering the competitions help.

So how do you make your first 250 pop? I sat down for a few hours trying to figure this out. What makes a reader want to keep going? What makes them put down the book and move on? There may be a lot of reasons–some that have nothing to do with how well written it is, but there are certain things you can do to make sure that the first 250 is the best it can be for your story.

This morning, I came up with the acronym P.A.G.E.S. Hopefully, this little mini guide will be handy tip to help you polish that intro.

P.A.G.E.S.

Making The First 250 Great

When you have that PERFECT first sentence, you’ll know it.

Phenomenal First Sentence – A gripping first sentence can make a reader stop whatever else they’re doing. It can make the rest of the world fade away, and that same reader will HAVE to know what comes next. What caused this first sentence? If the first sentence is that good they’re going to want to know what the next one is, what does the rest of the story have to say? At the core, that first sentence, whether dark, light, humorous, witty, etc–it makes the audience want to know what happens next.

If you want more information on how to craft a phenomenal first sentence check out this amazing post by Stephanie Scott over at Writing With The Mentors.

Your character doesn’t have to be walking away from a major traumatic event. Action can be mundane or extreme.

Actively Do Something – Hopefully,that something is something important. Somethingthat brings us to the inciting incident. Hopefully, that’s more than just ‘looking’. Looking is fine, but looking is also telling, and too much telling is tedious. Besides, if they’re just looking, chances are you’re just scene setting. Is your character riding a bike? Having a conversation? Were they just in a car accident? Did a letter arrive? There’s so many things to have your character doing, and they need to be doing something other than just observing.

Much like the episode of FUTURAMA where the universe is destroyed, you don’t want your characters just floating around without a setting.

Ground The Characters – While the characters are doing something, we need to know where they are. That doesn’t mean we need a 100 words worth of setting, but the reader needs something to ground them in the story. Are they on the shore of a beach? Sitting in their bedroom? At a doctors office? Without this pivotal information the characters–and the reader–are left floating in the ether. It’s nothing but a white back drop. Grounding the reader in the story with a bit of setting brings them in closer while the character is doing the aforementioned action.

 

When the reader can visualize the beginning of your novel it means you’ve got the start of something good. 

Engage The Reader – This comes when you have a happy balance of the above. Give a reader all the elements–a great first sentence, have the characters doing something, and put the setting in. I don’t want all dialogue in the first 250–there doesn’t even have to be any, pending on the story. I also don’t want all scene setting. I certainly don’t want nothing but observation or backstory. I want a fleshed out first 250 that makes me want to read more, and that means learning how to put all the necessary tidbits into a small space.

 

Figuring out the inciting incident is pivotal to figuring out where and when to start your novel.

Start In The Right Place – All of the above is great, but if you don’t start in the right place for your novel, you run the risk of losing the reader anyway. If you’re explaining too much backstory, or maybe you have a prologue that probably isn’t needed–chances are you started in the wrong spot. If you’re first two paragraphs are nothing but description of where the character is, chances are, you started in the wrong spot. You should be starting at the event that either is, or is quickly leading up to the inciting incident of your story. Once you figure out just what the inciting incident is, you can figure out where you need to begin.

 

For more help on figuring out where to start your story, check out this great post by Kes Trester at Writing With The Mentors.

There you have it. P.A.G.E.S. The basic elements you need to make your first 250 great. Infusing the voice is all on you. It can be tricky. Don’t be afraid to cut the original beginning to start later, or even rewrite it. Tons of authors state how they write the first sentence several dozen times, if not more. So much of writing is rewriting, but the thing is, you can’t edit or rewrite what you don’t have. First drafts suck, so don’t get too caught up on making the first 250 amazing right away. Make sure you finish the draft. That will also give you a clearer picture of the overall story, and if you have all the elements of P.A.G.E.S.

Play around with it. Expand. Remember, this is just the basics. You have to figure out how to make it work for your story.

If you’re interested a bit more on the query aspect, see QUERY ADVICE: DO’S, DON’TS, AND STRUCTURE.

Query Advice – Do’s, Don’ts, and Structure

It is becoming harder and harder to sift through advice in the writing community. Some is very subjective so it can vary, depending on what the topic is. Other advice however, is not just wrong, but it’s bad–and this can be detrimental to any author, especially those who are going the traditional route and putting a query out there.

Some advice is along the line of, the query shouldn’t be specific.

Yes it should. If your query is not specific then agents don’t know why your manuscript is different than every other story with the same tropes out there.

Another thing is that you have to have comp titles.

No you don’t. You can have them. Doesn’t mean you have to. Especially if you can’t think of anything modern to compare your work with. Sometimes it’s better to let it stand on its own. Other times, comp titles are amazingly useful. It just depends, but don’t think it’s a necessity.

Sometimes, even the query format is jumbled.

Standard query format is as follows:

Dear Agent,

Hook – Think something sharp and witty, like the tagline of a movie. Short and engaging. One to two lines max.

Body – This is the meat. 2-3 paragraphs giving the who, what, why, and of course the stakes. THIS SHOULD NOT BE VAGUE. This should include the protagonist/antagonist/love interest OR best friend. Three names maximum. Anything more than that and it gets confusing.

Even if your story is in first or second person, your query needs to be in third person, present tense.

This is the person, this is what’s happening, but when this happens, things get messed up.

The query DOES NOT give away the ending. It gives the STAKES. Try to avoid clichés such as, “Timmy must decide if finding out the secret is worth risking his life.” This is vague. Mysteries, secrets, etc. They don’t tell me anything. What is the secret? It’s okay to tell the agent. What happens if they don’t fix the problem? If the secret is something that will effect other people, how is it only Timmy’s life at risk? There’s more. You just have to dig a little deeper.

An easy formula to use to help identify the stakes:

Character must do THIS or else THAT (usually a consequence) will happen.

The stakes should finish the body of your query.

Novel Info – NOVEL TITLE is an age category genre complete at XX,XXX words. Comp titles if you want. It is out for simultaneous submission.

Reason For Querying Of Agent – If you so choose. Again, this is not a required field. Up to you. I would say only do this if you have a specific reason to. For instance you saw their post on ManuscriptWishList and thought it would be a good fit. Otherwise, they generally expect that you’ve done your research. Keep this brief.

About Me – A little bit about yourself and any writing accomplishments you have. It’s okay if you don’t have any too. It’s not going to keep you from getting rep. Keep this brief.

Thank you for your time and consideration. (You don’t need to mention the full manuscript is available upon request. You should only be querying if your manuscript is complete and polished–that’s what agents expect, so they already assume it’s available. Also don’t suck up and be like, “I promise you won’t regret requesting my manuscript!” Bad form. Keep it professional.)

Sincerely,

Name
Phone Number
Email
Social Media

Just a note. You can put the novel info and reason for querying at the beginning or the end, but do not break it up. Me personally, when I’m judging competitions, I prefer the novel info at the end so I’m not bias. Some agents prefer it first. Again, this is a just depends, but really as far as I can tell, it’s not going to hinder your chances. It’s the meat of the query that matters.

The meat of your query should be a minimum of 250 words (unless it’s a PB) and at max 350 words. Some go over the 350 word max, and a little bit is fine, but try not to go much longer than that.

Edit: The word count is also becoming very subjective among agents. Some are even now saying 250 words or less. It comes down to researching your agents in regards to submission guidelines.

So, how do you know this is good advice? Well, you still need to do your homework. Read agent websites and blogs. Check out known query resource sites. Ask authors who have managed to snag an agent how they did it. (Honestly, we don’t bite, we’re happy to answer questions when we can.) Follow people who make it into competitions such as Query Kombat, Pitch Wars, Pitch Slam, etc. They had to write queries to get in–good queries. Ones that follow standard format and have all the elements to let an agent or judge know why their story is unique.

Don’t just read one article and assume that’s the end all be all. Even for what I wrote, there’s wiggle room. For instance some people use one POV for the body, others use two. Two is a lot trickier, and I prefer one, but a lot of people have great queries from two POV’s. It all just depends.

One last note.

DO NOT PUT RHETORICAL QUESTIONS IN YOUR QUERY. MANY AGENTS HAVE STATED STRAIGHT UP THEY DO NOT LIKE THIS. 

Here’s some resources to get you started.

Agent Query Connect – this website has several forums that allows you to post your query. You’ll get brutally honest feedback. It’s where I learned quite a bit about query writing when I started.

Query Shark – This is run by the amazing Janet Reid of Fine Print Literary. She has amazing advice. Read through Query Shark. All of it.

Query Kombat – A competition run by Michelle Hauck, Michael Anthony, and Laura Heffernan.  Think Mortal Kombat, but with queries. This competition is currently in progress. So read through the feedback that the judges leave as it may even apply to your query. #QueryKombat

Pitch Slam – Another fantastic writing competition run by Leatrice McKinney. Most recently she is also participating in WCNV giving more opportunities for diverse writers and #ownvoices. Both of these are great competitions to follow and gain insightful information on query writing. #PitchSlam #WCNV

Pitch Wars – Probably the most notorious writing competition to date, created and hosted by the amazing Brenda Drake. There is so much to be learned from this competition. Not only by following the community on Twitter, but also, recently, the mentors have created a blog where we offer advice to the writing community: Writing With The Mentors. #PitchWars

 

 

It’s An Author Thing: Mood Swings

Writing a novel is not easy. It comes with many parts, layers, plot, characterization, pacing, and more. It can come naturally, or it can be frustrating as hell. The layers may fall into

Sometimes we might get the urge to print part or all of the story just so we can destroy it. 

place, or they might decide that they don’t fit into this particular jigsaw puzzle and opt to be a pain in the ass. Authors not only have to deal with problems in real life, but with the problems in the world they’re creating. So, yes, from time to time we might lose our shit.

 

It’s an author thing.

There may be days where we’re smiling, whistling, giddy even, because we’ve managed to write 2,000 plus words to finish a scene. A scene that we absolutely love. We celebrate with coffee or wine, maybe add some chocolate in there. It could be on Friday, so we break out the booze early, because it’s five o’clock somewhere. We celebrate, because it’s an accomplishment.

Cheers to the days when writing comes easy and the characters do exactly what they’re supposed to do. 

It’s an author thing.

Saturday rolls around and when you wake up, the first thing you notice is your possible hangover. Try not to celebrate too hard next time.

There’s another problem though. As your brain was relaxing from the copious amounts of alcohol, you realize that the scene you wrote, may not actually be what the book needs. A thought dribbles in that there’s a better way to do it, or if you do it all the crazy consequences that could shift the entire plot of the book taking it in a direction you don’t want it to go.

Damn it!

That’s never fun. The two choices are to scrap the scene then and there or continue writing to see where it goes. Neither of which you want to do because it was time consuming and yesterday it was perfect, but today–the problems have shown themselves.

It’s frustrating, and you’ve gone from happy-go-lucky to “disturb me while I’m trying to
fix this and I will end you.”

Staring, chin holding, hair pulling, eye rolling, and so many more things happen as you analyze the text, desperately trying to figure out what to do next. Your emotions are fluctuating up and down. When you think you’ve got an idea, victory is in sight, but then, you realize the five different reasons it won’t work.

So, essentially, in less than 24 hours you’ve gone from happy, to hungover, to annoyed, to angry, to flabbergasted, to sad. All your confidence as a writer is gone. You wonder if you can make it in this business. It’s a roller coaster of tumultuous emotions from being overwhelmed, just because one scene is ruining the whole book.

Oh no, I’m not exaggerating. This happens. To multiple authors. Readers don’t get emotions from novels because we’re cold, uncaring robots. They get it because it took all those emotions just to write the book.

Just as all hope seems to be lost, and you’re hiding under your desk rocking back and forth, hair wild–and maybe just a little drool dribbling down your chin–epiphany strikes. You know just want to do to make the ()#&%#(*$&#( scene work. To make the story work.

You get up, clean up, and sit at your keyboard, fingers going to work. All the previous confidence you lost has now returned. You got this.

It’s an author thing.

It’s An Author Thing: We Help Each Other

Recently an amazing author friend of mine, Leatrice McKinney, has found herself in a rough patch because her papa needs help with medical expenses-yes, insurance should be paying for it, but, not so surprisingly, they’re refusing. Don’t get me started on insurance problems though. It’s not the point.

The point is, that, as mentioned before, the writing community is small. When one hurts, we all hurt. Sometimes, we’re as poor as the next person and may not be able to take money out of our own pockets, but there is always a way we can help. It could be as simple as spreading the word, or being there for that person to have someone to listen to them. A lot of times though, when it’s something truly harrowing, we donate our services to raise money for that person.

It’s an author thing.

We’re proud of our community. The people are fantastic, the creativity is always on overload, and we know that if we fall, that community is there to help us stand. Not every author knows every other author, but once you’re in, the network forms. We care about each other. We talk, laugh, cry, and struggle with the frustrations of writing together.

To put it simply, we help each other out. That’s what community does.

It’s an author thing.

That being said, we are currently putting together an auction for the Unstoppable Papa. Struggling to afford medical treatment shouldn’t be a thing. People shouldn’t have to worry about whether they can make their next necessary appointment because they can’t afford it. Unfortunately, at least in America, there are entirely too many things wrong with our healthcare system and Unstoppable Papa is one of many victims.

If you can donate directly that’s awesome. If you’d rather wait for the auction, that’s fine too. If you can offer services to be auctioned off, that would be amazing. If all you can do is spread the word, we love you for that too.

Every author has needed help in some way or form. Sometimes it’s with our writing. Sometimes it’s with our life. We do our best to keep our community going afloat. We always try to have each others back.

That’s how we roll.

It’s an author thing.

For more information on the Unstoppable Papa, check out the Go Fund Me page.

For more information on the amazing Author Leatrice McKinney and for more information on the upcoming auction, see her website.

If you’d like to donate your services contact us.