How to Get Published

by Al Kalar

Keep the action going. I know we’ve discussed this before, but it bears repeating because we still receive manuscripts with “info dumps” scattered throughout the story. Worse, many start out with an info-dump that is the author’s lame attempt to bring the reader up to speed. I’m not referring to recaps of previous books in a series designed to remind the reader of what s/he read six months ago.

Any time you stop the flow of the story to tell the reader something, you risk losing that reader. You yank him out of the story itself. The action stops with an arrow frozen in mid-air while some “off-screen” voice describes the developmental history of the bow and the flight characteristics of various types of arrows. By the time the arrow starts flying again, the reader has forgotten why it was shot and is certainly “sitting in her chair” rather than “swinging a sword on a rain-soaked crag in 10^th century Scotland”. (more…)

by Michelle Gagnon

Recently a friend asked for writing advice on behalf of her husband, who started writing a book a few years ago but hasn’t made much progress.

“Let me guess,” I asked. “He’s right around the fifty page mark.” She double-checked with him, and he’d stopped at sixty pages even.

I’m willing to bet that most of the people who never finish writing a book stall out right around that point, somewhere between 40-60 pages. And here’s my theory as to why.

After months or years of talking about writing a book (because at least as far as my experience at cocktail parties dictates, almost everyone believes they have a book in them), they’ve finally sat down and hammered some of those words on to the page! Initially, that’s excitement enough.

Because the outset is always thrilling. And things usually go swimmingly for ten to twenty pages. Then, something gets in the way–maybe they can’t figure out what to tackle next in terms of the storyline, or their day to day life intrudes. So they leave for a bit, and come back to it. Or they manage to overcome whatever hurdle they encountered, plot-wise or life-wise, and forge ahead. Another twenty pages in, they’re feeling a genuine sense of accomplishment. They’re doing what so many people talk about but never achieve–and they’ve already written around fifty pages! The rest should be a breeze, right?

So what do they do at this point? (more…)

by Al Kalar

Paragraphs:

Steinbeck wrote in short, simple, declarative sentences.

John Norman could fill multiple pages with one boring paragraph. Some of his sentences rambled on forever.

Steinbeck won a Pulitzer prize. Norman didn’t.

There are no clear-cut rules as to how long a sentence or paragraph should be. A sentence should cover one thought only. A paragraph should cover one subject only.

If you find yourself using semi-colons (;) instead of periods, you may have a problem. (more…)

by Al Kalar

Last week we learned about keeping your viewpoint consistent (1^st person, 3^rd person, omniscient).

Now we’ll delve into “tense”. There are a number of different tenses: present, future, past, and past perfect to name the four most encountered. (more…)

by Al Kalar

There are three viewpoints of most novels that are part of the author’s “voice”: first person, third person, omniscient. Once you pick one, stick to it; don’t change part way through OR (horrors) from chapter to chapter.

First person: The story is told from the viewpoint of a character.

“I did this.

I saw that.

I remember back when . . .”. (more…)