I have been a member of Lancaster Christian Writers for about thirteen years. I have learned a lot about writing through their monthly meetings and annual Writers’ Conferences and continue to do so. I have also made some wonderful friends and valuable contacts through this group and continue to do so.
This past Saturday, one of the friends I met through the group taught a workshop on “Practicing the Art of Poetry”. She shared “why all writers should practice the art of poetry”. She shared things I never really thought about. She also shared some poems. Then she instructed us to do two writing exercises. She didn’t stress all of the mechanics, techniques, and different types of poems. She didn’t even tell us our poems had to have structure or to rhyme.
Her main point was: a poem doesn’t have to take a lot of time. It is easier to finish than an article or a story. Not to perfect it, but to finish it.
The first writing exercise she instructed us to do was to write a poem about Grace.
I don’t know where the idea came from, but I got an idea as soon as she said the word “Grace”. The following is my poem about Grace:
Grace is a little girl in pigtails picking dandelions in a field in the sunshine. Sitting on a stoop and giggling as a puppy licks her nose. Dancing in the rain and skipping barefoot through puddles. Singing “Jesus Loves Me” when she is scared, and praying “God is great, God is good” before taking a bite of food. Grace is not only her name, but something in her innocence.
The second exercise she assigned us to do was to take something we’re working on — a novel, devotional, article — and turn a piece of it into a poem. So, this next attempt at a poem is from one of the character’s problems and emotions from my current Work in Progress (WIP). But don’t look for it in the book when it comes out, because I don’t think it’s going to make it into the book.
Was she really rejecting him? The look in her eyes and tone of her voice started a fizzure in his heart, but her words spread and deepend the fizzure into many cracks. Her final declaration that she would not go to Boston with him drove his mind to its knees and he turned to leave.
I enjoyed this workshop and dabbling in poetry for a little while.
If you haven’t noticed all the tabs at the top of this website, today I would like to draw your attention to the one labeled “Great Resources for Writers and Authors”.
I am a firm believer in being a lifelong learner in the writing world. This helps you to always be on top of things in the publishing world. It also helps you continually improve your craft. Therefore, I include this page on my website and occasionally add to it to help all writers and authors who also want to continually improve their craft.
Today I have added a website that I couldn’t believe I didn’t already have on the list, “Writers Helping Writers”. It’s a great website with so many helpful tools, workshops, and software, as well as FREE worksheets and blog articles to help you improve your writing.
Today, I also added two books I recently purchased because they were recommended by a speaker at a writers’ conference I attended earlier this year. I recently purchased them and am excited to dive into them because I love character driven stories. Therefore, I am always looking for ways to improve on creating my characters and making them complex, realistic, and believable.
The two books I added are:
What Type Am I? by Renee Baron. This is a book based on the Classic Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This book can help you create strengths and weaknesses for your characters as well as for their personal growth.
The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders. I am most excited about this one! This book promises to help the writer create extraordinarily memorable characters and elevate their writing to a higher level.
I encourage you to check out these resources as well as my “Great Resources for Writers and Authors” page for more helpful resources. You can begin with one or two, then come back to my “Great Resources for Writers and Authors” page to find more.
Let me know if you visit any of the websites I have listed or read any of the great books and what you think of them.
As many of you know, I write Historical Christian Romance stories, and my first novel should be out in time for Christmas if all goes well.
I have begun writing my second novel and yesterday, when I met with my critique partner, I asked her a question. You see, I began my new novel with Chapter 0, which is sort of like a Prologue. It’s a scene from my main male character’s back story. Yesterday, I had Chapter 1 ready to give to my critique partner, and she gave her critiqued copy of my Chapter 0 back to me. I asked her what she thought about the fact that I began this novel with a scene from the back story of my main male character and had written Chapter 1 about my main male character in the actual time period of the story.
Why did I ask her that question? Because I had been told when writing my first novel that you cannot wait until you’re too far into the story to introduce the lady who will be the main male character’s love interest. Or rather, both the male and female, who will fall in love, must both be introduced early in the story.
On another note, I had also been told that my male character should not be the main character. I was told that romance readers wouldn’t like it. That it didn’t fit the formula. I’ve been a romance reader for many years. When I first began reading romance stories, I read a lot of Harlequin Romance stories. However, after awhile, I grew tired of the fact that I found them to be so predictable. I felt that the stories had different characters and were set in different places, but the story lines were all basically the same. So, I branched out to read other romance stories.
I have found throughout the romance genre that generally, the formula is boy meets girl and, though they are attracted to one another, something or, sometimes, more than one thing, keeps them apart until the last third or quarter of the book.
My novels do follow that basic formula. However, I choose to make my main character the male, at least in these first two novels. However, once the male and female begin interacting more, I change scenes or chapters back and forth between his point of view and her point of view, so really, my novels really have a male and a female main character throughout the majority of the novel.
One more thing I find odd, is that when you submit a query or a novel to an agent or publisher, they almost always ask you, what makes your story different from the other stories that are out there in your same genre. Why do they want to know what makes it different, if it’s not supposed to be different?
All that being said, I would like for you, Romance readers, to please answer the following questions in the comments below: 1) Do you prefer your romance stories to be predictable? 2) Would you be willing to read Romance novels that begin with a main male character? 3) Do you find it refreshing to find new twists in the Romance genre and look for books that offer something new or do you prefer to stick with the same old, same old?
I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions.
I would really like to generate a discussion in the comment section of this post. If you are an indie published author or someone who is planning on publishing a book independently, I hope you will comment after reading this post. I will also warn you that this will be a longer post than I usually write.
You see, I don’t understand today’s indie authors who write a book, then publish it and put it out for the whole world to see without having it properly edited, and yet, they get upset if someone writes a review they find negative or offensive or gives the book less than a 4-star rating. If you publish and release a book with lots of grammatical errors or a book that lacks a good plot or well developed characters, or any other writing problems, why would you expect all the ratings to be four and five stars, and why would you expect a glowing review with nothing but positive things about your book?
As a reader, I want to read honest reviews. As a matter of fact, it aggravates me when someone simply posts a star rating but says nothing about what they thought or how they felt about the book. Just like everything else in the world, books, including eBooks, are getting more expensive and I don’t want to waste my money or time reading a book that hasn’t been polished. Before indie publishing, you or I might have picked up a book we didn’t like after reading it, but not because it had a bunch of errors or lacked all the important parts of a good story. Our dislike would’ve been based on things like a favorite character dying, or an unhappy ending, or the problem not being satisfactorily resolved. However, published books did not have lots of grammatical errors or things like using one name for a character in half of the book and then another name for the same character in the second half of the book or any other major problems because books had been thoroughly and well edited.
As a writer who has been studying the writing craft in the professional writing world for over 10 years now, I have learned the things that are most important to a good story: well developed characters, a story written in the POV (point of view) of one or two characters clearly, without head hopping (jumping from one character’s thoughts and feelings to another’s), and written in a way that takes me deep within the main character’s or main two characters’ heads because that’s what draws me deep into the story. Also, a clear description/picture of the setting; conflict — some kind of problem (usually more than one) that the character needs to overcome; a plot line that keeps me wanting to turn the pages; a clear resolution of the problem or problems at the end of the story along with evidence that the character has grown and changed from the beginning to the end of the story. In addition, the best books evoke the reader’s emotions — I always say my favorite books make me laugh and cry. Some great extras in a book might be an unexpected surprise or twist.
Also, I am realistic. I know that whatever I publish, no matter how well written it may be, it is still bound to get some negative reviews because not everyone likes the same kinds of books. Therefore, I fully expect that there will be some people who will read my book and not like it and write a review stating why they disliked it. I am also fully aware that not everyone writes their criticisms in a kind, constructive way. That’s what all writers need to be aware of and ready to accept. The first thing I was taught in the professional writing world is: “You better develop a thick skin.” In other words, you’d better be able to accept or ignore negative and/or nasty critiques and/or reviews and not respond in kind.
So, if your book is lacking some important parts or has glaring grammatical errors, wouldn’t you prefer to have an honest review that points these things out in a kind way?
Example: I recently read a book that had major problems and should have been more thoroughly edited and corrected before publication. Here is the review I wrote without the title and author’s name or specifics about the story:
The story fails to really draw the reader into the story. It also lacks descriptions that paint pictures of the setting in the readers mind. There is also no real conflict, action, or danger, although there were a couple times in the story that the reader may suspect danger or a threat of danger ahead.
This is a very simple sweet story where everything goes well and leads to a happy ending. The story moves quickly and reaches its end without full development of plot or characters. Therefore, I believe this book has been written and published by a person who has had little writing instruction.
If it had illustrations, it would make a fun children’s book. As it is, I would recommend it for elementary age children. It is an easy read where there are no dangers and everything ends happily. It is a completely clean story.
So, I posed two questions earlier in this post I would like comments on. In addition, I would like comments on the following questions in regard to this review: 1) Do you consider this review harsh? 2) Do you see positives in the review in addition to the criticism? 3) Would you take offense to the review or consider taking another look at the book and trying to see the points made and make corrections?
Only respectful answers/comments will be posted and will get a response from me or other readers.
First of all let’s take a moment to address the phrase “flying by the seat of your pants”, since “writing by the seat of your pants” stems from that original phrase. Where did that phrase come from and what does it mean?
The phrase “flying by the seat of your pants” came from the early days of aviation and first came into use in 1938 and was in relation to Douglas Corrigan’s flight from Ireland to the United States, when a mechanic had to help him rejuvenate the plane. It also was used because in the early days of aviation, they didn’t have a radio, instruments, or other navigational or communication equipment.
The phrase “flying by the seat of your pants” means you’re entering into the unknown and taking action without planning.
And that’s what “writing by the seat of your pants” means–writing without planning or just sitting down with your characters and an idea and simply writing as it comes into your head.
Well, that’s how I have written ever since I first began writing as a school student. The problem is that ever since I’ve been trying to write a full-length novel, writing without a plan hasn’t worked out very well. My first attempt at writing a novel did not result in a full-length novel. My second attempt at writing a novel ended up in the trash pile.
After those first two failed attempts, I heard about “Planning (or plotting) your story”, which means you do a lot of prep work for your novel: complete character interviews and write your characters’ back stories and descriptions of their physical appearance. In addition to that, you need to have a good idea of each scene from start to finish and you need to have your story mapped out. So, I decided to try this, but this literally killed my creativity. By the time I was finished planning, I had no interest in writing the story. I had spent all my creative energy doing character interviews and writing their physical descriptions and back stories, and I didn’t have any interest in writing scenes. I couldn’t even create a story beginning.
So, I decided to try a bit of a combination of writing by the seat of my pants and planning/plotting. I wrote physical descriptions of my characters, created back stories for them and knew who their immediate family members were and what kind of family life they had. In addition, I researched everything I thought I needed to research for the historical aspect of my story, and I had a very good idea of how the story would play out from beginning to end. But this didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to either.
I got about two-thirds to three-fourths of the way through my novel and suddenly, out of nowhere a new character showed up — not just a minor character, but this one had to be a major character who needed to be in the book from very close to the beginning all the way to the end. So, just when I thought I was nearing the finish line and ready to edit and publish, now I had to do some MAJOR EDITING.
At first I thought I was going to have to START ALL OVER, but thanks to a group I belong to on MeWe, I was able to ask if there was a way to do it without having to start over, and an already published author gave me excellent advice! She explained how I could place this character into scenes I had already written and simply build the character and the character’s presence from there.
Of course, I did have to scrap quite a few scenes and write new ones, but it is coming along quite well. But, now I know that I will do more planning/plotting before I begin writing, but not enough to kill my creativity. I have figured out the balance for me and I look forward to finishing my current novel’s edits so that I can begin the next book in the series, using my newly learned balance to writing both by the seat of my pants and, by doing some necessary planning, and I hope that this will help me produce the second book much faster and not require as many edits.
So, if someone insists you have to decide whether to write by the seat of your pants or to plan or plot your whole novel before starting to write, remember there is a balance between the two that might work for you. The key is finding what works for you and the way your creative mind works.
I have made some updates here on my website. I have updated my editing services page and given it a new name. If you are a writer and want to be sure your writing is the best it can be before you publish it, having it professionally edited is the best way to do that, and I can help you without breaking your bank account. You can hire me for your editing job, but even before you do that, you can read my upcoming posts (starting tomorrow) that will give you tips to do “self-editing” to save you even more money.
I have also added a new page and service for authors. All authors are now responsible to promote and market their own books. One great way to do that is to do author interviews, and I worked as an interview writer for a magazine for a year and have done several author interviews on my blog. Now I am offering this as a service for authors. This is a great way to let readers know a little about yourself, as well as a little about your latest book or book series. If this sounds like something you’d like to do to promote and market your book, click the “Author Interviews” tab at the top of the homepage to find out more.
The last update I made is in the “My Books” tab. I added the latest devotional book that one of my devotions is published in. So, if you like to read daily devotions or know someone who does, check out this latest book.
Now, about a new blog I’d like to encourage you to check out. But, wait… first, I mentioned here before, that I left Facebook and am now on MeWe, but here’s another great announcement for writers: if you are interested in being part of a fun, active writing group, I have just the group for you–it’s called “Christian Writers Write Now” and it’s only on MeWe. We announce a word prompt everyday and encourage everyone to write something, including that word, without going over 60 words! It’s a fun and great way to practice writing tightly, using only the most necessary words to create a great short piece of writing! We also offer other occasional fun writing exercises, encouragement, help and tips of all kinds in writing and marketing on the group page and in the group chat. So, check us out!
Okay, so now the new blog. You may wonder why I got side tracked about MeWe when I mentioned the new blog in the last paragraph. Here’s why. This new blog is a “group blog”. It is a collaboration of six different writers from my “Christian Writers Write Now” writers group on MeWe. Three fantasy writers and three romance writers (from different romance genres) have joined forces to share articles that will appeal to both readers and writers. So, check out Hope, Hearts, & Heroes today!
My most recent post for historical writers can be found at this link: https://www.almostanauthor.com/what-time-is-it/ However, I just submitted an new article for historical writers, but you’ll have to wait until next month to read it.
The cool logo below is the header for a new blog you’ll want to check out.
Hope, Hearts, & Heroes is a new blog that I am a part of with several other writers. We all met on MeWe and are part of writers group on MeWe. On this blog, you can read introductory posts about each of us and learn more about what we write as well as any books we’ve published or that we will be releasing soon! We are a mix of Christian Fantasy authors and Christian or clean Romance stories — some historical and some suspense. Go to the following link and check out this new blog now! https://hopeheartsheroes.wordpress.com/
I hope that those of you who have been following my blog are still here and aren’t having any problems finding my posts. I have decided to change some things to transform it from a simple blog to a full website. That is why there are tabs at the top of the page that you can click on to navigate to what it is you are interested in, whether it is reading my blog posts, finding out “About” me, seeking my “Editing Services” or interested in having me read your book and write a review, or finding out more about writings I have published. It should all be easier to navigate.
In addition, I am working on cleaning up my categories as well. When I finish that, there will be no more than ten category choices for you to find particular posts you are interested in.
I also hope you noticed the change in the subtitle or quote of my website, which is now “A Story Without Love is Empty”. I came up with this quote and decided it fits my website and my writing very well, as I cannot seem to write any story, whether my novel-in-progress, or my flash fiction stories without including love in the story, whether it is a romantic love or love of another kind.
The one change I have decided to make as far as blog posts go, is that I will no longer be posting Tea and Poetry posts on Tuesdays. I really want my posts to be things my readers will look forward to seeing, and I want them to be relevant to the things I do: writing, editing, reading and reviewing books, and poetry is not something I believe I do well or am really comfortable writing. Therefore, beginning this coming Tuesday, the new Tuesday posts will be titled and under the category “Timeless Tuesdays” as the novel I am currently working on and those that will follow in the, hopefully near future, are historical romance stories. My “Timeless Tuesday” posts will be tidbits about the historical period, places, and other tidbits in regard to my upcoming novel. Monday posts will continue to be Book Reviews, Wednesdays will continue to be “Wordless Wednesdays” that feature my photographs of things that capture my eye when I get to be out and about, and Fridays will continue to feature my Flash Fictions stories which are usually more Contemporary Romance or Women’s Fiction, but in which I may also occasionally explore the YA Romance and Fantasy genres.
The last thing I want to mention, and hope you will look forward to, is that I will soon be creating an e-newsletter that you will be able to sign up for in order to receive special news, updates on my upcoming novel(s), Flash Fiction stories not posted on the blog, and occasional freebies.
I’m not sure why, but lately it seems there is confusion in regard to editors and Beta Readers. I have been an editor for about two years now and have been a Beta Reader longer than that.
Therefore, I’ll talk about Beta Readers first. Whenever I’ve been asked to Beta Read a book, I have always been given a polished manuscript, meaning it has been through a thorough edit and has been revised by the writer and is now close to publication quality. What the writer wants to know from Beta Readers are the answers to questions like:
Did the first sentence/paragraph grab your attention/interest and make you want to keep reading?
Are the characters realistic? Can you relate to them?
Are the characters emotions and reactions believable?
Do the minor characters add to and/or support the story line?
Does the story have conflict and tension?
Does the story move at a consistent pace?
Is there anything that slows the story down?
Is there anything that seems too rushed?
Do you find anything that seems unnecessary or unrelated to the story?
Is there anything you find confusing?
Do setting descriptions give you a clear picture of the story’s world and is it realistic?
Is the dialogue natural?
Is each character’s voice distinct?
Is there a good mix of narrative and dialogue?
Does the writing “show” and not “tell”?
Are the changes of point of view clear and handled well, with page breaks or chapter changes, consistently?
Is the writing good quality, allowing you to focus on the story and not be distracted by writing errors?
Is the story unique and interesting?
Does the story deliver on its premise?
Does the story fit the genre?
Did you enjoy the story?
Are there any scenes you think should be shortened or cut?
Who is your favorite character and why?
Who is your least favorite character and why?
As you read over the above questions, you should get an understanding that a Beta Reader’s job is to focus on the story and the characters. It is not a Beta Reader’s job to find grammatical, spelling, or other technical writing errors and point them out. They should only be giving feedback on what they liked and didn’t like about the story and why — the types of things they would discuss with other readers when discussing books both have read or suggesting the book to a friend.
Now, the editor’s job is very different from the Beta Reader’s job. A good editor will be looking for and pointing out ALL of the writing errors — wrong word usage, spelling, grammatical, punctuation, passive vs. active voice, better and/or stronger word choices, etc. In addition to all of this, the editor will also be looking for weak spots in the story — areas that need to be shortened or lengthened, more intense or less intense, the pace of the story, how well the characters are developed, do setting descriptions appeal to the senses, is the time line accurate, is the order of the story correct; is the language in the dialogue appropriate for the ages of the characters, for the setting, and for the time period of the story, and so much more.
As you can see the editor’s job includes some of the same aspects of the Beta Reader’s job, but it’s very important that the editor’s job come first because the editor is the one to help the writer produce their best possible work.
The Beta Reader is like a “test reader”. Their job is to read the manuscript before it is published, as a reader, in order to offer feedback on what they think of the story, setting, and characters from a reader’s perspective without having to be bogged down by lots of writing mistakes.
When the writer gets the Beta Readers’ responses, they can run through the manuscript one more time to fine tune it and be sure it will now be published in the best possible quality it can be. It should be ready for a multitude of readers before it is published and released to the world.
Today I want to share what’s been going on in my editing life. I have been editing for about eight months now and am really enjoying it because I enjoy helping and encouraging other writers, and English and writing have always been my favorite subjects. I am extremely to be an active part of the writing and publishing world.
I love all of the clients I have worked with thus far. They have a desire to put out their best possible work and are very open to my suggestions for improving their work. I began with one client, which then grew to two, and now I have worked with a third, and they all became clients as a result of direct contact with me in one critique group or another, or by word of mouth.
I will keep my editing information here on my blog and will continue to update it and add book covers of books I work on, as I would love to add a few more clients to my list of clients, but will be keeping a close watch on that, as I have recently been blessed to become editor on the team of a publishing company. I am excited to be part of this team and look forward to the work it may bring me, but as long as I have room in my schedule, I will be happy to receive clients through contact here on my blog as well.
Kelly F Barr 