Janice Hardy's Blog, page 98

3 Ways to Tell if a Manuscript Is Worth Going Back to

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Some trunk novels really are worth going back to. The trick is identifying the salvageable ones.
The other day Romance University posted about why you should pull out the manuscript under your bed. It resonated with me, because earlier this year I returned to an old manuscript that had been poking at my brain for a month. It was a book I’d written almost eight years ago, revised a few times, gotten mixed and lukewarm feedback on, and had figured was an idea that just wasn’t ever going to work.

Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

What triggered my desire to return to it, was an out-of-the-blue idea on how to make the premise I loved finally work—a prologue of all things. But it fit this particular book, and when I reread my earlier pages, I realized it had never been as bad as I’d thought. It had just been missing a few key elements.

Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Writing Prompt: The Re-Write: Let’s Talk About It

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week’s prompt is designed to help you practice your revision skills without the risk of messing up your manuscript. Edit the bad writing, strengthen and clarify the goals, conflict, and stakes, develop the setting, establish the character, etc. You know the drill.

You have to keep the bones of the piece, but how you get those ideas across is up to you. Add whatever details strike you, as long as you can still identify this scene as the scene I started—so no completely rewriting it from scratch. The goal is to make this scene better.

Last time we turned a white room of dialogue into a scene, so this time, let’s add the dialogue to a scene that needs some.

Edit this page to include dialogue that supports the scene:

Killing five thousand colonists was an easy decision for Jeremiah Sullivan to make. Killing his brother was harder.

He didn’t need his brother to destroy the Tellus colony—he already had an undetectable device hidden in the ion regulation system of the Lancaster’s engines—but the device was unstable. It was possible the detonation would occur after the colonists had disembarked for the planet.

And that would not do.

Jeremiah reached out and squeezed his brother’s shoulder. After all, history was written by the victors.

Write as much or as little as you’d like.

For the curious, this is actually part of an abandoned prologue for a very old project of mine.Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Real Life Diagnostics: Does This Opening Work?

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: Two

Please Note: As of today, RLD slots are booked through September 8.

This week’s question:

1. Does this opening work?

Market/Genre: Unspecified

On to the diagnosis…

Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

An Easy Tip for Developing Story Ideas

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
This week's Refresher Friday takes an updated look at developing story ideas from nothing.

It's not unusual for a writer to have an idea for a general story (such as a series, trilogy, particular genre), but have no clue what that story is going to be. Often in these cases, they have a character, world, and even rules in mind, but only a vague idea, not "An Idea" they can write an entire novel from.

If you truly have no idea beyond premise and character, it's helpful to first look at concept and theme. Until you can narrow the story focus to something manageable, it's just too large to work with. The first step, is to figure out what general type of story fits the rough ideas you have.

Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Get Noticed: How to Submit Your Author News to Newsletters

By Ann Meier
 
Part of The Writer's Life Series

JH: Many organizations rely on volunteers to handle things such as newsletters and blogs, and the harder you make it for them to piece together your writing news, the less likely they are to use it. Ann Meier, newsletter guru for the Florida chapter of MWA, visits the lecture hall today to share tips on how you can make sure your news gets out there.

Ann Meier lives in Orlando and writes Mysteries with a Theme Park Smile for both adult and middle grade readers. Her humorous adult cozy series features an Orlando attraction manager, who unfairly catches the blame when a parade float crushes her boss. Ann’s middle grade mysteries feature an eleven-year-old boy named Buddy, who on the Orlando Area Attractions Kids’ Advisory Board. As he roams the parks, he finds lots of fun mysteries to solve.

The books’ parks are fictional, but Meier was a manager on the Universal Orlando Resort opening team. She also worked at Walt Disney World. She’s received five Royal Palm Literary Awards from The Florida Writers Association for her manuscripts. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and Florida Writers Association. She has co-authored a college textbook, written journal articles, and worked in human resources for a Fortune 100 company. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from Ball State University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is represented by Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli of the JET Literary Agency.

Website | Facebook

Take it away Ann...
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Why a Well-Written Novel Can Still Stink

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A writer can do everything “right” and still have a novel that doesn’t engage readers.
I recently finished a novel by an author I like. Their previous series was wonderful and I eagerly dived into the new one, expecting to enjoy yet another exciting tale. Instead, I found a technically well-done novel that left me flat. From the reviews I later peeked at online, I’m not the only one who felt this way.

It was sad, because this author went from “auto-buy” to “wait and see the reviews” with one so-so book. And it didn’t have to happen.

Taste vary, of course (which is why I’m not sharing the title), but the first series was wonderful for several reasons:
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Vicarious Trauma: A Danger Writers Need to Be Aware of

By Bonnie Randall

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

Acclaimed YA author Chris Crutcher said “Once a thing is known, it can’t be unknown.”

As a writer, and as a social worker, I tend to be exposed to, and research, a variety of extraordinarily dark topics. It is the nature of my job to know these things, and the genre of fiction I craft frequently dives into forbidden, life-altering places.

Very early in my career, when I was still paying my dues as a child protection investigator, I recall becoming defensive when a member of Joe Public sneered about CPS workers, calling them ‘brain-dead’ and ‘useless’. My rebuttal was fierce: “You have no idea what these workers are exposed to,” I fired back. “Most people only ever hear about kiddie porn. We’re forced to see it.”

Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Are You In or Out? Crafting Outlines That Work for You

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Outlining your novel is a useful tool to keep you focused and on track--but it doesn't have to curb your spontaneity if you do it right.
When I first started writing, I tried every outlining and plotting technique that came my way. I was convinced that if I found the perfect template, all my plotting problems would be solved. I was wrong (there is no "perfect template"), but all that trial and error did help me discover something important.

An outline that worked for me.

It didn’t magically solve all my plotting problems, but it did make it easier for me to plot and see where my problems were, which made it easier to write the novel. Outlining helped me discover the essential pieces I needed before I put words down, so I didn’t spend as much time spinning my literary wheels. It gave me enough structure to let my stories develop naturally, but didn’t plan so tightly that my creativity stagnated.

Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Writing Prompt: The Story Starter: It’s a Dream Come True

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week’s prompt is a story starter, so take the element provided and turn it into a story of any length you choose. If you’re stuck on size, I suggest aiming for 1000-2000 words.

We focus on the bad so much (conflict, Dark Moments, disasters), so this week, let’s write a scene or short story that focuses on the good. Not only is it a nice change of pace, but it’s good practice for the after-climax wrap ups and happy endings.

Show the moment when the protagonist achieves their dream.
Write whatever this triggers, and use these details however you wish. Put them together, use them separately, make one a detail in a scene, whatever inspires you—run with it. Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com

Real Life Diagnostics: Does This Young Adult Christian Opening Make You Want to Read More?

Critique By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

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 September 8.

This week’s question:

1. Does the opening work?

Market/Genre: Young Adult (Christian) Fiction

On to the diagnosis…
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com