Writer’s Conference Prep: The Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a tool that every writer should have at a writer’s conference. An elevator pitch is a thirty-second speech you have memorized that summarizes you book in case you get in an elevator with your dream agent of publisher. That agent asks what your book is about.

Unless you’ve thought about it ahead of time and have memorized your elevator pitch, you may end up saying something like, “Well it’s a kind of a like a story about, well you know, it’s about a guy and a girl, and they fall in love, and then stuff happens.” At this point, the elevator opens, and the agent leaves without offering you the chance to send a proposal because he has no idea what the book is about.

Don’t worry about frantically writing the perfect elevator pitch. Many writers panic about this, and there’s no reason to. The reason for an elevator pitch is to tell someone what the book is about if asked. Here’s a few tips to make writing your elevator pitch easier.

Length: An elevator pitch should be two to three sentences long, around fifty words. If it’s the right length, you should be able to deliver it in about thirty seconds.

Title and Genre: Start the elevator pitch by stating the title and genre of your book. For instance – “My novel is called Yellow Bonnets and is a category prairie romance.” This part won’t be included in the fifty word count but will help the agent know if you have a book that fits her current genre interests.

Main Character: Your elevator pitch should mention the name of the main character.

Main Plot: Don’t mention things that are secondary. Limit your pitch to the main plot.

Study the Movie Industry: The movie industry does elevator pitches better than anyone. Study how they describe movies in only a few words to get an idea on how to develop your elevator pitch.

Here’s a few sites that go into depth about how to write an elevator pitch:

50 Word Elevator Pitch

What Is High Concept?

Getting Your Pitch Right 

First and Last Lines In Scenes

Most writers know it’s important to have great first and last lines in novels. But did you know first and last lines in every scene can make the difference between whether the reader sets the novel down or continues reading. That doesn’t mean you should have a monumental line for the beginning and ending of each scene. The lines can be simple, but they need to do the job assigned to them.

First Lines: Many writers take too much time setting the scene or using descriptions for the first line of each scene. This is a mistake unless you’re using those descriptions to set a mood. First lines should set the emotional tone for what’s to follow. Many times, they’ll introduce the point of view character and hint at the coming conflict. Whatever the case, a good first line will make the reader want to read further.

Last Lines: The biggest mistake new writers make is ending a scene too late. Don’t tie up loose ends and allow resolutions in your scenes. You want to have the reader on edge wondering what’s going to happen. And whatever you do, don’t end a scene with somebody falling asleep unless it’s Snow White right after she took a bite of the poison apple.

The best way to think of last lines in scenes is to think about the old serial movie cliffhangers. Each last line needs to have a hook. While you might not want major catastrophes at the end of every scene, you will want an unresolved issue that causes enough tension to make the reader read further.

Read through the first and last lines of every scene in your manuscript. Forget about the middle part at this point. Are the first lines setting the tone you want to achieve? Are the last lines hinting about conflict yet to come or leaving the reader biting his nails wondering what’s going to happen yet? If not, consider revising them.

Writing Good Dialogue Part 2

Writing good dialogue is more than getting the mechanics right. It is one of the most important parts of characterization. Here’s some things to remember when writing good dialogue.

Character:Your characters will determine how you write dialogue. Every person’s speech pattern is different and dialogue should reflect that. If your dialogue shows enough characterization, readers will often recognize the person speaking without the tags and identifiers. Here’s a few things to ask yourself when determining a speech pattern for a character.

Is it a male or female? Women tend to use more words and to talk emotionally where men are concise and logical.

What area of the country is your character from? If your character is from Ohio, he’ll call a soda drink pop. If he’s from Tennessee, he’ll call it coke.

Is the character educated? College graduates usually don’t say ain’t, but illiterate people or those who live in the country do. Also someone who has dropped out of school and joined a gang at age 15, probably wouldn’t know what some 3 syllable words mean no matter how smart he is.

What is your character’s background? Someone living in New York City probably wouldn’t use colorful country phrases unless he originally came from Alabama. Background makes a difference.

What is your character’s personality? Some people are shy and backward. They would use fewer words than somebody who is a vivacious leader. The leader is more likely to take charge of a situation and bark orders.

Dialect: A character’s background and education is likely to affect his dialect. It’s important to show that through dialogue. However one thing you want to avoid is to phonetically spell dialect. Hint at a person’s dialect, and the reader will automatically sound out the phonetic spelling. But if you spell the words phonetically, you’ll draw the reader away from the story and slow down his reading.

Speech Patterns: Use natural sounding speech patterns in your dialogue. Use contractions unless the characters are formal, educated, and historical. Everybody in today’s world speaks in contractions. Most of the time, you’ll want to use words like yeah and nope depending on the character. If your character is a dear old aunt who would say “oh, my” after hitting her thumb with a hammer, by all means, use it. If your character is a grizzly Vietnam Vet, you may not want him saying “oh my”. Use speech patterns that fit your characters.

No Info Dumps: Don’t use dialogue to give info dumps in the story. Here’s an example of a dialogue info dump.

“As you know,” Tom said “your father left you mother when you were only two years old.”

As you know is a dead giveaway. Why would Tom tell somebody about her father leaving her mother. She would know that better than Tom. Another example of this is if one police officer tells another police officer the procedure they follow when they’ve both been on the force for twenty years, or in a historical novel, one person tells another a fact that is common knowledge for that time period to inform the reader of the historical knowledge. This should always be avoided. Find another way to relay information.

Mimicking Speech: Even though you want dialogue to sound natural, you don’t want it to sound exactly the way people talk. If you did, you would add a lot of ahs, and you knows. Dialogue should sound good when read out loud. It should make the character articulate about what she wants to say in a way people rarely are.

Important to the Story: Everything we write should be important to the story and carry it along. That is true especially true of dialogue. Don’t have a conversation between your characters on what’s for dinner unless it’s important to the story.

Good dialogue is intentional like every other part of fiction writing.

Writing Good Dialogue Part 1

Writing good dialogue is one of the most important techniques of fiction writing. But often, many writers consider it one of the hardest things to do. Hopefully these pointers will help.

Grammar and punctuation: When writing dialogue, place the spoken part in quotation marks. Start a new paragraph every time somebody else speaks.

Example:

“Jill,” Tom said, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.”

“I’m not lying,” Jill said.

When a character is interrupted, use a dash at the end of the sentence. When a character’s speech trails off so he doesn’t finish, use eclipses or ….

Resist the Urge to Explain (RUE): One mistake common in dialogue is to explain what the person is saying and how he says it. Don’t do this. It insults the reader and weakens the dialogue. If the dialogue is not strong enough to stand on it’s own, consider rewriting. I’ll give a bad example to show how you can explain too much.

Example:

“Jill,” Tom said exasperated, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.” He was angry.

“I’m not lying,” Jill said as she tried to defend herself.

Tags: Tags are sometimes needed to show who is talking. Sometimes writers try to get creative with their tags and use as many synonyms for said as they can. This is a mistake. When you need a tag, use said unless there’s a good reason not to. Readers tend to skim over the word said, but other tags bring notice to the word choice instead of the dialogue and story. Many times these other tags violate the RUE guideline. Here’s an example of the wrong way to do it.

Example:

“Jill,” Tom replied, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.”

“I’m not lying,” Jill explained.

“I hired a private investigator,” Tom exhorted. “He told we where you were all day.”

“No,” Jill shouted. “How could you do that to me? You don’t trust me.”

“I want the truth,” Tom demanded.

It can get worse if you use tags that don’t make sense.

Another Example:

“Jill,” Tom frowned, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.” (Most people don’t frown their words.)

“I’m not lying,” Jill sighed. (It’s hard to talk when you’re sighing.)

“I hired a private investigator,” Tom grimaced. “He told we where you were all day.” (Ever try to speak through a grimace?)

“No,” Jill cried. “How could you do that to me? You don’t trust me.” (Most people say their words, they don’t cry them.)

Other examples of this are smiled, chuckled, and laughed. Always have your characters speak their words. The easiest way to do this is he or she said.

Said is the best tag to use, but only use it when needed. If there are only two people in a room talking to each other, you won’t have to identify who is talking by Jill said/Tom said as often as when there’s a roomful of people.

Names: Sometimes writers try to avoid using said by having the characters call each other by name. The problem with this technique is it sounds contrived. People don’t constantly call each other by name.

Bad Example:

“Jill,” Tom said, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.”

“I’m not lying, Tom.”

“I hired a private investigator, Jill. He told we where you were all day.”

“No, Tom How could you do that to me? You don’t trust me.”

“I want the truth, Jill.”

Beats: Beats are actions the characters do while their talking. They can be used effectively.

Example:

“Jill,” Tom said, “you’re driving me crazy. I can’t deal with your lies anymore.”

“I’m not lying.” Jill’s chest tightened.

“I hired a private investigator.” Tom’s hands balled into fists and dangled at his side. “He told we where you were all day.”

“No.” Jill backed up to the counter where she’d stashed the gun. “How could you do that to me? You don’t trust me.”

“I want the truth.” Tom raised his fist and strode toward her.

You can see from this example that the story evolves when using beats. But use beats cautiously. They can be overused when used as only as a tool only to get rid of said. The beats need to be an important part of the story.

Next Monday, Writing Good Dialogue Part 2 will be about dialect and natural sounding speech patterns.

Naming Characters

Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true. But it wouldn’t bring up the same image if it was called a skunk.

When you write your novel, the names you call your characters are important to the overall story and should be considered carefully. Here are a few things you should think about when naming characters.

What image does the name bring to mind? Think about the name Gus, or Ralph, or Fred. Conjure an image in your mind. I’ll bet you didn’t come up with a college graduate with an expensive wardrobe. That’s because these names are associated with a certain type of person. Now think about a man named Perceval. Would you imagine him to be a rough cowboy on the range in the Wild West? Whatever name you decide upon, make sure that name fits the image of your character – unless there’s a reason you want a cowboy named Perceval or a socialite named Gertrude.

Consider Historical Reference. This is important if your story takes place in the past, but even contemporary stories should consider this. For instance, think about women you know named Tammy or Debby. Chances are they’re around fifty years old. That’s because a very popular movie called Tammy and The Bachelor starring Debbie Reynolds came out in 1957. Between 1958 and 1963, these were the most popular girls’ names. In the early 1980’s, most children were named Jonathan and Jennifer because Hart to Hart, a popular TV show of the time, named their main characters, Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. Think about names for your characters would have been used in the time period they were born. If you’re writing about the eighteenth century, here’s a link with a list of common names for that period. If you’re story takes place anytime after 1800, this is a link to the US Census Bureau. It tells what names were popular each year.

Use Ethnic Names. If you have ethnic characters or characters from different nationalities, choose names that go with those nationalities. Make sure the names are easy to pronounce even if they are uncommon to our culture, or your readers will trip over them. Here’s a link to a site ethnic names for different cultures and nationalities.

Choose names with meaning. The meaning of names is important. In the Bible, when someone changed, God would give him a new name. Saul (Jewish name) became Paul (Gentile name). Jacob (trickster) became Israel (prince of God). To give your characters more depth, try finding a name whose meaning goes with their character development. Here’s a link to a site that gives names’ meanings.

Names give identity to people. If you choose carefully, the right names will also give identity to your characters.

10 Ways To Find More Time To Write

Writers have a difficult time finding time to write sometimes. With the burdens of family obligations, daytime jobs, marriage, and church or other activities, it sometimes seems impossible. Here’s a few tips to help you find time to write.

1. Get up an hour early. When you get up early, nobody is awake. This is prime writing time.

2. Stay up an hour late. This is the same principle. After everyone else has gone to bed, you’ll have the time you need. But be careful. Don’t get so lost in the story that you stay up all night. Set a timer if you have to.

3. Spend your lunch hour writing. If your work won’t let you use their computers for personal use, bring a small laptop or word processor to work and write while you’re eating.

4. Assign a certain time every day that you write. Let your family know that this is your “Do Not Disturb” time.

5. Get a maid. No, I’m not kidding. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. Hire a maid or someone to do your laundry. This will give you added time to write. Isn’t it worth the money?

6. Hire a babysitter. You could hire someone to take the kids to the park or to McDonalds Playland a couple of times a week. The kids will love it, and you’ll enjoy the writing time.

7. Stop time wasters. Organize your schedule and see where you are wasting time you could be writing.

8. Turn off the TV. Enough said.

9. Buy a small laptop or word processor to take with you when you go to doctor’s appointments or kids’ soccer practices. You can write during waiting time.

10. Quit playing Facebook Games. Facebook and Twitter are great tools for writers, but don’t let them monopolize your time.

So quit putting it off. Find the time you need to write, and get busy.

10 Things Needed To Set Up A Writing Area

Whether it’s a corner in a room or a full-scale office with all the luxuries, every writer needs a writing area. This is the place the writer goes to allow his or her creativity to soar. If you write there every day, especially if you schedule a time to write, you’re training your subconscious that this is the time for you to be creative. This is the time and place for the words to soar.

My husband has taken over our office area, so my writing area is my livingroom. We have a family room in the basement where we keep the TV, video games, etc., so the livingroom is not a high traffic area in my home. I have a laptop desk on wheels I can move out of the way when company comes and an end table with a small book shelf on it and a place to hide away my files and notes. I also have a rolltop desk in my livingroom where I store all my supplies. There’s a large front window with a view and a couch to take a nap on when I need a break. It works well for me. I’ll post pictures on Friday.

The important thing is to be creative about your writing space. If you can have an office, that’s great. But there are certain items every writer needs in her writing area.

1. Computer: The days of the typewriter are over. Thank God. Make sure you have a good computer that’s easy for you to use. I recommend a laptop. That way, you don’t have to carry around a jump drive if you’re away from home. An Ipad with a Documents to Go app and a portable keyboard is also a great tool for when you’re on the road.

2. Internet: Internet is essential for writers in today’s world. It gives us marketing tools, email, online writer’s communities, writer’s tip blogs, research at our fingertips, and access to publishers’ and agents’ websites. The only caution here is to schedule when you’ll be on the internet and when you won’t. You may want to schedule a certain chunk of time for the internet. I have the internet running all day, but I only check it once every couple of hours, and if I’m not done writing (unless I’m doing research), I don’t stay on it longer than five minutes.

3. Library: Every writer needs a library that includes writing books, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and books he enjoys reading. Some of these books may be on-line. Some won’t. See this link  and this link  for the books I believe every writer should have.

4. Files: Every writer needs a place she can file research, plot outlines, character sketches, ideas, agent lists, and other important information. Some writers use online files such as MS One Note. Others like hard copies. But you need somewhere to store information.

5. Online computer back-up: Don’t take a chance. Subscribe to an online computer back-up service. They aren’t expensive, and if anything happens, you’ll be covered. Schedule the back-up to automatically back up your files at least once a week.

6. Music: Whether you use an i-pod, your computer, a CD player, or some other device, you’ll want something where you can play music or some kind of white noise. Some writers like it quiet when they work, but even they benefit from listening to music before or after writing. Also invest in a good set of headphones that will be comfortable to wear for hours and will block out most noises including the phone ringing.

7. A comfortable chair: You’ll want a chair where you sit up straight, your feet are flat on the ground, and your back is supported. Don’t prop your laptop on your legs while you type in a recliner. Your back will thank you later.

8. A desk or table: Don’t use one of those portable lap desks unless it’s short term. You need something you can put your computer on even if it’s a card table or a TV table.

9. No distractions: If you really want to escape into the world your writing and let the prose flow, you’ll need an area without television, video games, or a telephone ringing. A door that can be closed is even better.

10. A notebook: Keep a small notebook with you to jot down ideas. If you have an IPad or a memo app on your smart phone, this works even better because it will always be with you. Before you begin writing, record these ideas in your idea folder.

So that all you need to begin writing. Other than the computer, most of these items are free or can be purchased for very little money. Make this investment in your writing career.

10 Tips to Editing Your Own Novel

Tip #1: You’ve finished the first draft of your novel. Congratulations. Take some time off and celebrate. No, really, I mean it. Set your novel in a drawer for at least six weeks. Do something else in the meantime. If you want, start another novel, go on vacation, read a book, visit friends, or spring clean the house. But resist the temptation to pick up that draft. This is the first and most important step to self-editing. You need to look at your work with a fresh eye.

The six weeks are over. It’s time to pull out that manuscript and get busy. Now what? Here’s some things that will help.

Tip #2: Read or review a self-editing book to remind yourself what problems you are looking for. My favorite is “Self-Editing For Fiction Writers” by Browne and King. Even if you’ve read this book before, you’ll need the reminders fresh in your mind.

Tip #3: Use find and replace to search out ly words and other problem words, and replace them when you can. See this link  for the problem words and this link  for how to get rid of ly words.

Tip #4: Print out a hard copy of your manuscript. Read it over using a red ink pen to make notes in the margins. It’s amazing what you’ll find when you read a hard copy.

Tip #5: After reading the hard copy, go back and make your changes.

Tip #6: Print the manuscript out again, find the red ink pen. This time, read your manuscript out loud using your red ink pen to mark changes that need to be made.

Tip #7: Now go back and make the changes again.

Tip #8: You guessed it. Print the manuscript out a third time. No, I’m not trying to kill trees. This is a very important part of the process. You need that hard copy in front of you when you’re editing.

Tip #9: Make the changes, and read through it two more times. You don’t have to print it out this time. But you might want to try reading it backwards so you can find common grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

Tip #10: Have a small group of people to read over your finished product. You will need at least one grammar expert in this group. The other members can be a couple of people who love to read and a writer or two who will give you a hard critique. See this link for how to have a critique help your writing. Make any needed changes you agree with.

Now you’re done. Give yourself a pat on the back. Then get busy and write a query and proposal, and research those literary agents and publishers.

A writer’s work is never done.

Episodic Writing

 

Many times, new writers fall into the trap of episodic writing. Episodic writing is when you write a number of scenes loosely tied together that don’t lead from one scene to the other. There’s no growth in the characters and no scenes building on each other leading the characters to the final conclusion.

Episodic writing is like episodes of a television show. They all involve the same characters and theme, but one episode doesn’t lead to another. Each show stands on its own.

Here are some ways to fix episodic writing:

Give your main character a goal. Your character should be working toward achieving a goal by the end of the novel.

Give your character obstacles. Obstacles should keep the main character from his goal.

Give your character weaknesses to overcome. Each character should have weaknesses that also cause obstacles.

At each obstacle, the character has to decide what to do to get rid of the obstacle. These decisions will be influenced by the character’s strengths and weaknesses. Each decision will lead to a result which will lead to another obstacle.

The action should determine the next step. Every victory should propel the character toward his goal and determine the next step. Every defeat should lead to another plan of attack.

Each scene should lead to the next scene. Delete any scene that doesn’t logically flow to the next one.

The character should go through a change throughout the story.

Microsoft One Note

 

Microsoft One Note is a wonderful program for writers that comes free with MS Office 2007. Basically it’s a file folder for all your notes, outlines, research, character sketches, and submissions. There are many ways you can use this program. I’m going to show you how I use it.

For each project (novel, short story, article, etc.), I open a tab. I also have a tab for personal information, blogs, and general research.

Here’s how I set it up for a novel.

Notebook – Novel’s name

Section – Summaries and Outlines

          One Sentence Summary

          One Paragraph Summary

          One Page Synopsis

          Four Page Synopsis

Outline (I don’t use an outline, but if you do, you might place it here make another section depending on how extensive it is.

Section – Misc. (This is for any notes that don’t fit elsewhere)

          Section – Submissions

          Query

                    Synopsis

                    Marketing Plan

                    Biography

                    Proposal

Tracking Submissions (On this page I use an Excel Chart, but you don’t have to. Whatever method works for you.’

Section – Research (I keep all my research notes here. When you research on the internet, you can print any internet pages directly to One Note

Section – Characters (I use a multi-section here and have a subsection for each one.

Basic Info

                   Character Synopsis

                   Character Chart

MS One Note can also be used for ideas and future projects. Just open up an ideas notebook. There are countless ways a writer can use MS One Note. Experiment with it and set it up to meet your needs.