Tips to Help You Finish that Manuscript

Tips to Help you Finish your  Manuscript

Of course, it’s the dream of every writer to have a best-selling novel on the shelves of every book store in the country sometime in their writing career. And most writers have great ideas that would make super novels. But the reality is that most of us don’t have three to six months to lock ourselves up in a bedroom with our computer and get that brilliant idea down on paper in a form of the English language that can be read without an interpreter.

Here are a few suggestions for you would-be novelists to help get you motivated to start and finish a manuscript that just might land you a contract with a publishing company. These simple steps worked for me not once, but 10 times, enabling me to publish just as many juvenile fiction novels at an average of three-months writing time a piece:

1. Analyze your time and budget it. Prioritize so that you have time to write every day.Yes, I know it’s impossible to write every day, but if you have this at the top of your priority list, you’ll get it done more often than if you just haphazardly decide, “Oh, it’s Monday. I have two extra hours today. I think I’ll write.” Your novel will never happen this way.

2. Write a short outline or description of where you’re going with your story and characters. I know many authors who have written their same novel over and over, and to this day they still haven’t finished it because they never resolved the ending. Their characters seem to be lost forever in some kind of word time warp, never to “live happily ever after.” This often happens if you’re a “pantser.” Although most of my kids’ novels were written using method one, I wrote my most recent series, the three TOMMI POCKETS books, as a pantser and enjoyed the process very much.

3. Don’t worry about perfect English the first time you write. Just get your brilliant idea down on paper. Worry about the PUGS (punctuation, usage, grammar, spelling) later.

4. Let your finished manuscript sit a few weeks then get back to it. You’ll read parts of it and wonder Who in the world wrote that junk? This is a great time to start revising. Go through each scene with a fine-toothed comb, making sure your characters move the plot and/or subplot forward.

5. When you finish revising your manuscript,  read it aloud, and get it into the hands of a critique group or other writers who will tell you the truth. Aunt Susie or Brother Bill will only tell you how wonderful you are, but that won’t get your manuscript ready for a trip to the editor’s desk at the publishing house.

6. While you’re revising again and perfecting your work, send out your queries, at least five at a time. It might take up to three or four months, if at all, to get a response from the editors of “big” traditional companies. The newer little publishers popping up everywhere will probably let you know within a week or two. In that framework of time, you can hone your manuscript and shape it into something that any editor would want.

So, get the computer turned on, get your brain tuned in, and get typing. You just might be the next great American novelist!

Marsha :)

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Today’s Writers’ Tip: Fiction Plot No. 11 – Metamorphosis

Today’s Writers’ Tip

Plot Number 11: The Metamorphosis Fiction Plot

     

(Photos compliments of Wikipedia)

We’ve all enjoyed stories that have a powerful transformation take place with one of the characters. But writing a metamorphosis fiction plot takes quite a bit of pre-planning and character development. This subgenre is different from your “ordinary” transformation of the main character in an “ordinary” novel at the climax and resolution because…. Well, let’s look at the characteristics of writing an excellent unique story:

The Metamorphosis Plot

Wolfman

Dracula

Beauty and the Beast

1. The metamorphosis usually results from a curse.
2. The cure for the curse is often love.
3. The forms of love include love of parent for a child, a woman for a man (or vice versa), people for each other, or man for the love of God.
4. The metamorph is usually carried out by the antagonist (the “bad guy”) if the curse can be reversed by the antagonist performing certain acts, and the protagonist can’t hurry or explain the events.
5. In the first dramatic phase, the metamorph usually can’t explain the reasons for his curse.
6. The story should begin at the point prior to the resolution of the curse (release).
7. The bad guy should act as the catalyst that propels the protagonist toward release.
8. The antagonist often starts out as the intended victim but finishes as the “chosen one.”
9. The second dramatic phase should concentrate on the nature of evolving relationships between the antagonist and the metamorph.
10. The characters generally move toward each other emotionally.
11. In the third dramatic phase, the terms of release should be fulfilled and your protagonist should be freed from the curse. The metamorph might either revert to his original state or die.
12. The reader should discover the reasons for the curse and its root causes.

Have you got your metamorphic wheels turning? If you’ve wanted to try this subgenre, now you have the ammunition to do so. Have fun!

Next time we’ll look at fiction plot number 12: Transformation

 All information compliments of:

Tobias, Ronald B (2011-12-15). 20 Master Plots (p. 189). F+W Media, Inc. Kindle Edition.

(I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in writing good fiction in any subgenre!)

 

Happy writing!

Marsha

Amish Fiction for Ladies!

Visit the Amish and Mennonites of Snyder County, PA

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Today’s Writers’ Tip: Fiction Plot Four – RESCUE

March 12, 2018

Today’s Writers’ Tip

Fiction Plots

RESCUE

(Photo compliments of http://www.stockfreeimages.com)

Continuing our study of fiction plots, we’ll look at plot number 4 today: RESCUE.

Who hasn’t been on the edge of his seat as a child when reading books or watching movies on TV like “Snow White,” “The Secret Garden,” or “The Lone Ranger” (He was always “rescuing good guys from the bad guys!) But now as a writer, we need to analyze the clever writing technique used to create a work that keeps the viewer wanting more as the hero or heroine search and rescue some poor lost wandering soul (or sometimes an animal).

Let’s take a look at the defining characteristics of a Rescue Fiction Plot:

PLOT #4

RESCUE

Snow White

The Magnificent Seven

1. The rescue plot relies more on action than on the development of any one character.
2. The “character triangle” should consist of a hero, a villain, and a victim.
3. The moral argument of the rescue plot is usually black and white.
4. The focus should be on the main character’s (hero’s) pursuit of the villain.
5. The hero usually must contend with the villain on the villain’s turf.
6. If there’s a heroine, she should be defined by her relationship to the villain.
7. The villain should deprive the hero of what each believes is rightfully his/hers.
8. The villain continually interferes with the hero’s progress.
9. The victim is generally the weakest of the three characters and serves mainly to force the hero to confront the villain.
10. There are three dramatic phases: separation, pursuit, and confrontation and reunion.

All information compliments of:

Tobias, Ronald B (2011-12-15). 20 Master Plots (p. 189). F+W Media, Inc. Kindle Edition.

(I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in writing good fiction in any subgenre!)

I hope as you outline your fiction plots, you can better define which plot you’re developing and better understand how to incorporate many of these characteristics to improve your writing 100%.

Next time, we’ll have a look at PLOT #5: ESCAPE

Happy writing!

**********************************************************

Want to learn the truth about what the Amish believe?

Check out my LOVES OF SNYDER COUNTY SERIES

 

 

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Today’s Writers’ Tip: Ten Ways to Write Like a Beginner

January 25, 2016

TEN WAYS TO WRITE LIKE A BEGINNER

Let’s see, you’ve had this great idea for umpteen years, and now you’ve decided to start writing! Or maybe you’ve been writing for a while and you’d like to get your story, poem, article, or book published. Will you qualify as a beginning writer who’ll never see any work published or as an experienced crafter of words who’ll definitely see his/her name in print?

I’ve listed a few characteristics of a writer that automatically brand him/her as a newbie. If you can say “yes, that’s me” to any of the points in the list below, all I can say is “uh oh.” Go ahead, read the list, and see how you do:

1. Never read any books in the same genre in which you are writing. After all, you don’t want to steal another author’s voice, style, or story!
2. Write when you feel like it, even if the radio or TV is blasting or your family is demanding supper.
3. Without trying to publish anything else, start writing the Great American Novel that has plots, subplots, foreshadowing, and complicated characters.
4. Start your fiction manuscript with five pages of narration and description from five points of view. Have 600 pages in your manuscript.
5. Develop a boring plot with no climax, characters with no depth, and dialogue that is flat and the same for all your characters.
6. Don’t seek any help from anyone or anything like a critique group, “how-to-write” books, or writers’ conferences because God told you to write, what to write, and how to write it, and nobody is going to change your mind.
7. Send your manuscript everywhere without querying first. Buy the Writers’ Market Guide, start on page 1, and don’t stop until you get a sale!
8. If you decide to write a query letter, write one that is “unique.” Smother it in chocolate or perfume smells and start the letter like this: “Dear Editor, this is your lucky day. My family has read this, and they absolutely love it.”
9. Send your very first draft of your very first manuscript to a different editor once every six months; then go into deep depression when it’s rejected.
10. Throw away all rejection letters, including those from editors who suggest changes or editors who would like you to submit other work. After all, if the editor didn’t like your first manuscript, he/she won’t like any of your other stuff, and if you make suggested changes in anything, the manuscript won’t be “your” work anymore.

Well, how’d you do? Hopefully, you’re not guilty of any of these nasty beginners’ habits. If so, perhaps you should take up basket weaving or bowling instead.

Next time we’ll discuss how determined you are to be a writer. What will make you quit?

Marsha

(Web) www.marshahubler.com

(Writers Tips) www.marshahubler.wordpress.com

Montrose Christian Writers Conference http://www.montrosebible.org/OurEvents/tabid/113/page_550/1/eventid_550/58/Default.aspx

(Horse Facts Blog) www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

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Foster kid Skye Nicholson and her horse Champ try to teach a Jonathan, a deaf boy, how to ride Western

when he had already learned English.

He won’t listen to anyone then takes off with a horse and gets lost in the woods.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Camp-Adventure-Keystone-Stables-ebook/dp/B003TFE5VI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452968862&sr=1-1&keywords=Summer+Camp+Adventure+by+Marsha+Hubler

How about reading some sweet “love” stories/devotionals….

21 Days of Love

Compiled by Kathy Ide

http://www.amazon.com/Days-Love-Celebrate-Treasured-Relationships-ebook/dp/B018BEKD4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453586941&sr=1-1&keywords=21+days+of+love+by+kathy+ide

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Fiction That Wows (Part 5)

Nov. 9, 2015

Fiction That Wows Your Reader (Part 5)

Writing Outside the Box

First, let’s define the term “outside the box.” What in heaven’s name does that mean? “Write outside the box.”

Well, in plain language, it means to write a plot and develop characters that don’t have a normal humdrum boring story line or everyday blah life.

As a short exercise in my presentation, I always cite some average boring story lines and ask my class to change the plot so that it’s outside the box. One example I cite is the following:

“A little girl finds a nest of baby bunnies in her back yard.”

Now, of course, everyone is immediately drawn to the “outside the box” famous children’s story, Alice in Wonderland, where Alice finds a whole new world, not a nest of baby bunnies.

Several years ago, I presented this workshop to a group of writers and asked how to change the story line. One fellow in the back of the room raised his hand and said, “How about if a big rabbit finds a nest of little girls in his back yard?”

I said to him, “Sir, you are DEFINITELY thinking outside the box. Go for it.”

Just for the fun of it, I’m going to list about 10 different story lines. Analyze each one. If you can change the plot to move it outside the box, do so. But some of the story lines are already outside the box and are, in fact, famous stories or books written by best-selling published authors. See if you can identify those that are already great plots.

So, which of these would you like to continue to read?

1. A little girl saves enough money to buy a horse at auction.
2. A bitter sea captain of a sailing ship hunts for a white sperm whale to kill him.
3. A newly married couple tours Paris, France, and enjoys all the sites.
4. A boy is shipwrecked on an island with only a wild stallion that won’t let him get near him.
5. A middle-aged woman works at Wal-Mart, saving enough money to take a trip to Hawaii.
6. A young pioneer woman is left alone on the prairie in her covered wagon when her husband falls from his horse and is killed.
7. The neighbor’s cat has a litter of six kittens underneath a little boy’s porch.
8. A collie dog, sold and taken away from the boy he loves, travels a long distance through life-threatening dangers to return to his boy.
9. A young unmarried girl decides to marry her childhood sweetheart.
10. An unmarried woman on a plantation in a southern state faces the harsh reality of post Civil War life and the loss of all she held dear.

Well, how did you do? Did you analyze the boring plots and the character development and decide what you could do to make them better? (Numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)

And did you identify the best-selling books/movies in numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10?

MOBY DICK

THE BLACK STALLION

LOVE COMES SOFTLY

LASSIE, COME HOME

GONE WITH THE WIND

When you analyze what makes these million-dollar story lines what they are, you’ll be on your way to writing, possibly, the next great American novel. And all the while you’re writing, keep on reading. Read tons of books, especially in the subgenre in which you are writing, and learn how the masters did it. Maybe someday, your name will be on a best-seller list with the rest of them!

Marsha (Web) www.marshahubler.com

(Writers Tips) www.marshahubler.wordpress.com

Montrose Christian Writers Conference http://www.montrosebible.org/OurEvents/tabid/113/page_550/1/eventid_550/58/Default.aspx

(Horse Facts Blog) www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

******

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 (Book 2 in the Keystone Stables Series)

Skye faces the challenge of her life when her best friend, Sooze, develops a brain tumor.

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