Savvy Authors Den Blog

There’s this guy in my critique group. He’s a wonderful writer, with a great voice, and I enjoy everything he writes. He has created a collection of short stories all about the same character, an obviously fictionalized version of his real life. Sometimes he brings something new to our meetings, but almost always he brings something he’s editing. Again. And again. He’s written all these great pieces, even winning awards at our state writers’ conference. But he won’t submit them anywhere.

Prologues are notoriously hard to write. When prologues work, they work well. When they don't, they give the technique a bad name. Many people have sworn off them and encourage others to do the same.

Can a vampire write a novel? The undead have many amazing powers, both physical and mental, but can they write? What about an alien? Can a creature from another planet spin a story worth telling? Who makes a better storyteller? Are women better than men at writing? Does it matter what one’s occupation is? Would a photographer be better at writing than a private investigator?

We constantly hear about ‘voice.’ Your voice is the way you say things, what you say, the way you present things to the reader. Many readers can tell an author by the way the book reads, e.g. J D Robb’s Eve responds to adversity in quite a different way from say a Gayle Wilson heroine. Whereas Eve punches her way through problems, solving them by putting herself in the perpetrator’s shoes, Gayle Wilson’s Susan (Wednesday’s Child) or Sarah (Victim) are more covertly intellectual. They have waited and agonized and wondered and eventually, when a clue is discovered, taken action. Eve is more likely to discover the clues herself and roar into action.

Thank you, SavvyAuthors, for inviting us to be your guest bloggers today. We’ll be discussing one of the more important skills a private investigator (aka private detective, private eye) can have: interviewing witnesses. We’ll look briefly at interviewing versus interrogation, the art of interviewing witnesses, and interview techniques when working with a talkative witness versus a reticent one. As writers, you can apply these tips to sleuth characters in your stories.

Before you can promote your books, you need to figure out who your audience is and narrow it down as much as you can. (You probably already did this when you wrote your book in the first place, but if not, don’t delay.) Next, ask yourself how you can reach that particular audience. Where do they shop, what sites do they visit and participate in online, what do they watch on TV, what do they read (newspapers, blogs, books, magazines), where do they spend most of their time (at work, at school, at Star Trek conferences?), what music do they listen to, and what is important to them (are they vegan? Environmentalist? Republican?). Keep your answers in mind as you explore different promotion options.

Are you writing a story where your fictional PI, law enforcement officer, or amateur sleuth needs to find a person? Here are 7 tips that your fictional character can use:

1. Check the phone book or dial 411 (after all, directory assistance has the latest, most up-do-date listings). If you're looking up a business, dial a "free" 411 service from Google: 1-800-GOOG-411.

I learned something recently about my novels that I already knew, only not in as much detail: I write SF Romantic Adventures, not SF Romance. While the two genres (if that’s the word) have much in common,

I love many things, but this time of year, plums are my favorite. Dark purple skin and fruity orange flesh. The other day when I bit into another sweet plum I thought that eating plums is just like reading stories. You take a bite. The flesh is soft and sweet, and so full of juices they run down your chin. You take one more bite, and one more...

The last bite of that plum makes you realize that half a worm remains in the fruit.

So - you have a really great story but it doesn't fit into the big publishers' "boxes"? Boy do I feel your pain. While I have an agent and 2 requested manuscripts currently submitted to 4 publishing houses, I also have an Historical-American-Norwegian trilogy in the outside-the-box position. Great characters in a unique setting and unusual situations - and no publishing home. What's an author to do?

World building is the creation of an imaginary world where we writers place our characters. Think - “giant terrarium” where we get to play God : ) Which is one of the fun parts of being a writer. World building is more than a story's setting. Setting, like the two-dimensional background on a stage, lacks depth, history, emotion and all those other imperative aspects to a great book. World building goes beyond a date and location. It surrounds the reader, pulling them into the world's society, culture, and the characters' baggage.

If you’re ready to query agents, you’ve probably seen this guideline:

Send query by email, with the first five pages pasted in the body.

Seems easy enough, right? You’ve polished your query letter, you’ve edited your manuscript—you’re good to go.

But have you thought about what those sample pages really say about your novel? Take a moment to step back, close your eyes, and forget all about your manuscript (this is tough, especially after you’ve been working on it forever—but roll with me on this one). Now read your query and your sample pages as if you were an agent receiving that email. Does it make you want to read on? Because it should—otherwise you’ll just get a quick form rejection.

For the past several years, I’ve been able to use the national conference of the Romance Writers of America as a bellwether for trends—not just for what’s selling (or not) in the publishing industry, but for how those sales are happening. Author Branding has always been a part of the discussion, but this year was decidedly different. This year, Branding took center stage.

Why is presenting yourself and your work effectively more important than ever?

Body language and facial expressions play a large part in daily conversations. They are natural reactions to what we speak and hear. Shouldn’t our characters react the same way? If we forget these important elements, our dialogue will appear flat, boring, and our characters dull. Even setting plays a part in every day conversation.

Did you ever avoid someone’s eyes – focus on a picture or a lamp- maybe even lowered your eyes or stared at the ceiling? We tend to focus on things other than the person speaking to us if we are uncomfortable with either the situation or the person.

Recently, I had an interview on a radio show, and the interviewer made mention of the fact that somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 books were published last year in some form or shape. Wow! A writer friend and I discussed this, and continue to discuss this.

If indeed there were so many books published, and even if there weren’t…what makes each of us different? What makes a reader choose your (my) book verses the next author’s book beside yours on the bookshelf or the website? And the bigger question, why do we even write? Why do we try to put anything out there among all of the clutter?

I scan over 200 Blog posts every week, making comments on probably half that number. Most of the Blogs relate to writers and their writing, but I also check out design blogs, food blogs, blogs on popular culture and current events and blogs affiliated with the nation's top newspapers. Occasionally, when I am feeling very weak, I check out the TMZ blog which is a complete waste of my time, but I used to live in Malibu and I love seeing them scan down the Pacific Coast Highway. It brings back great memories.

Because writing is such a solitary endeavor, it helps to cultivate a few pals. In my case, PAL is actually an acronym for Published Authors’ Liaison . I’m convinced that at every stage of a writer’s career it’s essential to find and sustain support. While honing the craft and agent/editor hunting, critique groups and writers’ conferences are great resources. But who do you turn to once you’ve signed that first contract? Among authors, what opportunities exist to network, share information, and provide mutual promotional support? I couldn’t find anything like it in the Des Moines area, so I just went ahead and started one. Thus, the Published Authors’ Liaison of Central Iowa was born.

Writing is a contract between you and the reader. But all readers have different expectations, so we never know which one’s expectations we will meet and which ones we won’t. So ultimately, we have to write the story the way we love, because we have no idea how anyone will perceive the story until it’s out there in front of the viewing public.

Deborah Cooke sold her first romance novel – a medieval – in 1992. Since then, she has written and published over forty romance novels and novella, under the pseudonyms Claire Delacroix and Claire Cross