DEDICATION IS NOT JUST FOUND AT THE FRONT OF YOUR BOOK
DEDICATION MUST BE FOUND ALL THROUGH YOUR BOOK.
Many of our noted writers were journalists.
The two most famous:
Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
When the bullets are flying and the forest fire blazing, your editor does not have time to wait for your muse to become inspired.
You could equate journalism with blogging since it is a form of digital journalism:
We have to be concise, engaging, and convey the most information using the fewest wordspossible.
BUT IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR STORY …
Your novel is going nowhere.
It will be buried under “wonderful moments” that tug at the heart and stalls your story.
What is the story of LOTR?
Is it Frodo throwing the Ring into the river of fire in Modor, or is it Frodo finding Frodo?
What is the story of GONE WITH THE WIND?
Is it Scarlett hopelessly chasing Ashely Wilkes or vainly trying to retrieve the vanished South she loved?
LEARN TO SEE WHAT IS AROUND YOU.
Take the first face you see in the next crowd. Describe it in ways that would draw in a reader and accurately display what your eyes see.
What follows each major scene in your novel? If it does not turn the reader’s expectation upside down, you’re going to bore her.
DRAW YOUR READER INTO YOUR NOVEL BY MAKING THEM PART OF IT.
How to do that?
Give them a character to root for, to relate to. All humans bleed, hope, have their hearts broken.
Have your heroine suffer those universal blows.
Better yet have your antagonist suffer them as well.
BE A DO-ER NOT A DREAMER.
Write every day. Even if it is only a paragraph. Write every day.
Make a Bonzai tree out of your novel.
If you write 5 pages in the morning, refine them to 3 in the evening.
SAY IT IN QUALITY NOT QUANTITY.
Forget volume. Focus on value.
Have you ever read a novel and groaned, "Just get to the point!"
Don't do that to your reader.
Raymond Chandler once wrote: "She gave him a look that jutted four inches out of his back."
Short. Punchy. Funny.
It made me want to read on.
I hope that this helped in some small way.
Many of our noted writers were journalists.The two most famous:
Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
When the bullets are flying and the forest fire blazing, your editor does not have time to wait for your muse to become inspired.
You could equate journalism with blogging since it is a form of digital journalism:
We have to be concise, engaging, and convey the most information using the fewest wordspossible.
BUT IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR STORY …
Your novel is going nowhere.
It will be buried under “wonderful moments” that tug at the heart and stalls your story.
What is the story of LOTR?
Is it Frodo throwing the Ring into the river of fire in Modor, or is it Frodo finding Frodo?
What is the story of GONE WITH THE WIND?
Is it Scarlett hopelessly chasing Ashely Wilkes or vainly trying to retrieve the vanished South she loved?
LEARN TO SEE WHAT IS AROUND YOU.
Take the first face you see in the next crowd. Describe it in ways that would draw in a reader and accurately display what your eyes see.
What follows each major scene in your novel? If it does not turn the reader’s expectation upside down, you’re going to bore her.
DRAW YOUR READER INTO YOUR NOVEL BY MAKING THEM PART OF IT.
How to do that?
Give them a character to root for, to relate to. All humans bleed, hope, have their hearts broken.
Have your heroine suffer those universal blows.
Better yet have your antagonist suffer them as well.
BE A DO-ER NOT A DREAMER.
Write every day. Even if it is only a paragraph. Write every day.
Make a Bonzai tree out of your novel.
If you write 5 pages in the morning, refine them to 3 in the evening.
SAY IT IN QUALITY NOT QUANTITY.
Forget volume. Focus on value.
Have you ever read a novel and groaned, "Just get to the point!"
Don't do that to your reader.
Raymond Chandler once wrote: "She gave him a look that jutted four inches out of his back."
Short. Punchy. Funny.
It made me want to read on.
I hope that this helped in some small way.
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