I teach that a story creates movement and the movement transport an audience. In many of the unpublished novels I read, I’m often 40 pages into a manuscript before I have any idea of a main character’s journey. In some cases, I have to read to the end of a novel to understand that journey. This puts me (and readers) in the unfortunate position of needing to keep track of all the details about a character while I wait for some sense of purpose to become apparent. This makes reading a novel work.

Lolly Winston’s novel Good Grief has a structure that clearly conveys the stages of grief that a young woman goes through when her husband dies and leaves her a widow. This external framework communicates that the novel has a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. From its opening lines, the story has a destination.

Each stage of the main character’s journey is divided into sections. The chapters in Part One are about denial, oreoes, anger, depression, escrow, and ashes. Each chapter that follows is about the main character’s journey in dealing with her grief over her husband’s death. The title, Good Grief, speaks to the narrator learning that there can be good grief (which revolves around passing through the stages of grief) and bad grief (getting stuck on the journey).

A review of the opening of Good Grief conveys how a main character’s journey is set out.

The opening line:

How can I be a Widow?

The answer to this question comes in the opening paragraphs as the narrator sits in a grief support group. In a few paragraphs, the narrator explains why she’s in the group.

My name is Sophie and I’ve joined the grief group because…well, because I sort of did a crazy
thing. I drove my Honda through our garage door.

What’s important about these lines is they show the narrator is not only in grief, she’s being overwhelmed by grief. What set up the garage accident was an irrational thought that she needed to get into the house quickly to tell her husband something. Except he’s deceased. She’s in denial.

Continuing in a few paragraphs:

Maybe later I’ll tell the group how I dream about Ethan every night. That he’s still alive in the eastern standard time zone and if I fly to New York, I can see him for another three hours.

The narrator tries to deal with her grief by going back to work, but she quickly finds herself overwhelmed. In the past, when she felt overwhelmed, she called her husband. The chapter ends with these lines.

The cursor on my computer screen pulses impatiently, and the red voice mail light on my phone flashes. My stomach growls and my head throbs. But I can’t call my husband. Because, here’s the thing: I am a widow.

She has started to come out of her denial about her husband’s death. The first chapter is a clearly defined journey on her journey through grief.

Each chapter continues that journey until the narrator has passed through good grief to being whole again.

Highly recommended for writers who want to learn about structure from reading a well-written novel.

A fourth edition of Bill Johnson‘s writing workbook, A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, is now available for $2.99 from Amazon Kindle, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V020N0

Whatever the plot, it is fun to dig into the psychology of each character and twist their motives around. After all, we rarely meet real people that are one-dimensional and shallow so why should our characters be? Crafting memorable characters that are realistic is challenging but worth the struggle. A well-defined character can thaw your heart or launch tentacles of fear down your spine. Think Christopher Robin. Now think Hannibal Lecter. Big difference.

Create your characters to make a difference to your story, be it good (that would be Christopher) or bad (that would be Hannibal). Both are memorable in their own special way. Personality traits should be strong—or weak—depending on their part in the plot. Quirks are fabulous, after all, most people that we meet have their own quirky behavior whether it’s talking with their hands or constantly clearing their throat or incessantly hugging or touching other people. Don’t hesitate to take your characters to the max; they’ll be a lot more memorable that way.

And you want it to bring you new business, too. Maybe you started it a week ago or even five years ago.

If you are like most authors, you probably have a few issues about getting it written, published and then using it to increase your business.

For instance, despite the terrific professional and financial benefits a book can quickly give you and your business, the unfortunate fact is that many authors never finish the book they’re writing.

Moreover, many of those who publish their book don’t bring in as much new business from the book as other authors do.

You don’t have to be one of those ugly statistics. According to my friend, publishing and marketing expert John Eggen, there are three key elements to writing a good book that are necessary if you want it to also attract new business to you.

They are:

1. You need to write a quality book on the right topic for the right audience.

2. You need to manage your time and your mind if you want to actually finish it.

3. You need to package your book appropriately inside as well as outside to attract business.

Each of these things is essential to a successful book.

Below are John’s Three Book Writing Strategies to ensure that you not only complete your book, but also create a quality book that will attract more business to you.

These strategies are based on his decades of experience in helping independent professionals as well as gurus to succeed in publishing:

1. Write the Right Book

If you want to write a book that not only is meaningful to your reader but also attracts business to you, then you need to start by setting an intention to write a book that will serve people in your business’ target market.

The next step is to pick a topic that appeals to them.

The best way to usually do that is to identify the biggest business pains and dreams your target market has for which they also have a history of paying for solutions.

Then choose one of them as your book topic.

One shortcut you can use is to ask yourself, “What information do I have or have access to that, if my target market knew I had it, they’d hire me instantly?”

John says that this shortcut often leads to a great topic for a business-attracting book.

2. Manage Your Time and Your Mind

You can write and publish a book fast–in the time you already have–if you do two things: make productive use of the time you have and tame the gremlins in your mind (from overwhelm to negative self-talk to self-sabotage).

To get your book done in the time you already have available, write your book like the pros do.

For instance, write your first draft “stream of consciousness” without any editing until after the draft is done. This puts your analytic mind aside and opens your creative flow.

Multiply your results simply by writing in short uninterrupted 30-60 minute bursts.

To get it done even faster, speak your book into print rather than writing it. There are many ways available to do this.

John says if you combine these three time management tips, you can do your entire book draft in just 8-9 hours total for most books.

However, for ultimate success, you must also manage your mind. When obstacles and setbacks occur, how we choose to respond determines whether we continue or get stuck.

John says many authors never finish their book because they don’t know who to turn to when they need help. Others silently succumb to those gremlins of their own mind.

The solution is to know who to turn to for help when you need it and make sure you’ll have access to them to get the support you need when you get stuck.

3. Package it Inside and Out

If you want your book to not only communicate your message meaningfully to your reader but also to attract new business, then both your book text and cover need to be developed appropriately.

Regarding your cover, John says nearly 100 years of market testing has discovered there are nine cover elements that can make or break sales from a book.

By priority, they are: your book’s title, sub-title, testimonials, back cover headline, back cover benefit copy, author bio, cover color, cover design and spine treatment.

However, unbeknownst to most authors, publishing insiders also use many tasteful marketing methods within the pages of their books that are very effective in attracting new business.

An easy one to start with is to add back matter pages to your book that tastefully but compellingly promote your services and other offers that serve your readers.

When you are writing your book, use these three of John’s strategies to help you succeed.

More Clients Bottom Line: Just like a three-legged stool needs all the legs to stand up, your book needs all three of John’s Book Writing Strategies to succeed. Be sure to write the right book. Manage your time and your mind. And appropriately package it inside and out.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

Many people who attend my book publishing semi­nars already have a book idea in mind. Others, however, have a strong desire to write a book, but are stuck on coming up with a suitable topic. If you fall into this category, here are ten sources of ideas for books you may want to write:

1.     JOB EXPERIENCE

An obvious but often overlooked source of book ideas is your job. Thousands of excellent books have been written by authors about a skill, expertise or career experience gained on the job.

This is how I came to write my first book, Technical Writing: Structure, Standards and Style (McGraw-Hill). My first job after graduating college was as a technical writer for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Baltimore. After several months writing technical materials, I began to feel the need for a writing guide to assist technical writers with matters of style, usage, punctuation and grammar (for example, does one write 1/4 or 0.25 or one fourth in technical documents?). Being book-minded, I went to the bookstores and found nothing appropriate.

My idea was to compile a style guide for technical writers modeled after the best-selling general writing style guide, The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. I wrote a content outline and book proposal, and began to pursue agents and publishers. I was extremely lucky: The first agent who saw Technical Writing agreed to represent the book, and within three weeks, he sold it to the first publisher to look at it, McGraw-Hill. The advance was $8,500 -not bad for a first-time author in 1981 for a short (100-page) book.

Not every book I’ve written since has sold so quickly and easily. But subsequently, I have written a number of books based on skills and experiences gained in various careers and jobs.

Do you hold a highly desirable position or work in a glamorous industry: Then you can write a book telling others how to get into your line of work.

Have you developed specific and valuable skills such as computer skills selling, marketing, finance, negotiating or programming-skills that others need to master? There’s a need for a book telling them how to do it.

2.      TEACH A COURSE

There are many opportunities for you to design and teach courses to other people at work, at adult education evening classes at the local high school or college, a community colleges, at association meetings and even on the university level.

If you get the opportunity to teach a course, keep in mind that the topic and content outline you develop for the course may have appeal to a publisher as the outline for a potential book on the same subject.

In 1981, a private seminar company offering low-cost public seminars in New York City asked me to do an evening program on marketing and promotion for small business. The pay was lousy but I accepted. A year or so later, I tool the course title and outline, turned it into a book proposal, and sold my second book, How to Promote Your Own Business, to New American Library.

If you want to write nonfiction books there are two advantages to teaching a class or seminar. First, in developing and teaching the course you will simultaneously be doing most of the legwork necessary to produce a book on the subject. Therefore, once you’ve given the course, transforming it into a book is a relatively quick and easy next step (or at least quicker and easier than doing , book from scratch).

Second, teaching the course positions you as an expert in the subject making you more attractive to book publishers. They figure that anyone who can give a course on the topic must have a substantial amount of information and expertise to share. If you taught the course at a prestigious, well-known institution, that further boosts your credibility

3.      TAKING COURSES

Taking courses can also give you fresh infusion of ideas and information that can become the basis for a book.

The same private seminar company was teaching small business promotion seminars for offered a number of courses in different career areas, which as an instructor, I could take for free. After taking several, I came up with the idea of doing a career book on how to break into some of the more exciting, glamorous industries and professions, such as music, film, advertising, travel and television. The book, Creative Careers: Real Jobs in Glamour Fields, was published by John Wiley & Sons.

Warning: When you take the course, don’t steal or plagiarize the instructor’s seminar, reprinting it word for word as your book. Consider it a starting point and supplement it with additional research from many other sources (book articles, interviews, other seminars, etc.)

If the instructor does have good information you want to reprint (such as lists of contacts and resources), get his permission in writing. You can also ask the instructor if he or she will agree to be interviewed by you for inclusion in the book.

4.      WRITE ABOUT YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES

“It is in the totality of experience reckoned with, filed and forgotten, that each man is truly different from all others in the world,” writes Ray Bradbury in Zen in the Art of Writing. Every person every life, is unique, and this is why say that everyone has at least one book inside them: What has happened to you has not happened to other people, and your experiences will make for a book that is either instructive, entertaining, moving or any combination of these.

This applies to everyone. For example, if you have chosen to remain single you can write Living Alone and Loving It or a similar book on the joys of being single. If you are married with children, you have unique experiences as a parent, and can share your knowledge and experiences with others in an entertaining or informative book. If you are married but have been unable to have children, you have credibility to write a book on infertility. If you and your spouse have not had children by choice, you can write a book on Choosing to Live Child-Free. If you have only one child, you can write Raising the Single Child. If you’re a single parent, you can write Straight Talk and Advice for Single Parents.

In 1982, the New York City engineering firm employing me told me I would have to relocate. My fiancee did not want to leave Manhattan, so I resigned and started a new career as a self-employed industrial writer, producing brochures and data sheets for chemical companies and industrial equipment manufacturers.

The transition from employee to freelancer was an educational experience, one I knew many others would go through (or would hope to, some day). This became the topic of my book, Out on Your Own: From Corporate to Self-Employment, also published by Wiley.

5.      WRITE ABOUT A PROCESS OR TASK YOU KNOW HOW TO DO Through work, leisure or life experience, we all have done things that many other people have not done, and therefore know a good deal more about these things than they do. The inexperienced would like to learn from your experiences and avoid your mistakes, and a book is the ideal vehicle for this.

For instance, after resigning from the engineering firm and becoming a self-employed industrial writer in 1982, I was forced to learn how to succeed in the commercial writing field on my own; there was no book to guide me. I made many expensive mistakes and learned from experience.

To help other writers speed the learning curve and avoid these mistakes, I wrote Secrets of a Freelance Writer, published by Henry Holt & Co. The book is about the process of running a freelance writing business, covering everything from getting started and finding clients to setting fees and negotiating contracts.

6.      WRITING ABOUT YOUR HOBBY Hobbies that fascinate you no doubt fascinate a lot of other people. As a hobbyist, you have much more knowledge than a journalist or other outsider who would have to research the field from scratch. Why not turn your hobby into profit center by writing a book about it?

One of my hobbies is collecting comic books. I love Superman, Batman Wolverine, and the other DC and Marvel superheroes.

When I graduated college in 1979, I burned with the desire to write a book and get it published. I started two book projects. One was a Harlequin romance novel, which I started not because I enjoy Harlequin romance novels-I’ve never even read one-but because I figured it would be easy to do. I was wrong. I wrote 40 pages of the worst Harlequin romance novel of all time before abandoning the project.

But writing those pages taught me an important lesson: Don’t select a topic or form for your book just because you think it is commercially viable and will make you a lot of money. If you do, your lack of enthusiasm will show through in your writing.

On the other hand, if you are passionate about your topic, your enthusiasm will show through in your writing. The book will be easier and more fun to write, and the final product will be much better in quality.

The second book project I started working on was a trivia book on comic book superheroes, written in quiz form. For example: What are the six types of kryptonite? (Green, red, blue, white, gold, jewel.) What was Spider-Man’s major in college? (Physics.)

I wrote a short manuscript and, having no contacts in publishing, and no knowledge of the publishing business, sent it to editors at various paperback publishers with a cover letter. It was rejected by all. I gave up and put it in a drawer.

Years later, when I was cleaning out some files, I came across the manuscript. I was going to throw it out, but instead mailed it to my literary agent with a note saying, “Do you think you can do anything with this?”

Six weeks later, she called and said she’d sold the book. I was speechless, The book, Comic Book Heroes: 1,101 Trivia Questions About America’s Favorite Superheroes From the Atom to the X-Men, was published by Citadel Press.

The second lesson I learned from this, experience was: A book idea that doesn’t sell now might sell later. If you get rejected by publishers, don’t throw away or forget about the book proposal. File it and make a note to take another look al it in six or twelve months. Sometime you have success on the second or third try because the timing is right. Other times, you see the idea from a fresh perspective, rewrite it, and make the sale with the revised book proposal. When asked to address the graduating class at Oxford, Winston Churchill, a great writer, stood up, said only “Never give up,” and sat back down. These three words are good advice for authors who want to sell book proposals to publishers.

Eventually, a third lesson revealed itself: Every book published gives you credential that can lead to more book contracts in the same field.

I enjoyed writing the comic book trivia book. After it came out, I though about doing trivia books on other topics in a similar format.

I was always a big Star Trek fan. This resulted in two books with Harper-Collins: The Ultimate Unauthorized Star Trek Quiz Book and Why You Should Never Beam Down in a Red Shirt. As publishers began to see me as a writer of popular culture trivia, I received several more contracts along this line, including What’s Your Frasier I.Q.?, a quiz book on the TV show Frasier.

Books about hobbies can be how-to, money-making, reference, specialized or general information. If you have an interest in tropical fish, for example, you could write How to Keep Tropical Fish (how-to), How To Breed Tropical Fish for Fun and Profit (moneymaking), An Illustrated Guide to Aquarium Fish (reference), Care and Breeding of Fancy Guppies (specialized) or Your First Fish Tank (general).

Notice that the first six methods on this list involve you, the author, having some special insight, experience or information on the topic of your book. Author and publisher Dan Poynter says: “Write about something in which you are a participant. The world needs more books written by writers who are also experts, not writers who are journalists.”

“Concentrate on the area that interests you, and if you’re not an expert now, you may become one,” writes Tom Peeler in The Writer.” And even if the area of interest still requires consultation with recognized professionals, specialization will allow you to develop regular sources and will give you credibility with them.”

One of Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons shows an author autographing his book at a book signing. The caption reads, “After being frozen in ice for 10,000 years, Thag promotes his autobiography.” The title of the book: It Was Very Cold and I Couldn’t Move. Obviously, no publisher expects you to have 10,000 years of experience in your subject matter. But writing about something you know, have experienced or have achieved is one route to coming up with a book idea a publisher will buy from you.

7.      COLLECT AND COMPILE TIDBITS OF SCATTERED INFORMATION

Are you interested in a specific field of knowledge or study? And are you the type who clips articles and collects tidbits of information on your topic? If so, you can convert this passion for information by compiling your collected knowledge into book form.

For a while, I became fascinated with all the toll-free consumer helplines and hotlines I saw advertised, giving free information on everything from AIDS prevention to gardening tips to stock market quotes. I became an obsessive collector of these numbers, clipping articles and writing down 800 numbers I heard on radio and saw on TV. Finally, I compiled them into a book, Information Hotline U.S.A., published by New American Library.

Similarly, a friend of mine, Don Hauptman, is obsessed by language in general and word-play in particular. Don is a collector of information, and began collecting acronyms (such as DNA, LSD, scuba, laser). When his collection got large enough, he turned it into a book on acronyms, Acronymania, published by Dell.

8.      FIND AND FILL A NEED OR GAP IN THE READER’S KNOWLEDGE An excellent way of finding marketable ideas is to talk with people and find out what they want and need to know, then write a book to satisfy that information need.

For example, an attorney with good negotiating skills heard many clients telling him that they too wished they had good negotiating skills and would like help becoming better negotiators. The attorney became a millionaire by writing and selling books, audio and videotape programs, seminars and training sessions in negotiating skills.

Working as a business consultant, I saw there were dozens of books on sales, but almost nothing on how to generate leads for salespeople. I proposed The Lead Generation Handbook, which sold to Amacom, the publishing division of the American Management Association.

And when we moved out of New York City and bought a home in the suburbs, we knew nothing about plumbing, electricity, gardening, cars, aluminum siding, roofing, or the dozens of other things every homeowner eventually becomes familiar with. I thought, “Why not do a book that will be an instruction manual for first-time homeowners?”

I wrote a proposal for a book titled The Homeowner’s Survival Guide. No one was interested, and I put the proposal away in a file and forgot about it. Several years later, a major publisher-one for whom I’ve now written several books-came out with such a book with the exact same title. Another lesson learned: Pay attention to your own gut feelings. Had I kept trying with this book, as I advise you to do, it might very well have sold within a year or so. But I gave up on it, and now another author’s name is on the cover.

9.      TAKE AN EXISTING TOPIC AND TARGET IT TO A SPECIFIC AUDIENCE

A common situation is the author who wants to write a book on a specific topic but finds the field overcrowded.

This happens to all of us: You get an idea for a book, get excited about it. But

then you visit the bookstore and find two shelves full of books on the same topic, books that seem very much like yours. You become discouraged by the competition, give up and drop the idea. Don’t! You can still write that book. You just need a fresh slant, angle or hook.

One of the easiest and most successful methods to finding this fresh slant is to target your book toward a specific audience within the market. For example, a woman seminar leader told me she wanted to write a book on presentation skills, but was afraid to try because so many books already exist. She mentioned at one point that she trained mainly women. I asked her if women making presentations in the business world face a different set of challenges than men do. “Of course,” she replied.

“Then,” I suggested, “the title of your book should be Presentation Skills for Women.”

In the same way, I wanted to write a book on selling, but found the market overcrowded. Since my experience is in selling services vs. products, I offered Holt a book on Selling Your Services.

10.  WRITE WHAT INTERESTS YOU In addition to finding out what interests other people, an excellent source of ideas is what interests you. You are a curious, intelligent, creative human being, constantly thinking and wondering about the world around you. Chances are what interests you will interest many other people, too.

I’m a big Stephen King fan, as are many others. Having written the TV and comic book quiz books, I naturally thought of doing a quiz book on Stephen King. My agent promptly sold it to Kensington Books, a paperback publisher in New York City.

I recommend you keep a notebook, file folder or computer file labeled “book ideas,” and whenever an idea for a book comes to mind, write it down and save it. Don’t worry whether the book will eventually interest a publisher. Creating ideas and analyzing/assessing ideas are two separate activities, and should not overlap. Don’t hold your creativity back; let the ideas flow and quickly get them all down on paper. Later you can decide which won’t work and which merit further effort.

But first, you must have the idea.

Robert W. Bly is the author of more than 35 books, including The Copywriter’s Handbook (Henry Holt) and Write More, Sell More (Writer’s Digest Books). This article is excerpted from Getting Your Book Published and is copyright © 1997 by Robert W. Bly. It appears here through arrangement with Roblin Press.

Every writer needs a good editor, whether it’s another person or an internal editor who can adequately judge, cut, and rewrite sentences. Yes, an editor will check for grammar and punctuation problems, but a good editor will also trim down text to make it shorter and more readable. Authors, however, who want to be good writers, should not depend solely on an editor; they should also strive to hone their own writing skills and create the most effective and to-the-point sentences possible. Revision is all important because it’s the process through which wordiness can be changed into effective communication.

When writing a first draft, the important thing is simply to get everything you want to say down on the page, no matter how badly written it might end up being. But once that first draft is written, revision is required. A good author will realize that revision includes cutting, trimming, and manicuring the sentences so they are as neat and precise as possible. Just like a gardener, a writer realizes it is not enough to have a bunch of words (flowers), but that those words need to be neat and orderly and not so profuse that the meaning (the best flowers in the garden) are not noticed amid a bunch of words (weeds). Every word should count and extraneous words should be deleted.

Whether you are writing a paragraph, an article, a short story, or a novel, a good rule of thumb is to aim to cut down 10 percent from the first to the second draft. If you write a novel of 80,000 words with your rough draft, your revision may well end up being 72,000 words after you trim down every little word and phrase you don’t need. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider the need to develop your writing and add details or examples to back up your points, but you should also look to eliminate wordy phrases and places where you tend to repeat yourself.

I have many friends who have taught writing over the years, and I’ve heard their war stories about the writing mistakes their students make. One difficulty students usually have is to fill the space required to write a four-page essay or whatever the teacher assigns them. And when the students do fill that space, they often do so with extraneous words that say nothing. I have often thought an effective way to teach writing would be to have a student assigned to write a 2,000 word essay and then actually count the words and make the student adhere exactly to that word count—not 1,967 words, not 2,038, but exactly 2,000 words. The student would then revise until every word counted.

In the movie “A River Runs Through It” there’s a great scene where the father teaches his son how to write. The son brings his essay to his father, and the father crosses out passages and then tells him to redo it—and make it half as long. Learning how to say something in 2,000 words and then to say the same thing in 1,000 words, or even 50 words is something authors must constantly do when writing and talking about their books. Such practices are effective exercises. Whatever piece of writing you are working on, I challenge you to cut it by 10 percent, and then 50 percent, to see whether you can hone down its language to the most necessary words.

Following are some words and phrases I frequently see overused or that are completely unnecessary. I’ll also give you a couple of examples of big words that can be replaced with smaller ones. Just as two or three words can be replaced with one, it’s equally important to take the three syllable word and replace it with the one syllable word whenever possible.

I Remember

I often see sentences that begin with phrases like:

I remember one time when I was in sixth grade….

If you lived the experience you are telling us about, it’s obvious that you remember it. It’s implied that it’s one of your memories. It’s sufficient just to say:

When I was in sixth grade….

One Time a Friend of Mine

You’ll notice in the rewrite above that I also deleted “one time.” Let’s look at another sentence using that phrase:

One time a friend of mine taught me how to fish.

It’s perfectly fine just to say:

A friend taught me how to fish.

Notice also that I changed “a friend of mine” to “a friend.” Unless the person is someone else’s friend, like “my grandpa’s friend” or “Joe’s friend,” it’s implied that the person is your friend.

The Fact

Use of “the fact” is hardly ever necessary. For example, you could easily eliminate it in the following sentence:

I cannot change the fact that he does not like me.

Often, “the fact” is part of “due to the fact that” which is even more unnecessary. A good substitute for this wordy phrase is “because.” Why use five words where one will do? Here’s an example:

She put on suntan lotion due to the fact that it was a hot and sunny day.

She put on suntan lotion because it was a hot and sunny day.

Here’s another:

Janet called to complain due to the fact that her billing was in complete disarray.

What a mess of a sentence! Why not just say:

Janet called because her billing is a mess.

There Are

Whenever possible, it’s advisable to avoid starting sentences with “There are.” Here’s an example and its rewrite:

There are some researchers who believe that some cats don’t like to eat mice.

Some researchers believe cats don’t like to eat mice.

The sentence’s real subject is “researchers” and “believe” is the verb so put them at the beginning of the sentence where they belong so the sentence is stronger.

Here’s another example:

There are many reasons why you should visit the doctor regularly.

Many reasons exist for why you should visit the doctor regularly.

The original sentence isn’t that bad, but “exist” as the verb allows the sentence’s subject to be at the sentence’s beginning where it rightfully belongs.

In Life (and other obvious places)

Here are some “in” phrases that really irritate me:

• In life
• In the world
• In the world today
• In today’s society

Unless you’re writing about “in death,” it’s implied you’re talking about life. Unless you’re talking about what happens on other planets, it’s implied it’s in the world, and unless you’re comparing the present to the past, it’s implied it’s today. Here are a few examples of when these phrases are used and how to reword them:

• In life, we must always strive to do our best. Obviously, we strive in life since we can’t strive in death, so just delete “In life” completely.
• In the world today, our natural resources are becoming depleted. In this case, you can just say “Today, our natural resources are becoming depleted.” Or better, “Our natural resources are being depleted.”
• In today’s society, girls are not afraid to show their belly-buttons. Again, here “Today” may be all you need at the beginning of the sentence, or you could say, “Girls are no longer afraid to show their belly-buttons.” The “no longer” implies that the present is different than the past.

Big vs. Small Words

Never use a big word where a small word will do. People who tend to use big words usually do so because they are trying to impress someone, and big words used to impress are often misused by people who don’t really know how to use them anyway. Even when using such words properly, trying to impress someone should never take the place of communicating with that person. Here’s a perfect example. I once went to a conference where the speaker presented a paper about a classic novel, and the speaker kept going on and on about the main character’s interior perceptions versus her exterior perceptions. What the speaker was really talking about was the difference between what the character saw and how she felt. A lot less impressive sounding, but a lot easier to understand.

I’m not the first person to complain about the word “utilize” or “utilization.” I have yet to find a time when “use” and “usage” don’t work just as well. Just as you should aim to shorten two or three words down to one that means the same thing, so you should aim to use a one syllable word rather than a three syllable one.

Writing dialogue tags are another perfect example. If an author writes effective dialogue, readers do not need to be told how the words were said with a tag like “Joe expressed adamantly.” The words Joe says should be enough to show that they were said adamantly. It is sufficient after what Joe says, simply to say, “Joe said.” If you use any words other than “said, replied, asked” for a dialogue tag, you’re being wordy. There’s no need for “questioned, queried, wondered, responded, retaliated, reiterated, exclaimed, suggested, proclaimed, declared, chortled, snorted” etc. Stick with “said” and rewrite what was said so Joe’s meaning is there in the tone of how he says the words.

Finding the right word takes skill, but every word counts. Find the words that make the point as quickly as possible before you lose the reader in a flood of unnecessary words that fail to communicate. Big words and wordiness are the bane of communication and they don’t impress anyone.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

A business colleague said something astounding the other day. He said he would rather speak to an audience of ten people than write for an audience of a thousand. I thought that sounded a bit strange, so I challenged him on it. It turned out that he had written an article for a magazine with a good circulation, but he hadn’t had any feedback at all from it. He felt he had spent his time crafting a wonderful, informative piece that no one appreciated. He also felt that if that message had been delivered in person, he could have seen the response from people immediately, in their eyes and their body language.

It’s true, what my colleague said, so how can we justify putting time into writing when we don’t get feedback? That, my friend, is the nature of writing. Sometimes you get to find out what your readers think of your material, and many times you don’t. It’s my view that we have to be OK with the fact that writing is one-way until we get a response, and we must continue to put good material into the market. There are some excellent guidelines for one- way communication that I have seen business experts use to their advantage. Here are my favourites:

1. Keep your outcome in mind at all times.

Hone your message according to what you have to say as well as what your reader needs to hear and decide what kind of information you are imparting. For example, if you need to teach people with your writing, you may choose a different style from writing which aims to influence or persuade. Make whatever you write clear.

2. Deliver your message as passionately and authentically as if you were speaking.

I prefer to see writing as an extension of speaking, and in fact, for people who will not get the opportunity to hear you in person or even on the phone, your writing must do the same job. It has become very trendy to write conversationally, spurred on by the advent of blogging and newsletters. That style can be used effectively in books and articles as well. It’s no secret that one of my favourite authors is marketing guru Seth Godin. I love the in-your- face, direct style he uses. It feels like he’s in my living room talking to me one on one. It seems from his book sales that others also respond to that style. And it happens to be the way I prefer to write, in case you hadn’t noticed!

3. Get feedback.

That may sound like it contradicts what I said earlier. Actually, there are some clever mechanisms to get people interacting with you, even though you are not there. You can get them to go to a web page and complete a survey – with or without an incentive. You can put an email address at the bottom of the piece, asking for comments – again, with or without an incentive. This can work equally well for books. I get a lot of clients excitedly planning to include CDs with their books, until I show them how they can still give away free CDs and capture people contact details and feedback at the same time. Never include bonuses with your book when you could engage with readers and get some indication of how many people read it and liked it at the same time. That’s plenty for you to be getting on with. If you know your subject and deliver your message well, if you write powerfully and authentically, they will listen. And they may even respond. Let me know all about your success by writing to me at mindy@bookmidwife. com – I offer lots of fabulous bonuses for my readers

But jump back ten years. I’d just sold my first book, a novel, to HarperCollins after a multi-publisher auction that pushed the price up to a more than satisfactory level. Book one was done and dusted. Now I just had to write number two. Same again, right?

Oh baby, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong. That second novel of mine was a torture to write and a mess on completion. I handed it to my publisher who told me (in very delightful terms) that the manuscript was garbage. And they were right. It was.

So I deleted that novel. Literally. Started afresh with a blank screen. Made a decent fist of it, and my writing career resumed as though I’d never had a car crash. And yet, I had – and I learned profoundly from the experience.

The simple truth is that, almost always, the first novel arises from inspiration, the second novel arises because you’ve signed a contract that requires you to write the damn thing. And at that point, under a contractual compulsion to produce Great Art or (in my case) a Damn Good Story, you discover that you don’t actually know what you’re doing.

I mean that pretty literally. Unless your resume happens to include some kind of creative writing study – whether an MFA program or a simple online writing course – you will never have been given a systematic exposure to the fundamentals of writing. I’d never been on any kind of creative writing course, not even a workshop, and had no idea about how the basics actually work. What makes a plot tick? How do you create lifelike characters? What is the difference between a third person limited narrator and a third person omniscient one, and why the heck does it matter?

Those are things I didn’t know and came to find out the hard way. My own creative writing course involved writing – and scrapping – an entire novel, reading lots of textbooks and figuring a lot of stuff out for myself. It worked OK. The next iteration of that disastrous second novel did fine, and the ones after it did even better. But it wasn’t the right way to do things.

These days, I advise any new writer to take a writing course of some description before they get too far into their project. I tend to advise against the life- and finance-gobbling MFA programs. They’re OK if you reckon you’d enjoy the experience, but they’re needlessly time-consuming if you want to do things more swiftly. An online course – if it’s well-taught and well-led – can easily give you what you need to get started or to develop your existing skills.

Indeed, part of what I’ve learned about writing is that the topics themselves never change, it’s just that your understanding of them deepens. That fact argues for a more modular approach. At an early stage in your writing career, take a beginners writing course so you can get to know the landscape. As you acquire experience, do something a little more intensive e. Or once you’ve actually completed a novel and need help banging it into shape, go on a self-editing course.

With hindsight, my career would have gone much more simply if I’d adopted my own advice ten years ago. What’s more, because I’ve been involved in writing tuition for a long time now, I recognize that my own creative skills are better developed than they would otherwise be. It’s not that I never hit problems, it’s that I know what to do with them when I do. And as for that second novel experience – the Ctrl-A, Delete one – that will, I hope and pray, never recur.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s can be a virtual dead zone.

I can’t tell you how many of these weeks I’ve puttered around my office, “trying” to do something but never getting far. I’m not meeting with clients and no big deadlines are looming, so it’s easy to end up browsing the web for hours, or playing the latest computer game.

After New Year’s Day you don’t feel either relaxed or fulfilled because you’ve accomplished nothing worthwhile.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Really relax and take a vacation. Sleep in late, eat at your favorite restaurants, get together with family and friends. And don’t think about work for one minute. Don’t even check your emails, and remember to ditch your smart phone.

This is what a vacation is for – to vacate! And you’ll return to work more energized and excited about the New Year than ever before.

2. Do just the opposite. Work on a huge project just by yourself and accomplish more in a week than you’d accomplish in a month. You might be working at your computer, but check your email and voice mail minimally and focus on four to six hours of solid work every single day. (Yes, you can do a little Holiday stuff in the evenings.)

What could you accomplish in this time? Here are a few:

a) Completely rewrite your website from beginning to end. You know it needs it anyway, and you keep telling yourself that you’ll do it when you have the time. Well, here’s the time.

b) Reorganize your office from top to bottom. Throw out a ton of stuff, paint, organize and trim down your paper and computer files. There’s nothing like getting the year started with a totally functional office where you can find anything you need in less than 10 seconds.

c) Do a planning retreat, perhaps with a close business associate. Brainstorm, develop big goals, write plans. And then challenge each other to think outside your respective boxes. Every evening make sure to go out or have a nice dinner and keep the conversation going more informally.

d) Write a book. As I told you last week, that’s what I’m doing this year. Yeah, it’s taking a little longer than a week, but it’s only taking about three weeks total. I got started before Christmas, even when I was meeting with clients, and then cleared my schedule for ten days to write a chapter a day.

You know what? I’ve done all of these. And I’ve also spent Christmas with my family and done no work at all. It’s your choice.

But please don’t putter your Holidays away. You’ll never get that time back.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

Writing is a solitary endeavor, but not a lonely one. When you write, your world is populated by the characters you invent and you feel those people filling your life.
—Danielle Steel

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.
—Isaac Asimov

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
—Tom Clancy

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.
—Anaïs Nin

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
—Orson Scott Card

Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
—William Zinsser

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
—Thomas Mann

I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
—Elmore Leonard

First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
—Ray Bradbury

I’m not much of a correspondent. My letters are not only uninteresting but sparse. I’m glad I don?t have to write for a living. It?s arduous work and the money is very uncertain. On those rare occasions when I wander into a bookstore it amazes me to see the avalanche of literature and semi-literature that is turned out weekly in this country. The people who write these things are either desperate for money or love starved. Why should anyone on a nice balmy day lock oneself in an office and hit a typewriter for hours on end. I think one of the greatest pleasures in the world is not writing…
—Groucho Marx

Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to those who have none.
—Jules Renard

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
—Robert A. Heinlein

Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it.
—Jesse Stuart

Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply write the things they think other folks think they think.
—Elbert Hubbard

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
—Douglas Adams

I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.
—Peter De Vries

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
—E. L. Doctorow

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
—Scott Adams

Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it’s just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
—David Sedaris

A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one.
—Baltasar Gracián

Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.
—Neil Gaiman

You can’t say, I won’t write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then… you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.
—Dorothy C. Fontana

First line,

I’d never given much thought to how I would die–though I’d had reason enough in the last few months–but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

This is pure drama, which I define as an anticipation of an outcome. There are many dramatic questions here.

Why did the narrator have reasons to imagine his or her death?

What kind of death is the narrator facing, that he or she couldn’t have imagined it?

What situation does the narrator find him or herself in?

Where is the narrator?

To get the answer to these questions, the reader has to read the next sentence. That is the prime responsibility of the first sentence of a novel, that a reader be compelled to read a second sentence. That’s why this kind of mysterious first sentence is often seen in popular novels. A first sentence that is not compelling becomes a first step in a reader disengaging from a novel. I teach that it’s three steps and the reader is gone.

There’s a difference between a dramatic question and a question. ‘Would I die today?’ is a question, but it’s not a dramatic question like the first sentence above. When I try and teach some writers the art of a good opening line with dramatic questions, some people respond by framing ordinary sentences as questions.

Second paragraph, second sentence,

I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.

This begins to suggest a place, ‘the long room,’ while raising the question, why a long room?

Where is this room? It also raises the question, who is the hunter? Why does the hunter look ‘pleasantly’ at the narrator who, based on the first sentence, would appear to be facing death from the hunter? Or not. To get the answer to that question, the reader has to read the third sentence.

These two sentences have set up a process I call question, answer, question. The first sentence raises questions, the second sentence begins to answer those questions (who or what is threatening the narrator with death), while the answer to the question (the hunter is threatening the narrator) simply raises another question, who is the hunter?

This question, answer, question process creates an on-going hold on the attention of readers, and also creates forward movement that pulls the reader ahead. When the opening to an unpublished novel lacks this process, the sentences are often a collection of details describing a time, place, or character. Such statements operate as statements: this is what so-and-so looks like; this is what this place looks like. The risk is that such statements lack drama — there’s no anticipation of an outcome. There can be an anticipation of an outcome based on the appearance of a character, but when there’s not, the opening pages of a story can be the weakest writing in an unpublished novel.

A literary agent or editor reading the above two lines would be immediately aware that this is a novel written by a storyteller.

Third paragraph,

Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.

Many more questions here; more ‘pull’ on the reader.

Why is the narrator ready to die in place of someone else?

What makes that noble?

Why is it important to the narrator that this noble act ‘count for something?’

What has the narrator done in life that he or she needs to balance the scales?

Fourth paragraph,

I knew that if I’d never gone to Forks, I wouldn’t be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn’t bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond your expectations, it’s not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.

This begins to answer the question, where is this story happening (Forks), but that answer raises another question, where is Forks? Why did the narrator go to Forks? Why does the narrator not regret the decision, which could lead to his or her death? How did this journey to Forks become this grand fulfillment of a dream for the narrator?

Last sentence of preface,

The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

More questions. Why is the hunter so friendly?

So relaxed about killing someone?

To get answers, readers must turn the page and start reading chapter one.

This preface is designed to have the maximum impact; to raise many questions while providing a few answers. The pace of the story does slow with the first chapter, but the hook has already been set.

Excellent story mechanics.

© Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson is the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, now available on Amazon Kindle.