This is not to say that I am omnipotent.. yet! I've been drinking the potion. But One of the members messaged me to ask for writing advice.And now that my upcoming book, The Secret of The Sundance Caves is being released, I thought it would be really great if I could give any morsel of help to a brilliant up and coming author like the ones in this group.

Some of the best advice I have received:

If you want to make your stories universal, make them specific. Stories that are "real" appeal to people, and specific stories are real. You may think that if you make you're story as wide as possible you'll get wide readership. But the funny thing is that universal appeal comes in the details. These stories that lodge themselves in a specific place, and character also lodge themselves in a wider universal psyche.

Please feel free to post any questions you may have on writing, characters, setting, plot.... whatever....

I have certain parts of my book that bug the heck out of me when I read them. They are just so dull. But I'm not sure how to change them. I would like to add more detials in those parts, but my story is already sooooo long. Help!

Where is the section?

hmmm... i've had this problem too.
well, sometimes it feels hard to get rid of boring parts, but it's usually better for the story. just try to find the parts within the boring parts that are the most important; you don't need an excessive amount of description, as long as the reader understands what's going on. you can imply that a period of time went by without describing it too much.
i hope that helped... ??

Hi Meghan,

Stephen King has a saying that says sometimes you have to kill your darlings when when it comes to fiction. It’s hard to do a rewrite when you are faced with cutting out some of the words you slave over but sometimes, I too have found it necessary to kill my darling words because the key to adding details is in the choosing. You can add things that create atmosphere and give a key image but these need not be lengthy sections. In fact it is often best if they are not.

What I have found is helpful when it comes to the “dull” bits ( although I’m sure you’re being too hard on yourself) is to make sure that whatever detail/ description you are adding to the progression of your story.

It may be useful to ask yourself if this bit is adding to the forward motion of the story. Readers can often get bogged down when they feel a section is not going anywhere and this passivity often leads to perceived dullness.

You can give a description of a character but this need not be a long chunk. You can instead focus on story and slip bits in, especially bits that add. Let the reader know a detail that will come into play somewhere. Show the character doing something instead of telling the reader what she is like. This can add liveliness to the text.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Feel free to ask something more specific or anything else you’re interested in.

Wishing you great success,
Sharla

Hi Elise,

Feel free to chat here. My publisher has also just created a Q&A Author Group for me so ur welcome to drop by there too.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/6394...

That's an excellent point Brigid

Okay Sharla, if I want to get published, what do I do?

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1972...
This is one of my stories and some of my friends have said that the cop should be a bit more protective, but I like what I have. What do you think? Help!

mystery girl, i haven't read your writing yet, but anyway...
yeah, it's hard to take feedback! my mom is always like, 'this part is unrealistic; change this, change that.' and i'm like 'BUT I LIKE WHAT I HAVE!!' sometimes though you just have to accept it; after all, there could be millions of ppl reading your book someday, and that's millions against one; so readers' opinions are important, even when you think they're wrong. XD lol. i have the same problem...

hmmm. i read it mystery girl, and in this case, i think your friends are wrong. i see no reason why the cop should be 'more protective'. i'm not sure what your friends meant by that. the police man was just being helpful, wasn't he? it's not like policemen are mean all the time.

Thanks for your advice.
I think they meant like, not letting his son get so attached so quickly to a stranger.

Hi Callie,

Well done. I had a look on your page and see that you're writing is going well. You've already done so much.

In terms of getting published, if you speak to most publishers they will advise you to get an agent. A good resource is the Artists and Writers Yearbook which lists agents and the like.

Make sure you identify agents that seem like they will be interested in the your genre, i.e fantast i take it.

You need to write a query letter. Make sure you include some info about your book and why you believe it will have an audience. Another good step is to fill it in with any other work you have had published.

On this note, it may be very useful to focus on getting some articles, short stories, essays etc published in magazines and newspapers. This way you can build up your portfoloio.

Another approach is to give it a try and send query letters to publishers who are interested in your genre. You can find these out from The YEarbook I mentioned or by looking inside the books you admire or think are similar to urs to see what publisher does their work. The challenge with this is that your work or any unagented piece goes into what is called "The Slush Pile" and is often overlooked or which takes a long time for them to read. Hence many publishers recommend the agented approach.

Apart from these technical details I also want to tell u that one of these most important steps in my humble opinion to getting published is to develop faith and determination. Believe in your book and yourself, and thought this may seem like a sappy greeting card, when rejection comes you will be able to take it better and persevere until you get your work out there.

I wish you all the success in the world!

Best wishes,
Sharla
Author of The Secret of The Sundance Caves

Thanks so much Sharla! You have no idea how much that helps!!!!

sometimes i feel like i don't have enough details, especially in my story i am currently working on. but sometimes, i feel i have to many details. i don't know what to cut out or what to do. also, i'm really afraid of accidently like plagirizing or having the same idea as a story that already exists. anybody have advice on that?

I don't, but yeah that's kinda my problem too.

Same here. I can never get all of the details down.

I think whenever you write your story no matter if you got inspiration from somewhere, you put your spin on it without even realising it. You add your own vibe based on your outlook or experiences so I wouldnt worry too much about plagiarism.

In terms of details. I find that it helps to keep things specific... like say when the character sits don't just say on a chair but use that chair to give an idea of time, place and tone.Your detail can be used to give a vivid image of the world you are creating.

You however, may not necessarily need to throw in a whole lot. You can just weave in bits here and there and trust your instinct on whatever feels right to you. There aren't any rules and if there are then they are surely there to be broken.

What is important is that you trust your instinct. The more you write, the more you know your characters and your story the better you can know what to add and leave out.

You dont need to give chunks in a paragraph but use the action to reveal detail. When she looks and you describe her eyes, the reader may get a better sense of the world.

Also, whatever detail you add can have the added advantage of being symbolic. If you describe the clock in the corner and draw attention to it, perhaps one of your themes is time.

These are just some ideas to get your thoughts flowing. Hope this helps.

Omgsh, thanks soooo much sharla for your advice. It really helped me. :D

i like writing, and I'm sure that too much criticism would annoy me, but the few people who have read some of my works-in-progress either don't give me anything other than "It's good" which makes me feel like they really weren't interested in reading it, but didn't want to hurt my feelings, or if they give me criticism at all they sugar coat it, "It was good but you need to spell this different, but it was good." never have I gotten an "It's Awsome!" or even a straight out criticism.

that just annoys the pants off of me (I thought it would be wise to use a more appropriate statement than the acronym of how I actually feel.)

Meghan wrote: "I have certain parts of my book that bug the heck out of me when I read them. They are just so dull. But I'm not sure how to change them. I would like to add more detials in those parts, but my sto..."
The worst crime in writing is 'overwriting'. Do you say the same thing twice in a different way? Do you make sure the reader picks up info from the characters because you need to let the reader know what is happening?
Specifics: check the being words within any story written by you. Check for helping verbs. Check for flat words. Check for slow words as they need to be replaced. Check for 'than' when you might have wanted 'then.' And there 's a bout a thousand more things to check too. But hats the thing of being a writer.
If you review avoid words like 'good' , 'awesome' and 'write some more' . If you have the nerve to do so your writing will improve.Try your new mental approach and see what happens. Happy writing.

Sharla wrote: "Hi Meghan,

Stephen King has a saying that says sometimes you have to kill your darlings when when it comes to fiction. It’s hard to do a rewrite when you are faced with cutting out some of the w..."
The psychological approach is to throw away our ego. Then we attack our work in a new light.Our ego stops us opening up to critics who offer good and sometimes bad advice. I've had advice from writers who have never published a piece. At that time I'd published 200 different types of literature. What advice they offered was wrong and obtained from somebody who should have known better. But maybe their own advice , if they took it, was keeping them from being published. I rest my case.

Question - how do you guys go about researching when you write? this is sometimes such a BEHEMOTH task, I find it gets overwhelming at times!

I know me to!!

i just write, i don't research. I put my stories in other worlds or in the future, and then i don't have to do location specific research!

I don't reserch either. That would be WAY to overwelming for me.

DragonEyedMovingCastle Maniac wrote: "i just write, i don't research. I put my stories in other worlds or in the future, and then i don't have to do location specific research!"

Lol =}

Kendall ~Daughter of Athena~ wrote: "I don't reserch either. That would be WAY to overwelming for me."

same here!

sometimes I do look some stuff up if I'm curious but i've never really looked something up to write about it.

hey everybody I need some help naming the magical world in my story! The landscape is forests and mountains, a lake...PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

just type a bunch of random letters and if there's anything you like that sounds like a name for a country use it. Kuma Tibia Gosdh ect...

ugh, thats so hard...lol I'll think of something..