Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Query Letters and Hype

Writing Tip of the Day: April 15, 2008
Remove any hype from your query letter or book proposal.
Hype will always shine through to the experienced editor.
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This one couldn't be more timely! I just finished writing a query letter and submitted it to a leading publication. I wanted to include one of my blogs, as part of my resume, so I hopped over here, scrolled down, and read today's tip. Timely indeed.
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As I read, the very notion of hype forced me to reread my query. Immediately upon re-entering Word and my document, I looked especially to the second paragraph.
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I suppose, depending on the editor, that paragraph might come across as hype. I'm not 100% sure, but hoping not. I left it in because it validates how someone else viewed a part of my past, and how she took and incorporated it into her own celebration. So, I believe I'll leave it for now; in the subsequent, simultaneous submissions.
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This is my first query and possible submission in many years. If there are no takers, I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. But, as I stated in the sports analogy post, I really don't want to give an editor any undue excuse to sack me.
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I do have one other option, though, and the deadline is fast approaching.
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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Undulating Lawn Ornaments

The Writing Exercise Board's Quickie of the Week: April 4, 2008
The prompt is … use a pink flamingo in a poem, story, essay, or scene.
Serious or silly, it just has to have a pink flamingo somewhere.
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When I read this post, the first thing that ran through my mind-- I've seen flamingos doing that little dance they do when they feed. Though I've never seen them up close and personal, I've seen it a number of times on TV. All those thousands of pairs of legs, stepping, stepping, up and down. Up and down; marching along. Thousands of heads bobbing and looking about; left, right, back, front. And always with some peppy musical score.
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So, immediately I saw those pink plastic lawn ornaments undulating across someone's yard. But, whose yard? And how did they all get there?
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I had fun with this and reworked it a little, so-- Enjoy!
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Most couldn't say exactly when it started. It's simply one of those things that was part of the landscape. But everyone knew the day Mildred Pinkton became known as the Crazy Pink Flamingo Lady. That's the day the Pine Hollar Gazette made her front page news.
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Mildred lived on the last parcel of untilled land, eastward bound out of the city proper. A few townsfolk remember when the first one appeared. The hardcore council members took pride in the fact there were no plastic daisies or whirly-gig birds in anyone's front yard. Nothing that outsiders could accuse of being kitch. At least not until a single pink flamingo appeared on Mildred's front lawn one unsuspecting hot summer day.
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A week or so later, another one appeared on the opposite side of the lawn; facing the first arrived. No one knew how long it was before they crept across the distance and stood finally, beak to beak. Her neighbor across the street remembered seeing they'd been moved, at different points, but paid it no real attention. When a smaller one appeared a few weeks later, he laughed out loud and gave Mildred an approving thumbs up.
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Throughout the following months and subsequent years, another plastic bird would appear, regularly until the crazy lady's herd would be found undulating in one direction one day, then heading opposite come the next brisk morn. That's only after they'd made their way entirely across the yard. No one ever saw her move them or put one out-- They just appeared.
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Though there were numerous attempts made buy neighbors and nosey kids, no one ever found her out. Not until the Gazette gave the job to their ace reporter, Wallace Fowning. He snooped around the post office; no special deliveries were made. Ever. And the lawn and garden center twenty miles south, didn't even carry them.
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Though his editor suggested a stake out, in due course, Wallace decided to take the more direct approach. He knocked on Mildred's door, introduced himself, and sat with her to tea. When he asked, Wallace found her actually amazed no one really ever made the connection. She explained that everyone knew her son trucked produce. They just never saw a relationship between his regular visits and a new member of her droll little flock.
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"But tried as they may, no one's ever seen you, or him for that matter, put one out or move them around. When do you do it all?" Wallace asked.
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"Oh! People don't always see a thing right under their noses." Wallace noted her sly smile. "When it all started, I did it at night; when most folk sleep. You know how early even us citified bed down. I just thought it would be funny. Once the herd grew, people rarely noticed when I moved one; even in broad daylight." He also noted her delight. "But no one ever sees me trim around them. Movin' them around just made it easier to cut the grass."
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"You know they think you're a little crazy?" Wallace asked.
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"No they don't." Mildred smiled. "They drive back 'n forth every day, and narry a one that I see drives off but with a smile on their face."
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It just made it easier to cut the grass. Wallace focused his article around that one innocent line. That and the simple want of making someone else smile.
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Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Vision of the Author

Writing Tip of the Day: April 6, 2008
As a book author, it's your responsibility to cast a vision for your book
about the length and the appearance before you pitch the idea to a publisher.
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Vision. Oh! I've always known how my Chronicles should look. Getting it all down in words has been the struggle. For me, The Forbidden World Chronicles is easy to envision. I see an old world bound cover, with parchment or handmade paper with torn edges. I see blocked scroll work calligraphic design, lettering and archaic fonts used in the title pages.
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I have synopses for a three book series, and have several short story ideas that would fall nicely into an anthology format, called Puzzle Pieces. I started a website to help introduce The Forbidden World Chronicles. There is also the companion weblog, Diary of a Prisoner, in Dellasseea N'Syis' own voice; written as an open letter to a once future-born son.
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Since the subject matter lends itself well to special effects, I see a movie being made. The storyline is other-worldly and multi dimensional. It would make seen, the Crystallines, the Creator Race. The children of the First Ones. Inter-dimensional beings unseeable to the third dimension physical, human eyes.
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Yes. I know my project. I have the vision. I just need to right agent to see it as well.
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Friday, April 4, 2008

The Power of One's Voice

Writing Tip of the Day: April 4, 2008
As a writer, capture your unique voice which
you bring to each portion of your writing
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I know it takes more than finely crafted words to move a reader to turn the first page. It's also the voice they hear that draws them further into the next, and the page after that.
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Though I can speak only for myself, here is another possible aspect of what shapes a writer. The matter of the written word seeming easier to accomplish. Writing as opposed to standing, voluntarily or otherwise, at the head of a large body of people in order to speak them; aloud. With that said, there also remains the different reasons why a writer writes. Whether it is done for oneself or writing for someone else, it is imperative to know ones voice.
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Yes, every well written speech has an equally good writer behind it; but, not every speech is delivered by its author. As with me, though I've studied public speaking, I find it well outside of my equally entrenched comfort zone. I've shied away from reading my own verse at a bookstore poetry reading. The end result? The woman who volunteered to read it for me, changed it. She changed a couple of the words and my voice was then forever lost.
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Each individual voice reflects ones education or the lack thereof. It reflects all that influenced the child, on through and into adulthood. Whether fact, fiction, or pure fantasy, the voice of a piece is encompassed by all the pain, joy, or misfortune ever felt. The voice is a soul laid bear; there for readers to take and lose themselves in. And if they turn that first page, they may learn from or simply revel in and enjoy. .


Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Power of The Hook

Writing Tip of the Day: April 1, 2008
Hook your editor with a strong opening sentence
to bring attention to your writing.
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Couldn't let this one pass by without being addressed.
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Hooks, pitches, and the dreaded first dark and stormy line. What do they all have in common? Mostly that I have a difficult time with achieving them.
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Recently I had cause to readdress my earlier efforts at writing a hook for both my overall Forbidden World Chronicles storyline and Book One of the series, Caged Heart ~ The Last Heartbound.
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The question was posed [see QOTW Going Up!]: "What is your one sentence summary of your book?"
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Since my first attempt failed, I'll not post it here. While the concept of a pitch (or hook) is not entirely lost on me, I concede to the fact that whittling it down to an in-a-nutshell, single--albeit complicated--sentence is.
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Plus, as I learned from version one, I spilled a few too many of those ever-precious, proverbial beans. But, I set about to rework it after reading the subsequent, follow-up lesson. [see Elevator Pitch in More Detail.]
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Here is the pitch for Book One of The Forbidden World Chronicles:
Caged Heart ~ The Last Heartbound
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A young divorcee and author, hooks up with a world-renown rock band that uses their tour to search for the last surviving member of a team caught entering this world in order to find and rescue its most secret prisoner.
I'll let you know if I get a passing grade.
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