Writers in the Storm

We couldn't talk WriterStrong without our Yoda of Edits and sparkling prose, Margie Lawson. Be prepared for great takeaway as Margie not only tells you, but shows you how it's done!  Here she is:

A big THANK YOU to Laura Drake for inviting me to be her guest today.

Everything I teach is all about WriterStrong and Craft Strong!

Most writers know to avoid writing clichés. But they write them anyway.

What makes something clichéd?  Overuse.

At one time every cliché was fresh. Maybe clever. Sometimes funny.

The first time someone wrote or said it, it was fresh. Now, not so much.

If you’ve read a sentence a dozen times, or twenty dozen times, or every which way but Sunday, it is as boring as it is annoying.

Clichés are old hat. Clichés are yesterday’s news. Clichés are been there, done that.

Clichés are scummy water under a broken-down bridge.

They’re predictable. They’re tired. They’re lazy. There are two ways that clichés weaken writing:

1. Clichés are an invitation to skim. We covered this point above.
2. Clichés block the power that could have been on the page.

We’ll dig deep into this point.

Again: Clichés block the power that could have been on the page.

Consider this cliché.

When my mother drank, she acted like a mad dog.

Here’s how Lisa Unger played off that cliché in Black Out.

My mother liked to drink. It was a mad dog she kept on a chain. When it got loose, it chewed through our lives.

That’s a perfect example of a cliché blocking the power that could have been on the page.

NYT bestseller Lisa Unger used elements of that cliché to deepen characterization and add power.

Enjoy these examples, and learn from them too.

Stephen White, The Siege:

Poe didn’t dig his heels in often, but when he did he set them in concrete.

With all due respect, you’re dead in the water without me. Miles from shore.

I’ll run over you and I will treasure the tire marks I leave on your neck.

Darynda Jones, First Grave on the Right

Hard as I tried, I couldn’t help but get a little hot under my seven-dollar thrift-store Gucci collar.

I could almost see the wheels spinning in his head. After a few moments more, I began to think those wheels needed a good oiling.

The next cliché rewrites are from Margie-grads in my current Immersion class.

Lori Freeland, Awakening 

Cliché: I’d been on a highway to hell.

Rewrite: I’d taken the ramp to my own highway to hell or merged onto Aunt Julia’s interstate to insanity.

Elizabeth Cockle, In the Bag

Cliché:  The relationship took a nose dive.

Rewrite: Their eighteen month relationship sputtered like a match in a rainstorm.

Melissa  McClone,  Bachelor of the Year

NOTE:  This book is set in the world of show dogs.

Opening of Chapter 1, Playing Off a Cliché:

The incessant barking from the backyard of his family’s palatial estate confirmed Caleb Fairchild’s fear. His grandmother had gone to the dogs.

BEFORE:  The quality of his suit shouted one thing—out of her league.

Story-themed Rewrite:  His top-of-the-line suit shouted one thing—Best in Show.

Multi-clichéd:

She’d tried playing up several rungs on the social ladder with a guy who looked a lot like this man. She’d learned the hard way that rules were different for people like her. Better to stick with her own peeps than fall flat on her face or land her butt in jail.

Rewrite:

They didn’t belong in the same ring. He was a champion with an endless pedigree. She was a mutt without a collar. She’d tried to play with the big dogs once and landed in the dog house, also known as jail.

What did those smart writers do to strengthen their writing?

They nixed or twisted or played off their clichés.

They made them story-themed and character-themed.

They amplified a cliché, like in the example below.

Melissa  McClone,  Bachelor of the Year

With her short, pixie-cut brown hair and no make-up she was pretty in a girl-next-door way kind of way. If he’d ever had a next-door neighbor whose house wasn’t separated by acres of land, high fences, and security cameras.

Writers often use the same predictable body language. Lips narrowing into a thin line. Eyebrows lifting. Hands fisting. Fingernails digging into palms.

Check out this rewrite by Margie-grad Lori Freeland, Awakening.

If I had talons for nails, my palms would be bloody.

Fresh and powerful.

The type of fresh and powerful writing that impresses agents and editors, reviewers and readers.

My online courses are loaded with tips and techniques for how to dig deep. How to write fresh. How to add power to every page, every sentence. Please drop by my web site and check out my courses, and the full line-up of courses offered by Lawson Writer's Academy.

Check out my Immersion Master Class page too!

BLOG GUESTS:  NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

Are you motivated to nix or fix your clichés, and add more power?

Please post a comment -- or post ‘Hi Margie!’

You’ll be entered in a drawing for an online course from me!

 Lawson Writer’s Academy

1.    Sept. 24 – Oct. 19:  The EDITS System:  Turning Troubled Scenes in to Winners    Instructor: Margie Lawson

2.    October 1 - 26: Getting Serious About Writing a Series   Instructor: Lisa Wells

3. October 1 - 26: I HATE to Write a Synopsis  Instructor: Sharon Mignerey

4.  Oct. 29 - Dec. 7: Fab 30 in 40 Days: Advanced Deep Editing, A Master Class Instructor: Margie Lawson

Please check Lawson Writer's Academy to read course descriptions. Thank you!
Margie Lawson —psychotherapist, editor, and international presenter—developed innovative editing systems and deep editing techniques used by writers, from newbies to NYT Bestsellers. She teaches writers how to edit for psychological power, how to hook the reader viscerally, how to create a page-turner.

Thousands of writers have learned Margie’s psychologically-based deep editing material. In the last seven years, she presented over seventy full day Master Classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Please contact Margie if you think your group might be interested in having her present a master class for them.

For more information on Lawson Writer’s Academy, lecture packets, full day master classes, and the 4-day Immersion Master Class sessions offered in Margie’s Colorado mountain-top home, visit:  www.MargieLawson.com.

Writers In The Storm is delighted to welcome back Susan Spann with another amazing post covering all the legal bits of information we writers need to know. Susan has delved into everything from publishing choices to a quick overview of an author business plan.

Today? She's going in deep! Enjoy...

One Bite at a Time: for Eating Whales and Writing Author Business Plans
by Susan Spann

The old joke asks, “Do you know how to eat a whale? – One bite at a time!”

The same advice holds true for writing an author business plan. As a whole, the idea may seem daunting, but once we break the process down writing a plan becomes not only manageable but a useful writing tool.

Today, we’ll look briefly at each section of a successful one-book business plan. In October, we’ll talk about writing synopses and creating effective timelines. November’s guest post looks at marketing, and we’ll wrap the series up in December with comparative analysis and financial factors.

Follow along, and you can start the new year with an author business plan of your own!

As I mentioned last month, the author business plan has seven sections, and the plan we’re writing focuses on a single book rather than the writer’s whole career.

1.         The Business Plan Summary comes first but I normally recommend authors write it last, since it basically summarizes the rest of the plan.

For now, jot down a few notes about your book – your genre, one-sentence logline, and a couple of goals you hope to achieve. Eventually, the summary will contain a half-page synopsis of your novel and a summary of your entire business plan, including your genre, target audience, and other “at-a-glance” relevant facts. For now, though, notes will do.

2.         The Book Description contains a synopsis of the book. Mine actually contain a pair of synopses – the one-page version and the two-page version. If you haven’t written your novel yet, it’s OK to create a placeholder – a brief summary of your story that you can replace with a synopsis after you finish the book.

3.         Marketing Strategies involves three distinct sub-sections: pre-release marketing, week phase, and “post-release” – for marketing efforts after the release phase ends. We’ll explore this topic in detail in November.

4.         Competitive Analysis involves examination of similar works in the marketplace, analyzing why readers will (or should) want your book instead of (or in addition to) the other options, and brainstorming strategies to maximize your advantages and minimize your weaknesses.

5.         Development Timelines help keep the author and the work on track.

All authors will need a schedule for writing and editing the work itself. Authors pursuing traditional publication (but still in need of an agent and publisher) will want a second timeline for obtaining representation, and independent authors will need a timeline for the production and publishing process. Marketing timelines are also useful. We’ll talk more about timelines, and how to write them, in October.

6.         The Operations and Management Plan describes who will handle specific parts of the writing, publication, promotion and sales process. In an author’s business plan, this section may be simple or very complex, depending on the author’s needs and the publishing path the work will take.

7.         Budgets and Financial Factors round out the business plan. As with operations and management, this portion may be simple or complex, depending on the author’s plans and past experience.

In a panic? Don’t be! Business plans take work but they’re not as difficult as they seem.

We’ll walk through the sections together, step by step, and by December you’ll see that anyone can put together an effective author business plan.

Do you have comments? Questions? Looking for more information? Please let me know in the comments – I’m here to help and I love to hear from you!

About Susan

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.

by Jenny Hansen

As the September blog mistress here at WITS, I'm taking a page out of my personal blog's playbook and marking the beginning of Autumn with a celebration of you.

I'm doing this a few different ways...

First up, we're doing what I call "Pimp & Promote." We try to do this once every few months at More Cowbell and it's a habit I originally picked up from Chuck Wendig.

Note: if Chuck's name is unfamiliar, you are seriously missing out.

For those who are new at this…Pimp and Promote means you:

1. Promote: share one thing that you’re proud of, whether it’s a new book, an idea or a blog.

2. Pimp: Do the same for someone else whose work has lit you on fire this week.

I'll get this party started with a quick promote of the WriterStrong series we started last week here at WITS. August McLaughlin did our inaugural post and we have many, many more to come. I'm very excited about what's coming up here this Fall. We're gonna rock your world. :-)

For my PIMP, I'm going to take a moment to call out the three top commenters here at Writers In The Storm this month. Wordpress lets me see this sort of nifty statistic and today is the perfect time to say thank you!!!

WITS wouldn't be what it is without all of you but these three are the icing on top of our blogging cake this month.

Florence Fois, who many of you know as Ramblings from the Left, is one of most avid commenters here at WITS. It makes me smile whenever I see her name come across my screen. She'll have the effect on you too, I promise.

Ella Quinn participates, engages and even re-blogs our posts. She's a dream blog follower, plus her blog has spice and variety all on it's own.

Gloria Richard makes me laugh all over the blog-o-sphere. She does it at More Cowbell, at her blog, Snark Park, and in a variety of other fun places.

I keep up with these three stellar ladies and I think you should too. Click their names to see an amazing recent post of theirs. Follow them on Twitter. Find them on Facebook.

I promise you’ll be glad you did.

It's your turn to try your hand at this "Pimp and Promote" business. Don't be shy if you're new at this. We'll hold your hand...and approve your comments. You are encouraged to oooh and aaaah over each other's links and then pimp a little more. :-)

Happy Monday, y'all!
Jenny

About Jenny Hansen