Writing Challenge: Last Week – Nov. 22-30

This is the last week for the writing challenge, but I’ve decided to have another on in March. There won’t be a prize for this week, but the grand prize for total words written will be announced on December 1st. The grand prize is the book, “Writing the Breakout Novel” by Donald Maas.

The totals for last week are as follows:

Tamera Kraft (That’s me, but I don’t count for the prize) – 10,024 words Total – 30,090

Lorna G. Poston – (didn’t post last week) Total – 4,588

Janice Green – 3,244 words Total – 18,571

Faith – 11,647 words Total – 46,605

Newmauldon – 5,228 words Total – 11,955

KM Weiland – (Didn’t post this week) Total – 913

If anyone has words they didn’t post, just add them to this week’s totals. Congratulations, Newmauldon, for winning “Plot & Structure” by James Scott Bell. You really did a great job this week. Send me your contact info at tkraft [at] sbcglobal [dot] net and I’ll mail you the book.

So far Faith is ahead. But we still have a little more than a week to go.

In March, I’ll have a March Madness Writing Challenge. The rules will be a little different, but I’ll give away some more prizes. So let your friends know about it.

10 Things I’m Thankful For

Because of the Thanksgiving holidays, I won’t be blogging for the rest of this week except to post word counts. I did repost “The History of the Pilgrims” on my Faith-filled Historical Blog at this link. But I also wanted to post the things I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful God wants a relationship with me so much that He would send Christ to die on the cross for me.

I’m thankful for the wonderful husband I’ve been married to for almost 31 years.

I’m thankful for my children who have grown up to be godly.

I’m thankful for my grandchildren who are third generation Church of God. I was the first generation, and I see through them I’ve passed down a legacy.

I’m thankful for my health.

I’m thankful I live in the United States of America. Even though I see some things going in the wrong direction, I still believe it’s the best country on Earth.

I’m thankful I go to a good church with a good pastor. I don’t take that for granted.

I’m thankful God has opened the doors for me help children’s pastors and churches through the ministry, Revival Fire For Kids.

I’m thankful that after years of my desire for writing fiction being placed on the shelf while I did other things, God has brought that desire back to me full force and is directing my steps so that by next year I’ll be thankful for being a published author.

I’m thankful that God has kept me through all the trials and storms of life that have tried to drown me. Even when I had no strength left and was too weak to go on, He held onto me through His righteous right hand.

So leave comments and tell me what you’re thankful for.

 

The Fiction Proposal

Most agents and publishers at some point during the submission process ask for a proposal. There are many books and articles out there that teach how to write a non-fiction proposal but very few about fiction proposals.

For the next few posts after Thanksgiving, I’ll cover different aspect of the fiction proposal. This post covers what should be in a proposal and how to format it. Different agents and editors require various things in their proposals. My recommendation is to write a full proposal. If you do this, you can delete certain parts not needed for your submissions, but you won’t have to rewrite a new proposal for each agent. Here’s what you should have in a full proposal.

Cover Page: The cover page should have your contact information and the title of your proposal. In the left hand header, have the contact info. Center the title in the middle of the page. Here’s an example.

 

Name

Address

City, State Zip

Phone Number

Email

Website or Blog

 

TITLE

A Proposal by Name

Genre

Word Count of Entire Manuscript

 

Sell Sheet: On the second page, you should start page numbers in the right hand corner. The second page is a sell sheet. I’ll talk about what a sell sheet is later. Here’s what’s included in the sell sheet.

• Promo Sentence Sales Handle
• Back Cover Promotion
• Genre
• Word Length
• Series (if applicable)
• Purpose or Spiritual Premise
• History of the Manuscript

Synopsis: Next is the synopsis. Remember to have a three page and a one page synopsis available. For more about the synopsis, click here.

Biography Page: The biography page includes a biographical sketch and past publications.

Marketing Page: The marketing page includes market analysis, similar books, and what you, the author intend to do to market your book.

Sample Pages: Normally sample pages are asked to be included in a proposal. You can tack these onto the end of the proposal. Include another cover page telling the title, how many pages or chapters are included, and your name centered on the page. There’s no need to include contact info on this page because you have it at the beginning of your proposal.

After you write a full proposal, you can tweak it for each publisher or agent’s submission guidelines.

The Synopsis

Most publishers and agents ask for a synopsis when you submit. If you need a proposal, the synopsis is almost always a part of that proposal. I recommend you write a three page synopsis and one page synopsis. The requirements for submissions vary, so if you have both lengths on hand you should be all right. The thing to remember about a synopsis is it will be the worst writing you’ve ever done.

Here’s some things that might help you write your synopsis.

A synopsis is the summary of a full length novel. This means you have to tell the story in as few words as possible. This is the time for you to tell, not show.

The first paragraph of your synopsis should be a short blurp about the novel. Think about the paragraph you would write for the back cover of your book to catch people’s attention.

Single space a synopsis, and have one inch margins and size 12 font.

Write the synopsis in present tense.

Tell the main plot and introduce the main characters. Don’t worry about subplots or minor characters here.\

Tell your ending. You don’t want to hide your surprise ending here. You want to show it off and let the people your submitting to know the novel reaches a satisfactory ending. If you don’t convince them of that, they might not be interested in reading the whole manuscript.

Here’s some links that will help you write your synopsis.

 For the Synopsis Writing Challenged

Writing a Novel Synopsis

The Synopsis Project

Writing the Fiction Synopsis

Missionaries – One Family, One God Dream

This post, I have a guest blogger, Keisha Lennon, who, along with her family, is going to Thailand as a missionary. I know this family, and they are godly people who are worth supporting.

One Family, One God Dream

The Lennon’s Call to Thailand

Our lives are but a story, line upon line being written by those who influence and change us, but even more so by those who we influence and change.  Simply put, this defines the desire of our lives—to bring hope to those who had none before coming into contact with us, through the love of Jesus Christ.  Come and be a part of our story, and allow us the privilege of becoming a part of your story!

Meet the Lennon’s

We—Ryan and Keisha—have been married for seven years and have been blessed with two children—Hannah (age 5) and Noah (age 2 ½).  Participating in the fulfillment of the Great Commission has been a passion of ours, even before we were married.  In fact, our family mission statement is “To know God: His Heart and His Character.  To be on the front lines of communicating the Good News to the lost by building a ministry that effectively reaches out and evangelizes.  To disciple, equip, and motivate believers of all ages to willingly abandon their own lives for the salvation of every tongue, tribe, and nation.”  Within the past few years, God has refined this desire and focused our hearts on Northern Thailand, more specifically the city of Chiang Rai, which is located in The Golden Triangle.

Our entire marriage has been a season of preparation!  Between the two of us, we’ve participated in or led 14 mission trips, all of which deposited something different within our hearts for what we are about to embark on next.  In terms of education, Keisha has a bachelor’s degree in English, and Ryan will soon have a bachelor’s degree in Bible and Theology, both of which will be useful tools in Thailand practically and spiritually.

In light of all this, our family plans to move to Chiang Rai, Thailand during the early fall of 2010. Our home church, Canton Temple of Praise Church of God will be sending us out to serve with Emerge Missions (www.emergemissions.org).  Emerge is an “innovative missions outreach to young people in emerging nations,” primarily Asia.  While Emerge’s influence is far reaching, in Chiang Rai, we (the Emerge team) will be focusing on university campus ministry, community and tribal outreach, orphanage ministry, and the establishment of a discipleship school. In focusing on young people, we hope to influence not just one generation, but the face of an entire nation!

About Thailand

Thailand is located in Southeast Asia, in the 10/40 Window, where 95% of the world’s unreached peoples live.  While Thailand is not hostile to proclamation of the Good News, it is surrounded by persecuted nations: Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.  Most Thais (95%) practice Buddhism, with Islam (4%) and Christianity (0.7%) also represented.  About 66 million people live in Thailand, including many hill tribes, who originate from Myanmar, Laos, and China.  Due to growing socio-economic issues and the AIDS epidemic, the number of orphans in Thailand continues to increase.  In fact, within an hour’s drive from where we will live, approximately 60 orphanages exist do to handle influx of unwanted children or children whose parents have died as a result of lifestyle choices.

As a whole, Thailand has a sexually-oriented culture.  Prostitution and homosexuality continues to affect this developing nation, as they have for years.  Undoubtedly, the most heartbreaking aspect of Thailand is the ever-growing child sex-trafficking industry.  Men from all over the world come to Northern Thailand to engage sexually with little girls as young as eight or ten years old.  As a result, these young sex slaves often die before adulthood due to disease or other misfortunes due to the lifestyle handed to them.  Most times, these children die without ever hearing the name of Jesus. 

Thailand & Faith

Thailand is predominately Buddhist (94%) and is located in a region of the world known as the 10/40 window.  The 10/40 window is defined as 10 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees north latitude, stretching across northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia.  Ninety-five percent of the world’s unreached people call the 10/40 window home.  To be unreached simply means that one does not have access to the Good News.  In other words, the lost in Thailand is different than the lost in the U.S. because while many Americans need Christ or may even need to hear about Him, physically and geographically they have access to many churches and Christians, essentially giving them opportunity to make a decision for Christ.  Because Thailand is less than 1% Christian, most Thai live and die without ever having that chance. 

While 95% of the world’s unreached peoples live in this region, less than 5% of all monies ever given to world missions make it to the 10/40 window.  In other words, the church as a whole continues to sow (and sow and sow) into regions where the Good News is available locally, but we are leaving the unreached untouched.  For so many reasons, this does not make sense, but unfortunately it continues to be the case.

Getting Involved

In an effort to change the reality in Thailand through the love and blood of Jesus Christ, our family plans to relocate to Chiang Rai, Thailand in August or September of 2010, but we cannot tackle such a huge task alone.

Our heart is to see ministries and individuals link arms with us to change the face of a generation worldwide.  We invite you to go on this mission to Thailand with our family, either as a prayer partner or a support partner.  Because our ministry is fully support-based, we need churches, ministries, and families to give financially.  To meet our family’s living expenses, we need $3000 per month, which covers housing, utilities, phone, internet, food, transportation, educational costs, health insurance, and finances to return to the States every two years.      

Financially, our family’s need  can be met in a number of different ways.  The following examples provide a few options for your consideration:

• 120 ministries/families giving $25 monthly
• 60 ministries/families giving $50 monthly
• 30 ministries/families giving $100 monthly

If you feel led to invest in to the youth of Northern Thailand, please consider sponsoring our family monthly or giving a special offering.  Please keep in mind that all gifts are tax deductible when given through Emerge Missions.  To partner with us financially, you have two options.

1.  To begin partnering with us by check:

1. Just make the check payable to Emerge Missions.
2. Write “Ryan and Keisha” in the memo line.
3. Mail to the following address,

Emerge Missions

c/o Ryan and Keisha Lennon

3444 Hampreston Way NW

Kennesaw, GA 30144

2.  To begin partnering with us online: 

1. Go to our website at http://web.me.com/ryankeisha.
2. Click the “Getting Involved” link.
3. Click the “Donate Now, Just Give” icon, and follow the prompts.

Contact Us

We would love to hear from you and remain in contact with your ministry.  If you have any comments and/or questions about our family’s ministry, please feel free to e-mail us at onegoddream@gmail.com.  Too, check out our website and blog at http://web.me.com/ryankeisha.

50,000 Word Challenge – Week 3 (Nov. 15-Nov. 21)

It’s week 2 for the 50,000 Word Count Challenge. Anyone reading this for the first time, you can join in late. We have weekly challenges as well as the monthly challenge. Here’s the link  to the rules. I’ll edit this post to add my word counts to the bottom. Everyone else can add word counts in the comments.

Total Word Counts for Last Week: 1st count is for this week, second count is total so far.

Tamera Kraft (That’s me, but I don’t count for the prize) – 5,080 Total – 20,066

Lorna G. Poston – 478 Total – 4,588

Janice Green – 9,094 Total – 15,327

Faith – 13,731 Total – 34,958

Newmauldon – 3,054 Total – 6,727

KM Weiland – (Didn’t post this week) Total – 913

If anyone has words they didn’t post, just add them to this week’s totals.

Since Faith is ineligible, Janice Green won last week’s prize, “Blogging For Dummies”. To make it fair, you can only win a weekly prize once, but everyone is eligible for the grand prize – but only if you reach at least 50,000 words. So post this week’s word counts in the comments section of this post, and have fun writing. This week’s prize is the book, “Plot and Structure” by James Scott Bell.

Tamera Kraft’s Word Counts:

Monday:

Blogs – 932 words

Social Network – 217 words

WIP – Added 623 words while editing

Tuesday:

Social Network – 124 words

Blogging – 412 words

WIP – Added 1,873 words while editing.

Wednesday:

Social Network – 175 words.

Thursday:

Blogging – 377 words

Friday:

WIP – Added 2,020 words

Saturday:

WIP – Added 3,271 words

Queries

Queries are the letters you write to publishers and agents to ask or query them if you can submit your proposal, sample pages or manuscript. This is different than a cover letter. In a cover letter, you’re letting the agent or publisher know what you’re submitting. A query letter asks permission to submit materials. A good query letter will give the agent or publisher enough information to help him decide if he’s interested.

Most queries are sent by email. Some publishers and agents forego the query process and go straight to proposals; most don’t. These are a few things to remember about queries.

Make them short and to the point. Queries should never be more than one page.

Include important information. The query letter should include your contact information, the genre, word count, and any publishing credits you have.

Have a blurb that promotes your book with a hook. This is the time to peak the agent’s or publisher’s interest.

There are many resources out there that tell how to write a good query letter. The most important thing is to spend time writing it. You polished and edited your novel. Do the same with your query. Here’s a few links on other sites about how to write a query letter:

Writing World – How To Write a Sucessful Query Letter

Write At Home – Query Letter Advise & Samples

Writing a Query Letter

Agent Query – How To Write A Query Letter

Create An Exciting Story: Blow Something Up

Many writers are too nice to their characters. Their characters have goals they want to reach, and after a few obstacles, they will let their characters have what they want. This creates a boring story. To ratchet up the excitement, a writer needs to blow up the character’s world. Don’t let the character have what he or she wants even if you have to blow something up.

Ways to Blow Something Up:

Relationships: Who is your character close to? Destroy that relationship. Cause a breach of trust or a misunderstanding. Better yet, if the person isn’t important to the story, kill the character off. But do it in a gut wrenching, shocking, or devastating way. Then make it so that devastating loss puts your protagonist in an emotional tailspin that keeps her from her goals.

Moral Dilemma: We’d like to think our protagonists will act morally and honorably. But don’t make it that easy. Make it so it seems the only way the main character can have what he wants is to do the wrong thing. If it goes against his moral compass, it works even better. Have him decide to do the wrong thing, then have it blow up in his face. If he goes against his deeply held beliefs to get what he wants, and instead, it makes things worse, it blows up his world.

Outside Forces: Nature and acts of God are outside forces your protagonist can’t control, but there are others. Have these things work against her. Let the whole world conspire to keep you protagonist reach her goals.

Antagonist: An antagonist can be an evil psychopath. They are fun to create. But an antagonist can also be a good person who wants what’s best for the main character. The important thing about an antagonist is, no matter what his motives, have him keep the protagonist from his goals. 

Flaws: Every character should have flaws. Allow those flaws to keep the character from getting what he desperately wants.

Shock and Awe: The army has a devise called shock and awe. Basically they overdo it. They bomb an area over and over until it devastates the enemy so much, he wants to surrender to make it stop. Don’t only blow up one thing in the character’s life. Use them all. Get out the whole arsenal.

Hopelessness: Bring the character to a point where it looks like there’s no hope. Make it so there’s no way she can reach her goals. But help her somehow have the courage to go on. When a character keeps going when it looks like there’s no hope, it makes a satisfying ending when the character finally achieves her goals.

50,000 Word Count Challenge Week 2 (Nov. 8-14)

It’s week 2 for the 50,000 Word Count Challenge. Anyone reading this for the first time, you can join in late. We have weekly challenges as well as the monthly challenge. Here’s the link  to the rules. I’ll edit this post to add my word counts to the bottom. Everyone else can add word counts in the comments. I’ll be out of town until Thursday, so I will comment on any questions then.

Total Word Counts for Last Week:

Tamera Kraft (That’s me, but I don’t count for the prize) – 14,986

Lorna G. Poston – 4,110

Janice Green – 6,233

Faith – 21,227

Newmauldon – 3,673

KM Weiland – 913

Janice, I’m putting your Sunday word count in the comments section of this post to keep the weeks separate.

If anyone has words they didn’t post, just add them to this week’s totals.

We all had a great start, but we have a ways to go to reach the 50,000 word count for the month. Faith won last week’s prize, “The Plot Thickens” by Noah Lukeman. To make it fair, you can only win a weekly prize once, but everyone is eligible for the grand prize – but only if you reach at least 50,000 words. So post this week’s word counts in the comments section of this post, and have fun writing. This week’s prize is the book, “Blogging For Dummies”.

Friday:

Social Networking – 407

Critiques – 57

Blogging – 503

WIP – Added 2,110 words while editing

Saturday:

Social Networking – 247 words

WIP – Added 732 words, Subtracted 1,019 words

Dream Big

Writing is a discouraging profession. We’re constantly told not to get our hopes up. Getting published is as unlikely as winning the lottery. Then if we’re fortunate enough to be published, we’re reminded that most novels sell less than 1,000 copies. If we do sell more than that, we’re admonished to not quit our day job because very few writers ever make enough to support themselves.

Christian writers have is worse. If they dare to dream big, they’re told they are pursuing worldly success instead of keeping their eyes on God.

Yet Scripture tells to believe that nothing is impossible with God. So what are we to do? We should follow the same steps anyone would follow, writer or not, when God gives them a dream.

Dream Big: Don’t put limitations on God. If you knew that after hard work and perseverance you would succeed, what dreams would you pursue? What dreams has God placed in your heart that are God sized? Every dream will be different. One person’s dream may be for one person to be touched by his writing that nobody else can reach. Another might be reaching for publication. Still another person might be looking for a career in writing that we’ll enable her to quit her day job. No dream is wrong when God is the one who put the desire there. Pray about it and make sure it’s God. But if He placed the desire there, run with it.

Psalm 37:4-5 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

Write Down Your Dreams & Visions: After you’ve decided what you desires are, write them down. Keep the list somewhere that you can refer to often like the refrigerator. Then work toward those dreams. Do your part so God can do His.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

Pray: Ask God for the desires and dreams He’s given you. Remember, God can do what no man can.

John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Speak It In Faith: No matter how long it takes, no matter who has a discouraging word, no matter what the statistics say, don’t allow your faith to waiver. Speak your faith and act on it.

Mark 11:22-24  So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Do Your Part: This means that you will obey God even when it seems like you’re going in the wrong direction. It also means you’ll work hard to learn your craft and to write what God has given you. And no matter how tough things get, Don’t Quit! Most agents and publishers admit successful authors aren’t the ones who write the best, they’re the ones who won’t quit and won’t take no for an answer. If you do your part, when the timing is right, God will open the doors.

Revelation 3:7 … When I open a door, no one can close it. And when I close a door, no one can open it.