What do Lunches, Snark, and Sharks Have in Common?

Happy Monday!
The start of a new week always offers a fresh start. Today I wanted to discuss three websites of which I think every writer should be aware. They each offer a different service, but are equal in their awesomeness.

1) Publisher's Lunch

I receive this newsletter just about every day during the week. You can get the "snack" version for free, or pay for the full lunch. It's basically a newsletter that lists how many publishing deals have been made, any big moves (agents joining new agencies) or news in the publishing world, and any open jobs in said publishing world. If you opt to buy the deluxe lunch version, you get the details of every publishing deal made on the previous business day. 

2) Miss Snark's First Victim

The Authoress is the host of this site and she is amazing! She dedicates to much of her time to helping other writers find agents. She hosts several Secret Agent Contests each year, where entry is completely free, and a secret literary agent reviews all entries, giving his/her feedback on each one. Also helpful, are comments by her followers on each entry. Not only does she hold these incredible contests, she interviews agents, offers news from the publishing world, and gives a little info about her struggle on getting published and tid bits about her daily rituals.

3) The Query Shark

I know I've mentioned The Shark on my blog before, and I've had the pleasure to actually meet her face to face last year (Yay!). If you've never visited her site, go now. Like, right this minute and just return back here later. You must read through all the queries she has posted and study them carefully. This is a must if you're getting ready to send those query letters out anytime soon. Before you send anything, spend hours at this site!

That's it for today, kids. Check out those websites, even if you're not a writer, the first two may grab your interest as one who loves reading, books, and words. If you like to review people's works and comment, Miss Snark's First Victim site is perfect for you! 

As always, Happy Reading and Writing!

Tips from David L. Robbins

Hemingway said of writing, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”   A writer who understands the craft and understands the process will tell you that there will always be more to learn, I just didn’t realize HOW much there was to learn!  I’ve been writing for many a moon and though I wouldn’t call myself a seasoned writer, I thought myself fluent in the basics.  Wrong!  I learned so much about my own writing in one of the Backspace seminars I attended.  It was given by writer David L. Robbins.  You may know him as the author behind the book the movie Enemy at the Gates was based on.

I wanted to share some of my notes for those Literati who are writers or are pondering the idea.

According to Robbins, there are four very important parts of a story: Setting, Research, Point of View, and Tension.  I won’t be able to go over everything in one blog post; my notes total at least twenty pages!  So I’ll list some of the stronger points from the presentation. 

• Do not write what you know; write what you learn.  Robbins gave this as an example: You’re in a classroom where a presentation is interrupted by sirens outside.  The teacher tells a student to go see what has happened.  The guy is going to come back, out of breath, and tell you something like, “Oh my gosh!  There are four cars piled on top of each other, there’s smoke and fire, debris litters the streets, the firemen are pulling people out of crushed cars with the Jaws of Life, and there are people arguing in the streets!” You’ve got the emotion and the detail in his voice.  But if you ask him a year later, “Hey, what did you see that day of the accident?”  He’d probably reply, “There was an accident with four cars and it was pretty bad.”  You lose the excitement and the detail.   So write what you LEARN, retain that excitement and detail in your writing.
• Don’t use tricks to excite readers – “accidental” surprises and convenient revelations are transparent and are used when there is a weak story or weak writing.
• Readers want to connect to the protagonist, but writers tend to “foil the link” with weak writing.  Don’t write what your character can’t see, don’t hesitate, don’t muddle your sentences with unnecessary words.  Example: “He shrugged his shoulders.” No – “He shrugged.”  “He looked up to the sky.”  No – “He looked to the sky.”
• Have distinct characters.  We are storytellers; do not write about normal people.  Don’t make your protagonist a victim.  Strong characters drive the story and can’t be taken out.  Characters are not the WHAT in your story, the plot is the what.  Characters are the WHY.
• See the world through the character’s eyes.  Imagine a castle being looked upon by two brothers on a far off hill.  One brother has just returned from fighting in a war, he is to be king, and he loves his home.  The other brother is jealous, he has bottled anger, and he hates his home.  Both brothers will be looking to this castle with different feelings, different thoughts; tell your story through your protagonist’s POV.
• Stakes.  Establish the stakes on page one.  Don’t sacrifice stakes.  Have an imbalance and make it clear to the reader that there will be this imbalance, this struggle.  What is at risk?  Manipulate who knows what.  Engage the reader.  Your character is about to open a door the reader knows is the closet the killer is hiding in.  You want your reader to be saying, “No!  No!  Don’t open the door!!”  You have to make the reader care.
• Precision is concision.  Never let two words do the job of one.  Watch out for those weed words (see previous blog post, Weed Words?  I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Weed Words!).  Don’t waste a page in a kitchen (unless it’s an integral part of the story).
• Integrate place into your story.  Embrace opportunities to describe the setting. 
• Strong writing.  Don’t use expressions or clichés.  Stay away from mundane expressions.  Be careful with prepositions, the obvious, extra words, and redundancies.  Examine each sentence.  Each sentence has to move the story forward.
• No info dumps.  Never have anything on the page that the character isn’t thinking.  Do not engage backstory until the character is thinking about it.  No flashbacks. 
• Show, don’t tell.  Create scenes and describe what is happening to your character, do not tell the reader how the character feels.  (Again, see the previous post, Weed Words?  I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Weed Words!).

And most of all, know that rejection does not mean stop.  Happy Writing!