December Tip Week--A Gift for Writers

Here you go! For the writer who has everything except the perfect adjective to describe someone's voice!

Once I saw this list, I realized I had been spinning my wheels trying to get the right word for my characters' voices. So, I'll unveil my character traits here:

• Dean Talley--taut
• Emmanuel Nunez--gravelly, gruff
• Rosemary Talley--brittle, honeyed (yep, same voice!)
• Samantha Smith--small, thin

I'm still thinking about about some of the others. 

Hey, it's fun to play with and, who knows, some of them might stick. Besides, it's only nine days till Christmas and this writer is ready to celebrate! 

Next Week: My Wish List! ;-)

November Tip Week: Moving or Manipulating?

In a guest post at Amy Sue Nathan's Women's Fiction Writers, Traci Borum asks a great question: Do Books Move or Manipulate You?

Poor kitty! There's only one way to go. (Source)

I've been thinking about this since I first read it. It's easy to manipulate readers by setting up the emotions we want them to feel. But is it a good idea? I say NO! (How loudly do you want me to yell? ;-) Readers aren't idiots. They can tell when writers take short cuts to emotions and telegraph what they should feel. It makes your stories forgettable and feeble, in my opinion. I don't like being manipulated by writers and usual quit reading because of the manipulation. 

My stories center around deep social and family issues. I could easily fall into the manipulating side of writing, but I truly think the characters of my stories can carry the problems they face and share their trials and triumphs without it. 

Traci Borum suggests several ways to avoid manipulation :

• Write the story with truth.
• Stay honest in the moment by being in the moment yourself. 
• Don't worry about the reader's reaction.
• Be invested in the characters. Care about them and the readers will too.
•  Listen to your gut. If it feels like you're trying too hard, dial it back.

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What about you? 
Have you read books that manipulated you? 
How did it make you feel? 
Do you have any more suggestions for writers?

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Next week: Author Interview! What? You were expecting the mini book review? Well, Thanksgiving made me do it. Really! ;-)

September Writing Tip Week: How To Start Your Novel

Source

We all know that the first 250 words of our novels can make or break getting an agent, publisher--but most of all--readers. So, how do we make sure our beginnings are pulling readers in? Thanks to the weekly Industry News from Women's Fiction Writers Association, I found a great blogpost on Anne R. Allen's blog. In it her guest, Janice Hardy, analyzed four failings of opening pages.

1. Having too much backstory and information
2. Crafting a one-dimensional scene
3. Using a fake opening
4. Having a lazy protagonist

Our next step is to analyze the way we usually open. I have to admit I'm most prone to including too much backstory and information. Cutting out the fat and saving it for later is a challenge. Thankfully, I've been a member of writing groups who have helped me see all the necessary bits that needed to be cut. My buddies at the Books and Writers Forum have been the victims readers of many of my failed attempts. 

So, I invite you to weigh in. What do you think about the first 250 words of FRIENDLY FIRE?

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A cloud of sweet baby powder tickled my nose as Jen’s daughter Kayleigh helped a toddler to the serving tables. I hugged my arms to keep from grabbing the child from the teen and burying my nose in his bright silky hair. So many little foster children and none of them would spend Mother’s Day with their moms tomorrow.
 
How many times had my best friend Rosemary told me I needed to get out and back into the swing of things? Her constant concern chafed like a new shirt.
 
The foster family respite party wasn’t what she had in mind. All these poor children. So, what had I been thinking to choose this party of all places? Yet, here I was, pushing cookies, home-baked of course, on grade-school kids at the church’s foster family party.
 
Though I wasn't a mother, I knew the look of children whose parents were MIA. The tall thin blond at the end of the table was a poster child for them all. Her shoulders hunched as the noise of little children at play ricocheted off the fellowship hall’s block walls. Of course she was a foster child, too. But, unlike the others, she wasn’t playing. She didn’t even have a plate of goodies. Her only movement came from her curls that were caught in the current from the air conditioning.

My Tom, God rest his soul, would have sat cross-legged on the floor playing games with the kiddies or giving piggy back rides like some of the men were. We’d poured out our love on other people’s children for over thirty years in our classrooms. Now all I could do for them was bake cookies for them.

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Here's another nifty link for you. Check out The Secret of How to Make Your Book Un-PutDown-able.

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Next Week: September Mini Book Reveiws!