Thoughts on how to write and get published
For authors whose material appeals to sound family values
This page is part 1 Go to Part 2 Comming soon: Part 3
A special section for Catholic Authors is developing
Part 1: Overview. General comentary on what is considered family value freindly. Intro on finding a publisher or to self publish.
A few brief exersizes. Part 2: Character development, feelings, attitudes, multiple character view points, building a judgment on characters,
freedom to interpret and attention to evidence. A chance to practice some writing. Part 3: Still coming.
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Jargon
The use of idioms, era or generational slang, colloquialism and various forms of popular jargon add flavor and an air of authenticity
to your story. Keep in mind that people of a very wide age range,
ethnicity, and regional variance might read your story. Your writing might be totally lost on a foreigner. Certain local jargon is
not well known or understood in other parts of the country. Slang changes from generation to generation. Amos
Colloquialisms
period slang
My novels, for example, speak of Yoopers. If you’re from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan you know what a Yooper is. Some folks
from Wisconsin or other parts of Michigan may or not know what a Yooper is. If a reader is from a state or country far from
that region, there is a good chance he or she will not know what a Yooper is. I use foot notes or build the definition into the story.
A Yooper is a nick name for a person native to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The name is derived from
pronouncing initials for the Upper Peninsula, U.P. (you-pea).
Era and generational jargon or slang:
The word gay indicated a person of good nature, witty and of good humor in the 18th and 19th century. Gay
has a different connotation today. Cool was primarily a description of temperature until the 1960’s when youth culture used it to
indicate a person who is actively attentive to the popular fashion and ideals of the given generation and shares popular ideas and activities.
Long hair on males was cool in some circles, rebellious in others, liberal in some parts of the country and a sign of traditional values
in other groups.
You, as an author, should be attentive that different audiences might not understand your choice of popular terms, descriptions
and customs or that certain audiences might have an opposite interpretation.
The character Amos, discussed in the bottom section of this page, is a male with long hair and tight, highly tappered jeans. He also wore a necklace
made from seeds. Without an understanding of his background and generation, those three items, long hair, tight jeans and a necklace
can be misleading. Is he heterosexual or homosexual, is he macho or effeminate? Is he conservative or traditional, or a mix of both
depending on the issue? Is he a Hippy of the sixties, fashionable for the 70’s and 80’s or an Emo of the first decade of the current
century? Is he rich or poor? Is he congenial and cooperative or is he better known for rebellious expression and behavior?
Physically descriptive words along with the use of slang, jargon, idioms and colloquialism, though acceptable in good writing, may need
supporting explanations built into the story, or footnoted or placed in end notes.
I favor sprinkling a story with some use of popular jargon fitting the story’s social and cultural ambience or period, but using
standard English for most of the story. This lets the reader sample the local flavor without getting lost because of it. Few authors
achieve popular notoriety though excessive slang and respelling of words imitating local pronunciations or dialects.
__________
A test story
Check out the short story I am still working on. Its basically finished, but I'll be tweaking it some more
before presenting it for publication as part of my fouth book. You can follow the steps and proceedures I'm taking, and either sketch out a few
ideas of your own if you like. Apply the lessons to what ever stories you are working on.
Check out the two Magazines I publish and have
printed via MAGcloud. Let me know if you think you have a story to publish in these magazines.
Writing Tips
Who I am
_____________________________________
for aspiring authors
who want to be published
I am the author of two successfully published novels and of a third book of short stories and poetry. A number of
other articles and stories have also been published in various periodicals. Although I am not a national household name, I’d like to share my
thoughts, tips and ideas on writing and getting published.
I am a member of the Society of St. Paul, a congregation of vowed Brothers and Priests dedicated to using all forms
of modern media and communications. This web site is my own sideline venture to promote good writing skills and to help writers succeed in
publishing sound moral works in a wide variety of literary genre.
What’s the aim of these pages?
I’ll discuss style and technique along with important conceptions and misconceptions about writing, identifying with
an audience, what is or is not accepted as moral and family value reading. Oddly enough to some folks, drinking, smoking, violence, crime,
war, cheating and an assortment of other vile thoughts, actions and ideas can be treated in a moral book along with sex. (Parental controls
on some computers will block this page because of the last word of the previous sentence). It’s all in how these subjects are treated.
The Bible treats all these things; (well, with the exception of actual tobacco smoking, perhaps.)
Think of King David! Nice guy. David had his faithful general killed so he could take his wife. All the supposedly taboo subjects are in that
Biblical account.
Who are you?
You are a person who either wants to learn more about writing and getting published, or you know someone
who is. Or, you might have dropped in on this page for some other reason. I’m glad you stopped by and I’d like to hear from you.
Fiction
Novels
Short Story
Poets
Westerns
Children, Teen, Adult level reading
Religious
Cultural
Non-Fiction
Memories
All forms of writing is entertained on this site: humor, sci-fi, adventure, mystery, you name it. However, I don’t entertain
smut.
How to begin?
Quite naturally, the process begins with good writing style. If you haven’t taken a creative writing course, then I recommend you start
looking into one. You might even consider a refresher course if it has been several years since you had a creative writing course.
A novice writer might have had the flood gates of inspiration suddenly open up on him or her with a story sure to be in such demand as
to naturally become next best seller, a phenomenon that will surpass the success of Harry Potter. A grieving loved one will have the next best
selling tear jerking memoir. We dream. Our inner most passions of creativity is dashed as friend say they don’t get it, and publishers won’t
accept it either. Typos, incomplete sentences, dangling participles, and over worked clichés or thoughts and scenes jumbled and jumping around,
no definable time line or flow; your manuscript is an utter failure.
Start over, abandon ship?
Either decision is a good one. This web site assumes you want to start over. It’s important to have a healthy ego and an audience; but
who are you writing for, your ego or the audience? I hope you are writing for both, but mostly with the audience in focus. After all, they are
the ones who will or not purchase the book. This demands style and word usage that will attract them, hold them, satisfy them while at the same
time leave them wanting for more. Take a creative writing course if you haven’t already done so in recent years.
Rely on a good proof reader, pay attention to critiques, and it’s OK to take things personal to a reasonable point or level, but not
to the point of blaming an honest messenger. Someone closely related is normally not the best choice for a proof reader or critic of your work.
That’s not a judgment on their skill for those tasks; it’s a bit of general advice for maintaining a good relationship.
Amos' Story
More coming
Part two was added Feb. 10, 2010. That deals more with character development. You can follow the short story provided,
The Fishing Hole, or apply the techniques to your own stories right away. Scroll down this page and the other pages and check
each column for various tips on building up or enhancing your stories.
______________________
Test Your Skills
You were probably given a photograph and told to write out a description of the picture in your first creative writing class.
I’m suggesting a similar approach, but to do a character description of a person you’ve seen but you don’t know him and never talked to.
Taking only the brief snatches of information form the bottom section of this page about Amos, and maybe what I wrote about him in the
narrow left column, describe his character.
and more came
The input of other successfully authors are welcome. Email me with your thoughts or about what you might like to share on
these pages.
Publisher vs. Self Publishing
I lean to towards using publishers rather than self publishing. You’ll have more markets open to your work if a recognized publishing
firm’s logo is on the spine of your book or on the covers. Few book sellers chase after individual authors for copies of their self
published works. But, if you are only interested in having a small number of book available for a few folks, then Lulu and Create Space are examples
of new sources for publish on demand and e-book technologies and they offer local and major book stores modern methods of looking up
and ordering books from a known producer of books rather than having to deal individually from a pool of some hundreds of thousands
of little known authors.
What is P.O.D.?
Publish On Demand.
I am a professed member of the Priests and Brothers of the Society of St. Paul. Our sole mission is in
“modern” media, yet I am astounded at how many times members of long standing have asked me how many copies of my book were made
in the first printing. This is right after I tell them my book is POD, published on demand.
So, if these experts in editorial and publishing don’t understand POD; then I think it’s important to mention POD. A publish
on demand press is a rather long machine that can print, trim, bind and cover a complete book. The technology makes it convenient
and affordable to print a single copy of a book or as many copies of a book that is demanded (or ordered by a customer) at any given
time. In other words, if you want five copies of you book right away, a POD publishing firm prints and send you five copies. If a
customer orders one copy from Barnes and Noble, then the POD firm can print and send out one copy soon after the order is placed.
Terms like first printing, second printing is passé with POD and with the new e-mail technologies such as
Sony and Kindle books.
I’ll discuss searching for a reputable POD publisher soon. There are POD publishers with excellent reputations
that will pay you each time a book is sold, and others that will trap you into costly contracts charging you to have your book
printed by them. I use Publish America and have been very satisfied with their services.
Character Description
This is one time it’s perfectly OK to pre-judge a person. Amos can take it; he’s a fictional person after all. I hinted at a few
pro or con possibilities concerning him. I’m not looking for extensive description on what he looks like. I’m interested in knowing what
sort of a guy Amos is from what you see and the brief hints said about him so far. Is he rough and tumble, peaceable and meek, likeable,
not always likeable, out going, or shy? His appearance might say stuff about him.
Write out your description of him before reading his story. Don’t worry if you already clicked over and read the short story; if
you did, write a character description of one of the kids in the middle column instead. I think 150 to 500 words is more than enough for
this test. I’d like you to share your description of Amos with me. There’s no obligation to do so, just if you want to.
Details and description
Blending textures and background
into your character development and theme
How much is enough, not enough or too much?
Study of one short story
Clothing textures and colors, contrasts and blends, length and fit can tell us something of the characters, their activities,
personalities, sensual interests, economic class and demeanor. The saying is: You can tell a man by what he wears. The argument against
this is that appearances can be deceptive. Let both sides of the equation play in your stories.
Amos, age 18 in 1969, has long hair, sandals and wears excessively skin tight jeans. He’s a Baby Boomer and looks a bit like a
Hippy in my short story, The Fishing Hole. He even had a necklace of all natural brown seeds on a string; a sort of back to nature
statement maybe along with the love child or Flower Child image of the 1960s. Think of the character building list in the previous paragraph to conjure up
you own image of what this kid might look like, his values, his politics or philosophy on life. Go ahead and be judgmental. Go with your
thoughts about what a person attired as such might be like.
He’s slender and tends a bit to the short side of average height and is reasonably well built and muscled toned. I’ll provide a link to that
story later on in this section so you can find out what I have to say about him; but for now, feel completely free to formulate not only what
he might look like, but what you might expect his character and values to consist of.
Is it likely he’d be easily picked for hire, and what sort of employment might he find? Does he sound like someone you would readily
make friends with, or perhaps study out some or even avoid? Do you find his attire attractive or perhaps a bit rebellious for your preferences?
Left: Innocent victim, or due consequences of poor choices?
Right: Are they ganging up on an innocent person; or did Amos agree to a fight? An author does not have to let on right away (if ever).
It’s rare to stumble on a person who is tied up and gauged.
Here's the challenge: If you wanted to tell your readers about your brief sighting of Amos
and all you know about him as a person is what you see here and the few hints I’ve placed about him on this page, what could you say?
I’m not asking for a physical description of what you see, but a portrayal of what you can conjure up to say about his character, being,
person, temperament, social background or other thoughts you have about what he is like as a person.
I realize you have little to go on, and Amos obviously can’t tell you much. You have little choice but to pass
you own judgment on the person. You can be kind about him or you can be critical of him. He could be in his predictmetn because he was an unjust
agressor and he was put in his place and restrained; or he could be an innocent victim. You don't know, (unless you already read the story),
but you are free to speculate.
Note: American stories tend to have happy endings for the righteous ones. That's fine, but We don’t always have to have a conclusive
happy ending to all our stories. In fact, there are situations where not concluding the story has its own excellent effect.
(Click to read Amos' story; it equals about 13 pages of regular 8.5 x 11 paper.)