Saturday Writing Meme

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Filtering by Helen Hardt

Filtering
Take a Tip from Helen #5 by Helen Hardt

Filtering occurs when the character's actions are "filtered" through sensory verbs. Filtering distances the reader from the character and the story. By adding the filtering layer, the reader is "watching" the story rather than being "in" the story.

 

 

For example: She felt her heart quicken.

Better: Her heart quickened.

Some common filters are:

He noticed

He saw

He felt

He recalled

She tasted

She heard

She remembered

She thought back to

She looked

She noticed

It seemed to her

 

To correct the problem try this easy exercise. Print out a few pages of your novel. Highlight obvious or suspected filters. Rewrite the passages without filters. Sometimes a good way to eliminate a filter is to turn the sentence into a question, but use this method sparingly.

Go through you novel and rewrite those lines that contain any variation of the above list. You'll be glad you did because your book will be cleaner and contain interesting action.

Cowboy Heat — Bakersville Saga One and Two

Ivy League~ Cowboy Dusty O’Donovan, an accomplished bull rider, isn’t afraid to ride El Diablo, a feisty stud whose owner, Zach McCray, is offering $500,000 to anyone who can stay on him for a full eight seconds. Though Zach refuses to let a woman ride his bull, he's intrigued by the headstrong Dusty, who he last saw when he was thirteen and she was six. Sparks fly when they’re together, but will Dusty’s secrets tear them apart?

A Cowboy and a Gentleman~ Newly divorced Dallas McCray wants a sweet country girl like his sister-in-law, so why is he lusting after the new veterinarian in town, striking New Jersey transplant Annie DeSimone? Also divorced, Annie yearns to leave her difficult past behind and start a new life in beautiful Colorado. Sparks fly between her and handsome cowboy Dallas, but attraction and emotion aren’t always enough…especially when a cowboy has vowed never to make the same mistake twice.


To read excerpts from Helen Hardt's books please click a vendor's name.
Musa Publishing - Amazon

To read excerpts from Helen Hardt's books please click here.

Helen Hardt is the Head Line Editor for Musa Publishing and a freelance editor. She is also an award-winning author. Helen writes contemporary, historical, paranormal, and erotic romance for several publishers. Her non-writing interests include Harley rides with her husband, attending her sons’ sports and music performances, traveling, and Taekwondo (she’s a blackbelt.) 

Learn more about Helen Hardt and her editing service on her website. 

Do or do not...

...there is no try.

 

 

 

That pesky Semicolon and how to use it by Helen Hardt.

The Semicolon
Take a Tip from Helen #9
by Helen Hardt

(This article originally posted at the Musa Publishing blog and is being reposted with permission from the author)

Are You a User or an Abuser?

This little punctuation mark is probably the most misused on the planet. The semicolon is a divider. It is used ONLY (okay, there's one exception, but you won't come across it in fiction) to mark off the boundary between grammatically parallel elements. It is most often used to separate independent clauses in compound and compound-complex sentences and to separate items in a series when one or more of the items include interior punctuation.

Correct:

His heart told him to move to New York; his head told him to stay.

(Two independent clauses joined)

He pleaded with her to stay; however, she left on the train at noon.

(Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, when the second independent clause contains a comma.

My favorite movies are Titanic; Yours, Mine, and Ours; and Avatar.

(A series of three items, one of which includes interior punctuation)

Incorrect:

We're looking at the city's liability; a problem that could be addressed by raising taxes.

She'd need a few months to learn to walk again; to adjust to living again.

She quickened her footsteps; stopped; turned around.

If you choose to use the semicolon, please use it correctly :).

Cowboy Heat — Bakersville Saga One and Two

Ivy League~ Cowboy Dusty O’Donovan, an accomplished bull rider, isn’t afraid to ride El Diablo, a feisty stud whose owner, Zach McCray, is offering $500,000 to anyone who can stay on him for a full eight seconds. Though Zach refuses to let a woman ride his bull, he's intrigued by the headstrong Dusty, who he last saw when he was thirteen and she was six. Sparks fly when they’re together, but will Dusty’s secrets tear them apart?

A Cowboy and a Gentleman~ Newly divorced Dallas McCray wants a sweet country girl like his sister-in-law, so why is he lusting after the new veterinarian in town, striking New Jersey transplant Annie DeSimone? Also divorced, Annie yearns to leave her difficult past behind and start a new life in beautiful Colorado. Sparks fly between her and handsome cowboy Dallas, but attraction and emotion aren’t always enough…especially when a cowboy has vowed never to make the same mistake twice.


To read excerpts from Helen Hardt's books please click a vendor's name.
Musa Publishing - Amazon

Helen Hardt is the Head Line Editor for Musa Publishing and a freelance editor. She is also an award-winning author. Helen writes contemporary, historical, paranormal, and erotic romance for several publishers. Her non-writing interests include Harley rides with her husband, attending her sons’ sports and music performances, traveling, and Taekwondo (she’s a blackbelt.)

Learn more about Helen Hardt and her editing service on her website.

Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Writer

Thank so much for inviting me to guest blog on the Aspiring Romance Authors site, Dominique! It’s a pleasure to be here.

 

Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Writer by Ann Gimpel

 

 

1.      Read. Read a lot. Not just in the genre you want to write in, but in other genres as well. Learn to recognize why you like (or don’t like) a particular book. Be able to pick out plot threads, tension, pacing, and character development. If you can’t see them in other people’s writing, you won’t be able to work those things into your own, either.

2.      Write every day. Even if it’s only a few hundred words. At the beginning, don’t worry about aiming for whole stories. Write scenes. Learn to work with words on your screen.

3.      Consider writers’ software like Scrivener. I don’t use it, but I know lots of writers who swear by it. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but what I use in lieu of Scrivener-type software is storyboards and three-ring binders. It’s how I keep my characters and my words and the mythologies in my different books straight. I think you need something. Otherwise, when you go through a story for first edits, you find embarrassing things like your characters’ names having changed. Or their hair color.

4.      Find a good critique group. Or at least a couple of critique partners. You need other sets of eyes to go over your writing and tell you where the plot holes are, or why a particular character doesn’t work. We just can’t do that for ourselves. Also, your partner, mother, BFF, etc. can’t do that for you, either. It won’t help you to have someone gush over your work. Even NYT bestselling writers have a phalanx of people looking over their shoulders, starting with their literary agents.

5.      Get good and familiar with grammar. They don’t teach it in school like they did when I went an embarrassingly long time ago. Do any of the rest of you remember diagramming sentences? Can you list the various parts of speech? Of a sentence? Do you know why we avoid adverbs and only rarely begin sentences with gerunds or prepositions? If you know all that stuff, great. Some of it still gives me fits, like lie versus lay. I still have to think that one through. Or farther versus further.

6.      A bit more on #5. Do not rely on Word’s grammar checker. It’s wrong nearly as frequently as it’s correct.

7.      Develop a thick skin. Writing is a skill, much like any other. It takes time and dedication to hone your craft. I’ve been grateful for every single review I’ve gotten, even the bad ones, because they’ve highlighted areas I need to focus on.

8.      It takes many elements to create a great story. You need three dimensional character who blaze off the page. You need a plot with enough interwoven threads to hold a reader’s interest. Tension and pacing move the plot forward. None of us are born knowing how to do all those things. Characters were always easy for me. I had to teach myself plotting, pacing, and holding tension.

9.      Learn to proof your work. It’s a skill. Your chances of publication will improve dramatically if your work is close to error-free. A neighbor of mine just posted the first couple hundred words from her novel that’s been sitting in a drawer for twenty years on FB. It made me itch to toss it up on M/S Track Changes. That level of editing proficiency will knock a big, fat hole in your pleasure reading, but it’s worth it.

10.  Don’t give up. If you want something, work for it. We don’t truly appreciate what comes to us too easily.

 

What about the rest of you? Did I miss something you think is critical? Love to have you weigh in.

Get to know Ann Gimpel

www.anngimpel.com

http://anngimpel.blogspot.com

http://www.amazon.com/author/anngimpel

http://www.facebook.com/anngimpel.author


@AnnGimpel (for Twitter) Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She’s published over 20 books to date, with several more contracted for 2014.

A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.

 

AmazonBuy Link / B&NBuy Link

 

 

Magic didn’t just find Luke Caulfield. It chased him down, bludgeoned him, and has been dogging him ever since. Some lessons are harder than others. Luke survives by embracing danger and upping the ante to give it one better. An enforcer for the Coven, a large, established group of witches, his latest assignment is playing bodyguard to the daughter of Coven leaders.

   

Abigail Ruskin is chaperoning a spoiled twelve-year-old from New York to her parents’ home in Utah Territory when Luke gets on their stagecoach in Colorado. A powerful witch herself, Abigail senses Luke’s magic, but he’s so overwhelmingly male, she shies away from contact. Stuck between the petulant child and Luke’s raw sexual energy, Abigail can’t wait for the trip to end.

 

Wraiths, wolves, and humans with dark magick attack. Unpleasant truths surface about the child and Abigail’s well-ordered world crashes around her. Luke’s so attracted to Abigail, she’s almost all he can think about, but he’s leery too. In over his head, he summons enforcer backup. Will they help him save the woman he’s falling in love with, or demand her immediate execution?

 

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Tips for doing radio interviews

Radio show hosts are almost always rushed for time and being creative in their questioning. Combining those two things will help you be a better radio guest.

This is what you do:

List a bunch of questions you would like to be asked or anticipate would be interesting to a radio audience. Remember things are done in very short snippets.

For each question formulate your answer; then orally time how long it takes to answer the question. Once you have that, indicate with the question how long it takes for the question/answer. Having all your questions and answers timed out will help you look good to the host and make their jobs easier because they know how much time they have to fill. So a typical question would go like this:

1. How do you come up with ideas for your books?

Answer: 1 minute.

2. Do you read e-books?

Answer: 2 minutes

3. How does the quality of e-books compare to traditional publishing?

Answer: 2 minutes.

4. What is your book about?

Answer: 1 minute

5. How will reading your novel impact our readers? (How will it better their lives in some way?)

Answer: 2 minutes

Let's say your host has 4 minutes of airtime to fill. He/She can pick and choose from the questions you provide to fill that time without awkward silence and make the best use of the time you've been given.

Stand up it will make you less breathy,

For web radio interviews you will be asked to make sure you call on a land line. Better safe than sorry do not call on your cell. Also you will likely have more time than you would for your morning radio show so be prepared. Have answers to questions like

Who inspires you? Why did you start to write?

In any sort of interview you want to show how reading your work will enhance the lives of the readers. Bonus points if you can tie some aspect of your story into current events