Readers, today we share the news of J.T. Evans' Griffin's Feather, an urban fantasy novel that debuted on October 28, 2017.   J.T. is past-president of Pikes Peak Writers and we're pleased to share his news.   Thank you to contributing editor, Kathie Scrimgeour find her on facebook for ensuring that you, our members, are informed of the accomplishments of fellow PPW members.

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Congratulations to J.T. Evans on the recent release of his debut novel, Griffin’s Feather (Wordfire Press, 10-29-17, 214 pgs, ISBN: 978-1614756040). You can purchase his book at https://www.amazon.com/dp/161475604X/

Marcus Barber is a two-thousand-year old immortal, a former Roman Centurion who now works as a bounty hunter for supernatural creatures from the ancient world. When he’s not pounding the pavement as a private investigator for mortal clients, Marcus chases down missing mythological creatures for the Ancients. Now, in the heat of San Antonio, Marcus must search for Nemesis's missing Griffin while trying to rescue a melting Ice Pixie from an eccentric collector.

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J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels, and also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the former president of Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group and Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he develops interactive voice recognition systems at the Day Job, home brews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many tabletop games. From West Texas to Montana, J.T. has landed in the Colorado Springs area.
You can find J.T. on his website on Facebook, and on Twitter.  J.T. can be contacted by email at jt@jtevans.net.

Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member J.T. Evans

Today on Meet the Member, I'm bringing you an interview from Pikes Peak Writers President, J.T. Evans. We all know J.T. in his leadership capacity, but what do we really know about his writing career? Let's find out!

Kathie Scrimgeour:  How long have you been writing and what genre do you prefer to write?

J.T. Evans:  I’ve been writing on and off since I was 10 years old. I got serious about my writing efforts in 2006 and haven’t stopped since then. I prefer to write fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, and science fiction.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Do you have anything in particular you are working on right now? Tell us a little about it.

J.T. Evans:  I just finished up edits on two novels and am editing a third. For the actual writing part of things, I’m about to launch into sword & sorcery-style fantasy involving two reluctant vagabonds saving their neighborhood from a dangerous gang that is preying upon the children of the area under the direction of a secret cult.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Have you set any goals for your publication date?

J.T. Evans:  For the two novels that I just finished edits on, I’m hoping one comes out spring of 2017 (Griffin’s Feather – Urban Fantasy) followed by early fall of 2017 (Warmaiden – Fantasy) for the other. I don’t have a date for the book I’m about to write as I’m just now getting into it.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Do you set daily, weekly, or monthly writing goals? If yes, what are they? What do you do to ensure you meet these goals?

J.T. Evans: I used to set word count goals for myself, but if I missed even one day (or week) of hitting the goal, I’d get discouraged and I found that my productivity would go down. Some people thrive on word count goals, but I’ve discovered I’m not one of them. I don’t write every day, but I try to do something creative each day. When I seriously get into writing a novel, I can usually do 3,000 to 4,000 words each day, which makes me incredibly happy. I sometimes will burn a vacation day from the Day Job to sit down and try to hit 10,000 words (or more!) in a day.

Kathie Scrimgeour:  If you have a completed manuscript/story/poem/flash have you submitted it yet? What have the results been? How do you get past the "No's"? What do your reject letters say? What best advice, or lessons learned, have you gotten from them?

J.T. Evans:  As I’ve mentioned, I have a fantasy novel under contract and a separate urban fantasy under contract as well. Both are with different publishing houses. The fantasy received over 140 rejections before I found a home for it. The urban fantasy landed almost 90 rejections before someone loved it as much as I do. Writing a novel is the easy part of this career. Handling the rejections is the hardest part, but it’s necessary to find the right home. I want a publisher to love my stories as much as I do. Many form rejection letters mention something along the lines of “reading is subjective, so my rejection doesn’t mean your work is of low quality,” and these words are very true. I’m very certain that my favorite book of all time won’t line up with someone else’s tastes. That’s perfectly okay because it takes a wide variety of people in this world to keep life interesting.

Kathie Scrimgeour:  What does success mean to you?

J.T. Evans:  There are different levels of this. Finishing a story is one success. Selling it is another. Making a living from writing is yet another one. For me, the validation of selling a story is success for me. This means that someone else out there in the world agrees with me that the words I’ve produced are worthy of editing and publication.

Kathie Scrimgeour:  Does success scare you or motivate you?

J.T. Evans:  100% motivation for me. I’ve always been driven to excel and improve. Success is just an indicator of that drive.

Kathie Scrimgeour: What do you do when procrastination is winning over writing?

J.T. Evans:  I have to be honest here. I’ve rarely have this problem. When I realize that I’ve spent the last 10 minutes on Facebook, I shake my head at myself, close the browser tab, and flip back to my writing project. Most of my procrastination efforts have been very minor. Usually it’s a case of I need to step away from the work and let my subconscious mull things over for a few minutes.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Writing conferences, workshops, and critique groups are an important part of the new writer's experiences (and more experienced writers too!). How have they helped you?

J.T. Evans:  Without the support group that I’ve found through my past critique group, my current critique group, Pikes Peak Writers, and others, I would not be writing today. My list of concrete items of how I’ve been helped would go on for pages, but the number one thing they’ve done for me is to support me and hold me up when my own self-doubts clouded my mind.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Do you attend the events and, if so, which ones are your favorites?

J.T. Evans:  I attend as many Write Brains and Writers’ Nights as I can get my hands on. I usually only attend the Open Critique when I’m a guest critiquer. I don’t want to take one of the eight slots from someone else because I already have a regular critique group. As I’ve already mentioned, the “Tools in the Toolbox” Write Brain has a warm spot in my heart because of the quality of the presentation.

Kathie Scrimgeour: Do you have any "self-help for writers" books that you use regularly? How do they help? Please share your list of your top 2 or 3.

J.T. Evans:  I have dozens of them. I used to have almost 100, but I’ve donated, gifted, or given away many of them that I won’t get further use from. My top ones are:

1.    On Writing – Steven King

2.    Dialogue – Gloria Kempton

3.    39 Most Common Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) – Jack Bickham

Kathie Scrimgeour:  Does your reading influence your writing? How?

J.T. Evans:  I’m sure it does, but I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t write fan-fic, and I certainly don’t intentionally “steal ideas,” but I’m certain my concepts of what makes a good story is influenced by what I read.

Kathie Scrimgeour:  If you met someone who was thinking about starting to write, what advice would you give them?

J.T. Evans:  Don’t quit. Follow your passion. You can’t “find time.” You have to make time to do the things you love.

Kathie Scrimgeour: What is one (or a few) of the most important lessons you have learned so far?

J.T. Evans:  Be nice. It goes a long ways in all relationships. I’ve had doors opened for me that would normally be closed off because I was nice to someone.

Kathie Scrimgeour: What expertise in your background do you draw on in your writing? (e.g. were you a photographer, chef, court reporter, FBI agent?)

J.T. Evans:  My martial arts background (armed and unarmed) has served me very well in writing the multitude of fight scenes that I throw into my stories.

J.T. is all over the internet...check it out! 

Website: http://jtevans.net/

Email: jt@jtevans.net

Social media pages:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jtevans.writer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jtevans

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jtevanswriter/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3519020.J_T_Evans

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/J.-T.-Evans/e/B00AG3TR6O

Interested in being interviewed by Kathie Scrimgeour for Meet the Member? Contact her at kjscrimwriter@gmail.com 

About the Author: Kathie Scrimgeour writes under the name K.J. Scrim and has been a member of Pikes Peak Writers since 2013. She has volunteered at the last two PPW conferences and coordinates the Sweet Success column. Kathie is a self-taught writer who delves into fantasy, fiction, and historical fiction. Her debut fantasy novel,The Manx, is scheduled to release later in 2017. She lives outside of Denver with her family, two dogs, and a crazy cat.

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Source: Wikipedia -- Artist Francesco Melzi 

Leonard di ser Piero da Vinci, April 1452-May 1519, was more commonly known as Leonard da Vinci or simply Leonardo. He was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history and cartography. He is widely considered the greatest painter of all time, and many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime example of a “Universal Genius” or Renaissance Man.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

Jan 9            Meet the Member J.T. Evans

Jan 11          Writing your History Novel by Jason Evans (Blog 1)

Jan 13          Sweet Success Celebrates Patrick Hester

Buzzwords! Resist the Urge to Explain

By: J.T. Evans

Lots of phrases, buzzwords, slang, jargon, and perfectly cromulent words are thrown about critique groups on a regular basis. Newcomers to critique groups can mentally stumble when they hear something along the lines of, "The POV in your WIP head hops through white room syndrome, and all of the narrative is written in passive voice with lots of tense shifts."

POV? WIP? White rooms? Is there padding on the walls of these white rooms? I feel like I'm going insane! I know I'm tense, but how is that shifting around?

Well, have no fear. I'm here to help expand your vocabulary into the writerly world of the critique group.

This month, I'm going to cover R.U.E., aka: Resist the Urge to Explain.

Resist the Urge to Explain: 

I'm horribly guilty of this. I've gotten better over the ten years (where has the time gone?!?) I've been part of critique groups, but I still open my mouth to explain some things when one of my critique partners doesn't get it. I usually catch myself and clack my jaw shut while scribbling my notes.  Here's the premise of why you should R.U.E.: Your words have to stand on their own because you will be entirely unable to stand over the shoulder of every reader of every book you sell and explain to them, "No. No. You didn't get it right there. That's not what I meant. The way you should interpret my words is…."

It's just not possible to do this. If your critique partners are struggling to understand something, then you need to clarify things using words on the page, not words passing your lips.

 

The only exception to R.U.E. is when a critique partner asks you a direct question of clarification that will assist them in framing the rest of their critique or feedback. There are times when it's valid to answer these questions, but also take the question as an opportunity to clarify your work.

Since I primarily write in the fantasy, urban fantasy, and science fiction genres, there can sometimes be lots to explain to the reader or critique partner. If I lay down some thick mythology or world building that doesn't make sense, then I need to readdress my approach at the descriptions. If I toss in some far-future tech into a story, it needs to be clear on how the tech affects the daily lives of the characters. If it's hard science fiction, then the deep dives into the sciences backing the futuristic predictions need to be understandable by the "common person" out there.

I don't write much romance, but I've read a bit of it inside and outside of critique groups. The things that need to be made clear to the readers are the emotional beats and reactions the characters are going through. If a particular character smiles when another one enters the room, we need to know why. Different readers will interpret the smiles in different ways, and losing that clarity of the emotional response is a good way to confuse or lose the reader down the road.

If you've heard a phrase or word in a critique group and you think others should know about it (or you're not sure what to think of it), drop me a comment below, and I'll add it to my list of Buzz Words to talk about.

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

Editor’s Note: Since our inception, we’ve tried to coincide authors’ quotes with their birthdays. This is becoming redundant. Therefore, Writing from the Peak is switching to great, inspirational quotes about writing. Such as this one . . .  

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ~ Stephen King

Source: Wikipedia 2007 King at Comicon

This Week on Writing from the Peak:

Oct. 17          Indy v. Traditional: Roll Them Bones       Aaron Michael Ritchey

Oct. 19          Buzz Words: RUE                                  J.T. Evans

Oct. 21          Sweet Success, Ann Myers & Barbara Nickless           

Show Me the Money!

By: J.T. Evans

We recently had a member get approached by a publisher with a request for $4,000 to publish her short story. To be more clear: the publisher wanted the author to pay them.

This is not how the publishing industry is supposed to work. Money should flow toward the author of the work, with a few exceptions. I'll cover these exceptions at the end of the article.

The practice of the author paying for the privilege of getting his or her work printed via a publisher is called "vanity publication." It preys on the author's vanity and desire to see their word in print. Many "green" authors fall victim to the urge to get their words printed, and making a naïve move is something we're trying to get folks to avoid.

The practice of requiring the author to pay money is entirely predatory and abusive. When an author is approached with a deal along these lines, they should not walk away…they should run away.

There are a few resources online to check out publishers if there are questionable practices going on. Some of them are:

·       Preditors and Editors

·       Write Beware

The practice of requesting money from an author is not limited to these nefarious publishing houses. Disreputable agents (who are rare) may require their clients to pay "editorial fees" or "marketing fees" to them for development of their work. This is not how agents should work. Whether or not the agent does development work on a piece before submitting to publishers is up to the agent, the author, and their relationship. However, the agent should not charge the author for these efforts. The agent should only collect their agreed-upon percentage when the author receives payment from the publisher.

To check out agents, I recommend viewing comments from authors on Query Tracker or see if they are listed in the membership of the Association of Authors' Representatives.

If a deal with a publisher or agent comes across your desk, I highly recommend hiring an independent attorney who specializes in intellectual property rights to review the contract before signing away.

It's a great thing to receive a contract! However, take a day or three to sit back, breathe, consider the contract, and get in touch with an attorney before moving forward.

At the start of this article, I mentioned some exceptions to the "money flows toward the author" rule. If you are self-publishing, then hiring a professional editor, cover artist, layout expert, marketing guru, and other masters that will make your book better will cost you money. However, these folks are ones who you approach and hire on your own. They work for you in their area of specialty.

Like with self-publishing, if you are chasing down the traditional publishing deal, hiring a professional editor to assist you in polishing your work before submitting to agents and editors is not a bad idea if you can afford it. Again, this has a cost and will cause money to "flow away" from you, but this is entirely your choice and within your control.

Unfortunately, Pikes Peak Writers doesn't have an attorney on staff or within our volunteer ranks, so we can't offer specific legal advice on contracts. Regardless of our inability to offer legal advice, we can at least point out areas where contracts can be abusive or predatory toward our fellow authors.

Best of luck with your work, and happy writing!

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Planning a Writing Retreat

In the fast-paced times we live in, it's especially difficult to carve out those precious hours we need to do our writing. I've advocated "stolen moments" before, which is where you write when you can. It doesn't matter if it's just twenty minutes, those twenty minutes are precious.

However, it's wonderful to be able to dedicate two, three, maybe even four hours to cranking out words, edits or outlines. Those times are rare for most of us, but the amount of stuff done (when not on Facebook) can be amazing.


What would you do if you had an entire day to write? What about a long weekend? Think of the wonders that can be created! I don't think I need to expound further on the benefits of getting two or three days of solid writing time so I'm going to tell you how to pull it off. 

This is where writing retreats come into play. A writing retreat occurs when you literally retreat from the real world, isolate yourself from job, family, (maybe) the Internet, and the worldly concerns of being a social being.

There are several phases to organizing a writing retreat.

Planning

A vast majority of writing retreats are done in a group setting to help split the costs of getting a place to stay in a relatively remote area. I've seen retreats as large as twenty people and as small as four. The sweet spot seems to be right around eight to ten folks. Fewer than that, the price point can rise beyond affordability. More than that leads to logistical nightmares. Look to your critique group for folks to run away with.

Once you know who is going, dates need to be set where everyone can make it.

Next, set a budget. Figure out what individuals can pay for renting a cabin in the middle of nowhere. This will let you know what the group can afford.

After you know the who and when, you need to determine the where. This is the rough part. Communicate with your group and find a city or three where folks would like to spend a relaxing (yet productive!) weekend.

Reservations

There are loads of options for renting properties for a long weekend, and this can be overwhelming. For my critique group's recent retreat, I took the lead and found a dozen places (some in Breckenridge and some in Estes Park, our agreed upon cities). I took the details of each location and plugged them into the spreadsheet on Google Drive, then asked each person to rate (scale: 1-10) each location. The top two scoring locations were then presented to the group and we picked one.

How did I find a dozen properties to review and rate? The Internet! There are quite a few websites where property owners will do short term leases for folks like you looking to organize a writing retreat. Some of these sites include:

• Airbnb
• VRBO
• roomorama
• FlipKey

Once we found a place, I arranged the rental, which was a pretty simple process. I won't detail it here because I'm certain each rental property has their own process/procedures.

One caveat I want to bring up: The security deposit. There are logistics around splitting this between the group members, then getting the returned deposit back to the members. To make this easier on everyone, I decided that I'd directly pay the security deposit and keep it when it was returned. This worked out well for our group and made things easier on me in the long run. Yes, there are financial risks associated with this approach, but I know and trust everyone I had along with me, so didn't worry about it too much.

On Location

What do you do when you're "on location" at the retreat? 

Write, of course. Or edit. Or outline. Or brainstorm. Or research. Or whatever floats your writerly boat.

The key things to determine are food,drink, quiet times/rooms, and social times.

We did a two-part approach for food. We decided that Friday and Saturday nights would be social times around meals and that we'd run into Estes Park for a restaurant meal. This did raise the price some, but it was well worth it to get away from the keyboard for a couple of hours.

For quiet time/rooms, we decided the public areas would be quiet for  Friday afternoon, all-day Saturday, and Sunday morning. Everyone respected this quiet time, and it's amazing how much energy can fill up an almost perfectly quiet room. There were brief conversations, but it was limited to group-impacting questions. Things like turning on the A/C, asking if anyone needed a drink while on the way to the fridge, etc.

We also agreed that the times after returning from our evening meals would be social time in the public areas. After a full day of brain-melting edits or cranking out thousands of words, we all knew we'd need a break. Getting this downtime is vital to keep energy levels up for when it's time to write. The human mind and body can only do so much in a day.

Clean Up

When it's time to leave, do the fellow who ponied up the security deposit a favor. Clean up. You don't have to spit shine every surface, but most rentals have guidelines on what needs to be taken care of and how to do it. It's pretty minimal, to be honest. Take out the trash. don't make the beds (so they know which ones were used and need to be laundered). Clean up spills. Throw the dishes into the dishwasher. Stuff like that. It's not the wilderness, so you don't have to leave it as you found it, but be nice to the cleaning staff and the owners.

Decompression

After a retreat, it's time to head back home. Do so gradually. My favorite way of doing this involves a long drive. Keep the distance from home base reasonable, which will allow you to relax and smoothly slide back into the real world of responsibilities.

Another decompression approach is to have a "going away" breakfast or brunch for the group. I usually do this after we're out of the cabin and on the road back home. Picking a place to eat near the retreat is ideal. This is where everyone talks about his or her weekend accomplishments. Even if the accomplishments aren't as high as some hoped, applause and congratulations are in order for each person's efforts.

Conclusion

I highly recommend going on a writing retreat every 12-18 months to refresh your writing batteries and help remind you why you chose this very difficult endeavor. Even though my last retreat finished up in June, I'm really looking forward to the next one coming my way.

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

By: J.T. Evans 

I think the #1 question most writers dread is, "Where do you get your ideas?" The main problem with this question is that some of aren't sure. Sometimes an idea leaps unbidden into our head. Other times, we'll hear a phrase or lyric, and it will inspire creative thought. Getting ideas is one of those things that seems to come naturally to most writers.

However, there are times when the ideas won't flow. Sometimes, you're working on a novel and get stuck. Sometimes, you're trying to start a short story, but the ideas won't flow the way you want.

I used to be part of an improv writing group (one I'd love to resurrect). When we're given a whopping five or ten minutes to write on an idea, there needs to be some form of direction. I call this a "creative compass." There needs to be some target to attempt to hit. Sitting someone down and telling them, "Write a short story" isn't much help at all. If you give them a genre to go with, that helps some, but most genre definitions are so broad, it's not much of a direction. This is where idea tokens come into play.

In my improv writing bag (yeah, I have a whole bag dedicated to it), I have loads of dice and cards inside to assist me in generating idea tokens. They are invaluable to me when coming up with story ideas, character quirks, genres, and other random ideas I use to feed my brain before writing a story.

These tokens can be created very fast. As an exercise, I decided to create 12 idea tokens for 52 short stories. This was part of my writing goal for 2016, so in late December, I sat down one night with the goal of creating 52 story ideas so I could start writing in January. It took me about three hours of work (and cataloging the ideas on a spreadsheet) to create the 624 idea tokens I needed for the 52 stories. 

That's a little over three idea tokens created each minute. I went a little overboard with the 12 per story because I generally only need three to four for starting my engine on a short story. This means, in about a minute, you can use randomizers like cards and dice to create the tokens you need to run with a short story… or maybe the opening of a novel!

I use quite a few different tools on creating these idea tokens. My favorite is Rory's Story Cubes. There are also some great games that can be utilized for creating idea tokens. Some of them are Once Upon A Time, 99 Chances, and Dixit. 

There are also some wonderful, writer-centric, products out there to assist you with getting that creative spark. These include Writer Emergency Pack, Storymatic, Story Forge Cards, or you can even use homemade index cards with genres written on them.

There are quite a few digital tools for iPads (and probably Android as well, but I own an iPad, so that's where my experience lies). The ones I own are Brainstormer, Rory's Story Cubes (again, but on my iPad), Writer's Dice, Writer's Lists, and Story Spark.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of randomizers on the market. If you're interested in stretching your boundaries as a writer, or just need a fresh idea or three, I highly recommend you check out the products I've listed above to see what you can find that will ignite your passion for writing.

If you have some favorite tools for idea creation, please drop them our way in the comments below.

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.”  

                                                                                      ~ Beatrix Potter

Source: Wikipedia

 British author Beatrix Potter, born July 28, 1866, wrote and illustrated more than 20 children's books. She spent a solitary childhood, loved to sketch animals and later invented stories about them. In 1902, Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which launched her career as a children's author. More than 20 other books for young audiences soon followed. Potter's tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Benjamin Bunny and others have become children's classics. Ms. Potter died in 1943.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

July 11          40 Minutes to Reach the Bridge by Natalia Brothers

July 13          Where Do You Get Your Ideas by J.T. Evans

July 15          Sweet Success Celebrates Shannon Lawrence 

Buzz Words & White Room Syndrome

Lots of phrases, buzzwords, slang, jargon, and perfectly cromulent words are thrown about critique groups on a regular basis. Newcomers to critique groups can mentally stumble when they hear something along the lines of, "The POV in your WIP head hops through white room syndrome, and all of the narrative is written in passive voice with lots of tense shifts."

POV? WIP? White rooms? Is there padding on the walls of these white rooms? I feel like I'm going insane! I know I'm tense, but how is that shifting around?

Well, have no fear. I'm here to help expand your vocabulary into the writerly world of the critique group.

This month, I'm going to cover white room syndrome.

Over the months I've been doing this series, you've seen me mention "white room syndrome" in the intro text. Enough people have asked me about what the heck that means, I've bumped it up to the top of my list for this month. This has nothing to do with straight jackets and padded rooms. It has nothing to do with the sterility of hospital rooms or the blank page staring back at you when you start writing a fresh story.

White room syndrome is, quite simply, a severe lack of description in all areas. This can be a major problem for the readers when they can't picture the setting or characters.

The Setting

Readers love to immerse themselves in the worlds we create. Even if the setting is Small Town, USA in modern times, they want to feel like they're there with the characters. If the area surrounding the characters lacks detail, the immersion (and suspension of disbelief) will fail miserably. You want to draw the readers in and make them feel like they are actually there with the characters. By leaving out sensory details of the setting, the readers are left with nothing more than a white room to picture.

When describing a room, restaurant, coffee house, mansion, playground, or some other setting, we tend always to start with the visuals. We are visually-driven creatures, so this only makes sense. However, by leaving out temperature, smells, textures, sounds, and tastes, the world will feel flat and two-dimensional. We don't want to leave our readers with the impression they are experiencing a grainy animation from the 1940s. We want them to experience the world we're creating. Give it all to them! In some cases, you want to start with a non-visual description.

As an example, when I came home one evening, my wife was already there and had started dinner. As soon as I opened the door, my first sensation was the smell of chicken from the soup she'd prepared. I didn't hear the jingle of my dog's collar first. I didn't see my son running my way. The sense of "welcome home" came in the form of a wonderful smell.

Set up your scenes with senses, and your readers will always come back for more.

The Characters

Characters can also suffer from being too blah or bland. Like your settings, they can feel two-dimensional if there isn't enough detail about them. I'm not just talking about physical descriptions. We need to know their desires, fears, goals, motivations, hatred, loves, quirks, habits (good and bad), and their general outlook on life. Getting your characters from being flat does take some effort (and pre-planning for some), but it'll pay off in the long run.

As another example, one of my critique partners accidentally edited out the opening description of a character. The only impression I had of this character were her perfectly manicured fingernails for most of the book. Then one nail got chipped during an adventure, and the character didn't seem to care because of the dire straights she was in. This told me volumes about how extremely overwhelmed the character was at that point in the book. Unfortunately, I had to give a comment along the lines of, "This character is nothing more than talking fingernails," because of the lack of physical description. Fortunately, this was a quick fix for the author to go back to older versions of the manuscript and snag the description that had accidentally been dropped.

If you've heard a phrase or word in a critique group and you think others should know about it (or you're not sure what to think of it), drop me a comment below, and I'll add it to my list of Buzz Words to talk about.

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.