As I scurried around getting ready for my family guests on Christmas Day, I did notice some similarities between that and getting a manuscript ready.
Get the House Ready - Pick up, Put away, Throw Away. My husband and I were quite busy during the holiday season, which meant clothes, papers, all sorts of items went where they shouldn’t be in the house. For our guests to move comfortably about in our home, the clutter had to be dealt with. I hung up clothes, put away my writing notes in a container for future reference, threw away old notes no longer needed, cleared the dining room table of excess objects, put away or threw away all sorts of stuff that we’d thought important at the time but no longer was.
(Also picked up dog toys and bones and put them in a container so no one would trip over them. Our darling dog is as sloppy as her masters.)
Get the Manuscript Ready – Make sure what you’ve written follows logical sequence. Don’t add excess descriptions that take away from what you’re trying to convey. Make sure the dialogue also advances the plot. You don’t want readers to skip over sections in your book because of too much clutter.
Cleaning – Once I’d cleared the tables and floors, I got out the mops, brooms, sponges, window cleaner, disinfectant, other cleaning paraphernalia and put them to use so the areas would be clean.
Clean your manuscript – Once you’ve removed the clutter, look deeper. Look for mistakes in grammar, syntax and spelling. Eliminate misplaced modifiers.
Decorate the house - With the house clean, I could advance to decorating. I added table runners, candles, little porcelain trees, wreaths, other homey touches.
Decorate the manuscript – You’ve eliminated unnecessary items in your manuscript. It flows correctly. Grammar, spelling and syntax is correct. Now it’s time to decorate. Go through your manuscript. If you have lots of paragraphs with similar sentence structure near each other, provide variation. Then look for past tense and see if it will make sense in the present. Examine the verbs. Can they be changed to move effective ones?
Consider Your Guests’ Preferences and fill their needs. – My husband and I are meat-eaters, but my brothers are vegetarian. To make everyone happy, I prepared dishes for both.
Consider Publisher Preferences – Research will prevent wasted time, paper and postage. Check guidelines before submitting to a publisher. Don’t send a sweet romance to an erotica publisher, or vice versa. Don’t send a science fiction odyssey to a mystery publisher. You get the drift.
Accept Help – I gladly accepted my sister-in-law’s help when she offered to make the salad and later on helped me do the dishes.
Accept help with your manuscript – Seriously consider any changes your editor will pose to get your manuscript in shape. An editor deals with a variety of manuscripts and can spot problems or bad selling points. Don’t do this blindly. If there’s a good reason for not changing something, explain your reasoning to the editor.
Have a Good Time – I was busy the whole time on Christmas Day, yet I didn’t allow that to interfere with enjoying my guests. I had fun, though I admit when they’d left I was tired.
Enjoy Your Manuscript – Enjoy the ride. Take pleasure when you’ve finished a book. Be happy when your book is accepted by a publisher. Have fun at book signings. Have a great time promoting.
What are you waiting for? Get ready!
Morgan Mandel
www.morganmandel.com
www.myspace.com/morganmandel
http://bookplace.ning.com
http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
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Showing posts with label publisher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publisher. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
POINT OF VIEW By Morgan Mandel
BACK TO BASICS is my new weekly Wednesday blog for mysteryturtles.blogspot.com, designed to explain the fundamental writing rules and concepts.
Here's a sample of this week's blog:
Beginners, as well as seasoned writers, will do well to follow the basic precepts of writing, although in some instances, as in the case of exceptional writers, the tenets can be broken.
THIS WEEK'S TOPIC - POINT OF VIEW
First of all, What is Point of View?It's the perspective from which a story is told. When writing a novel, an author must decide who is telling the story. Based on that decision, the author will write in either first, second or third person.
FIRST PERSON - Using "I" throughout the manuscript.
SECOND PERSON - Where "You" is the descriptive.
THIRD PERSON - When HE or SHE is used to describe the main character.
Once you've decided which person you'd prefer to use, you'll need to clearly define what the person sees, feels and experiences. When that character takes the stage, everything should be from that character's point of view. He or she cannot see or hear or know about anything outside his or her realm.Example: A character can't see what's happening in another room with some other character without actually being in that room.The author should make it obvious to the reader whose point of view is being used in each instance or confusion and/or irritation will result. Switching back and forth is called Head Hopping and a sign of a novice writer.Skillful writers can travel from one to another character's viewpoint in the same paragraph, but the general rule is to keep in one point of view for each scene or even an entire chapter. When a switch is made, it should blend in with transitions and not be abrupt.
The exception for employing various points of view is the choice of using omniscent point of view, where the author is almost like another character looking down at the main characters and describing everything that happens to each person. Very skilled writers can pull this off, but it's not the general path to follow.
Following the tried and true rules will show publishers and readers that you understand the basic concepts of writing, so remember to follow them when considering point of view in your manuscript.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com/
www.myspace.com/morganmandel
http://bookplace.ning.com/
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com/
http://acmeauthorsling.blogspot.com/
Here's a sample of this week's blog:
Beginners, as well as seasoned writers, will do well to follow the basic precepts of writing, although in some instances, as in the case of exceptional writers, the tenets can be broken.
THIS WEEK'S TOPIC - POINT OF VIEW
First of all, What is Point of View?It's the perspective from which a story is told. When writing a novel, an author must decide who is telling the story. Based on that decision, the author will write in either first, second or third person.
FIRST PERSON - Using "I" throughout the manuscript.
SECOND PERSON - Where "You" is the descriptive.
THIRD PERSON - When HE or SHE is used to describe the main character.
Once you've decided which person you'd prefer to use, you'll need to clearly define what the person sees, feels and experiences. When that character takes the stage, everything should be from that character's point of view. He or she cannot see or hear or know about anything outside his or her realm.Example: A character can't see what's happening in another room with some other character without actually being in that room.The author should make it obvious to the reader whose point of view is being used in each instance or confusion and/or irritation will result. Switching back and forth is called Head Hopping and a sign of a novice writer.Skillful writers can travel from one to another character's viewpoint in the same paragraph, but the general rule is to keep in one point of view for each scene or even an entire chapter. When a switch is made, it should blend in with transitions and not be abrupt.
The exception for employing various points of view is the choice of using omniscent point of view, where the author is almost like another character looking down at the main characters and describing everything that happens to each person. Very skilled writers can pull this off, but it's not the general path to follow.
Following the tried and true rules will show publishers and readers that you understand the basic concepts of writing, so remember to follow them when considering point of view in your manuscript.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com/
www.myspace.com/morganmandel
http://bookplace.ning.com/
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com/
http://acmeauthorsling.blogspot.com/
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