From the Editor's Desk
Hi and
welcome once again to Fiction Factor! And, as always,
welcome to our new subscribers.
Already we're up to the final issue for 2009! The time
has just vanished so quickly. This issue is being sent
out a little earlier than usual because I'm enjoying a
lovely, tropical vacation in Thailand over the festive
season to recover from such a stressful, busy year.
We'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe
and happy New Year. Here's to making 2010 your best year
yet!
Let's get into some serious goal-setting.
“If
you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream
come true?”
Fay
LaPointe
What's your writing dream?
We all have dreams and goals when it comes to our writing
and nobody's dream is exactly like another's. We're
unique in wanting the things we want for our writing
careers. Despite many writers having similar aims and
aspirations for finding publication and seeing a novel on
those shelves, the reality is a little more individual.
Be honest with yourself about your writing dream. Do you
simply want a small publisher to create a nice book so
you can show family and friends? Are you the type of
writer who prefers to dream about hitting the best-seller
lists with your masterpiece? Perhaps you prefer to dream
about churning out 2 novels a year so you can just take
over an entire shelf at the bookstore?
Even though these end results sound as though they'd
encompass thousands of writers each, behind the book is a
unique manuscript that only you can write. Your book is
special because only you can write it. Your story can't
be told by any other writer and your characters won't
shine in any other story-setting but your own.
So... dare to dream. Dream big and bold and proud. Have
confidence in yourself and in your work. Write in every
spare moment you can find. Have fun with it, be daring
with it, revel in it - however you do it - just write.
Make 2010 the year your writing dream comes true.
Just a reminder: Writer's Digest is
accepting nominations for their Top 101 Writing Sites for
2010. We've been honored to be included in their listing
since 2003 and we'd love to be included in the list once
again.
The Writer's Digest Top 101 Writing Sites doesn't have
any winners or losers - it's a list of sites they
consider to be valuable resources to writers.
So if you think we deserve it, please consider nominating
Fiction Factor for inclusion by sending a blank email to:
writersdig@fwpubs.com with 'Top 101' in the subject line.
We really appreciate your support :)
Subscriber special: I managed to arrange
a discount especially for Fiction Factor subscribers on
the ebook "How to Write a Children's Book in 14
Days". You can read what the ebook has to offer you
here: http://tinyurl.com/write4kids
But don't buy from their link or you'll
pay full price! If you want to take advantage of the
discount, come back here and click this link: http://tinyurl.com/kidsdiscount - you'll get $10 off the price.
This discount link isn't shown anywhere else on the
websites, so if you've thought about writing for children
and you want to take advantage of the $10 discount off
the regular price, then remember to come back and buy
through the discount link.
We have a great issue for you this month, so let's get
straight into the writing stuff!
This issue Lee Masterson looks at effective goal-setting
when writing your novel. Terry W. Ervin II also looks at
writing a novel synopsis and Vicki Hinze looks at some
common mechanical pitfalls writers make when writing a
novel.
It's time now to grab a beverage of choice, sit back, and
enjoy this issue of Fiction Factor!
Lee Masterson
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.fictionfactor.com
Pop by and hi
to me on Facebook. I enjoy getting to know our readers! http://www.facebook.com/people/Lee-Masterson/1569278962
"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't
quit."
-- Richard Bach
 Create-A-Character
Clinic
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can't turn down?
Holly Lisle can and she can show you how too!
Learn to bring all your characters to life with
sparkle - from a full-time author of more than 30
published novels!
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Best-Seller!
- Learn to write a GREAT novel from start to
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- Find out what editors and agents want
-- 100's of promotion and marketing ideas
PLUS - you'll also get "Write
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Lee Masterson
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Create Effective Goals to Write Your Novel
by Lee Masterson
Most writers have goals and dreams that encompass
writing. Your goal might be to write a novel and see it
on those shelves finally. Or you might have the goal of
being able to quit your day job and write instead. You
may be happy to just enjoy the act of writing regardless
of the income it might produce.
No matter what your goal, there are some things you can
do to increase your chances of seeing your dreams come
true.
Write Down Your Goals
Successful business people, top athletes, entrepreneurs,
wealthy investors and high-achievers in all fields of
life use goal setting techniques.
It’s been proven time and again that people who
write down clear, focused goals with realistic outcomes
and achievable deadlines are 97% more likely to reach
those goals.
Similar studies also show that people who create random,
vague goals tend to achieve some minor milestones, but
nothing like the results created by those in the first
group.
Then there are people who don’t write down clear-set
goals at all. While they seem to do okay with their
ambitions and goals, imagine how much better they could
have done with a clear set of written goals?
Writing Your Goals Effectively
To Do List:
- Go Shopping
- See a movie
- Do laundry
- Fill the car with fuel
- Write a novel
Your goals are not the same as a ‘to
do’ list. They should be created to represent a
clear aim or achievement that you’d like to
accomplish. Always be specific about what you want and
include details to narrow your focus even further.
In this case, let’s assume your goal is to write a
great novel. That’s an excellent goal, but it also
means creating a few other goals around this one so the
first is more likely to be achieved.
For example:
- I will dedicate at least 4 hours every week to writing
my novel
- I will write a minimum of 2,000 words every week on my
novel
- I will switch off the TV for one hour each night and
use that time to write my novel
These are just examples of small things you might decide
to add to your goal list in order to make your main
achievement possible. They are each small steps
you’ll need to take in order to make the end goal of
writing your novel possible and so they become equally as
important as the main end-goal.
Keep It Positive
If you read the previous tip carefully, you would have
noticed the example goals were written using specific,
positive words. Don’t include negatively worded
goals in your list.
Example:
“I won’t be tempted by chocolate this
year.”
“I won’t procrastinate with my writing”
Negative goals have the opposite effect and actually make
your mind focus more on the action you’re trying to
avoid. Keep your goals positive and focused on what you
really want – and not the things you want to avoid.
Realistic Expectations
Writing down a list of goals and aspirations is great
fun. It forces you to think about those things
you’ve always wanted to do and never got around to
doing. It also forces your mind to be honest about a lot
of things you’ve put off doing, too.
It’s important to be realistic about your goals. You
could write down that you’d like to write more books
than Stephen King over the next 12 months, but you know
deep down inside that this isn’t possible, so
you’re setting yourself up for failure before you
begin.
Despite this, don’t be afraid to write down some
really big goals. Just make sure you include some
smaller, easily achievable ones too. The human mind works
best when it recognizes real results.
By setting and then reaching the smaller goals, your mind
will be rewarded by the achievement which will increase
your confidence as you strive toward the bigger goals.
One of your smaller goals might be to write 2000 words
this week. When you reach that goal, you’re not only
showing yourself that it is possible, but you’re
increasing your motivation levels at the same time.
Your bigger goals may include writing a novel before the
end of the year and getting a publisher to accept it.
You can
read the rest of this article here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/goal-setting.html
 Create A Plot
Clinic
Have you ever lost interest in your story only 20
pages from the start and not know how to get it
going again?
Best Selling Author of more than 30 novels, Holly
Lisle, can show you exactly how to structure your
story for maximum effect. Learn to fix problem
plotting while you write!
Jump Start your novel today: http://tinyurl.com/2z3ant
|
 How
to Write a Children's Book
in 14 Days or Less!
Learn
the system that can show you how to write your
own kid's books in just two weeks.
From basic idea to publisher-ready manuscript,
learn how to write children's books that kids
will love.
http://tinyurl.com/write4kids
(don't forget your $10 discount if
you come back and purchase through this link: http://tinyurl.com/kidsdiscount ) |
Common Mechanical Pitfalls
by Vicki Hinze
When asked, a group of editors from top
publishing houses, responded that the following are the
most often seen mechanical errors in works submitted by
authors.
By removing these errors from our works, we greatly
enhance our potential for publication—and strengthen
our writing skills.
Author Intrusion, Filtering, Passive Voice.
Use the active voice in writing. Avoid weak verbs:
"to be" and its variants: was, are, is. This
puts the reader on-scene, makes what’s happening,
happen now. Author intrusion reminds the reader
she’s reading, hence you lose immediacy, empathy
between reader/character.
Show, don’t tell applies.
Watchwords: thought, wondered,
considered, realized, and the like.
Example:
Filtered: She realized she’d breached the point
of no return.
She had to kill him.
Unfiltered, no intrusion: The point of no return. She
had to kill him.
Autonomous Body Parts.
Parts of a character’s body cannot act alone. The
character must lift her hands, dart her gaze, tiptoe.
Otherwise, the visual images created in the reader’s
mind are horror. Disconnected body parts shouldn’t
move without the character’s body being attached.
Example:
Her eyes roamed around the room.
Corrected: She let her gaze roam around the room.
(Eyes shouldn’t roam. Use gaze. Note that she caused
this roaming. In this corrected version, her eyes
didn’t act autonomously or independent of her.)
Cause before Effect, Reaction before Action,
Syntax Error.
Whatever the reader reads first on the page, happens
first in the readers mind. This error occurs when the
reaction to something, say fear, is written down before
the action causing the fear, say a hissing snake. Or when
the effect is shown before the cause prompting that
effect.
Watchwords are: when, as, before,
during, while, until, after, and since.
To correct this error, simply flip-flop the phrases to be
sure you list cause then effect, action then reaction.
Use of names in dialogue.
When conversing, people don’t often use names. To be
clear about who’s speaking, give the character a
distinct voice, an outstanding feature, and use action
tags. Have character do something with an object and use
it to make it clear to the reader who’s talking.
This writer’s tool does double duty: tags the
speaker and creates an illusion of action. Body language
is an extremely effective method.
Avoid: Figure, Frame, and Presence.
This editorial Pet Peeve doesn’t show up as often
now as it once did.
Don’t write: He leaned his massive frame against
the door.
Do write: He leaned against the door.
A point: When is the last time you saw a hunk and
thought: Wow, what a nice frame?
Separate Actions.
Keep actions separate, otherwise you risk having the
character do the physically impossible. "And"
can be a wicked abuser of this mechanical infraction.
Example: She called 911 and drove to the hospital.
Can she really do these two things simultaneously?
Without a cell phone? More likely, she called 911 and
then drove to the hospital. The actions were separate.
One followed the other. They didn’t occur
simultaneously.
You can read
the rest of this article here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/mechanical.html
Writer's
Announcements
Writers need
all the encouragement they can get, and we're happy to
help keep you motivated as well as offer a little bit of
promotion for you. If you have an announcement you'd like
to share about your writing successes or publications,
then let us know about it and we'll be happy to shout out
a big 'Woo Hoo' to our subscribers for you. You can
either leave us a message on the forum or you can send me a message on Facebook.
This week's Woo Hoo Announcement:
=> A special Congratulations goes to Terry W.
Ervin II on the release of his fantasy novel
"Flank Hawk" through Gryphonwood Press. Terry
is the Fiction Factor
Forum's Moderator,
so pop into the forum and congratulate him on his novel's
recent release.
=> Congratulations to David Tocher,
who has had his short story 'Letters from a Dead World'
accepted into the Dreamspell Nightmares anthology with
L&L DreamSpell: http://www.lldreamspell.com/DreamspellNightmares.htm
=>
Congratulations to Alice Wisler, who is
pleased to announce that her newest novel "How Sweet
It Is" has been picked up by a Dutch publisher to be
translated into Dutch from English! You can visit Alice's
site here: http://www.alicewisler.com/
 Ebook Money Machine
Learn the secrets to making massive profits with
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 Create Your Own
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Written by the author of more than 30 novels, you
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extensive world-building course is ideal for
science fiction or fantays writers.
http://scifi.fictionfactor.com/culture.html
|
Writing a Novel Synopsis
by Terry W. Ervin II
Once a manuscript is complete and an author
begins to focus on finding an agent or a publisher, one
of the items often requested during the submission
process is a brief synopsis. Unless the agent’s or
publisher’s guidelines indicate specifically what is
expected, the following explanation should provide some
guidance.
What exactly is a brief synopsis? It’s a single
spaced, one page, present tense, summary of the novel.
Sometimes it bleeds onto a second page, but one is
generally best. It is to cover the main action of the
story, what’s at stake, the resolution and the main
character’s involvement. For clarity, a synopsis
isn’t what many call a teaser found on the back
cover to entice readers toward purchasing the novel.
As stated, be sure to include the ending and avoid
attempts to suggest to the editor or agent that he will
have to request the full manuscript to find out what
happens. It will backfire. Editors and agents are
interested in what happens from the beginning to the end.
It helps them determine if it is a novel they think has
strong potential. Remember, the agent or editor reading
the synopsis probably has at least a half dozen other
packets on their desk to consider that day alone. And
that doesn’t count all of the other things on the
list to accomplish that day, of which reading slush
rarely is at the top of the list.
Next question: How can an author condense an entire
novel—all of the characters, plot twists, action and
everything else—onto a single page?
For most writers it’s not easy. Many would prefer to
write an entire novel as opposed to struggling with a
synopsis. Writing a brief synopsis is difficult, but not
impossible. Really, it’s not. It just takes time,
effort and careful thought to boil it all down to what is
important in the story while conveying action and giving
the agent or editor a flavor of what the writer has to
offer.
Here are four steps that may facilitate the writing of a
brief synopsis:
1. Go ahead and write a synopsis. Include all that seems
important, keeping it as short as possible. If it ends up
five or eight pages, that’s okay for a start.
2. After a day or two, go at it again. Use a hard copy
and begin crossing out what really isn’t important
to convey the main action and direction of the story. Be
ruthless. Subplots, dialogue, in-depth character
descriptions and secondary characters have no place in a
synopsis.
3...
You can see
the rest of this article here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/novelsynopsis.html
~ "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug
used by mankind." -- Rudyard Kipling ~
 Flank Hawk
by Terry W. Ervin II
What happens when fire-breathing dragons battle
Stukas for aerial supremacy over a battlefield?
Can an earth wizard’s magic defeat a panzer?
Krish, a farmhand turned mercenary, witnesses
this and much more as he confronts the
Necromancer King.
Flank Hawk is set in the distant
future where magic exists and brutish ogres are
more than a child’s nightmare.
Flank Hawk is available from AmazonRead
more about Flank Hawk on Terry's website: http://www.ervin-author.com/
|
Writing Courses
You can see the full list
of available courses here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/courses.html
Fantasy
Writing Course
Fantasy is all about
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amazing. Here is your chance to delve into creating a
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questing to role playing – you name it, if it’s
Fantasy related, we’ll be looking at it, in depth,
up close and personal.
http://fantasy.fictionfactor.com/course.html (this link will take you to Fantasy
Factor)
Writing
Great Horror Novels!
Join this excellent course and learn what it takes to
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Thriller Writing Course
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Increase your chances of writing a great romance
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~ "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best
friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." ~
~ Groucho Marx ~
Paying Market Listings
You can find the complete
Market Index here: http://www.fictionfactor.com/markets.html
Happy Market Hunting!
(Disclaimer: Mention of a market/ contest in Fiction
Factor is not necessarily an endorsement. Check all
guidelines in full before submitting)
The Way of the Wizard
http://www.johnjosephadams.com/?p=1760
One-time print anthology by Prime Books. Your story
should be about a wizard, witch, sorcerer, sorceress or
any user of magic. Stories should be no longer than 5,000
words
Pay: 5 cents per word plus 50% of earnings plus
contributor copy.
Deadline: 31st March 2010
Submission Guidelines: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/?p=1760
Warrior Wisewoman 3
http://www.norilana.com/norilana-ww-guidelines.htm
Annual anthology series published by Norilana Books of
science fiction stories featuring remarkable and powerful
women characters. Stories should be under 10,000 words.
Payment is 2 cents per word, one contributor's copy and
shared royalties
Deadline: 15th January 2010
Submission Guidelines: http://www.norilana.com/norilana-ww-guidelines.htm
Distant Worlds
http://dwdr.wordpress.com/guidelines-for-distant-worlds/
the Library of Scient Fiction and Fantasy Press is
seeking novella length Science Fiction for an anthology.
Submissions should be between 20,000 and 30,000 words.
Pays $100 plus two contributor's copies. Please read
guidelines in full before submitting.
Deadline: 15 January 2010
Submission Guidelines: http://dwdr.wordpress.com/guidelines-for-distant-worlds/
Brio
Magazine
http://www.briomag.com/
Seeking
short fiction up to 2,000 words to suit teenaged girls.
Romance stories, sibling rivalry and situations faced
daily by teen girls are especially welcomed. Brio’s
target audience is teenaged girls from 12-15 and Brio
& Beyond’s target audience is older teenaged
girls from 16-19.
Both Brio and Brio & Beyond pay between 15 and 35
cents per word on acceptance.
Submission Guidelines: (downloadable) http://www.family.org/sharedassets/correspondence/pdfs/GeneralInformation/Brio_Writers_Guidelines.pdf
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