Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 200

Strong Secondary Characters

Writer Camille LaGuire is running an interesting interview series on secondary characters for her blog, The Daring Novelist.

I love the idea, because supporting characters can really make a book, but they don't get a whole lot of attention.

Today, I'm at The Daring Novelist, talking a little about Cherry, a Memphis Barbeque secondary character who can be a scene-stealer. Hope you'll join me. :)

Finding Resources for Writers

When I first started out in earnest as a writer, there was no real organized community of writers online.

Fast forward over ten years later, and the online writing community has exploded with tons of advice and resources for writers—but how to organize the information to make it usable?

Hope you'll pop over to Jami Gold's blog for my post on the WKB. :)

Getting to Know Your Character and the Appeal of Small Town Settings

Today I'm on Penguin's blog, talking a little bit about an easy way you can get acquainted with your characters—by spending a whole day with them while doing your regular routine. (Just be careful…sometimes it's easy to get carried away!) Hope you'll pop by and join me.

I'm also on Joanna Penn's blog, The Creative Penn, talking a bit about the appeal of a small town setting (and why I choose it over and over again!) Thanks, y'all!

It's easy to lose focus in the middle of a book. Usually ...

It's easy to lose focus in the middle of a book. Usually that's when I start running out of steam—and realizing I still have a long way to go to wrap up my story.

Since I've frequently encountered the saggy middle problem, I've developed different techniques to help me approach it. Hope you'll join me today at Janice Hardy's blog for some tips.

12 Super Powers and Super Tools for Writers

Today I'm on sci-fi writer Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog, talking about super powers we writers should have (in the perfect world.) Hope you'll come by and join me!

Twitterific

Below are writing links that I've posted to Twitter in the past week. Hope you'll enter this month's WKB giveaway for a chance to win the "Butt-in-Chair" writer productivity eBook by Jennifer Blanchard.
Two copies to give away! Enter the drawing

Finger Lickin' Dead released on the 7th. Hope you'll consider it if you enjoy mysteries, or know someone who does.Download it on Kindle: http://amzn.to/kh7MAp Mass market paperback: http://amzn.to/lfUE2N
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And--Happy Father's Day, Daddy! (And to all the dads out there. :) )

The elusive rewards of e-book publishing: http://bit.ly/kpewmT

Beware These Writing Pests: http://bit.ly/jT9RD3

Things one writer has learned after completing his 1st draft: http://bit.ly/jJWJxX @JustusRStone

Making thrillers out of classics: adapting Shakespeare's Macbeth: http://bit.ly/mNvEcD

Writing time-management for the harried home-writer: http://bit.ly/kN2aL7

All About Glosses, or Brief Definitions: http://bit.ly/kyicNq

Why writing a sleuthing have a lot in common: http://bit.ly/keR6wt @mkinberg

The Art of Keeping Your Blog Audience Coming Back for More: http://bit.ly/lrWX8C

My "Finger Lickin' Dead" release and a chance to win it: http://bit.ly/jy9s1J

Did You Know? Twitter Hashtags & How to Use Them: http://bit.ly/kETg19 @JanetBoyer

Working Within a Critique Group: http://bit.ly/jaMeRJ

Amateur-Hour Books: Do You Know the Warning Signs? http://bit.ly/lGkJud

Publishing Traditionally Without an Agent - Part II: http://bit.ly/kS9LzN

5 Tips to Stay Encouraged During Querying: http://bit.ly/jYaZKg

5 Articles on Knowing When to Submit: http://bit.ly/jJj4jH

Yoga for Writers: http://bit.ly/msLXdV

5 ways to screw up your author podcast: http://bit.ly/iInClc

It's a Start: The First Line: http://bit.ly/jUyKKd

Edit in an Instant? Ain't Gonna Happen: http://bit.ly/iTZfJA

Write Your Query FIRST for a Better Book: http://bit.ly/kUfGL4

On Story Arcs: http://bit.ly/lsSw8o

Trading Excerpts with Other Authors in the Back Matter of Your Ebook: http://bit.ly/jqNnf0

Write your novel in 30 days--Day 3: Getting your ducks in a row: http://bit.ly/jH2LLf @Mommy_Authors

The 10 Most Powerful Women Authors (Forbes): http://onforb.es/kmcqPc

For writing quotes--from the interesting to the inspirational: @AdviceToWriters and http://www.advicetowriters.com/

20 Reasons Why Creative People Work in Cafes: http://bit.ly/jZVNsE via @on_creativity

A writer & tweeter focuses on giveaways for readers & publicizes contests for promoting authors: @romancegiveaway @joanswan

A prolific book cover artist explains her process: http://bit.ly/isXO21

Are you misappropriating malapropisms? http://bit.ly/iVUFwR

Writing Male Characters: http://bit.ly/jdywAe

Vampires: Origins, Evolution and Role in Fantasy Fiction: http://bit.ly/mp9gF7

The inculcation of some good writing habits: http://bit.ly/kvCoik

10 Tips for Critiquing Other People's Writing: http://bit.ly/lTi0uw

5 Weak Words that Make Your Writing Less Effective: http://bit.ly/l6Kt48

Drafting your first novel: http://bit.ly/mjYvRc

How to Be a Dream Interview Subject: http://bit.ly/jt6YdJ

Beating Writer's Block Using Everyday Experiences: http://bit.ly/mbpFCY

17 tips for a successful writing blog: http://bit.ly/mmcwKD @annerallen

Real Life Diagnostics: Opening Thrill of a Thriller: http://bit.ly/iKgdye

Fixing flat sentences: http://bit.ly/kdPJCd

Writers--appreciate your growth: http://bit.ly/lRIIzd @juliemusil

How To Write Novels and Short Stories - Not: http://bit.ly/lWHLJa

A helpful thesaurus for settings, emotions, symbolism, & weather--now with character traits: http://bit.ly/mQINxh @AngelaAckerman

Write your novel in 30 days--Day 5:Turning Points: http://bit.ly/jY3Dlg @Mommy_Authors

Researching story locations: http://bit.ly/mmh4kk @storiestorm

Now with over 8000 links to help #writers find resources: http://bit.ly/dYRayA

Examples of series that have been continued after the author's demise: http://bit.ly/kALbyr @mkinberg

The well-read author--tips for finding time to read: http://bit.ly/jdqPBL @penguinusa

4 Ways to Grow Your Blog with the Power of Experts: http://bit.ly/myyPpf

The New Nook Simple Touch Reader: Awesome for Reading and Buying Books. Everything else? Meh. http://bit.ly/mpqq27

Cover Page Design for the Dirt Poor and Graphically Challenged: http://bit.ly/jL5NtE

Tasks that take up a writer's work day: http://bit.ly/mOIb49

9 ways to build a better blog and increase your traffic in the process: http://bit.ly/kLws0C @Harrison314

Developing Your Creative Practice: http://bit.ly/lOpVkp

How to Win Readers and Make Them Stick: http://bit.ly/jgTvMw

My look at a master of mystery who inspired me to write: http://bit.ly/iT9Xpk @kbowenwriter

Lee Goldberg's response to Joe Konrath's post on the Mystery Writers of America: http://bit.ly/iuy9GU

An Editor Looks at First Pages: http://bit.ly/jod1Mv

As usual, a nice links roundup from 2 historical writers: http://bit.ly/mNWInq

Search my tweets-- http://dld.bz/KPgS

Balancing the long view and the short view as a writer: http://bit.ly/mwtGeX

Traditional & Indie Publishing Advantages: http://bit.ly/m203UX

40+ Free Tools for Authors: http://bit.ly/ltxIGx

Improving Creativity: The Absorb Brainset: http://bit.ly/lb0ixD

Tips for attending writers' conferences: http://bit.ly/msEwh1

Young Adult Literature: Is it too dark? WSJ Thinks So...http://bit.ly/kiX9j5

Maintaining your story's verb tense: http://bit.ly/iBxwYR

Are Teen Novels Dark and Depraved — or Saving Lives? (Publishers Weekly): http://bit.ly/jMABnO

Stories are like sharks – to stay alive they must keep moving: http://bit.ly/iN0Qcd

Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Speed: http://bit.ly/lIVgw0

The Matrix Moment of Story Engineering: http://bit.ly/l4qBzj

Tips for interviewing: http://bit.ly/lIss4f

Writers Beware: http://bit.ly/k58cHI

Promotional Materials For Authors: Bookmarks: http://bit.ly/kFydcr

Heroic fantasy: http://bit.ly/m8aqHz

Sex vs. Relationships in YA: http://bit.ly/malmj4

YA Fairy Tale Retellings: http://bit.ly/ixa7rU

Manage Email, Not Time: http://bit.ly/k37Gb0

For the writer addicted to office supply stores...a blog devoted to pens: http://bit.ly/iAsAhW via @designerdaze

10 of the best bows and arrows in literature (Guardian): http://bit.ly/iIakGK

Why 'real poets' don't exist: http://bit.ly/j3EMpL

A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices: http://bit.ly/lBjKse

Plotting the Mystery: http://bit.ly/kadBf3

Why 1 writer won't include musical references in his books: http://bit.ly/mbz8Pu

A character trait thesaurus entry for "thoughtful": http://bit.ly/jDPU2s @AngelaAckerman

The search engine for #writers: http://bit.ly/dYRayA

The real road to social media success may surprise you: http://bit.ly/lT0y5c

The Secret to Selling: Writing a Fast-Paced Novel: http://bit.ly/jcrERU

The courage *not* to publish: http://bit.ly/mGt6P5

Writing a sequel? Tips to keep from boring returning readers or confusing new ones: http://t.co/bq877QW @HartJohnson

40 Questions for a Stronger Manuscript: http://bit.ly/iPP1WP @4kidlit

Scenes are about change: http://bit.ly/iTSYfi

Should you consider using chapter titles? http://bit.ly/lkeY1M @JulietteWade

"The Help" –Context and Concept: http://bit.ly/lyZoWx

5 Reasons to Consider Giving Away a Free Ebook: http://bit.ly/jQXKYc

One writer's road map for writing mysteries: http://bit.ly/kgIoLf

The Importance of Supporting Characters: http://bit.ly/m5htd7

What Makes Good Sci Fi: http://bit.ly/kPNty5

7 Ways to Build Up Your Writing Confidence: http://bit.ly/mlCGyS

6 Easy Ways To Reward Your Twitter Followers: http://on.mash.to/lSjDTT

Just because the book is bad doesn't mean someone will come to your house and arrest you: http://bit.ly/ldEUAe

The Emptiness of 'Literary Fiction' and the Stereotyping of Genre Literature: http://bit.ly/ln1XHq

A Tip for the First Time Novelist: http://bit.ly/j6CWx2

Why Staying Silent Can Cost You: http://bit.ly/lP0jn3

Sign up for the monthly WKB newsletter for the web's best links and interviews: http://bit.ly/gx7hg1

The Hunger Games - A Lesson In Plot: http://bit.ly/mgFXaH

Enjoy mysteries? Know someone who does? Check out my latest: Finger Lickin' Dead: Kindle: http://amzn.to/kh7MAp Print: http://amzn.to/lfUE2N

How to Revise a Manuscript or Story: http://bit.ly/lFYzd9

A Tortoise Writer Picks Up the Pace: http://bit.ly/mbdgo6

Into? In To? Onto? On To? http://bit.ly/jPD3TJ

10 Ways to Improve Your Author Website: http://bit.ly/k95Xbw

Conquering show and tell: http://bit.ly/iGnHjg

Juggling Plots, Characters, Publishers and Editors…Keeping it All Straight: http://bit.ly/ju2YCv

3 ways readers will judge your work: http://bit.ly/j0FqTg

5 Excellent Tips for Platform Building: http://bit.ly/inThpe

How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps: http://bit.ly/j8gChS

What Went Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels? http://bit.ly/ivK4GR

The Novel with Many Narrators is a Multiheaded Beast: http://bit.ly/ju1gaR

8 Reasons Why Unplugging Can Generate Better Ideas For Your Writing: http://bit.ly/kVR1nf

Working Through Pain: http://bit.ly/kSpy4K @ajackwriting

Blogging Solution For Those Who Hate To Blog: http://bit.ly/mC1FBd

More Sacred Cow-Tipping–Common Blogging Misconceptions: http://bit.ly/jvsOKr

Plot Busters – Three Tips from "Tangled": http://bit.ly/jW84xn

5 Productivity Tools for the Busy Freelancer: http://bit.ly/jEnJId

Querying dos and don'ts: http://bit.ly/kz1eaQ @HartJohnson @raquelbyrnes

How should authors deal with reviews? http://bit.ly/mLp3K8

Focus your Worldbuilding Efforts: http://bit.ly/ivvX07

Increasing Your Writing Productivity: http://bit.ly/kdeCTb

Love me! Read me! Buy me! Promoting Your Book: http://bit.ly/kyXIrt

The Dreaded Opening! - 5 Points about your Opening Scene: http://bit.ly/m0gA26

Book Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation And Using Press Releases For Your Book: http://bit.ly/jHVNxb @thecreativepenn

Conflict—Beyond Arguments and Fist Fights: http://bit.ly/lTTsUH

Literary Agents: Top 10 Ways to Make or Break that Relationship AFTER you Sign: http://bit.ly/lWNi1N

Book promo--traditional and 21st century: http://bit.ly/lHHtOq @SpunkOnAStick

Are You Ready for The Call? http://bit.ly/imi4TG

On the Edge of Your Seat – Creating Suspense: http://bit.ly/jHix2t

Make Your Writer's Bookshelf Work For You: http://bit.ly/kd2T3L @jhansenwrites

What men and women talk about when they talk about publishing: http://bit.ly/iTuHxr & http://bit.ly/lnnFkP via @Porter_Anderson @donlinn

Self-editing checklist--repetition: http://bit.ly/iYP2bC

Writing for Reluctant Readers: http://bit.ly/kXJUZg

Developing the Hook in a Query Letter: http://bit.ly/kR2Ak5

Need help with pacing? http://bit.ly/gbXFZH

7 Solutions for Repetitive Sentence Structure: http://bit.ly/mk60yf

Must writers be natural storytellers? http://bit.ly/m1huNk @JulieMusil

Have You Posted Your Work Online? http://bit.ly/kc4d6V

Why Email Kills Productivity & What You Can Do About It: http://bit.ly/iMn38C

Writing From a Woman's Point of View: http://bit.ly/kkdExi

Write Creatively, Stress Free: http://bit.ly/jIp0YJ

One writer is happy about advice she *didn't* take: http://bit.ly/l4jxCa

Need help with scene transitions? http://bit.ly/fivggV

How Writers Can Rock LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/mj6lqU @jhansenwrites

This Week's Twitter Tip–Understand the Power of Names: http://bit.ly/lO0zM7

The Pubbed Writer's 7 Deadly Sins: http://bit.ly/lQWLx5

7 tips for writing away from home: http://bit.ly/lQhMnf @AlanOrloff

4 steps to useful critiques: http://bit.ly/jEpX16

Tips for Tackling the Rewrite: http://bit.ly/kWW3mk

10 Ways to Avoid Mid-Book Doldrums: http://bit.ly/j70S00

Building a book blurb: http://bit.ly/mD0dRH

3 things to do before you pay for professional copyediting: http://bit.ly/l0iBCa

Story structure--beginnings: http://bit.ly/lRxT8f

How X-Men Can Help You Craft a Better Antagonist: http://bit.ly/iQZHCr

What KIND of story is it? http://bit.ly/jTxPwR

Best Articles This Week for Writers 6/17/11: http://bit.ly/iqKcrY @4kidlit

eBook Self-Publishing: A Simple Guideline and Some Tips on Taking Those First Steps: http://bit.ly/kREUH9

Creativity Tweets of the Week — 6/17/11: http://bit.ly/iutKfK @on_creativity

A Case For Slow Writing: http://bit.ly/kdqxvh

Why Writers Need Lists: http://bit.ly/iN3ZuK

The Writer's Soul: Built One Crack At A Time: http://bit.ly/iusRJp

On publishers who say they're "looking for new voices:" http://bit.ly/lLTlP0

Why Creative Blocks Aren't Always Bad: http://bit.ly/imqrOj

How Much Should an Editor Charge? http://bit.ly/j1cobA

A writer's standing desk experiment: http://zenhabits.net/stand/

10 Stages of Revision Emotions: http://bit.ly/m9mBWG

Word 2010, Track Changes, and Privacy Concerns: http://bit.ly/lf1axF

Sexism in SF and F? http://bit.ly/kn5nqP

How to Manage Freelance Writing Projects: http://bit.ly/k9xpCN

Write What You Know? Maybe Not: http://bit.ly/mNcBlz

Dictate Your Story – An Unconventional Method of Completing A First Draft: http://bit.ly/jHhK7M

Why The 99-Cent Price Point May Not Be Working for You: http://bit.ly/jEhTCX

Formulating a fantastic first line: http://bit.ly/kwK4vw

Collaborative Writing: http://bit.ly/miIcWL

Are appearances still a worthwhile way to promote your book? http://bit.ly/mOkLfF

What to do after finishing your 1st draft: http://bit.ly/ke6HNT

Word 2010, Track Changes, and Privacy Issues

Hope y'all will excuse this technical post…I'm thinking it might help some of you out there.

The program that editors like working with is Word. They like editing back and forth with the writer with Word's Track Changes program.

I've gotten so that I enjoy using the program myself and use it for my own editing and revision, even before sending the manuscript to my publisher for revision.

In previous versions of Word (most recently 2003, 2007), if I wanted to remove my inane babblings to myself before sending my document to my first readers, agent, and editor, I'd open the document; save an old, marked-up version for my own use; open Track Changes; accept or remove all the changes; delete the comments; turn off Track Changes (if I was trying to be especially cautious); save the new version under a new name ("for review" was usually in the title name), and email it off.

Imagine my chagrin when I've recently done this in Word 2010 and found that my first reader and agent were opening up marked-up documents with my private notes, ideas, etc.

At first I thought it was just me making an error in one of the steps above. That's because I'm very forgetful, but I can usually hold a thought in my head throughout a 2-minute process.

Since it's happened a couple of times recently, I thought to try to do a little research on the problem. Because today I'm sending 75 pages of a document to a new editor for the new quilting mystery series for a cover conference and I really want to send out a clean copy that doesn't show my personal scribbles about what I see as problem areas of the manuscript, etc.

On Google, a simple search showed that others were having the same issue with 2010—most notably a law office that was horrified it was sending marked-up documents to a different law firm when they thought they weren't.

After some digging, I discovered that one thing you'll want to do if you want to send a clean document out is to open your document, go to your "Developer" tab, click on "Macro Security," click on "Privacy Options," look at "Document-specific settings" and UN-check "Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving." Because, y'all, if I've hidden something, I darned well want it to stay hidden!

To make absolutely sure your document doesn't have any hidden metadata, you're going to want to save a marked-up version of your old document for yourself (because once this document is scrubbed, it's possible you can't ever get those edits back), then do this (and this is right from Microsoft Word help):

Open the Office document that you want to inspect for hidden data or personal information. Click the Microsoft Office Button, click Save As, and then type a name in the File name box to save a copy of your original document. (In 2010, click "File")

Important It is a good idea to use the Document Inspector on a copy of your original document because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes.

In the copy of your original document, click the Microsoft Office Button, (file in 2010) point to Prepare, ("Prepare for Sharing" in 2010) and then click Inspect Document. In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the check boxes to choose the types of hidden content that you want to be inspected. For more information about the individual Inspectors, see What information can the Document Inspector find and remove? Click Inspect. Review the results of the inspection in the Document Inspector dialog box. Click Remove All next to the inspection results for the types of hidden content that you want to remove from your document.

Important

If you remove hidden content from your document, you might not be able to restore it by clicking Undo. The inspectors for Comments and Annotations, Document Properties and Personal Information, and Headers and Footers cannot be used in an Excel workbook that has been saved as a shared workbook (Review tab, Shared Workbook command). This is because shared workbooks use personal information to enable different people to collaborate on the same workbook. To remove this information from a shared workbook, you can copy the workbook, and then unshare it. To unshare a workbook, on the Review tab, click Shared Workbook. On the Editing tab, clear the Allow changes by more than one user at the same time check box. If you want to remove hidden data and personal information from documents you save in one of the OpenDocument Formats (.odt, .ods, .odp), you must run the Document Inspector every time you save the document in one of these formats.

I'm glad that my own musings and thoughts on my manuscript only made it into the hands of first readers and my agent. It's just not cool to send a document off that way to an editor. And I'm a little irked at Microsoft that this privacy issue wasn't more obvious.

And if there are any techies out there who find any errors in this post or have any additional comments to make on this issue, please bring them up in my comments so I can make addendums and corrections to the post.

Any of y'all irritated by privacy issues with Facebook or MS Word?

Tips for Writing Away from Home

This is the first week of summer vacation for my children…and I'm writing on the go more than ever as we go from swimming pools to skating rinks to bowling alleys!  Hope you'll pop over and visit me at Alan Orloff's A Million Blogging Monkeys today for some tips on writing away from home.

Thoughts on Book Promo

Today I'm visiting Spunk on a Stick, talking a little about book promo.  I've tried both traditional marketing and a more modern approach (with varying degrees of success.)  Hope you'll come by and visit. :)

Juggling Plots, Characters, Publishers and Editors…Keeping it All Straight

Today I'm over at P.M. Terrell's blog, with my thoughts on juggling storylines, publishers, characters, and more.  Hope you'll come by and join me!

And…I'm announcing the winner of my Finger Lickin' Dead giveaway over at the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen blog today.  Hope you'll come by for some fried okra and the giveaway results. :)