Punctuation - the colon

The function of the colon is:

• To signal the special relationship between the parts before, and the parts after it. (Every man and woman has three aims: to live, to love, to learn.)
• To introduce a list. (I have mailed to you the following items: copy of cash book to year end, cheque butts, and deposit slips.)
• For the introuction of a formal or long quotation with such words as reads or read and writes or write. (Graeme Kinross-Smith, in his "Writer: A Working Guide for New Writers, writes of Virginia Wolf: "[She] expressed, more cogently than Richardson or Joyce perhaps, the ideas that led to the new way of looking at the world in fiction.") Note that a colon is also used before the subtitle of a book, as above.
• The colon is also used to: separate information, as in chapter and verse (John 3:16); act and scene (King Lear, Act Three: Scene Two); hour and minute (8:20 a.m.); volume and page reference (World Book, 8:320).

There are more but too many to list here. Every writer should have a good book on punctuation on their bookshelf so make this a priority for your reference library.

Punctuation – the Apostrophe

The apostrophe is one of the most misused punctuation marks in the English language, and its misuse is growing. The apostrophe is used for the following reasons:

• in place of a missing letter in contracted words, such as don't instead of do not, it's instead of it is, they're instead of they are, or an omission, such as the year of '66.
• to indicate possession, as in Tom's ball, Descartes's theorem, the judges' rulings. (Note that adding the apostrophe and an extra 's' to a word that already ends in 's' produces a different sound to that when only the apostrophe is added.)
• to indicate possession to the last word in a phrase or a compound – my mother-in-law's couch; the Member for Canberra's vote
• to indicate possession for joint ownership, the apostrophe is added to the last name on the list, for example, John and Mary's anniversary. If the thing is not owned jointly, use an apostrophe for each name, as in John's and Mary's birthday
• the apostrophe is also needed when you want to indicate a duration in time, for instance, in one minute's time…… or after ten years' experience…….
• you will also add an apostrophe to the word before a gerund, for example, In the event of David's resigning…… Note the two separate meanings in the following sentences, just by adding or not adding an apostrophe: I object to the visitor's speaking Italian. I object to the visitors speaking Italian.
• Use the apostrophe with certain plurals, such as do's and don'ts and M.D.'s

Don't use the apostrophe for phrases like one's and two's – this should be ones and twos, or for the '60's – should be the 60s, or the sixties.

Punctuation - Quote Marks and Commas

When you have finished your first-level edit, you need to go back over your work and check all punctuation marks. Punctuation marks go inside quotation marks, not outside. If you've made this mistake often, use the search and replace option to fix these. Check to see that you have used the same type of quotation marks throughout the work, that is, one quote mark or a double quote mark.

Check to make sure that you haven't used too many commas or other 'stop' signs for your reader, or too few. Sometimes, the wrong placement of a comma can lead to confusion. I recently read an article about food and diet and came across this sentence: "Don't eat any foods, that contain fats or sugars." It's a poorly written sentence anyway, but the comma makes it seem as if the writer is advising the reader not to eat any foods! The sentence would have been better written thus: "Don't eat foods containing fats or sugars.

An unnecessary comma is more of a distraction than none, so only use commas where they will promote easier reading.

Editing Process

After completing an edit of a passage, check it again to see that your work is seamless. When we change one thing around, others parts are affected. Make sure that each sentence blends in with its neighbours, and that no scars or amputations are obvious. Your reader should not be able to detect where you have cut, added, or moved words and sentences around.

W. Somerset Maugham said that "A good style should show no sign of effort. What is written should seem like a happy accident."

Our Rich Language

The English language is rich in words and phrases that convey meaning. Use words that will conjure up the sight you want your readers to see. Ensure that the imagery you are using will appeal to your readers' senses and that it will help them to visualise, to put them into the world you are creating on the page. For truly descriptive work, use metaphors and similes; but don't just put them in for the sake of it, and use them sparingly. Make sure that your metaphors are not obvious – you want to guide your reader, not drag them by the hair! The words you use, the similes and the metaphors, should all enhance meaning.

Aristotle said: "The greatest thing in style is to have a command of metaphor." In Greek, metaphor means 'transport'; the idea is to transport a meaning from one realm to another - something like language in stereo. But make sure that your metaphors are seamless, woven into your story subtly - a string of metaphors strung together just for the sake of it would make very boring reading.

A metaphor can make us see familiar things differently. Our language is rich in meaning; use it well and make your work shine.

Qualifiers

Weed out all those unnecessary qualifiers, described by E.B. White as: "leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words." Some are ludicrous, contradictory and very fatal, while others diminish your ideas. If deleting the qualifier is not enough, find one good, strong word that will do the job, and use it. Adjectives and adverbs are all very well in their place, but if used to bolster a weak sentence or a weak verb, cut them out and find stronger verbs.

Remember that it is far better to show, than it is to tell.

For example:
(poor writing)
The train suddenly picked up speed. Before long it was going very fast, so fast that it swayed dangerously as it sped down the track.

(edited version)
Without warning, the train increased its speed. Passengers, jolted from their morning papers when the carriages rocked wildly from side-to-side, gasped and lunged for hand-holds.

As you can see, the first piece of writing is weak; there is no life in it. The second is better; the reader can see and feel what the characters are experiencing. Words like 'suddenly', 'very', and 'dangerously' are the weak links here so I cut them out. Then, rather than 'tell' the reader what was happening, I used words that would 'show' the action. Stronger verbs, such as jolted, gasped, and lunged, help to create the atmosphere I was aiming for. As you can see, adverbs have their place too; I added 'wildly' to enhance the effect I was trying to achieve but a final edit might see me remove it altogether.

Consider editing as a cleaning chore - you are cleaning out the redundant, and polishing up what remains. If a sentence can stand without a word, cut it out. If the sentence, or the passage does not convey quite what you want to say, add words or sentences, or re-write it all together.

Remove every word that is there just for the effect.

Above all, aim for strong writing by eliminating all those words that weaken it.

Verbs - full of life

Verbs are doing words so you should aim to make the verbs in your writing work hard. Avoid lifeless verbs that will kill your sentence. Again, we come back to the verb 'to be'; sentences built on to be are usually unwieldy. With lifeless verbs you will usually find an excess of nouns, which slows the pace of your work down. Look at the phrases in your work and see if one word will do the same job. For instance:

prefer is better than a preference for;

tends to sounds infinitely better than has a tendency to.

The stronger your verbs, the stronger your work will be.

Voice

The voice, or tone of your work is important. If you want to avoid having your work sound limp and lifeless, aim for the active voice. Using active voice will give your work the ring of authority; it will come over as crisp and professional, direct and to the point.

When you write in the passive voice, the action is done to the subject, as in The ball was thrown by Mary to Rosa. When you use active voice, the subject of your sentence is the doer; Mary threw the ball to Rosa. To weed out all those passive instances, look for combinations of the verb 'to be' and past participles of another verb. For instance: was posted, are seen, is urged, were reported, has been completed. Strengthen your work by changing these to the active voice.

Of course, there are times when the passive voice is necessary. In technical writing for instance: The air is heated by being circulated over the coils. You will also use passive voice if the object of the action is more important than the subject: Our meeting was postponed. Sometimes, too, the subject is unknown, in which case the passive voice is the only one that will work. For example: The will was unsigned. The art works were stolen from the gallery. There may also be times that you want to avoid naming a specific person: The missing art works were returned.

Be careful that you haven't switched from active to passive voice mid-sentence, as in: Such a program costs little, and many are benefited by it. A better way to say this is: Such a program costs little and benefits many.

A work that is all passive writing will be boring, and vice versa, but your writing should be predominately active.

Clichés and Hackneyed Expressions

Your first-level edit will weed out every cliché and hackneyed expression that most writers use in their first drafts. George Orwell said that: "Modern writing at its worst … consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else and making the results presentable by sheer humbug."

There are many clichés and overused expressions – too many to list here - but you'll find lists of these on the internet, or in books from your library or local bookshop shelf. You can even purchase a software program (A Cliché Cleaner) to do the job for you; I have never used one so cannot speak about the effectiveness or otherwise of these programs.

If a word or phrase that you've used seems familiar, it's probably been used many times elsewhere, in which case you need to find some other way of expressing the same thought or idea.

More Editing - singular/plural

During your first-level editing, you will also be looking for singular/plural usage. Firstly, look for those words that need an irregular ending to make them plural. For example, antenna is singular; if you are writing about more than one radio or TV antenna, the plural is antennas; if you are writing about insects, the plural you need is antennae. Here are a few more:

datum (singular), data (plural) (Note: colloquially data is used as singular)
bacterium (singular), bacteria (plural)
criterion is (singular), criteria (plural)
medium is (singular,) media (plural)
stratum is (singular,) strata (plural)

If you're not sure, use your dictionary, which will tell you if a word is singular or plural. It surprises me sometimes that many writers obviously do not check word usage; this is the sign of the amateur and many editors, when they see a work peppered with mistakes like this, will not read further. Of course, if the work is brilliantly original, or if you're a 'known name' a publishing house will work with you to correct errors, but if not, you need to get it right first time.

As you work through, editing your manuscript, you will come to realise that the actual writing takes but a fraction of time compared to the work you will need to do afterwards.

Watch things like:

sister-in-law (singular) and sisters-in-law (plural). I often see 'sister-in-laws' which is incorrect. Colloquially, we do see 'the in-laws' but this is not quite the same.

Collective nouns refer to groups, and these can be singular or plural. If you think of the group as a single unit, use a singular verb. If you think of the group as a number of individuals, use a plural verb. For instance:

Our little group is complete again.
A second group are those parents who feel that they were too harsh.

Our family isn't poor any more.
My family are perfectly normal.

Misused Words

Following on from yesterday, let's take a side-track and look at some of the words that are commonly misused. In English, there are many words that sound similar but which have different meanings, and many words that are different, and mean nearly the same thing, but will confuse your reader if you use them in the wrong place. There are many; I've listed a couple here but I would suggest that you seek out a full list of them, and be careful that the words you use in your story, novel or article, mean exactly what you want them to.

affect/effect

This is one that I come across often in my role as editor. Affect, as a verb, means to influence, to have consequences, as in these examples:

• The decision affected workers in all industries.
• I was very much affected by the glorious singing.

Affected, as an adjective, means artificially showing off, putting on an act:

• He spoke with an affected English accent.

Affect, affected and affective also have psychological meanings; look these up in a good dictionary.

Effect, as a verb, means to cause something to happen, to bring it about:

• He was well out of the crease, but effected a brilliant recovery to avoid being stumped.
• After much litigation, a settlement of the dispute was effected.

Effect, as a noun, means a result or consequence, as in:

• The effect of this decision was lamentable.

accept/except

Accept has a range of meanings that include to take or receive; or to agree (to), admit or believe:

• The television hostess will accept the award on behalf of her show
• Her competitiors accept the judges' decision.

Except means to leave out or exclude:

• Vaccinations are compulsory and the school can except no student.
• Everybody has had coffee except me.

The Editing Process : the first level edit

Over the next week or so I'm going to concentrate on the editing process, talking about the different edits you'll need to do before you send your work out to find a publisher. Begin the first level edit after you have left your first draft aside for awhile, so that you come to it with a fresh eye.

Writers generally use too many words and your job is to read through your work, find and eliminate these. You'll probably find many redundant words; for instance:

an invited guest
a new recruit
usual custom
blue in colour
plan in advance
5 a.m. in the morning
smile on her face
completely surrounded
more superior
really dangerous
cancel out
connect up
merge together

Then you will need to find all those phrases that can be replaced by one word, for example:

a large number of (many)
during the time that (when)
in regard to (about)
on a regular basis (regularly)

There are plenty of good books that will help you with the correct use of words such as, who/that; the/of; as/to/by...and so on.

Make sure that all the words you have used in your story/article are the right words. Do they mean exactly what you want to convey? Make good use of your Thesaurus - an 'almost right word' will not be good enough. When you have all the words right, you will be ready to move onto the next stage of the editing process.

Just do it!

Formal education cannot give us creativity of expression, cannot impart talent, cannot make us skilled writers. What makes a writer is the act of 'doing'. To write we actually need to unlearn spelling and punctuation, forget grammar, and put aside all our assumptions about good and bad writing. Forget everything you have learned and stop thinking! Just write. Just do it.

I know what you're thinking now; a few of my posts here have been about punctuation and grammar, and I've spoken about forms of writing, and so on. But that's all 'after' the act of actually writing. The first draft, the 'story' you're passionate about, the thing you want to say, should be spilled onto the page or pages without recourse to your editor.

When you come to write, just do it; sit down, stop thinking, and write. Forget what anyone has ever said to you about writing, just do it. After you have put it all down, no matter what order or form it's in, then it will be time time for you to tidy it up.

If you can't stop thinking, begin with what you are thinking, even if it's rubbish. Just write, and keep on writing. Just do it. Before you know it you will find yourself writing without thinking and when you stop, there it will be, the story you wanted to write. Of course, it will need work, but it will have passion, it will be what you wanted to say, and it will be sincere.

If you still have problems, write down in a list all the negative thoughts that come into your mind. Banish them to your list, then screw the list up and throw it in the bin.

Just do it; just write.

Writing Exercise

Practice using and understanding point-of-view and how it works with this writing exercise:

Look at some of the stories you have written and try to see what would happen to them if they were told from a different point of view. Or write a new short story just for this exercise and try it from as many points-of-view as possible.

Compare the results and analyse what is missing from each point-of-view used. What works and what doesn't? This exercise will help you understand why one point-of-view works or does not work in one particular story.

Omniscient Third-person Point of View

Use omniscient third-person point of view if:

• readers must know your main character's inner thoughts or feelings in order for the plot to advance
• using the first-person point of view will prevent you showing the main character's weaknesses
• your message will be most effective when readers learn how all characters feel
• you can best further the plot by showing all character's thoughts
  

Using Limited Third-person Point of View

Use limited third-person point of view if:

• using the first-person point of view prevents you showing the main character’s weaknesses
  
• the character is best revealed by permitting readers to observe only what your character does and says
  
• suspense builds most effectively because an objective narrator reports what happens
  
• your main character’s actions are more important that his or her thoughts

Using Third-person Point of View

Use third-person point of view if:

• using the first-person point of view prevents your showing the main character’s weaknesses
  
• your message will be clearer with a narrator who is slightly removed from the scene, reporting your main character’s thoughts and actions
  
• the objectivity of a narrator will add strength to either the character or your message
  
• you can best establish the conflict by sharing only your main character’s thoughts

Which Point of View?

The point of view you use will determine what you can and cannot accomplish in a short story. Consider the sets of guidelines I will post over the next few days to help you choose the point of view most appropriate for meeting all of your short story conditions.

Use first-person point of view if:

• readers must know your main character’s inner thoughts and feelings in order for the plot to advance
• your main character is best revealed by your telling the story from his or her vantage point
• you can best establish the conflict by sharing only your main character’s thoughts

Second-person point of view, Third-person Omniscient and limited

Limited Third-Person point of view is similar to third-person point of view in that it uses he, she, they and them, but different in that this third-person narrator is not part of the story and cannot read any character’s minds.

Omniscient Third-Person point of view: This all-knowing, all-seeing point of view is almost always that of the author-narrator. Only the author knows all, sees all, and understands all. Only he or she can tell what each character thinks, knows, and feels.

Second-Person point of view – which uses the pronoun you - is not used often. It’s difficult to sustain for any length of time and makes for difficult reading. However, it is a great point of view for the right piece.

Third-person Point of View

Third-Person point of view uses the pronouns he, she, they, them and the possessive adjective their, as well as people’s names. A narrator tells the story but she/he is more removed from the story than if he is using the omniscient point of view. In fact, the third-person narrator tells the story from only one character’s point of view, and only as that character can observe.

First-person Point of View

First-person point of view uses the personal pronouns I, me, my and our. It permits the author to tell the story from the pov of a narrator or one of the characters in the story; only those feelings, observations, and reactions which that narrator or character experiences can appear in the story. The advantage of the first-person pov is that it puts readers close to the action.

Point of View

This is the place from which, or way in which, something is viewed. Semantically, that means that there can be three points of view: my point of view, your point of view, and other people’s points of view. These are generally referred to as first-person, second-person, and third person points of view. Within the third-person pov, however, short-story writers recognise three distinct perspectives: third-person, limited third-person, and omniscient (god-like) third-person.

Publishing Houses Jargon

I remember, when I first began to think about sending my work out for publication, being faced with some terminology that I did not understand. For those of you in the same boat, here are a few interpretations of some of those words.

The slush pile: All manuscripts and proposals/query letters that arrive at a publishing house with no editor's name attached to them. (Some publishing houses refuse to read slush.)

Over the transom: Another term for 'slush pile'.

the Backlist: These are those books that just keep on selling, year after year. If one of your books makes it to the backlist, you've arrived.

the Frontlist: This is a list of new books coming out. Only a very small percentage of these will go on to the backlist.

the Midlist: These are the books that do not have the potential to become best-sellers. Many publishing houses no longer accept or publish these kinds of books because of the low return on their investment.

Genre: This is the type of book - romance, western, crime and so on.

Trade Publishing: This is commercial publishing of general interest books, as opposed to scholarly and reference, or academic (although there is sometimes a crossover).

Trade Paperback: These are the larger sized paperback books, hardcover size with paper covers.

Mass Market: Mass Market books are small paperbacks.

Multiple Submissions: This is when the manuscript or book proposal is sent to more than one house at a time. Sending submissions to one publishing house at a time is too time consuming.

Remainders: This is how the publishing house gets rid of excess stock after the book has had all the sale it's going to have. Authors generally have the choice of buying up these remainders at a much reduced cost.

The Editor and Editing

Writing is fun; then comes the hard work - the editing. It's difficult to cut pieces from your baby, the story or article you slaved over for so long, but it must be done. It's easy to fall in love with your prose, with that sweetly constructed sentence, but if it doesn't belong in that story, it has to come out. You don't have to throw it away; file it somewhere and use it in another story or article.

The creative side of writing is best done when you are rested. I write early in the morning and edit in the late afternoons or evenings. When I first began to write, I had a lot of trouble with my editor, who wanted to be present for every word. I soon learnt to banish her from the room when I was in creative mode. In the late afternoons, when I begin to run out of steam, I invite my editor back in and let her go to work. She slashes and cuts and moves things around and leaves some suggestions for when I start back in the next morning.

When the work is, in my view, finished, usually after about the 3rd or 4th draft, I put the manuscript away to rest and begin on the next. Only when I have another work ready for resting, do I take the first manuscript out. I then let my editor read it with a fresh eye; I am no longer surprised when she finds mistakes, or more suggestions to improve the work. Time seems to put a distance between me and the story so that I can read it as my readers would. Only after I have finished this stage do I send my work out to find a home.

Ways of Reading

Reading is a strange business. It's not really about waiting for the writer to 'tell' you what the story has to say; it's only when the author is silent that the work will actually 'speak' to its reader. In other words, you, the reader ,will bring something to a good piece of writing, will work with the characters to construct the story. Imagine, when you read, that someone is saying something to you, and that you will be afforded the opportunity to say something back. Even when you don't fully understand what you are reading, you trust that by the end you will have learned.

There are many ways to 'read' a text. On the one hand, we hopefully learn something new, about the characters and about ourselves. We are given knowledge, new facts, or new ways to look at something old. There are also those things that we bring to the text ourselves, from our own experiences, whether the writer meant them to be there or not. This is what is meant by interpretation. Ten people could read the same text and when they come to discuss it, if it is a good piece of work then there will probably be ten different interpretations of it.

The way we read the books we read should help us when we come to write our own. We should think about what it is that we look for in a book, and what we don't like about some books, and consider these when constructing our own works. We should give to our readers what we expect to find in a story or novel.

Crime Writing

Have you ever read a book of crime and been astonished at the writer's lack of knowledge of police procedure? I have, and I threw the book down in disgust. If you want to be a crime writer, you need to do your research. You might be wonderful prose writer, but if you can't get your facts right, you won't be read.

If it's to be a book about murder, what will be the method of murder you will use in your book? Will it be gun, poison, staged accident, knife ... even if you think you know everything about the method you choose, you will still need to do your research. What about the disposal of the body? How will your protagonist achieve this and what will be the end results. Following on from this will be the methods of detection; forensics is a field that is changing almost daily as new ways of catching criminals out are discovered.

If your work is going as far as the courtroom, there will be criminal law to be researched. What is allowed or not allowed in a courtroom in the country your novel is set in?

Having an expert cast their eye over your work will help but this is not always easy, unless you are lucky enough to know a policeman, or a lawyer. However, you may be able to find a law or forensics student at your local university who would be happy read your manuscript in return for a few dollars.

Breathing Life into your Characters

If you want your reader to care about your characters, you have to make them so alive that they will step off the page. Your readers should continue thinking about those characters long after they have closed the last page of your book. Think about some of the characters you've met in literature. Who are your favourites? Do you feel as if they are alive, or actually lived in some part of the world, even though you never physically met them? Why do or did they seem so alive to you? Character development is one of those elements of writing that you will need to master before you even begin writing your book.

Analysis is a tool every writers should be prepared to use during their apprenticeship. Look at the writings of your favourite authors and try to see what they did to make their characters come to life. What do you know about the characters? Make a list. Don't list what the author 'told' you, but what you deduced on some other level. Look at the clues you, as a reader, were given by the writer - the character's upbringing and traumas they or someone close to them suffered. Everything that happened to them before they stepped into your book will direct their actions.

Humans are moved to do the things they do because they are motivated by some force, either external or internal. You have to give your characters the motivation to act in the ways that they will do in your book. Your characters will have to be well-rounded and do only those things that would fit in with their make-up. Don't 'tell' your readers all about them; plant clues and let the reader fill in the blanks. This will make that character more real to them than if you had placed a photograph on the page. Descriptions are just that - words to describe - but actions, as we all know, speak louder than words.

Make your characterts luminous so that your readers will continue to wonder about their lives, long after the book story is ended.

Creative Nonfiction

For many years I thought that 'creative' and 'nonfiction' were two separate things, that the job of the nonfiction writer was to inform their readers, to teach them, and the creative writer's job was to entertain readers. Not so. Research into how we learn has shown that we learn best when we are entertained as we learn new things. The strongest memories we have come from emotion and if we can arouse emotion in our readers, then our words, what we are aiming to 'teach', will be embedded in their memory.

Keep this in mind as you compose your nonfiction pieces. Make sure you include all the facts, but put some humour in there, if it's warranted, or some nonfactual asides. Be creative in the way you present the facts and write so as to engage your reader. Put something of yourself in there too. Don't keep repeating facts you've already given; credit your reader with the intelligence to understand what you are saying without your having to beat them about the head with the same facts clothed in a different light.

Passion and Writing

Write about what you know. This is good advice for the beginner writer. I would also add that you should write about those things that arouse passion in you. We've all read a piece of work that is flawless but were left unmoved. On the other hand, I've read work that contained errors in grammar and spelling, but which left me feeling as if I'd read a masterpiece. The difference was the passion and sincerity in the one, and the lack of it in the other.

When we write about what we know, we write with authority. We can't fake sincerity and we shouldn't insult our readers by trying to do so. If you don't know your subject well, you can still write about it, but spend some quality time researching the topic. Even if you do know it well, research will confirm this for you and perhaps save you any embarrassement later.

Writing a Query Letter

You're an editor. You have arrived at your desk and sigh when you see the pile of letters awaiting you. You have an important meeting with your managing editor in half an hour and you can't put off going through what you know is a bunch of query letters from hopeful freelance writers. You have to look at them but you don't have to read right through each letter. You quickly scan through the pile but if the letter is more than two pages, you put it aside; if you aren't interested in reading on after the first paragraph, you put those letters aside too. If you're lucky, you are left with one or two interesting queries.

As a writer, your aim is to have the editor notice you, to take your letter and read it right through, and to hopefully offer you a commission - or at least, a promise to look at the finished work. You've begun with all the right tools - clean white paper and a good printer with plenty of dark ink so you don't strain the editor's eyes -and have targeted the right market and know the editor's name; now you have to actually write something.

Editors are busy people and they want experienced writers. Experienced writers know that the query letter is as important as the finished article and they will work on that letter until it is everything it should be. What should a query letter be? What information should it contain? How can you phrase it so that any editor reading it will want to know more?

Your idea is only good if it grabs the reader from the very first words. Your query letter is no different. Editors read a lot of letters and submissions and they learn to scan quickly; your aim is to stop that scanning, to make them linger over the words, to read them all, and with excitement. Yes, it's the same thing that you do with your article or story - hook the reader.

Clearly communicate the topic of your article or book. You can be straightforward, or you can open with a surprise, a question, or something about you, the writer and your expertise, if you feel that this is more important to your topic.

Be succinct and clear; don't let a good opening paragraph deteriorate into waffle. The middle section of your query letter is where you sell your idea, and the ending is where you sell the fact that you, and only you, can tell this story or write this article. Tell the editor what s/he needs to know to whet their appetite, but don't reveal the whole thing. This part takes practice; tell too little and you've lost them; tell too much and the article is already written! Don't forget to mention how many words your article or book manuscript will run for.

An experienced writer will send a few copies of similar published work with their query letter. If you don't have any publishing credits, don't despair. Life experience counts as well and you can mention these, either in your closing paragraph, or throughout the whole letter. Just make sure that these revelations blend in naturally with your topic.

Writing a Query Letter

You're an editor. You have arrived at your desk and sigh when you see the pile of letters awaiting you. You have an important meeting with your managing editor in half an hour and you can't put off going through what you know is a bunch of query letters from hopeful freelance writers. You have to look at them but you don't have to read right through each letter. You quickly scan through the pile but if the letter is more than two pages, you put it aside; if you aren't interested in reading on after the first paragraph, you put those letters aside too. If you're lucky, you are left with one or two interesting queries.

As a writer, your aim is to have the editor notice you, to take your letter and read it right through, and to hopefully offer you a commission - or at least, a promise to look at the finished work. You've begun with all the right tools - clean white paper and a good printer with plenty of dark ink so you don't strain the editor's eyes -and have targeted the right market and know the editor's name; now you have to actually write something.

Editors are busy people and they want experienced writers. Experienced writers know that the query letter is as important as the finished article and they will work on that letter until it is everything it should be. What should a query letter be? What information should it contain? How can you phrase it so that any editor reading it will want to know more?

Your idea is only good if it grabs the reader from the very first words. Your query letter is no different. Editors read a lot of letters and submissions and they learn to scan quickly; your aim is to stop that scanning, to make them linger over the words, to read them all, and with excitement. Yes, it's the same thing that you do with your article or story - hook the reader.

Clearly communicate the topic of your article or book. You can be straightforward, or you can open with a surprise, a question, or something about you, the writer and your expertise, if you feel that this is more important to your topic.

Be succinct and clear; don't let a good opening paragraph deteriorate into waffle. The middle section of your query letter is where you sell your idea, and the ending is where you sell the fact that you, and only you, can tell this story or write this article. Tell the editor what s/he needs to know to whet their appetite, but don't reveal the whole thing. This part takes practice; tell too little and you've lost them; tell too much and the article is already written! Don't forget to mention how many words your article or book manuscript will run for.

An experienced writer will send a few copies of similar published work with their query letter. If you don't have any publishing credits, don't despair. Life experience counts as well and you can mention these, either in your closing paragraph, or throughout the whole letter. Just make sure that these revelations blend in naturally with your topic.

What is Poetry?

There are many definitions of poetry. Coleridge said that, "Poetry = the best words in the best order." Pasternak, more poetically, said that it is, "the crunch of jostling ice floes, it is two nightingales duelling." Basically, and more mundanely, poetry is prose written down in specific line order on a page. "If prose is walking," someone said, "poetry is dancing." The language poets use, the words, are under a stress that gives them beauty and meaning. The poet gives the reader, in few words, a story and a feeling, an emotion.

Here's a little exercise for you. Take a blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. (Don't use your keyboard; you need to feel the pen or pencil slipping over the paper.)

Now, close your eyes and picture your mother's room, your baby's room, your boyfriend's room - the room of anyone dear to you. When it's clear in your mind, write: In my ...................'s room...

Don't stop now, keep writing what you see or feel about that room, and don't worry about line length, rhyme or rhythm just yet. Break the lines where you feel it is right, and begin a new line. Keep going until you run out of things to write.

When you have finished your first draft, look at what you have written. Is there anything in there that brings something back to you, some forgotten memory, some feeling? Rewrite it, focussing on that one point. Keep it short.

For your next draft, you will look at the words you have used. Are they the very best words for that thought, for that feeling? Is there a metaphor you can use to convey the thought without stating it so clearly? What words can be cut out without affecting the whole? How do the line endings work and are the pauses in the right places. Look now at rhythm; rhyme is not necessary but even free poetry must have rhythm. Tap out the rhythm as you read the words to see how it fits ... dah, de dah, de dah, dah....

Keep writing and rewriting until you feel that it is as polished and as fresh and new as you can possible make it. Compare it with your earlier drafts before deciding that this is your final draft though. Sometimes, in the constant redrafting, the freshness of those first thoughts and words can be lost.

When you are happy with it, make a clean copy and send it out to find a home in some anthology, or book of poetry.

Recipe for The Muse

All writers and artists think that they are the only one who struggles with their muse. In the case of writers, they see the finished book of a published writer and compare that to their own work-in-progress. They don't get to see the early drafts of that book; if they did, they would sometimes barely recognise it as the same work. Only the published writer of any particular book knows how many drafts, how many long hours were spent bringing it up to publication standard. We've all heard of an 'overnight sensation' who points out that it didn't happen overnight at all, that they had been there all along, polishing their craft so it gleamed amongst all the other struggling artists, until they were finally 'noticed'. It's the noticing that seems to happen 'overnight' not the polished performance, or book, or work of art.

A word of warning here: do not show your early drafts to family. If they love you, of course they are going to think it is wonderful. Generally, friends don't work either, so unless you know someone whose opinion you truly value, don't show it to friends either. Until your work is in book form you should not be seeking readers who will only offer you approval. When you are getting to final draft stage, and you need constructive criticism, you need other writers. At the beginning of your writing career, a writers circle or club is ideal. My post tomorrow will talk about these, and other options.

Forget about other writers and their muse and concentrate on the job at hand, the draft of the manuscript you are working on right now. In my opinion, muse is just a term that covers many aspects of writing. Here's my recipe for you to create your own muse (the proportions are my own; yours may be different. Experiment until you have it right.):

Creating a Muse

10% determination
10% commitment
1% inspiration
1% motivation

Add to the above - 78% perspiration and a sprinkling of passion

Use this mix on a regular basis, daily or weekly, whatever suits your program. Applying it in the same location each time will help your muse rise to the occasion.

As you progress, you will discover that you need less of one component and more of another. Everyone's muse is different; you just need to experiment to find your perfect mix. It's natural to feel insecure about your work, everyone does and just knowing this helps me over those days when my muse mix is a little off. I just adjust it and move on.

As you write, remember that nothing worthy of creation happens overnight.

A Pearl of an Idea

Where do ideas come from? How does a writer fill a pile of blank pages into a story or a book? These are questions most aspiring writers ask but the answers they receive will be many and varied.

"There's nothing new under the sun," the old saying goes; ideas are not the be all and end all of writing. You - the writer - need to present story and book ideas in a fresh and new way to your readers. Just as perfect grammar and a pristine manuscript will not ensure publication, neither will a good idea if it is not giving the reader a new look at something they usually know quite well.

Ideas are the fuels that feed our writing. How do you find them? Once you begin to look for ideas, you will see them everywhere. At the beginning of your writing career, you might keep an ideas notebook. Look at newspaper headlines for germs of ideas. Brainstorm on paper, letting the thoughts flow, writing until the flood dries up. When one thing doesn't work, try another. Change your location, and/or your method. If you write sitting down, try standing or walking as you scribble. You could even lie on your back and study the ceiling, or the clouds. Change the times that you try reaching for ideas. Do you need to be in a busy place, or do you prefer to be alone? Keep experimenting until you find what works for you.

Most of my ideas come from my own life experiences. Often, I use one moment of an event and build a fictitious story around that. At other times, I turn an actual event around and say: "What if I, or he, or she had done this, instead of that? What might have happened?"

Sometimes I feel that my idea is not worthy, that nothing will come of it. That's when I remember the oyster. A pearl begins life as a little piece of grit that worries the oyster so much that it covers it with layers and layers of its essence. An idea that grows into a story is like that little piece of grit -it's when it is finished that it is a thing of beauty so don't worry your ideas into extinction before you see what they might become.

Find your little piece of grit and cover it with enough words to change its shape so that it becomes more than it was. Like the oyster, you just might end up with a thing of beauty.

Discipline, Determination, and Commitment

It takes discipline to be a writer, particularly if you are freelancing or working from home. There's always something lurking nearby that is screaming out for attention, such as lawns to be mowed, washing to be done, the house to clean. This is where determination and commitment come in. Having your own 'work space' helps; I find it easier to get to work if I treat it as a separate environment. After breakfast and necessary chores, I get ready for work, then I go to work. I give myself regular breaks for tea and lunch, and I structure my work day to get the most out of it.

Deadlines help too and if I don't have a deadline from an editor, I set one for myself. Some people work well under pressure and will leave the work until the very last thing, rushing to beat that looming deadline; for me, deadlines spur me on in a different way. I have to beat them and will do everything in my power to make sure that my work is finished well before time. To my mind, this allows me the freedom to leave my 'completed' draft alone for a day or two, or even a week in some cases, before I come back to it with a fresh eye for a final edit. If I put myself under pressure, I make silly mistakes.

Keeping a work diary also helps me with commitment. In it I record what work I began on a particular day, with a note as to when I expect it to be completed. I then write a note ahead in my diary on the selected date for that deadline. When the work is finished, I note the date it was actually finished, where I sent the finished article, and when I expect to receive a reply from that editor or competition organiser. If the work, in my opinion, is not good enough to be sent anywhere, I file it in a folder in "my documents" and may come back to it at a future date, to work on it some more.

Reading through my diary now and again shows me where I can improve my work practices - and there is always room for improvement. I know that if I commit and am determined, and if I discipline myself, my writing will improve. Success breeds more motivation, and if inspiration is lacking, I'll work without it.

Motivation and Inspiration

Most writers I know are not filled with, or struck by, inspiration every day, so where do they find the motivation to write? Someone much wiser than I once said that he sat down in front of a blank page every day, and if inspiration hadn't arrived by 9 a.m. he began without it! Writing is a little like exercise - one has to get into the habit of doing it often, or one doesn't do it at all. Like our physical muscles, the mind needs a warm-up routine; once our muscles are warm they are ready to work-out.

Motivation, for me, comes after I begin to work. When I first began writing, fear held me back. The words in my head were brilliant - I thought - but when I put them down on paper, once they became concrete, they were sadly lacking. But I stuck with it and in time the fear faded. To compare writing to exercising again, once you build up your muscles, the work-outs become easier. So it is with writing.

With any exercise routine, we begin small and increase the repetitions, or the speed, over time; so it is with writing if you find yourself without motivation and/or inspiration. Set goals for your writing; begin with a paragraph a day and gradually build this up until you are writing at least a page a day. Don't think too much about what you are writing, just do it. Soon it will be a habit and, like most habits, hard to break.

Keeping a journal also helps; a journal is for your eyes only and you will not be so critical. Record whatever you like in there: observations; snippets of overheard conversation; ideas; cuttings from magazines or newspapers; photographs ... and so on. If you prefer to look for inspiration, rather than wait for it to come to you, go through your journal on a regular basis; you might be surprised at the writing ideas your jottings will inspire.

Another way to get into the right frame of mind for writing is to read over what you wrote in your previous writing session. Don't worry too much about editing at this stage, just read to put yourself back into the world of your story, and then begin to write.

Try to write in the same place, and at the same time every day, or every week if that's all the time you can manage, and if possible don't use that space for any other activity. In time, just being 'there', in your writing space, will be all the motivation you will need.

Marketing your Work

You're a writer and you've written a wonderful piece - a short story, an article, a novel - and now you need to send it out to an editor or a publisher. Who do you send it to? In America, and increasingly in Australia, publishers prefer to read work submitted through an agent. Agents, however, often require the writers they place on their lists to have a publishing history. It's a catch 22 situation but there are ways around it, and there are people who have submitted work directly to the 'slush pile' and found publication.

If you need to find an agent, first build up a publishing history with smaller works, published in quality anthologies, local media, university publications and the like. Join a writers group in your area - through them and/or their newsletter you will receive news of competitions you can enter; a prize in a prestigious competition can earn you cudos. Do some research on agents, either online or via a plethora of books that contain information about this subject. Talk to other writers about agents and see if one of them is registered with one you like the look of. Sometimes, an introduction by anther writer will get you a foot in the door. If you 'known' in any area of your life for any speciality you are expert at, and it is about that that you are writing, this too will be looked upon favourably.

If an agent is not for you, submit to the slush pile by all means; but make sure that your work will stand out from the crowd. This does not mean that you should print your manuscript in fancy font, or on coloured paper, and bound with ribbon! Doing something like this screams 'amateur' and the editor you hoped would read your work often sends it right back - unread. That's if it gets to the editors desk; publishing houses employ staff to go through the slush pile, weeding out manuscripts like that.

Of course, some publishing houses miss out big-time on brilliant manuscripts from their slush piles by not reading everything sent to them, but they often receive many thousands of unsolicited manuscripts and just don't have the time or the staff to go through them all, so they take the risk.

As for who you should submit your manuscript to - this also needs research. Some writers choose their market first; others write first and look for a market afterwards. Go online to see what publishers are looking for. Does what you have written fall into their genre? Look at the back of the title pages in books on the shelf at your local bookstore (the reverso); here you will find the publishers’ name. Don't make the mistake of sending your brilliantly written piece about Gardening in Drought to the editor of a sports publication - unless your garden is set around a sports playing field and is somehow relevant to a particular sport, in which case you will need to reflect this in the title of your piece.

Send your manuscript to 'the editor', but first ascertain the editor's name. This shows professionalism. If you've written a query letter and have been asked to submit some sample chapters, make sure that you submit only what is asked for. If they like your work they will ask for the rest. Make sure you have read and understood the publisher’s guidelines, which are available from publishing houses online, or by request.

If you have written a piece that stands out from the crowd and it is professionally presented, you are well on your way to publication.

The Query Letter

A query letter is an outline of your idea or story; You will send a query letter to an editor when you are writing non-fiction. You don't need to send a query letter if your work is a short piece that does not need extensive research, but if your idea will require a lot of time and effort, and is longer than 1,000 words, a query letter is a good idea. If an editor likes your idea you will be armed with a powerful tool when approaching people for interviews; you can truthfully say that "Ms X, editor of xxxx, has shown interest in this piece."

A query letter is short, formal but not stuffy, and professionally presented. It will be as polished as you can make it, and will be written so as to catch the editor's eye. Don't just rush off a letter to a publisher without first doing some research.

Will the piece you are planning fit the publication you are approaching? Why will it appeal to the reader's of that publication? You could speak about this in your query letter, and quote some of your research to show the editor that you have done your homework, and that you are a professional.

Synopsis or Outline?

A synopsis is a way of outlining your story in a logical, chronological manner. The synopsis will show the high points of plot, the development of character/s, and the resolution. The outline is very different. An outline of a story tells what happens in a detached manner. It is often in point form and can be a dry rendering of your story.

A synopsis, on the other hand, is a narrative and it will show your story’s progress from beginning to end by describing how the plot and character development are affected by each other.

A synopsis is a tool, a selling tool. The synopsis will probably be your only chance to sell yourself and your writing, or your writing technique. Most publishing houses only want to see sample chapters of your work so the synopsis is your opportunity to demonstrate your talent for writing. If the editor reading your synopsis likes your writing style, and the sample chapters are as well done and in the same tone, then chances are s/he is going to want to see more of your manuscript.

That’s the whole idea of the synopsis, to get an editor interested enough to want to read all your manuscript, which will increase your chances of a publishing contract, so give the writing of your synopsis as much attention as you gave to your manuscript.

Bookmark these pages for coming posts that will give you some helpful tips on how to write a winning synopsis.

The little Apostrophe looms large

The apostrophe looms large in the eyes of many writers, and it's such a little thing. I see its misuse everywhere, in my newspaper, on the internet, on menus in restaurants, and on signs, and am so grateful that we don't use accents in our written language. Why am I still writing about the humble apostrophe? Because it's part of our language, and part of the way we communicate, so it's important that it is used correctly. (See previous post about its and it's.)

I saw a sign a few days ago, on the window of a real estate agent, that proudly proclaimed, "You're home is in here!" Soon afterwards, I saw another sign, on another window: "Come in; your welcome" was boldly writ upon the glass. The message that both of these businesses were communicating was not what they intended it to be.

Where and when to use the apostrophe can be confusing but if we remember that the apostrophe is replacing a letter, (if it is not indicating the possessive), we will make less mistakes.

By using the apostrophe, we make a contraction, that is, two words joined together by the apostrophe. For example:

You're is a contraction of You + Are, so the sign in the real estate agent's window was actually saying: You are home is in here, which of course doesn't make sense. It should have read: Your home is in here!

The sign in the other window should have read: "Come in; you're (you are) welcome."

As always, we can test ourselves on the use or not of the apostrophe by looking at what we have written. If there is an apostrophe there, read it as the original two words. If it fits the sentence, it's okay; if it doesn't, take it out. On the other hand, if you don't have an apostrophe there, and you mean the one word to fill the place of two, you need to insert the apostrophe.

I'll discuss the use of the apostrophe with the possessive in a later post.

The dreaded ITS

A knowledge of grammar is important in writing, but once you know the rules it's okay to break them, as long as you have a good reason for doing so. Incorrect use of language should add meaning to the story you are telling. Of course, only use 'correct' grammar in dialogue if your character would speak that way. It's rare to find someone who speaks correctly and grammatically all the time, even university professors!

Usually, the apostrophe is used to indicate either the possessive, or to stand in for a missing letter. The former is a lengthy discussion in itself, so let's just look here at its use in the latter. The word its for instance; increasingly of late I've noticed that people are becoming more and more confused about when to use the apostrophe with this word.

The word it NEVER takes the possessive, so when you see it's, you know that it's a contraction of it is.

When you read through your work, stop and take note of every instance where you have written it's. Read the sentence again but this time, instead of saying, it's, say it is. Does it fit? If so, then using the apostrophe there is correct. If not, delete the apostrophe. If there is an its in the sentence, perhaps you mean it is, and so should add an apostrophe.

Here are a couple of examples:

Wrong: The dog was guarding it's [it is] ball.

Correct: The dog was guarding its ball. (Remember, its does not take the possessive.)

Wrong: Its a long way to the beach.

Correct: It's [it is] a long way to the beach.

This same exercise works well for any contracted words but be careful, for example, using there's [there is, singular] when you really mean there are [plural].

Writing - a lonely business?

I write because I 'must'; I also write in order to earn a living. Most of my income comes from associated activities, not the writing itself, but as long as I am working with words, I am deliriously happy.

I've heard it said that writing is a lonely life but I've never found it so. Once I am 'into' a piece of writing, I am in the text and no longer 'here'. The characters who people my work are so real they sometimes walk the floor with me as I pace, trying out different responses for them. On the other hand, in order to write I need to be alone. There are many people who can write, no matter where they are or who is around them, but not me. I can take notes, jot down ideas, and do research, but I cannot create.

Growing up in a large household, I didn't have the luxury of being alone, so never wrote. Married, working and with children, I was never alone either. Besides, in those days it was the women who did all the housework, the cooking, cleaning and so on, so time was short too. But those years were not wasted; I read voraciously, I kept journals, and I made notes and jotted down ideas.

It was only after my children were grown up that I finally had both the time and the space to write. I joined a writing group, I took classes, and I got involved in the writing community. In other words, I began my apprenticeship.

In these times, writers probably do have it a bit easier, with partners who are willing to lend a hand with the housework, but it still can be a long process from blank page to publication. It took a couple of years before I had my first piece published, and then there was a bit of a drought before the second; I have not seen a flood yet, but I do manage to earn enough to keep myself alive, and to enable me to continue to indulge my passion - words, language and writing.

A Work in Progress

This blog site is a work in progress. Please bear with me as I learn and publish.