Category Archives: Author Advice

Do you have trouble getting people to comment?

Posted on October 17, 2013 | 22 comments

Paper Wishes FinalAs some of you know, I am just coming off a two-month blog tour.  The first month was to promote my Novella “Paper Wishes”

Now Available from Jennifer M. EatonThe second month was to promote my story “The First Day of the New Tomorrow”

Whew!  It’s good to be home.

I have a lot of the same thoughts as the last time I was on a big blog tour, so I won’t bore you… but one thing stuck out to me a lot.

Some blogs are really hard to comment on.

I mean it.  Really really hard.

Does anyone ever have trouble commenting here?  I think I’ve made it as easy as possible.  Just type in your name and go.  No silly codes to enter, nothing to memorize and type in.  Easy Breezy.  Right?  If I’m wrong, please tell me, and I’ll change it.

You see, some blogs I went to took about three minutes JUST TO INPUT THE CAPCHA INFORMATION — and that’s AFTER I wrote my response to a question.  One site I had to do it over and over again to respond to every comment that was posted to me.  AWEFUL!

There was one blog that I gave up on after the system told me FIVE TIMES that I inputted the wrong CAPCHA code, when I know perfectly well that I was correct each time.  Such a pest.

I know those capcha codes and other things are there to keep spammers away, but if they are also keeping commenters away… that’s bad.

So, just a side thought.  If you have a great blog, and you don’t get comments, do a little test.  Don’t log in to your blog.  Try to comment as a visitor.  If you are annoyed by your own security features, imagine what your readers think.

Note:  I don’t know how WordPress does it, but I only get one spam comment about every six months or so.  The rest are automatically caught by their spam filters.  Whatever they do, it’s much better than all that other goggly gook.

JenniFer_Eaton Sparkle__F

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Stop feeling! And don’t “think” either while you are at it — Rule #24 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on October 15, 2013 | 3 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #24

24: Cut out filtering devices, wherever possible. ‘He felt’, ‘he thought’, ‘he observed’ are all filters. They distance the reader from the character.

Sometimes I consider typing this out and saving it somewhere so I can paste it into manuscripts that I beta read.  This is one I see time and time again.  This is part of show don’t tell, and it is the hardest for new and some seasoned authors to understand… but it is the difference between a good novel, and a great one.

Which sentence packs more punch?

He felt sad.

Or

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

 

He saw the train go by.

Or

The wind stung his cheek as the engine throttled along the tracks.

It’s not a hard choice to pick the better sentence, is it?

Search for felt, saw, looked, was, thought… and words like that… and replace them with active sentences.  The result will astound you.

Jennifer___Eaton

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Did you participate in #WriteOnCon? Wow, what a rollercoaster

Posted on August 15, 2013 | 6 comments

For the past week, I have been knee-deep in WRITEONCON.

Someone recommended it to me last year, but I passed.  This year, I am so glad I didn’t let it slip by.

WriteonCon http://writeoncon.com/ is an on-line writer’s conference.  You can post your query for critique, your first page, and your first five pages.

You get critiques on your entries for a week, polish them, and then for two days “ninja agents” comb through the queries.

For two days, WriteOnCon is jam-packed full of live events where you can pitch to agents, and ask agents and publishers questions.  Not to mention great seminars.

Did you miss it?  Don’t make the same mistake I did last year and pretend it never happened, and not even check it out.  You can see the live tapes of the agent session (where they tell you what’s hot, what’s not, and what they do and don’t want to see)  You can also view all of the sessions.

They are just as valuable after the fact as they were live, so I greatly suggest you check it out.

You won’t be disappointed.

And next year… join the chaos.

Oh, and a fine hello to the 52 new friends who joined my followers on day one.  Nice to see you!

JenniFer_EatonF

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Rule #12 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever – Point of View

Posted on July 23, 2013 | 18 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #12

12: Fix your Point Of View (POV). Make it clear whose head you’re in as early as possible. And stay there for the duration of the scene. Unless you’re already a highly successful published novelist, in which case you can do what you like. The reality is that although most readers aren’t necessarily clued up on the finer points of POV, they know what’s confusing and what isn’t.

This is something that I really needed to teach myself to do. I’ve even written quite a few stories recently in one POV to keep myself from hopping.

A few years ago I wrote a novel with about a dozen points of view.  A beta reader suggested I read a BEST SELLING novel that switched points of view a lot so I could get a feel of how to do it seamlessly.  You know what happened? I couldn’t even read the book.  About half-way-through, I abandoned it because the head-hopping drove me crazy.  But wait – that was a best-selling novel????

Yes, it was… so a lot of people liked it.  I didn’t. (This was a romance novel by the way… it hopped between the two main characters)

The experience struck me enough though to go through my book like a viper ensuring that every scene had a SINGLE point of view.  I don’t want to give anyone the flip-flop experience that this novel had given to me.

It’s really not that hard.  Start a scene in someone’s head, and then pay attention to staying there.  Do you need to express the feelings of another character?  Fine.  But do it by showing what your POV character observes.

This POV advice is one I stoutly agree with.

Pick your POV and stay there.  If you need to change, start a new chapter and stay inside the news character’s head for a while.

Your writing will shine with this little added attention.  Harder? Yes, sometimes it is, but the end result is sooooo worth it.

How do you feel about head hopping? Are you guilty?

swish swivel squiggle

Click here to tweet: Watch your Point of View. Rule #12 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever from @jennifermeaton 

_JenniFer____EatoN

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Writers: Don’t worry about the Statistics

Posted on July 21, 2013 | 10 comments

I came across this article that really hit home.

Why statistics discourage prospective writers

We all hear the statistics.  1 in 500… 1 in 5000… 100,000 novels are being queried right now.  They are all scary.  Many people are daunted by this.

This article points out something that I hadn’t thought of.  Think it over.  All of us have at least one friend who is querying thinking there novel is great, and they are getting rejected.  I talked to someone the other day doing this and the only other person whose read her novel is HER HUSBAND.  Really?  What are you thinking?

Now, if all of you count up their one or two friends who refuse to get beta readers, and are SURE they are geniuses without getting a lick of feedback… are you counting them up? Are you getting a mental picture?  Get my meaning?

This is what I am getting at.  So what if you and 499 other people query at the same time.  If 300 of these are sub-standard, your chances just increased, didn’t they?

If 50 of the remaining 100 had bad queries, or boring plots, your chances just increased, didn’t they?

What you have to ask is this… Are you destined for the slush pile, or are you one of then ten that the agent or publisher is actually going to read?

Make your choice now, and work hard to get yourself out of the slush pile, and onto that agent’s desk.

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Rule #9 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on July 2, 2013 | 12 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #9

9: Describe the environment in ways that are pertinent to the story. And try to make such descriptions active. Instead of describing a book lying on a table, have your psycho-killer protagonist pick it up, glance at it and move it to the arm of the sofa. He needs something to do to break up those long speeches, right?

This is one of my favorite simple rules.  One thing that bores me is when I read “Jessica walked into the bathroom.  The white toilet sat to her right.  The counter loomed before her, and a window let in the sunshine from the left.

“Ugh!  I just hate that.  However, she can walk over and close the window, check her acne in the mirror, and dust some cobwebs from behind the toilet, and then you have your setting dispersed in the action.  Get it?

Are you a “setting dumper?”  Go ahead, it’s okay to admit to it.  Now let’s grab one of those overly-described settings and make it active.  Let’s see how you do!

JenniFer_Eaton Sparkle__F

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Rule #8 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on June 25, 2013 | 13 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #8

8: Show, don’t tell. Much vaunted advice, yet rarely heeded. An example: expressing emotion indirectly. Is your preferred reader intelligent? Yes? Then treat them accordingly. Tears were streaming down Lila’s face. She was very sad. Can the second sentence be inferred from the first? In context, let’s hope so. So cut it. If you want to engage your readers, don’t explain everything to them. Show them what’s happening and allow their intelligence to do the rest. And there’s a bonus to this approach. Because movies, of necessity, show rather than tell, this approach to your writing will help when it’s time to begin work on the screenplay adaptation of your novel!

I have to admit that I am guilty of this, and when I’m writing, I don’t even realize it.  I KNOW not to do this, and I can pick it out in someone else’s novel in a second.

So why is it in my own?  I’m not really sure, to be honest, but when a beta reader points it out, I always scratch my head and say, “How the heck did that get in there?”

Let’s reiterate SHOW DON’T TELL.  For instance:

Tell:  The vicious dog barked at the fence

Show: The dog’s lip curled up as he snarled, his teeth biting through the chain link fencing.

In the second example, we don’t come out and say he is vicious.  If you’ve done your job well enough, your reader should be able to figure that out.  Also, you will notice, there is quite a different emotional reaction in the second sentence, isn’t there?  That’s the magic of show rather than tell.  The shown image sinks in and resonates with the reader.

Pluck out a telly sentence from your own novel and try to change it up.  How did you do?

JenniFer_Eaton Sparkle__F

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Rule #7 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on June 18, 2013 | 6 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #7

7: If you find you’ve said the same thing more than once, choose the best and cut the rest. Frequently, I see the same idea presented several ways. It’s as if the writer is saying, “The first couple of images might not work, but the third one should do it. If not, maybe all three together will swing it.” The writer is repeating himself. Like this. This is a subtle form of pleonasm.

While I don’t do this often, I do catch myself doing it once in a while.  This comes back around to dialog that moves the plot forward.

It’s tricky when you’re in a place where your main character knows something, and he/she has to relay the information to someone else to move the plot forward.  If your character just rattles off everything the reader already knows, it is redundant, and boring, right?  This is a tricky problem to try to wiggle around.

You need to find a creative way to make the scene flow naturally, without repeating yourself. Maybe someone else relays the information, and the person then “walks into the scene” with the main character so they can discuss.  Or, maybe allude to your main character relaying the information (creatively of course) and then continuing with the dialog.

Whichever way you choose, the most important thing is to not repeat yourself.  You need to keep the plot moving forward… not shifting backwards.

What creative ways have you come up with the wiggle around this problem?

JenniFer_Eaton Sparkle__F

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Rule #6 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on June 11, 2013 | 21 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #6

6: Keep speeches short. Any speech of more than three sentences should be broken up. Force your character to do something. Make him take note of his surroundings. Ground the reader. Create a sense of place.

Ha! This made me think of the Total Transformation program.  I like the “no speeches at all” rule better, but there are times when one of our characters tends to get chatty, right?

Always always always break up a long amount of dialog with action, setting, or emotion.  Think of it.  If you are listening to someone for a long time, you shift your weight, right?  The speaker paces the floor, uses hand gestures.  The curtains blow around a window. Tons of things are happening all around your speaker.

Don’t count on your reader to make these things up themselves.  Show them. It will make your scene more real, and you won’t lose your reader and have them miss something important.

Oh, and while you’re at it… try to curb that speech down a little.  Less is more, I always say!

Try it!  Can you feel how much cleaner your speech reads just by adding a little action?

JenniFer_EatonF

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Rule #2 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Posted on May 14, 2013 | 22 comments

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #2

2: Use oblique dialogue. Try to generate conflict at all times in your writing. Attempt the following experiment at home or work: spend the day refusing to answer your family and colleagues’ questions directly. Did you generate conflict? I bet you did. Apply that principle to your writing and your characters will respond likewise.

This is one of those things that I read and said to myself “huh-wha?”  It seemed like a jumble of words that should be important, if I knew what he was trying to say.  Here’s my take on it, after doing a little research and thinking it over.

This is what I came up with.  Let’s take a look at some dialog. I’m going to take out movement and emotion so we can just look at the dialog, and see how it works.

“Helen, I’m home.”

“Hello, George. How was work?”

“Oh just dandy.  Martin was out, so I had to take care of all his problems and got to none of my own work.”

“I’m sorry to hear that dear. What would you like for dinner?”

“Pizza is fine.”

“Okay, I’ll place the order.”

“I went shopping today.”

“Yeah, what’d you buy?”

“Milk and eggs.”

“Good.  I like milk and eggs”

“You know what? We need to talk about Billy.  He turned into a velociraptor today, and he ate three of his classmates.”

“Whaaaaaaat?”

0026_CracksAndCrevasses

Okay – don’t judge me.  I’m trying to make a point.  There is a lot of day-to day babble in here that is really unnecessary, right?  The only important thing is that Billy turned into a dinosaur.

Conflict needs to be evident in every scene.  Don’t just have people talking about nothing just to kill time.  Each scene, and each bit of dialog needs to move the story forward.  I mean seriously.  Do we need to know that Mommy picked up milk and eggs?

Look for your dialog to be concise and to the point.  Give it the impression of being longer, without actually boring your reader with the babble.

Make sure each scene has a start, conflict, and resolution.  Each one of these miniature stories needs to draw your characters further along in the story. If it doesn’t move the story forward, no matter how much you love the scene, it’s time to take out the hatchet.

How often do you find your characters babbling with no forward movement in a scene?  What did you do to rein your dialog in?

Jennifer___Eaton

 

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