Writers in the Storm

by Ellen Buikema

If you’ve read my posts here at WITS, you know my husband and I retired to Mexico. Currently we’re in Mazatlán where the large expat community has been a surprise. There is a large English-speaking community here, comprised mostly of Canadians and Americans. One of the last things I expected was to come to a foreign country and do a public talk in English, but that’s what happened earlier this month.

Some background

I was privileged to be included in a cultural event in Mazatlán, sponsored by the Institute of Culture, Tourism, and Art of Mazatlán. This was the first time the expat community has been invited to this annual book festival, and it was a huge honor to be included. I happily volunteered to speak in one of the 45-minute time slots.

A day or so later, I wondered what I’d been thinking. I hadn’t given a talk to a group in quite a few years and felt out of practice (and a bit panicked).

The theme of this event was Leer para la Paz, or Read for Peace. My area of Mexico has its share of violence, most related directly to the cartels. The idea of the festival is to educate the populace, especially the children, about the greater world.

So, on top of a case of nerves, I needed to find a way to create talk that included "reading for peace."

What was I worried about?

Transportation

First, I worried about getting there on time, although time is rather fluid here in the Land of Mañana. My husband and I do not drive in Mexico. The drivers scare the hell out of me as the driving rules seem to be mere suggestions.

Instead, we took what I refer to as the “bumpity bus.” This isn’t a calm air-conditioned bus. The bumpity bus travels the neighborhoods somewhat like the Knight Bus from Harry Potter but without the magic. While trying to ignore the near sideswipes of pedestrians, motorcycles, and vehicles, I went over my notes for the talk.

We made it with fifteen minutes to spare.

The Discussion

From my experience as a preschool teacher, I am well-versed in miniscule attention spans and quick changes in conversation. I know full well that any one question can completely turn a conversation in another direction.

A list of talking points is my safest plan. If I write down too much, I get stuck in the minutia and stumble over my words. Since I wrote The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon series to encourage empathy in children, I based my talk around that.

Ten or so minutes into the talk I realized that my audience was just not that into me. They were being polite but their body language and faces were not engaged.

Not good.

Luckily, a few people in the audience were beta readers for my current historical fiction manuscript, The Hobo Code. One of them asked a specific question about my book’s research and away we went. Suddenly, the questions flowed like a waterfall.

Other Advice

Toastmasters advises to know your audience.

Keep in mind that, even if you do know your audience, preparing a list of topics is a good idea. You never know when the audience will wander off inside their heads, get antsy, or (heaven forbid) walk away.

I saw my audience get antsy, which is never a good thing. Antsy audiences make me nervous. I wanted them engaged!

So, my addendum to this advice from Toastmasters is to try to have some pals in the audience. I usually have questions prepared to bring people back. This time I was lucky and my beta readers asked questions instead, opening the door for others in the audience to ask their own.

I was wired by the end of the talk, so I sat chatted with the audience, which eased me back to a more relaxed state. An additional bonus: it allowed me to meet more of the expat writing community, and several readers who were interested in what we all write about.

If you decide to speak in front of an audience, and get nervous like I do, here are a few more helpful suggestions:

Practice.

Try practicing in various locations in the house or other venues. Practice alone, in front of friends, with music going in the background, or with people walking in front of you.

During this particular event in Mazatlán, I actually had people pass between me and my audience. When there were only a few, I waved them on and kept speaking. When a whole crowd from one of the cruise ships walked in front of me, I broke things up by doing a little dance until they were clear of my space.

Funny works. Plus, I learned that I am able to give a talk with more distractions than I thought possible, without losing my place.

Have a joke prepared.

You may never need one, but I find that a little laughter loosens the audience and brings them closer to you. For this talk, that little dance was all I needed.

Do you have any good stories about public speaking? I’d love to hear them down in the comments!

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Work In Progress, The Hobo Code, is YA historical fiction.

Find her at http://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Sources:

• Toastmasters
  Public Speaking
  Tips
• Julie
  Glover also gave 5
  Tips for an Engaging Workshop here at WITS.

by K. Maze

The alternate title for this post could have been "How I Found My Publisher Through Rejection."

In 2015 I wrote a YA Thriller focused around the kidnapping of teen characters involved in the theater. I researched thoroughly, interviewed detectives, and hired an editor who helped me through to the end. I queried and waited and heard…. Crickets.

Kind editors and agents responded with honest feedback or simply said it wasn’t for them.  I analyzed and discovered ways to ‘fix’ the novel: rewrite the first five pages, fix weak plot holes, revise characters to enhance the premise and elevate the intrigue. But I couldn’t.

Completing the novel got me across the finish line, but it didn’t mean my novel was done.  For over a year, I had spent my writing mojo in some very dark territory and I didn’t have the motivation to dig into it more.  The only shelf that manuscript would sit on is in my closet.

But I couldn’t give up on writing, right?

Advice that Helped Me Start Writing Again

1. Write the Book You Want to Read.. The market will be there when you write to your authentic self.

I wanted to take a break, but I feared I would slip out of my hard earned writing habits, so I paused and played with stories for a few weeks instead. I took the “What if…?” to extremes and created crazy characters I could toss into impossible missions.

My original novel had taken over a year to write. I wanted to learn how to craft compelling story structure and character arcs, and decided to use shorter works for these lessons. 

2. Be Willing to Take Risks and Try Something Different. Short stories are good testing grounds for experimenting with genre and style.

My research on strong young heroines led me to Sex in the City. During some What-if story gymnastics, a character a lot like Carrie Bradshaw saved the world from imminent doom. 

Apparently going from dark thriller to dystopian end-of-the-world was all the lightening up I needed to recapture my inspiration!

That What-if became the catalyst for IMPACT, where a young journalist in the near future grappled with an incoming asteroid that dared to interfere with her career. After writing and editing the novella, I discovered that sci-fi novellas have a very active market. In other words, this new story had a higher chance for publication.

3. Find the Market that Represents Your Work.

Rather than "writing to the market," find the market that fits your work’s strong points and sell to those unique strengths.  My book passes the Bechdel Test, but is also a less common combination of sci-fi and light romance.

NOTE: The usual criteria of the Bechdel Test are (1) that at least two women are featured, (2) that these women talk to each other, and (3) that they discuss something other than a man.

I found nearly twenty avenues for my story, reviewed their guidelines and story samples and crafted query letters highlighting the aspects of my book that matched their request. 

Over the next six months, rejections trickled in.  But in the fall of 2018, I received a rejection that included an offer -- to forward my work to another editor.  That editor was closed to submissions but she absolutely published speculative short fiction, including sci-fi, with strong character driven plots featuring strong female protagonists. (Similar to mine!)

In January of 2019, that editor made me an offer. Once the news sank in, I sent celebratory messages to my writer friends and got a lawyer to look over the contract.

My Lessons

Sometimes success looks completely different from your original plan. Perseverance and research helped me achieve this dream, but so did the following:

• Learning craft and continuing to write.
• Follow the publishers guidelines and sending them my best work.
• Research the market to find the best fit for my work.
• Trusting the process, while writing what you want to write.
• And the most important lesson of all...

DON'T QUIT.

What encouragement would you send to your early writer self? What was your route into the publishing world? Are you still knocking on doors? Tell us your tips and advice below so we can build up our writing community!

About Kris

Kris Maze has worked in education for 25 years and writes for various publications including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and Writers in the Storm. Her first YA Science fiction book, IMPACT, arrives in June 2020 and is published through Aurelia Leo.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors with her fur babies and family. She also ponders the wisdom of Bob Ross.

Trapped underground with a mysterious scientist named Edison and his chess master AI, can Nala Nightingale find the will to live and to love in a dystopian future?

To find out more about IMPACT, click here.

by Jenny Hansen

Do you have critique partners? Editors? Beta readers? Family and friends who look over your Work in Progress?

I’m betting you trade writing pages with someone and, for those of you who don’t know how to use Track Changes, you buy a lot of paper. And ink cartridges. And red pens (or whatever friendlier color you use to write in the margin and remind your critique partner to use an active verb).

Even if you do use Track Changes, are you doing so efficiently? It is one of the most useful word processing features for writers. Best of all, even though this post focuses on Word, Google Docs has a Track Changes feature as well.

Quick Primer for Track Changes

Turning It On

 Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature can be activated a few ways:

• Older versions of Word: Go to the Tools menu and choose Track Changes
• Any version of Word: Hit Ctrl+Shift+E (sub in the Cmd button if you're on a Mac and remember, you don’t type in the plus sign for keyboard shortcuts)
• Newer versions of Word: the Review Ribbon is where you'll find the Track Changes feature.
• Double click on Track Changes in the status bar at the bottom of your Word window. (Pre-Word 2007, it said TRK.)

Note: Your status bar is the area that starts with “Page 1.” If you right-click on the status bar, you can turn on any number of things, including Track Changes. If you do this, glancing down at the status bar is the easiest way to tell if Track Changes is on.

What does Track Changes do?

While Track Changes is on, everything you do to a document is being recorded. Every space, every deletion, every bit of formatting. Everything.

The Reviewing toolbar has a great button that allows you to choose things like Original, Simple Markup (showing below), All Markup, No Markup. This button is invaluable if you want to print out the manuscript without all the changes showing.

If you have personalized your User Information in Word's Options (located at the bottom of the File menu) your name will appear next to the changes you make. If your critique partner decides to print up the document with the changes he or she will be able to tell your manuscript changes about transitions from that of your other critique partner who might be wild about head-hopping and adverbs.

Below is what this markup looks like so you can see the line in the left margin that shouts, "Yo! Change here." and the type of change made in the right margin.

How Track Changes Saves Time

My favorite part about the Track Changes feature is that the person receiving the critique can activate it on his or her own computer and choose to Accept or Reject Changes.

You can do this several ways:

• Right click on each change and Accept or Reject it.
• Click on the menu bar to Accept. Word will move to the next change, and then the next, and so forth.
• If you really trust your editor or critique partner, you can accept all changes and be done with it.

Remember: every change offered by a critique partner, editor or beta reader does not have to be accepted, as you know. At the end of the day, this is your book.

Other suggestions

Visit your Review ribbon and play with it. Seriously, you want to be super familiar with it before you're in a time crunch. Pass your mouse across all the buttons so that the tool tip will tell you what each button means. If you have more questions about the content in this blog, go to Microsoft Word's Help and find out more.

Get friendly with the Comments feature. It is located on the Insert ribbon, to the right side of the middle. Comments allow you to offer an opinion, that will show up in the right margin with the other Track Changes markup. It can be easily referenced and then deleted.

Note: In a former life, I was a software trainer, so you are welcome to ask me anything about this feature. The post was born the other day when I heard an experienced writer ask how to print a document without showing the comments.

Do you use Track Changes? What do you like or dislike about it? Are there features that you struggle with? Let's chat about it down in the comments!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Facebook at JennyHansenAuthor or at Writers In The Storm.