Prologues, Back-Story, Exposition & other things I don’t want to see…

Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates. September /October have been (and always are in Melbourne) crazy times. There was the AFL grand final, the NFL Grand Final, School Holiday’s, The Royal Melbourne Show (side note when the heck did this become so expensive I swear I’ll be paying off the c/card bill until next year!), a sick dog, a kid’s birthday party, a broken arm (& I thought I’d be the parent WITHOUT the broken arm child) & a short trip to Eden, and to my non-Aussie readers, ther is a place on the NSW coast called EDEN, (mummy & daddy time)

Phew! OK, now back to the topic at hand.

As I have mentioned previously, I offer editing services as well as running this blog and every so often I see a “trend” come through. Sometimes it’s a good trend, as is the case with mixed genre/themes and loads of great (and well written/thought out) diversity. Other times its not to great.

Today I want to start with the NOT SO GREAT.

Prologues

OK, I’ve been open about my dislike of prologues and not everyone agrees with me. Even so, I happily admit that some stories and some genres do benefit from a short prologue. The ACTIVE word here is SHORT. If your prologue is longer than five hundred words then it’s any of the below:

(i)                           It’s actually Chapter one.

(ii)                        It’s an excuse to info-dump your entire back-story

(iii)                      It’s a lady-writers way of “getting on with it” and no one is fooled.

(iv)                      Your manuscript is not ready and needs more editing/BETA reading and reviewing

(v)                         It’s many or all of the above

Back Story in Chapter one (& two)

Let’s make a few things clear, no one, let me repeat this NO ONE expects to know all your characters the instant they start reading. Starting a new novel is like a starting a new relationship or friendship. When you first meet someone you neither want their entire life story nor do you want to be dragging information out of them. If you are forced into either extreme, it is very likely you will not want to engage with this person and likely hope to never see/speak to them again. Long-winded people, dull people, utterly self-absorbed people interest no one but themselves. This is the ideal analogy for a novel. If you’re writing your novel just for yourself, go ahead, indulge as much as you like. However if your intent is to engage other readers (beyond your immediate circle) then remember too much is as bad as too little.

The reader doesn’t want to be swamped with information over load but neither do they want to be scratching their heads wonder, “Hang on, who is that guy again?”

If you want to find that happy place look first to your favourite authors and re-read their first five chapters. Look also to NOT writing a war & peace epic of a chapter one. There’s a good reason for this. LET THE READER CATCH UP. Giving the reader a chance to take in your first chapter and the characters within is a winning formula and while there are exceptions to this, on the whole, short, sharp equals engaging.

Chapter one is not the place to dump everything into the readers lap. It’s a place to set the theme, the scene, the tempo, the language, the main character, the location, a secondary character and that’s MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Again, of course there are exceptions, and the truly skilled/talented can get away with almost anything but for most of us, we need to work within parameters. Look at it this way, if chapter one goes on and on and on and your reader ONLY has time to read chapter one because it is so long (during a lunch break for example), by the time they return to the novel, they may well have forgotten a lot of the information you invested within it. Now the reader has a choice to make.

(i)                           Re-read Chapter one and waste another lunch break covering what you already read

(ii)                        Keep going with Chapter two & hope you can work out what you missed as you move along

(iii)                      Just give up

Which one seems most likely? Yep, that’s what I thought also.

Exposition

Let me say from the get-go I don’t mind a bit of exposition, but then again I also like literary fiction; and not all readers do. Some agents and publishers as well as readers literally roll their eyes at paragraph after paragraph of exposition.

So what is EXPOSITION? It is a kind of info dump but it’s not limited to back story or world building , basically it’s everything

Exposition is a bit of all of the below:

·        Back Story Info Dump

·        World Building Info Dump

·        Setting Info Dump

·        Descriptive Info Dump

·        Etc.

Let me state ALL of the above, back story, world building, setting, description (etc.) are VITAL and various genre’s allow for differing levels of exposition. However, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH. Let’s put it this way. Say you like your coffee with two sugars. Now, it you’re given a coffee with one sugar or three sugars, it might be a little bitter or a little too sweet, but remains palatable. However, if you are served a coffee with NO sugar or FOUR sugars you’ll struggle to drink it. Hell you’ll ask for another, your money back, or smile politely but not drink the coffee. That’s exposition for you. Too little and you don’t really know “Who’s on first” too much and you find yourself smiling politely, closing the book (or kindle) and not going back for more.

Too much Exposition kills drama.

Too much back story kills the story’s movement.

Too long a prologue kills interest to even begin.

So where to go from here?

Yes I make my living from offering editing services but editors, even the best editor in the world cannot fix everything. Before you hire an editor, get yourself a TEAM of CP partners & BETA readers, but they need to be honest.

Then accept that they MIGHT have a point. You don’t have to agree but you have to acknowledge that they have taken the time to make comments and give feedback. They have read your manuscript and offered honest critique. Acknowledge it for the gift it is.

Then be brave enough to slash pages and kill darlings.

Then do it all over again.

Then get yourself someone like me, after several BETA readers and re-writes, not before. Aside from having a product I’m keen to read because I’m not faced with page after page of the author droning on about nonsensical overindulgence, you’ll also save money – Hell! You may not even need me if you get yourself a crack Team of BETAS!

I don’t like ending on any form of negative. I don’t like writing a negatively swayed blog post. Therefore I’ll finish with this. You have taken the time, invested your soul, a little of your heart, fallen in lust and/or love with your characters. The cost has been time spent with family, friends and restless nights trying to figure out exactly how to best describe and present your characters. You’ve DONE the HARD WORK, now let the BETAS do there bit and indulge in a little self-gratification for having achieved so much already. Red-Pen Markings on your loving & loved up manuscript are not fun, but trust me, the pain is lessened when you don’t also have to invest buckets of cash as well — or worse when an editor says “This is not ready for the final edit stage” & be honest; you kind of knew that already; you were just having a day-dream-moment, and that’s OK too, but don’t forget to wake up 🙂 

The “Beauty & the Beast” of creating Great Art

When I was a child, I spent a lot of my super-hot summer days reading { being from Australia, it’s often 40-45+ Deg C (105-115+ F) for several days in a row}. I would read a novel and then I’d rush off to the library and borrow a book on the author or the setting. For instance, if I was reading an Agatha Christie novel, I’d go to the library a few days later and borrow a book on Agatha Christie. This was equally true for other art genre’s most specifically visual art, artists. Painters & Sculptors throughout the ages kept me fascinated, entertained and had me wishing to one day live in Paris, Province, Tuscany, New York or The Cotswolds or Kent in the UK.

Except there was a lot more to being an artist than sipping a coffee by the Seine, or sleepy, dreaming views of rolling hills and cute red and blue sail boats. For a start it was hard work and more often than not, unfulfilled aspirations led to a kind of manic for many artists. Still, I chose not to think on the loneliness of Van Gogh, the drunkenness of Hemingway or the financial ruin of Twain. I chose to think of the romance, the beauty, the meetings with other artists, the talks on politics and philosophy; and then I grew up.

The Pursuit of Happiness through the Creation of Art is a very difficult path. Today I’m going to specifically talk about writing/authors but the below could be just as easily replaced on other fields.

Writing Isn’t Always a Ball of Fun

Yes, it starts off fun, like a new relationship, you love your characters and are excited to see where the setting takes you and are even surprised at what develops. You tell your friends about Such-and-Such and can’t wait until you are back at that keyboard. But then, as in every relationship, things stall, conversation becomes strained or unnatural and you roll your eyes where once you battered your lashes and you sometimes even curse your character, the very same one you loved just hours ago.

I know you all know this but, I don’t think some of you get just how NOT FUN it really can be. I recently got an MS to edit. As is my policy, I read the first 5-pages and, although I saw several grammar repeat errors, I decided to ask for the first 20-pages and ballpark the cost for the entire manuscript.

I read those additional 15 pages and sent the lot back, with some notes, and no fee. Why? This author had promise (hence why I asked for more pages) but they had spent all their EDIT TIME on the first 5-6 pages. How did I know this? Pages 10-20 were like they had been written by someone else. I think their idea was that I (the reader) would fall in love with the first chapter and be unconcerned about issues, big gapping hole issues, further on. Clue – NEVER HAPPENS!

Writing IS NOT a ball of fun. WRITING does not stop with the first edit, or even the 10^th edit, or the first 25 pages – it’s hard and its time consuming and its frustrating – If you want this to be your future, accept Writing Is Not a Ball of Fun. Still dreaming of your days being filled with magical words & perfectly formed sentences floating into your head and then onto your page… read on.

Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.

Now, I say this in the nicest possible way. I know you want to give it up and honestly, if you can afford to, sure, go for it. But if you are on a single income and there’s no family trust fund to fall back on, as much as it would be great to devote all your precious time to your craft, don’t give up your day job.

Reality check. Most authors don’t sell their first novel, some don’t sell the second or even fifth novel, and even when they do, so very, very, few get any real money form it. Yes you CAN make a living from writing, I PROMISE! But you need to maybe have 3,4,5… novels out there before those royalty cheques pay anything more than a one-off cheap meal.

Don’t believe me? Let’s assume you are one of the lucky/talented ones and your first novel sells. Let’s even assume that, unlike the rest of us that need 12-24 months to write, edit, polish our work, you can do it in 6 months. In other words, this is the best, best, best case scenario. So, six months in, you’ve got a publishing deal. Then the work starts. Edits, re-writes, discussions with your publishers. Let’s even say your MS was so perfectly shiny that six months later it’s publisher-standard ready. Hell, we’ll even give you a decent advance of $10,000 (which really is super rare too). Now, the book has a lead-time of, you know what, we are already in fairyland, let’s go all the way and say it’s only 12 months!

So, 24-months from when you began your first MS, your novel is hitting the market. Hippie! Yes hippie indeed, but wait, remember that advance of 10K? Yep, that one, you need to sell enough to cover that first before you see a royalty cheque. Even if we say you average $2 to the author per book (averaging out e-book and paperback and then being super generous again), that’s 5,000 copies that need to sell before you see another red-cent.

Sure, you’re writing your next novel or two… but there is no guarantee the publisher will take your next work, especially if you don’t cover your advance (which is why big advances are not always a big advantage – but that’s a topic for another day).

So your best case scenario is, after working 35 hours every week, for say 45  weeks of the year, for two years, (or over 3,000 hours), you have $10,000 in the bank, or just over $3/hour – return for novel one. It’s actually not all that bad for your first novel, but its not enough to live off, even eating only 2-minute-noodles, and you’ll need some sort of prop-up income.

Get Used to being Pigeon-Holed

If you write romance, people, even your biggest supporters, will make jokes at your expense. “But I don’t write Romance” I hear so many of your thinking. It’s the same for all writers. You’re a PB or MG writer; people will joke about how immature you are. YA? Never really left college. NA? What the hell is NA anyway… and are you just being a pretentious git? Adult Literary fiction, refer to *pretentious git* – same goes for writers of poetry. Short story writer, Can’t you make a story stretch to something beyond 5K? Self Published; couldn’t cut it in the “real” world… the list goes on and on and on. Some of it is intended to be light humour, much of it is simply not thinking, and occasionally it comes from envy; that you have the courage to put yourself and your work out there when the *wankers* who make stupid comments rather than create something worthy, don’t have your courage.

Shaking your head at me are you? NEVER has this happened to you? Awesome, seriously. But let me ask you, have any of your non author/artist friends ever commented on how *easy* your day is or asked what you do all day? Have you ever been half tempted to smack them on the back of the head? Of course you cannot AND WILL NOT do that, but hey, get your character to do it in your book, you’ll be surprised how cathartic it can be!

Don’t be discouraged. Go back to point (i) – Writing is not easy and sometimes the hardest part is the perception of the community and/or the stigma attached to your writing category, genre or style.

It DOES Get Easier

No, not the work part, not even the labelling part, but your focus, your skill-set, your interaction with the rest of the writing community, it gets easier with time.  As you grow and develop as a writer, and as you become part of a community, whether In-Real-Life or via social-media, the feeling of loneliness, isolation and frustration is shared and that’s what makes it easier. The more friends that you gain who share your struggles and understanding, the more likely you are to improve exponentially. Yes, choose your friends wisely, but choose them none-the-less. Each one of them will help you to make it to the next day and the next page and the next edit… and the next manuscript.

As your network grows, so do your personal resources and so does the likelihood of novel 2,3,4… being completed and published. And that’s when it also get financially easier too – Again I PROMISE!

& the Point is?

The point is, very few things in life fall to us from the skies. Sometimes they do, rare as it is, sometimes people will the lottery and sometimes first manuscripts become best sellers and movies, but the truth is, for the most part, the pursuit of happiness through art is rarely easy. The question should not be when will I make it and how? but, who am I doing it for any why? If it’s for you and its because you simply MUST, then being difficult, although frustrating and often heartbreaking, is not going to stop you. If this is you, don’t let anxiety beat hard work, don’t send work that is not edited or complete — don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be.

So who or what is the BEAUTY & who or what is the BEAST of great art? It’s the one and the same – its work. Sorry to make it so simple. Hard work is like a yolk, weighing down our dreams and desires and yet, it’s that hard work that’ll make those dreams and desires become real. What’s more, they will be all the better for you’ll have *war wounds* to share with others- after all being the new generation Gertrude Stein or Ernest Hemingway cannot come with some pain 😉

As for timelines, most people sell their first novel (to a traditional publisher) somewhere between 5-10 years from when they took their writing seriously. In other words, Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (just yet)

Future Submissions – Short Story Anthology unlike ones you’ve seen before!

Today I wanted to talk about something super-exciting; seriously, I’m like one of those Disney Characters with wonderful news just bursting to share! As you all know, we will be officially opening our SUBMISSION doors in 2015, however, (good grief I just squealed), I’ve been given the OK to let you in on one of Lost Lynx “pet” projects for 2015/2016 – and it’s going to be wonderful.

NOW CAUTION

–        PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANYTHING UNTIL SUBMISSIONS OPEN –

OK? Got that? Clear? – Great!

So, in 2015 we will be asking for submissions for a short story anthology, but not just any short story anthology! No no! This one has the theme Mother to Daughter. What’s Mother to Daughter? You know when you were a kid or a teenager and your mum or your gran would share stories with you?

Sometimes they’d read from a book but other times it’d be all in their head. And sometimes it was magical and mystical and other times it was a story about a brave, or funny, or cheeky, or naughty relative? That’s what we’re talking about here!

But wait there’s more – what we want is IMMIGRANT MOTHER TO DAUGHTER stories. So if your mum or your gran or your nanna is from non-Anglo heritage, we want to read your story and we want to share it with the world. Now, just to make it clear, we have nothing against Anglo-history, some of us are borderline Anglophiles!  The thing is, Lost Lynx wants to give a voice to the marginalised and to extract for everyone’s pleasure from the diversity that is cultural Australia, and in particular cultural Victoria.

Below are the rules & guidelines – any questions please feel free to ask. NOTE I have taken out the email address as it’s not open YET, this is for all you guys to prepare. This Christmas or Hanukkah, or Day of Ashura, or any special family, religious, cultural day in your heritage, when you and your family get together, ask Mum or Grandma to tell you again some of the wild and wonderful tales she shared when you were children… & then come share them with the world!

Some HOUSEKEEPING before you read below

Please do not send anything before the submission window opens (THIS IS VITAL), as it will not be considered. We want to give everyone as much time as possible to prepare their very best short stories.

–        There is NO FEE to send your submission

–        There is NO READING FEE to assess you submission

–        You can send up to 2 short stories

–        Once submissions open you’ll see the Twitter hashtags #M2D and/or #motherTOdaughter. By searching these on Twitter you’ll be able to keep up with any important tweets.

–        Because we accept that in some cases the author(s) of this anthology may struggles with English, we are making allowances for this and will endeavour to assist those with wonderful tales that need more grammar/syntax nurturing, than would normally be offered.

–        Sorry; Aussies only!

–        Unsure of exact date submissions will open but it will be in the very early part of 2015. It might be a good idea to follow us on Twitter and the blog for updates.

OK now, below is a pre-written post update that’ll go on the Lost Lynx website once the submissions are open. It has everything you need to know, however, if in doubt, send through a comment or question here or send one via the CONTACTS on the Lost Lynx website: http://www.lostlynxpublishing.com/

  Time to do your bit. Spread the word. Tell your friends, your neighbours.

Your work colleague is from Switzerland and always has amazing stories to tell at Christmas time? Share this anthology with his sister, is female cousin, his mother. Your girlfriend is from Fiji – wonderful! Can’t wait to read about some fantastical tale of island magic or mystery!

Below is a direct copy (without the How To Submit – that’ll be added once we are open for submissions), as it will appear on the  Lost Lynx webpage: http://www.lostlynxpublishing.com/. I’ll also be posting another blog update once we are open. But for now, read through the criteria and please feel free to pass on, to re-blog and to ask as many questions as you like!

Casting a wide Net to find Authors

Short Story Anthology (fiction) – MOTHER TO DAUGHTER

Searching for female authors from diverse cultures, religions, traditions,

– come share your customs, your history & your stories.

From fairy-tales rarely heard to family legends that have been passed down, we want to cast the net as broadly as possible. We don’t want to miss out on a wonderful GEM.

Through story-telling we develop understanding and friendship. Story telling & story sharing demonstrates our differences but more importantly, we learn just how similar we really are.

Celebrate your cultural diversity through the shared tradition of mother-to-daughter story-telling.

Sometimes it’s the small things, the small fights and the even smaller triumphs, which have an ongoing effect and make a difference.

The practice of sharing tales, fables, even family legends and secrets has been true for as long as humans have existed. But for the most part, father-son relationships were the focus, whether that be through verbal story-telling, through song, dance or wall/cave painting and yet, it is the women in our history that teach the next generation, and the one after that, our customs, our religious beliefs, our facts and our fantasies… And these are the treasures we are hoping to uncover, stories and tales passed down from one generation to the next.

But not just any generation to generation, what we want is to delve into how our immigrant parents or grand parents shared their past with their Australian born children and grand children.

Everyone knows *Disney-style fables and tales, we want to discover unknown Norse Gods, and stories of Desert Princesses once shared by women in travelling caravans. We want to uncover wild and woolly tales of malevolent wizards, ferocious dragons and nasty witches in Slavic folklore & exotically named and wondrous deities from Asia.

We’re also looking family legends, tales and fables or stories about magic beings and wild forests with supernatural creatures and/or family legends; tales of travel, tragedy, of make-believe and making quits… show us what you’ve got, we’re very excited to see what we can get. And don’t restrict yourself by religion either. We want Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, any and all religions.

We want hybrid tales where pagan practises and traditions mix with traditional religious beliefs.

Please ensure you follow the guidelines.

Guidelines – Please adhere to the guidelines, I cannot repeat this strongly enough, adhere to the submission guidelines; failure to do so may result in your submission being rejected.

(i)                 Entry is Free – there is no charge to enter your short story

(ii)               Short stories to be between 1,000 – 5,000 words

(iii)             The final number will depend on the length of the stories chosen to make up the anthology. It is anticipated the final number of author’s will be between 12-24

(iv)             Lost Lynx will take full responsibility for publication (e-book and possible paperback)

(v)               Authors selected to participate will be required to sign an agreement giving Lost Lynx exclusive right to publish the story. (the story remains the property of the author)

(vi)             Authors selected to participate in the anthology will be paid a small advance. The figure will depend on the final number of works accepted, the more author’s the less per author.

(vii)           Authors signed to participate in the anthology will need to make themselves available for promotions and marketing events, such as but not limited to, launch events.

(viii)         Authors will also be expected to direct third parties to events, points of sale etc. – in other words help promote the anthology.

(ix)             Short stories can be any of the following:

a.      A fable or legend unique to your culture or community

b.      A family tale / story unique to your family or your region

c.      A unknown fairytale or scary-story shared with small children at bedtime or on special occasions

d.      A fictional account of how something came to be – for example, are your relatives German and did they tell you the story of St. Nicholas?

e.      Other – tales, stories, legends; anything fictional & exceptional to your culture, heritage, or your family.

f.        Legend of a cultural hero / heroine.

g.      Other? Unsure? Shoot us a message via CONTACTS, leave a comment on our Blog and/or Tweet a question.

(x)               At least one grandparent of the AUTHOR must be from a non-Anglo Saxon background and within your submission detail you must describe the link.

(xi)             Author does not need to be an immigrant but immigrants more than welcome.

(xii)           The stories we are looking for are of non-Anglo Saxon heritage for example:

a.      Indian/Asian

b.      Slavic (think Polish, Russian, Croatian, Slovak etc.)

c.      Viking/Norse

d.      West African

e.      South African

f.        Arabic (all religions and sects)

g.      Western & Eastern European (mainland)

h.     Welsh/Irish/Scottish

i.        Central American

j.         Any other (non Anglo)

(xiii)         Author must be FEMALE

(xiv)         Author must be resident of Australia and preferably reside in Victoria.

(xv)           Author must be over eighteen years of age. No maximum age.

Because we understand in some cases English is not a first language, we will be much more forgiving with issues such as grammar, syntax, perfect dialogue, however, we strongly recommend all those submitting to ask a native English Speaking friends to read through their story.

For anyone for whom English is a second language and is struggling to obtain assistance in improving the written quality of their submission, please contact us via our “CONTACT US” option and advise your cultural heritage, place of birth, language spoken and current location. We will do our best to link you with some who can help prepare your final draft.

Please note

(i)                 we can make no promises and

(ii)               if you leave your submission until the last minute then we cannot help you as time becomes our enemy.

Time to prepare, time to write, time to revise and time to surprise us and the world!

The Art of Clever Writing & how to Finish what you Start

Carry a notebook/pad everywhere – the Art of Clever Writing

First off, writing is an art-form because it transports the reader to another place, another world. And new characters who, if done well, become as important to you as your real (or real virtual) friends. When done exceptionally, you, and others, will quote characters and dress as them at theme parties and create games and almost worship the characters. Such is the power of great books. It has always been this way and I think it will always be so, no matter the format or forum.

So that’s the finished product – the work of art. It’s not the work-part. Just as a dancer spends years in practise and months in painful rehearsal, so it is for a painter, or a sculptor, or a musician … and so it is for an author.

Lets get something clear. If you’ve always dreamed of buying yourself a little cabin in the woods or a cottage by the sea, where you’ll have a cute little loft office with a view of the valley, ocean and sky, and you’ll happily pound away at your keys with a sedated cat purring on a lumpy sofa, just close enough for the odd pat but not too close so as to disturb you, great! You’ve got a vivid imagination. You can probably smell the honeysuckle creeping up the cabin or the salty-tang of the sea. You can imagine chooks clucking in grassy green paddocks or seagulls squeaking. You can even smell the hot chocolate that’ll be there for you, when you sit back, pressed up against your chair, musing over your newest sage words and dreaming of book-launch-day. Are you there?

Now wake up and smell the coffee, no seriously, you forget about it, it’s the damn percolator that’s gargling not chooks and seagulls your hearing. Here’s the thing, the only real part of that *might be* that you can afford to buy a place in the country or by the sea. If you can, great, but honestly, most authors can’t afford to buy much more than two-minute-noodles for much of their writing careers.

Now, like I said, if you imagined all of the above (and more) then you are half-way to writing a scene everyone can imagine – and love. That’s the good news. The bad news is, being a good, or even a great writer isn’t enough.

So let’s talk about how to go from good, to great  to Oh-my-lordy-lordy-wow! 

Before anything else, your character, their actions, their mannerisms (etc.) must sound authentic. There are a lot of things to consider.

1. what age is your MC
2. what age does your MC act (this is important especially in MG)
3. what era is it set in
4. what language is it set in – now, now, none of that. Yes I’m talking English but which English? UK, Canadian, New Zealand, USA, Australian, Fiji English? And then within each of those, what’s the inner culture. Is it USA Southern or NYC Brooklyn? Is Melbourne Eastern Suburbs or is it Western? Is it city or rural? Is it French Canadian or English? Is it pigeon English? Are you seeing where I’m going here? A contemporary mystery set in Melbourne Australia will use not only a different version of English spelling, but also local terms, the meaning of certain words, accent, dialect etc, to one set in central London or Queens NYC.

Here are my tips on Writing Process 

Author’s Survival Fit 101

Whether it’s electronic or pen & paper, never be without a pad – EVER. Sometimes the silliest things pop into your head that could be that Eureka moment.

The little secret I’m about to share, I’ve done so before & most have loved it.  Why? Because you’ll never struggle to try and remember that line that popped into your head half-way home from work on a busy train. You know the one. The brilliant one that was your ideal hook. The one you lost because the train was too crowded and the girl sitting next to you was babbling on the phone – and by the time you got off the train you couldn’t quite remember the EXACT wording?

Yeah – that one! So here it is – In every jacket, in every purse, every trouser pocket, every wallet, put an A4 piece of paper folded up into eighths, but before you fold it up, take 2-3 pencils and have them cut into three. Sharpen all of them and put one small pencil in the first corner of your folded paper. The paper will protect the pencil and will still be small enough to stuff in most places. If the page is still too big, once at 1/8 of the size, roll it up, cigar-style, and stick it into your wallet/purse… everywhere. Now, no matter where you are, if an idea strikes, or if a conversation taking place inspires you, unfold, grab your pencil, and make notes. You have a lot of paper for notes, on both sides, and you have a pencil – this should be considered an Author’s Survival Fit 101.

Draw on real life.

If you write Picture books, Middle grade, or Young adult especially, but even for NA and adult, listen to the language of your main characters peers. Look for key words repeated. Look for interesting inflections in pitch and tone. Note mannerisms, they change just a little with each generation. Look at fashion-style, even hair styles.

No, you don’t want to info dump all that information in one big blob, but getting these things right will help the reader trust the author and will also help the story to progress naturally & organically.

Even if you write fantasy, or SciFi, or historical romance, draw on real life. Your world MUST make sense to us, the reader. No we don’t need to know why your planet has 7 moons or even the names of the moons, but if your planet DOES have 7 moons, do your research on how a planet with so many moons might differ from ours. Will there still be a tide? And if so, will it change 7 times a day? Or will other factors influence your world’s seas? Draw on real life to make your world actively real to us.

Keep a Diary/Calendar

Now this does not need to be a big deal. I recommend an electronic one, perhaps linked to your email account. Each day you write, note this in your calendar and/or diary. Note what you wrote, new pages, editing Ch 1-7, blog post, author novel review (etc.) and note how much time you spent on writing that day. Don’t get bogged down with “I wrote 3,000-words today” because, OK, I’m going to say it; the number of words you wrote is not the significant part – SERIOUSLY. Especially for first draft because much of what you wrote will be edited, cut, re-edited, added to, cut some more, manipulated and then edited again…

So writing 3,000 words on any given day, while awesome, is not a measure of how much work you did.

List what you did that day, and how much time you devoted to your writing, include research too, everything to do with writing. Some day’s you’ll spend all day on Twitter. That’s OK, Other days you’ll spend checking your facts on a 7-moon planet. That’s OK too. What you want to do is establish how much time you are devoting to:

• Writing
• Revision
• WIP Research
• Preparing and entering competitions
• CP/BETA reading other peoples work
• Reading for purpose (that is to say out of your preferred gene)
• Reading for pleasure (just as important to read, read, read)
• On Facebook/Twitter and other social media forums
• Agent research
• Preparing and sending our submissions.
• Blogging
• Observing – YES observing, taking time out to people/season watch
• Anything else you’d like to add.

The point of this is, if you are not doing all of the above, you are not working at your art-form. This is your preparation and your rehearsal and your show.

Writing about What you Know   

 – Do Your Research

OK, I’m going to caveat this one. As far as I’m aware, not too many of us have ridden a live dragon, or lived under the sea, or met an alien, or whatever, so this is one of those bits of advice that needs a caveat.

DON’T write about an Indigenous Australian living on a remote cattle-station in the Northern Territory if you’ve never been on a cattle station, or the Northern Territory, or ever met an Indigenous Australian.  If this is your Dragon ride out of your comfort zone – GREAT! all for diversity and spreading your author wings while also spreading the love – but do your research!

DO connect with people from the Northern Territory and Indigenous Australian’s

DO read fiction and non-fiction on Dreamtime Culture

DO have Indigenous Australian friends/authors/facebook mates read your pages to see if it rings true to them.

And I’m about to be very boring – READ, READ, READ. Everything and anything. reading about the migration of crane’s may give you ideas on how your dragon will fly over mountains. Or reading about someone discovering a new cure for some exotic disease could lead you who-knows-where. Read Fiction & Non Fiction. I highly recommend reading as much flash fiction and poetry as possible too. There is a special skill in telling an entire story in 100-200 words and there’s a magic in really great musical poetry. No not necessarily the rhyming stuff, but the rhythmic stuff – there is a difference 🙂

You don’t have to ride a dragon to be able to write about dragons, but in order to pull it off,

you need to understand the beast, physically and metaphorically. 

So what is it You Want To be?

Firstly another pet peeve, note I have a lot of them, get used to it. I know we all use ASPIRING WRITER. I hate this term. Let me repeat that HATE it. I hate it because I’m not 100% certain what the hell it means? Does it mean you want to learn to write, as in read and write? If so, then this page must look like a lot of small blobs of ink to you.

What you are is an AUTHOR

Now, you could be a PUBLISHED author, or a SELF-PUBLISHED author, or you could aspire to certain objectives, such as being traditionally published by a non-vanity-press publishing house and this is when you will feel you have gone from ASPIRING to just plain AUTHOR. For each artist the lines are a little different, and that’s OK too, but the one thing you are not is someone who aspired to write.

Aspire to write a NY Times best seller – YES

Aspire to make a ½ decent living from your writing – YES

Aspiring writer ? – like I said it doesn’t even make sense.

So, let’s look at this. What/Who is you really want to be?

• A published fiction author ? Great, what sort of published author. Self-published? Small Press? One of the big 4-5? A best seller?
• A non-fiction writer? What field? Do you have a platform or do you need to create a platform? Working together or alone?
• A freelance writer? Great! What sort? Travel. Fashion. Sport. Technology. Industry? Music? Arts?
• A Blogger/Reviewer? Awesome – Again blogging/reviewing what/who/where?

Now I know many of you are thinking, “Hang on, isn’t this blog-site all about fiction novel writers?” – Actually, well… no! It’s about the business of writing. And yes it’s linked to Lost Lynx Publishing & Media, but first and foremost it’s about working with what you have to develop what you could be and it’s about opportunity. Sometimes we start at one point and end up at an entirely different location. And occasionally when we accept where the road might be taking us, some of us, the lucky and hard-working few, will ACTUALLY get to the cabin in the country or that cottage by the sea.

Don’t dismiss opportunity because of your steadfastness to one idea. That is why keeping a journal, or calendar or whatever you want to call it, is VITAL. After a very short space of time you’ll see where you are spending most of your time, and that will help you make those life decisions. I mean, if you are spending 100-hours per week on Facebook and Twitter and only 3 hours on everything else, surely that’ll tell you something. It may not be GIVE UP, it might be OH my farrky-lordy-lordy, no wonder I’m not getting anywhere with my manuscript, or my short stories, or my submissions.

But on the other hand, it might also be that you start to see you spend a lot of time chatting/tweeting to people who travel. Perhaps your writing career will be as a travel blogger, or reviewer. It doesn’t mean that you MUST stop writing your novel, but it might mean your sea view out the window will constantly change as you hop, skip and jump around the country and world – all the while collecting ideas and notes and journal entries and studying people – and writing and writing and writing.

FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE, WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPIEST TO WRITE ABOUT

AND HOW YOU CHEER YOURSELF UP – THIS IS YOUR PATH.

And this is how YOU write. Don’t diminish your path or your style or your commitment, this is you. Harper Lee only published one book (and if you don’t know who Harper Lee is, errh, run for cover, and google. And if you still don’t know, stop reading this and get the damned book and read it instead- no seriously –NOW) Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, Harper Lee.

One published novel folks but what a novel! Now I don’t know if there were other things completed and never offered to the public, but I do know that Harper Lee was an author who understood how they wrote.

Don’t be afraid.

Most of us are not Mozart or Harper Lee. Most of us will need to repeat and rinse many, many times before we get it right and even then, after we’ve finally “got it” we’ll stumble and regress and throw a little hissy-fit and question why the hell we are bothering.

Here’s the thing – you are now acting like a writer. It’s called insecurity and indecision and moments of weakness –and it’s beatable. How, actual writing — it doesn’t matter what, replying to blog posts, revising your synopsis, editing a friends manuscript – just do some actual writing, and all the while have your notebook or pad, or pen and paper or your handy little mini-pencil rolled up in your coat pocket – waiting for that moment when something tickles your writers fancy

OH & FINISH what you begin!

– Make it so!