Newbie No More

Hi Guys, (That's Yankee speak for Ya'll )

I haven't left you, but if you've followed all the Newbie mistakes as well as the other blog posts, you are a newbie no more. You've avoided all the newbie traps and pitfalls. So what now? What I want to discuss next is something that I need a lesson in as well. Using similies.  So before I take on this venture, I want to do some research and get some good examples, and I would love for you to do the same so you can share some of your favorite similies that you might have run across in your reading.

I hope you are a reader, because I think it will help you become a better writer. I read whatever fiction I can get my hands on and tend toward murder mysteries for reading, but write YA and sci-fi. I know you can be a good writer without being a reader, but it's like a school teacher that has never had kids. The teacher might be one of the best ever, but I think once you have your own children it gives you a little more insight and understanding. That's how I feel about reading and writing. So, as you read and you come across some great similies, jot them down and share with us at the next post. I hope to have some great ones for you too.

See you soon!

Editors Hate Them

...   

THOSE THREE LITTLE DOTS give Editors more headaches than all the other Newbie mistakes they come across.

And for some reason they get REALLY, REALLY, riled up about them. I read several articles about the use of ellipsis and I thought the writer was just a little bit obsessive scary.


Now, I don't know about you, but I felt I was pretty knowledgeable in English, having taught it most of my life. Unfortunately for me, I taught elementary so we didn't really cover ellipsis. I doubt I even knew the name of the little buggers before I started my edit on Golden Hope. I learned, or at the minimum, tried to comprehend the use of the ellipsis, as quickly as I could. I hoped to spare myself abject humiliation. Nope, didn't work. I still made mistakes, but I guarantee you this; when it comes to any kind of pause, I pull out my grammar guide. She can be taught! (only one exclamation mark so far, thumbs up)
Here is a definition for you, then we will discuss-quiz to follow.

The Ellipsis: is a series of dots that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted, and though necessary for syntactical construction, is not necessary for comprehension.^[1] Ellipses can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis), example: "But I thought he was . . .". When placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy or longing. The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech or any form of text, and can be used to suggest a tense or awkward momentary silence.
The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (. . .) or a pre-composed triple-dot glyph (…). The usage of the em dash (—) can overlap the usage of the ellipsis. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends that an ellipsis be formed by typing three periods, each with a space on both sides.
The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, "dot-dot-dot".     quoted from Wikipedia  Highlights are mine.

Summary: You will use an ellipsis mostly when your character's speech trails off to nothingness. NOT when he or she is interrupted- that's an important distinction.

You may use an ellipsis if you're quoting someone and don't want to use the whole quote. So far I haven't needed to use that, but I write fiction so...
You may also use an ellipsis for suspense. I've actually used it that way. "And the name of our new colony is..."

So, if you're clear on how to use the ellipsis, my next advice to you is DON'T,  Not if you can help it. Just to be sure you get the real feeling of hatred the editors have for those dots, I will add a couple of quotes:

by Deb Taber, Apex Book Company:
"… those nasty little spots, the ones that make editors want to scratch their eyes out and scream 

by Deb Harris, All Things That Matter Press:"As a general rule, I intensely dislike them, since they are so often over/mis-used.  Rarely, and I do mean rarely, have I encountered an author who understands the proper use of ellipses."

Don't say you haven't been warned, cue loud scary noise, oooooaaaahhhh

Quiz: (I hope you paid attention)

You should use an ellipsis:
a) never
b) rarely
c) for fun to drive my editor crazy
d) what's an ellipsis?

The answer is ... b - rarely. TaDa! you get an A+

Next time we'll discuss the em dash, which will be a challenge because the text on my blog will not make an em dash. Stay tuned to see what I will do.

Now here's a question. Do any of you know how to use an emoticon here? I searched and searched. I don't want to pay for one. I'm too cheap. And there's no where to put a code on a post, so if you can give me a hand with this I'll give you a free ...

…

Newbie Mistake#7 Are You Writing for the Teacher?

I recently read a sample of writing from a beginning author and I mentally cringed. It had all the elements that we have been told to use when writing. It had description, emotions, used all the senses, and was grammatically correct. So what was the problem? I'll see if I can create an example of what I mean.

Jane skipped into the mall. Her raven hair swung around her heart-shaped face. Her bright, blue eyes widened as she took in the glorious sights. She could smell buttery popcorn, sweet cotton candy and the spicy aroma of the Chinese restaurant. She queried her mother about going to the shoe store. 

When they strolled inside, the barnyard smell of the leather overcame her senses. She reached out and felt the kitten soft material of a scarlet shoe that perched on the display stand. A girl with glossy brown curls and a happy smile asked if they needed help. 


I don't know if I got the point across. It sounds really conceited to say that it's hard for me to write the proper- but not for books- way. Yes, you need to describe, a particularly difficult task for me. I like to carry my descriptions through conversation, so I have to consciously find the places a description is needed. Yes, you should use all the senses on occasion, or at least one or two. Yes you should use other words to show action. No, you shouldn't use a different word than asked or said, for the most part. (An ongoing debate among the writing world and you will see plenty of blogs about it.)

I think the key to good writing -of course I'm about to solve all your writing woes right here, right now-(NOT)  is to write the way you talk. Now, as a YA author, I have to show more of an attitude than I normally would as a slightly older adult. ;) Then look at what you wrote and CRAFT it to make it better. Add some description. Change up some words. Mostly stick with said as it really is an invisible word for the most part. Eliminate the adverbs, cliche's, passive voice and all the other Newbie mistakes we've talked about. Write how people, your character, would talk, act, respond. How would they see things? Do you look at a pretty bird and think, "Oh, look at that elegantly feathered creature with the emerald wings and tangerine feet." Nope. You might however, say, "Wow, cool bird. I love that emerald green on its wings and the way it shimmers in the sun." Find a way to tell what someone looks like through action or conversation or careful description-beware the "so and so looked in the mirror" trick. Editors are on to that. Keep it real. If it sounds like a school assignment, then it's not fun to read, and above all, reading should be fun, fun, fun, sometimes scary, sad, tense, thrilling, but always FUN!

So, bottom line, forget the school writing rules, except for the punctuation and spelling part, or maybe just the spelling part. Keep it real.


 If you do that, your book should end up being fun to read. And what's the most important point? That's right! Reading should be FUN! ( wow, will you look at all those exclamation points. Hmm must not have shown enough, too much tell.) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back to the other Newbie mistake blogs. :)

Final Edits

Hi there, you may have noticed two things. One, this is not a Newbie mistake. and two, I said final edits not edit, because just when you think you've got it as good as you can, oops there goes another typo...

So, here are some suggested ways to read through your final manuscript, and fyi, that's after you've had someone else read it and before you have someone else read it again.

1. Read it outloud. You won't believe how many mistakes you will find or sentences that just don't roll off the tongue. You will hear repeated words and see missing words. It's crazy really. I had my kids trapped in the car on a trip so I  was reading my book to them and had to keep stopping to fix stuff. I even read one of my books to my class of fifth graders and kept a pencil handy to mark where I had to go back and fix something.

2. Read it backwards. Not as in- sdarwkcab ti dear-  but read each line starting from the ending to the beginning. This keeps you from remembering in your head and not seeing with your eyes. By now you would have edited your book many, many times and your mind knows what it wants to say. Often your fingers don't type what they're supposed to. It also keeps you from getting involved in the story and forgetting that you are EDITING. I love my book and my characters and even though I was sick of the whole thing by the time I got done because I had read it over, and over, I still would forget that I was editing.

3. Search for words you may have over used. I used "headed" way too many times in one of my books, as in headed out, headed toward, headed for, headed in the direction of, and my brother/pre-editor pointed that out. My real editor took me to task for not capitalizing mom and dad when used as a name and I KNEW that they should have been.

Now all this is after you have read the manuscript through several times killing all the Newbie mistakes we've already talked about.

Sick of your book yet? You will be, and it's okay, because that means you've worked really hard to make it the best that it can be!

Newbie mistake #5 Do cliche's work? Time will tell.

Cliche's may be as old as the hills, and some may be diamonds in the rough, but between you and me, I feel like haste makes waste in this instance. It's just a matter of time before an editor tells you to get rid of them, but time heals all wounds and you may decide the heck with it, I'm as brave as a lion, I'm going for it. But, alas, the writing is on the wall. The editor will definitely be laughing at you, not with you. There is, however, a silver lining, and that's if you have nerves of steel and a quick wit, you will learn that all's well that ends well. If you rewrite.

So, translation, don't use cliche's. Kill them. Now, these were examples of chiche'd phrases, but there are also cliche'd plots, descriptions and characters. Those are a little bit harder to recognize. Your pre-readers will help you find them and once you're aware of them, you'll see them pop up all over your manuscript. I couldn't believe how many I used in my first one. Google cliche's-that's how I wrote the above paragraph- and you might see some you recognize. Look through your book with a fine tooth comb-sorry, couldn't help myself- and look specifically for a situation or description that you may have seen or read before. Things that come to mind, creaky staircases, old crones, killer in the basement or attic, superhero shows up in time to save the day, etc... When I read things like that I want to say, yeah, yeah, get on with it. So keep your book alive and interesting, think hard and reword or twist things up a bit.

Good luck, and as always, if you have a question, I'm here for you. Email me at donnachubbauthor@gmail.com

Point of View Newbie mistake #4 POV

Point of view is a problem for many new writers. It was a frequent problem of mine until I finally understood exactly what the deal was. Later, you'll have to decide if you want to write from first person, I, me, we, or from third, she, he, Bob, whatever, but first, concentrate on controlling point of view throughout your writing.

Let's assume you're writing in third person. It's the easiest. I remember one place in my Golden Hope manuscript that I had a problem with POV. I was telling the story from Danielle, my main character's, POV, so everything I wrote had to be written as she would have seen it or lived it. In one spot, she and her mother were arguing and I wrote something like, Lisa ran her hand through her hair and sighed. I couldn't write that because, Danielle wouldn't think of her mother as Lisa, so I had to change it to something like, Danielle saw her mother run her hands through her hair, a sure sign she was getting frustrated. See what I mean. I couldn't change from what Danielle was observing to how her mother felt, at least not in the same paragraph. You can switch to someone else's viewpoint, but not usually until a scene change and you should try to keep the POV with the same character as much as possible. Now there are books that switch POV from one character to another, which is fun to do, but usually the POV switch will be a new chapter. So, check to see that as you're telling your story you make sure everything that is observed or thought comes from the same character.

Ex: John was tired. It had been a long day, and now his wife was pestering him with questions he was in no mood to answer. He sat down at the table and took a sip of his coffee. Nancy looked at John and noticed his eyes were red. He was rubbing his forehead too as if he had a headache.

Fix: John was tired. It had been a long day and now his wife was pestering him with questions he was in no mood to answer. He sat down at the table and took a sip of his coffee. He saw his wife look at him and frown. "Your eyes are red, John. Didn't you sleep well last night?" John rubbed his forehead to relieve the tight muscles.

Okay? Got it? If not, drop me a line and I'll be happy to try and explain it better.  Let me know if I can help you in any way.

Sneak peak at Lifestones, by Donna Chubb

Take a sneak peak at my next sci-fi-lite novel for middle grade. Feel free to comment.
www.sci-fi-lite.com

Newbie Mistake #3 Passive Voice

It took me awhile to get this one, but once I did, it jumps out at me now. Of course I still slip up every now and then. That's what pre-readers-I believe they are now being called beta readers- are for. So, passive voice; what is it? Here's an example: He was talking to the neighbors to find out if they noticed anything. Fix: He talked to the neighbors to find out...  See the difference? I could- probably -give you the grammatical explanation for this, but basically, you want to look for anything that uses a helping verb with an ing word and change it so that it is happening now. Another example, which, by the way is happening as I type: The dog was licking her hand. Fix: The dog licked her hand. See, simple, but you wouldn't believe how many times you will find yourself using the passive voice. So, as you edit, beside looking for exclamation points and adverbs, now keep your eyes open - good thing I'm not talking about cliche's -  for passive voice. Unfortunately, you can't do a search for these, you have to actually read the thing! Have I mentioned that writing is a little like learning to golf? There's all kinds of rules to follow to make your game-writing better and practice makes perfect. Good luck. If you have any questions feel free to ask. As I used to tell my students, if I don't know the answer, I'll find it. Also, there's no stupid questions, so don't be shy.

Exclamation Points- Newbie Mistake #2

Exclamation points are a big problem for most editors. So, to make sure you don't overdo the exclamation point, do a search on your manuscript. Every time one shows up in your work, try to describe the action instead of using it. My editor suggested only one per chapter, if that many. I had a gazillion. So, once again it was back to the drawing board, or in this case, the computer. This mistake falls into the show, don't tell, category. You will get sooooo tired of hearing that, but I am still making the same mistakes.

Try to show that your character is excited, shouting, angry or happy by the way they act, react or move.

example: "Don't slam the door!" his mom said.
Try: His mother put her hands over her ears as the door swung shut. "Don't slam the door," she demanded as the noise made her jump.


Example: "We need to run!" Bob shouted.
Try: The bombs were dropping fast all around them. Bob ducked his head at the last impact."We need to run," he said, jumping up and streaking away.


Now to me, that still doesn't have the impact of the exclamation point, but, I'm not an editor or publisher so if that's what they say, I'll do it. I think sometimes you will have to use an exclamation point, but try to keep them minimal as possible.

More telling not showing mistakes coming soon to a blog near you.

The Evil Adverb-Newbie Mistake #1

For the very new writer, an adverb is a pitfall. It was one of the first things that was brought to my attention in a writers online workshop. Editors hate adverbs; for the most part. As with anything else, there are always exceptions, but to be on the safe side, try to keep them minimal. This falls into the category of Show, don't Tell. For example: John walked angrily through the room. If you were to see this, or write this, alarm bells should go off in your head, your hand, your fingers and even in your toes. Try to show he was angry. Example: The door slammed into the wall as John strode into the room. His footsteps shook the vase on the table. I cringed as he approached and prepared myself to put out the fire. etc, etc. etc

Quickly is an adverb that gets me into a lot of trouble and I find myself inserting it rather than showing it. You will probably discover you have a favorite adverb too. Now, go look at your manuscript. Every place you see an adverb, try to describe the action, feeling, emotion, whatever is happening by character dialogue, movements, or responses. If you need help, drop me an email. I'll be glad to work with you on it.

Media Meltdown

Media Meltdown

My mind is a maelstrom-I looked it up, it's spelled right-of social media sites and advice about social media. Everything I've read is that it's important to get known. You must, blog, tweet, web?, email, Facebook and pretty much stand on your head. My brain is scrambled. I published a book, and now I must advertise, both my book and myself. So, I created a website. I used GoDaddy, and thankfully their cheap one is okay for me since I'm just learning. By the way, their technology support people are really good and very nice. I have a separate Facebook account just for writing. I have two blogs, one for science fiction and one for beginning writers. The second one is only because I can't seem to stop teaching, so, even though I consider myself a beginning author too, I want to help/teach others. And thanks to a young girl on YouTube, I have all kinds of buttons and links. Are people reading about me/my book? I don't know. Are people interested in my blogs? I don't know. Some of the writing advice I have read says that it takes time to get known and collect followers. I'm sure that's true, and I will continue to blog, tweet, web, FB, and email, oh yeah, and google+. Forgot that one. Why? I feel compelled. Now, to be honest, I'm not really doing all of that so I can sell enough books to be financially independent. I know you just said, Yeah, right. I think the reason why I'm not trying to support myself with my writing is because I don't have the confidence in myself that it will ever happen, so it's not a goal of mine-yet. I just want to know what people think of Golden Hope, and how I can improve my writing. And hopefully get noticed so publishing my next book will be easier.
So, I will try to limit, categorize, and develop my social media so that maybe, on the off chance I do get a following they will enjoy my writing. Then maybe I will develop a little bit of confidence and faith in my writing. Who knows? It could happen.

Introduction to the reinvented Beginner Authors Blog

Join me as I try to make sense of being a beginning writer. I have published one book, a YA science fiction novel, but I still count myself as a beginning writer. Why? Well, because I have so much more to learn and I'm not rich and famous. I guess in my mind, that's what makes a professional writer. Someone whose name is know by readers, not necessarily the rich part, although you better believe, that part would be awesome.

My career up to this point has been as a teacher and as I was blogging on my sci-fi-lite blog, I realized that I kept falling back to teacher mode. I still want to instruct, so I'm going to share things I went through as a very, very beginning writer. Then things I learned as I wrote more and more, and finally things I learned through the publishing process. I would love for you to join me, and please, share what you've learned and other blogs you follow.

New post to follow.

Feeling Like a Loser?

Feeling Like a Loser?

Okay, since I have had no comments so far I'm going to pretend I am alone, not hard, and write this as if it were a diary. Have you ever felt like you've gone your whole life and haven't accomplished anything? I was having one of those days today, so I dragged my sorry butt up and took my dog for a walk. It was a gorgeous day and as I walked I started thinking about how to deal with these negative thoughts. I decided to summarize my life to see if I was really as bad off as I thought. Here you will learn more about me than you might want to know and yes, I will share my age. Ugh, just remember, in my head I'm twenty. So summary: I am 57, I have a wonderful husband (other people say so, not just me), we raised four beautiful girls; we have five grandchildren that we love and are proud of, I spent 22 years influencing the children under my care to be the best, most responsible, knowledgeable children I could; our children are involved with church, pastoring or mentoring; I have published a book; I am healthy; I have traveled the world,...okay I could go on and on. So, basically, I had/have a wonderful life. Then I felt better. The end.
So, bottom line, do you have a wonderful book you can't seem to get published? Do you have a published book that is just sitting there? Do you have dirty laundry that needs doing? All things that many of us deal with daily. So, have a bad day if you must, but then, hating to use a cliche' but, count your blessings.

Feeling Like a Loser?

Okay, since I have had no comments so far I'm going to pretend I am alone, not hard, and write this as if it were a diary. Have you ever felt like you've gone your whole life and haven't accomplished anything? I was having one of those days today, so I dragged my sorry butt up and took my dog for a walk. It was a gorgeous day and as I walked I started thinking about how to deal with these negative thoughts. I decided to summarize my life to see if I was really as bad off as I thought. Here you will learn more about me than you might want to know and yes, I will share my age. Ugh, just remember, in my head I'm twenty. So summary: I am 57, I have a wonderful husband (other people say so, not just me), we raised four beautiful girls; we have five grandchildren that we love and are proud of, I spent 22 years influencing the children under my care to be the best, most responsible, knowledgeable children I could; our children are involved with church, pastoring or mentoring; I have published a book; I am healthy; I have traveled the world,...okay I could go on and on. So, basically, I had/have a wonderful life. Then I felt better. The end.
So, bottom line, do you have a wonderful book you can't seem to get published? Do you have a published book that is just sitting there? Do you have dirty laundry that needs doing? All things that many of us deal with daily. So, have a bad day if you must, but then, hating to use a cliche' but, count your blessings.

Beginning Writers Start Here

I am not a beginning writer, but, I'm not a professional either. More importantly, even though I've been writing for a long time, I can remember my beginning steps. Forget that I taught school for more years than I really want to say here. Forget that I completed a manuscript, actually about six. Forget that I've actually published a book. I still have so much more to learn. You never stop learning how to make your writing better, so here's my advice. This is for those of you, young and old, who are just taking that first baby step into the writing realm. Start by doing an online writing workshop. You share what you've written with other authors and they read and critique your work. I learned about POV (point of view) there and how important it is. You'll pick up a lot of writing tips to get you writing and it's a safe environment for criticisms, because you don't know these people. They're not related and therefore not obligated to tell you, yes, I loved your book. (Even though it was still in their beside drawer) Not everyone will like your writing, that's a given, but that's okay, just blow them a raspberry and take whatever advice you can to apply to your work. You also get to read others work, which often makes you feel so much better about yourself because there are some really, really crappy writers out there. So, at least you can say, I know I'm better than that guy. See, positive props. Hope this helps. Also check out the blogs showing here. They have some great tips.

What exactly is Sci-fi-lite?

Okay, here goes. First, let it be known that I am claiming sci-fi-lite as my term. Don't know if it's been used before. Maybe I should copyright it? What do you think? I guess you need to know what it means; to me, anyway.

Sci-fi-lite means you have a fun, exciting, adventurous story with limited technological terminology and limited futuristic gizmos and gadgets. Don't get me wrong, I use gizmos, for example; a magnigun is a laser gun that is based on magnetic principals. I'm not a physicist, so, yes, it's made up, and no, I don't know if it could be real.

Moving on; Sci-fi-lite, other than being a little awkward to keyboard, (notice I didn't date myself by saying type), haha, and I won't tell you how old I am, (relatives reading this- shut it!) sci-fi-lite usually has realistic events. I know, that's a bit of an oxymoron,(sorry editors, can't get an em dash)- for young readers this means they are opposite in meaning. Most people use" honest politician" as an example. In realistic science fiction, the people and their daily lives shouldbe familiar to the reader, for exampl: parent/teenager difficulties, jealousies, anger, love, romance, sibling rivalry and so on. Once again, realistic doesn't mean you won't encounter weird animals or people- that's the sci-fi part.

Oh, and a biggie for me, the content should be appropriate for young readers as well as adult. For me that means no bad language and no sex. I know that's a big deal these days but I'm willing to take the chance on fewer sales in order to keep my writing clean. Besides, in my opinion which is what this blog is right? if you have to resort to bad language and sex to draw readers, your writing needs work. I'm just sayin'.

So, that's it in a nut shell. If you want to read a good sci-fi-lite book, try Golden Hope , by Donna Chubb, found on Amazon, B&N, Nook, Kindle, and @All Things That Matter Press.
www.sci-fi-lite.com