Your Path to Publishing

By Jason Evans

Wow.

This is the big one. Today we begin our discussion on paths to publishing. This is a BIG topic. So I apologize now if I forget to mention something, or don’t address a question someone might have.

I remember someone told me in college that people confuse simple with easy and complicated with hard. A hammer, for example, is a simple tool to use, but if you’ve ever swung one for a while, it can be hard on your muscles. The same is true with publishing. So, before we begin, I need to ask a question.

Why do you want to publish your book?

The answer will determine the path you take to publishing as well as how hard you’re gonna work.

I have a mentor who taught at Christian private schools for 40 years. He has self-published five books on Christian scholastic education. For him, writing & publishing gives his small audience something introspective to chew on. It is a service to his community that burnishes his credentials in his field.

On the other hand, I know a writer who has published eight books in four years, has plans to publish at least four more in the next two. He goes to all the conventions and sells books. But for him, fame and the love of the crowd is what he desperately wants. So the bigger the crowd, the better.

Finally, I know a third author who writes schlocky Sci-fi with fart jokes and comic book level violence. He wants to feed his family – and he does. He writes four books a year – each around 100K words – and pays his mortgage with his writing. Is he the next Hemingway, or JK Rowling? No. But his fans love him and buy everything he sells. And that’s enough.

Ask yourself why are you on this journey? Be honest. Talk to your spouse, or closest friend. Talk to your rabbi or shaman. Dig deep for the answers.

For some people, simply having a book published is enough. They had one story in them. It’s a life goal to check off. Others want to write, but aren’t committed enough to figure out how to pay the bills with it. So they write, publish and never sell any books. Some people are passionate about success. They want to write the perfect book. They want people to be moved by their stories, to fall in love with their work. They want it all.

None of these approaches is wrong. Your motivations, however, will determine how hard you’ll work. Just remember that.

OK. Enough with the pre-amble. Let’s do this.

There are essentially, two paths to publishing. Traditional and self-publishing. Both have their struggles, their frustrations and their victories. If you feel like you need mentors along the way, people who know the business and can guide you, then traditional publishing is probably for you.

If, however, you like to learn every aspect of the business. If you are fascinated by color choices and font types (so many font types); if you feel you have to have control of the entire book pipeline – from edits to cover options – then you will want to self-publish.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be a lot of work on either side of the fence – especially marketing.

Traditional Publishing

The one true upside to traditional publishing is about exposure. A publisher can get your book into bookstore chains and stores like Walmart. That kind of exposure is gold, baby. But don’t expect this to happen overnight. I’ve known authors who’ve published dozens of books and their publisher only warmed up to them late in the game. Some never get this kind of love.

But if you’re truly committed to a traditional publisher you have to know about agents and editors.

Editors work for publishers and will take your work, read it, and if they love your story, will fight to get it published with their company. An agent is someone who loves your story so much, they will use their contacts within the publishing world and put it in front of other editors. The editors have relationships with agents and trust them to recommend great stories.

So, how do you find an agent?

Go to conferences such as Pikes Peak Writers.

Agents and editors go to these things to find the next George RR Martin. They want to hear your story. But you can’t be a wallflower here. You’ve got to be charming as hell. You’ve also got to look and act like a pro. Men, put on some slacks and a jacket. Women, get that nice outfit you wear for business stuff out. Dressing well helps.

Also, be clear what your story is about. What’s the hook? In my W.I.P., the Gallowglass, I invert the trope of the rebel Irish being the good guys. My story has the English as the good guys. It’s fresh and different.

When you go, you’ll also want to have your pitch down. What’s your pitch? A short speech about your book. Author Aaron Michael Ritchey’s pitches his Juniper Wars Series like this: “It’s a family of women with machine guns on a post-apocalyptic cattle drive.” When I first heard that, I so wanted to read it.

Blake Snyder’s book Save the Cat has an entire chapter on pitching to agents. Get his book and check it out! He also recommends talking to complete strangers about your pitch. They don’t know you, so they’ll be honest about your pitch. Also, walking up to complete strangers and talking about your book is great practice for walking up to a complete stranger who happens to be an agent or editor, too.

While you’re at this writing conference, make sure to go to classes run by agents on writing query letters. You’ll see the business from the other side and begin to understand why they have the rules they have. I went to a conference a couple of years ago and listened to an agent say that 90% of writers don’t follow their submission guidelines. She then went on to say her staff deletes all of those submissions. This made me extremely hopeful because I know how to follow directions!

Find Agents online and query them

If you can’t afford to go to conference, or don’t have the time, then find an agent online.

The easy thing to do is get a monthly subscription to www.publishersmarketplace.com. Agents on this website want to be queried with new stories. It’s $25 a month and you can cancel any time. Try to find those agents with lots of sells under their name. Sure, you can take your chance with new agent Larry who’s never sold anything, but why when bigger sharks are circling and you can lasso one? Go for the big dawgs!

Do it the hard way

Another option if you can’t afford or don’t want to pay the $25/a month is to do what I did. It will take you about 12 hours to get information on about fifty agents. But it is worth it.

First off start a spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet should have labels for agent names, their agency websites, contact info, and check off boxes for if you’ve queried them and when.

Do you have a Linkedin.com account? There are literally thousands of literary agents on Linkedin. If you don’t have an account, make one, now.

In the search bar, type in “Literary Agent,” and thousands will appear. I know, it sounds overwhelming, but you can do it!

Click on the people tab and start checking these agents out! Find out what agency they work for, open another tab on your web browser and go to the agency website. Read their query policy and find that agent’s bio. Do they represent what you write? If not, move on.

Begin populating your spreadsheet with agents you feel you’d be successful working with. Get their names, email address, when they accept queries, and their query guidelines in your database.

This process took me 12 hours to do over two days but is was worth it. I now have a list of 50+ agents I can query my books to. Agents who accept historical fiction. 

Learn to write query letters

A good query letter can get your foot into the door. Don’t know how to write one? Most conferences offer at least one class about query letters. If you can’t make that class, then visit a couple of websites to help you out.

Super Agent and Pikes Peak presenter Angie Hodapp started a new website called www.tightenyourquery.com. It’s a great resource on how to write query letters. Her information is quite topical and issue specific. If you don’t learn that way and want someone to edit you, then try www.Queryshark.blogspot.com. WARNING: Query shark can be brutal, so make sure to have tough skin. The writing can be very funny and is always insightful.

When you get an agent, do everything they tell you to do

Agents are not perfect. However, they understand the industry in ways we do not. So, if they tell you to make revisions on your W.I.P., DO IT. They already believe in your story, or else they wouldn’t have signed you. Having an agent means you have potential! But now you want to sell your book and make it a product for the market place. You are now in business. So act like it and don’t take revisions personally. Do your job.

One last thing before you sign that contract . . .

Hire a lawyer. Seriously. Hire a lawyer who specializes in copyright and trademark law. They are called literary lawyers. You don’t have to have a retainer, but do cough up the couple of hundred bucks to have them look over your contract. Let them figure out things like royalties, reversion of rights, digital rights and overseas markets. It is worth it for your piece of mind.

If you have an agent or publishing house that doesn’t want you to hire an attorney – that is a red flag.

Susan Spann, author of the Shinobi Mysteries, is also a lawyer. I talked to her about this. Here is what she said about literary contracts.

“Even simple contracts can have missing or sub-standard terms and other pitfalls authors may not notice. Without an experienced publishing lawyer or agent on your side, it’s far too easy to find yourself in a contract you regret.”

If you get the impression the literary world is full of predators, I apologize. That isn’t the point. The point is people make mistakes and errors all the time. Also, some people are predators in the literary world. At the end of the day no one is going to protect your rights but you. Do your homework, hire a lawyer, and always remember to protect yourself.

I know this is a lot to process, but the journey to publication can be labor intensive. This is why I asked you why are you writing a book? I know it is hard because I am in this process right now. But it will be worth it if you put in the work. I promise.

On Facebook, like my author's page at Jason Henry Evans.

Follow me on Twitter @evans_writer.

Check out my web page at www.jasonhenryevans.com

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

Putting the Story Together Historical Fiction Series - Part Three

By: Jason Evans


March brings the worst snow to Colorado while also bringing dreams of sunny Aprils and warm Mays. Welcome back to the Pikes Peak Historical fiction blog. In January we talked about the idea for your story. here In February, we talked about doing preliminary research on your novel. here  Today we talk about how to put the story together itself.

Now full disclosure here: I am NOT a pantser. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then let me introduce you to the writing conflict of our time: Pantser vs. Plotter.

I would normally be described as a plotter. I use Blake Snyder’s screen writing book, Save the Cat, like a religious text. I have a poster-size piece of paper with all my plot points written out. I then write detailed notes on each scene I’m going to write, using 3 x 5 note cards. I carry these note cards with me religiously when I’m working on a novel. I plan out everything. (Yes, I am a little neurotic.)

Pantsers can’t stand people like me. They like to sit down in front of a computer screen, no formula, no outline, and just write. They may or may not have an idea where the story is going. They could start out writing a historical fiction that turns into a paranormal romance. They could start out writing a murder mystery that turns into a thriller. For them, the excitement is in not knowing where the story will take them.

While my OCD kicks in hard when I talk to these people, I do get what they feel. So I’m not going to judge. My advice to you today will be very general, and as always, I’ll get into more details on my own blog later. But there is nothing wrong with either.

Every novel must have certain elements or else it isn’t a novel. This is particularly true in historical fiction. Forgive me if all of you know this, but I want to cover the basics. Here is what you need:

Plot

Conflict

Character development

Genre

Scene craft

Now, I’ve left a lot out of this list, but I wanted to cover the basics with you. The Plot is the sequence of events inside a story and how they affect one another through cause and effect.

There should be highs and lows in the Plot.

Conflict is about what is preventing your characters from getting what they want. Who or what is standing in their way? Usually there are four kinds of conflict: Man v. Man, Man v. Society, Man v. Nature, and Man v. Self.  

The book World War Z by Max Brooks, is Man v. Nature. In fact, every zombie story is a Man v. Nature story. It’s the world and its new rules that the protagonist has to figure out. Once he’s learned to “Live in nature,” he’s conquered it.

A Song of Ice & Fire has several conflicts, but many of the main characters, (Circe, Tyrion, Ned Stark,) are involved in Man v. Society conflict. The world expects one thing from them and they want to do something else. Their struggles are centered in their desire to live one way and society's desire that they live another.

One of the major flaws of all new authors is that of Character Development. New WIPs from green authors usually have perfect protagonists. They are handsome, well adjusted, successful and ethical. (Did I forget rich?) The problem is that no reader will ever identify with characters that perfect. This is why you need Character Development, or a character arc. While commercial fiction does require a likable protagonist, that doesn’t mean perfect. Besides, it’s their flaws that make them charming.

In Nora Roberts Born in Ice (The Irish born Trilogy,) the protagonist Brianna Concannon runs a Bed & Breakfast in Western Ireland. She is a proud, people adverse, introverted, mouse-of-a-woman. Brianna has a heart of gold, but her anal retentiveness and pride in her house become endearing to the reader. Her character development involves her opening up and becoming open to love.

Every character needs a wound to heal or a flaw to overcome. Your reader will root for your protagonists if they learn from their mistakes and grow as human beings throughout the story. A great way to do this is to have your characters call their own problems. Don’t have characters react to external events consistently. Give them flaws and have them face problems created by those flaws. Have your protagonists face their flaws and make amends, overcoming them.

I have a book recommendation to help you with it. Local Denver author Stant Litore has written a book about the character arc called Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget. I won’t sugar coat it for you; the exercises in this book can be a little tedious, but they will help you flesh out your characters and give them depth. It is time well spent on your story. I liked the book so much that, even though I write plot-driven stories, I make sure to color coat character arc scenes on my Save the Cat outline board.

The next item on our list is genre. Every genre has its own convention. In Historical Fiction, a clear genre convention is that your story must stay within the bounds of actual history. If it doesn’t it isn’t historical fiction anymore. Whether you’re writing about fictional characters experiencing historical events, or writing a fictional account of historical figures suffering through historical events, the events themselves must not change. In addition, things like costumes, values, social norms and levels of knowledge should be as accurate as possible, or you’ll turn off your reader. (If your novel features Confederates winning at Gettysburg – especially with assault rifles – you’ve written science fiction, not historical fiction.)

Lastly, we have Scene Craft. Scene Craft is about how you present the little stories that make up your novel. How each event hurls the reader down a tense road towards a climatic conclusion. (Will the 10^th Mountain Division take that Italian Monastery from the Nazis? Will Betty & Jake ever get together? Can the plucky rebels defeat the evil dark lord?)

Author Warren Hammond and Literary Slush reader Angie Hodapp talked about this on Saturday, March 4^th. They borrowed the diagram below from author Dwight V. Swain’s book, Techniques of the Selling Author.  The diagram (which they designed) is below. In essence, it’s the PLOT of each scene.

But Scene Craft is also about dialogue writing, describing emotions, the voice of the characters involved. It can be overwhelming.

I don’t mean to scare anybody with this. However, these are things that should be in the back of your mind as you write your historical fiction novel. It’s a lot of work, I know. But if you’ve stayed with me for two months now, then you are clearly not a member of the herd. You have a story inside of you, and it needs to get out. So get it out! Write your novel! Let me give you a couple of shortcuts.

Every story, in my humble opinion, should follow the Three Act Structure.

ACT 1  Thesis

ACT 2 Anti-Thesis

ACT 3 Synthesis

ACT 1: Thesis. The protagonist is living his life, with or without satisfaction. Something happens and he is given a Call to Adventure. Maybe its Gandalf showing up at the shire, or King Robert Baratheon asking Ned Stark to be Hand of the King. The protagonist must think about this request, debate it. Then he must choose of his own free will, to answer the call and leave the safety of his world behind. 

ACT 2: Anti-Thesis. The protagonist is in a strange new world. The old rules don’t apply. He’s had some successes, but he makes mistakes. At some point in the middle of ACT 2, (Which should be in the middle of your book,) your protagonist must have either a false victory or a false defeat.  He must get to the midpoint and realize this is not what he wanted.

Then the bad guys strike back, your protagonist goes through more struggles. At some point he wants to give up. Blake Snyder calls this the dark night of the soul. Here there must be a whiff of death. Maybe oblivion is preferable? He goes through an existential crisis. When he comes out of that crisis, he must choose of his own free will, to continue the fight. This leads them to Act 3.

ACT 3: Synthesis. The protagonist takes everything he’s learned in Act 1 and combines it with everything he's learned in Act 2. He synthesizes his experience and comes up with new solutions to his problems and fixes them. The end.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below and I’ll answer them. Whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, you can take these general guidelines and apply them to your writing. Good luck! Let me know how you’re doing!    

We can continue the conversation over on my website here, http://www.jason-evans.net/2017/03/structure-novel-story-arc-character-arc/

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

You can read Jason’s blog at Jason-evans.net

You can like his Facebook author page, Jason Henry Evans

Or, follow him on Twitter @evans_writer

The Process of Writing a Historical Novel Blog 1

By: Jason Evans

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Was your holiday restful? Was it crazy and fun? Did you have to put out a lot of dysfunctional family fires? Regardless of whether or not you enjoyed your holidays, they are now over. Time to get to work on that book. More importantly, it’s time to start working on that book of historical fiction.

Over the course of 2017, I will blog about my process of writing a historical novel. It could be action, romance, mystery or any genre grounded in the history. We will cover ALL the steps required to finish your novel. From concept to research to organization to publication. We will cover it all.

In addition, if I bring up something here that you wish I could discuss further, simply cross over to www.jason-evans.net for further details. On my website, I will go into further details about all the stuff you’ll read here, first. But enough of my shameless self-promotion!

YOUR BIG IDEA.

Have you ever watched a television show or film and thought, hey! That’s an interesting character! I want to learn more about her! Or, have you ever read a magazine article and thought, Wow! That was a really fascinating time period! I wonder how they would have reacted to ________________?

These are the beginning of story ideas. Ideas that you can chew on in your head and develop into novels that other people will read.

Stephen King was working a custodial job at his high school when he was asked to help out in the girl’s locker room. He saw the little metal boxes for tampons in the shower stalls and thought, What would happen if a woman had her first period, here, in the shower stall? From that Carrie was born.

Lin-Manuel Miranda was on vacation and read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, which inspired the hit Broadway musical, Hamilton. Inspiration is all around you.

Maybe you only have a character in your head. A scrappy young heroine, or a grizzled, bitter veteran of a thousand campaign. Maybe you have a setting that excites you, like Mexico City as the U.S. Army is about to attack it in September or 1847. The intrigue! The tension!

Maybe you only have an event in your mind. You see a sad woman all dressed in antique white lace about to put a veil on and walk down an aisle. Why is she sad? Will she marry for duty? Does she wish a loved one was there to see her marry? What’s going on?

Whatever kernel of a story you have, at least it’s a beginning. There is something about that character, that event, or that place that excites you, gives you the flutters, and motivates your story. Now it’s time to tease it out.

Before I go on, let me just say I am a BIG fan of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat trilogy of screen writing books. I will refer to his wisdom often during our writing journey. Here is my first ode to Save the Cat. You gotta have a log line.

A Log line is a simple couple of sentences or short paragraph that describes what your story is about. It is really important you have this down before you go writing, willy-nilly. Let me explain why.

Chiefly, I don’t want you to get excited and go write a kernel of a story. I want you to write the whole blasted thing. Writing your log line will help you create an antagonist, a conflict and a hero’s journey.

“But Jason,” you say, “I’m not a planner, I’m a pantser! I don’t organize anything when I write.” My response is this: “I’m just asking you to write 3-5 sentences, so you can anchor your story, give it some depth. I’m not asking you to write a five-page outline with subplots detailed out and 50 pages of written back story. Writing a log line will help focus you as you write the opening chapters of your book. But there’s another reason why you should write your log line.

I want you to go up to people you know and read them the logline. Do they get as excited as you do? Do they think it’s a good idea for a book? If so, you probably have something workable as a story. If you don’t, figure out why. Is it because your ideas aren’t fully formed or is it because you weren’t clear about how awesome your story is?

Both are fixable. But do you want to know the REAL reason you should write a logline?

If you pitch to editors and agents, you’ll have to come up with a logline, anyway. A quick way to give them a synopsis of your book. It is better to do it now, before it’s written, then to do what I did and write it afterward.

See, I was so proud that I had written a book. So proud of my dialogue, my subplots, and my twists, that I blathered on about the characters and the challenges they faced. I talked about the minor characters, the historical events it surrounds, and everything but the conflict, the heroes, and the road they walked.

Don’t be like me.

If you write the logline now, then it will act like a compass, a beacon, that will guide you back to your book’s true purpose. If you feel like what you’re writing is true to your logline, but you just don’t like it, then change your logline to better reflect the story you want!

A logline should have the following:

An adjective to describe the protagonist

An adjective to describe the antagonist

A compelling goal we identify with as human beings

It should offer the most conflict in the situation

Show the protagonist has the longest way to go emotionally.  

Proud Farmer’s daughter (adjectives describing protagonist) Elizabeth mean girl Sue always picking on her. (adjective describing antagonist,) But the Founders Day picnic is coming up and Elizabeth has the fastest horse in the county. She’ll show Sue, she’ll show everyone when she wins the blue ribbon. (Compelling goal: vindication, revenge, respect of peers,) There’s only one problem, Elizabeth’s father won’t let her compete. (Most conflict: How can I win if Pa won’t let me?) He says such competitiveness is sinful pride, that Elizabeth should love her enemies. But Dad doesn’t understand. Will Elizabeth defy her father to save her pride, or allow Sue to humiliate her again? While Elizabeth chooses, she learns what true respect and love really are.

  

I hope this has been helpful. Next month, we’ll talk about organizing, shaping and sanding out your story so all your characters have depth, your conflicts are intense and the stakes are high.

Come over to my site at www.jason-evans.net if you want to learn more about the logline and how to twist your story concept so it’s more compelling. There, I’ll also explain how I got inspired to write my first unpublished novel, The Gallowglass.

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

You can visit Jason at his website at www.jason-evans.net

You can like his author page on Facebook at Jason Henry Evans

Follow him on Twitter @evans_writer

My Six Rules of Editing

Deb McLeod

During my writing career I have workshopped short stories with authors like Pam Houston, Ron Carlson, Barbara Kingsolver and many others. They all emphasized the need for me to become the best reader of my own work that I could be.

Over the years I have developed my reading skills through my writer’s book club, through critique groups and by editing for my clients. In the process, I’ve come up with some editing rules that I ask my clients to apply to their work. These rules apply to novel or memoir editing. Short stories require a little different focus and I will write on that some other time.

In this age of beta readers, reviewers and critique groups it feels ok to get lazy and let someone else do the work. Having readers polish your work is an absolute must. But if you’re not able to edit your own work, you’re not growing as a writer. And you’re not pushing the potential of your work to its fullest.

I am reading a popular and well-selling indie author right now on my new iPad. On the first page I caught some things. Yes, there was a typo but there were also some habits that as a coach I would challenge this writer to eradicate in order to improve her writing. You can always get better.

Here are some rules to consider when you’re editing (before you engage anyone else to read):

Rule #1: When you’re done with the draft, clean it up and put it away. Only you can decide how long it takes to see it with fresh eyes. For me, it’s a few weeks.

Rule #2: While you’re waiting to distance yourself from the piece, write a logline or revisit the one you wrote when you started. Make it short and sweet. Sum up your work in one sentence.

Blake Snyder’s suggestion for movie loglines translates fairly well to novel and memoir writing. This is one example of a logline for Jaws. You can find others for Jaws, but this one succinctly sums the movie into one line, contains irony and gives the reader an indication of the time period of the movie.

        •     The logline should contain a vivid adjective about the protagonist and the antagonist. (Ex: A water-fearing police chief. A man-eating great white shark.).

        •     It should contain some sort of irony so we can get a sense of the story. (Ex: A water-fearing police chief embarks on a deep-sea mission to fight a man-eating great white shark…)

        •    There should be some sense of the time period in which they story takes place. (Ex: A water-fearing sheriff embarks on deep-sea mission to fight a man-eating great white shark attacking beaches in his resort town before the Fourth of July weekend.)

Rule #3: Break your work into manageable chunks. You don’t have to edit your whole book at once. I use Act 1, Act 2 (Part 1), Act 2 (Part 2) and Act 3. I rely on Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet to verify that the work has an arc and that it is the best story these characters can tell. As a note: I offer this service as a deep or content editor and I teach others how to do it for themselves.

Rule #4: Once the story is set, you can break it into chapters. Use chapter breaks to control pacing. Make use of cliffhangers so you can keep the reader reading just one more chapter. But don’t do that forecasting thing some novice writers do. (Ex: At the end of the chapter it might say something like this: She tried hard to control her tears. Little did she know….)

Rule #5: Verify. This rule covers a lot of ground. Here, you are working with the book first in its entirety and then on nitpicky items.

Overview: These are the larger issues to verify.

        •     Verify the character/story arc.

        •     Identify that your protagonist changed or at least had the possibility to change.

        •     Is your villain believable? Remember villains don’t know they’re villains.

        •     Is your protagonist passive? If plot = character choice, and your character is passive then does it follow that your plot is weak?

Nitpicky: I have clients that keep “cheat sheets” by their computers that contain a list of the habits we’ve identified. The overused words, the clichés they rely on, the weak verbs, etc. This is by no means an exhaustive list of what to look for. For that, you’ll need to create your own cheat sheet.

        •     Look at your dialogue tags – I only allow “said” or “asked.” If you have to tell me how to read the words that were spoken, the dialogue is weak. Rewrite so the reader understands how to read the words. You can use actions or words of the dialogue to show me, not tell me.

        •     Weak verbs – eradicate these.

        •     Tense consistency

        •     POV consistency

        •     Filters – especially in first person. You don’t have to put everything through your character’s sensibility. Just say it.

Examples:

        o     First draft: I got up late on Saturday morning so I got kitchen duty. I saw the cup on the table. I walked over and picked it up. When I sniffed it, my suspicions were confirmed. He was drinking again. (See how the author is putting everything through the “I” sensibility?)

        o     Better? Up later on Saturday than everyone else, the dishes were my job. The cup on the table smelled like bourbon. He was drinking again.

        o     Best? Last one up does the breakfast dishes. Today, that’s me. The cup he left smells like Bourbon. I knew it.

The last filter (I knew it) is effective since it adds a punch to the paragraph in a way that the filtering in the first example weakens the paragraph.

Rule #6: Read aloud. This is the best way to hear your work like your reader hears it in their head. I have one client who writes at night when everyone else is asleep because she reads aloud as she’s writing. Her work is clean.

That author I mentioned who is popular and selling well? I contend that if she was writing better, she’d be more popular and selling better. So hone your skills on your own work. It really makes a difference.

About the Writer:  Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach, co-founder and executive director of The Writing School. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.

Novels with a Beat

By Deb McLeod

Our October Writer’s Book Club featured Rebecca Green Gasper who introduced us to Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheets for screenwriting. We analyzed The Hunger Games and used the 15-point story arc to better see the shape of the story.

I’ve used the three-act structure as well as the journey as a plotting tool with my clients. But this was the first time I’d seen this 15-point story arc. The Hunger Games fit the beat sheet perfectly. We could easily identify the beats of the story and they conformed to the story arc in the Beat Sheet.

The theme was stated early in the novel. The main character, Katniss, stays within the rules. She is not a rebel. She’s hungry and people rely on her. She does what she has to do to survive. By the end of the book Katniss has become the face of the rebellion against a way of life that she can’t live under any longer. It’s a complete reversal. Her character follows the Beat Sheet arc.

After the book club I put my novel to the test. I downloaded a copy of the Beat Sheet and started filling it out. I had run into a wall of sorts just at the end of Act 2 and had been immersed in working my way out for about two weeks. When my energy for the work begins to wane that’s a signal to me that I took a wrong turn somewhere earlier in the plot. This was the perfect time for me to try the tool out.

My book is complicated. It’s the first of an eight-book thriller series. There are paranormal elements to it. There’s a love story and a conspiracy. There are plenty of characters, and there’s a B, C and a D story braided between the highs and lows of the A story.

Plotting has been a challenge.

First, I tried to slap the whole plot onto the Beat Sheet, but then I realized that I needed to pull apart the storylines and subplots and do a Beat Sheet for each one. Magical brilliance!!!

I started with the love story; the easiest to pull out and look at. The Beat Sheet fit all the way down to my stalling point. I had veered off the path right around the end of Act 2; I had forgotten my character’s theme.

At twenty-four, Macy Delacort has won at the game of life. She has everything a girl could want, but, in order to get it, she gave up an important part of her essence. Through the story she will begin to see exactly what her choices have cost her. By the end of the book she will learn to be true to herself and find her true love.

As I was writing scenes and moving in and out of all the other subplots, I forgot Macy’s theme and what her place was in the story. But now I had a plan. She’d been sidetracked from her mission. The challenge had faded and there was nothing to help her change by the end of the book.

Now I can see what I need to do. I still have scenes to think up and in plotting the other subplots as well as the main story, I might be able to find which scenes will give Macy an opportunity to lose everything but to get herself by the end of the story.

I have been so taken with this method that I hosted a Beat Party for some people who are about to do NaNoWriMo. We’d all like to have our road maps in place before we start so I met with a few people to teach them the Beat Sheet. We have plans to get together two or three more times and help each other beat out our plots before NaNo starts.

I never used to be a plotter. But I am now. It’s a wonderful feeling to know where you’re going and still leave room for surprises. I found the Beat Sheet to be a perfect tool for my book and just what I needed. Try it out. See if it works for you too. 

About the Writer:  Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach, co-founder and executive director of The Writing School. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.