Well here we go. This is going to be the twentieth and final excerpt in my series on how to write a novel. Go ahead and copy these lessons or save them however you want. I will leave them on line until I am finished with my eBook and then pretty much exactly what you are reading right now will cost. I wanted to offer my advice for free at first because I want people to feel the same passion for writing that I do and feel the tingling inside your body after you finish your first novel.
96. Do This Properly
You have to go out and get a Fed Ex package and get ready to send your book out. Make sure you’re not sloppy about doing this. Take the time to make sure everything is sealed up properly. Make sure it is all squared up. This package is going to be the first impression that a would be agent is going to see and if done sloppily things could go wrong for you right off the bat.
97. Give Your Novel Away
Okay whether you believe it or not the next step was the hardest one for me. I had to give my book away to someone I didn’t know. Remember this was my first book. It almost felt like I was giving one of my kids away. But you have to trust Fed Ex. After all this is what they do. Make sure you keep your receipt. Now you may as well forget about your novel because it is very, very rare that you ever hear anything sooner than 2 months.
98. Kind Of Fun
You have worked hard to get your novel written and submitted so now you can have some fun with it. It’s time to relax and let your hair down. Go ahead and have a drink or something and think about the future of your book. Imagine that it gets picked up for a movie. Start thinking about which famous actor is going to play the lead. Think about who is going to play the other parts. Just remember this is all in fun but in life you have to allow yourself to dream.
99. Just Forget About It
Remember you have to wait at least two months and in several cases you will wait longer for a response if one even comes. Do not even think about doing anything before two months. If after a couple of months you haven’t heard anything then by all means you can send a short letter to the agent. I do mean short. Make sure it is just an inquiry letter and not something that is going to look like your pleading your case.
100. This Sucks But Its Normal
Rejection does suck but you have to turn it into positives. At least you know your work is getting looked at. Follow through on the suggestions that most agents will send with rejection slips. Don’t forget that most of the famous authors out there were rejected numerous times before their works were published. If you take it personally then I can guarantee that your writing career is over so instead of pouting while you are waiting go ahead and start your next novel. You will be surprised how much easier the next one will be to write.
Well now it is time for this series to come to an end. I hope everyone has enjoyed it and even more I hope you have started using it. Please keep watching for more writing tips from me. I will be doing a couple of more long series but I will also be doing a lot of shorter How To Write lessons on several different topics. So now I will sign off and let you get you novel going. Remember you write for yourself first and everybody else second.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Showing posts with label read. Show all posts
Showing posts with label read. Show all posts
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 15)
This is going to be the fifteenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
71. Read And Cut Some More
Clichés are terrible. First of all there not original. Secondly they sound tacky and there really is no room in your story for them. They may sound all cutesy at first but trust me your readers won’t get to read them because the story will never get past the publisher. So make it easy on yourself and get rid of them. Once in a while there is a time to use them but not too often.
72. ( /?)&! Too Many Is No Good
Now you are going to go through your story and get rid of all the unnecessary, annoying exclamation marks and such. Because in truth if you write well then your readers will know that your characters are yelling without having 6 exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. That may be alright if you are writing in your diary or a letter to a friend but believe me when I say it just doesn’t work in your book.
73. Use Proper Language
There may be a few people who enjoy reading vulgar, or sexual language but most people detest it in their readings. This kind of language has a place in certain books and magazines but not in most. Fancy words that no one understands are not great things to use either. Your reader wants to understand what’s being said. Remember the story has to flow. It has to be real life and not many people use these words unless in specialty stories that most of the general public are not going to read any ways.
74. While You’re Cutting
You may as well get rid of the useless phrases that you put in your story just to fill pages. If a book is 20 pages shorter when you are done that’s okay because we all know the old saying that quality is better than quantity. Just keep reading your story and you will for sure pick out the things that just don’t belong.
75. Read It Again
This time you are going to read your entire book into a tape recorder. Read it the way its suppose to sound. Make sure the emphasis is where it is suppose to be. Then you are going to listen to your tape and see what it sounds like. If the words don’t flow naturally then this is the time to fix them.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 15. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
71. Read And Cut Some More
Clichés are terrible. First of all there not original. Secondly they sound tacky and there really is no room in your story for them. They may sound all cutesy at first but trust me your readers won’t get to read them because the story will never get past the publisher. So make it easy on yourself and get rid of them. Once in a while there is a time to use them but not too often.
72. ( /?)&! Too Many Is No Good
Now you are going to go through your story and get rid of all the unnecessary, annoying exclamation marks and such. Because in truth if you write well then your readers will know that your characters are yelling without having 6 exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. That may be alright if you are writing in your diary or a letter to a friend but believe me when I say it just doesn’t work in your book.
73. Use Proper Language
There may be a few people who enjoy reading vulgar, or sexual language but most people detest it in their readings. This kind of language has a place in certain books and magazines but not in most. Fancy words that no one understands are not great things to use either. Your reader wants to understand what’s being said. Remember the story has to flow. It has to be real life and not many people use these words unless in specialty stories that most of the general public are not going to read any ways.
74. While You’re Cutting
You may as well get rid of the useless phrases that you put in your story just to fill pages. If a book is 20 pages shorter when you are done that’s okay because we all know the old saying that quality is better than quantity. Just keep reading your story and you will for sure pick out the things that just don’t belong.
75. Read It Again
This time you are going to read your entire book into a tape recorder. Read it the way its suppose to sound. Make sure the emphasis is where it is suppose to be. Then you are going to listen to your tape and see what it sounds like. If the words don’t flow naturally then this is the time to fix them.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 15. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 14)
This is going to be the fourteenth excerpt on writing your novel. I am going to try and put these editions out as quickly as I can but that is only when time allows. I love writing and that is what I am doing all the time. Am I a good writer? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am getting to be a better writer with every word I put on paper and you too can become a good writer. To write your novel just follow these steps that I am laying out and at the end you will have something that at least you are proud of.
66. Reading Your Work
Now everybody is going to go back and read their entire book from cover to cover. Don’t get your eraser and pencil out yet because it’s not quite time for that yet. I want you to start reading your book out loud. You’re going to find stuff in there that you don’t like but that’s okay. Don’t fret it. Just make a mental note and keep reading. Very important. Don’t start crossing stuff out yet or adding stuff because the most important part you are trying to determine is how the book is going to flow.
67. Cutting Your Story
Ok now the time has come. You are going to go through your story paragraph by paragraph. I will guarantee there is going to be stuff you want to cut and stuff you want to add so now is the time. Go ahead and start editing. Get rid of the good for nothing phrases that you put in there as fillers and add the content that you forgot or came up with later.
68. Read Again
You already read your book out loud once and now you’re going to do it again but this time you’re going to do it one page at a time. You will stop at the end of each page. You will read that one page as many times as you need to so that you can get rid of poor sentence structure or maybe you are going to add something. Don’t go on to the next page until you are happy with the last one. I am warning you that this can get redundant and even boring but you have to keep excited because this is all parts in writing a book.
69. Excessive Stuff
Now you want to have a look at your work and cut all the unnecessary stuff. Too many metaphors or similes. The similes will kill you. However it is important that you don’t cut stuff you’re going to regret. So once again I stress that you take your time and make sure everything sounds good.
70. Cutting Tips
Here’s a little trick when you are cutting stuff from your story. It is almost a guarantee that you have put too much meat into your paragraphs so this is what you are going to do. You are going to go ahead and cut either one adjective or adverb out of each paragraph in your story. Remember this isn’t a hard fast rule. You might have a paragraph that you can’t afford to cut but I am willing to bet that most paragraphs will be able to be cut.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 14. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
66. Reading Your Work
Now everybody is going to go back and read their entire book from cover to cover. Don’t get your eraser and pencil out yet because it’s not quite time for that yet. I want you to start reading your book out loud. You’re going to find stuff in there that you don’t like but that’s okay. Don’t fret it. Just make a mental note and keep reading. Very important. Don’t start crossing stuff out yet or adding stuff because the most important part you are trying to determine is how the book is going to flow.
67. Cutting Your Story
Ok now the time has come. You are going to go through your story paragraph by paragraph. I will guarantee there is going to be stuff you want to cut and stuff you want to add so now is the time. Go ahead and start editing. Get rid of the good for nothing phrases that you put in there as fillers and add the content that you forgot or came up with later.
68. Read Again
You already read your book out loud once and now you’re going to do it again but this time you’re going to do it one page at a time. You will stop at the end of each page. You will read that one page as many times as you need to so that you can get rid of poor sentence structure or maybe you are going to add something. Don’t go on to the next page until you are happy with the last one. I am warning you that this can get redundant and even boring but you have to keep excited because this is all parts in writing a book.
69. Excessive Stuff
Now you want to have a look at your work and cut all the unnecessary stuff. Too many metaphors or similes. The similes will kill you. However it is important that you don’t cut stuff you’re going to regret. So once again I stress that you take your time and make sure everything sounds good.
70. Cutting Tips
Here’s a little trick when you are cutting stuff from your story. It is almost a guarantee that you have put too much meat into your paragraphs so this is what you are going to do. You are going to go ahead and cut either one adjective or adverb out of each paragraph in your story. Remember this isn’t a hard fast rule. You might have a paragraph that you can’t afford to cut but I am willing to bet that most paragraphs will be able to be cut.
I know a lot of this seems like it’s going nowhere but trust me I write this from experience. Writing a book is no easy task. I wish someone would have helped me out like this when I first started writing. I will tell you one thing. Now this relates to me and it could to you but you have to want it to. No matter how hard the writing got I never disliked it. I still love writing and maybe this is a pipe dream but I hope to be able to retire and live totally off the money I earn from writing. Okay this is the end of lesson 14. I hope you are enjoying it so far. I also hope you are taking advantage of the opportunity to print this out because if all goes well I will make this into an e book so take advantage of it free.
Dale Mazurek
Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ and lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.
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