Big Game Hunter

I’ve been hunting for the elusive literary agent. They seem overwhelmed by the changes in the publishing world and overworked from everyone and their mother seeming wanting to be represented. So what can one lone safari tracking writer do?

Write the best story they can.

That’s it. Our job is to write because it is in our heart and soul to do so. Getting a literary agent or publisher to find your work is just due diligence & a mountain of patience. I know people have tip lists and rules of thumbs to find the right one but it all comes down to what you can control and that is what you write. So be fearless; continue to write even in the face of thank-you-no-thank-you canned email responses.

My advice may not be rock science but good old grit and determination. Believe in why you started down this path. For me, it was because if I didn’t write the story, they would be stuck in my mind with the characters screaming to get out until I slowly stopped believing in them and then they would start to die of neglect. Now is that anyway to treat my imaginary friends?

So I continue to write and take the time to continue to search for a way to share my character’s antics with the world by submitting to literary agents.

Which by the way I should be doing right now.

Onward to the hunt,

The Writer

Tiny Pushes

It’s funny when your tank and creativity is dry and you feel like the most unoriginal writer in the world, when you receive a kind word from a random person. That one drop is like water to parched land; I feel better and it gives me the fortitude to continue the work.

Without these tiny nudges to remind me that I doing what I’m meant to do, I doubt I could go on. So I thank all of those who read my early work, read by blog, or just random people who I meet and when I tell them, “I’m a writer,” they aren’t dismissive but instead are genuinely excited that they know someone who is blazing a path to capture their dreams. I don’t know where I’d be without all of your love and support; I’m more grateful than mere words could express, which is a great concession to someone who adores words, but my hope is that I am able to support you to in return.

All My Love & Gratitude,

~The Blessed Writer

Reading to Write

As a writer, I am developing a deeper love of reading; I know, I didn’t know that was possible either but I’m so glad to be proven wrong. So now when I read things I am struck by various writers in different ways.

Here’s but a short (and not the all) list of writers who I want to emulate as I work on my own stories:

Laurie R. King, in her Mary Russell series, has blown my mind in how she unabashedly wields her large vocabulary and complex sentence structure to reinvent and flesh out an older Sherlock Holmes in a new century.

Jill Shalvis and Richard Paul Evans in their ability to build flawed characters and build conflict between two people. (Though I’m not the biggest fan of romance, I’ll read Jill Shalvis material because she nails it.)

Jennifer Cruisie, Katie MacAlister, Jim Butcher, and Kevin Hearne because they are in rare form every time I read what they write. They are amazing story tellers but most of all they make me laugh. Almost any book I pick up from them is a treat and I trust their name on the cover will be a safe bet.

If I want to grow as I writer, I must keep filling my tank up with inventive, creative, and better writers than me. It’s also a great excuse to continually read more. I’m always on the lookout for other great writers and when I find them, I’m not shy about extolling their wonderfulness to others. There’s nothing better than recommending a book to someone and when they come back they have the same glint in their eyes that I have about reading another great story.

Do you have trusted authors that you reach for time and time again? Why? I’m always got an open ear for “undiscovered” authors, well ones that I’ve never read before.

To relishing in a great story,

~ the writer

BetaLand

Finally, my first beta reader has finished my WIP (work-in-process). I love getting the feedback from them. Why? Because they are honest and will tell me what I’m missing and what they thought of it as a whole. My beta reader is not a writer but an avid reader. I choose them because they are my target audience, not writers, but readers. My next round of readers are all writers so I expect my book to be dripping red questions marks and slashes but this first round gives me hope that the story in its entirety is decent at least.

Plus I know I will constructive criticism, which should be the only type you get on a WIP. If they don’t like something, they will give me a reason as to the why they didn’t like it not just a rewrite.

Now all I need to do is go and pick the manuscript up and have a little heart to heart with my book.

Mood Shifter

I love coming up with new ways to describe things. It may be odd to make something what is black and white like a typed story into imaging what it would be like if we could describe it with other senses. So here’s my question: is your story like a cozy hot tottie by the fire or maybe so cute that a gaggle of kittens would fart fairy dust? And if it’s not what you want, how can you change it?

A few elements that can change the readers images/sense of the story are sentence structure, word choice, and mood.

Sentence Structure – short simple sentences are like crack for most readers, they move the story along at a fast clip. Dense sentences are great for reflective times where the author is slowing down the pace.

• My feet slapped the pavement. I gave in. I stopped and leaned against a wall. My breath was ragged and raspy to my ears. There’s no way out, my brain protested.
• With my breath raspy and ragged in my ears, my feet slapped the pavement. I gave in, leaned against a wall, and thought, there’s no way out.

Word Choice – is paramount because this can change the feel of everything in a story so once you know what mood you’re going for it’s easy to see if a word doesn’t work to create a mood.

• The fire shot up, pushing the night’s darkness to the edge of the campsite.
• The fire snaked up into the sky, gobbling up the black sky, and shadows danced around the campsite.

Mood – is the feeling the reader gets from the writing. It’s created by using a combination of sentence structure and word choice.

• birthday decorations before the party:

1. Cries of not it float through the window, my lips can’t help but smile. Cake with grass green frosting with five red candles are center stage waiting for the singing masses of his friends to bounce off the walls. It’s perfect.
2. Cries of not it burst through my roiling emotions. The sounds are everyday but they are hollow. Cake with grass green frosting with five red candles are center stage waiting for the singing masses of his friends to bounce off the walls. It seems so perfect but how long can it last?

The first is light and carefree but in the second there is a sense of foreboding and unease. So using these very basic but powerful elements one change the world or at least shake up your character’s world.

So go reek some havoc and have fun playing with these elements to your hearts desire.

Nothing like messing with your character’s minds. We meddle because we care!

Grit

To become a published author one must ignore much of the noise around them, the inner critic, the outer cynics, the jaded, and the hopeless. These swirls of dissidence will do you no goood. Understand the difference between the anger and fear others have because you are reaching out, breaking out, and refusing to stay small. By following your dream, you are changing the pattern of most people you know; you are striving for something you truly want.

Keep your goal dead ahead, allow the voices that aren’t serving you to achieve your vision to dissolve and be left behind. No one but you can plot your course to get your dreams. Remember you are at the helm. So cut those anchors and explore the vast oceans of your fantasies.

Ahoy mate,

The Writer ~ Melissa

Who’s a Writer

A week off and no writing, can I still call myself a writer? I’ve opened the document and stared at it but no actually words flowed onto the page, so again am I a writer? Must I always be in the mists of writing something? But the I think the better question is this, why do I believe that I must be adding words to the page everyday to considered a writer?

I think it’s my own fear that I will let time slip away from me and not complete the manuscript. How many times have I spoken to someone who claims to be a writer but has never completed anything? They play at being a writer and like to strut around shouting to the world their story arcs, tragic characters, and the such and I don’t want to be them. I want to create and complete the story. I don’t want to be full of talk and no action.

Well, that settles it; yep, I’m still a writer. My own insecurities were getting the better of me. Now that I figured that out maybe I should do a little writing?

And Away I Go,

The Writer

A Book for Two

Is it just me that the thought of eight books coming out in six months is crazy? I mean even Nora Roberts said she can crank out an entire book in 45 days. So that’s a today of eight books in a year not six months.

Yet despite the numbers there are a few authors that are churing out double that amount, how are they doing it? Co-authoring. That’s right. Now there is a difference between co-authoring and ghost writing but this one seems like it’s skirting the line.

I’m not against a good paring of authors to pen a book but when you mix one best seller with a fairly new name and the style seems no where near the best seller’s work, who’s work is it really? Is this a good thing for the non large font author? Yes and no.

Yes, because this brings the authors level of exposure up and expands their reach. No, because if the big name’s brand/style is what the readers are looking for they may never try their writing again. But the upside for the best selling author that they get money from all those books with their name on it. I’m not against the co-authoring approach but they only need to be conscience of the reader’s reaction.

So if a few of my favorite authors happen to be interested, I’m available to collaborate.

Always helpful,

Me

Perfection Devil

Nothing like waking up on a Tuesday (or for most people Monday) and realize that your to-do list never was culled. Oh, no, when you weren’t looking the dang thing bred like rabbits. Now with my 40 hour work week starting, I don’t have time to chase down the fury little rodents and get stuff done.

Yet in my defense, you perfectionist ego self that is nagging at me, I managed to finish reading three great books. So I may not have got more words on my work in progress done but I’ll get to it. Maybe this weekend was to allow me to take time away from the story so I can come back refreshed and ready to make the story move.

I know I am very hard on myself so I’m cultivating ways to let myself off the hook about my own personal deadlines. Though that may be my wish, every time I say something about being “nice” to myself or to “cut” myself some slack, in my ears all I can hear is a little dark voice telling me that I’m copping out, I’m lying to myself, and that I’m a hypocrite since I push others to complete their goals by sticking with them.

I must be gentle with myself because I need to keep me filled up with hope, love, and joy for me so I can overflow such sentiments to those I see, speak, and interact with every day. Deep in my heart that rings true. Because that is how I want to be treated and if I can’t stomach giving those responses to me, how do I plan on receiving the same things from others?

Sparkles and Love,

Me~lissa

 

 

One Sixth

Here we are at the cusp of March. One-sixth of the year is up and how goes your New Year’s Resolutions? I dislike the word resolution when it comes to goals.

Every New Year before the ball drops people write down a list of things they want to change about their life. Articles spew around the internet and people flap their lips about resolutions yet nothing changes.

Let’s go down the etymology rabbit hole with the word, resolution.

Resolution:

• early 15c., “a breaking into parts,” from Latin resolutionem (nom. resolutio)
• “process of reducing things into simpler forms”
• Originally sense of “solving” (as of mathematical problems) first recorded 1540s,
• that of “holding firmly” (in resolute) 1530s, and
• that of “decision or expression of a meeting” is from c.1600.

(Thank you, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=resolution).

Today, when people say they are making resolutions they seem to be anything but resolute.

Here’s what normally happens:

“They” say, “I really want to lose weight. So I’ll eat healther.”

After, if they’re lucky, two weeks, they are back to their old junk food slinging ways. Why because they didn’t break it down into pieces, know what eating healthier really looks like, and there is no real reason why they should change their trothlike ways.

Here’s what one of the things on my January 1 list looks like.

Send completed manuscript out to at least 50 literary agents. Most people would have written: I want a literary agent. Or worst yet they could have said, “I want my book to be published”.

One I have control over, the first, and the other I have not say in, the second. This distinction between what I can and can’t do is paramount. Because I keep this in mind I’m more likely to keep up with my goals for longer.

That takes care of the how to write it up but what about the other stuff on how to actually make a resolution into reality.

I love goals. They motivate me. They push me. Why? Because I check in with them on at least a weekly basis. If my goal is to write two full length novels at approximately 65,000 words I know I need to write 10,833 words a month or more to reach that goal. So at the beginning of each week my goal is to write 2,708 words a week or better. Why do I keep adding the “or better” after each goal? Because I know that there will be weeks and months where I don’t make the original “perfect” target number. On those times, I acknowledge that I didn’t make it and revise my plan. Which is fine. I’m still on the path of achieving my dream. I’m just taste testing and adjusting the amount of salt to go in the magic I-will-finish-it sauce of success.

But that’s part of my ability to keep true to at least a few of my resolutions (at least so far this year) is that I revisit and revise my timeline. And I allow it to be alright that I don’t get that magic number every time I have a check up. I made the rules and I can take a day off if I want to but I try to make it the exception and not the rule otherwise I’ll never complete anything.

So how are you doing this year on your yearly goals? It’s never to late to dust them off and begin again. You still have over 83% of the year left to work on them.

If you are keeping your resolutions, what’s your secret ingredient? How do you keep focused? Any sage advice for the rest of us.

To achieving my dreams,

Me~lissa