Writing Advice for Fledgling Authors

Marilyn Meredith is guest blogging today as part of the 13-writer Mystery We Write Book Tour. She's published nearly thirty books, including her latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel, Angel Lost, and the award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series, the Invisible Path. written as F. M. Meredith. The following is her advice for fledgling writers:

Begin by reading the kind of books that you want to write. Pay attention to how the books begin, how the characters are introduced, how the suspense rises, the dialogue and what makes you like the book.

Attend writers’ conferences and read books on writing. Many people have the mistaken idea that just because they know how to “write” that they can sit down in front of a computer and write a book without learning how. There are many rules about writing a book—yes, some can be broken, but not until you know what they are.

If possible, join a writing group. It’s helpful if the members are writing in the same genre as you, but not absolutely necessary. What you mainly need are people who know about writing and will give you constructive feedback on what you’re written. Listen to what they have to say. You don’t have to take all their advice, but think about it. Frankly, I learned the most about writing from the members of my critique group—the same one I still belong to after 30 years. Develop believable characters. Keep notes about them so they don’t suddenly change eye color or the spelling of their names. Speaking of character names be careful to pick names that don’t rhyme with the other character names, or start with the same letter, or all have the same number of syllables.

Write regularly. If you can, write every day even if it’s only for a short while. The more you write, the better you’ll write.

When you think you’ve finished your novel, it’s time to start the rewriting process. Print it out and go over each page diligently. Check that you’ve been consistent through out. Make sure the dialogue sounds natural but either moves the plot along or reveals character. Are the characters three dimensional?

Don’t rely on the spell and grammar checker. You’ll need to check on the printed page. Many common words have different spellings and meanings. And if you’ve used fragments in dialogue because that’s how a character speaks, you don’t want to make the changes suggested.

When you think you’re done, the manuscript is polished, have someone take a look at it who is a professional. You never want to send something off to a publisher or agent that isn’t as close to perfect as you can make it.

Submitting to publishers is a whole other topic, but just let me say this: follow each agent’s or publisher’s guidelines exactly. They receive so many submissions they’re looking for a reason for rejection.

Never give up. With my first book I received nearly 30 rejections before it was accepted. I did a lot of rewriting in-between those rejections. I’ve had plenty of rejections since, but I never gave up. Rejections are part of being a writer. Sometimes you can learn from the rejection.

Write, write, write.

About Angel Lost: As plans for her perfect wedding fill her mind, Officer Stacey Wilbur is sent out to trap a flasher, the new hire realizes Rocky Bluff P.D. is not the answer to his problems, Abel Navarro’s can’t concentrate on the job because of worry about his mother, Officer Gordon Butler has his usual upsets, the sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for RBPD, and then the worst possible happens—will Stacey and Doug’s wedding take place?

Marilyn's website: http://fictionforyou.com
Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Guest Blogger: F. M. (Marilyn) Meredith

It's my pleasure to host Marilyn Meredith, who writes Dark Oak mysteries as F. M. Meredith. She's the author of nearly thirty published novels, her latest in the Rocky Bluff Police Department crime series is Angel Lost.

Angel Lost concerns Officer Stacey Wilbur, who, as she plans for her perfect wedding, is sent out to trap a flasher. The sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for the Rocky Bluff P.D. Subsequent events threaten Stacy's wedding.

Changes Happening Everywhere

by F. M. Meredith

The news is full of all kinds of upsets and changes. Of course the biggest ones are in the countries where the people want freedom and are willing to die for that privilege. People in our own country have done that a couple of times.

Now, because of budget cuts, people in our own country are protesting and asking for change.

Because the above is way out of my hands, I’m going to discuss change in the book and publishing world.

With the news about many Borders’ closures and unfortunately too many independent bookstores, it’s not too hard to figure out that there are several things behind this change beginning with the state of the economy. Buying books might not be what someone is going to do with a limited amount of cash. Of course, the advent of so many e-book readers has had an effect too since e-books, in most cases, are so much cheaper than paper books.

Because of the new readers, e-books have become more popular (remember e-books themselves have been around for more than 10 years, there just wasn’t so many easy ways to obtain and read them as there are now) the whole publishing industry is undergoing change.

The New York publishers have accepted the fact that in order to compete they must put their books out as e-book format too. What they haven’t yet realized is that the prices of the books must be lower in order to compete with the smaller e-publishers and the authors who are self-publishing.

For the author the changes presented by the above events bring about the question should he or she find an agent? Are agents as necessary as they used to be? In my own case, over the years I’ve had several agents and none managed to find a publisher for me. I kept on writing and finally decided to see what I could do on my own. Over the years, I’ve published with several small publishers and e-publishers and now I’m with two small presses who do trade paperback and e-books.

Yes, we are definitely in a time of change, but since I’ve been a writer I’ve experienced a lot of other changes such as going from a typewriter to a computer (with several steps in-between), sending queries via email rather than by snail mail with an SASE inside, sending manuscripts as an attachment to e-mail rather than the whole printed manuscript in a box with another box inside with return address and postage.

Another big change is having to do most of the promotion oneself and having your marketing plan ahead of time to submit with your query.

Promotion has made a big change. Though authors still do book tours, most arrange and pay for them. With the closing of so many bookstores, this isn’t going to be so easy.

Much promotion is done online these days with blog tours and all the social networking. Of course this takes time, but personally, I find it enjoyable.

I do have a couple of favorite independent bookstores where I always go and give talks about writing and my books. My favorite in person events are being an instructor at a writing conference, speaking to libraries and social and service groups, book and craft fairs.

As writers, all we can do is figure out ways that we can make the changes in the book and publishing world work for us.

Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Internet chapter, Mystery Writers of America, and is on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America.

Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

She also has a great Angel Lost book trailer up at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE6scV6_rl0

Marilyn is standing by to answer questions and read your comments.