Beyond the Elements of Style

Beyond The Elements of Style has Moved!

2007-02-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

Thank you for coming here to read Beyond The Elements of Style!

The blog is still alive and well ... it's just moved to another location.

Beyond The Elements of Style can now be found at Jeannette Cézanne's website. Be sure to head on over and visit it there. New posts every Sunday!

Thank you so much for visiting, and for your continued interest. For articles and essays on writing and the writing life, be sure to come to Beyond The Elements of Style's new home.

And then you'll surely be ... beyond the elements of style!

Pre-Writing

2007-02-12T08:44:00.000-05:00

I just finished editing one of the books for DreamTime Publishing's Open Your Heart series, specifically Open Your Heart with Writing, which will be coming out in August. (Hint: Watch for it! Buy it!)

The author, Neil Rosen, talks at some length about what could best be called "pre-writing" -- he says that by the time he sits down at his computer (what we used to call "putting pen to paper"), he already has a sense of where his story or essay is going. It's been happening in his mind for a long time before he feels that it's time to capture it.

It's an interesting concept.

I remember that in college we were encouraged to prewrite as well. "Know what you have to say before you say it," was the adage, which actually isn't bad advice for all of life -- have an idea of what you're going to say before you open your mouth. It might save us all some embarrassing moments.

It also helps you, as a writer, have a sense of what your props need to be. If you're thinking about writing a novel set during the Second World War, for example, it behooves you to do a little research on daily life during that time period, hopefully before you make a gaffe in your writing and bring something anachronistic into the picture.

Knowing ahead of time what you're going to say can make your own first edit of your work a great deal less painful, as you'll have already organized your thoughts, background, characters and so on around the theme or plot that you've devised.

This doesn't mean that you won't still write yourself into a corner sometimes -- we all do. And it doesn't mean that you can't listen to your characters as they guide you in a direction that may be different from what you'd planned. But for a good overall sense of what you're doing, pre-writing can be a great tool. And then you'll be ... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Looking Failure in the Face

2007-02-04T13:21:00.000-05:00

"My greatest good fortune was that I didn't know that I was doing everything wrong. If I'd have done a single right thing I probably would have failed. If I'd known how hard - statistically speaking - it is to get a first novel published, I might have given up. What success means is really looking failure in the face and tossing the dice anyway. You may be the only person who knows the dice came up, but in that knowledge you have something that millions of people will never have - because they were afraid to try." (Tom Clancy)

I've never been an avid reader of Tom Clancy books, generally preferring character development to plot, but my friend Carem loves his stories and has urged me to just try "one more time."

Well, the verdict is in: I'm still not nuts about Tom Clancy books, but it's another indication that you can not like one part of a person (or of their oeuvre) and still find wisdom in other things they have to say. Thomas Aquinas once said something to the effect of, "Remember the good you hear, and forget who it is that said it." And I'm all for that.

I actually wrote a long paragraph expanding upon the Clancy quote, above, and then erased it. He said it well. Persevere, persevere, persevere.

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware Inc.

Martin Luther King Jr. holiday?

2007-01-15T09:04:00.000-05:00

So what are you doing this Monday?

Chances are, you're at work. Even though Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an officially recognized federal holiday, many – if not most – businesses do not treat it as such. You’re not receiving mail and your children aren’t going to school, but in two out of three cases, you’re at work.

An odd holiday, that.

Even odder, points out Sarah Mahoney in MediaPost’s Marketing Daily, is the lack of commercial activity that surrounds many such holidays in the United States. There are Presidents’ Day sales, Memorial Day sales, Labor Day sales. Americans celebrate most major holidays with trips to the mall or to the car dealership. But not this one. “Stores,” writes Mahoney, “are loath to appear disrespectful or insensitive about the only holiday commemorating an African-American, and one with such a solemn legacy.”

Which leaves it even more of a non-holiday than ever.

What would happen if we embraced the third Monday in January with the same commercial zeal we exhibit the rest of the year? What if it were another sales opportunity, but with a twist: merchants could, for example, donate a percentage of their proceeds from the weekend to a worthy cause? What if for every 10 widgets sold, another inner-city child could go to summer camp?

Everyone would be happy. The post-Christmas sales slump would arc back up. The first cars of the year could be on the road. The American people would feel relieved that we could treat this holiday like any other.

And your boss might even give you the day off.

Is Illiteracy Next?

2007-01-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently (as if we needed to hear this from yet another quarter) America doesn’t read anymore. Two of the three big book chains reported bad sales for the nine-week stretch through December 30: Barnes & Noble termed it "somewhat disappointing sales for the season in a highly promotional and competitive environment," with comparable store sales slipping 0.1 percent at the superstores at $1.1 billion overall (putting them down 0.3 percent on a comp basis for the 48-week period, at $4.1 billion). BN.com sales rose 2.7 percent to $108.5 million for the holidays, but are still down 2.4 percent from a year ago for 48 weeks, at $376 million.

Sales suffered even more at Books-a-Million, down 2.1 percent, at $124.5 million for the holidays. CEO Sandra Cochran says in a press release that "(s)ales for the holiday season were below expectations as we confronted a quiet media environment and strong comparable sales in the prior year. The absence of a major movie tie-in affected both traffic and sales."

As a wordsmith, I’m obviously both disappointed and concerned. Books didn’t do well because there was no movie tie-in? Some publishers are confronting the competition from television directly: Court TV now offers a program hosted by a rotating group of mystery writers that include Michael Connelly, Lisa Scottoline, and Patricia Cornwell, in which the writers talk about the crime in question and how they would handle it in fiction. Sounds a little too close to the Judith Regan/O.J. fiasco of last December that everyone would just as soon forget.

More and more, authors need to find innovative ways to market their books, and that innovation must be part of any marketing plan that you offer a potential literary agent or publisher. As I said in n earlier blog, the mills are closing. We need to find ways to keep our craft alive.

And perhaps eventually the pendulum will swing the other way and people will begin picking up books again. That will be… way beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Happy New Literary Year!

2006-12-31T18:57:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

Let's see ... is this the year you'll finish your novel? It could well be!

Short of entering into NaNoWriMo in November (see a previous blog entry by Rick Bylina for a description of this event/experience), what you can do is carve out time and set yourself some rasonable deadlines to get them accomplished.

For many people, procrastination is New Year's resolutions' worst enemy. It’s such a popular one that it’s made the news: an MIT professor found that when he allowed his students to give themselves their own homework deadlines, they would artificially restrict themselves to counter procrastination – though they did not set deadlines for optimal effectiveness. The professor’s comments and the study itself can be found here.

So set yourself deadlines that you actually can meet, and you'll find, perhaps, that 2007 is your year! And then you'll be ... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Thank you, Apple!

2006-12-26T07:29:00.000-05:00

So… not to ignite or continue any Mac versus PC wars, but as the year nears its end I think about how grateful I am for Macintosh applications making my life a lot easier.

I’ve been a Mac girl for almost as long as I’ve been using a computer.

I started with a PC (actually, no, I lie: I started with a cp/m machine a very long time ago), but eventually saw that, whereas I was spending hours and hours in Computer Hell every time I wanted to do anything, my friends with Macs never spent more than minutes there. Sometimes seconds. Then I got a job teaching, and that was the final bit of persuasion that I needed. I switched, and I’ve never looked back.

These days, I write and edit for a living. And the best thing that ever happened to my writing – at least in terms of tools – is OSX’s introduction of the Dock. It was great in Jaguar and it’s getting even better with each successive jungle cat.

Not only do I have immediate access to all of the applications I need, easily reached through really colorful and easily identifiable icons, but I also have immediate access to all of my current works in progress, just a click away, without taking up valuable screen space. I use a MacBook, so believe me, screen space is at a premium here!

I’m a very visual person, so whenever I start writing or editing a new project – novel, short story, article, etc. – I do a Google images search to help me find a suitable image that I transform (literally within a minute) into an icon that represents the new project’s folder. That’s what then goes into the Dock for me to click and open. So I have a colorful, creative lineup of projects and applications that’s uniquely mine. Moreover, it’s tailored to my specific needs. Never before has using a computer felt less like computing.

My husband is a Macintosh developer, and I can hear him swearing, sometimes, from his office down the hallway from mine. The reality is that it’s harder to code for a Mac than it is for a pc –- for the exact reason that I’m so happy with my Dock. Mac programmers make sure that the end-user doesn’t have to deal with playing computer.

I’m grateful to them all. They help me get… beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

What do Publishers Want?

2006-12-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

What is it that publishers are looking for? Are they waiting for the next Dick Francis, the next Stephen King, the next Danielle Steel? Does the nonfiction proposal you craft have to be about whatever happens to be popular – next year? Or do you have a chance of getting out of the slush pile and published, even if your book doesn't fit into any of those stereotypes?

The answer is, yes. You have a chance. But you need to play by their rules in order to get there.

The first thing that agents, editors, and publishers are looking for, before any other consideration, is marketing. They want an author who can promote his or her book. Wait a minute -- isn't that like putting the cart in front of the horse? Shouldn't the book, first and foremost, be brilliant and original before worrying about marketing?

You'd think so. But that would mean that you're not playing by the rules. And the first rule in publishing is Market Thyself.

Like it or not, a sale is much more likely if you are an expert writing about your subject of expertise, whether in fiction or nonfiction. Look at all of the novels about forensics experts written by forensics experts, the novels about lawyers written by lawyers. Editors and publishers want to know that you know what you're talking about. If you're an expert, then they assume you do, and can promote you that way. If you're not an expert, think about taking one on as co-author.

And that is just the beginning. You need to make it clear from the start that you will do what it takes to advertise your book. That you're ready and willing to construct and maintain a Web site, that you're ready for book tours, that you'll break down doors to get reviews and interviews. Show yourself to be creative, energetic, and perseverant, and you've come a long way toward winning your editor's heart.

The second thing that you need to project is professionalism. Take the time to learn what is expected of you, and do it. If the publication wants submissions between October and June only, submit between October and June only. Show in your query letters that you are not broadcasting them randomly (even if you are) but know something about the publishing house to which you're addressing yourself.

Don't call the editor unless she or he invites you to do so. Don't ever send anything that is hand-written. Don't ever mention that your mother likes your work.

If you want to be treated as a professional, act like one!

Finally, be able to encapsulate your concept or idea in as few words as possible. If you can't articulate it, no one will buy it. Try what is called an "elevator conversation" -- describe your book in the time it would take you to tell someone about it on an elevator. Can't do it? Then you're not ready to try and get a publisher's attention.

If you don't know what you're doing, it will show. This is your job now, treat it the same way you'd treat any new job: by playing by the rules, being flexible and professional, and by using every opportunity to press your concept home.

It can be done, but not unless you're willing to do your homework -- first! And then you'll be ... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

What is Meaningful Work?

2006-12-09T10:01:00.000-05:00

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. We spend so much of our lives immersed in our professions that in many ways our work has become our life. We may not like that fact; we may do what we can to convince ourselves that “real life” is what we do outside of work; but the reality is that the number of hours spent earning a living does, in fact, add up to that living itself.

So it makes sense that at some point, most people need to examine what their work entails, and if it is, indeed, how they want to spend their time, energy, and creativity.

Does this mean that you should quit your job, go volunteer to work in a shelter kitchen or start a new company? Of course not. We all have obligations. My husband, for example, cannot currently leave a well-paying job that is becoming more and more frustrating to him – his child support payments are based on that salary, and the way family courts work, should he take a lower-paying but more fulfilling job, his support payments would not be reduced: they're based on potential rather than real earnings. Other people have education debts, mortgage or rent payments, financial obligations that require a certain level of income. So changing jobs, finding fulfilling work, is never as simple as it seems.

But it's still a topic that merits thought, even if it means starting planning now for something that might not happen for a few (or quite a few!) years.

What would make your work-life more meaningful?

Is there something that you can do now that would take it in a more meaningful direction? What about going back to school to study something you've always wanted to do? What about using the education that you have now to try something different – what if you were to think creatively about the different things that you could do with your present education and experience?

How does your work reflect your values? Is there something that you could do differently so that it is more aligned with who you feel yourself to be? Does that mean starting your own company, or joining one that is already doing what you think you should be doing?

There are no easy answers to any of these questions. But life without change and growth will eventually stagnate, and your work-life is no different from any other part of your life. Start taking some small steps now to feel better about how you spend your time, your training, and your energy, and you may find when it's time to retire that you don't really want to, after all!

And then you'll be beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

A Quick Writing Exercise

2006-12-04T08:27:00.001-05:00

I was walking downtown yesterday (heading to the local independent bookseller, of course) when I saw a pair of crutches leaning against the side of a building.

They were still there an hour and a half later.

My stepdaughter Anastasia is starting to write, and I’ve bought her a few books that she uses for exercises – one of them timed exercises! – but frankly, I couldn’t come up with anything better than this: the image of those crutches leaning against the brick wall of a building on a downtown street. For hours.

What were they doing there? Why were they left? To whom did they belong?

I’m sending them along to her as an exercise. You might want to try it, too _ and then you'll be beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Try Typing – With a Typewriter!

2006-11-26T15:48:00.000-05:00

I spent some time this past week going over a manuscript that I wrote last spring when I received a fellowship to a dune shack on Cape Cod – a shack that was equipped with neither electricity nor running water. So to write, I had to either work longhand – which has its physical limitations – or type. On a typewriter.

I chose to type.

I bought a wonderful little Smith-Corona Corsair on eBay, a small aqua machine that I remembered – very vaguely – from my undergraduate days. I took it with me to the dune shack and thought about what I was going to write and then started working.

And an amazing thing happened.

There is something intrinsically pure about a typewriter: you don't use it to check email, or surf the Web, or create a spreadsheet. All you can do with a typewriter is WRITE. It has a smell that I had quite forgotten, but breathing it in was like coming home. I experienced something that I had also forgotten: the pleasure of actually seeing and holding what one has accomplished in a day, pulling one page after another out of the typewriter. Pages and pages of work that you can stack, touch, count – concrete evidence of time well spent.

They’re not expensive. Here’s my tip this week: try it. Buy yourself a typewriter and give it a try. Have your own small dune shack experience: stay away from the computer for a day. And write. Don’t stop to look anything up. Don’t stop to check your email. Just write.

You may be surprised at what you’ll find. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware Inc.

Getting Published the Old-Fashioned Way

2006-11-18T15:56:00.000-05:00

What are my chances of having my book published by a traditional publisher?

I have to be honest with you here: it looks hard, and it’s even harder than it looks. Everyone who has written a book feels as though they’ve done their job and now it’s time to sit back and wait for the bidding as the book is auctioned off to a major publisher.

Reality is very different.

There are three ways of getting published in the conventional sense of the word (although stay tuned: more are emerging): traditional publishing, self-publishing, and using a subsidy publisher; and each uses a different method. Today I’m just going to look at the traditional publishing route.

How is it done?
• Submitting your work directly to a publisher. This is known as “over the transom,” since manuscripts used to be tossed into an editor’s office in precisely that manner. There are resources available to help you, notably Writers Digest Books’ Writers Market and Information Today’s Literary Market Place. These books will tell you exactly what each publisher is looking for, and what each publisher wants in the way of contact (query letter, book proposal, entire manuscript, etc.).
• Sending your work to a publisher through a referral. While an agent or a publisher might be willing to accept a recommendation from someone they know and respect (author, MFA professor, the editor of a literary journal, etc.), it is not proper etiquette for you to contact someone who does not already know you in order to ask for a referral. Unless such a person has already indicated interest in your work, this is probably not the route to take.
• Having your book accepted by an agent who will then submit it to publishers on your behalf and for a percentage of the book’s sales.

Some publishers will only work with agents. Why? Because it makes their job easier. The agent can match projects with specific editors, decide if something is publishable as is or if it needs more work, and provide some feedback to the author.

Publishers, on the other hand, will rarely offer feedback. Frustrating as this is, it’s simply not practicable to tell hundreds of authors a day why their manuscripts are being rejected. In general, what you will receive is a form letter telling you that your manuscript does not meet the publisher’s current needs, and wishing you the best of luck elsewhere. Most of the time, you won’t know if it was rejected because it wasn’t “good enough” – whatever that might mean – or because the editor was having a bad day. The end result, sadly, is the same.

Perseverance pays off. So does working and reworking your manuscript. Sometimes putting it aside for a year (as it makes the rounds of publishers and gets rejected every few months) can be useful: if you look at it again with fresh eyes there’s a good chance you’ll find ways of improving it.

Many, many well-known authors have known rejection. (If you don’t believe this to be true, take a look at André Bernard’s Rotten Rejections, a sampling of which is available here: http://www.writersservices.com/mag/m_rejection.htm ) And the odds are stacked against today’s author even more than in the past: no longer can an acquisitions editor make the decision to purchase a manuscript alone. These days, a whole team – including representatives of the publisher’s marketing department – decide on the project’s financial viability. A rejection may therefore have nothing to do with the literary value of any work.

I wish the news were better. I wish that all of my company’s clients could get published easily and painlessly. I just want everyone to be prepared for a long journey and a possible negative outcome.

It has been said that only 400 people in the United States make their livings entirely on the proceeds from their books.

In other words – no matter how good you are, don’t quit your day job quite yet. And then you’ll be… beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

amazon.com shorts program

2006-11-13T19:22:00.000-05:00

I was writing some publicity tips this past weekend for a group of authors who have been working on a series together, and it occurred to me that recycling those comments here might be useful to those of you who do have a book out there already.

Once you have a book listed with amazon.com, you are permitted to submit to the amazon "short" program. These are short pieces that can be downloaded for .49 each.

Since amazon collects a hefty percentage of that princely sum, they're *not* a way to make money; but what they *are* is a way to keep your name in the public eye. It's especially helpful if you write something that is along the same lines as the other book(s) you have on the market (think of it as the chapter you  meant to write, but didn't!).
 Being qualified to submit does not mean that your piece will be automatically accepted; there's still a triage process, and authors are rejected ... usually those who have not taken the time to study  the craft of writing. So read and follow all the submission guidelines,and make it your best, most polished writing, as there is no "amazon editor" there who will help you.  You can check out some of them at http://tinyurl.com/y4opqx --- just browse and see what's there and  where something you could write might fit. You may wish to purchase one or two in your subject area to see what they're like.

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Trailers are for Books, Too!

2006-11-05T16:37:00.001-05:00

Here's the latest news you can use: while books have been being made into movies for a long time, it seems that now they're heading straight to ... YouTube!

In this article in Sunday's LA Times, staff writer Dawn Chmielewski talks about the most recent in the blurring of the lines between media as "Author Michael Connelly adapted the first chapter of his new murder mystery, Echo Park, into a 10-minute film for YouTube and other online video sites in an attempt to attract readers."

The whole story is here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vidbooks4nov04,1,3109023.story?coll=la-headlines-business

Doing film trailers for books is becoming more and more popular. A few weeks ago one of my guests on my radio show, an independent publisher, noted that she's been using trailers successfully for over a year now. Over on the Murder Must Advertise online group, trailers are constantly being discussed as a perfect medium for promoting mystery books in particular (doing the same for science fiction, for example, might be somewhat problematic for a whole lot of reasons).

While the doomsayers continue to predict the end of literature as we know it, it's good to see other media being used at the service of literature. Does it really matter, after all, how someone finds your book ... as long as they do? Maybe book trailers are, in fact, beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Ideas for Backgrounds

2006-10-30T06:33:00.000-05:00

When Arlo Guthrie was asked where he gets his song ideas, he said he pulls them out of a creek that runs through his property. He added, "I'm just glad I don't live downstream from Bob Dylan!"

Where do you find your story ideas?

If you’re having problems coming up with fresh ideas, one of the best things you can consider is giving yourself a change of scenery. Whether it’s visiting an exotic section of your city, a drive in the country, a weekend in the mountains or a holiday at the seashore, any change is likely to tickle your brain in creative ways.

One of my favorite activities – one that I don’t indulge nearly often enough – is playing the Destination-Nowhere game. Open a map (real, not virtual), close your eyes, and put your finger down somewhere on the map. That place is your destination, and is to be treated with the same seriousness (or lack thereof) that you’d treat a planned trip to a vacation destination: it’s a field trip! Take off and notice everything that you can along the way – the countryside, the way people talk and dress, the architecture of the buildings. Eat at a local dive rather than a fast-food joint. Imagine the stories that can grow out of this place you’d probably never have thought to go otherwise!

Wherever you go, collect stuff. Take pictures of everything. Fill an envelope with brochures. Bring a notebook, jot down your impressions, and don’t worry about how you’re expressing them: just write.

When you do go to write about the place, you’ll have instant access to the impressions you formed during your trip. Take a lot of Destination-Nowhere trips, and you’ll never want for story ideas and backgrounds… and then you’ll truly be beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Correct Grammar: Back in Style?

2006-10-24T11:53:00.000-04:00

"Clauses and Commas Make a Comeback: SAT Helps Return Grammar to Class"

Yesterday's Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/y62s8j) carried an article about grammar coming back into style. The teacher profiled isn't unique (and thank goodness for that – perhaps a new trend is starting!); and the article itself is full of generalizations and oversimplifications; but it's a trend worth noting and applauding. Anything emphasizing the value of learning correct grammar, usage, and so on can only be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

ARGH!

2006-10-14T11:33:00.000-04:00

I've been spending a fair amount of time putting together a proposal for a feminist press that had put out an RFP for a project they're working on called Girls and Science, to try and get girls more interested in the area.

I was excited, because I've long noted the absence of women (and of people of color, for that matter) in software engineering. When my stepdaughter Anastasia was around eight, I wrote a book for her about Ada Lovelace, arguably first computer programmer, certainly first technical writer; and later I enlarged it with a glossary and anecdotal sidebars and activities, and tried to sell it, but to no avail. So I made it the cornerstone of my proposal, outlining a series of five such books highlighting women in computing, with the same collateral material. I did research to indicate how and why good role models can help change one's way of thinking about something. I put together all the studies about women and computing, how from a very young age girls are excluded from the boys' clubhouse (girls use computers to *do* things -- word processing, music, accessing sites like MySpace; but they're not terribly interested in *how* they work). All that. Sent the proposal in.

Answer came back almost immediately: we're not interested in proposals for elementary-aged children, we want high school and college level proposals.

Can I COUNT how many things are wrong with that?

First off, nowhere in the RFP was any age group mentioned. Secondly, if you really want to change the world you need to start with younger children. But, um, this is a feminist press, and they refer to high school and college-aged females as *girls*?

You've come a long way, baby.

Guess I’ll keep shopping my proposal elsewhere. It’s the perseverance that pays… and keeps me beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Contest in Honor of Halloween

2006-10-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

Well, having survived Columbus Day (which I celebrate much as I celebrate the American version of Thanksgiving, by igoring it: who really has the heart to celebrate a genocide?), let's move on to something much more fun: Halloween!

In honor of the holiday, Echelon Press is sponsoring a contest. The deadline for contest submission is October 14th -- that's this coming Saturday, folks -- so get writing now! Specifics are below.

In honor of Halloween (and all the other holidays of fall) Echelon Press would like to publish your "Fast and Freaky" October story. The fast part means you have until October 14, 2006 to submit your story of 3000-6000 words. The winner will be notified by October 17, 2006 and have 5 days to edit/revise the story. Echelon Press will publish your story in its e-book division on October 23, 2006. Simple!

Our only real request is that your story be creepy! Creepy horror, Creepy romance, creepy mystery, you get the point. Stories must adhere to the following guidelines.

Standard Manuscript format:

File saved in Word format (.doc) or (.rtf)
8 ½ x 11 page
Times New Roman 12pt font/black
1-inch margin on all sides/ 1.5 line spacing
Align text left, do not justify (aligning text both left and right)
Header containing title, author name and page number
Capital letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns
Show new paragraphs by indenting first line of new paragraph. Do not add blank line between paragraphs.
Show scene breaks with * * * * centered in the appropriate line.

All cover letters must include:

Name (and pseudonym if applicable)
Mailing address
Phone number
Email address (if available)
Web address (if available)

Email your submissions to contest@echelonpress.com. The winner will be contracted and paid royalties.

So... go for it! Your chance to really have some fun with something short and creepy! And then you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

There has to be a Purpose

2006-10-01T15:56:00.000-04:00

"Move like you have a purpose."

This is an expression that I have heard comes out of the military, but it's not bad advice for writers as well. In both fiction and nonfiction, you need to make sure that everything you write has a purpose, and that you're clear about what that purpose is.

In nonfiction, you'll often find that your writing can be tightened just by removing those parts of it that are superfluous – that are not consistent with the PURPOSE of the sentence or paragraph.

In fiction writing, divide your work up into scenes. Does every scene have a purpose? What is it? Does it introduce or develop a character, introduce or worsen a plot problem, develop the setting, give the reader information (preferably through action of some kind), or create an atmosphere?

In both cases, make sure that you know exactly what your writing is doing. Your readers can only be clear about your purpose when you are. And then you'll be ... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.

Happy Labor Day!

2006-09-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

Labor Day in the United States today, and just a few thoughts on work.

I think that the gradual (and, indeed, not-so-gradual) offshoring of work is far more of a threat to writers than Google ever could be. Yes, it's true that copy and what the marketing folks call "creative" (as a noun, no less) can be produced far more cheaply elsewhere, often by writers for whom English is a second language. And many companies feel that the former consideration is worth the latter one (after all, enough people for whom English is a first language make egregious mistakes with the language as well) for it to be a problem.

Technical writing was, not surprisingly, the first to go (and we've all suffered through incomprehensible product directions as a result), and now Web site copy, business brochures and reports, and the like are following suit.

What can be done about it? Unionize? We have the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union and neither of them seems to be offering much help in the way of keeping jobs in the United States.

It's unclear what can be done, in fact. But thinking ahead and finding another niche -- or, better still, other niches -- for one's work would seem to be a priority.

Here's an analogy: The mills are closing (I think of this since I live in what was once the largest mill town in the world). Here in Manchester, the biggest mill complex of them all, the Amoskeag, closed on Christmas Eve, 1935, with very little notice that it would do so.

The mills are closing. The difference for many folks now is that we have a (roughly) five-year notice that it's going to happen. That's five years, while we continue to work the mills, for us to figure out what else we can do. Because Christmas Eve, 1935, is coming.

It's never a good idea to place all one's eggs in one basket anyway. Couples often decide not to work for the same company, despite the convenience of doing so, because when layoffs come both partners could be affected. Having only a few clients -- and all of them doing something similar, like being major publishing houses -- is asking for trouble.

The mills are closing. We're lucky to have received the notice this early.

Finding a way to deal with the shifts in economics will put you... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
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Google's at it Again

2006-08-31T13:58:00.000-04:00

I'm occasionally (okay: once) accused of using guest bloggers at times when my own work constricts my blog-writing time (how could you ever think such a thing, Rick?), but today's guest blogger has nothing to do with my deadlines.

I've been watching the stormclouds gather in publishing circles over Google's recent announcement that its book search tool will let people print classics as well as other books no longer under copyright. (Up until now, onscreen delivery has been the only method for accessing said books.)

Google's book search service is part of the Books Library, a wider project to put books online in a searchable format; working with Google are Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of California, and the New York Public Library.

Project Gutenberg is already copying out-of-copyright books as text files, and has been doing for some time, without the current uproar; moreover, according to a report by BBC News, other companies are already doing what Google proposes to do – it's just the name that has writers vociferious in their opposition.Google's book searching device does not access books still under copyright. How much clearer can that be?

But there's still a great deal of panic, and as it happens, my colleague Albert Ervine gave an answer to it in an online forum that is far better than anything I'd be able to write. So I am quoting him, with permission, here:

Somehow this sounds like the reaction of the Irishman who panicked when he heard the world was going to end in ten million years and was relieved to find that it was really a hundred million. For Google's actions to present a problem, several things are necessary:

1. Write a classic, not just a best-seller. Some classics -- like "Walden"-- started life on the remaindered shelf. Some best-sellers, like most of the Victorian era "three deckers," died with their era. A "classic," for lack of a better definition, is a book that is required reading in a literature course. Used copies can usually be identified by copious underlining on the first few pages. They are in good supply because few ever read them after the end of the semester. The accompanying Cliff Notes are usually pretty tattered, though.

2. Assuming you have written a classic -- and that anyone outside of academia has noticed -- the copyright is good for fifty years or so after your death. If your opus is also a continuing bestseller, the royalties might help your great-grandchildren get through college, something most of us have difficulty providing for our immediate children. Anything beyond that verges on providing eternal security, a condition more properly addressed by religion than copyright. Just how greedy can you get if you're not a member of ASCAP?

3. Dr. Johnson said, "No one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money," a sentiment suitable for lexicographers and other "harmless drudges," but it's hard to believe that Johnson didn't enjoy the recognition his dictionary brought him. It may even have sold a few copies of "Rasselas," though it's hard to see what else would have. However, most of us blockheads would be happy enough to know that someone was still reading and enjoying our stories next year, let alone next century. The money is nice, or would be, but with inflation and all...

In any case, as someone pointed out, the Gutenberg Project has been making yesteryear's classics available online for as long as there has been a line to put them on. In addition, they offer free DVDs with the complete texts of several thousand books, including quite a few best-selling non-classics like those of Edgar Rice Burroughs and "Victor Appleton." Well worth the price.

There are also several sites that turn selected texts into more readable format than plain text, and others dedicated to single authors like John Bunyan or specialized groups like the Puritans or the "Church Fathers." The site for Victorian Women Writers has also embalmed a large number of the "three deckers" for those with antiquarian interests.

All in all, I think we should worry less about getting into "Who's Who" than about winding up in "Who's he?"

Thanks today to Albert Ervine, who is way... beyond the elements of style!

***
Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware:
Custom Copy To Go!
***

Recycling the Classics

2006-08-27T19:20:00.000-04:00

Want some new story ideas? Sorry: you're out of luck. It's probably true, as they say, that every story has already been told... and retold... and retold. Like the people in marketing say, though, it's all about spin.

And you could do worse than to re-spin some of the classics.

I'm not talking Shakespeare: he's a little cliché by now. No: I'm going further back, to the fertile ground of Greek and Roman mythology. If you want stories with passion, humor, love and death, look no further.

I'll just take one example to whet your appetite: one version of the Minotaur story goes like this:

Ariadne fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus, who had been charged with rescuing the youth of Athens held by Ariadne's father, the king of Crete; in the process, Theseus had to kill the Minotaur, a great beast held in the center of Daedalus's famous labyrinth. Ariadne helped Theseus (who in turn promised to marry her and take her with him to Athens when he left Crete) find his way through the labyrinth and kill the Minotaur by giving him two special gifts: a sword, and a string that would enable him to find his way back out. (In French, the clue to unraveling a puzzle is still known as the fil d'Ariane -- Aradne's thread.)

As promised, she left Crete with Theseus and the rescued Athenian youth and they stopped on the island of Naxos. While Ariadne slept, however, Theseus apparently had second thoughts; he no longer needed her, and so he (and the youth he had rescued) sailed away in the night, leaving the Cretan princess alone on the island.

Theseus's karma caught up with him later, but that's another story. In the meantime, back on Naxos, the god Dionysus took a good look at Ariadne and fell in love with her himself. When she died, he took the circlet of flowers she'd worn in her hair and flung it up into the heavens, thereby creating the Corona constellation of stars.

Tell me that isn't a brilliant story! How would you update it? Which stars in the sky can you make stories to explain?

Mine some of the ancient stories for their truths and insights into humanity. Use it as a writing exerice sometime and you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware
Custom Copy To Go!

Why Is My Company Called Customline Wordware?

2006-08-25T18:58:00.000-04:00

It's because of a car. Really.

Most of you reading this today will be far too young to remember the Ford Customline. That's okay: I'm far too young to remember the Ford Customline! But it does exist (see picture) and my husband owns one, an old car that belonged in its heyday to his late aunt.

So that's the Customline piece.

I'd been freelancing for a lot of years before I met and married Paul, but when I did, he pointed out my hopeless lack of organization and business acumen. Some years before, he had started a consulting business that he called Customline Software. So it seemed fairly obvious for me to tag along with Wordware.

I'm happy to say that Customline Wordware has grown and flourished, so much so that it has completely eclipsed its former Web-mate, Customline Software. I don't know how Paul feels about that; but he was right: whether you're a writer, an editor, or -- as I am -- both, you need to treat what you do as a business.

Whether or not you name it after a car is, of course, up to you!

Behave in a businesslike manner and you'll see that people begin to treat you that way, too. It's the only way that writers and editors will be given the respect that they deserve. And when you do, you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!

An Early Thanksgiving

2006-08-18T13:29:00.000-04:00

We're still a few months off from November, but I'd like to spend a few moments this Friday giving thanks anyway.

It's been an insanely busy week here at Customline Wordware, and I've found my brain working more slowly than usual. At times like this, one really appreciates one's friends and colleagues.

So I'll talk about two of them. Those of you who listen to my radio show, The World of Publishing, have already met both these people: Susanna J. Sturgis and Dick Margulis.

Susanna J. Sturgis (Susanna's Web site) is a brilliant writer and editor, who has opened my mind to literature I would not have explored on my own and has herself pushed the envelope in helping establish a feminist presence within the science fiction genre and community. She listens to my often-snide comments and puts them in context, and has been willing to share a lot of her own hard-earned wisdom and techniques with me. She's turned me on to music I'd never heard before and her blog (Susanna's Bloggery) is filled with thoughts I wish I'd had. (Read her words. Often.) And when my world is particularly crazy, she always provides a dose of sanity and calm.

Dick Margulis (Dick's Web site) has intimidated me for as long as I've known him. This man is just too perfect. He's an editor's editor; he guides his clients with caring and aplomb through the maze of self-publishing; he always has time to answer even the most inane of questions – while making one feel that they weren't all that inane, after all. I check his blog (Words/Myth/Ampers & Virgule) regularly for updates on language and publishing (and so should you), and he's the first person I think of when I have a phrase to untangle or an elusive term to track down. When a plea for help is thrown out in an editors' forum, I think, "I'll answer that when I have time, not right now." Dick thinks, "I'll answer that right now." And his answers are invariably thoughtful and complete.

I'm immensely grateful that these two people are in my world. Take a moment and visit their Web sites and blogs. You may find that one of them is just the right fit for your next project.

They are most definitely... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
http://www.customline.com

What About a Web Site?

2006-08-14T18:05:00.000-04:00

Funny you should ask.

I was talking about Web sites with one of my clients recently, and I was reminded once again that people simply do not put enough thought into the design and copy of their sites. Ah, there's the rub: everyone talks about Web site design, but who spends much time thinking about the words?

"I can write," most people think. "I can write well," most authors think. Neither thought translates into good Web copy. There are niches in writing just as there are in everything else: there is absolutely no reason to believe, for example, that a successful romance author can write successful Web copy.

Apples and oranges.

Interestingly, while I write copy for a great many Web sites, I haven't written any of the copy for the Web sites that my company, Customline Wordware, designs. Why? We specialize in Web sites for writers and publishers – all of whom want to write their own copy. Which may or may not be a good idea.

Compared to other forms of communication – magazines, books, films, broadcast media – a Web site is very limited. This needs to be understood at the very beginning. A Web site needs to have one function, and then be designed around that function. For example, if your Web site is meant to sell shoes, then you don’t also want to include photos from your last anniversary party, or an article about your beekeeping hobby – or even an American flag to announce your political beliefs.

The copy needs to reinforce that function, briefly and clearly. This is not the time for long flowing sentences or clever literary quips. People visit Web sites fast -- they're in, they're out. Your copy needs to grab their attention and keep them there long enough for your site to fulfill its function.

Long before any HTML is anticipated, you need to articulate the function -- or goal -- of your Web site. It might be any of the following:

*Business site: a place to sell your product
*Information site: a place to provide data, links, etc.
*Entertainment site: a place to have fun

Once you have your goal, keep it in mind every step of the way. Doing flash graphics might be fun, but does it meet your site’s goal? Does everything that you want to place on your site work toward the site’s goal?

If it doesn’t, don’t even think of putting it there!

Here are a few suggestions for you to bear in mind when thinking about your Web site design and copy:

Ease of Use: Find out what most people accessing your site are coming there for, and make that the easiest thing to do. Alternately, think about what you want them to do, and make that the easiest thing to do. Use a big, bright button to get them to work toward your goal.

Speed: If you use a lot of graphics, your site will load slowly. If you use a lot of flash animation, your site will load slowly. If you think that people are so fascinated by what you have to say that they will wait patiently for the site to load, then go for it. Personally, I think that this isn’t a chance that you want to take.

Color: Use it for emphasis. Never use blue text, because readers will think it is a link. Do not play with colored text against a colored background. It might look good to you, but it may disappear for those with color blindness.

Background: You will probably want to make yours white. Really. Don’t use any other background color unless it’s absolutely necessary – there are too many variables out there (different browser, different video hardware, etc.) that might make it look different than you want it to. If you are using graphics, and you probably are, using a white background will make your graphic designer’s job much easier, and the end product better. Navigating a site with a dark or black background may look chic, but it’s like driving a car at night. Visibility is reduced, and you won’t see the road signs as well.

Consistency: A button should do the same thing on every page of your site. So should tabs, links, etc.

Clarity: Don’t put too many different elements on the same page. It can be confusing to a visitor, and many will give up if they cannot immediately do what they want to do, or if they do not understand the layout of your site. If the appearance of your Web site is more important than the content, it’s a sure sign of a beginner at work.

Complexity: Map out your site ahead of time. A site that’s difficult to navigate will be hard to maintain, Think about locating information easily. In general, the simpler it is, the better.

So there it is. Web site design 101. Follow these easy suggestions, and you'll have a Web site... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
http://www.customline.com

Don't Take It Personally!

2006-08-11T13:15:00.000-04:00

I need to talk some more about rejection letters, because it seems that a lot of people have been receiving them recently, and distress is the least of the emotions expressed on several lists and among writers that I know.

You don't want to hear this, but I'll say it anyway: Don't be distressed. Don't take it personally.

A rejection is never personal. How can it be? They don't know you well enough for it to be personal! A rejected manuscript didn't fit the agent's or publisher's list, interests, timing, etc. It's not about you.

Author Rebecca Coleman recently said, "Finding an agent is like dating. Would you date three guys and expect one of the three to be your soulmate and offer a proposal? I hope not!"

Good point.

Terry Burns, a guest on one of my radio shows and a Western writer, says, "A slam on our writing? No, if they reject they do it on such a small sampling of the writing, or even none at all, that it has almost nothing to do with the quality of the writing. They are looking at whether the genre, concept, or story idea -- or other factors that might make it a fit for their house -- are there. If they don't think it's a fit, they really aren't interested in how good the writing is. In fact, they'd rather not read something they aren't going to be able to buy anyway."

You are not your writing, no matter how you might feel that you are. A rejection is a stepping-stone to finding the right agent or the right publisher. It's never pleasant; but the professional takes it in stride and amasses anecdotes to discuss later... when he or she is beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
www.customline.com

Why Does Editing Cost So Much?

2006-08-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

Many first-time authors find themselves in the literary equivalent of sticker shock when it comes time to send their manuscripts out to be edited. And it's never fun to be the bearer of bad tidings.

On the other hand, authors generally don't understand the combination of expertise, time, effort, and scheduling it takes for an editor to work on their manuscripts. I am reminded of the air conditioning technician who came to repair a unit and, locating the special place to aim, kicked it smartly, causing it to start up again. The homeowner was astonished when presented with a bill for two thousand dollars. "But all you did was kick it!"

"That's right," rejoined the technician. "But it's knowing just where to kick -- that's why you called me."

Editing is a little like that. Anyone can rephrase words on a page; but it's knowing which ones to change, and why; it's having knowledge about different style guides, technical issues, domain information, the world of publishing in general, and -- well, it's about knowing just where to kick.

So there are some good reasons for the cost of editing. Add to that the understanding that freelance editors pay for everything out of their income -- taxes, rent, equipment, professional memberships -- as well as the reality that some manuscripts do in fact require a great deal of work, and you'll start to have a sense of what goes into the cost of editing.

Weigh that against the advantages of having your manuscript edited, and you'll realize that in the long run, it's well worth the cost. You'll never have a second chance to make a first impression, and the same is true for your writing.

And then you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
www.customline.com

So What's This NANOWRIMO, Anyway?

2006-08-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

So what's this Nanowrimo?

You may have heard about it, here and there on the Web. The general idea is that you have a month in which to write a novel -- or a set number of words, whichever happens first. One month. November, to be exact.

You're given a lot of support. There are Internet forums set up for information, discussion, and just plain complaining. There are local groups as well: I know of one that meets every Friday afternoon during the month at a coffeehouse where they write together.

So what's the point?

Here's the thing: read Monday's blog entry, if you want to refresh your memory. Writing is about applying your derrière to the chair: it's about just getting the stuff down. What better way than to commit in public to getting it done? Like my work during my residency last June, it's not perfect. It's a draft. But I got the words on the paper, and so can you.

Just in case you think it's just me, I selected a vict-ahem, a guest blogger to tell you all about it:

"I'm Rick, and it's been eight months since my last NANOWRIMO. I wake up daily, rush to my computer, and add words to my current novel, yearning to share my progress with the world. Then I remember, NANOWRIMO occurs only in November, and we are barely into August.

"Jeannette asked me to pinch-hit for her because, well, I think she has deadlines she's been avoiding. Nevertheless, her reason to me was that I had been a participant in the National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) the past three years, and she wanted me to share some of my experiences and offer tips.

"According to the website (http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ), the "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." Some people scoff at the idea of writing a novel in a month. Everyone knows that writing a novel takes years of poverty and angst-ridden misfortune. Humbug. With a modicum of preparation and a few hours of disciplined writing each night, the goal is achievable. I know. I've achieved it twice in the last three years, and now have two novels ready for querying.

"The website, with its numerous forums, provides many tips for the writer that I won't duplicate here. Chris Baty, the founder of NANOWRIMO, has even written a book about the experience, "No Plot, No Problem." Each author writes to the tap of his or her own keystrokes. I find no plot to be a huge problem, so this is how I prepare.

"Starting now, the idea festers into a story. Then, I take three days prior to November 1 to focus on the story. I identify the main characters and create a bare-bones character outline for each: height, weight, eye and hair color, age, marital status, size of family, ethnicity, etc. Sketching out the first scene, the last scene, and the major turning point scenes in the novel, provides the skeleton of the story. I write a 25-word synopsis of the main plot to give the story focus. Identifying the main characters' motives helps because, as you write, the story may draw you in (good), but the direction may be lost (potentially bad).

"The sign-up for NANOWRIMO begins October 1. At that point, let your friends and family know what you are doing in November. Prepare them for the reality that you won't be around much. Remind them several times. Close the door, take the phone off the hook, and log-off the Internet while you write. Do your November chores in October: pay the bills early, pre-write birthday cards, and fill up the freezer with prepared meals. You will need the time.

"It's 1,667 words per day to meet the goal, but I usually set the target higher, because, just like in bowling, it is very hard to catch up once you fall behind.

"I'm Rick, and I'm a NANOWRIMO addict. Please join me."

I should note that my guest knows what he's talking about: Rick Bylina is the winner of the 2006 Writer's Retreat Workshop Gary Provost Scholarship. He lives and writes in angst-ridden poverty in Apex, North Carolina. His mantra? The only rule: writers write! Everything else is a guideline.

Rick is definitely a writer who is... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
www.customline.com

Sit, Ubu, Sit!

2006-07-31T20:18:00.000-04:00

On Monday nights, I host an Internet radio show called "The World of Publishing." At the end of every show, I ask my guest what advice he or she has for writers.

It occurred to me (I'm on vacation this week, so have a little more time to think) that I rarely ask myself the question and give my own advice to people. So here it is (drum roll, please):

KEEP YOUR DERRIERE IN THE CHAIR.

It's really that simple, but it didn't come across to me in quite that way until I went on a writing residency this past spring to a place where there is no electricity. I brought a small manual typewriter with me, not knowing what the results would be.

The results were phenomenal. In two weeks I got 250 pages of decent material. And I have to say that had I been using my beloved PowerBook and being connected to the Internet, as I am 24/7, that wouldn't have happened.

Why? Because research is just so incredibly easy. One writes, and then one thinks, oh, what year did that happen? And one looks it up. Then and there.

Completely destroying the flow of the writing in the process.

Writing with a typewriter was oddly freeing. When I came to a point where I would normally have looked something up, I just typed in three exes and kept going. Research? Never mind! Looking things up? Pshaw! I wrote and wrote and wrote. Which was, after all, the point of being on a writing residency.

There are a lot of reasons not to write when we're working on a novel, an article, an essay, or anything else that requires hard work -- as good writing necessarily does. The first is, obviously, that it is in fact hard. Having a difficult task in front of us is an open invitation to sloth and procrastination.

Getting out of the chair to do "one more thing," to look up a reference, even to get just "one more" coffee, means that the work isn't getting done. It's that simple.

And getting out of the chair doesn't have to be physical. Reading emails as they come in, taking time to look something up on the Net, reading "just one" newsgroup or forum entry -- all this is getting you out of your chair just as much as is the coffee or the book or anything else.

So that's my advice: you want to write? Write. Don't talk about it. Don't think about it. Don't spend all your time in writing forums and on writing email lists and reading about writing: Write. Keep your derrière in the chair, and write.

And then you'll be way beyond the elements of style!

***
Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
www.customline.com

What do Editors Want?

2006-07-27T19:28:00.000-04:00

What is it that publishers are looking for? Are they waiting for the next Dan Brown, the next Stephen King, the next Danielle Steel? Does the nonfiction proposal you craft have to be about whatever happens to be popular – next year? Or do you have a chance of getting out of the slush pile and published, even if your book doesn't fit into any of those stereotypes?

The answer is, yes. You have a chance. But you need to play by their rules in order to get there.

The first thing that agents, editors, and publishers are looking for, before any other consideration, is marketing. They want an author who can promote his or her book. Wait a minute - isn't that like putting the cart in front of the horse? Shouldn't the book, first and foremost, be brilliant and original before worrying about marketing?

You'd think so. But that would mean that you're not playing by the rules. And the first rule in publishing is Market Thyself.

Like it or not, a sale is much more likely if you are an expert writing about your subject of expertise, whether in fiction or nonfiction. Look at all of the novels about forensics experts written by forensics experts, the novels about lawyers written by lawyers. Editors and publishers want to know that you know what you're talking about. If you're an expert, then they assume you do, and can promote you that way. If you're not an expert, think about taking one on as co-author.

And that is just the beginning. You need to make it clear from the start that you will do what it takes to advertise your book. That you're ready and willing to construct and maintain a Web site, that you're ready for book tours, that you'll break down doors to get reviews and interviews. Show yourself to be creative, energetic, and perseverant, and you've come a long way toward winning your editor's heart.

The second thing that you need to project is professionalism. Take the time to learn what is expected of you, and do it. If the publication wants submissions between October and June only, submit between October and June only. Show in your query letters that you are not broadcasting them randomly (even if you are) but know something about the publishing house to which you're addressing yourself.

Don't call the editor unless she or he invites you to do so. Don't ever send anything that is hand-written. Don't ever mention that your mother likes your work.

If you want to be treated as a professional, act like one!

Finally, be able to encapsulate your concept or idea in as few words as possible. If you can't articulate it, no one will buy it. Try what is called an "elevator conversation" - describe your book in the time it would take you to tell someone about it on an elevator. Can't do it? Then you're not ready to try and get a publisher's attention.

If you don't know what you're doing, it will show. This is your job now, treat it the same way you'd treat any new job: by playing by the rules, being flexible and professional, and by using every opportunity to press your concept home.

For additional thoughts on what an editor wants -- and doesn't want -- check out Miss Snark and the Evil Editor (you'll find the links to their blogs on your right).

It can be done, but not unless you're willing to do your homework first! And then you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
www.customline.com

Platform? What Platform?

2006-07-24T17:44:00.000-04:00

It's a word you're likely to hear a lot these days, especially if you write nonfiction. When agents and editors talk about "platforms," what they're saying is, in essence, "how are you going to sell this book?"

Not we, note. You.

The days are gone when having done something for ten or twenty or thirty years makes you an expert -- at least in the eyes of the reading public, and therefore in the eyes also of those who cater to it. These days, you need to have name recognition, and the more instant that recognition, the better.

"What do you mean, you've been a ham radio operator for 40 years? Okay, do you write a column about being a ham radio operator? No... hmm. So have you been on any TV or radio shows, talking about being a ham radio operator? Un-huh. Let's see... Do you have an advanced degree in ham radio operation? What's that? There's aren't any? Oh... Well, at least you've taught classes in ham radio operation, right? Gosh, I'm sorry. Your book looks absolutely terrific, the outline really covers the subject area, you have a lively writing style, I'd love to publish this. Can you go and find a real expert we can add on as a co-author?"

I edited a stunning book in which a survivor of domestic violence narrated her story and drew conclusions from it about the dynamics of domestic abuse. She still hasn't gotten a traditional publisher interested in the book. Apparently being beaten up for twenty-odd years doesn't mean that she knows what she's talking about: she lacks a platform.

Allyson Peletier, who is now a consultant (www.AmbitiousEnterprises.com), worked for some time at the major imprint of a major publisher. She says, "It mattered very much what an author's background was when evaluating nonfiction for two reasons -- it is generally assumed that potential readers will choose a book by an obvious 'expert' over a nonexpert, and our marketing and publicity departments insisted that their media contacts wouldn't bother with an author without obvious credentials in the field in which he or she was writing."

The platform issue has even engendered businesses. Fern Reiss, a media and public relations specialist, writes and lectures on what she calls "expertizing" (www.expertizing.com). Best advice? Buy one -- or several -- of Fern's books.

You don't have to -- necessarily -- go out and get a terminal degree in your field of interest in order to have a platform. Start small. A blog dedicated to the topic. A column in your local newspaper. Teach a course in your subject area, and then teach another. Do a workshop or a presentation on a local cable TV show -- or, better still, host your own. Get to be a recognized "expert," even locally at first, and you'll be building that platform. Build up to regional and then national publications, and eventually you can start getting your name associated with your book's subject.

And then you can approach an agent or publisher with a stunning book proposal (Customline Wordware can help you there!) that includes a substantial section on your "platform." And you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware: Custom Copy To Go!
http://www.customline.com

Learning to Critique, Part One

2006-07-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

The debate over whether there are hard-and-fast "rules" for good writing, and who can break them, is ongoing; it seems to crop up afresh every three months or so on writers' lists and in writing classes.

You, gentle reader, probably know already how I feel about the issue.

The reality is that "breaking the rules" should never be an excuse for poor grammar, faulty or sloppy usage, or uneven writing. Saying that one is above the rules in such instances does little other than to make one look silly at best, and ignorant at worst.

You must know the rules before you break them. Being a rebel is no substitute for learning to write.

This is not just true in the instances cited above, but also when one is constructing or critiquing a story. I often advise beginning writers to join a critique group (and even list three of them in the right margin here at Beyond the Elements of Style) before submitting a piece to be edited; there is a lot to be learned by having several people go through one's work with a fine-toothed comb. But there may be even more to be learned by critiquing others' pieces.

One major problem is that people in a critique group often approach someone else's work with preconceived notions, particularly in terms of the "rules" of a story. But the reality is that it is the author who sets the rules -- and the story fails or succeeds based both on the wisdom of those rules and on the author's ability to follow them.

Every story doesn't need a brilliant plot -- just a story arc. Every story doesn't need sympathetic characters -- just characters with whom the reader can identify (which means, of course, that the characters must be developed; if they are stereotypical or one-dimensional, the story won't work). Every story doesn't need a poetic voice -- just its own voice.

(On the other hand, some genres have particular structural and technical requirements. Science fiction requires plot. Chick lit requires humor and emotions. The saavy author will read a great deal in his or her chosen genre before attempting to circulate anything through a critique group.)

All these and more considerations are important when you begin critiquing others' work. Take time to learn the rules, both of good literature and of the author whose work you're critiquing, and you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline.com

Never Give Up! says guest blogger Terry Burns

2006-07-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

Western author Terry Burns was a recent guest on my radio show, "The World of Publishing," and we started talking about perseverence just in the last minutes of the show... not enough time to get into it in depth. So I've asked Terry to visit here and tell me more. Here's his response:

***

"Expand a little more on what we were talking about at the end of your radio show? I can do that. You asked the one piece of advice that I would give new writers and I responded, "Never Give Up!"

"As a people we've gotten to the point where we want it all, and we want it right now. This same attitude is a real problem in those who are trying to get their first work published. Getting published is like assembling a puzzle, all of the pieces have to be in place or the puzzle can't be completed. There are so many things that have to be there to be successful. We can be at the right place but the wrong time, too early or too late. It could be it isn't formatted properly or meet the submission guidelines. It can be the wrong genre, they just did a book like it, too big or too little, not get in front of the proper person, or our query letter didn't capture their interest and they didn't bother to read further.

"These are just the tip of the iceberg. To get an excellent picture of what can happen to your submission, try going to http://www.caroclarke.com/iamyoureditor.html and read what one editor, Caro Clark has to say about what happens to a manuscript when an editor gets it in their hands. She really tells it like it is.

"The hard news is that 85% of all manuscripts are rejected because all of the puzzle pieces are not there. It probably has nothing to do with the quality of the writing, though that is one of the puzzle pieces, and it surely isn't a personal rejection because they don't know us well enough for it to be personal. Yet too many do take it personal, get their feelings hurt and quit trying.

"If that 85% number is depressing, it's because we're looking at the wrong side of the equation. It also means that we are only up against 15% of the manuscripts being submitted if we are doing it right, formatting correctly, following the submission guidelines and -- most important -- doing the research necessary to insure that we are submitting to the right place, that we are sure the house we have targeted really is in the market for work such as we are submitting.

"Some will disagree with me, but for writers starting out I recommend querying both agents and editors. In a survey of over 600 writers that I did, 87% of them published before they were able to interest an agent. If possible, getting an agent first is highly preferable, but sitting around for years trying to get one without having the writing credentials to interest them has us putting all of our efforts into a 17% chance of success and increases the length of time before we can expect to publish.

"How long is a reasonable amount of time? In the same survey as above the average was six years to publish their first work. Some much earlier, some much longer, but that was the average. Part of this is because we tend to do the process very badly at first and as we are perfecting our craft and writing better, so we are learning from our mistakes, targeting better, and writing better queries. I look at my old queries and proposals and I'm embarrassed.
They deserved to be rejected, and got what they deserved. The odds of finding the right fit where all the pieces are in place is hard enough when we do a good job of targeting and querying, they are impossible when we do it badly.

"As I said on my own blog last week, in a perfect world we'd write a wonderful story and the world would beat a path to our door, pay us an obscene amount of money, and promote our work to the high heavens. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, and although our chances of success are much better of we have a good product to offer, the actual key to first getting published may have more to do with patience and perseverance than it does with the quality of the writing. I mean, all of know some work in print that we wondered how it got there, right? It was the right subject at the right place in front of the right person at exactly the right time.

"We're adults, we know not to expect something for nothing, and we know there really isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The publishing industry rewards those who persevere, who learn from their mistakes, who work to improve their craft and learn how to market their work. We don't want to do it, we want to write our stories and have somebody else take care of the rest of it, but life doesn't work that way even if we have a good agent.

"We have to never give up."

***

Great advice from a super guest, who is definitely Beyond the Elements of Style! Visit Terry's Web site and blog at www.terryburns.net to learn more about the author and his work!

Jeannette Cézanne
customline.com

Defeating Writer's Block

2006-07-14T09:27:00.000-04:00

Whether you're poised to write the next Great American Novel or need to do a company report (that is, by the way, due this Friday), it's bound to strike you at one point or another. It's been called the Terror of the Blank Page. It's been called Writer's Block. It's horrible.

So what can you do about it?

1) Outline, outline, outline!

Outlines impose discipline on the writing process, and they prevent losing sight of where you're going. Keeping an image of where you're coming from and where you're going will always help you get to that destination a little (or a lot) faster.

Decide right off what are your top five or ten points and write them down as bullet items. That's it! That's your outline! Now all you need to do is look at the flow of the outline and move your bulleted items around until you like the logic. Combine or split bullets if that works better.

So now, start writing: a 100-word summary for each bullet point.

Next, expand each summary by listing bullets under each one, thus creating a second outline level.

Now turn each of these secondary points into one or two full sentences. Try to ignore the points on either side, concentrate just on that one point you are making. Once you've done this for each point, you're very close to being finished.

All you have to do now is insert an introduction, a conclusion, and the missing transitions between your points. Try not to endlessly revise as you go; save that for the second time looking at your text. When you do manage to get sidetracked, your outline will help you get back on track more quickly and easily.

2) Talk, talk, talk!

It's often helpful to talk to somebody about what you're trying to write. I've always found that talking about what I'm writing reveals just how muddled my thinking is, and gives me greater confidence in what I do have down. If there's no one to talk to, draft your ideas as an e-mail or letter to someone else, even if you never send it. The act of explaining something to another person often clarifies it for you.

3) Start new writing habits

Here's something you probably don't know: people who keep journals often find themselves experiencing writer's block less frequently than the rest of us. In that vein of thought, you might want to consider practicing the exercises from one or more of the following:

The Artist's Way (Julia Cameron)
Writing for Story (Jon Franklin)
Techniques of the Selling Writer (Dwight Swain)

Finally, many people say that in order to write, you have to – well, write. Write other things. Turn off your inner editor and write for fun. (Surely you remember what that is like!)

What are you waiting for? Do it, and you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Ceacute;zanne
customline.com
Portions of this text c. Customline.com, used with permission.

What's in a Neologism?

2006-07-10T15:42:00.000-04:00

Well, it's that time again, time for Merriam-Webster to tell us which colloquialisms they're ready to accept as official: yes, folks, it's Brand New Word Time!

Do I sound a little sour? Probably so. But do we really need to add "mouse potato" to our lexicon? Is this a useful expression? Or is it important for those of us who don't have any to be able to officially use the word "bling"? Anyone who watches the Red Sox play knows about that little beard that appears to be a team trademark, but why must we name it? Doesn't "little beard" work better than -- wait for it -- "soul patch"?

I'm sorry: I have nothing against expanding our linguistic horizons, as long as there's a good reason for doing so. I applaud Merriam-Webster for including "biodiesel" in last week's list. And, like it or not (and trademark violation or not), it seems clear that the verb "to google" is here to stay.

But it occurs to me that a lot of the neologisms thus recognized are little more than verbal crutches, aids for the lazy of pen and of voice. And if there's one thing that our consumer-happy, multi-tasking, user-friendly society doesn't need, it's another way to be lazy.

I shouldn't complain. I'm waiting for the day when Merriam-Webster accepts the use of "like" to serve as a placeholder in conversation, thus giving the linguistic stamp of approval on, like, sentences that, like, sound like -- well, like this!

It's all a little beyond me... and beyond the elements of style.

Jeannette Cézanne
www.customline.com

Promoting Your Book -- Part Deux

2006-07-07T20:04:00.000-04:00

In a previous article, I gave some pointers on publicizing your book. So I thought I'd add to them today -- you can never have too much good publicity advice!

Let's go over the basics... You have a book out... now what? When you've finished writing, your job is far from done. Promotion is challenging to most authors -- writers tend to be people who sit in a room and write -- but it is a necessary part of being published in the new millenium.

But where do you start?

The first thing to know is that publications and reviewers work months in advance. If your book came out last winter, it's already too late to start promoting it in any of the major media outlets. So learn from this time; and if you have something coming out in the near future, make sure to ask for reviews as soon as possible.

If your book is on amazon or bn.com, ask people you know to write a positive review and post it there. If anyone writes to you and says they like your book, ask them if they'd be willing to say so on amazon and bn.com. Better still, give them a direct link so they don't have to spend time figuring out how and where to post such a review.

Be creative! Have you ever heard of Bookcrossing.com? It's a wonderful system whereby books are left in public places to be picked up (and eventually passed along again) by other readers. Check it out on the Net and send some copies of your book out via Bookcrossing!

If you don't have a Web site, don't wait another moment to get one! It's your best way to reach readers. Include a list of appearances, links to reviews, and a blog. (Remember that Customline Wordware specializes in Web sites for authors and publishers -- call someone who has specific experience in the area you need.) Keep a reference to your site and your book in your signature line for additional free exposure as you participate in email lists and online forums.

Do as many readings as you can. (Not just bookstore signings; these can be awkward unless you're extremely well-known. I used to be Community Relations Manager in a bookshop, and the number of signings that were made up of just me and the author was appalling and discouraging. If you're going to do a bookstore signing, make it an event: tie an activity in to the theme of your book in some way, and use that activity to promote the book!) Find out of there are cafes or bookstores near you (or near where you plan to be on business or vacation) that would be willing to have you do a reading.

Even if you cannot do an official "signing," stop by bookstores and see if they have copies of your book. Talk to the booksellers (they are your current best friends: they'll hand-sell a book they think is worth it) and offer to autograph the books they have in stock. Ask if it can be faced out on the shelves.

If your book is appropriate, go for the school angle: call local high schools and ask to do a reading for an English class or an assembly. Libraries will also sponsor local writers to put on an event or a reading. The point is to get yourself -- and therefore your name -- out there.

Try local radio shows; they're often looking for someone new to interview, especially those drive-time shows. And get in touch with me: I host a weekly radio show called "The World of Publishing" and I sometimes interview new and emerging writers!

Draft a press release (or, better still, engage Customline Wordware to do one for you: you'll never get a second chance to make a good first impression!) and send it to every paper in your area, and to the free online PR services like PRWeb. Get the word out!

Anyone have any more ideas, things that have worked for them? Add them here, please! I don't pretend to have an exhaustive list of ideas, but it would be grand to collect a substantial "how-to" resource here!

And that will get us all a step closer to being... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline.com

Writing for Magazines

2006-07-03T08:56:00.000-04:00

So you want to write an article? Maybe you already have, lots of times, and have had lots of rejections. There may be a very good reason for those rejections (though, to be honest, it may also depend on the editor's mood, whether the publication has recently done something similar, or the phase of the moon).

1) Know the publication: Buy (or at least read) a copy. The whole thing. Look for tone, read letters to the editor, see what readers are interested in. Obtain the publication's submission guidelines and follow them. Don't waste the magazine's time or yours by pitching random ideas: try to reflect what you have learned about the publication in your query.

2) If an idea is worth pitching, it's worth pitching well: Don't query until you're ready. This doesn't mean that the article has to be completed (although that is a good idea if you're just starting out); it means that the idea has to be complete. Don't submit until you know what you are doing and where your idea is going.

3) Do not send a first draft: Editors will respect you far more if you follow the rules and submit polished, finished copy.

Make sure that everything is spelled correctly. Do not rely on your word processor's spellchecker for this -- this is a case where you may actually need to look something up. Don't be afraid: the dictionary is your friend! As one magazine says in its editorial guidelines: "If, for instance, you must invoke, say, Gorbachev, at least have the wit to spell his name properly." (Dubliner)
Look out for clichés. No one wants to read them anymore. If you look over your copy and something sounds too familiar, it's probably a cliché -- get rid of it. You can do better. Clichés are for the intellectually lazy. Besides, they're red flags for editors.
Give your story a catchy lead: your first sentence is extraordinarily important. It needs to say what you're going to be writing about -- but in a way that grabs a reader's attention and makes them want to read the whole piece, rather than continue thumbing through the magazine. Sound hard? You bet. But essential if you want to get published and continue to be published.
Include anecdotes and examples: Straight lecturing about a topic does not an interesting magazine article make. Be sure that you illustrate what you're saying with quotes, examples, and anecdotes that show the truth in what you're saying.
Make sure you have a solid beginning and ending. The ending should come back in some way to the beginning, so that the reader feels you've taken him or her on a journey from which you have returned, wiser and more knowledgeable.
Write logically. I recently read an article in a hobbyist magazine that was all over the place; it had the potential to be interesting, but was unorganized and ultimately uninteresting.

Writing for magazines can provide a lucrative career, but don't kid yourself: it's hard work, both breaking in and writing good, solid pieces. Some community colleges and organizations such as MediaBistro offer courses; it's not a bad idea to take one, or at least to run your work through a critique group. And then you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline.com

Take That!

2006-06-30T07:14:00.000-04:00

Here's an unusual service, though a similar thought may have occurred to those of us accustomed to dealing with rejection letters. Lulu.com (a subsidy publisher) is offering something new: for $90, you can turn your rejection letters into... toilet paper!

Here's how Lulu introduces the service:

"JK Rowling, Agatha Christie, Hunter S. Thompson, James Joyce and George Orwell all received their share of publishers' rejection letters. Stephen King got so many that he used to nail them on a spike under a timber in his bedroom. Margaret Mitchell got rejection letters from 38 different publishers before finally finding one to publish her novel, Gone With The Wind. William Saroyan may now be rated a literary great, but he amassed a stack of rejection slips 30 inches high -- some seven thousand -- before he sold his first story."

Perhaps it's an idea whose time has come. Certainly I tell many of my clients and writing students that chances are good they'll accumulate enough rejection slips to paper at least one room of their houses; but certainly that's a depressing choice for wallpaper. Why not another kind of paper altogether?

Lulu goes on to say, "This groundbreaking new Lulu service recalls the remark attributed to (among others) the great Sir Winston Churchill, who is said to have written in reply to an unwelcome letter: Dear Sir, I am in the smallest room of the house. I have your letter before me. Soon it will be behind me."

Anyone want to try it out? Have the frustration level it takes to spend "from $90" to put it all behind you? Then go to Lulu's fabulous toilet paper offer -- and then come back and tell us all about it!

That will take you well... beyond the elements of style!

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline.com

The Dreaded Apostrophe

2006-06-26T14:07:00.000-04:00

Okay. I just have to start today with a rant.

If you're going to correct someone, be sure, first, that you are correct.

I've been out of town for two weeks, and happened to be at a wonderful Portuguese bakery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for breakfast one recent morning. A sign near the tables noted something to the effect that diners were asked to put the tray back in its place. Some cleverer-than-thou person had added an apostrophe between the "it" and the "s."

No, no, a thousand times no!

I would venture to say that the weapon of choice for those whose intent is to mangle the English language is, was, and shall probably always be the apostrophe.

Let's all take a quick refresher class on its use. Please also follow the link I have provided to the Apostrophe Protection Society: bookmark that link and go back and reference it any time you have any doubt as to whether or not an apostrophe is called for.

Contractions take apostrophes:

It's going to rain today!
I'm reading that book now.
She's happy to be leaving at four.
He can't finish the assignment.

All of these sentences involve contractions: A contraction is a device showing us that some letters have been omitted, and is used in speaking and in informal writing. It is becomes it's; I am becomes I'm; she is becomes she's; cannot becomes can't.

Noun possessives take apostrophes:

Mary's car is in the repair shop.
My mother-in-law's letter was short.
We went to Clara and Tom's show. (Note that only the second name takes the apostrophe and the s.)
James's music is still in the hall. (Note that even though James ends in an s, we still add an apostrophe and an additional s. James is still a singular, and the singular follows this rule.)
It took five hours' walking to get there! (Note that a plural places the apostrophe AFTER the s.)

Pronoun possessives DO NOT take apostrophes:

The book should be in its place.
That raincoat is his.
Those are ours!

Dates do not take apostrophes (The exception appears to be the unfortunate style guide employed by the New York Times):

I haven't seen him since the 1990s.
He was born in the 80s.

Master these few rules and you will not make the common mistakes we all see out "in the wild," to wit:

Banana's are .49 a pound!
Put it back in it's place!
That book is her's!

By now, you should be able to tell why the three examples above are incorrect. Do that, and you'll be... beyond the elements of style!

THIS JUST IN: Amazingly enough, even people who should know better make errors. Check out the jacket copy on a recent Philip Roth novel here: http://tinyurl.com/j5t4g

Jeannette Cézanne
Customline.com

How Long is a Novel?

2006-06-02T09:41:00.000-04:00

How long is a novel?

Well, of course that depends – on the genre, the author's experience, the publishing house. But if you're a first-time author and you're trying to catch the eye of a traditional publisher (okay, okay, a mixed metaphor at best), you need to be concerned about length.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but what it all boils down to is money. Longer books are more expensive to produce than shorter books. What you may be able to get away with ten years down the road in your career is not what you can get away with now.

In general, aiming for around 80,000 words will get you in the right ballpark. It's not getting to the 80,000 words that's difficult for most writers – it's cutting down to 80,000 words that's hard.

So you have a 200,000 word manuscript you want to sell to a publisher. What's an author to do?

Here are some suggestions:

Eliminate non-essential words, phrases, sentences, characters, etc.
Remove any clichés.
Eliminate qualifiers such as nearly, a little, almost, sort of, along the lines of, etc.
Don't make yourself crazy. Take it one page at a time and try to reduce just that page. And then the next. And then the next.
Think about what you're saying. Why use ten words when four will do? Look at where you can be more spare, where you can tighten your language.
A great suggestion from a screenwriter named David Hoag: "One thing I've learned is to come into a scene as late as possible and get out of it as quickly as possible. One easy thing to cut, for instance, are what I call the howdy-do elements. In real life, when you go into a shop, you have to go to the door, ask for Mr. or Ms. So-and-So, wait, then tell them what you want, blah blah blah blah, etc. We tend to write scenes like this, too. This applies to all sorts of business with arrivals and departures, getting to the place, finding that place, and so on. I've found bunches of paragraphs which can be reduced to a single sentence."

It's not easy, but it's not as difficult as you think it is. And along the way you'll probably find that you're able to tighten your writing in such a way that the end product is better than the longer one with which you started! Then you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

Publicizing Your Book

2006-05-29T13:02:00.000-04:00

Now That You're Published... What Next?

You've written the book. You've gotten an agent. A publisher has accepted it, and you've worked your derriere off making revisions to your editor's specifications. Time to sit back and relax, right?

Well, no.

There may have been a time when that was true, but it no longer is. Today, authors (people whose preference is to simply sit in a room and write) also need to be promoters (people who are good at making and working contacts, at speaking in public, and, most of all, are good at sales). Not fun. But a necessary part of your work.

Here is a checklist of what you will need to do, along with some (hopefully!) helpful hints about how to do them:

1) Public Speaking: You're going to do a lot of it. If you were ever a teacher in a former life, you're ahead of the game – and you know how easy it is to lose your audience's attention. If you have no public speaking experience, or if you're afraid of speaking in public, now is the time to make your life a little easier:
a. Join the local chapter of Toastmasters. Seriously. These people know how to teach you the fundamentals and get you accustomed to being in front of an audience. This is time extremely well-spent.
b. Buy some clothes. You are a businessperson now, and no one is going to be impressed with the ratty jeans and pilled sweater you like to work in. Look the part of a successful author -- but be sure to buy shoes for comfort, not looks. One author bought a pair of Kate Spade's for a television appearance that were gorgeous -- and ended up on eBay.
c. Along with the above suggestion, remember that content and humor are far more important than looks.
d. Practice, practice, practice! In the shower, if necessary. People have to hear you, and understand you. Most Americans give the impression that they're trying out to become ventriloquists: move your mouth when you talk, slow down your usual speech rate, and think of talking to the person who is in the last row. Don’t stick your nose into a paper or book.
e. In fact, don't read from a book at all. Even your own book. Type what you have to say onto pages, 14- or 16-point, with two spaces between each line. Buy a slender loose-leaf notebook and put the papers in plastic sleeves in it. This way, you can look up from your reading, make eye contact with the audience, and resume reading without losing your place. Try and have as much memorized as possible so you’re not glued to the paper with your eyes (and mouth!) down.

2) Start a Web log. They're free if you go to http://www.blogspot.com, and it's a great way to promote your book. Set up a conversation around the book, its message, its characters, and then visit other literary blogs. Include the address of your blog in your signature line, and after a while, people will visit yours, too.

3) If you do not already have a Web site, get one. Put links in it to places where visitors can buy your book. Some authors run their Web logs off their sites, some run contests, others simply record books, reviews, appearances, etc. (Remember that Customline Wordware can put together an author's Web site for you!)

4) Put together a media kit, and make it accessible from your Web site. A good media kit should include:
- press releases about your book
- info on publisher, pub. date, etc.
- your biography
- pictures of you
- pictures of your book's cover
- any advanced reviews
- a synopsis of the book
- HOW TO REACH YOU (essential and often overlooked)

5) Put together a P.R. plan. You may think that it's up to your publisher to do this, and they may be doing so, but a plan of your own will supplement their efforts and make sure that the word gets out. Promoting a book takes people, money, and effort. The less you have of any one ofthese components, the more time and energy you will need to devote to the others. The reading public needs to hear or see a product name (and your book is most certainly a product) at least seven times before it really sinks in.
What you will need, therefore, is a road map and a budget with which you can live. Not every person you reach will buy your next book, but what you want to do is establish a steady fan base that will eventually do some of your marketing for you by word-of-mouth recommendations.

6) Have postcards or bookmarks made that include title, your name, ISBN, and some content that will make people want to buy the book. Give these away, leave them everywhere, tuck them into your bills along with you check. You cannot send enough of these out.

7) Use your writing skills! Most magazines and newspapers will not allow blatant self-promotion, but if you can write an article that fits in with the theme (or even a subplot) of your book, and get the book mentioned - even if only in your bio line - then you're reaching even more people who will want to buy your book based on your scintillating prose! Does your protagonist belong to any group or organization? Write something for their newsletter and mention why you chose them for your character. Where does your book take place? Many states and cities have their own magazines; write a piece on what fictional characters live there, including your own. You get the drift.

8) Send out press releases. Two online services - PRWeb and Newswire.com - are free; others ask for a fee. You'll also want to contact local publications with ARCs of your book and a press release. ALWAYS note that you are a local author; that is definitely the foot in the door with local newspapers, more so than your topic or publisher.

9) Get extra copies of your book for promotional purposes, and give a signed copy as a thank you to everyone who interviews you. Make a list of people not necessarily in media whose opinions might influence others - teachers, local religious figures and/or politicians, bookstore owners and booksellers, and leaders of community organizations. Send a free copy of the book and your press kit to these people.

10) Finally, talk about your book. All the time. To everybody you meet. Make sure you don't annoy people by getting it down to one or two sentences: "My new book is about..." and keep reiterating it, again and again, on the bus, at the haridresser's, at the gym. Remember that word of mouth starts with you, and you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

Recommended Books for Writers

2006-05-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of books about writing out there. This list doesn't pretend to be exhaustive; in fact, it's my hope that you'll use the "comments" section of this blog entry to tell about what books have helped you, and why!

Stay tuned; later on, I'll share some books about style, grammar, and the nuts and bolts of writing correctly with you.

But to start things off, and in no particular order, here's what I recommend:

Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire K. Cook
Story by Robert McKee
Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner et. al.
On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers By Jay Conrad Levinson et. al.
How To Write A Book Proposal by Michael Larsen
The well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman
Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval

I have found all of these books to be useful; they all have a place on my bookshelf and I hope you'll consider giving them a place on yours.

And they all belong, of course... beyond the elements of style!

Writing Backstory in Fiction

2006-05-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

Writing has changed over the past 50 years. Authors used to have the luxury of spending time introducing each character, moving them gently into a story. We don't have that luxury anymore: editors and readers alike are less tolerant about anything that slows the story down or interferes with it.

So how does backstory happen?

If we can't spend ten pages explaining all about the character's past (these days, that's known as an infodump and is to be avoided at all costs), there are still ways to bring the backstory into the book. The difference is that modern authors have to be more subtle about it.

In fact, we may be on to something intriguing – there are a lot of good reasons to be subtle about introducing your characters' backstories. You can use the backstory to tease the reader, giving out information in small subtle ways until the reader starts thinking, "Wait? How did that happen?" or "Why can't he do that?" When a reader starts to ask this kind of question, they're hooked – they're yours. That's when you drop the information in. Just a little of it. Enough to keep them reading.

You have to have a sense of when to do it, however. Wait too long and you'll frustrate your readers – never a good idea. You want the book in their hands, not flung across the room!

Be careful with flashbacks. They destroy the pace, eliminating the momentum that you've been carefully building as you go along. They can also confuse readers who are no longer sure if the scene is in the past or the present. Flashbacks can be provided through a prologue, thus keeping it separate from the rest of the story. And never provide any more information than is absolutely necessary.

Experiment with various ways of telling your backstory, and you'll find yourself writing beyond the elements of style!

Finding a Literary Agent

2006-05-19T13:52:00.000-04:00

Help! I need a literary agent! What do I do?

Here are a few tips on how not to get a literary agent:

Choose an agent based on the famous wealthy authors they already represent: if Agent X can negotiate multi-million deals for John Grisham or Stephen King or Anne Rice (insert your favorite Famous Author here), then I'll probably get the same deal. Right? Wrong. Said agent is spending a lot of time and energy representing Famous Author, and consequently will have less time and energy for you. Selecting someone fairly early in their career, or in mid-career, is going to be better for you in the long run.

Don't worry about what kinds of books a given agent currently represents, they'll probably take yours on anyway: here's a great way to waste your time and energy. If an agent specializes, it's for a reason: that's where their passion is, and that's where their contacts are. Moreover, querying them with something that they clearly will not take on only demonstrates that you don't know how to read – that information is readily available. Possibly not the best first impression to make.

Send an agent a query and follow it up with a phone call:Go to the blackboard and write 100 times: I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. Chances are, it's going to take any agent a while – and I mean a while – to get to your query, much less to give it any serious thought. There's an etiquette, archaic but real, that you must follow: first contacts are always in writing. If you haven't heard back in, say, two or three months (yep: you heard that right), then you may send another letter, politely asking about the status of your query. That's it. No calls, not until an agent calls you.

Query an agent and then wait to hear back before querying another: Do you have a decade or so to waste? If not, then remember that this is your business, just as it is theirs, and do what makes the most sense for you. Send your initial query out to as many agents as you can (after having identified them as being potentially a good match for your manuscript). Send a short letter introducing your manuscript and yourself, and then wait. You'll receive a lot of rejections, guaranteed. You'll have some show some interest, ask to see more. Unless the agent is asking for exclusive viewing rights, continue sending out queries to others. (If the agent wants exclusive viewing rights, grant them, but only for a set period of time – a month, for example.) Keep trying; it can take years to find the right fit.

Never give up. Getting published is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do, and finding an agent is a difficult part of that difficult process. According to Wallace Stegner, it takes most people 10 years of serious writing before they get published. If you cannot find an agent, then hone your craft more, send your manuscript to an editor or writer's group, improve your writing... and try again.

Want to learn more? Visit Customline Wordware's Web and read more about agents there.

Finding an agent is definitely a task... beyond the elements of style!

The Art of Rewriting

2006-05-15T15:27:00.000-04:00

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile." (Robert Cormier)

So you've finished your book. That's what it feels like, isn't it? You've gotten it all down, finally, your opus, and it's finished. What you probably don't want to hear at this point is that it's not; but that's the truth. The first draft is finished; and that's well worth celebrating. But a lot of the real work has just begun.

Many authors dread rewrites, but I'd like to suggest that it's not something to be avoided or done under duress, like a visit to the dentist. No: a rewrite is your opportunity to take your story or article and make it shine.

While every rewrite is going to be different, there are a few nuts and bolts that you can look for in any manuscript:

Look for patterns: If you have a tendency to write in threes ("her hair was soft, vibrant, and beautiful"), you'll want to alternate those descriptions with other ways of saying the same thing. If you constantly use sentence fragments, break that up a little. Always write in long sentences? Throw in a few shorter ones. Patterns tend to make readers' eyes glaze over; always keep them wondering what you'll be up to next, and you'll keep them turning the pages.
Watch out for the misplaced apostrophe! Look for words that end in "s" and determine which are plurals, which are possessives, and which are contractions; then apply the appropriate rule. (In general, plurals do not take an apostrophe while possessives do, the most notable exception being "its" as a possessive – "it's" is a contraction of "it is.")
Don't let MS Word be the boss!The spellchecker in your word processing program will no doubt help you find the most egregious errors; but make sure that you go beyond them, and especially take the built-in grammar checker with a very large grain of salt.
If you're writing fiction, is the story arc clear? Are timelines correct? Did you check to see that someone who has blue eyes in chapter one does not suddenly switch to brown in chapter eighteen?
If you're writing nonfiction, is your point clear? Do you have an introduction, several main points, and conclusion?
Are you using the same vocabulary over and over again? (Most of us do) Remember, your thesaurus is your friend. Don't try to sound too pedantic or exotic, but as is true of other patterns, the same word usage becomes tiring and may cause your book to be less appreciated than it should be!

You should do at least one rewrite before your manuscript leaves your desk. Knowing that you'll do a rewrite leaves you free to relax and just write the first time around, knowing that you'll have plenty of time to clean it up later.

It's also important to let as much time as possible elapse between your first and second drafts. When you wrote your first draft, you were caught up in the experience and in the content; you need time and distance to be able to assess your work with an impartial eye.

Once you're comfortable with your rewrite(s), it's time to send it out. To a potential agent or publisher? No, no, a thousand times no! Now is the time for a workshop (see links for two online possibilities) or a local writer's group. Have other people look at your work, critique it, tear it apart if necessary; then you can regroup and do (gulp!) yet another rewrite. But don't skip the first one: you are wasting the resources of the group if you have them fixing the nuts and bolts mentioned here – fixing things that you easily could have fixed yourself.

Some people prefer not to go the workshop route but rather directly to a freelance editor. Again, I urge you to send your second or third draft, not your first one, to the editor you choose. I cannot tell you how many manuscripts sent to Customline Wordware for editing that would have been far less expensive had the author first done a second draft and fixed the obvious errors! I don't mind, particularly; but I expect that saving money is something we'd all like to do.

Remember to approach rewrites as you might a friend who is about to give you advice that may be annoying, but that you know to be true. The advice is what matters... and it will bring you beyond the elements of style!

Beginnings and Endings in Fiction

2006-05-14T20:13:00.000-04:00

WARNING: Reprint Alert! This article was originally published on my company's Web site at Customline Wordware. What is so cool about it, though, is that it's being used as part of the curriculum in a creative writing class at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma!

Every novel needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. Elementary, my dear Watson! But what are the functions of each of these components, and how do you make them work best for you?

The beginning of your story or novel is crucial. You must catch your reader's attention, do it well and do it quickly, or he or she will just put the book down. There are three standard methods authors use to catch the reader's attention, to "hook" the reader into wanting to read more:

action
character
style

The action opening: Essentially, something exciting and unexpected happens withint the first few paragraphs or pages that makes the reader sit up and take notice.

"The first thing the groundskeeper saw when he went to tend to the small cemetery behind St. Sebastian's was the body that someone had forgotten to bury." (Jodi Picoult, Picture Perfect)

The character opening: There is something so interesting - in either a positive or a negative sense - about the first character introduced (often but not always the protagonist) that the reader wants to hear more from/about him or her.

"He did not have the look of a man who frightened easily. But what made him afraid, in a way no bar bully or snarling dog could, was snow. Ordinary snow. The kind that dusts and occasionally blitzes New York City between November and April. Jonathan Corbin saw things in the snow. Things that could not have been there. Things that could not have been living." (John R. Maxim, Time Out of Mind)

The style opening: Usually seen in longer works of fiction, this opening is simply so beautifully written that the reader wants more of that sort of prose.

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York (...) It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves." (Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar)

Besides catching the reader's attention, your story beginning is also an implicit contract between you and your reader, a promise that the rest of the piece or book will have to fulfill. You're promising to deliver a story that will not disappoint the reader once he or she has read your opening: the rest, you're saying, will be good, too.

Finally, no matter which type of opening you choose, be sure that it generates forward momentum. There must be enough detail and description to orient the reader, but that's all: keep focused at the beginning so that the story can move forward. More detail and description are generally welcome later on.

The ending of a story is often trickier than the beginning, because it has to be just as strong and, besides that, manage to tie up all the loose ends that might still be scattered to and fro. These can seem like mutually exclusive alternatives.

The strength issue is clear. You want your reader to close the book while wishing that he or she didn't have to - to be sad that it's over, to be wanting to read more. You want him or her to think or say, "That was a great book!" So your ending has to deliver enough punch (in much the same ways as the beginning does, via action, character, or style) to do that for you.

Yet at the same time some denouement is necessary. Readers want to know how things end, how issues got resolved, why characters did certain things. Make sure that you leave people wondering, but satisfied.

And that will, of course, bring you a step closer to being... beyond the elements of style!

So What is Flash Fiction?

2006-05-12T19:53:00.000-04:00

It used to be called a short-short. Or even a short-short-short (though I'll be the first to admit that the latter sounds a little too silly). These days it's called flash fiction: a (very!) short storytelling form.

How many words is short? That depends on the publication. Generally anything under 1,000 words is considered flash fiction, though some purists put the number at 100. Others push the envelope at 25. You get the drift.

Do not be seduced by the length, however: good flash fiction is extremely difficult to write. When you're dealing with so few words, every one of them has to count, every one of them has to be just right.

Believe it or not, you still need a story arc: a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is how flash differs from a vignette: you still need to tell a story, make a point; and the fact that you need to do it with so few tools – words – means that you have to be concise, clear, on topic, and... well, yes: elegant. It still needs to be readable, after all.

What do you need to watch out for? Adverbs and adjectives! Ask yourself whether they are really necessary in getting your story told. My guess is that you'll end up eliminating most if not all of them. In fact, ask youself whether any of your words are necessary... you may be surprised at what you find!

Exercise: Feeling inspired? Then let's get going! Try out the flash fiction genre now and see how it works. Your assignment is to write a story in 25 words. Exactly 25 words – not 24 or 26.

Markets: There are a number of online literary journals that accept flash fiction submissions; included here are a few that specialize in flash (feel free to add more in the Comments thread if you know of any!).

The Vestal Review is the oldest journal devoted to flash fiction.
Smokelong Quarterly
Flashquake (Flashquake also runs a flash fiction class; more information is available here.
Skive Magazine.
Quickfiction.
Flash Me!
Espresso Fiction (cool idea, they deliver short fiction on a subscription basis to people's email boxes!)

But wait, there's more! Here's a great side effect to trying it out: even if you never publish any flash fiction, the very act of writing it, as an exercise, will help you develop a critical eye toward all of your writing. Once you get used to asking yourself whether this word or that word is absolutely necessary, you'll be able to clear away a lot of the overwriting that's such a common pitfall for beginning writers. And it will take you a step closer to moving... beyond the elements of style!

Why is This Blog in Black and White?

2006-05-11T15:03:00.000-04:00

Admit it: that's what first caught your eye. After all, the Web is all about graphics, color, flash. It's so entertaining that we can easily get lost in it.

Perhaps that's the point. At some level the Web has perhaps become too entertaining. At some level, the medium threatens to become more important than the message. There's so much "stuff" to see and do and interact with that we forget why we're there.

And that's not what this blog is about. This blog is all about words. I don't want you to look at pretty graphics or fancy flash presentations; I want you to join me in thinking about words.

So it's in black and white.

Of course, you realize that I'm playing with you here. Of course the visuals matter: by being in black and white, this blog really stands out on the Web. Graphically, I'm contrasting the elegance of the font used in "beyond" with the plainness of the "Elements of Style" – in other words, beyond the elements of style is... elegance.

Which brings us back to words. Hopefully throughout this blog you'll learn something, disagree with me about something, be challenged to think about something, and all of it a step beyond what you were taught in English class.

So please join me... beyond the elements of style!