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DO YOU? OR NOT?

4/26/2018

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Some of the best fiction writing is inspired by personal experience, but putting too much of yourself in your writing can hurt your cause.
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Writers must be brave. A writer must put herself out there and expose herself emotionally. Even fiction writing requires a writer to dig deep and expose her innermost thoughts to the public. Writers need to be ruthless and take the story where it needs to go, putting fears, worries, inhibitions, and biases on standby.

If you are writing something based on aspects of your personal life – say an honest, first-person account of an extraordinary event – this holds true on a deeper level. Those tapping their own lives for inspiration are obliged to give up the most private and difficult details of every situation to benefit the story. It is often the most raw and demanding details that readers enjoy most.

So how do great writers strike the balance of injecting enough self to suitably excite the reader without whipping up mundane and trite sludge, effectively destroying a work through self-indulgence? It comes down to which parts of ourselves we are inserting and why. Some details are core to the genius of a work, others should never see the light of day. To leave any of these flagrant signs of the self behind in a final draft is like a surgeon who sews up a bandage inside the patient’s belly. It serves no one.

There are many ways unwanted parts of us get stuck in our writing, and here are five ways to avoid it negatively affecting your work.

Remove your notes
As we write, we move from trying to understand our subject to expressing it for others. Along the way, it is common to write in short-hand, to deposit mental notes to ourselves before we write the sentences intended for readers. We start by building scaffolding, designed to serve us and eventually be removed. It is, by definition, temporary. Left in place, even vestiges of this skeleton make a manuscript appear unfinished, at best. At worst, it’s like a building that has been restored but remains ensconced : you only get hints of the beauty underneath.

Remember, your vacation photos are for you
We all know the stereotype of the overenthusiastic photo-snap, boring friends and family to death with the 1,000-slide vacation presentation. What is exciting to you, because you were there and it is your life experience, may be the perfect sleeping elixir to someone else.
Writers risk a similar fate if they overestimate the importance of their personal experiences. Is your story truly gripping because it offers insight into a core aspect of the human condition, or it is just of raging interest to you because of your particular circumstances, beliefs, or interests when it happened?

This is a hard question to answer, and it will rule out many potential ideas. If an idea passes our own filter, it then rests with others to determine if it passes the “vacation photo” test. Rare vacation photos are truly exceptional. We love saying to our vacationers, “That one is so good it could be a postcard!” and really mean it. This is the reaction you need from your readers. Apply the same “Is it too me?” filter to each chapter, section, paragraph, sentence, and word as you move towards the finish line. Shards of left-over self, necessary for preparation and cooking, are critical to remove before eating, as they drastically dilute the overall flavor.

Judge the story, not the truth


If you are writing fiction based on experience, you must know when to stick with the truth and when to let loose the creative juices and pump up the fiction. Sometimes truth overshadows the potential for a better story in the translation of reality-inspired events. If the true order of events occurred over a few months, but would be ten times more extraordinary and compelling for the reader if they occurred in a single day, make the retrofit. Do it with gusto and glee. Stretch.

We need to draw inspiration from real life where it helps and drop it when it hinders. Test and retest the logic of the story. See where you can raise the stakes. See where you can accelerate the pace. Dreams never occur in real time. They are snapshots of action over longer periods. Good books are too. Take the time and make the effort to make your story fiction.
See the forest for all the trees

Even if 100 percent fiction, writers are often so close to their work they fail to see the forest for the trees. In this case, self is restricting the scope and breadth of the work. This is where working with a writers’ group, getting feedback from willing readers, or turning to a professional editor will pay off.

Sometimes such narrowness is a critical and legitimate phase. All authors have to start somewhere. In an early draft, a writer might be so busy building the description of one side of an intersection they forget the other sides. This is just part of getting to the finish line. The sin is leaving such gaps for the reader to fall into. Such oversights are also evidence of too much self. An author needs to be able to look at the story the way readers will. Readers aren’t mind readers: they can only work with what is on the page.

Acknowledge the dual roles of self in writing

It is often the role of an editor to remove the unwanted remnants of self from a manuscript. The best authors will take on this challenge themselves and not spare their own feelings by completely removing the unwanted parts of self from their writing.

The paradox is that writing comes from self, and yet sometimes self has to be purged from the final product for readers to find it fulfilling and finished. Such a polished feel is a key part of the reader’s perception of a book being professional and high quality. There are no fingerprints on the mirror showing the artist was there working, just a clear reflection of the world the writer is trying to create.
 
To Your Success,
MG
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AM I REALLY A WRITER?

4/19/2018

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6 things to consider: contemplate yourself as a writer.

How much time have you taken – in between frantically cranking out stories – to consider what kind of writer you really are? We can considerably improve our writing, and our writing goals, by stopping to think about what makes us tick as writers, identifying when we are at our best, and defining our strengths and weaknesses. Once you identify your strengths, you can build on them. Once you acknowledge your weaknesses, you can fix them.

Here are six things to consider that will help focus your thinking on your internal development as a writer – regardless of the project you are working on at the moment. Whether you’ve yet to write a book or you’ve written a dozen, you will keep evolving as an author. You’ll always be learning if you keep your mind open.

We all write differently
​
The first task of a writer is to understand that we all write differently. You need to find your own processes, your own joys and pains, and keep them in mind while you absorb the experiences and lessons of others. Ask yourself these types of questions when you contemplate yourself as a writer.
  • What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  • What makes you work best and what stops you from working?
  • Why do you enjoy writing?
  • Do you have a special routine you enjoy or do you need to develop one?
  • Do you write in spurts and then go silent until the words well up again?
  • Where do your ideas come from?
​
How to fail
Once you decide to take writing seriously, you need to learn enough of the rules so you can do your best. Your knowledge of convention will evolve over time and as the words flowing from your fingertips compound. You don’t need to learn all the rules at once: the more experience you gain as a writer, the more rules you will become aware of and actively use. You’ll know when and why to use them and when to ignore them or break them in clever ways that lend novelty to your efforts.

More important, do you believe the secret to great writing is magic or rules – or some kind of balance between the two?

Many great writers have internalized the entire rule book to the point that they draw on it effortlessly. What is the role of exceptions to rules, and how important is this in great writing? Do you know when to use ’em and when to break ’em?

What makes a book?
If you are serious about writing, your next big task is to get stories down on paper.
  1. Concept
  2. Premise
  3. Attention to detail
  4. Time
  5. A catapult
  6. Self-confidence
Do you already have all six, or do you still need to work towards them? If any are missing, how do you go about getting them? Are you good at seeing the big picture or are you a details person when it comes to writing?

Embrace your inner plotter and pantserTo go beyond your concept, you’ll need a plot. You’ll write it either as a plotter (someone who outlines and scripts), a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of his pants), or a combination of the two. Finding the balance that works best for you is essential, although you may find it changes over time and from project to project. Are you a plotter or a pantser or some clear combination of the two? What do you think works better and why? This is a perennial debate among writers, and the fact is there are different ways to get there in the end. You might even be a quilter – one who pieces together the parts of your story.

Take yourself outAs you go deeper into writing, you come to the crucial task of self-editing. Here it pays to really know yourself and especially your weak points, so you can shore them up. Key to this is to figure out how to put the right type of “self” into your writing and remove any unnecessary aspects of self that will reduce the reading pleasure of your readers.

Why have you written what you’ve written? Is it all for you, all for your reader, or a combination? Have you left in parts of “self” that were just notes for you, or scaffolds upon which you built that you forgot to remove? How do you find such “only for yourself” traces in your fiction so you can erase them when the time to do so arrives?
 
To Your Success,
MG
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AWARD SEASON. IS IT YOUR TIME?

4/12/2018

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LITERARY AWARDS. A few Sundays ago, I watched the Oscars. I don’t think I’ve watched in many years I’ve only gotten the recap the day after on who won. But this year, I sat through and watched intently. It was interesting to see the forerunners won in some cases and be gracious in others. But I think the thing that stuck out the most were the number of people who have been in lighting, sound, sound effects, music, directors and the like win for the first time. There were more than a few gray/white haired experts that took the stage for the first time as a winner or that were nominated. I remember specifically one man who ran his fingers through his silver hair as he spoke saying he’s been in the business for over 50 years and this was his first time nominated and winning.

So, it made me think about authors. How long have some of you been authors and have you ever entered your book in an award contest or even nominated your work for an awards? At the Oscars, the Academy makes the selection and such is the case with most literary awards. But this year I want to motivate and push each of you to select at least one award for which you’ll enter your book or have your book nominated. Do you think your book has what it takes to make the awards list? And I’m going to make it easy for you. Take a look at the short list below of upcoming book awards and check out the requirements for entry. You’ll be surprised at how important what you’ve written is, but also how worthy it is to share with more than just your local market.

Make sure you let us know if you enter and we will surely share it! So, take the action and enter. You can’t be awarded if you don’t enter.

To Your Success,

MG

 
ILLUMINATION BOOK AWARDS
 
The Illumination Book Awards are designed to honor the year's best new titles written and published with a Christian worldview. Award categories range from Bible Study and Devotional to family-oriented subjects like Education and Children's Picture Book. The purpose of the Illumination Book Awards is to bring award recipients the credibility and publicity they need to further their book marketing and sales success.
The 2018 Illumination Awards are now open! Click HERE to request entry info or to ask a question.




ILLUMINATION WEBSITE
ENTRY FORM & GUIDELINES

2017 MEDALISTS
MERCHANDISE STORE
 
http://illuminationawards.com/2017Illumination_Book_Awards_Guidelines.pdf

Picture
 
ELIT WEBSITE

2015 MEDALISTS

MERCHANDISE STORE
 

​The eLit Awards are an industry-wide, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the electronic publishing industry, and are committed to illuminating and honoring the very best of English language digital publishing entertainment. The eLit Awards celebrate the ever growing market of electronic publishing in the wide variety of reader formats. Hail the revolutionary world of e-books and join the awards program that’s highlighting the best in electronic reading entertainment!
​
The 2018 eLit Awards are now open! Click HERE to request entry info or to ask a question.

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