Category: JBIGGARBLOG

By Sharla Rae, @SharlaWrites

If poets are to be believed,eyes are the windows to the soul.

Rather than using clichéd or common descriptions,why not use “explicit” eye descriptions to give your reader a real peek into a character’s psyche?

I’ll touch on eye color, movement, and appearance and, of course, I have some helpful lists to inspire ideas.

Eye color

It’s a given that writers mention eye color as a character feature. Color can be mentioned every so often to remind readers what the character looks like. But! Don’t hit them over the head with it.

Besides using eye color as a facial feature it can sometimes be used to identify who is speaking especially if the color distinctive.

Blue eyes widened and she threw up both hands. “Now hold on a minute.”
OR
Her amber cat eyes narrowed. “xxxx”

A character might have plain old blue or brown…

In an effort to get “unstuck” and get back to some serious writing, I’ve been reviewing my story scene-by-scene. What do I have and what do I need to round out each act? Are my scenes doing what I need them to do? Do they escalate the action? Move the story forward? While thinking about all of this, I realized I needed to go back to the basics and look at my structure, and that meant I needed a refresher on  what each act should do.

So, I dug through my class notes (I created a wiki that’s a little treasure trove of great writing information). Low and behold, I found this gem. According to what we learned at McD the Four Act structure should look something like this:

by Orly Konig-Lopez, @OrlyKonigLopez

The other day I finished a book and when my husband asked if it was good, my answer was a rather drawn out, “Yeeaaahhhh.” The story was interesting and the author had a pleasant, easy style. She’d done a nice job of showing me what the rooms looked like, what the characters were wearing, what the car looked like … you get the picture.

And that’s exactly what it was—a nice picture.

But that’s all it was.

That nice picture was behind a glass wall. As a reader, I was left admiring the world the author so carefully created from the outside. So “yeeaaahhhh” it was good but it’ll go in the read and forgotten pile.

That’s not the pile you want your books to go in.

What can you do to make sure your book doesn’t end up there? Don’t just paint a nice visual…

There should be a “swear jar” for every time a writer says to me, “My proposal is good, but don’t judge it based on the synopsis because I don’t know how to write one.” I could buy a house in the south of France! When I hear this, I don’t feel sympathy. Writing a synopsis is not string theory. I do understand that compared to the ecstasy of writing romance, writing a synopsis is tedious. They aren’t so interesting for editors to read either. But the synopsis is important if you want to submit your work anywhere. Here’s why:

In an industry where a lot of skimming is done, a synopsis is essential. And because many of us have to give a summary to higher ups for approval, we need that synopsis. We don’t pore over them, salivating over each luscious description. We just want the most crucial points given…

I took a page from Kat’s book (or a recent post, anyway) and looked back through my McDaniel Romance Writing class notes. I came across this checklist for self-editing a scene (from the second class). I did not create it. I got it somewhere else (it could have been Jenny or maybe Jeanne). I like it because it guides me with concrete questions that address conflict, motivation, character and story arc, and tension. It along with many other hints/tips/tricks is stuck to the bulletin board beside my desk. 

Jami Gold recently had two articles on using Macros to help in your editing and polishing phase of your manuscript: MS Word Trick: Using Macros to Edit and Polish and Fix Showing vs. Telling with Macros & Word Lists.

Jami does an excellent job of showing you how to insert and use macros, so I won’t repeat that here. The first link also gives a ton of different macros you can use. Come back here after you’ve read those two, and I’ll share with you another one: SimultaneityCheck.

Why check for Simultaneity Issues?

There are two helpful flags to look for in your WIP that could spell trouble: phrases employing -ing verbs and ‘as’ constructions.

Why can these flag trouble? Because in certain cases, they can mean that the actions are happening at the same time. I say certain cases, because ‘as’ is also used to introduce metaphors, and…

by Lisa Hall-Wilson

What to do? Facebook has changed – again. There’s more competition than ever for reader attention.

Writers are frustrated and it’s easy to understand why. How do you build a business when the goal posts for success keep moving? What’s the point?

Facebook is probably the slowest platform to build an audience on, and shooting yourself in the foot by listening to bad advice only makes it more difficult.

Choosing to build platform the right way will insulate you from the changes Facebook continues to make because those changes are often intended to deter those who cheat and try to game the system.

Here are 4 of the worst pieces of advice I’ve heard when it comes to building a writing platform on Facebook:

Promo your books to every group every day.

This feels a whole lot like spam.

There are three kinds of groups on Facebook:

While going through some old McD files looking for inspiration for today’s post, I came across the “writing tips” I’ve listed below.  In a fit of self-delusion, I initially thought I’d compiled these tips from discussion posts (by Jenny C and/or my classmates) while attending McD. Just after I congratulated myself on my own cleverness for assembling such a valuable list, doubt began to seep in. I did a quick web search just to confirm that the list didn’t exist out there.

Two clicks later and boom. There they were. These tips was actually compiled after years at Pixar by the (truly brilliant) Emma Coats. They’re a great refresher and very relevant to the process I’m undertaking right now. I hope you find them useful, too. (In the interest of full disclosure, I swiped the graphic from another 8L, too).

The 22 Rules of Storytelling According to Pixar:

By Chuck Sambuchino

Once your book is finished, it’s time to start submitting to agents. For this, a simple first step is to create a new Microsoft Word or Excel document so you can keep detailed track of your submissions, target agents, resource materials, and more. The document will help you personalize query letters, find more agents to contact, and know when to follow up on submissions.

Now it’s time to create your list of potential agents to query.

As you start compiling agent names and contact info, think in terms of casting a wide net. Scour databases and websites to put together the largest possible collection of reps to contact, then start winnowing down your list as you go along. Understand right off the bat that not every agent is for you. You’ll only be targeting a fraction of the active reps out there—seeking those who represent the specific…

by Sierra Godfrey

Remember when you started your blog? Maybe you were an unpublished writer and fellow unpublished writers followed your trials with you, cheered you when you got an agent and a book contract, and then became readers. Maybe you’re still unpublished but your focus has changed. Maybe your career was already in full swing, but you started your web presence with a free blog.

However you began your presence on the Web, you might have a bunch of reasons for moving your blog now—you might have a new shiny website with incorporated blog, or maybe your old blog was hacked, or maybe you just want a new way of blogging. Once you have your new home on the web, you’re good to go, right? You can delete your old blog, right?

Wrong!

Let it live. You need that old blog to increase your online profile print, and you…