Wicked Dragon Writing Solutions #WDWS #editors

A couple months ago, my friend Jami had a course redirection in her professional life. In other words, she got laid off from her day job - she blogs about it HERE - and made the decision to add an editors red pen to her arsenal of writerly tricks. (And if you've read any of Jami's kick-a$$ urban fantasy novels, you'll know she's got quite an arsenal already.) Jami and her good friend Amber Kallyn put their heads together and came up with Wicked Dragon Writer Solutions, a joint editing service that you really need to find out more about...

Does Your Written Gem Need An Editor? How about Two?
#WDWS #editors 

You've finally typed the two most important words: "THE END", but your precious treasure of words needs one final polish before you usher it out on to the cruel world. 

Welcome to Wicked Dragon Writer Solutions, where you can get two editing beasts for one smoking price!

  

Amber and Jami have 13 hard-won years of word crafting experience, not just in publishing their own work, but in editing for other authors. While they've been doing this without gathering fees, they decided it was time to put their pens to work. They know how vital editors are to Creators of the Written Word, and what's better than one editor? How about two editors putting their eyes to the jewelers loop to examine your precious treasure? AND, you'll only be out the gold for the price of one.

Think of it as an Editorial BOGO (buy-one-get-one-free). 

 Feel free to head on over and check them out at Wicked Dragon Writer Solutions!

In celebration of their grand opening, if you book your adventure during the month of April, they are offering 10% off your hoard of gold. Just note code: WDWSOPEN when booking your spot!

 If you're anxious to start your epic journey, feel free to reach out to wickeddragonsolutions@gmail.com and we'll get you set for your editing adventure.  

Filtering History

Yesterday KJ Charles did a guest post on Joyfully Jay's blog, wherein she warned against 'timewashing', or applying a contemporary mindset to characters in historical fiction. To a certain extent it's unavoidable, because modern readers don't really want to know the nitty gritty about sanitary, health, and hygiene practices from back in the day, but Ms. Charles argues that when it comes to sexism, racism, and gender/orientation issues, a writer needs to be a lot more careful.

I mean, if your hero is the only guy in his entire 19th century Southern American town who doesn't have a lick of racism in him, he might not be quite believable.

Right?

Timewashing. It's a cool word, and it got me thinking about another challenge for writers of historical fiction: The status quo rendering of history may not be accurate.

What do I mean by that?

Basically, if your understanding of history comes from a textbook, you might think every important thing was accomplished by a jowly white dude with a funky haircut and a badly fitting suit.

(Insert a mash-up of Winston Churchill and Walter Cronkite here.)

Or these guys. They fit the description.

Anyone who has read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States knows what I'm talking about. There's what happened in the history books, and then there's what actually happened. You just have to dig a little to figure out what part women, people of color, and people with different orientations played.

Let's look at some examples. 

Have you ever heard of Edmonia Lewis? She's one of the 100 Greatest African Americans...

"Motto edmonia lewis original" by Henry Rocher - National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motto_edmonia_lewis_original.jpg#/media/File:Motto_edmonia_lewis_original.jpg

Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor who studied at Oberlin College and in Rome. Among the highlights of her career, she sculpted a bust of Henry Longfellow, and her work was displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Once, long ago, I studied Longfellow in school. 

I never heard of Edmonia Lewis until I started making this post.

Another example is given by the women who fought in the Civil War - as soldiers. 

Frances ClaytonMissouri Artillery and Cavalry units.

Something like 400 women fought in the Civil War. Motivated by the same things as their male counterparts - patriotism, mobility, money - they disguised themselves and did battle. Some were discovered when they were wounded or killed. Some were simply never discovered. You could argue the reason their contribution is overlooked is that their numbers were small and they made an effort to remain invisible. 

But maybe we overlook them because they don't fit the expected narrative for how that war was fought.

Shared tombstone of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, a 19th century lesbian couple.

Here's another thing that might not fit the expected narrative: same-sex couples who lived together and were treated by their communities like they were married. Click on the tombstone picture or the link at the bottom of this post to read more about Miss Bryant and Miss Drake. Their story is a pretty compelling argument against the idea that same-sex marriage is a modern construct.

When I was doing research for my novel Aqua Follies, I read about MacIver Wells and John Chadwick, a gay couple who moved to Seattle from Canada in 1957 to open a gay bar. They had some trouble getting permission to stay, because "the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 specified that "aliens afflicted with psychopathic personality" should be excluded from the United States." (Gay Seattle, GL Atkins, 2003) 

Because gay men were included in the definition for "psychopathic personality".

The Immigration agent who interviewed Mac and John pointed out that they'd  lived together for years, they owned a house together, and they held joint bank accounts, however when they challenged him to prove they'd had sexual relations, he couldn't, so they were allowed to stay in Seattle. 

To me, one of the most interesting things about their story was that two men owned a house together and shared a bank account. They were living - and sharing - their lives, and only when they immigrated to the US did they run into any trouble with authorities. They had to know people, to have friends and family and community. Maybe, as appears to have been the case with Miss Bryant and Miss Drake, their immediate circle knew about their relationship in an abstract way, but didn't want to know the specifics.

And maybe I'm optimistic, but I think on the microscopic, everyday level, people are more accepting of each other's differences that we give them credit for. I certainly don't have the academic background to make big broad statements, but I have to wonder if the trauma associated with World War II led to the pervasive conformity seen in the 1950s (Hello, Senator McCarthy), and if that conformity filtered a great deal of what we otherwise might know of as history.

So women and people of color were taking part in word affairs and LGBTQ people didn't magically spring into existence sometime after Stonewall in 1969. There are more stories than what you find in a standard history textbook, and if you're going to write those stories, you need to both pay attention to historic ideas and attitudes, but also look for real-life examples of people who didn't fit into stereotypes. Any story will be much stronger if it's grounded in the truth.

If you would like to do some more reading, jump HERE for more about Edmonia Lewis, HERE for more about women who fought in the Civil War, and HERE for more about Miss Bryant and Miss Drake. And if you actually do know about history, let me know what you think about my theory that '50s conformity played a role in whitewashing (timewashing?) history.

Cheers,
Liv

#Nestpitch 2015 Teams – Simply Smawesome!

A couple weeks ago I was asked to be a slushie reader for an upcoming query/pitch contest, Nestpitch. The event's organizer, Nikola Vukoja, writes NA and adult contemporary. Her work often has a dark slant, a historical setting, a social message, or in the best cases, some of all three. I couldn't be happier to participate, to do what I can to help get good, creative work in front of editors and agents.

I'm going to let Nikola tell you more about the contest, and how she came up with our SMAWESOME catch-phrase!

I guess it would be no big revelation if I said I make stuff up, given my chosen profession. The thing is I also make words up, usually by accident. That’s what happened yesterday morning. I was working on the Nestpitch Team bio’s and as I got further along, it hit me at how amazing this years Mentors and Slushies are.

I also talk to myself. Well that and the cats, which is kind of the same thing. So there I was, working on the Team bio’s talking to myself when my brain, which often works way faster than my mouth (and that’s saying something!), was thinking “these teams are Super, Magical, Awesome” – and what came out of my mouth (literally) was smawesome - & that’s what these Team are – SMAWESOME!

So I’m coining the word as my own and who knows? It might just catch on :)

Below are the Teams and when you read them you’ll agree, they are smawesome, but before you look through the Teams, I wanted to run through the selection process. Now, don’t freak out too much as a full list of dates, rules and conditions will be posted on the 23rd / 24th of March. For now just mark March 23rd /24thand April 1st (submission date).

The submission consists of:

(i)                 35-word pitch
(ii)               Answer to this question: If your MC was an Easter Egg, what flavour would s/he be? (no more than 15 words please)
(iii)             1st 300-words of your manuscript*


*1st 300 = if you have a prologue, then your 1st 300 starts from your prologue. If you don’t think your prologue is strong enough then perhaps you need to rethink your prologue.
Finish at the end of a sentence. This is 300-word MAX, so your last word is 300-words. If your sentence finishes on 292-words, submit that. If your sentences run into 30 or more words, then rethink the length of your sentence(s). Broken sentences do no one favours.

This year we will not be accepting PB’s – I have something special planned for PB’s (and perhaps MG’s) for December 2015 assuming I can get all my ducks in a row J

Two things to add/note:

(1)               A condition of entry is any MS #pitch submitted to previous #pitches, which resulted in being selected, in the twelve months prior to April 2015, is ineligible.   The only sub-clause to this is #PitchSlam. Please let us know if  you have the same MS in #PitchSlam & #Nestpitch, and again if you’ve been selected. I have spoken to the Host of PitchSlam & we’ve agreed to work closely on this one.

(2)               This year there will be less final selection featured pitches. (Expecting final number to be around 40). With each Team concentrating on fewer submissions, we can be more hands-on with feedback and mentoring. By doing this, not only will the pitch + 300-words be stronger, but so will the entire MS. This year there will be rounds.

a.      Round #1: Last year I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt when errors were made in following guidelines. That will not be the case this year, aside from formatting issues (which happen). To get past #1 the author’s must be able to follow guidelines.

b.      Round #2: This year each Team will select an initial 5-8 submissions and then request more pages/material. Based on the additional pages/material, each Team will drill their selection down to between 4-5 to go to the next round

c.      Round #3: On having picked their final 4-5, each Team will then critique the first 2,500-words and ‘get to know’ the author(s). This is a 3-fold process. Being selected does not necessarily mean being featured. Teams will want to know the author(s) are willing to accept feedback etc.  The Teams will work with their author’s for 3 weeks, offering feedback, sharpening pitches, & suggesting improvements. After this, the author’s have a full week to re-read their MS in full & make any final changes; before the agent round.

From the Slush-pile Picks.

My Team #Team2Beat, will be hunting through the slush-pile and the reserves, looking for gems that have been missed. We will have the option of selecting between 1-5 pitches (at our discretion) to feature. This is basically a bonus-pick so, you may just get an email after the date, but if you do, you’ll be expected to work twice as hard as the other author’s as you’ll have less time – so be ready!

All of the above, together with dates and other conditions will be posted on March 23rd / 24th in an information post – so keep a look out of that post.

And now bathe in the smawesmeness of our Teams!

Liv here...I'm only sharing the deets for my team, but you can jump HERE for Nikola's post with the complete list... 

Stacey Nash - Mentor #Team Eggsellent
Twitter: https://twitter.com/staceynash
Blog: http://www.stacey-nash.com/
Author of YA & NA (HarperCollins), and fellow Aussie, 
Stacey is also part of the blogging Team at 
AussieOwnedAndRead. When not writing, Tweeting or 
Facebook- ing, she can be found spending time with her family.
            





Kathy Palm – Slushie - Magic-wielding, TARDIS-traveling,     
stay-at-home mom, and YA fantasy/horror writer Kathy 
recently signed with REUTS Publications, her debut DOORS 
to be released in winter of 2016. She loves chocolate and all 
the weird, creepy, and fantastical words.  
You’ll find Kathy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/KathleenPalm
            

You know what I look like..

Liv Rancourt – Slushie – Liv writes romance: m/f, m/m, and v/h, where the h is for human and the v is for vampire…or sometimes demon. She writes funny, not angst. When not writing Liv takes care of tiny premature babies or teenagers, depending on whether she's at home or at work. She decribes her husband as a soul of patience and her dog as the cutest thing evah(!)
You’ll find Liv on Twitter here: ttps://twitter.com/LivRancourt

So that's my Nestpitch story. If you've got a project that's ready to query, make a note of these dates. I'd love to see your work come through my slush pile. 
Cheers!
Liv

     

            

Business Plan: Next Steps

Created as an exercise in the GIMP class I'm taking.

Last week I blogged about developing a business plan (here) using some of the ideas found in The 7 Step Business Plan For Writers, These seven steps cover the basics of planning - brainstorming goals, identifying themes, grouping and prioritizing, and detailing the specific tasks needed to accomplish your goals. For my own plan, I added two additional steps: checking my progress, and modifying my activities if things aren't working.

Remember: Plan - Do - Check - Act.

I'm not putting this out there because I'm some kind of business expert, or because I'm raking in the big bucks selling books. Quite the opposite, in fact, which is why I feel the need to take steps to regroup and refocus. There are no guarantees, though I'm optimistic that by both applying structure to my writing life and by taking it more seriously, I'll be able to accomplish more.

And I put it all in a blog post so people can learn along with me.

In my last post, I came up with several goals so I could create an example of a business plan. Over the weekend, I took another look at those goals and refined them. The thing to remember when you create goals is they should be within your control. Researching agents to query is within your control. Getting an offer from an agent isn't. Keep it concrete and do-able, and you'll increase your chances for success.

I looked at my new list of goals and came up with three themes. My next steps were to lay things out over the year, so I don't feel the pressure to do everything at once. For example, my project for January is to come up with a weekly schedule template, so that I have a set number of hours dedicated to writing, and I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish on any given day. My hope is that I'll be able to get more done in less time, because I won't be fooling around on Facebook during hours I know I should be writing. (Many of you probably already do this because it's common sense. Apparently I need special help.)

Here's what the time management goal looks like on my business plan:

Theme	Goals	Timing	Action Items	Evaluation	Modification
Increase Productivity	Improve time management with a weekly schedule template	January	1. Track activities for one week. 2. Use data to create a weekly template that takes into account whether or not I’m working. 3. Apply template to organize work.	Use template for three months, then take a week to track activities

The Modification box is empty, but I'll fill it in this spring with my response to what I learn in the evaluation step. While I mostly work night shifts on the weekends, my work schedule can be variable, so coming up with a template might not be realistic. Even so, I think the exercise will be useful in helping me see how I'm really spending my time.

Another example of how I took timing into consideration is this goal from my second theme, Increase Visibility.

Theme	Goals	Timing	Action Items	Evaluation	Modification
Increase Visibility	Develop one writing-related class.	Summer	1. Brainstorm topics. 2. Talk to Rhay about what makes a good e-class. 3. Generate a list of possible teaching opportunities. 4. Apply for teaching opportunities	After I present a class, track how much fun I had and if I sold any books as a result.

I like to teach, and I've learned a lot in the last five years. Hopefully I'll be able to turn that knowledge around and share it with others. Which is all very worthy, but if I had to deal with this at the same time I'm coming up with a schedule template and blogging and keeping up the (crazy high) word count goal I set myself, I'd implode. So I set this project aside for next summer. If an opportunity slaps me in the face between now and then, I'll take action, but for the most part this is something I'll set aside for now.

The plan I created is pretty comprehensive, but it doesn't cover every possible action I could take to develop myself as a writer. For example, I haven't made enter (x-number) contests a goal. I know contests are a great way of getting your name out, but they're not something I get all excited about. With my plan in mind, the next time someone suggests I enter a contest, I can smile and nod, knowing it's not on my list of goal/action items so I don't have to feel guilty for saying no. Now, if in six months or a year I haven't seen much progress, I can go to my evaluation/modification columns and add enter contests to my bullet points, if I think that'll move me ahead faster.

Bottom line: I've prioritized certain goals that I believe play to my strengths, and by limiting the number of those goals (2-4 for each of my three themes) I'll be able to hone in on these areas with less distraction.

One final thought about the evaluation step...I tried to keep things as discretely measurable as possible. One of my goals is to blog regularly, and the measure for that is to track blog hits. I'll also be looking at whether blogging interferes with my word count goals, which is a little more nebulous, but I want hard data wherever possible. Another goal is to publish two more of my short stories over the next six months, and for those I'll track Amazon sales rank and (if I can figure out how) author rank.

So, here are the bullet points for my writer's business plan:

• Plan - do - check - act
• Keep goals within my control
• Consider timing - I don't have to do it all at once
• Specific and focused but flexible
• Measurable outcomes

When I started the post last week, I thought I'd need a few posts to cover everything, but this pretty much sums it up. The next time I blog about my business plan will be in a couple months, to take a look at how it's going - unless something relevant happens between now and then. Meantime, I hope you find something useful here. 

Cheers!

Liv

Do you have a business plan or have you thought about developing one? Why or why not?

Developing A Business Plan - Step One

I can do this. Yes I can.

So here's the thing. I started getting serious about writing the year I blew out the disk in my back. Up until that point in my life, my main hobby was needlework - very fancy embroidery in all different styles. The back injury made sitting for long periods a real problem, which made needlework a real problem. I couldn't stitch, but - laying on my belly with a pencil and paper - I could write.

And while I was laying on my belly, attempting to write fiction for the first time since college, I realized I was almost 50 years old, and if I didn't get to it, my lifelong dream of Being A Writer wasn't going to happen. I put my focus on writing, learning what I could about craft and technique, but most of all DOING it, and five years later, here I am,

Being A Writer.

More or less.

After five years, it's time to take stock and to organize my thoughts on how to proceed. By the end of 2014, I felt like I was spending a lot of time flailing, without getting a whole lot accomplished. In order to increase my productivity and to move my writing to the next level (= sell more books), I've decided it's time to develop a business plan. I'm willing to work at this writing thing, to give it my time and energy and passion, but want to work smarter.

I want to get more done.

Back in the day, I survived a short stint in management, and in addition to learning I didn't like managing people, I picked up a few ideas about putting together a strategic plan. Then, in getting ready for this blog entry, I did a quick google search and found a wonderful post by Angela Ackerman, who co-wrote The Emotion Thesaurus. Her post, The 7 Step Business Plan for Writers, does an excellent job of explaining the steps involved in coming up with a business plan.

The basic steps in Ms. Ackerman's post involve brainstorming your goals, identifying themes, grouping and prioritizing, identifying areas for focus & the steps it'll take to meet your goals, and putting it all on one page. I would add that it's important to build in a way of evaluating your progress and reconfiguring things as needed. I mean, there's no point in doing something that's not working in June just because you thought it'd be a good idea in January, right?

I totally stole this from the interwebs, but you get the idea.

The seven steps in Ms. Ackerman's blog post are the planning and the doing, and to that I'd add a way of checking on my progress, then acting, or adjusting my activities to better accomplish my goals. One of the key ideas when you're brainstorming your goals (the planning phase) is to make sure they're within your control. Getting a book contract from Publisher Z may be your secret - or not so secret - desire, but ultimately you don't control the outcome. Writing a sequel or making a list of publishers to submit to are concrete, measurable, and in your control.

Those are the goals you should focus on.

Over the next couple weeks, I'll be developing my business plan and blogging about it, then periodically check back in to see how it's going. For example, here's a quick list of goals that might make it into my final plan.

• Self-publish at least two more of the short stories from Still Moments Publishing.
• Work with Margaret to get Aqua Follies edited and ready for submission.
• Dedicate two hours a day to WRITING, with the internet turned OFF.
• Identify my next project, whether it's a sequel to something I've already got or a completely new idea.
• Take at least three craft-related classes in 2015.
• Develop blog posts suitable for guest shots on higher profile blogs.
• Develop the skills to create my own cover art and promotional materials.

Now, while I was brainstorming I noticed a couple things. These are all concrete tasks that are within my ability to complete. However, they're steps, small elements that make up a couple bigger pictures. As it said in the 7 Steps blog post, once you come up with your list of goals, you group them according to theme. Given what I've got on my quick brainstorm list, I'd say my three themes are:

• Increase productivity.
• Refine My skills.
• Further develop my author's platform.

If those are my themes, then the first two steps of my business plan might look like this:

Themes	Goals
Increase Productivity	Work with Margaret to get Aqua Follies edited and ready for submission. Dedicate two hours a day to WRITING, with the internet turned OFF. Identify my next project, whether it's a sequel to something I've already got or a completely new idea.
Refine My Skills	Take at least three craft-related classes in 2015. Develop the skills to create my own cover art and promotional materials.
Develop Author’s Platform	Self-publish at least two more of the short stories from Still Moments Publishing. Develop blog posts suitable for guest shots on higher-profile blogs.

I hope this gives you an idea about the first couple steps in the process. While I suspect the three themes are pretty solid, the actual goals may get some tweaking before I hit print on my final plan. I'll be back some time next week with another post on the next couple steps in my plan. Meanwhile, you should be writing. Me too. Write on!
Peace,
Liv

BTW, are you developing a business plan? Have you gone through these steps before? What worked for you?

Eradicating Thats, or, Pet Words & Why We Love Them

Scene from the Aqua Follies, part of Seattle's 1950s Seafair celebration.

For the last two days, I've been working on lowering the number of times the word "that" appears in my current WIP, Aqua Follies. I started at just under 360. I'm at 136 now, and my goal is to get it down to around 50. 

Yep, my WIP is on a that diet.

And when I'm done with that (heh), I'm going to move on to the next word on my Pet Word List.

Was.

Now, was is a fairly useful word. I mean, states of being are ubiquitous, unless the story is happening in a vacuum. (Momentary existential tangent!) On my was pass, I'll look for examples of passive voice construction - and the reasons for avoiding passive voice make a whole 'nother blog post. (Though you can jump HERE for some examples of the difference between passive and active voice.)

Pet words are a problem for a number of reasons, but the most important one is they make your work boring. With all the words in the English language, you're going to make me read just 400 times in your novel? Seriously? Or then there was the NYT bestselling author who started three sentences in the same paragraph with the word meanwhile. Monotonous, careless, and actually kind of funny, in a not-terribly-amusing way.

I find if I repeat a word too often, I'm writing lazy. When I do a pet word search to clean up the frequent flyers, I almost always improve clarity, and often manage to communicate my meaning in fewer words. Consider the next couple sentences...

Jack Dodson was slender, with a receding hairline and a gaze that said just get to the point.

OR

Jack Dodson was slender, with a receding hairline and a just-get-to-the-point gaze.

IMHO (and you're welcome to disagree) the edited version is cleaner and  tighter. It gets rid of the micro-conflict created by "gaze...said", which could be kind of fun, but could also be tiresome if it bumps the reader either because gazes don't speak or because it's heading toward clicheville.

Clicheville. The place you never, ever want to go.

Here's another example of how getting rid of a pet word like that can improve your language. This edit has the added bonus of getting rid of a was, too.

The other verdict Russell reached was that regardless of how things worked out with Skip, he wanted to stay in Seattle, where he could smell the salty ocean air from just about everywhere, and where he could walk into a bar with other men who thought like he did.

OR

His moment of insight brought him to a second conclusion. Regardless of how things worked out with Skip, Russell wanted to stay in Seattle...

They both deliver the same information, but I think the second version is a little more polished, which fits better with the upper middle-class, college educated POV character.

So pet words make your work boring, and fixing them will make your writing stronger. Sounds simple, right? Except for the fact that I've spent the last two days eradicating thats, and I've got about 20 other words on my list. 

This might take a while.

The subject of pet words has come up on a couple different Facebook groups I'm on, and minimizing pet words is the kind of thing that'll impress a prospective agent or editor. My observation has been that my pet words change, depending on the project I'm working on, which is why I keep a running list. Writing teacher Rayne Hall will say that a word shouldn't appear more than one time in 1000 words, so I use that as my general rule of thumb.


What about you? Do you have pet words that turn up again and again in your manuscript? If you're not sure, jump HERE to a pretty good blog post that includes a list of common pet words. Check it out, then see how many times you use some of these in your work. (And you'll get bonus points if you leave your top three pet words in the comments!)

Peace,
Liv