BUZZ-BUZZ, BOOK BUZZ

The Festival on LYRIS 5 by Nick Daws

Wow! I've read some of Nick's non-fiction works, but until the Blog Party, I didn't know Nick wrote fiction for publishing.

The Festival on LYRIS 5 is certainly a fun read. Nick adds humor in word choices and the precarious situations Rick Barrett finds himself in this fast paced galactic adventure. There is the perfect amount of SciFi 'stuff' to satisfy fans of Science Fiction, yet it isn't so hard-core to be off putting for any reader of any age.

As to be expected from Nick, LYRIS 5 is well written and engaging from the first moment to the last. I didn't see the big twist coming at the end and would have never, ever imagined it.

This is a fantastic little book (novella) which is complemented by the wry illustrations of Louise Tolentino. If I did book reviews The Festival on LYRIS 5 would get a galaxy full of stars.


Nick Daws is a professional freelance writer in the UK.
Visit Nick's fantastic blog: http://www.mywritingblog.com/
Purchase The Festival on LYRIS 5 here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-festival-on-lyris-five/5217081 or go to http://www.lulu.com/ and search by author or title.

Manuscript Formatting

To continue the list I started last week:

These things can be set up to happen automatically:

a) 1" margins all around. Top, Bottom, and both sides;
b) Double space lines;
c) Number pages, either top right or bottom right - you wouldn't believe the number of people who don't number the pages;
d) Header on every page, the order varies, but the header should contain the working title and the author's name (or at least last name);
e) Title page should include contact information in the lower left corner, (name, mailing address, phone number, email address, genre and word count);
f) It is my personal preference to have widows & orphans turned OFF, but probably most people accept either format. I think it looks less 'neat' with it turned on, though be careful about them. Google or go to 'help' in your software and learn what Widows & Orphans are -- especially if you are going to self publish and have to do the formatting. They really make a book look self-published (in a bad way);
g) Use a sensible font and pt size. Agents read such a large part of their day, make it easy on their eyes. Don't get cute with fonts. Besides, if it is online rather than in print, your font might not be supported by their software. Someone once used a font I didn't have (hard to imagine, I have tons of them) and it was $29+ to purchase it -- I passed.

These things have to be done manually:

a) One space (only) between sentences.
b) Insert page breaks at the end of a chapter so the new chapter begins at the top of a new page. Do not hit the 'enter' key repeatedly to do this, you have to use the page break function or you are totally screwed when you edit or do rewrites.
c) Center Chapter heading, use the center function, do not tab over and guess at the center. A computer might seem like a modern typewriter, but it behaves differently if you don't use the computer functions.
d) Use the tab rather than the space bar to begin a new paragraph.
e) Technically the first sentence of a Chapter is not indented. I ignore this because I begin my books (always) with a line of dialogue.

I'm sure I've forgotten a thing or two. I do these things automatically because I have done them for years. Sitting here looking out the window at the snow it is a bit harder to think of them for a list. Review their website, many agents and publishers list specific guidelines for submissions. These serve two functions, they want things that way and they want to see if you can follow instructions.

This stuff is for fiction mss, not for non-fiction...though a memoir is not fiction, it is done in a novel or fiction format.

Additions to this info or questions about it are welcome in the comment section. We're all in this together. Like Nick said yesterday, don't obsess - but do remember you are applying for a job as a novelist against tons of other applicants. Look sharp. Write well.

More on Manuscrips (mss)

The question continues on the 'single' or "double" quote marks for dialogue in UK mss. I asked UK writing guru, Nick Daws, his opinion since he is my "go-to guy" and head moderator of MyWritingCircle.com writer's forum.

Nick said:
Both single and double quotes are used in Britain. I would say that single quotes are still more common, but double are widely used as well. Of course, quite a lot of books we get here are by US authors originally. I guess their UK publishers don't think it's worth bothering to change all the quotes from double to single!

In the end, a lot of it probably comes down to house style. An independent UK publishing house I've had some dealings with, Tindal Street Press, uses single quotes in all of its books. Large, multi-national publishers often use double, though. I suppose it's more convenient for them to apply one style in all the countries they operate in.

I followed up with asking what he would do if he was submitting an ms to a UK literary agent and here is his answer:

Personally, with a UK publisher, I would use single quote marks unless there was good reason for using double. But really, I don't think it's that important, as long as you're consistent.

So there you have it.

I've thought more about formatting mss, since I don't want to short sheet the information that I can share.

It is far easier to set up your word processing software in the beginning than to go back and fix everything after the fact. If you are the hands on type of learner, here is an easy tip:

Paste a page of your ms into a new document. Then go through the menus at the top of the page (or ribbons if you are using MS Word 07). Go through each drop down menu item, even if you know what "print" and "save" is. Take your time and when you get the print window, explore each thing that you can click on to customize the features. You don't have to waste a ton of paper, but do look at each item and explore what it does.

Continue methodically working your way though each function until you come to something new. Learn it. If it is a simple task, move on to the next item. It is a waste of time to go through this quickly and not really learn the new functions.

This will take a week or maybe two, but you should know a whole lot more about your software and be able to command the functions you need to produce a professional looking ms after you've mastered your software.

I use WordPerfect and can customize my tool bar. One of the things I did was to change "save" to "save as" so that I would be prompted rather than accidentally overwrite something in haste...or fatigue. Most likely you can do this with MS Word, though I am only aware of the small tool bar at the top left that can be customized. However, you need to learn and master the software you use.

Tomorrow I'll make a more comprehensive list than I mentioned last week.

Meet Nick Daws, professional writer and contributor to the Blog Party: http://www.mywritingblog.com/

The Last Draft

One of the things I wasn't going to do with my blog was write about how to write. For one thing, there is tons of stuff on the internet about writing - not to mention all the books on how to write.

Well, anyway - I've gone and done it, haven't I?

Okay...the next tip is to put away the perfect little ms and research the literary agents or publishers for a list of where it will be submitted. When that gets boring, work on query letters.

Then pull out that ready-to-go ms and read it aloud. Is it really ready to go? Listen to what you are saying. If that ms was written by someone else would it really be finished? Best go through it with an objective eye. You only get one shot to shop that ms to each of your targets. Make it a good one.

Some people say the most common error is shopping an ms before it is ready for a professional to read it. I agree. Put your best foot forward.

Get everything ready, your ms, your query letter, your synopsis, and your list of targets (agents or publishers). Then begin to query.

Dialogue Tags -- according to...ME!

Keep in mind that I write literary fiction. It isn't something many people write and for good reason, it isn't all that popular.

More or less, though, there are writing skills that cross the genre. This is, of course, my take on how to write. The popular wisdom runs the gamut on dialogue tags from zero, nada, absolutely never to use what is needed.

It is one of the most annoying things I've found in reading is to lose track of who is saying what in a conversation. It annoys me so much that the second time I have to stop reading the story to count down and figure out who said a particular line, I toss the book in the trash bin. So here is my take.

One thing that should help is it is unlikely every character talks like every other character. That helps with keeping straight who is talking. For example, in High Tide, Shasta is a six year old who lived on the street with her homeless family. Now what are the odds that she is going to speak well? Slim. So Shasta throws in a double negative every once in a while, because that is how real kids talk. The nuns, on the other hand, generally speak in full sentences. Other's speech is determined by their ethnicity. And, if you've read my books, the Parade Lady really plays a trick on Kathryn with her Southern Rural Appalachian dialect. So number 1 on the list is make the characters speak like they would in real life according to how you have described them.

Another thing that can be done is to make the narrative surrounding the dialogue clear enough about the situation that it is clear what is happening and the conversation makes innate sense. Don't go overboard and make the narrative boring or the reader will never get past it to the dialogue.

And finally, the basics:
a) When the dialogue is a short conversation of 6 or 8 lines between two people, it is probably going to be easy enough to follow without dialogue tags;

b) When person 1 and person 2 take turns, it is easy to keep track in a short conversation that goes 1-2-1-2-1-2. But if someone speaks outside of that ping-pong style, if someone interrupts and takes two turns, like 1-2-1-2-2-1 then it might be necessary to tag the switch up. Certainly give that conversation a second or third going over to make sure it is clear to your reader;

c) When it is a two person conversation that is rather long, add a dialogue tag once in a while as a benchmark to make it easy for the reader to be certain who is speaking.

d) When there are more than two people in the conversation, then it is likely dialogue tags will be needed to make clear who is saying what - maybe not on every line. On occasion a third person can jump into a two person conversation, say a line and leave with it clear what happened. For example, and this isn't the world's greatest example, two people are on the street arguing or at least disagreeing about where they are going. When they hop into the taxi, person one says to the driver a destination and the cabby replies his one line in the whole scene, then person one continues to talk with person two.

Now the nuts and bolts of dialogue. In the USA we use double quote marks at the beginning and end of spoken words, with single quote marks for something quoted within a spoken text. In UK English, single quote marks are used where we use double quote marks.

In the US, commas and periods (full stops) are usually placed inside the ending quotation marks. Colons and semicolons are placed outside quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation marks are placed outside or inside the quote marks, depending on the sentence structure. (Look up that one, if it applies.) Just keep in mind to review American punctuation rules if you aren't an American writer, but plan to shop your ms to the American industry.

Keep tags simple. There is nothing wrong with saying 'said'. The best thing you can do for dialogue is read it aloud. If you say something different from what you wrote, what you said is probably better than what is in print. Swap it around.

Most publishing houses have their inhouse standards on dialogue tags. There is probably lots more on this on the Internet. There are probably plenty of writers who disagree, but this is my take on dialogue tags.

The main thing is that your writing is not work to read; not for agents/publishers or for your readers. You want your ms read clear through. You want your book published. You want readers to love your book so much that they tell others about it.

Q & A

There was a question left on the wall of my filedby page which basically said: Do you have any general info/advice that I could start with toward publication?

This is a huge topic, so I'm going with the single most important thing a person can do for their manuscript. Assuming the story is compelling and the basic writing skills have been employed -- this is the 'fix' that can get an ms noticed.

Now that nearly anyone with a computer and a few word processing skills, with discipline, can crank out 80,000 words. The key is to be very completive when you shop your ms to a literary agent or a publisher. You need a killer query letter -- and I'm not the person to ask about writing query letters.

Here are a few basics to clean up the ms to make it look professional. The easiest and rarely found on the Internet or books is that there is only one space between sentences in an ms. Yep. Wild, isn't it? Put two spaces in the search function of your word processing program. In the 'replace' space put in one space. Swap the spaces in the whole ms.

Next, another easy fix, double space the lines. Those are the two big cosmetic items. Their importance is purely a matter of passing through the visual test that the writer has a clue and the ms should make it to the next test -- actually reading it!

The thing to know about these readers is they are pros and they are human beings -- greatly overworked and often brilliant human beings. So give them a killer first line. Open with a memorable line. Delete long (or short) descriptions (bios) of your characters. Don't describe the setting except in terms of the impact or interaction of the setting in relationship to the character. Move the story forward.

Be careful with flashbacks. Start the story at the beginning of that story. Forget backstory. Seriously. Forget backstory. Make your story show what makes your characters 'tick' -- why they do what they do. Backstory is telling and telling in the early pages of your ms will be the kiss of death to getting the whole thing read by that very important person you want to love your story.

So go through the ms word by word, sentence by sentence, from the beginning to end. Do it several times. Read it aloud. If you can corner someone to sit through a full reading with a copy for them and for you, then do it. Bribe them. They will stop you when you read it different from how you wrote it. Look carefully at that part because how you said it, particularly in dialogue sections, is most likely better than how you wrote it.

Clean the ms as best you can following the above instructions. Ask a friend or two to read it and comment honestly. Tell them that 'loving it' doesn't help you. You want them to look for disconnected timelines, out of character behaviors that do not fit with moving the story forward. Was the story satisfying? Ask them to mark places they got bored - those are places to look closely for telling or other bad habits that stop the story. Make the fixes and ask another friend or two to read it for you with similar instructions.

Hire a proof reader to make the basic grammar corrections. A proof reader usually costs less than an editor and if the story is sound, that is all you need done.

Then submit your ms to well researched targets, whether they are lit agents or publishers who don't require an agent. If your ms looks professional (minus the basic amateur mistakes in formatting) and reads well, the story has a shot at doing its job to land a contract to publish.

Questions? I'll try to answer or find someone who can.

My filedby page: http://www.filedby.com/author/nadine_laman/2238025

Pop Quiz?

What happens if you write a guest blog about typesetters and send it to a very bright Argentinean teen?

You have to look at this. It made me laugh at what she did to my plain ol' email submission. Please leave her a comment. (Click on the first line below the date after the last comment.)

Introducing the bright, talented, beautiful -- Ella!

http://theclockmonkey2.blogspot.com/2009/10/author-guest-post-nadine-laman.html

Winter Preparations

All the Arizona periodicals have pictures of the fall colors. Some of the neighbors have been busy closing their cabin for the winter. I hear others out cutting wood.

We have been in a mood of cleaning the garage (not me), rearranging furniture in three rooms (not my idea either, but I love the results), and getting set for a comfortable winter. I've been looking for lily bulbs, but always get pointed to the tulips. Almost everything here in the mountains strikes me as comical.

It isn't so funny to give readers tulips when they are looking for lilies. I've been thinking a lot about the list I want to build for Cactus Rain as I wash windows (my idea) and clean rain gutters of pine needles. I'm aiming for the top end of the 'mid list' and expect that my writers will go on to great things.

It is exciting to redesign the wheel in a way that makes sense for a modern world. Besides the technology advances, publishing hasn't changed much for 150 years. I think it is about time for that change. Don't you?

Cactus Rain Publishing

If you read my October newsletter, you know that I'm launching Cactus Rain Publishing. The letter came back from the Arizona Corporation Commission approving the Limited Liability Company for Cactus Rain Publishing. All that is left to do officially is to publish the legal notice in the newspaper, then file the affidavit of publication with the AZ Corporation Commission.

Cactus Rain Publishing is a boutique publisher specializing in distinctive voices in novels for adult readers. Cactus Rain Publishing is going to reinvent the idea of a small press. In the search for the highest standard in writing and publishing, both the work and author will be vetted. Most of the writers will be foreign authors writing in English, but there will be other surprises on the website once it is launched.

The writing will be fresh and unique for an American publisher. And the writer will actually make money for the hours, weeks, years of work to bring a story to life for the enjoyment of their readers. No lit agent required, but the query letter should be stellar and make me ask for a one page synopsis.

Joyce (DesignByJoyce.com) has started working on the CactusRainPublishing.com website. Currently the URL redirects to my personal website. Just wait until you see what she is doing! OMGosh!

I have bids for the logo. The contract is back from the lawyer. And I'm working with the debut author to begin the 2010 catalogue. There will be online sales and I'm working on securing real distribution with a distributor who has impressed me for years.

So that's my excuse for not having another ms written. What do you think about that news? Questions?

Storytelling

Last Saturday I was in Phoenix and had lunch with Joy Collins and Cathy Marley. We met at the Glendale Olive Garden for a chance to catch up, talk shop, and have the Olive Garden's fabulous salad -- plus I was delivering their copies of the Blog Party Book.

We did the usual, "How have you been?" conversation. Cathy asked how I'm doing in Pine. I told a few stories, mostly about the javelina. They were very active last week. Joy and Cathy told about the javelina attacks in Sedona -- thank God, Sedona isn't too near Pine. Actually, they told me lots more about javelina than I really wanted to know.

One thing for sure, those are large, stocky animals and have the reputation of being quite dangerous -- which I believe without a doubt. I was trying to describe the sound they make when they call to each other, it is more like a scream. I'm more sure of it after being outside a few minutes ago hearing one a few houses away.

They seem to have a territory, like most animals. Every few days their travels bring them by Jean's house (where I'm staying). One will call, then another, another, and another -- from every direction, it seems. I think they are saying, "Hey guys, let's go meet at Jean's house and scare the beejeebies out of Nadine."

The other night it sounded like a dance troupe was on the front deck, dancing the Jitter Bug. At first I was sure people were coming to the door -- in the middle of the night. It took forever for Jean's dog to wake up and bark until they left. (Some watch dog!)

Anyway, Joy said javelina's have poor eyesight. I couldn't help going with that and explaining how, because the cabin is built on a mountain, one end of the deck has quite a bit of clearance, while the part that turns and runs across the front of the house ends close to the ground.

As the javelina come up the mountain, they walk under the deck. Since they are the size of a large dog, only more stout in stature, (with the poor eyesight and all) they must be smacking their forehead on the cross beams of the deck. Thump, thump, thump...until there is a really loud one and they must reach the end of their ability to go any farther -- I'm not going out to check, so I'm just guessing, because I see them come out from the side of the deck, form into a group again and head across the road. I was a bit dramatic telling the story, hand to forehead with each "Thump."

Joy and Cathy think I should write these stories down. (There were other stories about local customs and a few colorful people I've met.) I might tell a few of the animal stories from time to time, but I best not tell too much about the locals if I want to stay here a while.

If anyone is interested, there are 4 copies of the Blog Party book left. http://nadinelamanbooks.com/books.html

Find Joy here: http://www.joycollins.com/
Find Cathy here: http://www.cathymarley.com/

More about Javalina:
http://www.azgfd.gov/video/javelina.shtml
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/urban_javelina.shtml
http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_javelina.shtml

Now we all know more about Javalina than we really need to know.