How to Get Published

By Al Kalar

There are hundreds of ways to get your manuscript rejected. Here are three:

1. Use lots of unneeded dialog tags

John stood up. “Why do we need to do that?” he asked.

• We already know it’s John talking.
• The question mark is a dead giveaway that it’s a question. (more…)

By Al Kalar
I know I’ve harped on this before, but here’s a solid example so you can see how it’s done.

Anne McCaffrey is one of the top-selling authors in the Science Fiction and Fantasy arena. She’s a master of her craft.

I was re-reading a book of short stories (Get off the Unicorn, Ballantine/Del Ray 1977), when I ran across this short story. A sequel to her novel, The Ship Who Sang.

Background: Helva is a “shell person”, someone who can only live in a bio-shell, with special life-support. Her nerves and other functions have been merged with a spaceship (with her permission) so that she is the ship. Most “Brain Ships” are teamed with a “brawn”, a normal person who acts as a partner to do the things the ship’s “brain” (shell person) can’t do to complete an assignement.

Now, I want you to notice two things about these two pages:

1. She uses ONE dialog tag only (”said”). In spite of that, you never have any doubt as to who’s talking.
2. She keeps her “actors” in constant motion (okay, Helva can’t move, but she has verbal quirks to keep her “alive”). They are not two “talking heads”, but real-live people who move, gesticulate, scratch, etc. while carrying on a conversation.

These are two of the IMPORTANT things that make the difference between a “good” writer and a “great” author.

Here are the first two pages of the story:

by John Bowers

In a previous article I talked about writer’s block, and how to keep writing something, anything, just to stay sharp, even if it has nothing to do with your project. There is something else you can do at times like that, and it may even help dissolve the block and get you going again.

First Draft

Almost every writer who gives advice to other writers agrees that a first draft is never the final product, that the work, once finished, must be edited before being submitted to a publisher or agent. Good novels are never written, they are rewritten.

But for some, once that first draft is finished, the job of editing may seem overwhelming. You’ve just poured weeks or months, perhaps even years, into your project, and you’re all wrung out. Then you start reading from page one, you start finding mistakes, and it gets depressing.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

From time to time, no matter how prolific you are, you are going to sit down at that keyboard and stare at a blank page and you simply don’t know what to do. Writer’s block. This may be a good time to do a little ‘editing as you go’.

As a general practice, every day when I sit down to write, the first thing I do is to review what I wrote the day before. I set bookmarks every day when I start, and I can return to those bookmarks the next day to see what I created. As I read through, I invariably find typos, missing words, poor punctuation, you name it. In the heat of writing my mind will think one thing and my fingers will type something else (for example, in this very sentence my fingers typed “thing one thing” instead of “think one thing”) and those are much easier to fix on a daily basis than waiting until the book is finished. And when the first draft is finished, the rewrite will go much faster.

Use the Block

Writer’s block is frustrating, no question about it, but you can use that block to your advantage. In addition to editing what you wrote yesterday, writer’s block can sometimes be beneficial if you take the opportunity to go back and read the entire work from the beginning, or from some other significant starting point. In some cases I’ve found that I’m so far into a story that I forgot something that happened earlier, maybe a minor character I wanted to use, or something someone said that needs to be tied into the plot down the road…or deleted entirely. Taking the time to read before you finish will refresh the story in your mind and help you identify loose ends.

Taking advantage of writer’s block to do a read-through can not only help you identify problems, it sometimes gets you going again. By reading the story from page one you can often get a better feel for where the story is going, and new ideas may come to you. You may finish reading what went before and immediately start typing that next page. It happens.

Even if you don’t have writer’s block, a read-through before you finish is a good idea. You may find a major conflict in your story that will stop a reader cold, or you may need to insert a plot device to shore up something later in the novel. Such things are much easier to fix before you finish than later, when you’ve sweated out your last drop of blood and simply don’t have the energy to change a single word.

Give It Time

While we’re on the subject of rewrites, one thing is very important-once you write that last page and close the file for the last time, and the first draft is done, set it aside. Do not look at it for at least a month. I’m serious. Mark it on your calendar and then go do something else. Start another book. Take a vacation. Learn to speak Mandarin. Anything.

The reason for this is that you are too close to your story, and if you try to start the edit the day after you finish, you simply won’t be objective. Often I’ve looked at a story right after I finished it and thought it was pretty good, and other times I’ve been convinced it was really bad. But several weeks later, after the emotion has faded and my mind is clear, I can see it for what it is, good or bad.

Giving it time will help you identify problems-bad dialogue, inconsistent characters, logic problems in plotting, etc. While you’re writing it all makes sense, but when you stand back it’s easier to see the forest and not just the trees. No matter how good you are, no matter how famous, you will always make mistakes as you write, and if you don’t find them, your readers will.

Finally

Writing is hard work. It’s taxing. But it’s also fun. Writing a book is much like reading a book-you live the story as you write it. You become immersed in the plot and the characters. The only difference is that, as a writer, you are doing the creating, not the observing. When it’s all done and ready to submit, there is no greater sense of satisfaction. You’ve written a novel, told a story, and hopefully it will bring pleasure to others.

Have fun with it. If it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth it.

By Al Kalar

Get rid of dialog tags

I’m on a crusade to get rid of dialog tags.

“What?” you may be saying. “How can you write dialog without tags?”

Simple. Substitute action. The above sentence could have been written:

“What?” You may have dropped your jaw in shock. “How can you . . .”

Dialog tag gone. (more…)

by John Bowers

(NOTE: Some content in this article may offend the sensitive reader. Proceed at your own risk.)

In our workshop discussion, someone pointed out that sex is a natural part of life and there was no reason not to write about it. Someone else pointed out that taking a crap is also a natural part of life, but…well, who wants to read about that?

Good points, both of them. I agree with the second argument, but I lean toward the first. The simple fact is that people do want to read about sex, while only the…well, mentally ill…want to read about defecation. (I should point out that in The Thin Red Line, novelist James Jones did write about a Marine taking a dump on Guadalcanal. While he was thus indisposed he was jumped by a Japanese soldier and, with his (more…)

by John Bowers

(NOTE: Some content in this article may offend the sensitive reader. Proceed at your own risk.)

In Part 1 I mentioned the writer’s workshop where my friends and I are in an ongoing debate about whether sex and language are appropriate for the novels we are writing. One camp seems to be opposed to these elements in all their forms, others think there should be no limits of any kind, and probably the majority falls in the middle.

What do you think? When it comes to swearing, profanity, and sex in a novel, where do you fall in the debate?

I have my own view, of course, which I will share, but by no means do I think it’s the “only correct” view. There are good arguments for every side in the debate.

Definitions

Before we proceed let’s get our definitions straight, so we know what I’m talking about. When I say, “swearing”, I’m not talking about the “F-bomb”-that falls under profanity. Swearing is the simple use of “damn”, “hell”, “son of a bitch”, etc. These are mild forms of swearing; more extreme forms include “goddamn”, “Jesus Christ”, “asshole”, etc. These are words not heard on the more mainstream TV networks, while the milder versions are quite common. (more…)

by John Bowers

(NOTE: Some content in this article may offend the sensitive reader. Proceed at your own risk.)

In the science fiction novelist workshop where I grew up there has been a friendly, ongoing discussion of when and whether strong language should be included in a novel. Some feel strongly that it’s unnecessary, that “if you have to resort to profanity to tell your story, your writing skills are weak”, while others take the view that nothing is sacred when it comes to writing fiction.

Where do you stand? Or have you even thought about it?

A  Little Background

Everyone has become accustomed, at the movies and even on TV, to warnings about “content”. It all started back around 1968 with the motion pictures, when they first came out with a rating system. Before the rating system movie censors dictated what could and could not be shown or said in a film, based upon the moral principles of…well-no one was sure. Things got so nitty that a kiss in the movie could not last more than three seconds (whereupon the actors kissed each other for two seconds-repeatedly). (more…)

by John Bowers

If you’re a writer, you were probably a reader first. Odds are you read all the time because you’re in love with the printed word. You’re so in love with it that reading it isn’t enough…you need to write it too.

So you’ve read hundreds of novels, maybe even thousands. But how many of them do you remember? How many can you name? How many can you cite, years after you read them, and tell me something about the plot? Probably not very many. And it’s the same with me.

We’ve all read books that entertained us for a few hours, but a week later we really couldn’t remember them. We moved on to the next novel, and the next, and each one briefly did its job-to entertain us-but then we forgot all about it. I’ve come across used books that look interesting and sometimes I’ll start to read one, only to discover after a few chapters that I’ve already read it-years ago! In an age of mass-market paperbacks only a very few rise to the level of “memorable”, but when we do find one we recognize pretty quickly that…this one is special. (more…)

by John Bowers

Nobody can write all the time. Most of us would like to, but in the real world we have jobs, families, and bills to pay. Given our obligations, few of us can devote the time to writing that we’d like, and finishing a project often takes us much longer than we prefer. Writing a novel entails several things: coming up with a story idea, identifying the characters, plotting the story, and writing it. All those things take time, and many things get in the way-work, family, social events, reading, watching TV…and writer’s block.

Writer’s block is a beast. It most often hits new writers who aren’t quite sure where their story is going, but it affects everyone at one time or another. You may be halfway through your novel, or right down to the final few chapters, and there it is-you’re staring at a blank computer screen with no idea what to write. Even if you outlined your book in advance, writer’s block can stare back at you from a blank page, baring its yellow fangs and snarling at you. And it’s frustrating. (more…)

A Rerun

by Al Kalar

“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of - but do it in private and wash your hands afterward.” -Robert Heinlein

Point of View (POV)

How are you going to tell your tale? Through who’s eyes will the reader see and experience what is happening? This is an important decision, because you must be consistent throughout your book.

There are three main methods of telling a story: (more…)