Test drive your novel

Not sure how your novel will be accepted? Test drive it!

Turn it into a flash fiction or a short story and work it to as many social media outlets as you can, especially writing communities.

Be careful though especially with people fan fictioning now. You don’t need someone stealing your idea before you even publish the thing!

If you get a great response then you know to roll with it.

Pay attention to the criticism, the constructive ones that is. Write them down keep them in a file specifically for that story. Pick and choose which ones you will take into consideration. Word is not always bond.

245i Short Stories Oct-1949 Page 11 Loot from Badakhshan 06 by E. Hoffmann Price (Photo credit: California Cthulhu (Will Hart))

Have some trusted friends, not that many but enough you trust to read your ish and give their view from a reader’s stand point.

Any other ideas to test driving that novel?

Peace and luv!

 

Related articles

• Flash Fiction (journalread.wordpress.com)
• Flash Fiction for Summer Lightning (youngbyname.me)
• Why I Write Flash Fiction (elizabethkateswitaj.net)

Is having powerful beginning really that important?

Seasoned (or experienced whichever you prefer) authors give advice all of the time. That’s good for us other writers that inhales advice so we can be better. Some of my favorite bit of advice I have picked up along the way are:

1. Show, don’t tell
2. Use the five senses in each scene
3. Only use dialogue when it will push the story along

A common piece of advice I’ve noticed writers use is always have a strong beginning. It is great advice don’t get me wrong but is it really that important?

When is it appropriate?

Genre novels such as thrillers, mysteries, horror and espionage are the best to use the strong beginning tip. These genres usually are fast paced so a powerful start is needed.

So when is it necessary?

Romance is one of the first genres that comes to mind. There is no point in having an in your face beginning to a romantic story. Chic lit or erotica neither.

Pressure opens the door for more mistakes

Ok so you have it engrained in your mind to bring it on the beginning, you struggle, lose sleep, and maybe pull a few strands of hair out or grow a few grey hairs over trying to get that perfect start. There are consequences to putting all of your eggs in the beginning basket.

You’ve put so much in the beginning you have no more energy for the rest of the novel. You have to leave some tricks in the bag. Make your reader salvitate through the whole thing not just the first chapter. It will take some serious discipline to not put all the fireworks at the beginning but you can do it.

There is that temptation to add fireworks that doesn’t even fit with the story. Say you are doing a romance. The female is in a country looking for love but she doesn’t speak their language. In the opening scene there is a natural disaster, her place has been robbed, her father back home suffers a heart attack and her aunt is pregnant. Now what in the world does that have to do with her finding love? Not a damn thang in my book.

What are some of the things that agents cringe when reading terrible novels? Some I don’t understand why but hey, everyone has their quirks. Here are 10 things that just gets under literary agents’ skin:

1. Opening scenes that are dreams. Why is this a problem? If it correlates with the story then it should be there.

2. Sci-fi novels that has lengthy landscape description. I read a story that had this problem and by the time I was through with the scene I had forgotten what I was reading.

3. Prologues. A lot of agents/ publishers have a problem with this but again if it is appropriate for the story then include it. I’ve read a lot of novels who do and do it successfully.

4. Endless character description. Aw yes, I really don’t need to know that Bobby has a mole on the inside of his nose. Eeww, TMI!

5. Characters doing nothing. If the first sentence to a novel reads, Joanne sat and stared in her mirror for three hours would you continue? Please stop lying.

6. Cliche openings. The moon shown bright in the dark sky. Um, been there, read that.

7. Telling not showing. It took me a long time to grasp this one. Let me give you an example. Which sentence is more interesting?

Tiffany was mad after finding out her man cheated on her.

or,

Tiffany took all of Steven’s clothes and threw them onto the street including the black lace boyshorts the other woman left in her bed.

See the difference? Sometimes showing is a hell of a lot better than telling.

8. Narrator introducing themself. When would this be needed anyway?

9. Too perfect characters. If your character can do no wrong they fail to be relatable. Even in fiction people are flawed.

10. Great descriptive character who is irrelevant. You wasted all that time on a character that is not even a key player? Prepare for irritated readers.

Now that you know better, please take heed and do better!

Posted from none other than your favorite writer’s favorite writer Ms Talia

Unleash the demon in you

“An artist is a creature driven by demons….he is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg or steal from anybody to get the work done.

”

Well damn that makes us look like some crackheads! I can dig it though. The quote is from 1956 during an interview from author William Faulkner. Crazy how that sums up what it feels like to be a writer. I’ve joked before that I have multiple personalities running thangs in my head, each vomitting out new stories (ok vomitting may not be the appropriate word but anywho…). None are satisfied until they get the attention they crave. Those are my demons.

“The writer’s responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then.”

When life happened and I became too busy chasing boys and having babies among the choices I made to please everyone but my damn self I still craved writing. Any conversation, situation, hell a tv show would blossom an idea. The thorns would scratch at the door that locked my creativity until one unlocked the door and I was finally at peace. That is what you call an Oprah ah-ha moment.

How do you feel about writing and the whole process of it? Tell me about your demons so i won’t feel like I am the only crazy one here.

Peace and luv from yours truly,

Talia

Posted from none other than your favorite writer’s favorite writer Ms Talia

Screenwriting Basics

Everything you know about script writing needs to be thrown out the window.

I read an article on Writer’s Digest written by Michael Ferris who has been doing scripts for a minute and knows what he is talking about. The original article is lengthy but informative and I highly suggest you read it all especially if you are planning to get into screenwriting. Read the original here.

For formatting Mr. Ferris states every paragraph should be less than three lines. Write in visual perspective, describe what can be seen not heard and lastly make sure it is in present tense form.

On dialogue keep 95% of it three lines or less. Understand that the meaning of a character’s style is knowing their core not about what designer they have on or in other words what is their motivation?

White Space. I had no idea what this was to be honest. However he says the more white space there is the better! This means take out lines you can’t hear or see (show not tell remember that rule?), anything that doesn’t move the story along or anything about the characters that do not add depth to their state of mind.

Again the article was helpful so I strongly suggest you read it, bookmark it or whatever.

Peace and luv!

Stephen King’s Advice

I read an article the other day on a website. Stephen King was speaking in seeing the scene before you write it down. I had a moment when I read it because I thought every writer did that. I mean what other way is there?

This would be on the top 5 list of best advice for writers. No matter what kind of scene no matter how insignificant you need to visualize the scene otherwise you will not get the realness to come across the pages. I don’t need you thinking about what you will be making for dinner or if you actually brushed your teeth this morning (did you? I hope you did) while writing. It’s hard but it is what it is. You know when you’re talking to someone say for instance your teenage child who may be looking at you when you are talking but you know their minds are somewhere else? It’s like that. It irks me to read a novel and I know the author was not connected. Maybe since I’m a writer I am sensitive to things like this ever after putting on my reader hat I don’t know but it irks me all the same.

There have been characters I’ve written that had me cursing at them because I couldn’t stand their very essence but I know I would not have cared enough to get pissed if I had not have envisioned the character as though I were them and in that scene. Don’t be the fly in the room. Great advice Mr. King.

Peace and lu

Write What You Know

You’ve heard this saying before, if you haven’t where have you been? Just about every seasoned writer gives that advice to up and coming writers. Well I’m about to flip the script on you. That is right I am officially telling you to NOT write what you know.

If you always write what you know how are you suppose to evolve in your writing skills? I am not talking about genres, you can stick to only writing thrillers or chick lit I am talking about plot. If all you know about is milking cows how many different novels can you make on that subject? See what I’m saying? You will get bored after writing about the same damb thing.

Challenge yourself!

Read other writer’s work on a topic that in your head you feel you will never write about. You will be surprised to know that you enjoyed reading it and may be more surprised when you want to write about it in your next novel. And if you are scared to tackle anything else then a) go to church and b) expect a short writing career.

You can write a novel where the main character is a lawyer and you are a pediatrician in real life. It is called research people! You can write about being in an abusive relationship even if you have never been in one fortunately.

Don’t become the redundant writer. Get your lazy ass up and do something different, I dare you. Writing what you know is the most stupidest rule ever! I am for sure all the writers who preach this started out not knowing about certain subjects, plots, career goals for their characters and much more. Umless they came out of their mama’s womb with a pad of paper and a pen along with perfect writing structure.

I started out writing urban lit, only hitting drugs but as I got older in age and in writing skill I realized there is a hell of a lot more than selling and taking drugs in the hood. I became more diverse. Now I’m doing relationships, murder, supernatural, etc. I challenge myself and if I don’t know about human trafficking (which is in a current novel I am working on) I Google it, find organizations that have dealt with victims of the trafficking and anything else I have to do so I do not come off being fake. I enjoy it and you never know what relationships may come out of your research.

What has been the best advice you have been given as a writer? How about worse? I hope the advice I just laid out for you will fit in your best advice category and maybe yours will be added to mine.

Peace and luv!

Agents and Their Opinion

I value the advice of people in the writing business. Agents, editors, PR, etc. They have been in the game for awhile so they know a little somethin’, somethin’ because of their long standing career. However every once in awhile there comes an expert who voices their professional opinion and it ends up sounding more like hating than legitimate advice. Which brings me to literary agent Janet Reid. I’m not going to write her whole post, you can check that out on her blog but I do wanna point out a few things she said. Ms. Reid really made a point to tell her fans what self publishing will NOT do for writers.

Self published writers need to sell more than 20,000 copies to get traditional publishers’ attention.

I don’t agree and let me tell you why, not all self publishing authors want to get the attention of a traditional publisher. Most want the freedom of how their book is going to be presented. Why allow some big wighead behind a desk all day try to package and sell your baby with a completely different envision than yours?

Mystery series will not sell.

Why not? I love mysteries and if I know there is a series that means a few things, the writer is in it for the long haul and is not about writing one great book and that’s it. Plus mystery is a popular genre, along with erotica.

She also claims big publishers do not want to read the second series that is selling very well however your first sold less than 100. I self published a book, the plot was decent however me being inexperienced in the publishing game I did not market it right, hire an editor, do a decent job on the book cover, none of that. So just because the first book did not sell like they want it should not make them want to work with you. I have read plenty of books published by traditional publishers and they were garbage. They need to focus on their clients that suck before they start talking about self published authors. Not all of us are traditional published rejects ya feel me?

Worldly Advice For Authors…Yeah Bookbaby….yeah!

Bookbaby is a great website for writers. I suggest you get on their email list to get great articles/newsletters sent to you. This one was in my email the other day. Blogger Chris Robley tells us writers 10 things an agent is not suppose to do for us. For those who are shopping for an agent or have one now, pay attention! An agent is not suppose to:

  1. Ask you for an upfront payment. They can’t get money until you get a deal.

  2. Charge for editing suggestions, feedback. They are agents not editors.

  3. Make editing referrals to outside editing services.

  4. Edit your novel; again they are agents only.

  5. Guarantee you success. Only thing that is guaranteed is death and taxes.

  6. Pitch your book to vanity presses. Who does that anyway?

  7. Hold your hand. You are grown, act like it.

  8. Act as your publicist.

  9. Take more than 20% (when you get a deal first!)

10. Drop everything for you. You’re not that special. There are other clients. Your agent should not ignore you completely but do not fire them if they do not answer one phone call.

Now that you are equipped with some info use it. Oh and go sign up for the Bookbaby updates and newsletters!

Peace and luv!

Even Literary Greats Get Denied

Don’t get discouraged it happens to the best of us.

Earlier this year Stephen King published a series called The Dark Tower. Mr. King along with Ron Howard are shopping the series around for film and television but Warner Brothers have denied the duo the go ahead to film it and not really giving a reason why.

Even with the success from the writer and director they still have problems getting in. I’m for sure neither are crying over spilled milk. Another production or network will be calling….watch.

My point to this post is for you not to take every rejection to heart. If this is what you are meant to do then open another door.

What has been the best advice you have received?

Peace and luv!

5 Reasons I Will Not Read Your Street Lit Unless You Are Sister Souljah or K’wan

books (Photo credit: freizeit)

The best advice I could give a writer is to read as much as you write. Not the same type of genre all of the time either, it’s ok to have a favorite genre but reading a variety will help expand your creativity when it comes to writing your own novel – trust me, I know this for a fact. It saddens me that African American writers of street lit doesn’t take heed to this advice. It is like it’s a crime if they read anything other than street lit. It’s sad because there is so much room for potential and growth. And because of their lack of wanting to try to make a decent street lit novel I have chose not to read their ish and these are 5 reasons why:

1. Same Shit, Different Book. I get it, the hoods across the world don’t change too much but does that mean EVERY street lit novel have to be the same too? It’s the same setting book to book: Section 8 housing, mama cracked out, ballers living next door (when we all know that’s a lie. I’ve never lived next to a baller who never got robbed), every heifa on the block is light skinned and is thirsty. I can’t relate to none of that! And I hate repetitiveness. Which leads to reason #2.
2. Virgins Can Put It Down From Jump! I’m sorry but it didn’t take me a week to learn how to throw it down on a man’s stick however all of the virgin heifas can suck a mean dick and ride it like they came out of their mama’s womb with one in their mouths! Yes it’s fiction but damn really? At least make it sound believable.
3. Redbone, Coke Bottle Frame. Females always complain about all the video girls and wifeys are either light skinned or white however the same dark skin female authors have light skinned females on their covers and the main boss bitch in the story. Hmmm, isn’t that selling out or something? Contradicting? Fake, maybe? Growing up every chick in my hood was not the same color (light skinned). Make your characters similar to your fans, have them with an imperfection somewhere or something and weave that into the storyline somehow. Stop being so predictable in the character category.
4. Lack of English or Education. Why is it that all of or just about all of street lit novels have the chick narrating and the female has no semblance of an education. The whole story is written in unintelligible English. I don’t want to read that! Everybody do not talk like they only completed the second grade. It’s too much, maybe have one character or two talk like that but all of them? Or the narrator?
5. Captain Save A Hoe Mentalities.Not all females in the hood have the ‘captain save a hoe mentalities’ which is where they sit around and wait for a baller to come and take them out of the hood to a better life. However street lit seems to think that is what it is about; light skinned chick with green, purple or blue eyes hates her cracked out mama, determined to get out she finds a baller to lace her with as much money as she can handle then she gets controlled and beaten by the baller. The End.

I know I may sound bitter or whatever but I’m not nor am I bougie. There is more to the hood than sex, redbones, money and drugs. The thing I love about Sister Souljah’s tales is even though they are based in the hood the story does not revolve around the ‘stereotypical’ hood antics. Her stories have depth, that underground shit that have you thinking and saying damn after reading it.

No one believes in talent anymore. It’s like 98% of the writers took a city bus thru the hood one day and ass*umed they really know about the hood off of that one trip then go home and write some garbage. Understand the ghosts that lurk in the cracks on the sidewalks, why the drunks on the corners started to drink, the inner demons people fight with internally but of course that might be too much work uh?

I know what I like and it’s not the garbage I see on these shelves. They really shouldn’t be on the shelves if you ask me. Are you a lover of street lit? Non-lover? Or are you a writer of street lit? Conversate with me, let me know what is your formula for writing your stories.

Peace and luv!

 

Related articles

• Breaking down street lit (slideshare.net)