Tag: Writing (Page 6 of 16)

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

There’s no law against writing a boring book … but there ought to be.

Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, a children’s picture book or a teen romance, a psychology textbook or a Mediterranean cookbook, if you bore me I will reject you. 

Unfortunately for you, I have a very short attention span—and most agents and editors are just like me. We blame it on the fact that we’re very busy, our time always seems crunched, etc. etc. But the truth is just that our kind bores easily. Very little of what we read is new, and without even thinking we’re automatically dissecting your paragraph structure, the rhythm of your writing, and our emotional reaction to your words. 

You’ve got to “wow” us, and keep wowing us from beginning to end. Otherwise you’ll never keep our attention.

No, that doesn’t mean you have to have explosions and death-defying stunts on every page. But it does mean there should be some kind of “wow” factor that engages the reader—and then keeps the reader going through the book. This can be in the way you create curiosity in the reader, or in the deft characterizations you deliver, or in the thoughtful and compelling reasoning of your ideas, and so on. 

Remember, though, whatever you write, the “wow” should be easy to see. Otherwise, it’ll only take me about 60 seconds (or less) to get bored and reject your boring book.

What You Can Do About It

1. Start well. 

Bestselling novelist Harlan Ellison says, “An otherwise excellent story can find itself being stuffed back into an SASE and being dropkicked into the mail chute because it had a slow, an obscure, a confusing, or redundant opening section.” And Mr. Ellison is right.

If you intend to avoid writing a boring book, the first step is to avoid writing a boring beginning to your book. Or, to look at it another way, if you wanted to write a boring book, you’d do the following: 

Fill your opening pages with backstory and exposition. Spend a while making sure I get all the background on your characters and their setting. Tell me all about their hair color, the number of trees in their yards, where their cousins live and so on. Make me wade through all that irrelevant stuff before I can finally appreciate your plot. 

Of course, I’ll reject you…but at least you can boast about how boring your writing is, right?

2. Show, don’t tell. 

This is a basic writing instruction, especially for fiction authors. The point is this: Don’t spend time telling me something when you can engage me with a word picture or mental image of that thing instead. 

For instance, you could tell me: “Martin smoked a lot every day.” Of course, that would be boo-oor-ring. Or you could show me Martin’s habit: “Perched on the corner of Martin’s desk was a faded ash tray, filled to the edges with spent cigarette butts and surrounded by crumpled, empty packs of Chesterfields.” The first description tells me about Martin, but the second delivers a visual image that shows me Martin’s habit without ever having to say, “Martin smokes a lot.”

The problem with telling in a manuscript is that it most often is an interruptive technique. It actually stops the story in order to lecture the reader on some fact or tidbit of information. 

Think for a minute about what happens when you watch TV. Do you ever enjoy it when your favorite show stops completely to lecture you with a PSA about meth abuse, or when your football game grinds to a halt so some automotive company can tell you how tough their trucks are? As important as education about meth abuse is, and as true as it may be that some company makes tough trucks, no one likes being interrupted to hear about those things.

Likewise, telling interrupts the reader as he or she is enjoying your story. Do it too often, and your reader will eventually get bored and give up.

3. Avoid unnecessary repetition.

Veteran editors, Renni Browne and Dave King observe, “Most authors already know to edit out places where they have literally repeated a word or phrase. But the repetition of an effect can be just as problematic. Whether it’s two sentences that convey the same information, two paragraphs that establish the same personality trait, or two characters who fill the same role in the plot, repetition can dissipate your writing and rob it of its power.”

I am tempted to expand on this more, but after reading again the comments of the esteemed Browne and King, I realize that anything I say now will simply be a repeat of their excellent advice! So, suffice it to say that unnecessary repetition in a manuscript is boring. Don’t do it.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

D-Train writing is a concept I learned from the inimitable Lawrence Block. It’s related to Reason #25 above, and now that I know what it is I can never again read a book that uses it within its pages—let alone pitch it to a publisher.

So take this to heart, dear reader: Never take the D-Train when you write.

Ah, you say, what exactly is the D-Train? It’s a visual image that reminds of the power of transitions in writing. It’s what happens when an author spends too much time dawdling between one scene to the next in fiction, or from one thought to then next in nonfiction. It was inspired from a rather long, detailed passage Mr. Block wrote once wrote about a character who left his Manhattan apartment and took a subway to Harlem. 

As Block explained it in his fabulous book, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, “I was telling my readers considerably more than they cared or needed to know about something that was neither germane to my story nor interesting in and of itself—i.e. the subway system of the city of New York.”

Block’s point is this: transitions matter—and mundane, convoluted attempts to get from one place to another in a manuscript are always hard to accept. “Film and television techniques have made readers more sophisticated,” He says. “We don’t have to have things spelled out for us as thoroughly as we once did.” What’s more, a cluttered transition reveals muddled thinking and an aimless progression in a writer’s prose. Readers won’t put up with that for very long—and they shouldn’t have to.

Poor transitions also label you immediately as a novice, and to be honest, that means more work for me. If I have to teach you how to write in order to be successful representing your book, I’m going to think twice before signing you to my agency. Same goes for an editor and a publishing house. 

So close pay attention to transitions as you write. And never, never take the D-Train.

What You Can Do About It

1. Read Telling Lies for Fun and Profit. 

Seriously. Go get it.

Lawrence Block wrote this book decades ago, and there’s a reason why it’s still in print. Mr. Block is one of the few people out there who can actually take a story apart into all its little pieces and then put it back together in such a way that it’s better than it was to start. The fact that he’s willing to share that skill with you and me is our good luck. 

Telling Lies for Fun and Profit is always the book I recommend first at any writer’s conference. And people who read it are always better writers afterward. If you buy this book only to get the chapter called, “Don’t Take the D-Train,” your money will have been well spent.

2. Pay attention to your transitions. 

“Transitions are tricky,” Block says. “Transitions continue to demand that the writer make a choice, deliberate or intuitive, as to just how and where he will interrupt the narrative action and how and where he will pick it up again.”

For that reason, transitions deserve more than just your passing attention. First, as you write, keep in mind what the reader needs and wants to hear. If you find yourself writing simply to get from point A to point B, reevaluate what you’re doing. If there’s nothing in that passage that’s required for the larger story you’re telling, it may be that you’ve accidentally slipped onto the platform of the D-Train. 

Next, when you’ve finished, read your manuscript with a deliberate eye toward transitions. Identify them in your writing, and subject them to intense scrutiny. Ask yourself: “Does this transition move the story forward, or stop the story in its tracks? Does this transition effectively, and quickly, get from A to B? Or does it dawdle and meander? Are these words absolutely necessary to my story…or not?”

If you’re careful about the way you scrutinize your transitions, chances are you’ll avoid riding the D-Train—and that means you just might avoid rejection as well.

3. Read other writers, and highlight their transition passages.

Here’s a helpful writing exercise. Go out to a used bookstore and pick up a few cheap copies of your favorite books. And while you’re at the checkout counter, add a yellow highlighter to your purchase. Then take them all home and start reading.

Every time you see a transition passage that you think is effective at avoiding the D-Train, go ahead and highlight that section. Be aware that you’ll have to pay attention to see these, because good authors are adept at making their transitions almost invisible! Afterward, flip through your books and compare the passages that you highlighted. What do they have in common? What makes them successful? What techniques do you see that you can adapt and use for your own nefarious purposes? 

The best writing teachers are always other writers, so use them to help you become a pro at writing transitions in your own books. Who knows? Someday, some aspiring author may be highlighting passages of your books, looking for new ways to avoid the D-Train.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

As I write this book, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series dominates pop culture, with books and movies and even vampire make-up styles raking in lots of money. 

As such, Twilight has created a “brandwagon” of sorts that many people are trying to use to cash in a little bit (for more on “brandwagons, see Reason #55 later in this book). Now, I have no qualms about profiting from a popular trend—in fact I often recommend it. But today I’m looking at a proposal I got recently from a pastor/author: 

“It’s Twilight for Christian teens!” he is telling me proudly. Apparently he thinks I’ll be impressed by his ability to be unoriginal and copycat another author’s idea. 

I’m not.

In fact, I’m bored by it. You see, his pitch sounds like everybody else who wants to write teen fiction right now, and enough of those unoriginal manuscripts have come across my desk to make me tired of the whole idea. 

Do you know why Twilight was published, and why it was successful? 

It was original. The author took elements of several genres—romance, horror, mythology—and combined them into something unique and compelling. That was hard for a publisher to resist, even when Stephanie Meyer was just another unknown writer with dreams of publishing a book or two. 

You must remember, when you’re pitching new books to me and my colleagues, we see hundreds (sometimes thousands) of book proposals every year. When you sift through that many manuscripts, you quickly realize there aren’t many new ideas out there. The ones that stand out aren’t books that copycat others in style or content. What gets my attention are books that deliver something original to an established audience.

Hey, Stephanie Meyer already wrote Twilight. There’s no need for you to try to do that job again, regardless of your particular slant on the topic. And if all you really have to offer me is just another unoriginal idea, then don’t expect me to give you the novelty of accepting your book.

What You Can Do About It

1. Go with the fourth idea. 

Early in my publishing career I took a low-level editorial job at a mid-sized publishing house. My boss there, Steve Parolini, was one of those rare guys who both challenged and encouraged you toward excellence. He had a profound impact on my career as a whole, and on my ability to be successful in publishing.

Part of my editorial responsibilities included writing manuscripts from time to time. I remember once he sent a manuscript back to me. Somehow, even though he expected me to do a complete rewrite, he was so tactful and helpful that I actually thanked him for tearing my writing to shreds. The one thing I remember from that session, though, was this advice he gave me: 

“Take time to brainstorm your three absolute best ideas. Then go with your fourth idea.”

What he was telling me was that I should never settle for the obvious; I should always stretch myself to create something original and new in my writing.

So now I share that same advice with you: Avoid the easily-rejected curse of being unoriginal. Come up with your three best ideas…then go with your fourth.

2. Exercise your creative muscles. 

Contrary to popular opinion, creativity is as much a learned skill as it is an innate one. So make sure that your creative muscles remain active and in good health. Spend time in deliberate pursuit of creative endeavors—stretch yourself in ways that have nothing to do with writing and you’ll see that creative effort reflected in the quality of your ideas.

For instance, try driving home from work by a different route one day. Or sample an ice cream flavor you’d never heard of before. Unpack your groceries according to color. Sort your closet by what the 10-year-old version of you would’ve liked best. Draw on a napkin. Invent a bed-making device. The only limit is your imagination! And if your imagination is in good working order, then you’re well on your way to creating an original idea that somebody like me just might want to publish.

3. Ask yourself: “What would make [Insert Author Name] want to copycat me?

The most flattering thing one author can say about another’s work is, “I wish I’d written that.” So pick your favorite author and imagine what you can create that might make that person jealous enough to say to friends, “I wish I’d written that guy’s book.”

One of my authors, Sharon Carter Rogers, always imagines that Stephen King is going to read her novels. Because of that, she has a “King Rule” in her writing. If she thinks Stephen King won’t be impressed, she doesn’t write it. To date, Mr. King has not yet read a Sharon Carter Rogers book—but at least she’s ready, just in case! 

That kind of attitude can help you overcome the blahs of being unoriginal—so keep it in mind next time you’re creating a brand new masterpiece of modern literature.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

Yes, I know, this seems like a petty reason to reject a book. After all, you’ve been taught by “experts” that a cover letter/email has to include a number of certain things, right? 

Everybody knows that a cover letter is supposed to have a strong, attention-grabbing opener. It should have a summary of your proposed book. It should list your qualifications for writing the book, and tell of any unique marketing opportunities you bring to the table. It should include a note as to whether yours is an exclusive or simultaneous submission, and should tell whether or not you’ve got artwork available to use. It should tell who the audience is and why they’ll buy. It should blah blah blah blah. 

I’m going to tell you the truth: Most of that advice is hooey. 

It’s rare that an experienced editor actually reads your cover letter/email anyway. We’re more interested in the book itself than we are in your puffery about it. And besides, most of that information above should be included in the proposal section for your book. Why duplicate it in the cover letter? 

Here’s the risk that you take with a long cover letter/email: If you bore me too soon (see Reason #25), I’ll probably reject your book before I even get to your manuscript. Also, letter writing is a different skill than say, novel writing or children’s book writing or even nonfiction writing. But I’ll pre-judge your skill in all those categories by my first impression of the cover letter you sent me. 

Your cover letter really should just be an introduction, along with a short request for consideration of your book’s publishing potential. But if your email reveals you to be a “Long Talker”—that is, someone who doesn’t know when to shut up—well, chances are good I’ll cut you off with a letter of my own. A rejection letter.

What You Can Do About It

1. Get in the door, then get out of the way. 

When you send me a cover letter/email, here’s all I really need to see: 1) your contact info, 2) a request that I consider publishing your book, 3) a brief (two sentences max) description your book.

Give me that info, and then get out of the way. Tell me if I have questions or need more info, that I should feel free to dive into your proposal itself where I’ll find all the additional details I want—and then some. Make me curious to find out what I’m missing if I don’t read your full proposal. 

After all, what would you enjoy more, reading about a book—or reading the book itself?

2. Never, don’t ever, let your cover letter/email be longer than 250 words (about one page). 

Regardless of what you include in your cover letter/email, it’s unwise to ever let it go past the one-page mark (about 250 words) in length. Otherwise it won’t get read. 

When an editor or an agent gets a two- or four-page cover letter/email, the best you can expect is that he or she will skim to the end. We just can’t afford to take the time to read these preliminary materials in detail until after we’ve decided that we want to pursue your book. Otherwise we’d never get ahead of the workload on our desks. (And honestly, a lot of editors never do accomplish that anyway.) As for me, when I get a long cover letter, I typically read the first paragraph and the last, and skip everything in the middle.

So be careful not to sabotage yourself with a cover letter/email. Keep it to one page, and it might actually get read.

3. Beef up your proposal so you can cut down your cover letter/email.

I hear what you are saying to me. “Mike, you’re giving me a double standard here! In this book you’re telling me that all kinds of things are absolutely essential to tell an editor about my book—but now you’re telling me to keep my mouth shut. What’s up with you?”

OK, I understand that this advice might be frustrating and possibly confusing for you. But what we’re talking about here are priorities. The number one priority of your cover letter/email is simply to get the editor to read your manuscript. That’s it. So do what it takes to get that to happen, and keep your cover letter’s focus there.

All that other info you need to include? It belongs in the proposal section of your submission package. That’s where you can talk in detail about your unique credentials, the mass audience appeal of your book, the special marketing opportunities for your book and so on. 

Remember, your proposal section can be as long, and as detailed, as you want it to be. So beef up that section—and keep your cover letter/email lean and focused.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

In 1631 Robert Barker and Martin Lucas were the royal printers in London. Imagine their pride when, by order of King Charles I himself, they were commissioned to publish a new edition of the King James English version of the Bible. 

All went well for Barker and Lucas, and their publication of the Scriptures was considered a general success, until…

About a year later, it was discovered that a compositor error had omitted a single, tiny little word (“not”) from Exodus 20:14. The result of that teensy error in sentence structure? God’s 7^th Commandment now read: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” 

Barker and Lucas were publicly reprimanded, fined what was then an enormous sum, and stripped of their printing license.

Still, Barker and Lucas were in good company. Some 20 years earlier, in 1611, the first edition of the King James Bible also contained a muff. A reference in Ruth 3:15 was inadvertently misspelled, which caused the biblical heroine to be identified “he” instead of “she.”

Why do I tell you these stories? Because I want you to understand that words have meaning and consequence. 

If your words are garbled, misspelled, grammatically-challenged, omitted, duplicated, misused, or otherwise incoherent, your meaning is lost. The consequences of that kind of presentation is that I will be both frustrated by you and doubtful of your credibility as an author.

Hey, you claim to be an author, but you can’t even string together a coherent sentence? Very funny joke. But I’m not laughing.

Yes, a certain amount of typographical error is to be expected in any lengthy piece of writing, your book proposal included. But if I begin to see more than just a few inadvertent typos or even one glaring error in the way you use our language, your proposal won’t last very long in my hands. It’ll be rjectd. Excuse me. I mean rejected.

What You Can Do About It

1. Memorize this website address: Dictionary.com 

I’m amazed how many authors simply don’t double-check when they use unfamiliar words. On more than one occasion, I’ve actually sat with an author, looking at a manuscript, and asked, “What does this word mean?” My question is always sincere—if I don’t know something, I’m the kind of guy who isn’t embarrassed to ask about it. Too many times the author has looked blankly at me and either stumbled through a guess at the meaning or simply said, “I don’t know exactly.” 

Crazy. Why give away precious real estate in your manuscript to a word whose meaning is unsure to you? Look, words are more than just tools. They are the gems you use to decorate the jewelry of your prose. Guard them. Study them. Know them. 

And visit Dictionary.com for instant help or even just to expand your vocabulary. When it’s this easy, you have no excuse for word abuse.

2. Keep this book next to your computer: The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook 

You may feel like an uneducated high schooler when you buy this book, but it’s worth it. The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell contains—in easily-accessible, clearly organized sections—all the grammar and spelling rules you and I should have memorized before going to the senior prom.

I actually discovered this book when I was teaching English Composition at a state university. So many of my students had graduated from high school without basic grammar skills, that I was constantly frustrated by having to explain again what they should have already known. Finally, I required every student to buy this book, and then I just started marking their papers with notes for them to study certain pages from it. 

Now, don’t tell my students this, but along the way I discovered I didn’t know as much as I thought I did about grammar and spelling! So I kept this book, and I still use it as a reference whenever I’m unsure of whether to use “lay” or “lie,” or when it’s appropriate to use a semicolon. I’d recommend you keep a copy nearby as well.

3. Swallow your arrogance.

Some writers are almost haughty about their grammar and spelling skills—or dismissive of their lack of expertise in those areas. Those people deserve the rejections they receive. Don’t be one of them.

Instead, when you’re done writing, assume the worst. Recognize that even your best effort is going to be pock-marked with errors and unintentional corruptions. Go ahead and swallow your pride and take steps to eliminate (as much as you can) the mistakes you know are there. Here’s a process I use that, while not perfect, certainly helps: 

1. Spell- and grammar-check. Use the basic spell-check function in your software to catch obvious errors. 
2. Re-read the manuscript word for word, beginning to end, on your computer. (I’m always amazed at how many stupid mistakes this reveals, like words left out of sentences, cut-and-paste casualties, and confusing word choices.)
3. Spell- and grammar-check again.
4. Print hard copy and read it, word for word, beginning to end, marking corrections with a pen. (Again, there are always obvious errors that I should have caught earlier when I do this!)
5. Make corrections on the computer file. Spell-check and grammar-check again.
6. Find a friend or family member to read the manuscript and mark errors.
7. Make corrections…and pray you caught everything!

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon