Good morning, everyone!  Welcome back to Writer Wednesday.  Today I want to talk a little bit about cross genre writing since everyone seems to be dipping into different markets.

It's very logical for authors who have varying interests to delve into different genres, particularly when digital publishing has opened so many doors.  In fact, I am a huge supporter of exercising creative talent wherever there is a calling for it.  Goodness knows I have done so and I will continue to do so.

But there are a couple things I've been discussing with authors lately that have opened my eyes to a few hurdles that aren't always anticipated.  And if you're able to make a plan for those hurdles you're far more apt to succeed than if you suddenly find yourself facing them unprepared.



Voice

Be sure you've done some research in the new market you're looking at.  One of the biggest things I see as an editor is a writer switching into a genre that is completely unrelated to what they've been writing, and their voice won't fit.  For instance:  You can't very well write a thriller with a chick-lit voice.  Or at least it wouldn't be very easy to do so.  That would be some serious craftiness on an author's part!  It's very easy to shift within the same core genre:  historical romance to paranormal romance, for instance.  It's not so easy to shift without a little extra leg work into something that is a 180 from what you've already learned, even though the core aspects of basic craft are pretty much the same.

So study the field you want to be in and train your voice into that established expectation.  Sure, it's good to keep some of what makes you you, but keep your tone in line with what the genre expects.  Readers have expectations, and if you fall short, that makes the next book that much harder to sell.


Readership

Another very common and often overlooked hurdle is your readership.  Do not assume that because you have very strong sales as a fantasy author, that when you release a mystery your readers will follow you because they are devoted to you.  The sad fact is most readers are devoted to the story(ies) you've written and will continue to gobble you up in your established genre.  You can bank on losing about 50% of your readership, which means you'll need to make that up with more readers.  The more you divide yourself between genres, that's fewer and fewer carry-over readers.

Which directly translates to:

Marketing

If you're launching a new genre, you need to approach that first book like you approached your very first book published.  You need to have a plan, you need to connect with that new readership, you need to sell yourself all over again.  Then you may see more cross-over readers, but not likely on the initial out of the gates, unless you are already a NY Times or USA Today Bestseller--routinely.  At that point, even then, your readership is going to drop, but in those sales numbers, it isn't as obvious or impacting--usually.

Commitments

Once you've stuck your foot in the new pond and wow'd the spectators with your swan-like swimming ability, you have to keep coming back to swim in that pool.  Meanwhile, you're swimming in the pool across town.  You're bound to encounter the problem of needing to be in two places at once.  Either because your self-publishing schedule demands releases hit close together, or because your publisher has said you will have x book done by y date, and y date is the same date as your other publisher wants something else.

Think this through.  Particularly if you are in any position to discuss projected deadlines with an editor.  Have a game plan for how you intend to be in two pools at once, and keep in mind many publishers will include in their contracts that you can't release a competing work for thirty days either side of what they are putting out.

Be prepared ahead of time; have an emergency action plan.  And, even better, use your free time to get ahead of your deadlines as opposed to perhaps running off on a brand new idea.  Get the idea down so you don't forget it, then finish up what you've already planned so deadline crunch doesn't end up kicking you in the rear.  In short, know what you are capable of and be honest with that self evaluation.

Pen Names - Do I have to have a New One?

Claire is saving that discussion for the next blog post.

Sum it Up:

1.  Make sure your voice matches your new project appropriately.

2.  Readers dictate a book's expectations.  Insure your new endeavor meets and exceeds those expected elements.

3.  You can't count on the same numbers you're currently bringing in, and often, when launching into a new genre, you will lose readers.  Create a marketing plan that is specific to your new genre.

4.  Be prepared.  Don't let deadlines take you by surprise--plan for them and give plenty of room to adjust.




Looking for a freelance editor? Finish-the-story.com wants to work with you!



~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Cross-Genre Writing , Editing Tip , fiction writing , Finish the Story , Writer Wednesday , Writing Craft

Good morning, friends!

Lately, I've seen a lot of books through Finish The Story that come in labeled 'romance' only to discover that, in fact, they are not.  They are good fiction, some even good fiction with romantic elements, but they are not...romance.

This coincides with some observations I've made at some different conferences I've gone to, where the majority audience isn't a romance reader.  There seems to be a common misunderstanding that if a book involves romance at all, if that human emotion of love is present, the author is composing (or has composed) a romance.

Unfortunately, that's not so.

So what constitutes a romance?

There is a generic 'formula' that is often espoused as being the core of romance: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy looses girl, boy wins girl for a happily ever after.  This is mostly true, but that really over-simplifies things and doesn't always cover all the bases.  I prefer this:  A romance novel is centered on the developing relationship between the hero and the heroine.  Everything that happens in the book therefore relates and impacts that relationship in some way.

Conversely, in other genre works where there are romantic elements, the core of the book is not founded on that romantic relationship.  In other words, the romantic relationship is secondary to the plot.

One Key Determinant

It's true -- to be a romance the book has to have a happily ever after ending.  The girl has to get her guy.  Really, I'm a pretty hard core believer that there are no exceptions to this.  (excluding a series where the hero/heroine are dancing around each other and that romantic relationship carries over into the forthcoming books...but that's a fine-line and not generally applicable to this discussion.)

So, if your book is like dear Mr. Tearjerker Sparks.... you don't have a romance.  You may have a love story, but you don't have a romance.  If your book ends like Gone With the Wind, you don't have a romance.  If your book ends like I Am Legend, you don't have a romance.

The couple must be together, solidly, at the end of the book.

Do I have to have all that mushy / hot sexy stuff?

A romance does not need to have graphic sexual scenes included.  There are many, many romances that do not.  Many are inspirational (faith-based), many will allude to the dirty deed and leave the reader to imagine what happened.  Others go all the way and throw that bedroom door wide open.  The heat level doesn't relate to whether it's a romance or not--which is also why erotica is not erotic romance.  It all boils down to the focus of the plot.  If you're saving the world from flying monkeys you're not writing a romance, unless that is an external conflict to the core plot of two people building a forever relationship.

It really is that simple.

So to sum it up, it really is that simple.  Look at your manuscript and answer these two questions:

1.  Is my entire plot goal to bring two people into a forever relationship
2.  Do I have a happily ever after

If the answer is yes to both, chances are you have a romance on your hands.  If it's not, you're probably writing something else and have incorporated a human emotion everyone in this world can relate to -- love.




Looking for a freelance editor?  Check out Finish-The-Story.com  We're proud to announce we've reached our first milestone-- our client Nana Malone is now a USA Today Bestselling Author!




~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Editing remarks , Editing Tip , Finish the Story , romance , romance novel , what is a romance , Writer Wednesday

Good morning, authors!  Hope 2013 is treating you well.  Today's editorial little tidbit is about tagging dialogue and the 'invisible' said.

To start this off, I'm going to share a piece of one of my books that I've edited to fit the example, and I've highlighted what I want to address:


Okay, so, anyone who's been edited by me with this stuff happening knows where this conversation is going. What's wrong with this passage?  It has action, dialogue, and it's pretty descriptive...

It's the dialogue tagging.  While this particular little cut of text might not grate on the nerves, imagine page after page, every dialogue tagged in some fashion.  This is not something you want to present.  It is redundant, among all the other reasons it should be avoided.

Dialogue tagging is a tricky little devil.  We need it for clarity--without any tags at all, we wouldn't know which two women said what, above.  But there are more effective ways to show it.

Invisible Said

Use said, because it's invisible -- right?

Well, said is invisible to a degree, yes.  But presented above -- swap out said for every thing else in bold -- it is still redundant.  And it occurs so frequently it's obvious, and therefore the invisible effect said has is moot.  Invisible said only applies when you use it as a scattered dialogue tag.  (tagged in between other ways of showing who's speaking.)

Action Tags

The better way of handling dialogue is to connect the dialogue to an action tag.  An action tag is when the 'speaker' does something.  Something other than said, yelled, screeched, whispered, intoned, or any other verbal action.

For instance:  "You can light that in here!"  She snatched his cigarette from between his lips and snapped it in half.

As opposed to:  "You can't light that in here!" she exclaimed, grabbing his cigarette from between his lips and snapping it in half.

Action keeps the story moving along and pretty much eliminates all redundancy -- unless, of course, it's the same action over and over.

So, going back to that original example, this is how it was originally done:

~~~~~


“Never ring my home this late again.”

“Wait!”  She bit out the exclamation before Isolde could terminate the call.  “Isolde, I swear, it is me.  You came to Paris with Fintan in the spring of 1890, after Belen informed you that I had taken up residence with your brother.  The four of us dined at Maxim’s.”  Solène gripped the edge of the table top, squeezed her eyes shut and said a silent prayer Isolde would believe.  She had to.  She must.

“This is…impossible,” Isolde murmured.

“No.  No, it isn’t.”  She shook her head adamant.  “When I excused myself to the ladies’ room, you followed.  You begged me to leave Taran.”

And from that moment on, they had become the dearest of friends.

In the silence that followed Solène’s words, she opened her eyes and moved away from the table.  Her heart thumped against her ribs, her mind churned frantic circles.  No one else knew of their conversation that evening.  Isolde must believe.  Please, please, remember.

“Solène?” Isolde whispered.


~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: dialogue , dialogue tags , Editing Process , Editing Tip , fiction writing , On Writing , Writer Wednesday

Good morning, everyone!  Today's writerly perspective isn't about craft, or the technique of writing, but about how to handle an editor's remarks...appropriately.

Let's look a little at the process:  For one reason or another, you've entrusted an editor with your manuscript.  On the surface, particularly for traditional print, it may seem as if you have no choice in who is editing you.  Alas--wrong.  As an author, it's your responsibility to research the houses you are shopping your book with.  If you don't trust the editing staff of one house or another, you have no business shopping your manuscript there.  Read what the house is publishing, check out each individual line that corresponds with your work.  If you like what you read, there's a good editor behind the scenes.

With self publishing, options are broader.  The same research applies: look at some of their titles, ask them for references, analyze what comes back both in your initial correspondence and the 'test-edit' -- the remarks you receive from your sample.

So, all that accomplished, you have an editor, and now you must extend faith.  Just as an editor extends faith that you're willing to improve.

What happens then, when you get a manuscript back filled with red marks in the columns and comments all over the place?

In short form, particularly in self publishing, you can reject every darn thing he or she says.  But if you do so, why did you decide to hire the editor?

Your Editor Is Your Friend

An editor isn't out to cut-down your work.  That's the most important thing to understand.  An editor also doesn't want 'bad product' reflecting on his or her name.  And last, the editor wants your book to succeed.  Otherwise, she/he wouldn't be editing.

Editorial remarks come from a perspective that isn't tied to the story.  An educated perspective from someone who understands technical, market, and overall plot needs.  It's not just about fixing sentence structure or incorrect punctuation.  It's about looking at everything as a whole and crafting the best possible product for readers (and, in turn, for the author's bottom line.)

Editorial remarks can point out small things that, on the surface, may seem unimportant -- who cares if there are intruders, or commas in series?  Or if a specific car can really reach a claimed speed. Or what sort of helmet existed in the specific year.

Editorial remarks can also cover larger issues: characters who come off as psychotic when they aren't supposed to; gaping plot holes, and structure issues.

All of them are designed to draw your attention to a noted issue.  Most often, the editor is correct.  But it doesn't mean he/she is right.  If she's changed the entire plot by altering a poorly structured sentence, that's not particularly right.  The grammar change is correct, however.

So what do you do?

Thoughtfully Review

Well, review everything for starters.  Is there an overall theme?  Is she continually hitting the same 'issue' -- passive voice cropping up all over?  Or is it all about small details that could possibly be excused?

Your job as an author is to use that faith you entrusted to the editor you hired and evaluate whether the remarks damage or incorrectly change your story.  If they don't, I pose the question: What harm comes from spending the time to improve?  If you've been called out for passive writing, does it harm your story to nix it and put in active passages?

Editorial remarks should adhere to their purpose -- to improve what's already written.  If they don't, by all means, raise the objection with your editor.  Open a conversation to see if you can understand why they might have been made.

If they do offer a means of making your work more competitive, or can improve what you've already put forth, think solutions through.

Determine The Real Issue

Another thing I've learned is that the remark may not relate to what is specifically stated.  Nine times out of ten, if an editor has called out something and you object with the editor, you've failed to ground something you thought you did.  Often you can solve the issue by addressing that, as opposed to making a sweeping change.

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Discover what means the most to you.  What remarks can you shrug off with a "eh, if it makes her happy, fine."  What remarks have you saying, "No way ever."  Pick the battles accordingly.  There's no sense in starting an argument over a remark like, "I don't really see why she'd say this, please reword."

For instance, one of the remarks one of my editors made was "I don't really know anything about her family, at all.  Are they still living? Are they dead? I'd like to see more."  It didn't hurt me, or the manuscript to add in a sentence or two.  I made her happy.  I still don't see that as a detrimental remark, but it took all of five seconds to address something that bugged her enough to make a mention of it.  And chances are, if it bugged her, it will bug someone else.

Don't Make Excuses

Use your wisdom, your judgement, and really think things through.  An editor didn't spend 18 hours editing a manuscript just to drive you nuts or tear your baby apart.  She did so with thought and consideration for the likely success of your work.  Do what you can to really decide whether it's an improvement.  And don't just wave off the remarks with, "She doesn't understand my genre.  She doesn't know what she's doing.  I did it deliberately.  Other books in my genre are written like this."  (And so forth.)  Doing so only wastes the editor's time, as well as your money.  Rely on that trust you extended, and consider thoroughly if making the change will give you a better book.

And that's my long-winded two cents!




Looking for an editor?  Check out Finish The Story!



~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Claire Ashgrove , Editing Process , Editing remarks , Editing Tip , fiction writing , Finish the Story , Indie Authors , On Writing , Writer Wednesday , Writing Craft

FANBOY I think I will take mine about 6' 2", 190lbs (all muscle of course), shaggy black hair, and... oh we're not talking about those?

Unfortunately, no.  FANBOY is a mnemonic device to help identify conjunctions and is used with compound sentences.  And what is a compound sentence?  It's when you use a conjunction to join two independent clauses... in a nutshell.  And it is used very frequently in writing.


The breakout:

For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet

Examples first:

"He went to the bathroom, and he brushed his teeth."

"He went to the kitchen and took out a green bowl."

Both of these sentences use and.  Only the first is a compound sentence (as defined above).

The first sentence joins the two independent clauses of:  "He went to the bathroom"  and "He brushed his teeth."  An independent clause has a subject and a predicate.  If you were to replace the 'and' in this sentence with a period, it would form two sentences.

In simple speak, that means each part of the sentence, before and after the conjunction forms its own sentence.

If you were to replace the 'and' in the second sentence, you would not have two separate sentences.  You would have one sentence: "He went to the kitchen." and an incomplete sentence "Took out a green bowl."

So what's this leading to?

Comma placement in a compound sentence -- frequently omitted or placed incorrectly.

If you have a compound sentence the sentence demands a comma before the conjunction.  Not after the conjunction as a lot of us feel like it should read. Before.  Always before.  And I cannot count the number of times it is mixed up.  It's often mixed up more than it is omitted.

Quick Recap:

Check your manuscript for the instance of FANBOY words.  Each time you encounter one, check to see if the part before the conjunction and the part after form two separate sentences.  If they do, put a comma before the conjunction (where you would normally put the sentence terminator.)  If they do not form two separate sentences, do not insert a comma.

See you next week!




~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Compound Sentences , Editing Tip , Finish the Story , Writer Wednesday

The editor is back this week!

Last week we talked a little about passive writing.  Today I want to expand on that with intruders, or intruder words.

Intruders do exactly what they imply -- they intrude on the reader.  This can also be classified as author intrusion, in some respects, though I tend to group that separately.

Let's start out with some intruder examples:

"He wondered what color her hair would be if she freed it from that floppy hat."

"He handed her the dress, and he knew she didn't like it by the way her face scrunched."

"He saw the dog run down the street, chasing the calico cat."

Other than they are a bit simplistic, these are perfectly correct sentences -- grammatically   Not so much when it comes to fiction writing.  All of them intrude on the author.

There's a whole bunch more than this, but the following words are common typical intruders:
knew
thought
wondered
felt
saw
pondered

Any word that resembles any in that list is most likely an intruder.  They weaken writing and turn it passive.

So how to fix?  Well, the reason these intrude is because nine times out of ten they occur when we are in the narrating characters point of view.  If the character knows, then we don't need to be told he knows.  Simply stating it in a descriptive manner makes the writing more effective.  So let's look at fixing those three sentences:

"He wondered what color her hair would be if she freed it from that floppy hat."

Assuming we are in his point of view, this is written more actively by just stating the question:

"What color would her hair be if she freed it from that floppy hat?"  

If we are in his point of view, that becomes an internal thought that most likely would be italicized as well.

Next!

"He knew she didn't like the dress by the way her face scrunched."

This is a little more difficult to fix, but can be achieved by adding just a little more detail and dropping the 'he knew'.  The detail specifies the way her face scrunched.

"He handed her the dress, and her face scrunched like she'd eaten a rotten egg."

Last!

"He saw the dog run down the street, chasing the calico cat."

Again, we're in his point of view and we are seeing what he is seeing.  We don't need to be told he sees something... just show us what we're seeing.  Case in point:

"The dog ran down down the street, chasing the calico cat."

In Sum:

By omitting intruders writing becomes more active and often more engaging.  In some cases it can become more descriptive as well, which further improves story-telling.

See you next week!





Publishing a book?  Check out Finish The Story for quality editing!



~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Editing Tip , Finish the Story , Intruder Words , Passive Writing , Writer Wednesday

Good morning, everyone!  A while back, I mentioned I'd be starting a Writer Wednesday topic, and deadlines delayed that progress.  Today we're going to kick it off with a quick and easy way to detect passive writing.

I gave a presentation on editing at my local RWA chapter this weekend, and from some of the remarks in the room, I gather there's a lot of people who hear "Writing is passive", but they don't exactly know how to identify it or how to fix the problem.  This is, coincidentally, one of the things that I see predominantly in the work I freelance edit for Finish The Story.

Let me also add in that there are numerous ways writing can be passive.  This is one format, and one tip to fixing.  I'll address some others over my weekly topics.

So let's look:

"The moon was rising on the horizon, it's pale light a silver blanket on the field of wheat."

"The foxes were grouped together beneath the rock, and the eldest was sticking his tongue out at the youngest."

What's wrong with these sentences?  If you know, skip the lesson and go write some more words in that work in progress!

On the surface, they appear vivid, they're descriptive, and the grammatical structure is correct.  But both of these sentences are passive.  How so?

The "was" + "ing" combination.

Authors are told to stay away from was.  Yes, this is true, but it's impossible to write was.  The bigger issue comes with 'was' + 'ing' -- when it comes to passive writing.  (There are other ways 'was' negatively impacts writing.)

When you link was with an 'ing' verb, it automatically becomes passive.  The best fix for this is to replace that combination with the past tense.  Your sentence instantly becomes more active.

"The moon was rising rose on the horizon, it's pale light a silver blanket on the field of wheat."

"The foxes were grouped grouped together beneath the rock, and the eldest was sticking stuck his tongue out at the youngest."

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Editing Tip , Finish the Story , Passive Writing , Writer Wednesday

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the first Writer Wednesday installment.

Recently, I've been thinking about my assistant.  Some of you have even met her lately--she's been handling all my giveaways to insure you all get your prizes on time.  I couldn't get by without her, and she's been invaluable since she's signed on.

Part of our agreement when she joined forces with yours truly, is I'd impart knowledge about craft.  This last month has been so busy for us, we've not had time to sit down, discuss, and banter ideas.  So I figured, while we're waiting for schedules to open, the least I could do was write down a few things.  Which led me to the idea that I'd work on a Writer Wednesday topic.  Not strictly craft, but experiences, and general ramblings about this publishing world.

So here we are, day one.  And this week, I am actually going into a craft discussion.  Something I see frequently as an editor for Finish the Story.

From A Dolphin's Eyes.

Let's look at this mermaid for a minute.  And let's assume the dolphin is our main character, not the lovely mermaid who's saving the handsome man.

If we are experiencing the story from the dolphin's point of view, we know that this mermaid is Queen of UnderDeep.  We know this because we're the Captain of her Guard, and we've summoned her to stop the execution of an innocent man.  A man who's kept the secret of Mermaid Cove and protected it from earthly curiosities.  We know he's fae.

Our experience on this scene might go a little something like this.  (Oh and our name is Donau)

"She pulled with all her might, fighting the current that sought to suck him into the bottomless chasm.  His body rose limply over the fallen log, and Donau's heart raced.  If she failed, if her fingers slipped, he would be forever lost and the cove he protected would fall under the NosyOnes control.  No more would their kingdom know peace. With a mighty undulation of his tail, he dove beneath her elongated form and under Steven's body.  Using the broad width of his back, he pushed, helping her guide Steven over the obstacle and away from the hungry undertow.  Pain arced down his dorsal fin as it bent at an awkward angle."

Notice that we don't have any idea what her thoughts might be.  We don't know if the shirt is slipping through our fingers.  We don't know how heavy he might be.  We don't know if she's fighting floating toward the surface.  At no point do we know anything related to her directly, and certainly not the unconcious man.  What we know, is only what we can personally hear, see, or feel as Donau.  Our thoughts narrate. His pain is ours -- we are experiencing the sum total of events in his head, and those surrounding him.

If the next sentence was:

"Queen Naribia winced at the sight of Donau's crimped fin."

We've just switched into her head.  Donau could see her wince, but he couldn't know what made her wince. 

Let's try another real quick.  From Queen Naribia's point of view.

"He was heavy, even though the water buoyed him.  Heavier than she'd anticipated, and her body strained against the effort of pulling him away from the dangerous undertow.  Donau swam around her and positioned himself beneath Steven's body, pushing as Naribia pulled."

And if the next sentence was:

"Donau looked up, considering which way would take them past the rough log that tore at Steven's soggy clothing."

Now we've switched again.  Naribia would see him look up.  But there is no way she could know exactly what he's looking at --unless its her-- nor what he was doing by looking up, or what he's thinking about."

The Bottom Line

When you're analyzing your writing for point of view errors, ask yourself, if you were in the character's place, would you have the same knowledge? Or would there be things you couldn't know, things you couldn't describe because it wasn't happening directly with you?


If it's information you couldn't experience first-hand by being in that character's shoes, you've switched POV.  It's a very easy trick to helping navigate the murky waters (pun intended) of point of view.  Use it!  Your writing will become that much stronger!






~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Editing Tip , On Writing , Point of View , Writer Wednesday , Writing Craft