Last month Sharla Rae wrote about switching genres. She’s a historical romance writer and has decided to take the leap into a futuristic. The common thread between the two genres that gave her the courage to try: research.
That post has been on my mind. I’ve had a particularly bad case of ‘Fussy Brain’ lately and have been jumping around between various projects trying to “find” a creative spark.
Rewind to December.
I started a new women’s fiction project. And man, did it start out strong. Oh yeah! The pieces of the WIP puzzle were fitting into place, the words were flowing, the characters were singing, happy times. Then life happened. The creative flow came to a screeching halt. Every time I sat down to write, I’d end up with a to-do list or fuffing about on social media and internet sites or spraying my orchids, again.
Fast forward to last week.
After spending two hours staring at a blinking cursor under the sad words “Chapter 3,” I gave up and started cleaning my office (orchids had already been sprayed). In my “current project” drawer is a notebook from the November PiBoIdMo - that’s Picture Book Idea Month for those who may not be familiar. Out came the notebook.
Stick with me a few more minutes.
We’ve all heard the advice to go for a walk in nature or manhandle exercise equipment or clean toilets or use all the hot water in the shower or whatever gives you that change of scenery and mental break when you’re struggling with a scene. Picture books work much the same way for me. Here’s why:
When I write women’s fiction, I have to be on a computer. I’ve tried longhand, nothing happens. The first draft has to be typed out. Editing is longhand, but that first messy draft is a collaboration between my brain, fingers and MacBook Pro.
Picture books, on the other hand, flow from brain, to colored pen, to legal pad. Those I edit on the computer but first messy draft must be longhand. Go figure!
That switch in format and genre, releases the bunched up undies on my creative braincells.
There are also a lot of similarities -
Characters - Regardless of the story you’re writing, you need strong characters … main characters, secondary characters, a good guy, a not-so-good guy, a mom, a dad, a friend, an I-thought-you-were-my-friend friend, a dog. Characters must have unique traits that help to both increase the conflict and create the solution. Every character must come to life for the reader but you should adjust your character brainstorming for the appropriate audience. After all, a booger-picking-and-flicking six year old will probably have more appeal to one audience over another.
Conflict - Who wants to read a story where every character is perfectly happy and nothing ever goes wrong? Conflict! We want conflict. Internal, external, high drama, humorous, angst filled, tricky, straightforward, doesn’t matter, it just needs to be there.
Story Structure - Every story has a beginning and the central problem or conflict, then the middle as the problem increases, and finally the end and resolution of the problem. Easy peasy. 325 pages or 32 pages, the structure is the same.
Tight writing - Show of hands … who’s heard the phrase “write tight” from a crit partner? My first drafts ramble. I leave editing for the second and third and sixth pass. Each time, I tighten a bit more. In a novel you have 75,000-100,000 (or more) words to make all the great things mentioned above happen. In a picture book you have under 1,000, preferably closer to 400-500 words. Talk about an excellent exercise in making every word count.
This week, I’m back to my women’s fiction WIP and excited about the ideas flowing.
Your turn … how do you untangle your creative braincells?
After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet. When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
Big hugs to Laura Drake for inviting me to post at WITS today.
I love teaching writers how to create their best, best, best writing. Writing that draws the reader in so deep, that when the POV character’s heart races, the reader clutches their chest.
Best writing carries specificity and clarity. It carries nuanced power in its structure and style. It carries a compelling cadence in every sentence that drives the reader from the first word to the last.
Best writing cuts words that reader’s skim and adds words that increase power.
Writing body language and dialogue cues at the best level pushes writers beyond using at-the-ready basics and beat-fillers. Best writing doesn’t use words and phrases that are predictable, overused, clichéd. Best writing is fresh writing.
Writers Need to be Kinesics Specialists
Writers need to be experts at reading body language, experts at writing nuanced body language on the page.
Research indicates a whopping ninety-plus percent of all communication messages are nonverbal. Less than ten percent of communication can be attributed to the words.
What’s the implication for writers? The odds are good that writers need more body language on the page, and more body language that carries psychological power.
Most writers fall into patterns on the page. They write variations of overused sentences about hard stares, narrowed eyes, and lips that roll in, get tugged, chewed, nibbled, and pulled into a thin line. Writers need to know the full range of body language and dialogue cues – and how to write fresh.
Examples and Deep Editing Analyses
Two of my biggest gifts to writers are teaching them to think like psychologists, and teaching them how to capture that psychologically-based power on their pages. I’ve developed dozens (hundreds?) of deep editing tips and techniques that teach writers how to psychologically empower their writing.
Deep Editing Analysis: Lisa Unger, Black Out:
New York Times and international bestselling author, Lisa Unger, writes adrenaline-driven literary thrillers. Reviewers describe her writing as masterful, riveting, evocative.
Example:
I see a flash of something on her face that I’ve never seen before. It happens when our eyes connect through the thick glass of her front door. It’s just the ghost of an expression, and in another state of mind I might not even have noticed it. It’s fear. Vivian is the strongest woman I’ve ever known, and when I see the look on her face, my heart goes cold.
Analysis:
If you’ve taken my writing body language course, you know flicker-face emotion. Because this flash of fear on Vivian’s face is critical, Lisa Unger wanted the reader to pay attention to this news of a difference.
How did Lisa Unger get the reader’s attention?
She did not use a stronger descriptive word.
She did not have the POV character react outwardly with a typical line, “What’s wrong?”
She did not just label the look, fear, and move on.
She empowered that look by:
amplifying it, 71 words
indicating the flash of emotion on Vivian’s face was so brief that she almost missed it
labeling it fear
letting the reader know Vivian didn’t intend to show her fear
telling the reader that Vivian is strong (implying rarely fearful), this is news of a difference
using cadence
backloading-- ending a sentence with a power word
using the look as a stimulus and showing (not telling) the POV character’s reaction
including a visceral response
That example, what I call flicker-face emotion, kicks off a turning point. That’s why Lisa Unger amplified it. In my Four Levels of Powering Up Emotion, that passage is at the third level, Empowered.
Lisa Unger included a visceral response to strengthen her emotional hook for the reader.
She placed the visceral response at the end of the paragraph to backload with emotive power.
Example:
I notice how still he is. There was so much anxiety and adrenaline living inside me that I couldn’t keep myself from fidgeting, shifting my weight from foot to foot, padding a few steps away, then back toward him. But he is fixed and solid. He keeps his hands in his pockets, his eyes locked on some spot off in the distance. All there is to him is his raspy voice and the story he tells.
Analysis:Lisa Unger spotlights the contrast between how the POV character displays her tension—and how the non-POV character keeps his cool.
Specificity: shifting weight, padding/steps away and back, hands in pockets, eyes/spot in distance, raspy voice
Emotional Hits – includes TELLING and SHOWING = 11 Emotional Hits
Showing: shifting weight, padding/steps away, back, hands in pockets, eyes/spot in distance, raspy voice
Cadence: Read the passage out loud. You’ll notice variability in sentence length, smooth phrasing, and a last sentence that is pleasing to your Cadence Ear.
All there is to him is his raspy voice and the story he tells.
What if Lisa Unger had written the last sentence like this?
All there is to him is his raspy voice and his story.
AACK! Hear it? The cadence is off. Read her line again:
All there is to him is his raspy voice and the story he tells.
Ah – My Cadence Ear is happy.
Deep Editing Analysis: Dennis Lehane, Moonlight Mile
Dennis Lehane’s writing carries a cadence-driven lyrical power and fresh street-smart dialogue that make his gritty crime novels bestsellers—and make his book-based movies blockbusters. The dialogue in these books, Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island, was so strong, it was used in the movies.
Example: The POV character is angry with Helene, the scuzzy mother of the teenage girl who is missing. Helene doesn’t seem worried about her missing daughter.
Here’s how Lehane characterized Helene earlier: “If it smelled of stupid, Helene just had to be somewhere nearby.”
After the silence went on a bit too long, Helene said, “What’re you thinking?”
“I’m thinking how I’ve never had the impulse to hit a woman in my life, but you get me in an Ike Turner frame of mind.”
She flicked her cigarette into the parking lot. “Like I haven’t heard that before.”
“Where. Is. She.”
“We. Don’t. Know.” Helene bulged her eyes at me like a pissy twelve-year-old, which, in terms of emotional development, wasn’t far off the mark.
Analysis:
Cadence – Read it out loud. You’ll hear the cadence drive the reader through every sentence. No meandering. No stalling.
Allusion – Rhetorical Device – the reference to his Ike Turner frame of mind.
Clichés – You may know I’m not a fan of clichés.
1. Like I haven’t heard that before.
In this scene, that overused line carried power, strengthened characterization, and made me laugh. I approve using this cliché here.
2. . . . wasn’t far off the mark.
It works. It’s tight. I like the cadence. And I can’t think of a better way to end that sentence.
If your name is Dennis Lehane, I may excuse a few clichés. :-)
Period. Infused. Sentences. My term for describing when the author morphs what would have been a normal sentence into sequential single word sentences. Like. This.
“Don’t. Touch. Me.”
Lehane shared what I call a Dialogue Cue. He didn’t add a sentence describing how the words were delivered. He showed it structurally. The punctuation indicates that each word is clipped, and that the character who is speaking is big-time irritated.
He also did something I haven’t seen on the page before, but I’ve heard it in real life. He had one character speak in that clipped style, and had another character respond the same way.
“Where. Is. She.”
“We. Don’t. Know.”
The reader knows the second character is mocking the first. But Lehane doesn’t TELL us. He SHOWS us. Smart. And smart alecky in a fun way too. :-)
Facial Expression, Amplified:
Helene bulged her eyes at me like a pissy twelve-year-old, which, in terms of emotional development, wasn’t far off the mark.
Lehane could have stopped with: Helene bulged her eyes at me.
Lehane could have stopped with: Helene bulged her eyes at me like a twelve-year-old.
Lehane could have stopped with: Helene bulged her eyes at me like a pissy twelve-year-old.
Ah! Adding the word, pissy, adds psychological power. It taps a universal emotion in readers.
Most adults have dealt with a pissy twelve-year-old, a child, niece, nephew, neighbor. Adding ‘pissy’ elicits an internal nod. It ratchets up the tension and tightens the emotional hook.
But Lehane didn’t stop with that strong sentence. He amplified the line and empowered the emotion. Here’s his sentence again:
Helene bulged her eyes at me like a pissy twelve-year-old, which, in terms of emotional development, wasn’t far off the mark.
Example:
She and Angie hugged then in that unforced way women can pull off that eludes even those men in the world who are at ease with the bro clench. Sometimes, I give Angie shit about it. I call it the Lifetime Hug or the Oprah, but there was no easy sentiment powering this one, just a recognition, I guess, or an affirmation.
“She deserved you.” Angie said.
Elaine wept silently into her shoulder and Angie held the back of her head and rocked her the way she so often does with our daughter.
“She deserved you.”
Analysis:
Empowered Hug – juxtaposes emotional pain and humor
Amplified Hug -- Lehane devoted 62 words to describe that hug. It deepened characterization. These two women had met maybe ten minutes earlier. Amplifying the hug showed Angie's personality. The way Lehane contrasted gender differences regarding comfort level and styles of hugs also hooked readers.
Deep Emotion – Specificity, Comforting adult like child
Intentional Echo – Dialogue repeated for impact.
Powerful Cadence -- Read it out loud. The cadence carries power too.
Example -- Reaction of teen age girl
Her façade of apathetic cool collapsed and she looked about nine years old. Nine years old and abandoned by her parents at the mall.
Body Language - Lehane TELLS it, he doesn't show her face. But it's written FRESH. That's why it works. The reader conjures an image of a teenage girl with her I-don't-care-apathetic look of teen-coolness collapsing into the look of a nine-year-old who is terrified.
Power Words: façade, apathetic, collapsed, abandoned
Rhetorical Device, Alliteration: cool collapsed
Rhetorical Device, Amplification: Second sentence
Rhetorical Device, Anadiplosis: . . . about nine years old. Nine years old and . . .
Example-- Here's another deceptively simple line that carries the power of cadence.
The smile that blew across his face was the kind movie stars give on red carpets—that much wattage, that much charm.
Lehane did not write these overused basics:
He shot her a charming smile.
He gave her a movie-star smile.
He gave her a high-wattage smile.
Lehane didn't write that smile in a basic way, because they're tried and trite. We've all read those smiles. They don't carry interest or cadence or power.
Set Up: POV character is with therapist. He just asked if she would describe her mom as affectionate.
“Are you kidding?” This was a no-brainer. “Mom was the queen of the ‘air hug.’ You know, the stiff-armed hug where another person can almost fit in the middle between the two of you.
Next Example: A hug from friend in rehab:
Later, she hugged me, a warm, round squeeze, just Goldilocks right.
One last example from Nothing Sweeter, Laura Drake, multi-Margie-grad, Immersion-grad
A touch that elicits a visceral response.
She tried to ignore the tingle that spread from her palm up her arm, as if his touch had mainlined into her blood.
Wow. I can always count on fresh writing from Laura Drake!
Wrapping Up
This blog addressed a miniscule sliver of what I teach on writing body language. I could share 7,958 more examples and analyses. That may be hyberbole. Or not.
Now you know my teaching style. If you want to hone your deep editing skills and expand your writing body language and dialogue cues repertoire, please consider taking my on-line course in March: Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist.
1. World Genesis: Building a world from the ground up– Instructor: Suzanne Lazear
2. Virtues, Vices, and Plots – Instructor: Sarah Hamer
3. The Coffee Break Guide to Business Plans for Writers – Instructor: Amy Denim
4. Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist – Instructor: Margie Lawson
5. What you need to know before you ask for that review – 2 week course – Instructor: Heather Lire
Read course description and register here: www.MargieLawson.com.
Chime in. Post a comment! Or just say Hi!
If you comment, you’ll be included in a drawing for one of my online courses on writing craft offered through Lawson Writer’s Academy. The drawing will be on Tuesday at 8:00PM Mountain Time.
We'll post the winner on Wednesday's blog and on Margie's website.
Thank you! I’m looking forward to your comments!
About Margie
Margie Lawson—editor, international presenter— teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners.
Margie has presented over eighty full day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Writers who have studied her material credit her innovative deep editing approaches with taking their writing several levels higher—to publication, awards, and bestseller lists.
To learn about online courses through Lawson Writer’s Academy, Margie’s 4-day Immersion Master Classes, her full day and weekend Master Class presentations, keynote speeches, Lecture Packets, and newsletter, visit www.margielawson.com.
Getting a nonfiction book published is a completely different beast than querying for a novel. It involves things like a marketing plan, comparative title analysis, book proposals, professional credentials, and more.
To help with this complicated submission process, I’ve compiled great advice for nonfiction writers from established literary agents who are on the front lines evaluating and selling these books every day.
Here is a roundup of what these smart agents had to say about nonfiction queries, book proposals, the importance of marketing & platform, trends, and much more.
“When I receive a nonfiction query, I’m hoping to discover that you: 1) have a deep mastery and understanding of your topic, 2) have a long-burning passion for what you are sharing, 3) have clearly and concisely expressed your book concept, and 4) have developed an authentic and original writing style. I also hope to see that, whatever you’re doing in your career—whether you’re a writer by profession, or you work in another profession, of which this book is an extension and an expression—you’re doing it out of a deep-rooted vision and inspiration. Practically speaking, I appreciate queries that are no longer than 3 to 4 paragraphs and highlight your professional training and platform.”
“It’s more and more important for authors to have a public platform. All authors should seriously consider building a great website and inviting social media to know who they are through Twitter, Facebook, etc. The publishers are all looking for this.”
The three most common problems Laurie Abkemeier of DeFiore and Companysees in a nonfiction book proposal:
“First, not having a good grasp of the competition. An author needs to know the category inside and out and be able to explain how his book fits in. I always get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I find similar books that the author didn’t know about.
Second, dull chapter summaries. Often the sample material is great, but the summaries are boring or vague. It’s so important that chapter summaries be compelling and convey the energy and depth of unique information that will be in the book. They have to make an editor want to read more.
Third, a marketing section that simply says the book ‘will appeal to everyone!’ That’s never true, and it doesn’t help publishers figure out how to position and sell your book. An author needs to understand who her audience is and how to reach them.”
“Here are two turnoffs I encounter in book proposals:
1. Lack of a story arc. Many failed nonfiction proposals are mere surveys of a subject. The books that sell have strong characters who are engaged in some project that eventually is resolved. Don’t do a book about slime mold. Do a book about the Slime Mold Guy who solved the mystery of slime mold.
2. Extrapolation. Many proposals say, in effect, ‘I don’t know all that much about this subject but give me a six-figure contract and I will go and find out everything there is to know.’ I understand the problem writers face: How are they supposed to master a subject until after they’ve done the travels, interviews, and research? Nevertheless, unless you are already an established writer, you can’t simply promise to master your subject. Book contracts go to those who have already mastered a subject. If you haven’t mastered your subject but you really think you deserve a book contract, try to get a magazine assignment so that you can do at least some of the necessary research, funded by the magazine.”
"For non-fiction, here are the flaws that I see that can really kill a proposal:
1) the writer is not thinking about the audience. They have something they want to say—great! But a book is a product that needs to work with an audience; in many cases that audience is well defined, and in that case, if the writer has not defined their audience, they are really hobbling their chances.
2) The writer is not thinking about the competition. They may well have a great idea for a book … so great, in fact, that it has pretty much already been written, and in some cases folks are in denial about the fact that it makes it hard to sell their book product (because they’ve invested a lot already in this idea), because there is already a book product very much like it out there on shelves.
3) The writer is writing for the wrong reasons. Sometimes people have an axe to grind and they’ll have all kinds of energy for pursuing a topic—but that energy comes from a place of … well, it could be anger or disappointment or frustration … and they want to ventilate that emotion. That kind of work typically does not serve a commercial audience of readers; it serves to drain that emotion from the writer. Of course that is great for the writer’s emotional life, but it does not make for a commercially viable work.”
(Hi, everyone. Chuck here chiming in for a second. I wanted to say I am now taking on clients as a freelance editor. So if your query or manuscript needs some love, please check out my editing services. Thanks!)
“There are two things every nonfiction author needs to address: why there is a demand for their book, and why they are the best person to write it. These two questions should be answered very early on in the proposal, and stressed throughout.”
“If you have a [great idea that would make a great book], your book proposal should not be the first time the world hears about it. You should already be recognized as an authority on the subject you wish to write about. To put it another way, no one wants to hear my manifesto on college athletics or the European debt crisis.”
[In terms of what defines a person as capable of writing on a certain subject:] “I’m a bit of a snob here, thanks to a few years spent contemplating a career in academia. Advanced degrees or practical experience in the field are always a good sign, though not the only criterion I use. There are some brilliant, fascinating, funny academics who write terribly dry books. Skilled journalists with a background in research and writing can often start from a place of curiosity and emerge with an expert text. Mary Roach, for example, has no background in most of the subjects she writes about, but by talking extensively with people who do, she’s able to write accessibly, intelligently, and expertly.”
[On writing a book to capitalize on a “trending” or “hot” nonfiction topic:]
“When it comes to nonfiction, you always need to address this question: Why are you the perfect person to write a book about this topic? That makes it tough to write to the whims of the market.
If there’s a topic that everyone wants to read about, chances are strong that many writers are simultaneously jumping into it. The ones that have the best chance of succeeding are the ones that have already been immersed in the topic for some time before the craze began. They can demonstrate that they have a deeper understanding of the subject matter than the rest. My best advice is to follow your interests.”
“A common mistake I encounter when someone sends in a nonfiction book proposal is that they don’t spend enough time on the promotion section. This section is one of the most important in the proposal and should offer specific details about how an author will use his or her connections to help sell the book. In many of the proposals I see, authors are too vague. They need to have a detailed plan in place.”
“For nonfiction, a writer’s platform is almost as important (and in some cases maybe more) than the topic. When we are evaluating platforms, we look for articles the author has written for academic or trade audiences; we also look at college courses he or she may have taught, or special connections to the material (like a relationship with the subject, or a discovery of new documents) that another writer might not have.
An impressive platform for a narrative book is very different from an impressive platform for a popular science book, but, in all cases, we are looking to make sure that this particular author is best suited for this particular book.”
“If we’re talking about nonfiction, it’s all about platform, platform, platform. There is no way around a writer’s platform; it’s a huge component for publishers. If you don’t have an established audience (a big one), they are not interested.
So if you are writing nonfiction, work very hard in building your platform: Twitter, blogging, Facebook, radio, TV, national magazines, and newspapers. If you’re a consultant or a speaker, be ready to prove some big numbers as to how many people you speak to each year.”
“I think a pitfall that hopeful nonfiction writers can fall into all too easily is including in a query everything they hope might happen with their book. I see too many queries that claim that the book is ‘a perfect fit for publicity on Television Show X.’ What I want to see in a query for nonfiction is a clear and feasible plan for how the author can help utilize connections and an already established platform to aid the publisher’s efforts.”
“The biggest thing for me with nonfiction authors is that the expert also be an engaging writer. With narrative nonfiction, humor, and web comics, the thing that matters to me is simple: voice.”
“When an agent is considering a narrative nonfiction project, it always helps to have an element of tension or suspense in the narrative to keep me turning pages. Basically, I look for many of the same elements I’m searching for in a fiction story: unforgettable characters, a story that pulls me in, and a commercial writing style that doesn’t get bogged down in minutia.”
