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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Feb 1

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How to create a beginning to hook your readers, agent, and publisher

Writing a novel, memoir, screenplay, or even a poetry manuscript can be a long, arduous journey. Getting off to a good start is important, and good beginnings are an art that can be mastered. Below are a few posts with tips on how to create a beginning to hook your reader, agent, and/or publisher. Read these posts and tell us in the comments below if you have any additional tips. Thanks!

Ground your readers and they will follow you anywhere: “Give the readers a place to stand, and then you can take them anywhere.” Poet and professor Nelson Bentley’s advice holds true whether you’re writing a poem, a book, or a screenplay. Read more

Jan 30

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How to put together a poetry manuscript, part 2

Unlike visual artists or sculptors, poets don’t often talk about the way individual pieces fit into the whole of their work.  Maybe the reason some poets hesitate to talk about this process is because, like writing a poem, they are following the instincts of their inner voice. Maybe their process is too close to them to place into words.

Fortunately, in Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems (Imagination, No. 11), edited by Susan Grimm, there now exists a collection of essays by poets who’ve done just that–put together their own books of poetry and survived.

All of the essays were invaluable in helping me order my own storm. I liked Liz Rosenberg’s advice, “I try to start a book with what I think of as a beautiful poem, and to end with a powerful philosophical poem. I think we do begin with beauty and end with wisdom….” I also liked Jeff Gundy’s idea of ending a collection of poetry with a poem that offers some “intimation of hope, some glimpse of shelter and safety in this dangerous world.” He includes the poem that ends his most recent book of poems, Deerflies, as an example. Read more

Jan 27

The secret weapon to writing better stories: Make mistakes

I’ve concluded that to be a better writer, I need to make more mistakes. The more uptight and worried I am about, “getting it right,” the stiffer and less creative my writing is.

I’ve been working on revisions and I’ve found I wrote better pages when I was half awake and less tense about the sentences. Or when I worked fast and furiously as I wrote 750 words for the day. Or when I wrote with the abandon of a 5-year-old.

It’s just not effective or efficient to edit and create at the same time. If you edit while you’re creating, your brain can get a little too judgmental and suck the creative mojo right out of your story.

So here are a few ideas if you want to make more mistakes in your writing and open the door for more creativity. Read more

Jan 25

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Revise by retyping your manuscript

I once read an interview with Australian writer, Blanche D’Alpuget, who said that when she was finished with her first draft, she would print it out, take a deep breath and delete the original file from her computer. Then she would make herself type the whole thing again from the printouts.

I’m doing revisions myself right now, but I don’t have the guts to delete my draft. However, I like the idea of starting from the beginning and retyping it. I think D’Alpuget’s strategy forced her to justify every word by reading and “rewriting” the whole manuscript. It’s easy to get attached to your sentences, gloss over what is on the screen, and fail to make full-out changes the manuscript needs.

As I’ve been rewriting my memoir, these are a few things I’ve noticed: Read more

Jan 20

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How to introduce conflict or change in your very first sentence

Nancy Kress, author of Elements of Fiction Writing – Beginnings, Middles & Ends,says writers have about three paragraphs in a short story and three pages in a novel to catch the reader’s (or agent’s or editor’s) attention. She explains how we can make our openings interesting and original through character, conflict, specifics, and credibility.

In our very first sentences, we can hint at some future conflict or change in our story.

Kress says that we don’t have to have a body hurtling from a window—there are many subtler ways to introduce conflict. Randomly choosing a few of my favorite books from my bookshelf, I’ve copied their first sentences below:

“Running with the Demon,” by Terry Brooks.

“Hssst! Nest!” His voice cut through the cottony layers of her sleep with the sharpness of a cat’s claw.

I like the specifics here and the contrast of “cottony layers of sleep” with “sharpness of a cat’s claw.” We have the feeling that something interesting is going to happen. Read more

Jan 18

Reading list for memoir writers

While writing and researching my memoir, I read over fifty memoirs in order to learn from other authors and to get a feel for where my book might fit in.

Agent Donald Maass suggests that authors read the top ten current books in their genre in order to get a feel for what’s already been done and what draws readers in.

If you’re writing a memoir, I recommend researching not only top-selling memoirs but also those with themes similar to the one you want to write.

Below are just a few of the books I read and recommend. I’m not including a summary of each book but a few sentences on why I liked the book or what I learned from it.

Memoirs:

“Paula,” by Isabel Allende.  Allende’s beautiful and passionate memoir about the death of her daughter showed me the importance of writing to a positive reconciliation. Read more

Jan 17

The end is near: How does yours measure up?

What do you want your readers to feel after turning the last page of your novel or memoir? I’ve been thinking about endings because I’m revising my memoir and want to make sure it measures up. Here’s what I’m using as my guide to create a satisfying conclusion.

A good ending:

Echoes or answers questions or ideas raised in the beginning. Every story is essentially a mystery that must be solved. Readers want to know that they will find the answer to the dramatic story questions by the time they reach the last page, even if the answers aren’t neat and tidy. City of Thieves: A Novel by David Benioff is one of my favorite books for the way the ending ties back to the beginning. Read more

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