Using what you live to deepen character conflict

"That will end up in a book."

If you spend any time around a writer you will hear that phrase. That is because so much of our writing is drawn from our personal experiences in one way or another. While most of my stories are not autobiographical [I don't stalk women based on a misinterpreted scripture, nor am I a college student in a small town trying to solve a murder], I have to admit that things that I experience do find their way in to my writing in one way or another.

Maybe it is the way I personally reacted to a breakup or disappointment. It could be that one of my characters is afraid of the same thing I am. These are all obvious and easy to do.

Have you ever considered bringing the dual nature of your personality in to your writing?

I am really a dichotomy. On the one hand, I am a successful speaker who really enjoys speaking to large groups. On the other hand, I am a total nerd who gets excited at the idea of doing research and looked forward to every term paper in college. My idea of a dream job would be sitting in a room full of ideas, articles, news reels, historical data, etc. and making sense of it all. Pecking away at a keyboard and discussing the implications with a coworker of similar temperment. Trying to find a pattern and constructing possible scenarios from it.

How do you reconcile the two? One is extremely extroverted, the other introverted. One thrives on feedback and the energy of a crowd, the other the quiet solitude of one's own thoughts.

I guess you become a writer. That's what I did.

Think about the contradictory things in you. Then take time to discover and deepen the contradictory nature of your main characters [including your villain]. Doing that will deepen your writing and create a more relatable story.

Learn how to get readers to pick you and your story by following these links:
Getting readers to pick you
How readers decide what to read
Presenting yourself well
Getting noticed by readers
Going on the hunt

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Interview with Anita Higman

Today we are interviewing author Anita Higman. Her most recent book, Love Finds You in Humble, Texas, is available through Summerside Press.

Award-winning author, Anita Higman, has twenty-four books published (several coauthored) for adults and children, and she has been honored as a Barnes & Noble “Author of the Month” for Houston. Anita has a B.A. degree, combining speech communication, psychology, and art. Some of her favorite things are exotic teas, going to the movies, and all things Jane Austen.
Anita latest novel, Love Finds You in Humble Texas, is now in its second printing. She’d love for you to pick up a copy at your local bookstore, Wal-Mart, or Sam’s Wholesale Club.

Please visit Anita online at http://www.anitahigman.com/.

Love Finds You in Humble Texas: Trudie Abernathy is a little inelegant, and she’s never had much luck in love. To makes matters worse, her thirtieth birthday is fast approaching and her sister, Lane, has decided to “treat” her to a makeover and a blind date. Trudie is about to protest, but then she meets the kind and devastatingly handsome Mason Wimberley. In spite of Trudie’s humble manner, Mason finds her attractive, funny, and smart. But there’s one obstacle in the way of the budding romance: Lane suddenly decides that she’s in love with Mason! Trudie has never been one to compete with her glamorous sister, even when it means giving up the things she wants. Will she be able to stay true to her humble self and find her heart’s desire in the process?

Anita took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer's perspective with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book.
Anita Higman: In a nutshell, my latest novel, Love Finds You in Humble Texas is about two sisters who love each other very much but happen to fall in love with the same man.

WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
AH: I do a combination of both SOTP and an outline. I write a basic synopsis of the story, but then I let the characters take it from there. I rarely hold strictly to the synopsis. So, I have a destination and a roadmap, but I take lots of side trips along the away, which is also the way I love to plan my vacations.

WCC: How do you market yourself and your writing?
AH: I do a lot of marketing, but I’m not in love with it. I love to write, but I know marketing is very important too, so I try to do my best and get out there and spread the word about my books.
Here are a few of my marketing ideas: I pay for a blog tour, a book trailer, and then distribution for that book trailer. With this latest novel I had a book launch party with sponsors, which was a happy success. I recently put up a TV interview on my website, which came from The Harvest Show. It was live TV in front of eight million regular viewers. Whew! A little nerve-racking, but lots of fun. I hope having that interview available to watch on my site will generate more interviews. If you’d like to watch it, go to http://www.anitahigman.com/ and then click on the little TV screen. In addition, my promotions include giving away a ton of free books to influencers and reviewers. Those offers have helped gather 40 reviews on Amazon. I do traditional promotions as well, such as book signings and monthly contests. I wish I could tell you what the most effective publicity ideas are. I’m never sure, but I do know that promotion is no longer an option for a writer. We must see publicity as a team effort along with the publisher.

Read more of Anita’s interview here at Examiner.com

YOU COULD WIN!
Leave a comment on this posting and you could win a copy of Love Finds You in Humble Texas. The drawing will take place on Nov. 9, 2009. This give away is for US residents only. There is no fee to enter.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

THE PHOENIX RATTLER – DOES YOUR STORY HAVE BITE?

Christian Writers of the West (CWOW) is the Arizona branch of American Christian Fiction Writers

PRIZES: What’s the prize? Finalists will not only receive the opportunity to have their ten pages judged by an agent and/or editor, they will also receive a finalists’ certificate. The winner in each category gets a designer championship pin and will be mentioned on the ACFW loop, on our CWOW website, and Michelle Sutton’s highly trafficked blog: http://edgyinspirationalauthor.blogspot.com/

Categories and their esteemed FINAL ROUND judges:
Contemporary Fiction: Melissa Endlich, Love Inspired, Harlequin
Historical Fiction: Barbara Scott, Abingdon Press
Suspense/Thriller/Mystery: Elizabeth Mazur, Assistant Editor Love Inspired SuspenseSci-Fi/Fantasy/Allegory: Diedre Knight, Knight Agency
Young Adult: Janet Grant, Books and Such Literary
Women’s Fiction: Rachelle Gardner, Wordserve Literary

FEES: A flat $20 fee per entry paid through Paypal button on http://christianwritersofthewest.blogspot.com/

HOW TO ENTER:
Please include an attached RTF file of the first ten pages of your manuscript, Paypal receipt, and the following information (You can copy and paste the entry form below into an RTF document and complete/attach to entry email):

ENTRY FORM:
Name:
Address:
City/State/Zip:
Phone (cell/home):
Email address:
Are you an ACFW Member? (Membership not required for 2009 contest)
Title of Entry:
Word count of completed manuscript:

Category Coordinators:
Contemporary Fiction: Terry Doyle terrydoyle@cox.net
Historical Fiction: Sandra Smith sandraleesmith@cox.net
Suspense/Thriller/Mystery: Pamela Tracy PamWrtr@aol.com
Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Allegory: KM Wilsher gzusfreek@live.com
Young Adult: Lynn Rush sheriboeyink@cox.net
Women’s Fiction: Jennifer Cary jlcary@writeme.com
((Romance included in all categories))

THINGS TO REMEMBER:
1. You should send entry form (shown above), the first ten pages of your manuscript, and paypal receipt to the coordinator of the category you desire to enter by Midnight (PST) October 31, 2009.
2. Use Courier New or New Times Roman font 12 with 1-inch margins all around
3. Make sure to pay your $20 fee by the paypal button on http://christianwritersofthewest.blogspot.com/
4. Finalists announced mid-December, 2009 and Winners announced mid-February, 2010.
ELIGIBILITY: CWOW’s Phoenix Rattler is open to all unpublished writers. There is no membership required for this first annual contest. Published authors may enter if at least five years has passed since their last publication.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

How to clearly show your story to your reader

“Writing is telepathy.”

I read that in Stephen King’s book, On Writing. It changed the way I looked at writing. The reason was not so much because it was funny or clever but it was because it made my understanding of writing so much clearer.

That is our job as writers. We need to convey with clarity every thought and emotion our characters express. They need to cry when our character hurts and hide their eyes when the evil is fast approaching. We need to transport thoughts and that comes through the senses.

While there is no simple way to build tension or infuse emotion there are some things that are fundamental:

1. Make sure you engage every sense, including a sense of smell, on every page. Use creative nouns and different ways to explain the senses.

2. Connect a physical sense to an emotion. Don’t smell a sweet flower. Smell the intense softness of a lilac and let it pull them back to spring nights of hide-and-go-seek in grandma’s back yard. You can further infuse the emotion by making the darkness an enveloping blanket or a deep black shroud.

3. Be true to the character of your story. A city girl won’t know the difference between scratch and mash, but a chicken farmer will. If you want her to know that, however, it can add an interesting dimension. You must make clear that you know it is unusual.

4. Clue the reader in. While you don’t want to interrupt the story to explain something to the reader, you need to clue them in. Find ways to weave details in the story that the reader may not always know. Readers read to explore; help them do it.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of the skills necessary to engage readers, these elements are a part of every good story. Go back through your current manuscript and incorporate these elements in to your story.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Fight for it

Last night I was having a conversation with three of my daughters, I have four, and I was talking about my years in school. With the new school year in full swing we were talking about goals and expectations. One thing in particular I wanted them to think about is the strength of their dream. My daughter who is nearly eleven was talking about all the different things she’d like to be when she grows up. Her young mind was struggling to figure out how she could be so many differently, and seemingly unrelated, things.

It occurred to me that many people that I am in contact with through Writing Career Coach battle with the same issues. They arent’ sure if they are interested in or committed to writing. I’ve encountered many people in the years I’ve been writing. I saw some who are stagnating. They have reached a certain level and they’ve become enamored with the idea of “One Day” being a writer, but never really committed to seeing it happen. I’ve seen others get so paralyzed with fear over their writing that they stopped doing it all together. And then I’ve seen some who have really fought for it, and they’ve prevailed.

When I was in sales they used to say “Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice.” Usually we said this about a new person who was starting out. They were excited and saw no limit to their potential. Over time, and with a steady stream of rejection, they gave up. They had more knowledge and better sales techniques but they went nowhere because they’d decided it was impossible. They weren’t willing to fight for it.

So, today, right now, consider what it is about your writing that you’re willing to fight for? Maybe you have an article almost done that is rotting on your hard drive. Wrap it up and send it off. Maybe you need to stop watching a cool new series on TV and spend time writing instead. Maybe, like me, you need to flip your body clock so you can write in the mornings as the house sleeps instead writing at night when there are more distractions.
Often by changing one small activity you can completely change your amount of progress. Don’t give up if you’re in a rut. Fight for it.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Writing: Making work or making progress

For more than five years I had a relatively successful network marketing business. I had a large team of sales people and our annual revenue as a down line topped six figures in my best year. This gave me some great practice in sales, marketing, and working with people. One thing I learned that I continue to apply to my writing is recognizing the difference between making work and making progress.

It is important as a writer to clearly determine which you are doing on each project. Early on it is best to take on every opportunity you can find to write. This is because we all need the practice. My mentor once told me that writers have to write half a million words to get all the junk out. That is why some authors even write letters (real ones, not email) when they have writer’s block. But as you progress as a writer, how do you distinguish whether you’re making work or making progress?

Here are a few ways to know if you are actually making progress in your writing:

• If you take time to write a piece and then consider the market it might work best for.

• If you continue to work on it, even if you haven’t found ‘Your Muse’.

• If you are working on an already contracted piece [this may seem obvious but writer’s block sometimes leads us to work on ‘new ideas’ before we’ve finished contracted work.

This is by no means exhaustive, but it does begin to give criteria to help you recognize whether you are stalling or progressing. The sign of a professional writer is a person who pushes through and writes even when they don’t feel like it.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Interview with Editor Sally Bradley

Today we are interviewing Editor Sally Bradley.

Sally Bradley has worked for two Christian publishers, writing sales and marketing materials, sorting through the slush pile, and proofreading and editing fiction. She has a BA in English and a love for perfecting novels, whether it’s her own work or the work of others. A judge in fiction-writing contests, Sally is a member of ACFW, The Christian PEN (Proofreaders and Editors Network), and the Christian Editor Network. She’s a work-at-home mother of three and is married to a pastor who moonlights as a small-town cop.

Sally took a few minutes to talk about editing with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: How did you get started with editing?
Sally Bradley: Straight from college, I worked for Tyndale House Publishers. I created the sales sheets the entire staff used to sell every new product. The editorial department sent me information on a new book, and I’d create a short book blurb, an author bio, a list of potential markets, things like that. That was a great foundation for learning how to create hooks in a proposal.

I left Tyndale when my husband and I moved out of state for him to attend seminary. The church that ran the seminary started a small fiction publishing company, and I proofread and edited a number of books as well as sorted through the slush pile there. Sadly the company no longer exists because they had no sales or marketing department. It’s awfully hard for people to buy a book they don’t know exists.

I left that job to have my first child, and my goal at that point was to become a published novelist. I spent the next six years writing and studying the craft. I spent almost half a year studying how to write a synopsis and proposal, and the proposal I wrote garnered an offer of representation from two reputable agents.

About that same time, I began to consider opening my own freelancing business. A friend from church asked me to read over an essay for grad school applications. She was having a hard time getting it to word count, and I showed her a number of changes that made it concise and below word count. It was at that point that I realized how much I loved words and that this was a job I needed to do.

My friend got into her dream grad school, by the way. :)

WCC: What type of editing do you do?

SB: I work mostly with fiction. I love diving into a story and finding ways to make it (and the writer) stronger.

I will customize my work to fit whatever a client needs, but most of my work involves looking at the big picture of a novel--plot, characters, setting, story structure, opening hook, etc.--and seeing what works, what needs some help, any areas where the story can be tied together better, anything that will make the structure of the book itself strong and more appealing to publishers and agents.

In addition to critiquing the big picture, I offer line editing where I do my best to make the actual prose more polished and professional. This involves deleting unnecessary words, identifying pet phrases, fixing awkward wording, and other little details that make a book sing. I'll even mark any misspelled words and grammar and punctuation problems I find.

WCC: What is one consistent issue you see in the manuscripts you edit?

SB: There are a few I see routinely, but the most consistent problem is telling instead of showing.

Telling isn’t evil; there is a time and a place for it, but it should never be the main action of the story. Fiction readers want to experience the story happening right in front of them through dialogue and action. They don’t want to have it summarized as if they were hearing about it from another person. Think of it this way—would you rather watch a movie or hear about it from someone else? Writers need to make sure the reader is watching the action happen.


Read more of Sally’s interview here at Examiner.com and find out what the best resources are on writing well.

The Writing Career Coach blog is moving! In order to offer you more services and a central location for all information I am moving this blog to our main website: http://www.writingcareercoach.com/ There you will find the blog, information on my speaking topics, FREE articles to help you with your writing and more.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.