Word Choice Matters

 

Word Choice Matters
Sentences Build Paragraphs 

by Deborah Lyn Stanley

Writers need to develop a strong vocabulary for building up the many facets of storytelling and article writing. Word lists of favorite, unusual, fun sounding words to compose a selected topic helps. Test the flow of sounds and experiment using some for creativity in your next piece. Expand your reading collection with classical, by-gone authors, to become familiar with how they expressed dialogue and scenes in their day, or lyrical stories and poems. Jot down words of interest. Note them in your Commonplace book, and create a collage of word pictures to describe scenes.

Enlarging your vocabulary with lively and interesting expressions, and writing like your natural speaking voice, is engaging. It’s a good way to empower your articles or poems.
Just write, remembering we always follow with revision and polish to honor clarity and communicate well with readers.

My Commonplace book includes a long word list of random words I’ve noticed while reading—including ones I am not familiar with, seeming unique, especially in the way used. These can be a welcome addition to my usual; for example; sweet Elysium (paradise), rose-colored visions, desecration, petitions, syncopation, provincial, and sexton.  You might also, choose topical words for particular projects, such as tranquility, shelter, botanical or courage.
Try it. You’re sure to be inspired!

Writers Read!

Sentences Build Paragraphs:
Effective communication elements: Clarity, Coherence, Control, and Credibility are key.
Points to Consider:
1.    Clarity—Help your reader by telling them where you are going, the information you plan to present, and offer your conclusion.
2.    The three-part paragraph structure gives a map for topic, development & resolution.
3.    Coherence—Paragraphs help to contain your thoughts. You may have several points in a paragraph, but in a unifying theme, each sentence supports that focal point.
4.    A natural, coherent flow to a paragraph begins with the first sentence; so, reorder the sentences of your paragraph if needed. A logical order of things leads to what comes next.
5.    Control—You are in control of the pace of your piece. Use paragraphical emphasis: longer is slower, shorter is faster.
6.    Credibility results from several things: language, knowledge of the subject, word choice, and your writer’s voice.
7.    The better you know your audience, the more successful you will be in delivering your information.

Write Sentences
Think in Paragraphs

Revision & Polish Tips:
1.    Keep the focus, the theme, of the piece consistent throughout,
2.    Sentence structure: a subject—a noun or pronoun, and a predicate/verb that explains what the subject is doing,
3.    Use nouns rather than adjectives and remove over used adjectives such as very,
4.    Verbs are where the action is—choose strong ones,
5.    Avoid adverbs that diminish the strength of a sentence.
6.    Vary sentence length within the piece.
7.    Make it personal and professional, convey the message, be specific.

Helpful Tools:
Melissa Donovan’s 10 Core Practices for Better Writing https://www.writingforward.com/books/10-core-practices-for-better-writing

Mastering the Craft of Writing by Stephen Wilbers 
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Craft-Writing

Deborah Lyn Stanley is an author of Creative Non-Fiction. She writes articles, essays and stories. She is passionate about caring for the mentally impaired through creative arts.
Visit her My Writer’s Life website at: https://deborahlynwriter.com/   
Visit her caregiver’s website: https://deborahlyncaregiver.com/

Mom & Me: A Story of Dementia and the Power of God’s Love is available:
https://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Lyn-Stanley/
& https://books2read.com/b/valuestories

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Writers: Be Organized, Be Productive

At worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.

                                                                                                   --Rose Macaulay

Have you taken an honest look at your work habits lately? I’m one to talk. That’s why I didn’t clean up my office before I took the photos for this post. If I’m working on a project non-stop, I’ve been known to walk around the mess on the floor of my office, place my notebook ON TOP of the pile on my desk, and keep working until the project is done. THEN I clean up. I wouldn’t recommend this method. Though to be sure, some chaos feeds my process. I do try to keep the chaos to a minimum, because I believe that to be productive one needs to be organized.

Tips of the Trade: My Method

I’ve found that I need to write OR organize. I can’t do both at the same time. Hence the mess I sometimes get into while working on a writing project.

My Tips:

• Clean up your office.

• Put papers away.

• Collect various projects in folders and file the folders in a metal incline sorter or the like.

• Label everything.

• Keep your computer files sorted and easy to find.

Got a problem with feeling torn between household projects and errands vs writing? We all do.

• Treat writing time the same way you do appointments and errands in your calendar. Designate a certain number of hours a day/week to work on writing, write this in your calendar, and stick to your plan.

• Take part of your project and/or paper and pen/pencil everywhere you go. It’s amazing what you can get done in small snatches of time.

• If I’m especially stressed to get household chores done, I set my manual kitchen timer for one hour. I run around and get as much housework done as possible. I do the same for writing time. The ticking clock reminds me to stay motivated and keep going. I do that as long as I can throughout the day until I simply must stop and finish either the household chores or writing for the day.

• Try getting up super early. I struggle with this but when my alarm goes off at 5:00am, if I make myself GET RIGHT UP, I’m good. Those days I allow myself to take a short nap. 😊 Though I’m an early riser, if you’re a night owl, the same principle holds true.

• At the end of a writing session, write yourself a note with where you need to start working the next day. This helps me get started faster than searching around for where I left off. I do the same thing for running my household. This helps me get a lot done in shorter amounts of time than if I didn’t plan ahead.

• Add a good measure of throw-it-all-to-the-wind chaos to your work. I suppose being too organized might tend to be boring. I wouldn’t know because as much as I try, I never truly reach that pinnacle of true organization!

• BONUS: Allow yourself to feel satisfied with the work accomplished each day. Feeling satisfied with the work accomplished each day has actually re-energized all aspects of my life, which in turn, as we writers know only too well, adds the fuel that feeds our writing!

Your take: I hope in some way your own creative process has been helped by this post. Please leave a comment with your thoughts. We would love to hear from you.

I couldn't let you go without seeing
the rest of my office.
Clean up time anyone?!

 Linda Wilson lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a classical pianist and loves to go to the gym. But what Linda loves most is to make up stories and connect with her readers. Visit Linda at https://www.lindawilsonauthor.com. Find Linda’s books at https://www.amazon.com/author/lindawilsonchildrensauthor.

Featured Productivity Tool: Networking Goals

I know what you are thinking: Networking is a tool? Yes, it is. You see, you can't reach your goals on your own. You need your community of resources, champions, and connections. Your friends may not always be your ideal reader or client. But everyone has their own circle. Your community grows multi-fold every time you grow your community. 

The challenge with networking is it takes time and energy. The best way to stay on top of networking is to set networking goals.

Here Are Networking Goals You Can Set Each Day, Week, Month, Quarter, and Year

1. Each Day: Set a 15-Minute Active Networking Appointment. During this time:

- Connect on LinkedIn with new friends

- Send an email or message to check in on a friend or peer   

- Post, comment, and reply on social media

2. Each Week: Attend 3 Events 

- One mixer

- One education event (Workshop or CE)

- One one-on-one with someone you met at one of the first two events to continue the conversation

3. Each Month: Create New Content

- Post on your blog. Ideally, you want to do this at least once a week, but better to aim for something feasible and achieve that goal

- Guest on Someone Else's Platform. It could be a blog guest post or interview, live show, or podcast 

4. Each Quarter: Refresh Your Online Presence

- Make sure your website bio and LinkedIn profile are up-to-date

- Make sure your profile photo still looks like you

- Bonus points for updating your banner image

5. Each Year: Attend at least one Live or Virtual Industry Conference

- It's one of the best ways to make new connections, solidify relationships, and learn new things in your area of expertise

Final Thoughts 

Until you prioritize networking - and focus on making real general connections - you never know what good will come of it!

* * * 

For more inspiration and motivation, follow @TheDEBMethod on Twitter and Linkedin! 

* * *

What's your best networking tip? Please share in the comments. 

* * *

Debra Eckerling is the award-winning author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals and founder of the D*E*B METHOD, which is her system for goal-setting simplified. A goal-strategist, corporate consultant, and project catalyst, Debra offers personal and professional planning, event strategy, and team building for individuals, businesses, and teams. She is also the author of Write On Blogging and Purple Pencil Adventures; founder of Write On Online; Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Women's National Book Association; host of the #GoalChat Twitter Chat, #GoalChatLive on Facebook and LinkedIn, and The DEB Show podcast. She speaks on the subjects of writing, networking, goal-setting, and social media.

Kid's Stories - Should They All Become Books?

 

 Writing over 300 stories, between ghostwriting and rewriting, I’ve only seen one story that couldn’t be tweaked, nudged, shaken, or even deconstructed and reconstructed into a publishable story.

The concept and author of that one book were, well, not quite all there. Dealing with so many clients, I’m surprised I only had one so far.

Aside from that though, most stories or drafts can be magically turned into something an author will be proud to be author of.

A big problem I see is that new authors sometimes don’t know what a publishable story is.

But, wait a minute …

Let me clarify what I mean about a publishable book because today any story can become published, whether it’s poorly written or a well written story.

When I use the term “publishable,” I’m talking about a book that meets the U.S. standard children’s  publishing guidelines.

Three of the top mistakes I see that would warrant taking another stab at your story or demolishing it and starting over are:

1. The point-of-view

You’re writing a picture book or chapter book and have more than one point-of-view (POV).

This can happen when you have two or more main characters in your story or it can happen if you have head-hopping in your story.

Let’s go back a step and define POV. Every story has to be told from someone’s perspective. In other words, who is the story about.

It’s essential in young children’s writing that you clearly define who the protagonist (main character) is. And, there should only be one.

Jerry Jenkins, author of over 190 books, says he avoids slipping into an omniscient viewpoint “by imagining my Point of View or Perspective Character as my camera—I’m limited to writing only what my character ‘camera’ sees, hears, and knows.”

So, POV is a critical element of your story. Check to make sure you have only one POV and its that of the protagonist.

Head-hopping is slipping from one character’s POV to another, within the same paragraph or even same sentence.

In the example below, Tommy is the protagonist:

Tommy dug his cleats in. He raised the bat to his shoulder. A second later he watched the ball heading toward him . . . like a torpedo out of it tube. Without blinking he swung the bat. CRRAACCK. Stunned, he dropped the bat and ran. Did . . . did I just hit the ball.

“Pete,” said Jim with a nudge, “you see that. I didn’t think he’d hit that ball—it came so fast.” Jim threw a pretend pitch. “Look at him running round the bases.”

The second paragraph in the example is a no-no. It’s bringing Jim’s perspective into the story since Tommy couldn’t see or hear him.

Tommy is the protagonist and must know what’s going on in the story or it can’t be in the story.

This could be rewritten, though:

Tommy dug his cleats in. He raised the bat to his shoulder. A second later he watched the ball heading toward him . . . like a torpedo out of it tube. Without blinking he swung the bat. CRRAACCK. Stunned, he dropped the bat and ran. Did . . . did I just hit the ball.

When Tommy raced to home plate, he heard Jim yelling, “I didn’t think he’d hit that ball—it came so fast.”

Now it’s all with Tommy’s point-of-view.

2. Adults save the day.

Children want to read about children. They want the protagonist to solve his own problem.

While parents or other adults in a story can be a support system, their involvement needs to be minimal. The young protagonist needs to come up with the solution to her problem.

In “Stephanie’s Ponytail” by Robert Munsch, Stephanie wants to be unique. Here’s how the story starts:

“One day Stephanie went to her mom and said, ‘None of the kids in my class have a ponytail. I want a nice ponytail coming right out the back.’”

The problem though is the day after Stephanie comes in with that particular ponytail, all the girls in her class have it. So, each day she tells her mother create another specific kind of ponytail. The day after each new ponytail, the class copies her.

At the end, Stephanie comes up with a clever, and funny, idea that cures the class of copying her.

While the mother in involved in the story, it’s Stephanie who comes up with all the ideas. And, it’s Stephanie who solves the problem.

3. Jumping in without learning how to swim first.

You’ve wanted to write a children’s book for years. You have tons of ideas and you’ve even written a couple down. It’s gotten to a point where you can’t wait any longer and you put one of your ideas into a story.

You type or write away and finally have your story, and it seems great.

Picture books can be 10 pages, right? You ‘kind of’ draw, so you can create your own illustrations, right? You have a couple of rhymes here and there, so that’s good, right?

While you may have a great story idea, standard picture books are usually 32 pages - of those pages there are 24-26 for content and illustrations. Unless you’re a professional illustrator you shouldn’t create your own illustrations. And, either you’ve written a rhyming story or not.

There are lots of other elements that you need to be aware or before jumping in to write a publishable book.

So, there you have it, three top children’s writing mistakes.

If I were to give a number 4, it would be that you have TOO much showing in the story. If I were to give a number 5, it would be that you’re trying to knock the young reader over his head with the moral of the story.

Hope these tips help you when you sit down to write your story.

References:

Fiction Writing for Children
http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/diy/

POV with Jerry Jenkins
https://jerryjenkins.com/point-of-view/

This article was first published at: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2018/10/28/are-all-childrens-stories-meant-to-become-books/  

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, a successful children’s ghostwriter with 300+ satisfied clients worldwide, and an author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing. For children’s writing tips, or if you need help with your children’s story, visit: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com

You can check out Karen’s books at:
https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/karens-books/

 

 MORE ON WRITING

The Lazy Way to Be a Great Writer

Making Your Book Into a Classic

Tips for Balancing Action & Exposition

 

Enhance Your Brand with A+ Content

                                                © Linda Wilson 

                            Photo from Linda's latest book: Waddles the Duck: Hey, Wait for Me!                                                                                                      

@LinWilsonauthor

Once the basics for marketing your books are done, such as creating a website, exploring ways for people to discover you and your books, etc., that’s when the fun begins! 100 covers, https://100covers.com/, a company I’ve been associated with for years now, has announced a new service they are providing: creating A+ content for authors.

Tricky Quirks of the Trade

It was days before my first book, Secret in the Stars: An Abi Wunder Mystery, illustrated by Tiffany Tutti, would be published. Stars had been edited and the illustrations completed. However, the company I had worked with, known as a vanity press because I paid them for their services, turned out to be a scam. Needless to say, the company is now out of business. Word to the wise: Thanks to excellent advice in 10 Publishing Myths: Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed, by W. Terry Whalin: When considering a publishing company, Google: Publisher name + complaints. That’s how I found out what this vanity press company was up to. A private Facebook page had been set up so authors could tell their stories and help each other out. 

I was one of the lucky ones. I was able to retrieve the files for the text and interior and cover illustrations before the company went out of business. Not all the authors who used this press were so lucky. Some of them were unable to retrieve their files and therefore unable to publish the books this company had promised.

Discovery of a Multi-Faceted Company

After flailing around for a few days, I went to work. An author friend recommended I try a company called Formatted Books, https://formattedbooks.com/. Maybe they could help me. The rest is history.

Formatted Books took over my project. A sister company, 100 Covers, helped create the cover. And in 2020 a professionally-put-together Stars was published, a book I am very proud of.

Another sister company, 1000 Storybooks, https://1000storybooks.com/, edited and illustrated my picture book, Tall Boots, another book I’m very proud of.

Check these companies out. They offer extremely reasonable prices for their services. Secretly, I think they understand that self-published authors must pay for all their services. They offer reasonable rates to help us out.

100 Covers’ New Service: A+ Content

This post sounds like an ad for these companies. In a way, I’m doing just that. It’s because I could do all the services that they offer myself. I know many authors who do. But if you’re pressed for time like I am and have the funds, the services that these related companies offer are invaluable.

What is A+ Content? It is the “extra touch” you can add to your Amazon author page. A+ content can consist of your book cover, illustrations from your book, enticing text, and photos of children reading your books. A good example is the A+ content for You are an Amazing Girl, by Nadia Ross. Scroll down the page for one of the best displays of A+ content I found while researching what I wanted to do.

https://www.amazon.com/You-are-Amazing-Girl-Self-Confidence/dp/B09LB1QFP6/ref=sr_1_3_sspa 

For do-it-yourselfers, you can find information on how to create A+ content here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/G202134820. 

I wish you the best of luck with your writing projects and all you do to inspire readers to learn about your books. If you have created A+ content for your books, please submit a comment and tell us about what you've experienced.

·        Linda Wilson lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a classical pianist and loves to go to the gym. But what Linda loves most is to make up stories and connect with her readers. Visit Linda at https://www.lindawilsonauthor.com. Sign up for Linda’s quarterly giveaways. Choose your prize! 

Find Linda’s books at https://www.amazon.com/author/lindawilsonchildrensauthor.

A Trick to Help You Start Writing or Finish Writing

by Suzanne Lieurance

Sometimes it's difficult to write.

We can get stalled with our work-in-progress or we might be between projects and can't seem to get interested in a new project.

When this happens, try this.

 

Make some lists.

Yep, lists.

 

Lists are a great way to generate new ideas and create enthusiasm to start writing again.

 

Here are some topics to make lists about:

 

 1. Things You Enjoy Doing

 

 2. Things You are Grateful For

 

 3. The Most Important People in Your Life

 

 4. Things You Would Like to See That Would Make the World Better

 

 5. Your Favorite Foods

 

 6. Things You Would Like to Learn How to Do

 

 7. Places You Would Like to Go

 

 8. Shining Moments in Your Life

 

 9. Things You Are Good At

 

10. Things You Like Best about Yourself

 

11. Things You Most Admire in Others

 

12. Changes You Could Make for a Better Life

 

As you can tell, you can make a list about most anything.

 

So, if you find yourself stalled with your writing this week, get out your journal and make some lists.

Now, you can also create a list to help you finish your writing.

I call this my "final editing checklist."

In this list, I write down all the things I know I need to look for once I've finished an article, story, essay, or even a blog post.

For example, I make a list of words and phrases that I tend to overuse, and I use other words in place of the overused ones.

I also check to see that I have not overused participle phrases to start a sentence.

Participle phrases tend to include words ending in -ing and can make the writing more passive when they start a sentence.

Here's an example of a sentence beginning with a participle phrase: Climbing over the fence in search of Dustin, she called his name.

I might also make a note that dialogue is punctuated correctly in the finished piece, and that I have used simple, strong verbs instead of compound verbs, which tend to slow down the action.

The great thing about a final editing checklist is that you can make your own, based on the types of things you need to "fix" in your final draft.

Once these fixes have been made, your manuscript should be finished.

As you can see, lists can be very helpful, whether you're wanting to start writing or you're wanting to finish writing the piece you've been working on.

For more writing tips, be sure to visit writebythesea.com and get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge. Once you're a subscriber, you'll also have access to a Private Resource Library for Writers.

Suzanne Lieurance is the author of over 40 published books, a freelance writer, and a writing coach.

Every Writer Must Build An Audience

By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)  

At every writer’s conference or group of writers, there is buzz around the word “platform.” Editors and literary agents are searching for authors with a platform or a personal connection to their readers. What’s that about? Many authors believe their task is to write an excellent book and get it to the right publisher. Don’t publishers sell books to bookstores? The questions are good ones and in this article, I want to give you some answers from my decades of writing books for publishers, yet also sitting on the inside of several publishing houses as an acquisitions editor. Admittedly publishing is a complex business and I’ve been studying the various nuisances of it for years (and still learning more every day).

Writing a Good Book Is Foundational

While I’ve looked at thousands of submissions in my years in publishing, I also have interviewed other acquisitions editors. During one interview, I asked, “How do you know when you find a good submission?”

He said, “Terry, I read the first sentence and if it is a good sentence, I read the next one. If it is a good paragraph, I read the next one. If it is a good page, I read the next one.” You want to start your manuscript with a bang and draw the editor immediately into your writing. Don’t bury your best material over in a later chapter because the editor may not read that far. Good writing in your submission is essential.

Every Writer Needs a Proposal 

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you need to put the writing energy into creating a proposal. I understand they take lots of work to create. Two of my proposals got six-figure advances from publishers (and I have lengthy stories about what happened with those books—for another time). Your proposal shows you understand the market and your target reader. It includes your game plan about how you are going to reach your audience and sell books. The proposal is an important document for you to write even if you self-publish. I have a free book proposal checklist at: https://terrylinks.com/bookcheck 

The Editor’s Search

I often tell authors that making books is easy but selling books is hard. Over 4,500 new books are published every day (including the self-published books). Yes that is a lot of books and why every author needs to have a plan and ability to reach readers. As editors, we are searching for these types of writers.

Publishers produce beautiful books and sell them into bookstores (online and brick and mortar). Authors drive readers to those bookstores and sell the books out into the hands of readers. Publishers certainly have an investment in the books they publish but authors need to be even more invested in reaching readers. It’s what many people call building a platform (audience).

Action Is Key

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with this process and confused about what action to take. Here’s the key (no matter what you are writing): do something and do it consistently day after day. Here are some basic facts about this process: 

*   Everyone starts small and builds
*   Your personal email list is more important than your social media audience
*  You should focus on what you can control (email list) instead of rented media in places like Twitter or Facebook (which you don’t own or control)
*  It takes hard work for every writer but you need to do this work
*   There are many different ways to build your audience. Pick one or two and see what works best for your writing.
*   If the process were simple everyone would succeed (sell many books),
*   Persistence and consistency are important for every writer.

Every editor and agent is actively looking for the right author who is building their connections to readers and has learned how to sell books. I’ve been in some of the top literary agencies and publishers in the nation. From their questions, I know they are actively looking for these authors—no matter what how they respond to your pitches. Be encouraged and keep growing in your craft (ability to write) and your knowledge about your readers and the market. It doesn’t happen overnight but can happen if you continue to work at it.

Tweetable: 

WhyDo Writers Need to Build An Audience? Isn’t that what publishers do? Get thedetails here. #writingtip #pubtip (ClickToTweet)

________________________________________

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.