By: Katherine Lowry Logan (Guest Post: Megaphone Society)
Have you written your first novel and wondered what now? If so, I
know exactly what you’re going through.
Your family and friends have probably read your story and told you
that you’ve crafted a book that will get you on the New York Times Best Seller
list. I think my sister told me my writing was as good as Sandra Brown. Even in
my dreams, I don’t reach that level of success.
Maybe you’ve worked with critique partners who have pointed out
grammar and punctuation mistakes, questioned the relevance of some of your
scenes, or slapped your hand for head–hopping.
How many times have you heard, “You can’t break the rules?” I’ll
let you in on a little secret: Those rules are only guidelines. They are not
edicts carved in stone. But, before you can start breaking them, you need to
know what they are and how breaking them impacts your story.
Here’s my favorite rule: Try
to leave out the part readers will skip.
I wish I knew what that was. I had a reader tell me the other day
that she read every word in a story, even the descriptions. I think she’s a
rare breed.
While writing The Ruby Brooch, I head–hopped with
the best of them, rarely got into a deep point of view, and wrote thousands of
words of back story. I meandered. I introduced unnecessary characters and I
wrote paragraphs full of descriptions that were boring and didn’t move the
story forward. What I learned along the way was that if the story wasn’t moving
forward, the reader gets bored and puts down your book. If the reader does
that, he/she won’t recommend your book to a friend or write a review. You might
have made a sale, but you lost the next one.
What can you do to prevent a reader from putting down your book?
Click
here to read the complete article (see #1 below)
~*~
If
you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they
are again:
- Publishing non–negotiable: Hire an editor | Megaphone Society http://ow.ly/njDWS
- Dedicated? Or Demented? Why I Create Worksheets for Writers | Taking the Scenic Route http://ow.ly/niiax
- Motivation tricks: hype mixes | Andrew Jack Writing http://ow.ly/nj2KR
- When Do You Need to Secure Permissions? | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/nj2YY
- Write It Sideways — Writing advice from a fresh perspective http://ow.ly/nj3cc
- Novel Rocket: How to Not Waste Your Writing Time http://ow.ly/nj5Yh
- What Happens Online In 60 Seconds? Incredible Statistics, Facts & Figures! [INFOGRAPHIC] - AllTwitter http://ow.ly/nj69c
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Book Shepherds, Part 1 by Sharon Goldinger — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/nj6qT
- 7 Lessons Learned From Self-Publishing A Book That Was Previously Traditionally Published | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/nj6AH
- ON THE ETHER: Should Literary Fiction Come Out of the Cloisters? http://ow.ly/nj2VA
- Notes From Tabor Lane: Today's (7/25) Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts http://ow.ly/njabw
- How to Steal http://ow.ly/njNjg "Stealing like a writer is like making a braid. One idea from over here; one idea from other there."
- Practical vs. Practicable http://ow.ly/njNzQ via Daily Writing Tips
- Free eBook Formatting & Marketing Guides for Writers - GalleyCat http://ow.ly/nk4b0
- How to Take Other's Ideas and Make Them Your Own - BookBaby Blog http://ow.ly/nk5TP
- The invisible e-book | The Passive Voice | Writers, Writing, Self-Publishing, Disruptive Innovation and the Universe http://ow.ly/nk6nw
- Authors: a warning about classifying and categorizing your characters | Creative Writing with the Crimson League http://ow.ly/nk6Ct
- How Social Media is Changing the World (Infographics) | SociableBlog http://ow.ly/nk6KE
I’m
always looking for great content to share. If you have a writing and/or
marketing blog, or have a favorite that you visit often, please leave a link in
the comment section. Thanks for stopping by.
Happy
writing & running, Kathy
TWEETABLE:
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out these links to writing & marketing blog posts. Click to Tweet.
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