Writing and Perfection - Is There Such a Thing?

As with life, some people think everything has to be perfect before they start their writing journey.

It may be they don’t think they’ve mastered the craft of writing to perfection.

Or, maybe the writer has started her story, but can’t seem to achieve the perfection she’s looking for.  She believes what she’s written isn’t worthy of submissions. So, she keeps pecking away at it, hoping one day it will be perfect.

Well, if you fall under either of these scenarios, you’ll be waiting a very long time. In fact, your time of action may never come.

Meriam-Webster defines perfection as “the state or condition of being perfect” and “something that cannot be improved.”

So, perfection is something that you can’t possibly make better.

Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

What on earth can’t be improved upon? What is actually perfect?

Keeping this in mind, here’s what a few famous authors/artists and others have to say about the illusive perfection:

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”
~ Salvador Dalí

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”
~ Margaret Atwood

"If you look for perfection, you'll never be content."
~ Leo Tolstoy

"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing."
~ Eugene Delacroix

"Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection."
~ Kim Collins

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." ~ Vince Lombardi

“Striving to be the best person we can be and striving to do the very best we can in all our endeavors is the closest to perfection we can ever get.”
~ Karen Cioffi

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.”
~ Michael J. Fox

My favorite is what Michael J. Fox says: “Perfection is God’s business!”

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!

So, if you have these perfection tendencies, try to overcome them. Don’t let an unrealistic viewpoint stop you from achieving writing success.

But, what if you just don’t’ trust your own judgement or can’t overcome that perfection tendency?

One of the best ways to get some guidance on whether your story is at the point of submissions is to become a part of a critique group in your genre.

Having other writers go over your story can pick up lots of trouble spots and help you improve your manuscript. And, they’ll have a much more objective view of the story.

After you get all you can from a critique group, you might want to hire a professional editor.

While every author can continue revising a story, there comes a time when you have to let go.

If your critique group and editor believes it’s good to go, take their advice.

Don’t let the illusion of attaining perfection in your writing stop you from submitting your manuscript or achieving a writing career.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move. She is also an author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

You can check out Karen’s e-classes through WOW! at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/content-marketing-tools/ 



MORE ON WRITING

Tips on Adding Flashbacks to Your Story

Three Ways to Stand Out to Editors

Writing - Are You an Outliner?

16 Reasons Why You Should Publish a Book

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year Wishes

Wishing Everyone a Healthy, Safe, and Prosperous NEW YEAR!

As a thank you for being a loyal reader of our blog and to start the New Year off right, here are two gifts:

HAPPINESS

HOW TO BUILD YOUR AUTHORITY STATUS

Hope you get some benefit out of these ebooks!

Begin Stories with your Character: A Workshop with Lois Ruby

Who will your character be?

Are your stories plot-driven, or do you begin with a character? Lois Ruby’s stories don’t take off until she has gotten to know her main character. At a recent Albuquerque Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI, meeting, Lois shared her technique.

And what terrific characters Lois creates! One look at her books, and you will read a “heart-pounding romance about a contemporary girl, Lori, who falls crazy-in-love with Nathaniel, a soldier in the Battle of Gettysburg.” The only hitch is that she’s very much alive, and he’s a ghost. (Rebel Spirits, Scholastic/Point, 2013); an Austrian brother and sister who survive World War II in Shanghai, China (Shanghai Shadows, Holiday House, 2006; a Bank Street Book of the Year, 2007, and a Kansas Notable Book, 2007; a homeless girl who can communicate with a police horse in New York, and many more vivid characters. (Visit www.loisruby.com to learn more about Lois and her books).

How does Lois create such intriguing characters?

Begin with What’s Going on Inside
Lois likes to know her character’s description, but before she gets to that, she pins down:

• When they lived—where they fit into the context of history.
• What is their backstory—doesn’t show up in story, but we need to know it.
• What is their emotional status. For example:
• Saying one thing and doing something else.
• Laughing when not appropriate.
• Quick to anger—how character expresses anger.
• Tension when internal thoughts contrast with verbal response.

• How the name fits the character. For example:
• Molds the personality
• Ethnicity
• Geographical area they came from
• Nicknames
• Station in life

What’s on the Outside Comes Next
Lois arrived with armfuls of portraits (photos) of people she finds intriguing, cut out of magazines and kept in clear plastic sleeves. Each portrait raises questions. Each answer opens a window to develop and round out the character.

•  Girl or boy
•  Where does h/she live?
•  Contemporary or historical?
•  What is the family like?
•  What does her voice sound like?
•  What is the conflict in his life?
•  Adventurer or not?
•  Any annoying habits?
•  Who is his greatest hero?
•   Powerful or powerless?
•  What are the moral limits? Skin Deep, Scholastic, 1994, currently out-of-print, is about a boy who is drawn to a hateful white supremacist group. His personality changed, and his girlfriend Laurel sees this and wonders if he can ever return to the boy she loved. Lois said she interviewed three skinheads to answer this question and was horrified, but she needed to know.

Our Turn
Lois ended the workshop by displaying random words on the projector screen:
High school yearbook
Dr. Dowd
Chocolates
Camera
Laundry
$60
ID bracelet
Umbrella
Baseball uniform
Barn animals
Application

Participants were given a short time period to create a character-driven story using as many words as possible. It was fun to hear the different takes. My story evolved around a young man in his 30s flying to see his dad in the hospital after he had a heart attack, working on his job application, taking his dad’s ID bracelet to him (will he remember it?), etc.

Raised in California, Lois has called Texas and Kansas home, and now, lucky for us, she lives in Albuquerque. Her portrait-study technique has certainly yielded a solid collection of intriguing and diverse characters in her books.

A parting word about Lois’s only nonfiction book (so far), Strike! Mother Jones and the Colorado Coal Fields War, Filter Press, 2012. Mary Harris (Mother) Jones, was so concerned about the poor working conditions of a wide range of people from the 1870s through the 1920s—including, street car operators in New York and San Francisco, female bottle washers in Wisconsin, copper miners in Arizona, and the deplorable conditions of children working fourteen-hour days in the textile mills of Pennsylvania—that she called meetings and made speeches, urging workers to go on strike and fight for their rights. Authorities and industry leaders labeled her a troublesome agitator, and the story goes on. (Book is available on Amazon prime at a very reasonable price). Even in nonfiction, Lois has done it again: delighted readers with her knack for creating fascinating characters, and in the case of her nonfiction book, uncovering the story of this incredible woman.
Clipart courtesy of: http://worldartsme.com

Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 150 articles for adults and children, and several short stories for children. Her first book, Secret in the Stars: An Abi Wunder Mystery, a mystery/ghost story for children 7-11 years old, is hot off the press and will be available soon. Currently, she is hard at work on The Ghost of Janey Brown, Book Two in the series. Follow Linda at www.lindawilsonauthor.com.

Write for Magazine Publication - series #8

Writing for Magazine Publication is a great way to monetize your writing and test the interest level of your topic. This series has offered tips for magazine publishing. (Topic archive below)

Essays are all about the writer; articles are all about the reader. An essay is an opinion piece. An article is non-fiction text.

Today, we’ll talk about Letter of Agreements and Copyright.

Letter of Agreement:

An informal outline of all the terms you agree to is a Letter of Agreement (LOA). It is in the format of a letter with signature lines at the bottom. The agreement covers the following and acts to clarity the agreement:

1.      Annotates the services provided, and those not provided

a.       High level editing with “track changes” using Word

2.     The due date for the publishers receipt of your article or essay

a.       Delivery as a Word.doc with “track changes” active

3.     The delivery terms detailing the manner in which the publisher wants to receive and edit your piece:

a.       Format, electronic delivery or otherwise

b.      Style choices determined by AP Style Guide and client’s house style

c.       Editing shall preserve the author’s tone and style

4.      Payment rate per word or flat fee

5.      Payment terms (check/PayPal etc.)

This link may be helpful:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sample-contract-a-letter-of-agreement-1360549

Copyright:

A Copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell or distribute a piece of writing.

The best thing I can offer you are links to the technical aspects of the Copyright Law of the United States.  

Helpful Links for Copyrights:

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/index.html

https://www.copyright.gov/title37/

This series offers tips and ideas for magazine publishing: a list of genres or categories and where we find ideas (posted 5.25.18), research tips (posted 6.25.18), standard templates for essay and article pieces (7.25.18), query letters (informal known to editor 8.25.18) and (formal query tips 9.25.18), guidelines for submission (posted 10.25.18), and contracts (posted 11.25.2018), and LOA & copyright tips (posted 12.25.2018).

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts. Visit her web-blog: Deborah Lyn Stanley : MyWriter's Life .

Write your best, in your voice, your way!

Season's Greetings 2019

Wishing everyone a wonderful and safe Holiday Season!

Create A Plan for the New Year

By W. Terry Whalin

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It’s an old saying and cliché yet rooted in truth. What plans do you have for the New Year? Now is the time to be working on a plan. Do you have a book? What is your plan to market your book?

When many writers get this question, they pile on the excuses and look around for someone else. They have fallen into the trap of someone who has written a book. They firmly believe, “If I build it (write it), they will come (buy it).” These writers firmly believe the marketing for their book is the responsibility of someone else—some publisher or some bookseller or some marketing person. Countless times I’ve listened to writers in my role as an acquisitions editor when they tell me about their disappointment in the results of their book sales.

Remember, when you point your finger at someone or something, four of your fingers are pointing toward you. As the author, you have the primary responsibility to continually market your book. No one else can do what you can do.

Let me give you a bit of my background so you see why I’m writing about this issue. I’ve published more than 60 nonfiction books and for five years I was a book acquisitions editor. When I became a book editor, I began to understand the economics of book publishing. It’s important for every author to understand these dynamics—whether they write fiction or nonfiction.

Here’s the financial information that I didn’t understand until I worked inside a publishing company: for every book (fiction or nonfiction), a publisher is going to spend $30,000 to $40,000 (real dollars) to take your manuscript and turn it into a finished book. These numbers are with a modest advance to the author (say $5,000) and zero marketing dollars. These costs are production, cover design, editorial work, etc. on your book. Publishers receive thousands of submissions from would-be authors. When I was a part-time Fiction Acquisitions Editor at Howard Books, I was looking for six to eight full-length novels a year—and I’ve received over 250 submissions from individuals and literary agents. I’ve rejected some quality fiction because of the volume and limited spots. Imagine these numbers multiplied on other editor’s desks.

Let’s pretend for a minute that you are the editor and have to wade through these volumes of material to find the books for your list. You have two manuscripts. Both manuscripts are excellent, fascinating stories. One manuscript has a marketing plan and the other doesn’t. As the editor, you will be held accountable for your choices (within the publishing house). It’s a business to sell books. Which manuscript will you choose to champion to the other editors, the publishing executives (sales, marketing, etc.)? Editors risk for their authors. Your challenge is to prove to be worthy (actually more than worthy) of this risk.

Everything that I’m going to write is based on the assumption you’ve learned your writing craft and produced an excellent manuscript that is appropriate for a particular publisher. A big part of you may resist even creating a marketing plan. Isn’t that why you go to a publisher instead of publishing it yourself?

No, you go to a publisher to use their marketing efforts in combination with your efforts to sell more books (and to have your books in the bookstore). Publishers love authors who “get it” and understand they need to roll up their sleeves and take a bit of their energy to market the books to their own network. Also publishers always want to do more for their books especially when they release. Yet they have 20 books to shepherd through this process—and you have a single book. Who is going to be more passionate about the book? It’s you as the author—well show a little of that passion in your marketing plans for your book.

Check out PyroMarketing by Greg Stielstra (Harper Business). This book will help you see how you can stir people to purchase your book and why mass marketing techniques are ineffective. To get a taste of this book, read this free introduction (I use with Greg’s permission).

Finally can you bring your publisher a deal from the beginning that will sell at least 5,000 books? It’s not a crazy question since 70% of special sales are something that the author begins. For some creative ideas, check out Jerry Jenkins’ site. This is not the Left Behind author but another Jerry Jenkins. Put your own spin on these ideas with your book. Also you can learn more about this special sales idea through a free teleseminar which I hosted at: http://bit.ly/massbks.

Publishers are looking for true partners in the book-selling process. A marketing plan shows that you are actively going to enter into the process of selling books. Yes, publishers are looking for excellent storytellers but they need authors who care about selling books.

Now is the time to be working on your plans for the new year. What plans are you making? Let me know in the comments.

Tweetable:

Create a plan to market your book for the new year. Get ideas here. (ClickToTweet)
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W. Terry Whalin has written more than 60 books for traditional publishers and his magazine work has appeared in more than 50 publications. He is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing and always looking for great books to publish. Terry is a book proposal expert and the author of Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Sucess. He has over 200,000 followers on Twitter.