More Good Advice

Still thinking along the lines of sound advice to offer beginning writers, I remembered some of the biggest mistakes I made early on. First, I was so darn anxious to have Judgment on Tartarus published that I sent out the ms. long before it was truly ready for publication. My work was too amateurish at that point, but I was so excited about my story that I overlooked its flaws.

Instead of letting my work "rest", then going back over it with a fine-tooth comb and fixing it, I rushed it off to a publisher. Nowadays, writers rush out to publish an e-book! Looking back now, I can see all too clearly why no publisher would take on Judgment. The story was good ( and remains so to this day ), but I hadn't done a good enough job of telling the story, of editing and refining my work. Had Judgment been published in that condition, I would've been highly embarrassed. I'm afraid that many of today's young and eager writers are going to look back upon their early work, shudder, and groan!

As a writer, you want to put yourself in the best possible light. Instead of bragging that you published a book, I want you to be able to brag that your book is the absolute BEST you could possibly write and never regret publishing it.

The second piece of advice I'd give you is don't discourage easily---another huge mistake I made. After several rejections and one near-publication of my second novel, True Son of Tartarus, I gave up. What I didn't realize until much later was that my book wasn't to blame for the rejections. True Son is also a good story, but---for whatever reason: budget constraints, timing, inappropriate genre, etc.---the major publishers weren't going to go out on a limb to publish an unknown author.

So if you're getting nothing but rejections from publishers, you first need to take a long, hard look at your work. If you can honestly say it's a good book, worthy of and ready for publication, keep on plugging and don't let yourself get discouraged.

I think the two worst mistakes a writer can make are publishing your work before it's up to par and giving up on it too quickly.

As they say, a word to the wise...

MRTighe

Advice for Writers

Here's a bit of sound advice for beginning writers:

1) Study the language in which you write, whether English or not.
2) As a general rule, don't write exactly the way you speak---most of us don't speak our language correctly!
3) Learn the rules of punctuation and grammar, and don't depend on your memory!
4) Also, don't depend on "spell-check"---ie: two, too, and to are all spelled correctly, but which form is the one you want?
5) Double and triple check your ms. for errors. Unfortunately, no matter how many times you check or how well you check, mistakes do manage to slip by!
6) Make sure no words have accidentally been omitted.
7) If the names of your characters, places, etc. are unpronounceable or draw snickers from your first reader, change them!
8) Check the meaning of words with your dictionary or thesaurus; it's not only embarrassing to use the wrong word, but it may also make your work laughable.
9) Make perfectly clear to what or to whom your pronouns refer. This error can be downright, head-scratching confusing!
10) Remember: "that" and "which" should not be used interchangeably ( admittedly one of my most frequent faults! )
11) Analyze your story to make sure the plot makes perfect sense, and not only to you! Is it told in an intelligible order? Have you made errors in continuity? Does each "scene" serve a purpose and advance the plot or is it unnesscessary?

In conclusion ( yay! ), I highly recommend turning your precious ms. over to an impartial first reader for a totally honest critique. To quote my first reader of a rough draft of Judgment on Tartarus: "This fight scene sounds more like they're dancing!" Alas, that was all too true!

Instead of getting your hackles up or bursting into tears, go to work to remedy your weaknesses. That's the only way to improve; that's how you become a darn good writer.

Take it from someone who is still learning every day,

MRTighe

Rough, Rough!

Not to get too far ahead of myself ( which I manage to do all the time! ) I've pretty much completed a rough draft of Malkis of Tartarus which is a prequel to my Tartarus series. This book tells the story of how Malkis left Tartarus in the first place---against his father's wishes, thus beginning a life-long feud between the two! The rest of the story involves his meeting  Hughes at the ISS Academy and how those two became rivals and bitter enemies!

Though it's a heck of  lot of fun writing the rough draft of a novel, it usually turns out to be pretty badly written! First drafts tend to be written fast and dirty! Going back to refine them later is dang hard work ( but still rather fun! )  The editing process is where you really get down to the nitty-gritty, nit-picky stuff that can drive an author absolutely crazy! Editing is time-consuming and tricky; all your learning and experience comes into play as you  spell-check, make use of the thesaurus, check every line for grammar, punctuation, accuracy, etc. Then you have to reread for clarity, tone of voice, continuity, natural sounding dialog, too much repetition, and so on.

You really have to love the work and believe in what you are writing---or don't become a writer! If you dare to do so, above all else, do not allow yourself to become a lazy writer! If you think you are above such mundane issues as spelling and grammar, better think again! Writing is damn hard work!

Whew! Got that off my chest! ' Til next time,

MRTighe