A Little "Sniff"

Today I’m having a “sniff” day. No, I do not have a cold or allergies. What I have is a desire to smell my way around and see what can be added to scenes.

Taking a day to focus on each of the senses creates a different way of viewing the world around us and then also gives us new insight into what we can put on the page.

A day focused on visuals might showcase the subtle changes that light makes as the sun sweeps across the sky. A day focused on sound might bring into focus the bantering of birds, or the swishing of branches in the light breeze. Of course, a day full of taste is a favorite day of the week. Already my mouth waters, as I decide what amazing meal to share. Perhaps the swordfish I had last week served over blueberries. A day of touch might find me wandering the backyard running my fingers over roses or just as likely fabric shopping.

But today is “sniff” so my nose is called to action. And away I go. I’ve pulled a book from my shelf. It has sat there for more than a year untouched and has the musty smell that reminds me of used bookstores. It is a scent that takes me immediately to an old overstuff chair that sat in the afternoon sun of my public library as a child. Even though it is “sniff” day, I can still see the dust motes that flew around me when I sat down. My dog rubs against me for some one-on-one time. I breathe deeply into her coat. Grass - that fresh scent that reminds me of days log rolling down hills. Her feet though, remind me of sweaty boy socks and that bath time might have to occur soon. It’s birthday week for my grandson, so I had was allowed to bake a chocolate cake. The smell of vanilla followed me around the rest of the afternoon and always lifts my spirits. Finally, I drew a warm bath and added lavender. What a great way to end a lovely “sniff” day.

What will you “sniff” today? 

______________________

D. Jean Quarles is a writer of Women's Fiction and Young Adult Science Fiction. Her latest book, Flight from the Water Planet, Book 1 of The Exodus Series was written with her coauthor, Austine Etcheverry.

D. Jean loves to tell stories of personal growth – where success has nothing to do with money or fame, but of living life to the fullest. She is also the author of the novels: Rocky's Mountains, Fire in the Hole and, Perception. The Mermaid, an award winning short story was published in the anthology, Tales from a Sweltering City.  

She is a wife, mother, grandmother and business coach. In her free time . . . ha! ha! ha! Anyway, you can find more about D. Jean Quarles, her writing and her books at her website at www.djeanquarles.com

You can also follower her at www.djeanquarles.blogspot.com or on Facebook

The Lazy Way To Be A Great Writer

Guest Post By Dr. John Yeoman

Have you ever yearned for just one simple formula that will help your stories glow with magic and resonate with depth?

If everybody knew the secret, everyone would be a best-selling author - or rather, nobody would, because the formula would be a cliché. So it’s important that only you and I know this. Will you give me your solemn word that you will tell no one what I am about to reveal?

I can see your eyes narrow. Your lips are widening in a skeptical smile. What, you don’t trust me? I feel intensely hurt. After all, I don’t have to tell you. I’m simply trying to pass on to you, in good faith, what I have learned from judging more than 3000 entries at my Writers’ Village story contest these past three years.

How come some won cash prizes and others didn’t? Why did many hundreds of stories, otherwise excellent in their craft techniques, fail by a whisker?

The secret is worth the wait.

Trust me, I speak from 42 years of pain as a commercial writer. Yet you’re still not sure about me, are you? I can see you leaning back in your chair, fidgeting. I can almost hear you thinking: ‘Will my ‘secret’ be all puff, no punch line?’

And have you read the secret before?

Of course, you have. The ‘secret’ was in the structure of my last three paragraphs. And you’ve just read those paragraphs!

Please let me explain. A competent story might include sparkling dialogue, strong conflict, well chosen words, firm structure and a satisfying close. Yet still it can fail. Why? It lacks depth. The reader is not emotionally engaged in the ‘hypotext’.

Sometimes called a subtext, the hypotext is the story beneath the story. It’s what’s going on, privately, in the characters’ thoughts and feelings.

A simple formula

A passage with hypotext classically has three steps:

1.    What is spoken or done (Dialogue or Action)
2.    How the key character in the scene thinks and feels about that (their immediate Response)
3.    What other characters think and feel about it at the time.

A competent author will have no trouble with steps one and two. For example:

‘“You’re wrong!” I said. Was I about to be charged with murder? I felt my mouth go dry.’

The narrator’s words have been dramatised by body language, reflection and emotional response. That’s fine, so far as it goes. However, few authors segue into step three: show how other characters in the scene are responding to that incident.

‘“I don’t think so.” Riley leaned forward, thrusting his grubby face within an inch of mine. His breath was a stewpot of garlic. “You left your fingerprints everywhere.”

The rookie behind him opened his mouth, startled. He looked at Riley then silently shook his head at me. My mind went cold.’

That may not be great writing but it has depth. Now we can feel the interplay of emotions in that room and know or suspect every character’s unspoken thoughts, the hypotext behind the surface narrative.

Read any good story that emotionally engages you and it will be underpinned by some variation of that formula. The better the writer, the more creatively they hide it. (Any passage of dialogue by Kathy Reichs is a master class in creative hypotext.)

Use the formula with any point of view (pov)

If your story uses an omniscient narrator, you can dart in and out of your characters’ minds at will. (That said, you might want to conceal their thoughts at times or deliberately mislead the reader.) Then the 3-step formula is a snap:

Action or Dialogue|Emotional Response of Key Character|Emotional Responses of Other Characters

But what if you’re telling the tale from a first-person pov? How can the key character - or reader - plausibly know what another character is thinking? No problem. Let them speculate.

‘Detective Riley was due to retire soon, I’d heard. It would crown his career to lock me away. His eyes gleamed like a cat playing with a sparrow. I was innocent. He knew it. And he didn’t care.’

Or the reader can draw inferences from a character’s actions or body language.

‘Riley lumbered to the window, turned his back on me and gazed at the Denver skyscape with every appearance of contentment. His body shook. He was laughing.’

Keep that 3-step process going throughout your story and the reader will be emotionally engaged whether or not they like your characters. They will feel the emotional tensions in every scene as if they were physically present. And your story will acquire depth.

That’s all there is to it. Truly. Just don’t tell anyone...

Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. He has been a successful commercial author for 42 years. 

 
Abstract

The article reveals a simple 3-step process that can add instant depth to any scene. While most competent authors know the first two steps, very few understand step 3 - the secret that can turn a mediocre story into a great one.


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Social Networking the LinkedIn Way by Donna McDine

Social Networking the LinkedIn Way

By Donna M. McDine

I know I know I can hear your disgruntled gulp in your throat, “Yikes, another social network to participate in? No way, no how!” I too feel the same way at times, but definitely not with LinkedIn! I don’t want to bore you with boring statistics, but it’s important for you to know…

• There are over 150 million professionals on LinkedIn.*
• With over 1 million professionals joining each week, hence two professional join every second.*
• Members are 2X more confident with information shared on LinkedIn than any other social site.*
• Members use LinkedIn not only for networking, they are reading business news and studying trends.*

*2012 Social Media Examiner, Mario Sundar              

                                       

Please don’t fade away, these statistics matter to you. With the confidence level of information shared between members this provides an arena to build your expertise through varying networks. Oftentimes authors (as well as other professionals) fall into the rut of networking with only their peers, when we truly need to broaden our scope beyond our colleagues. LinkedIn if used correctly goes well beyond this and the thought process of only being an online resume.

First, if you haven’t already signup and setup your LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com. It’s easy and they provide step by step directions to provide your information. Once you have your profile setup follow these five points to engage with fellow LinkedIn members:

1. Seek new connections daily and send invites. LinkedIn has a fabulous Advanced People Search broken down into several different categories… keywords, title, location, company, school, first and last name, country, and postal code. (i.e., elementary school teachers, librarians, the list is endless).
2. Don’t forget to reply back directly to your new connection once confirmation is received (i.e., I’m delighted to connect with you at LinkedIn and look forward to learning more about you).
3. Research groups of interest the same way for people connections. Join and become active through conversations, questions and answers.
4. Update your status consistently with a course of action for visitors with either a question or interesting news article (i.e., “New Google table to go against Fire” by Michael Liedtke, Associated Press and include link).
5. Engage with fellow members by sharing and commenting on their status updates, send private emails, etc.).

Automating your blog and twitter handle feed is okay, but if you don’t engage personally connections will not feel compelled to engage with you. I know for myself, the constant automation of customer service lines, doctor offices, etc., frustrates me to no end. I want to talk to a live person that knows what they are talking about.

Don’t fall into robot automation. Let your personality shine through cyberspace through consistent engagement. I’m sure you will be pleased with your results. 

Until next time…

Donna M. McDine

Publicist & Award-winning Children's Author

Donna’s Website: http://www.donnamcdine.com
Write What Inspires You Blog: http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com

Author PR Services: http://www.authorprservices.com

Writers On The Move...Literally!

According to an article in Yahoo Finance, “ Just two hours of sitting reduces good cholesterol by 20 percent, reduces blood flow and raises blood sugar, all of which contribute to obesity and the related chronic, life-shortening diseases.” Well that's not good news for writers, who frequently spend well over two hours sitting while they write. While our words take on a life of their own, we're cutting ours short. What's a scribe to do? Exercise, that's what!

I hear everyone groaning about how there's no time or you hate exercise. I hear you. I agree with you. But I don't want to get sick and die early because I refused to move my butt out of the chair. So I'm giving you a few exercises you can do from the very place you create your prose and poetry. You can thank me later.

From livestrong.com:

In a seated position with both feet flat on the floor, raise both hands high over your head. Grab your left wrist with your right hand and then gently pull the left wrist toward the right side of your body for as far as you are able. Hold the position for a count of at least three, and then return to the starting point. Switch hands and repeat for the other side of the body.  Read more

Sit up tall in your chair, with arms by your side, your back and shoulders straight, and your abdominal muscles engaged. Extend your legs straight in front of you so that they are parallel to the floor. Lower your legs until they are about a foot from the floor and then raise them toward the ceiling, stopping at the height of your chair arm rests. Lower again and repeat for a total of 10 repetitions. Read more

Sit up tall with your feet flat on the floor, and cross your arms in front of your chest. Engage your abdominal muscles and lower your head toward your knees, crunching your abs on the downward movement. Sit back up to starting position and repeat for a total of 10 to 15 repetitions. Read more 

From Webmd: 

Do a football-like drill of running in place for 60 seconds. Get those knees up! (Beginners, march in place.)

Simulate jumping rope for a minute: Hop on alternate feet, or on both feet at once. An easier version is to simulate the arm motion of turning a rope, while alternately tapping the toes of each leg in front.

Do one-legged squats (hold onto a wall or table for support) while waiting for a web page to load

To stretch your back and strengthen your biceps, place your hands on the desk and hang on. Slowly 

push your chair back until your head is between your arms and you're looking at the floor. Then 

slowly pull yourself back in. Do 15 times.

From Forbes:

Stretch your arms back as if you were trying to grab a pencil between your shoulder blades

Touch your ear to your shoulder and hold it there

Stand at your desk, and, arms straight, place your palms on the desk with your fingers pointed toward you. Lower your body slowly until you feel the stretch (you won’t have to go far). Hold for 15 seconds. Repeat as needed through the day.

These are just few ways to “get moving” without really leaving your desk. You are still close to your work. You haven't spent a lot of time, but you got moving. That's the important part. Let's do what we can to combat the sedentary lifestyle of a writer and help keep ourselves healthy.

How about you? Do you have any exercises you do at your desk?

About the Author:

Marietta "Mari" Taylor is the the author of Surviving Unemployment Devotions To Go. She's also a monthly contributor to the Pearl Girls Blog. Find out more about Mari at her blog or her website, www.mariettataylor.net.

Book-in-a-Week Challenge

Last Thursday I posted on my blog about the book-in-a-week challenge. This is a monthly occurrence and is similar to writing during NaNo (national novel writing month) except the goals are different. The goal for BIW is to write at least 10 pages on a story, articles or whatever it is you are working on at the time during the week. You set your goal and then write during the week to meet that goal. The minimum is 10 pages and I believe they have drawings for those participants who meet the goals of the challenge (posting your goals, keeping track of your progress and posting that at least three times a week, et cetera). Although the challenge started this past Monday, I believe you can still participate if you are interested.

So whether you really want to write a lot or a little, this is the perfect challenge for every writer. I've set a goal of 20 pages/week for the next 10 weeks (my weeks are starting on Sunday and ending Saturday) to work on my story, Imogene: Innocense Lost. I honestly don't believe I'll have a completed story by the end of the 10 weeks, but should be pretty close.

If you want to check out the book-in-a-week challenge, you can find more information on their website, and maybe you will take the challenge starting next month.

I'll be keeping tabs of my progress throughout the next 10 weeks during my regular Sunday This and That postings, so stop on over and offer a word of encouragement or congratulations during the next few weeks. I'll need every little bit of feedback that I can get to keep me going.

See you all in the postings, and if you are participating in book-in-a-week, let us know what your goals are for the week and how much writing you get accomplished during the week. E :)

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Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues", "The Proposal" (available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves", all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her writing.

For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website.

For more information about Elysabeth's other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog at or her website.

Creating Ultra-Engagement: Interview with Danny Iny

Danny Iny is one of those marketing mavens that shares his information so generously, and gets around so prolifically, that audience engagement looks natural when he does it. However it ain't necessarily so.  Danny has worked very hard over the past two years to build up his business Firepole Marketing and he remains distinctively accessible, sharing information through a free e-book  Engagement from Scratch (which I've reviewed here), and above all, and you'll hear about it in our interview below, by answering every email (and he gets a lot of them!).  We also talk about something that's quite relevant to writers (and something I'm always grappling with), which is how you mantain the balance between creativity (writing...) and promotion. Listen in, grab a copy of the book, and let me know what you think in the comments below.  I'd also love to hear your own audience engagement tips, especially as it applies to writers. 

 

Magdalena Ball runs The Compulsive Reader. She is the author of a number of poetry books and novels, including, most recently, Black Cow, an "engrossing, poignant" novel about a family who leave behind the materialism and wealth of their high stress lives to attempt self-sufficiency on a small holding in rural Tasmania.

Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Writing Career: Be Grateful

I often receive emails from young writers asking for advice and help in various aspects of their writing, and I am always delighted to help in any way I can. To be a writer is to be a part of a community, and I am so grateful for all the writers who have offered me advice and encouragement over the years. Being a mentor and cheerleader for other writers is the best way I can think of to "pay it forward" to those people who have bettered my life with their generosity and support.

However, I am not always the quickest to respond to emails, especially when life gets busy. Like this summer: I am in graduate school working on my thesis, taking a summer literature class, and teaching a creative writing class to college students. I feel like I'm barely managing to keep my head above water by trying to write a little of my own work every day, reading and working on papers for the literature class I'm taking, and grading papers and responding to emails from my students!

Most writers I hear from are beyond patient and gracious. But occasionally, I'll receive an email from a young writer that startles me with its rude tone and unprofessionalism. Often the email will include capital "shouting" letters, strings of exclamation points and/or question marks, and phrases like, "are you ever going to get back to me????" or "hellooooo???"

I consider myself to be an advocate for writers, and young writers in particular. I love teaching writing camps and working with mentees through Write On! For Literacy. Publishing Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing is a great source of pride and good feelings for me. So when I get an email from a young writer that perpetuates the negative stereotypes that society foists upon teenagers, it makes my skin crawl.

I believe the very first and most important lesson in regards to being a writer and getting published is this: respect, gratitude and professionalism are a must.

If you send an email with a rude subject line to a publisher, editor or agent, I can guarantee you it would be deleted without even being read. When you send your work to a publisher, it may take six or eight months for them to get back to you about it. That's just the way publishing is -- editors are very busy and they receive hundreds of emails every single day. And if you ever do email them to ask if they have had a chance to read your work, you need to make sure you have a tone of gratitude, graciousness, and respect of their time and busy schedule.

Here's a great article with tips and examples on writing professional emails: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/.

But I think all you really need to remember is just to be respectful and to treat everyone with common decency. When you adopt a rude tone, you send the message that you feel entitled to the person's help, rather than that you are appreciative of any time and help they can give you.

I think it comes down to this, not just in writing but in all areas of life: people will be more eager to help you when you treat them well and are humble and appreciative of their time, knowledge, effort and support.

Dallas Woodburn is the author of two award-winning collections of short stories and editor of Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three years in a row and her nonfiction has appeared in a variety of national publications including Family Circle, Writer's Digest, The Writer, and The Los Angeles Times. She is the founder of Write On! For Literacy and Write On! Books Youth Publishing Company and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Fiction Writing at Purdue University, where she teaches undergraduate writing courses and serves as Fiction Editor of Sycamore Review. Many of her short stories are compiled online here.