Janice Hardy's Blog, page 104
June 19, 2018
Writing Advice for Writers Just Starting Out
By Jamie Ford, @jamiefordPart of the How They Do It Series
JH: With so much writing advice out there (this site alone will have close to 3000 articles by the end of the year), it can be challenging for new writers to find advice on what to do and how to manage their writing. Jamie Ford visits the lecture hall today to share his tips for writers beginning their writing journey.
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer, Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations.
His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet , spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and has been optioned for film and stage. His second book, Songs of Willow Frost , was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into 35 languages. (He’s still holding out for Klingon, because that’s when you know you’ve made it).
His latest novel, Love and Other Consolations Prizes is available in trade paperback today.
When not writing or daydreaming, he can be found tweeting and posting on Instagram.
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram
Take it away Jamie...
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 18, 2018
Plotter or Pantser, You Really Should Outline the Second Draft
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy This past weekend I was teaching at the SCBWI-FL summer conference, and in both all-day workshop intensives, me and my fellow presenters (Michael Stearns, Lisa Yee, and Kait Feldmann) talked about outlining.
Love it or hate it, outlining is a useful, and dare I say vital, aspect of writing.
Outlining is where the big-picture stuff happens. It allows you to see how your story unfolds on a conceptual level without getting bogged down in the details. It lets you know that you’re hitting all the right beats and constructing a novel that will read well and keep readers interested.
But you don’t have to do it on a first draft if you don’t like outlines. Plenty of writers (though surprisingly, only a few in my sessions this weekend—it’s usually a fairly even split between plotters and pantsers), find outlining constraining, and feel it saps their creativity and stifles their ability to let their stories grow organically.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 17, 2018
Real Life Diagnostics: Would You Keep Reading This Middle Grade Opening?
Critique By Janice Hardy, @Janice_HardyReal Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.
If you're interested in submitting to Real Life Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines.
Submissions currently in the queue: Two
Please Note: As of today, RLD slots are booked through June 30.
This week’s questions:
1. Does it hook you enough to want to read on?
2. Does it give you enough background to give you a sense of why he’s so nervous?
3. Does the last sentence work if I don’t let the reader know the reasoning behind it immediately.
Market/Genre: Middle Grade
On to the diagnosis…
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 14, 2018
Are You Good Enough? Evaluating Whether You're Really Ready to Self-Publish
By Jordan McCollum, @JordanMcCollumPart of the Indie Authors Series
Dipping into the archives today with one of the very first indie author posts, for another look at determining if you're ready to self publish.
Before you click that Publish button for the first time—or every time—there is a second of sheer terror. Your heart rate shoots up. Your palms sweat. Every doubt from your entire writing journey assails your mind: am I ready to do this? Am I ready to send my story out into the world? Is it really good enough to share?
. . . Am I good enough?
If this sounds like you, take a deep breath. It's natural to feel this way in every publishing path—yes, even if you have the "validation" of trade publishing, you might still feel like a phony or a wannabe or a hack. The self-doubts can be even stronger when you've tried to pursue trade publishing without success. And we've all seen or at least heard about self-published first novels that are . . . abysmal, to put it kindly.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 13, 2018
Tips on Writing Scene and Chapter Transitions
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Stories flow from word to word, sentence to sentence, scene to scene. If we’ve done our job well as writers, each one draws the reader to the next and pulls them through the story. If we’ve stumbled a bit, they hit rough patches and ugly spots that stop the story and might even make them out it down and walk away.
The story is important, but so is how we transition from one scene to the next. This hand off is what creates the smooth narrative flow and sense of a story unfolding, versus a bunch of scenes where stuff happens but it feels disconnected.
There are all kinds of transitions. Paragraph transitions. Scene transitions. Chapter transitions. They each play different roles, but at the core, they all have the same job—to keep readers reading .
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 12, 2018
6 Secrets of Science Fiction and Fantasy World Building
By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton Part of the How They Do It Series (Contributing Author)
How do you, as a writer, build a new world that fascinates your readers, draws them in, and makes them want to come back for more? If you write fantasy, science fiction, or horror, you need to do your world building the right way. Here’s how.
1. Research until you find the weirdness.
We've all heard that truth is stranger than fiction. You can use the weirder aspects of our own world to build a more interesting story world of your own.
Before I sat down to create the crystal magic in my Dru Jasper urban fantasy series, I researched real-life crystals. I went to lapidaries (rock shops) in the Rocky Mountains. I attended gem and mineral shows. And I visited metaphysical shops to talk to people who really believe in crystal healing.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 10, 2018
Writing Prompt: The Chain Story: Is It the Flu?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
This week’s prompt is a chain story! I’ll give you the first line, and someone else comments and builds off that line. Next commenter will build off that line, and so on.
In the event of two commenters posting at the same time and sending the story in different directions, just pick the line you like best, or try to incorporate both if you can.
The inspiration for this comes from me being sick for over a week.
She was pretty sure it was the flu, except…
Let the fun begin.
Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
This week’s prompt is a chain story! I’ll give you the first line, and someone else comments and builds off that line. Next commenter will build off that line, and so on.
In the event of two commenters posting at the same time and sending the story in different directions, just pick the line you like best, or try to incorporate both if you can.
The inspiration for this comes from me being sick for over a week.
She was pretty sure it was the flu, except…
Let the fun begin.
Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 9, 2018
Real Life Diagnostics: Would You Read On?
Critique By Maria D'Marco Real Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.
If you're interested in submitting to Real Life Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines.
Submissions currently in the queue: Three
Please Note: As of today, RLD slots are booked through June 30.
This week’s questions:
1. Is the heroine dropped in the middle of the trouble?
2. Is there any “telling”?
3. Is there interior monologue without action?
4. Would you want to read on?
Market/Genre: Christian Women’s Fiction
On to the diagnosis…
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 8, 2018
How Much Do You Need to Describe Your Characters?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy This week's refresher Friday takes an updated look at just how much we need to describe our characters in a story. Enjoy!
At some point in your story, you'll have to decide how much to include about the physical description of a character. You don't want to describe your characters to death, but you also want to use enough details so readers can get an idea of what they look like. How much is too much and how little is too little?
This is one of those things that's really up to the author. I dislike a lot of description, and I admit, I skim a passage when it's clear it's a big "this is what stuff looks like" paragraph. Even description about a character. I'm much more interested in who they are and what they'll do than what they look like.
Because of my personal feelings, I tend to be sparse when I write my own character descriptions. In fact, if I didn't know there are readers who love knowing every detail about what a character looks like, I'd probably skip them altogether. But that's just me, and my way may not be your way--nor should it be.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
June 6, 2018
5 Ways Repetition Is Hurting Your Novel
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Aside from a great one liner, a declaration of love, or a juicy piece of gossip, most people don’t like to hear the same thing over and over. This is doubly true for readers, and repeating yourself in a novel can make your story feel redundant, stale, or even poorly edited.
When you consider your typical novel runs between 80,000 and 100,000 words, it’s no wonder words get repeated. Some of those words readers don’t notice (such as said) and others stand out even if we only use them twice (like antidisestablishmentarianism). While it’s impossible to go back and check every instance of every word to see how often and where you used it, a little awareness of what you’re saying can not only tighten your novel, but make the story read more smoothly.
Let’s look at some areas at high risk for repetition.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
