Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 152
April 18, 2014
How To Write Descriptions People Want to Read: Horses
This is the second in the “How to Write Descriptions” series (updated from my last post on this topic here). This one is on horses. I had to write about horses in the wild for one of my novels so I spent a lot of time reading about and watching them. Here’s what I learned:
they recognize the distant approach of friend or foe
they anticipate storms and earthquakes
when they’re happy, they drop their heads, flip them high, maybe make a high and full skyward circle with their noses. Their behavior is eager, interested, alert, playful, responsive
they can laugh–not a human laugh. Horses curl their upper lip, fully exposing their upper front teeth. They do a good deal of prancing with raised tail.
they will reply to you with raised head, arched neck, muzzle down; they’ll prick their ears forward and might even take off at a dead run
when they’re angry, their ears lie back, tail swishes as if at a fly; when they’re angrier, their hindquarters tense; their ears become even closer to their skull, tail more vigorous, and their rear hoof raises slightly
they show pride by prancing with ears straight forward, nostrils flaring, tail up, head pointed downward on arched neck
they show interest when their nose, eyes, ears point straight ahead at the object of interest, circling in curiosity
they show eagerness by stamping their front foot, then hind foot, shaking their head, dancing sideways, ears turned back to rider or forward to where he is going
when they’re healthy, their coat glows–reflects light; their mane and tail are soft, not matted, lumpy, or coarse, and their hindquarters are dappled with color in summer
when they’re in pain, they shrug or shiver the affected muscle, slap their tail as close as possible to the area of discomfort, swing their head backward to hit the offended part with their muzzle; when it’s worse, their ears turn back toward the pain, eyes look blank, and they groan; when it’s severe, they groan, tremble and sweat
when they’re sharp, they are eager, with a glowing appearance
when they’re bereaved, they move around the stall in restless circles, head out the door; their ears prick forward looking for their companion, and they sniff the air for the missing scent
when they’re frightened, their ears, nose, eyes point straight at the object of concern; they loudly sniff, furrow their eyes; they’re light-footed, dancing restlessly in place; they try to flee, awash in sweat, whites of eyes visible; they breathe heavily with much nostril movement and frightened nickers; their head hangs almost to the ground, eyes closed, ears flopped down motionless to sides; they won’t eat or drink
when they’re bored, they shift their weight restlessly; hold their head sleepily down and then move it actively; they become very mouthy
when they’re sick, they are listless, inactive, less responsive; their coat turns dull; when they’re very sick, they lower their heads and are even less responsive
–Beautiful artwork used with permission of Horse Collectionary.
More animal descriptions:
How To Write Descriptions People Want to Read: Wild Animals
Filed under: descriptors, nature Tagged: animal descriptions, characterization, horses, natural settings
April 16, 2014
It’s OK to Write What You Don’t Know
Mark Twain started it when he said, “Write what you know.” From then on, writers have taken that as gospel. Dig deep. Scratch out what you feel/think/are passionate about and bleed it onto the page. As new writers it’s one of three truths pounded into us–Show don’t tell, Murder your babies, and Write what you know.
No one ever asks, “Don’t novelists make stuff up?” It doesn’t seem to matter that no one’s ever seen DC blow up though thriller writers postulate it all the time. How about a massive gorilla atop the Empire State Building? Fantasy writers make up whole worlds and species. As do Sci Fi aficionados. Did they not get the memo? What about Hannibal Lector, cutting people’s heads open to eat their living brain? Or Criminal Minds‘ psycho killers? I’d rather drink Drano than think they’re real.
In a rational literary world, making stuff up makes sense. It’s called ‘fiction’, which Webster defines as ‘not real’ (I’ve abbreviated, but you get the idea). How does that jive with ‘Write what you know’. What Mark Twain should have said–maybe meant to say–was ‘Lie creatively. Do your research, weave with zest, be believable, and write’. But that’s got all the literary charisma of a dirty needle.
Maybe he meant it as a suggestion, Write what you know. Or not. Your choice.
I confess, I tried to ‘write what I know’. I imagined what people I knew would do in particular circumstances and wrote that story. It was boring. Then, I researched a topic, got all the details exquisitely perfect and added fiction characteristics like characters, setting, crises, pacing–stuff like that. It was creative nonfiction before that was invented. I figured I was still ‘writing what I knew’, just embellishing.
No one bought it. I actually loved it, but not so much I didn’t recognize that it had no power, passion, or pull.
That’s when the truth hit me: Great authors don’t write what they know. They write what they wish they knew or should know. Maybe they include their politics or morals or some other closely-held opinions, like sauce on an over-cooked chicken, but the rest is fiction.
Today, twenty years and counting into my writing fantasy, I’m ready to admit I’ve been duped. If you like me have seen the truth, I invite you to a virtual Write-What-You-Know Writers Anonymous meeting. Add your name to the Comment section below. I’ll start. Hi. My name is Jacqui, and I’m a recovering WWYKW. Since my epiphany, I’ve written ten thousand eight hundred and seventy words that have no basis in my life, history, or reality.
Who’s next?
–Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/5244626511/sizes/m/in/photostream/
–Article first appeared in Today’s Author
More Writer Tips:
#IWSG–My Writing Style Doesn’t Work
14 Things Writers Do Before 8am
Writers Tip #37: Don’t be Afraid to Tell the Truth
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: Todays Author, writing Tagged: truth
April 14, 2014
15 Tips From Writing From A to Z
Sometimes what you need in your writing is a dictionary approach–the ability to look up your problem and find the answer. That’s what Writing From A to Z: The Easy-to-use Reference (McGraw Hill 2005) offers. This book is designed as a textbook for a writing class with print as well as online content. It includes topics such as basic grammar, logic and argumentation, methods of development, and sample student papers.You’ll notice right away it is geared for the teacher, with notes on how to address topics with students and how to handle class sort of issues. If you webmaster a writing blog, you might find this especially–and unusually–helpful as a way of organizing content and covering relevant topics for your readers and viewers.
One part I really like about this book is it covers less-chattered about topics. Sure, every how-to-write resource covers POV, plot, pacing, but this one covers can/may, writing formats (MLA and APA and more), prepositional phrases (people sure mess these up a lot). A few topics are included that have probably disappeared from the writer’s lexicon, but you might enjoy in a historic sense. For example, there’s a list of Revision Symbols used in reviewing a document. I still use them in my writer’s group, but I think few understand what I’m saying!
It’s expensive if you buy it new, but quite affordable used (in ‘very good’ condition, according to Amazon)–less than $5 when I looked. To me, the sort of writing tips found in this book are timeless, so I was happy about the discount.
Here are fifteen ideas I found especially useful:
A foldout in the front of all topics and page numbers
Flowchart of the writing process from prewriting to the finished document
Peer response guidelines, organized by kinds of writing (useful for critique groups as well as a writing class)
Overview of the research process from writers responsibilities to plagiarism
Alphabetic list of abbreviations
An explanation of Boolean searches
When/how to use commas (this caught my attention because a reader just asked a question about the use of commas in a list)
Comparison and contrast as a method of development
First drafts
A discussion of logic and argumentation
Different document designs–for business, academics, online
Literary analysis
Past perfect tense, past participles and the like
When to use question marks (revisit Writers Tip #99–the misuse of question marks is one of Noah Lukeman’s hot buttons)
How to avoid vague words (love this one. Vague and mitigating words drain all the power out of a scene)
More writers’ resources:
36 Essential Books for Every Writer
Self-editing for Fiction Writers
27 More (Writing) Tips From Twitter
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, writers tips Tagged: reference, writers resources, writers tips
April 11, 2014
Book Review: Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams
The Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams
by Mark Cohen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I browse the reference section of my local bookstore looking for any books to assist with my writing goals. I found M. J. Cohen’s The Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams (Penguin Books 2001) and stopped mid-stride, digging through my databanks for what-the-heck is an ‘epigram’. I should know that, right? The back flap says it’s ‘a short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterized by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom’.
Well that sounds good. I love that sort of conversation, enjoy using just that sort of retort in my blogging, comments and my novels.
I bought it and spent the next couple hours perusing the book. It includes an alphabetized list of epigrams by topic and theme, relaying both the quote, who said it, and in some cases the circumstances. I jomped to a few of my favorites to see what was included. Under ‘Excess’:
Though shalt not carry moderation to excess (Arthur Koestler)
Under ‘Equality’:
Men are born equal. By the next day, they no longer are. (Jules Bernard)
Under Government:
The only good government is a bad one in a Hell of a fright (Joyce Cary)
Under ‘Heroes’:
Thoughts of heroes were as good as warming pans (George Meredith)
Under ‘Knowledge’:
For knowledge itself is power (Francis Bacon)
Under ‘Kings, Queens, and Leaders’:
The true leader is always led (C.G. Jung)
These are fine, but not what I was looking for. I wanted fireworks, gasps, profound brilliance from names I’d recognize. I moved to the Index where quotees were listed. These–to me–are better:
Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested (Winston Churchill on Education)
Every human being invariably exercises all the power of which it is capable (Thucydides on Power)
Civilization has made the peasantry its pack animal. The bourgeoisie in the long run only changed the form of the pack (Trotsky on Civilization)
It is possible to be a writer, but not to become one (Herman Hesse in Writing)
Sin is God’s private pasture; if you graze in its vicinity, you will run the risk of entering it (Mohammed)
What this told me about myself: I base wisdom heavily on who’s saying it. I had difficulty recognizing the brilliance of the epigram when it came from individuals I wasn’t familiar with, where the book turned into a page-turner when I discovered the index, allowing me to find people I knew and read their thoughts. As a result, this isn’t a reference book I use much–though I thought I would like seeing how respected intellects synopsized emotions and events in their simplest form.
What about you? Is that the way you catalog words? How important is it?
More posts about quotations:
Humorous and Inspiration Quotes–Part II
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, quotes Tagged: epigrams
April 9, 2014
How to Describe Vehicles–Cars, Boats, Planes, More
This is updated from the last posting on this topic on 7/15/11.
If you’re character is crossing a street, driving to work, waiting for a visitor, you’ll devote a few words to the vehicle that’s making this activity happen. It might be a car, a train, plane–whatever. My collection is brief, but rich. As usual, they are from the books I read, so use them for inspiration, not verbatim. I hope you add some of your own ideas in the comments:
Airborne
Bird (for helo)
Trotted through the gale of the blades, overcoat lifting, tie flapping back across his shoulder
Bikes
Junking his bike from side to side
Boats
fouled her rails
one of the water shuttle boats from Rowe’s Wharf was trudging toward the airport
Cars
Carver weaved between cars
Town cars, black with tinted windows, sitting low on their chassis due to the concealed armored plating
The engine whined at a high pitch and the wind roared through the open windows so no one talked
Driving his rented Taurus along a thin winding road
10 minutes for the convoy to craw through the dusty streets
The Mercedes left the curb like the shuttle from the launchpad.
The muscular automobile begged to be given its reins, like a racehorse on an early morning run
It halted in front of…
Flash-flooded highway—cars got stranded in foot-deep lakes
The Honda juddered up and over the obstruction.
Pulled off and found a place to park and wait awhile for the radiator to cool before he put in some fresh fluid from the trunk
Pointed his car toward Langley
The rain came steady and cold against the windshield and rattled on the roof of the car
Car with a funny bumper sticker
Unfurled from her car like a boxer entering the ring
Expensive cars: Maybach Landaulets, Bulgatti Veyrons, SSC Ultimate Aero, Leblanc Mirabeau, Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster, Lamborghini Reventon, Koenigsegg CCXR
After too short a ride
Gravel ticking up from below and rattling around in the undercarriage
Ink black SUV
Panel van, black panel van
3 vehicles arrowed out of the airport and hit the highway
Mark’s Lada labored through enormous potholes and up sharp inclines as it tackled the foothills
He slowed, then went right onto a pebble driveway that meandered between white horse fence, thick pine trees every hundred feet or so,
The SUV sped up the long, sloping driveway in front of the beautiful Queen Anne style mansion
Spotless red Jeep glittering in the fluorescent light
Could drive across the entire continent never seeing farther than the beams of your headlights.
Listened to the engine tick
A dark green Land Rover,, the Defender model, all kitted out in brush bars, searchlights, and a siren mounted on the bonnet.
the car behind him honked once more, he would go take the driver out, but then his wallet was back…
Drew a bead on the car
An older low-slung Impala came toward him
Older white panel van
Pimped black Escalade
Two Accords with fat tires and stingers
Turned on the ignition and flipped on the wipers
Three-year-old Camaro, a rally-red Z28
Unfolded himself from the battered MG
Sounds
The rhythmic pounding punctures the stillness of the morning air—fwtt fwtt fwtt
Drumbeat of a chopper, coming in low, hidden by the tree line
Thrum of the rotors
The engine whined at a high pitch
Traffic howled in both directions
Doppler wail of a passing patrol car
Squawking
Traffic
white cones of headlamps
the headlights made the wet highway shimmer
traffic was faintly visible thru the door
battered ’67 Ford Fairlane
Headlights flicked a couple of times
Windshield wipers barely keeping up with the cold, hard rain.
Kept the car at a steady sixty. Power line poles flashed past, the tires sang, the motor hummed.
throttled around the corner
Rainswept morning rush hour, bumper to bumper
Streets glistened and the cars had their lights on even though it was well after sunrise.
cut a few blocks inland
Trucks
As it churned slowly past
Huge tires howled
The scream of stressed rubber dying away, thin drifts of moving blue smoke following it
Nothing to hear but the Malibu’s patient idle. Nothing to see but four high beams stabbing the far shoulder. The air was full of the smell of burned rubber and hot brakes and gas and oil.
Big rigs thundered down the highway and he could feel their vibrations in his chest
Sticky-smell of burned transmission fluid, spoiled fruit and bubble gum.
Miscellaneous
sheet metal buckling around him
More descriptors:
Characteristics That Make Your Character Memorable
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: descriptors, plot, setting, writers resources Tagged: descriptors, writing resources
April 7, 2014
29 Writing Blunders from William Noble
Author William Noble is a fascinating man. He is the author or co-author of many books. His books for writers, each a main selection of the Writers Digest Book Club (now defunct), include “Shut Up!” He Explained; Make That Scene, Steal This Plot, and Conflict, Action, and Suspense (Elements of Fiction series). His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in more than 40 magazines and newspapers. He has appeared on more than 80 TV and radio shows in connection with his writing, and now is a full-time writer based in his 150-year-old farmhouse in Cornwall, Vermont.
I bought William Noble’s Noble’s Book of Writing Blunders (Writers Digest 2006) based on the strength of it’s summary, which included good ideas like Don’t write for your eighth-grade teacher, Don’t complicate the obvious, Don’t add adverbs and adjectives to prettify your prose. Common sense reminders of what I should know but forget in the flurry of my own prose. After spending an hour with it, I decided the best ideas were listed on the dustcover, but that alone made the book worth it.
These sound good, don’t they:
Don’t Pacify Your Verb Voice
Don’t Repeat Without Relevance
Don’t be Afraid to Make Your Own Rules
All writers who haven’t made a name for themselves, and with that garnered the permission to write as they please, must follow enough rules that an agent will read their mss. I can add a few more to that list–Show not Tell, Beware the Gerund.
Inside the book, I found less-well-known blunders:
Don’t be a slave to the grammar guru. The only time to ignore grammar is in dialogue.
Don’t write the perfect paragraph. I didn’t have to read anything to know where this one headed
Don’t sprinkle the poet’s urge over the narrator’s product. I get that one too–and I’ve abused it. But then, I grew into my writing, decided to leave poetry for others.
Here’s what I decided: The book has good tips, but Noble takes a long time to make them. The best list of self-edit tips I’ve ever found is in the Marshall Plan. They’re brief, more like reminders than missives, and all very (very) important.
You can read the background on William Noble on his webpage. He seems a likeable, even charismatic man, with a long history of writing. I like that. I may even try one of his other books.
Here are the 29 mistakes William Noble believe you never ever–I mean ever–want to make as a writer. If you want more detail, buy his book and read the relevant chapter:
Don’t write for your eighth grade teacher
Don’t complicate the obvious
Don’t be a slave to a grammar guru
Don’t let that point of view waver
Don’t freeze and formalize language
Don’t use journalese or slangify words and phrases
Don’t overuse the thesaurus
Don’t underuse the dictionary
Don’t duck the punch in punctuation
Don’t wallow in a sentence straightjacket
Don’t write the perfect paragraph
Don’t get trick and jazzy with style
Don’t add adverbs and adjectives to prettify your prose
Don’t sprinkle the poet’s urge over the narrator’s product
Don’t let rhythm and sound turn sour
Don’t dabble with smoky words
Don’t expect the maid to clean up your mess
Don’t hug fad words without your fingers crossed
Don’t get cute with spellings and dialogue
Don’t wave away cliches and botched metaphors
Don’t pacify your very voice
Don’t hide parallelisms in the prose
Don’t ignore effective italics
Don’t repeat without relevance
Don’t assume author absolutism
Don’t wrap characters in the same grammar blanket
Don’t neglect grammar when mood and atmosphere change
Don’t underestimate the richness of the English language
Don’t be afraid to make your own rules
By the way, if you’re going to purchase this for your library, Barnes and Noble has it for $1.99 online (a/o 4/5/14).
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
More writing tips from authors:
Ten Commandments from Richard Bausch
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: writers resources, writers tips Tagged: writers tips
April 4, 2014
Book Review: The Unfolding of Language
The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind’s Greatest Invention
by Guy Deutscher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I love studying how man became who he is–living in communities, farming the land (rather than hunter-gatherers), believing in a god, decorating our bodies, creating unique cultures. Many believe our most human characteristic is the development of language.
All living things communicate in some way, often with methods we can’t identify or articulate, but they’re there. Not the way we’d do it, which BTW describes so many inter- and intra-cultural relationships. I would have done it differently… Interestingly, many paleoanthropologic researchers define ‘language’ as spoken words and phrases, sentences, the development of syntax, use of symbols to represent ideas (like written numbers and a hill that’s too far away to see but is there). This seems to be Dr. Deutscher’s approach, and to that end, he’s done a scholarly, thorough discussion on the roots of language.
But I have a different take on ‘language’. I think it involves more than the spoken word. I find body language (which proponents argue communicates half of what we speak), facial expressions (think FACS, FBI, microexpressions), movement to be as telling of a person’s intentions as words. Sometimes more so. This is certainly true with other primates. Monkeys and Great Apes communicate with screeches, thumps, dances, chest beating–and more. They seem to express everything they need to, which doesn’t include how many chimps live in their group or how far away the blooming fruit tree is. We shouldn’t be surprised. Even as late as the early 1900′s (late 1800′s), many primitive tribespeople lived their entire lives without the need to count past five (which just happens to nicely tick off on one hand of fingers).
Yet, Deutscher argues language was born when we could prove it was born–”…for how can anyone presume to know what went on in prehistoric times without indulging in make-believe?” “…impressive range of theories circulating for how the first words emerged: from shouts and calls; from hand gestures and sign language; from the ability to imitate…The point is that as long as there is no evidence, all these scenarios remain ‘just so’ stories.” Or deductive reasoning. Something the modern brain excels at. This despite the fact that his cover includes the popular ape-man image.
Still, he adds humor and a highly intelligent discussion I thoroughly enjoyed.
Words Lie, Body Language Doesn’t
Born on a Blue Day–Insight into Learning
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, language, words Tagged: communication
April 2, 2014
#IWSG–Am I Brave Enough?
This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out). The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.
This month’s insecurity: Am I brave enough to be a good writer? (inspired by Kirsten over at A Scenic Route, in a comment she left on my February IWSG article).
I’ll start by saying I’m not brave. What might be characterized to others around me as ‘brave’ is actually forced. I know what must be done and I do it. Or, often–this is how I became a writer–I don’t know how to stop. It’s easier to keep moving forward than come up with a plan for a new direction. On the outside, that might be mistaken for brave, gutsy, or confident, but those genes were left out of my genome.
The problem is that adage–all you have to do to write is cut a vein and bleed onto the page. Meaning: Open your soul to complete strangers. Share your inner-most secrets. Stand at the front of the room to be judged by people you don’t know. I can’t do that. Just can’t. I try, fail, try again, fail again. Repeat.
So I imitate bleeding passion onto a page, but I doubt that anyone’s fooled.
What do I do?
More IWSG articles:
Am I good enough? Does it matter?–#IWSG
Fear of Saying Dumb Things Scares Me to Death
#IWSG–The World is Changing–Can I keep up
Will I Find Employment if I’m an Older Job Hunter?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: decision making, problem-solving, writing Tagged: insecure writers group, iwsg, opinion, writers
March 31, 2014
17 Tips From Noah Lukeman
Literary agent Noah Lukeman’s clients include Pulitzer Prize nominees, Pushcart Prize winners and American Book Award recipients. He’s written several popular books for pre-published authors, including How to Land and Keep a Literary Agent and The Plot Thickens.
His how-to book, The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (Fireside 2000), is an essential tome for every writer’s bookshelf. It not only reminds us that the characteristics of good writing don’t change (picture nouns and action verbs are still in vogue), but includes exercises at the end of each chapter to help newbie writers develop their skills. The tagline–If you’re tired of rejection, this is the book for you–should get the attention of 90% of the writers out there.
I should mention: The book has been updated (February 2010, Oxford University Press), but I haven’t read it so can’t comment on what has been changed. Since Mr. Lukeman remains a respected agent, an in-demand guest speaker and teaches an online course at Writers University, I assume whatever changes he made are great. A personal note to Noah: If you’d like to send the updated book to me, I’ll review it and post my thoughts on Amazon under my Vine credentials.
Here are seventeen tips I found especially useful:
An idea to get your letter out of the slush pile: if you’re sending a hard copy, Fedex it.
In formatting your mss, start halfway down the page whenever you begin a new chapter
99% of the time, the question mark is misused, especially when it appears early and often (this tip surprised me.)
When editing your mss, remove all but one adjective and adverb per noun and verb. It can be demeaning to the reader when the writer fills in every last detail for him.
Occasionally, substitute a comparison (an analogy, simile or metaphor) for an adjective.
There is a sound to prose. Writing is not just about getting a story across, but how you get there. Solution: Give your mss to a trusted colleague to read for sound only. Another solution: read it aloud.
The proper use of comparisons (analogies, similes, metaphors) will enable you to cut a tremendous amount of description. Why do you want to cut description? It slows the reader down
In the vast majority of unsolicited manuscripts, style is misused. What’s that mean? The writing feels forced or exaggerated, the writing is about the writing rather than the story, and/or the writing is too noticeable
Dialogue is a powerful tool to be used sparingly, effectively and at the right moment
“If I skim through a manuscript and see pages and pages filled with dialogue, with no breaks or rests in between, chances are, it’s going to be rejected. Conversely, if I skim through dozens of pages and find not one line of dialogue, chances are, it’s going to be rejected, too.”
The most common malady is use of dialogue to convey backstory
Many writers string together lines and lines of dialogue without ever stopping to let the reader know who’s speaking.
When converting telling to showing, see if there is a way you can leave an element of ambiguity, of mystery, a door open for readers to come to their own conclusions.
The poor usage of character names may signal an amateur. For example, switching between first and last names or the use of overly exotic names.
Another distinction between an average writer and a great one: Does the intensity of the hook end with one line? One paragraph? One page?
What best signals the proficient writer: Subtlety.
The distinction between sound, style and tone is a subtle one. Sound has to do with the basic construction of the sentence–its flow, its rhythm–and is more of a technical issue. Style also has to do with sentence construction, but has more to do with the intention behind the construction, and thus is an artistic issue. Tone has nothing whatsoever to do with construction or grammar, rather solely to do with intentionality.
A note: Noah sponsors Ask a Literary Agent forum where he takes questions from aspiring writers. Not many, but it’s nice he does this.
To have these tips delivered to your email, click here.
More writing tips for pre-published authors:
Writers Tips #84: 20 Hints that Mark the Novice Writer
10 Tips Guaranteed to Rescue Your Story
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, editing, writers tips Tagged: first page, lukeman, writers tips
March 28, 2014
36 Essential Books for Every Writer
In my office, I have my computer table, an oak rolltop desk close enough my left elbow bumps it when I really get going on the keyboard and behind me, about two feet away, a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf of reference books. Those books are constantly in motion. I pull them out by piles, stack them on my desk and riffle through them to augment particular parts of my stories. Sometimes, I’m looking for facts on nature, animals, buildings. Other times, I’m working through some prickly syntax. Either way, there are those books I can’t write without.
Every writer I know has a bookshelf like this, full of books to inspire the writing process. A reader asked what books I thought most important, so I pulled out my short list of words I can’t write without.
That’s when I realized I’d added some in the last few years. These five are my new favorites and reflect my growth as a writer and the-times-they-are-a-changing for authors:
Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
“Every crime is a mystery with a motive at its heart.” Read how to make that happen in your thriller and mystery novels.
Breakout Novelist by Donald Maass
How to make your writing vibrant, engaging, and marketable-the type that ‘breaks out’ of the crowd and makes you stand out
Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not by John Vorhaus
Humor always catches a readers attention–well, effective humor. Find out how to do this and then try it in some of your blogs, tweets, FB posts. Experiment before putting it into your novel.
My Evernote by Katherine Murray
Evernote is the most popular on-line note-taking program, used by adults and students alike. And it’s free. If you aren’t using this to collect your writing research, you eed to read this book.
We are not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb
Basic social media–what all writers must do whether you have a publisher or not.
My must-have writing books have blossomed to 36, thanks to these new additions:
Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Bill Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers and Editors, by Bill Bryson
Blockbuster Plots: Pure and Simple, by Martha Alderson
Breakout Novelist by Donald Maass
Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage, by Theodore Bernstein
Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not by John Vorhaus
Creating Character Emotions: Writing compelling fresh approaches that express your characters’ true feelings, by Ann Hood
Elements of Style by EB White
First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile, by Noah Lukeman
Garner’s Modern American Usage, by Bryon Garner
How to Write A D*** Good Novel, by James Frey
Lexicon, by William F. Buckley Jr.
Marshall Plan for Novel Writing: A 16-step program guaranteed to take you from idea to completed manuscript, by Evan Marshall
My Evernote by Katherine Murray
National Audubon Society Field Guide
New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything
New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge
Novel Writer’s Toolkit: A guide to writing great fiction and getting it published, by Bob Mayer
Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus
Oxford Book of Aphorisms, by John Gross
Oxford Concise Dictionary of English Etymology
Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words
Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams, by MJ Cohen
Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence, by David Keirsey
Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne
Synonym Finder, by J. I. Rodale
We are not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb
Webster Dictionary–or any excellent dictionary, even online is fine
Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to Words That Work, by Jack Hart
Writer’s Guide to Character Traits, by Linda Edelstein
Writing from A to Z, by Sally Ebest
Writing the Blockbuster Novel , by Albert Zuckerman
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft , by Janet Burroway
Writing the Breakout Novel: Insider advice for taking your fiction to the next level , by Donald Maass
Writing the Novel from Plot to Print, by Lawrence Block
The links are to book reviews I’ve done. It’ll be a while before I complete the entire list.
I’d love to hear your list.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, writers resources, writing Tagged: books for writers, writers resources, writers toolkit
