I used to hate that expression. Write what you know. Because what did I know, really? I know how to iron clothes and cook spaghetti. I know how to play the violin and jump rope, among other things. But writing a full-length novel about a woman who cooks spaghetti in her spare time and applies other mundane tasks, such as ironing, to her busy life as a jump-roping violinist didn’t sound all that appealing.

Surely when Rowling wrote of the magical world of Hogwarts and witches and wizards she’d never actually experienced such fantasy. And when Tolkien brought us to a land of hobbits and sharp-toothed Orcs killing to help the evil wizard acquire a magical ring, he wasn’t writing from his past adventures.

So how do we write what we know? How do authors pull readers into an intriguing world of fiction if they’re not experts on the topic they write about? Is it simply a grand amount of research or is there some other secret we’re not privy to?

I wrote this book in which the main characters spent a lot of time on horses, trotting along the beach and enjoying nature. I know nothing about horses and have only ridden a few in my lifetime. But this mattered little to me because I knew this book had to have horses in it. It was like a movie reel playing over and over in my mind, conversations between the characters on the horses. A budding romance out on the beach after a ride on a beautiful brown mare (of course I think I called most of the horses stallions at this point because, like I said, I knew nothing about horses). My point is, I had a vision for the book. That’s all I had. I didn’t know much about horses, I didn’t know how in the world a saddle was attached or even if I wanted to, but I knew without a doubt what I wanted in my story. And so, though I had to do research on horses and get advice, I still wrote what I knew in a sense. I focused on the character’s passion for these animals, the way the characters bonded over their mutual love of horses. I knew how to write this much and more.

When someone tells you to write what you know, it’s amazing how many tools you have at your disposal. You know about love and loss, you know about dreams, you know about passion for writing or whatever else you enjoy doing. These emotions are a wonderful beginning to building a character around a world that can seem as tangible as reality, even if you have to do some research.

So what kind of scenarios do you view in your imagination? What do your characters long for, dream about? What are they challenged with? If you can create all these things and feel them, experience them, love them as you follow that mental journey, then you can write them. Acquiring information about a character’s profession or facts about the city of your setting will take work but it is definitely doable. But the rest of the story, how real you make it, is the foundation of it all.

Write what you know and we’ll see insight into imaginative minds that process emotions and experiences in unique ways. We’ll see individuality in writing, and a perspective we may never have thought of. Dare to draw from your own experiences and then paint them in a new way, writing what you know that others may not.

Cindy Wilson

Cindy enjoys reading and writing inspirational fiction. Her first novel, Through It All, will be released in 2009. She is married, with two beautiful daughters, and spends most of her time at home with them and her wonderful husband.

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Okay my dear fellow and struggling writers I am going to attempt the impossible:

How to Write A Synopsis

I know I’ve researched this subject over and over again however no one is very clear on how to do it and what to include. I’ve written a few versions from my two WIP’s and I have to say my last synopsis I am truly proud of. Plus some agents require a Synopsis-brief or detailed-when you query which limits your book’s potential if you don’t have one. I want us all to succeed because my goodness we wrap our lives around the worlds we create or laugh at something we plan to put inside our writing. Bear with me, I am by no means an expert, but I will feel way better going in the weekend if I helped even one person see the light at the end of this horrid dark tunnel.

First off what is a Synopsis?
I’m not gonna give you a long definition here. It’s a summary of the book. Plain and Simple. It includes the major characters ONLY and the main plot(s) with an accurate detail or blurb. I like the idea of making the Synopsis a giant book blurb, only telling what it important to move the story. Oh and yes, the ending is included. Now even though you’ll explain the ending or what will happen in the ending, it won’t give away the feel and emotion behind it so don’t fret thinking they know my whole book so why bother to read it? You have to capture their curiosity and interest with flow.

First Things First:
It should be written in Third Person, Present Tense. Think of it as a narrative piece and try to capture the same style of feeling as your MS is written in. If a brief (considered one page) single spaced with a line break between each paragraph. If a detailed (anywhere from 2-10 pages) consider double space with indentations for every paragraph along with a header of your last name, title, and page number in the upper left hand corner.

You start off with a hook. Some prefer a rhetorical question that pertains to their work, others like to introduce the MC with a special power or flaw that proves to be their strong point. I suggest modifying the same hook you used for your query. BY modifying I mean to exaggerate if you can.

Example: Curious George is always curious and it gets him into trouble.
Change to: Curious George is a fun loving monkey with one minor flaw, he’s curious and it always leads to trouble.

Setting. Most people can tell what time frame things are happening in, but if your the master of a new world, you should tie that in.

Examples: In the future Pluto becomes our new Earth where MC…
When MC finds a new world called Narnia in an enchanted wardrobe…
Harry Potter discovers a new magical world hiding within our own when he goes…

Order. This is so important, tell your story like it unfolds in your book. Chronological order is key as you tell the important points of the story that LEAD to the main plot. I need people to know why the man in the big yellow hat has a monkey.

Examples: George was taken in by a man in a big yellow hat.

Change to: George was adopted by a man in the big yellow hat and by doing so saves him from living in a zoo. The man is very nice and treats George like a member of the family. The man is sometimes too trusting leaving George all on his own when he runs errands and learns a dire lesson.

Aha! See how that last example leads back to the opening hook? George is all on his own giving him the chance to let his curiosity take over and get him into trouble. Let’s keep going.

Strife or Resolution. What does your MC have to do or overcome, maybe even figure out? Do some clues lead them there? What things are needed to accomplish this mission or crime? Is their life at stake if they fail?

Example: When the man leaves George at home all alone in the house, he thought nothing bad could happen. George can’t resist to touch the medicine cabinet with the magical surface that beams his reflection. His interest leads him to open the cupboard and finds his owner’s Vicodin pills. Unknown to what the bottle contains George tries everything to open it and succeeds when he twists it off with his teeth and empties the contents into his mouth, chewing a high dosage with fatal risks.

Ending. This has to sum up everything you tried to explain and fit together with a possible outcome to make it realistic. Does the MC succeed or fail? Did they die trying to slay the dragon or overcome the alien invasion? Did they learn anything valuable?

Example: The man was sitting in his car when he remembered he wasn’t wearing his favorite yellow hat. He returned to the house and when George did not greet him, he knew something was wrong. George was passed out on the bathroom floor with his empty pain pills. The man has to act fast to save George and make him well again. After giving George CPR and calling a local exotic veterinarian, George becomes stable and conscious and realizes George needs to be watched more carefully.

Let’s piece it together.

Curious George with Vicodin (Title of your work)

Brief Synopsis (Let them know if brief or detailed)

CURIOUS GEORGE (The caps is when you first introduce main characters, do it only once a new name is brought in) is a fun loving monkey with one minor flaw, he’s curious and it always leads to trouble. George was adopted by a MAN (the other MC introduced) in the big yellow hat and by doing so saves him from living in a zoo. The man is very nice and treats George like a member of the family. The man is sometimes too trusting leaving George all on his own when he runs errands and learns a dire lesson.

When the man leaves George at home all alone in the house, he thought nothing bad could happen. George can’t resist to touch the medicine cabinet with the magical surface that beams his reflection. His interest leads him to open the cupboard and finds his owner’s Vicodin pills. Unknown to what the bottle contains George tries everything to open it and succeeds when he twists it with his teeth and empties the contents into his mouth, chewing a high dosage with fatal risks.

The man was sitting in his car when he remembered he wasn’t wearing his favorite yellow hat. He returned to the house and when George did not greet him, he knows something is wrong. George was passed out on the bathroom floor with his empty bottle of pain pills. The man has to act fast to save George and make him well again. After giving George CPR and calling a local exotic veterinarian for help, George becomes stable and conscious and the man realizes George needs to be watched more closely.

THE END!
There you have it-a nice little synopsis. Introduces the characters and how they are, shows the plot of the story, and the resolution. If you have to do a detailed synopsis, you can go further in depth with plots and possible sub-plots if they contribute to the main plot. Only include characters whom are vital with the main part of the story.

See? It’s not so bad is it?

Sara Tribble

Sara is a young aspiring writer who writes in a variety of genres and loves every minute of it, minus revisions to novels, those are her worse demons. She’s the Publishing Assistant at Flash Me Magazine (welcomes new and established writers to submit their flash stories of all genres) and helps out with editing/responding to submissions. Some of her short stories have appeared in Flashshot, Static Movement, and Young Writers America. She continues to write short stories on the side hoping her publications will pay off when querying agents and publishers. You can check her blog at: http://saratribble.blogspot.com/

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On Rejection:  Or what I have learned about publishing so far….

For those of you who are following my blog who are not aspiring novelists, forge ahead with amusement. For those of you who are published authors who may peek in here, forge ahead with amusement and pity. And for those of you who may be literary agents that nose around, forge ahead with sublime interest and a deep desire to read whatever it is I have to write. That is the point right? Pique your interest and hope I catch you on a good day. In some cases it is the hope of getting your assistant on a good day. I wish I knew what the assistants wanted to read… can someone blog about that please? Anyway….

I finished my first novel in December. I am almost through with my second. That was fast, right? Yeah, well it was written fast because getting attention for the first one may just kill me. The only way I know how to deal with the waiting/rejection process I have come to know and love (like a hair shirt), is to keep on writing. I wrote what I thought were the last words of my novel Haunting Anne on my birthday, December 23. I was awash with enthusiasm and confidence that with my dream fulfilled I would be a huge success. Or at least successful, or maybe brush up against success, or see it from across a room even? Hmmmm. I had so much to learn.

What I didn’t know still amazes me. I didn’t know you had to find a literary agent. I didn’t know you couldn’t just send your manuscript in a brown paper package and wait for a publisher to reject or publish your work. The business doesn’t run that way anymore. The big houses require an agent submit your work, the indie houses are great, but they are very picky about what they represent, so if your genre is all over the place, as is mine, you are screwed. And the really priceless part is that many of the great literary agents don’t accept what they call “unsolicited queries” either. Huh? Shut UP.

So I did what any good American would do. I asked everyone I know if they had an “in.” And one did! Yeah! I was saved. But I did the unthinkable. I happily sent agent number 1 the wrong draft of my manuscript. Damn my disorganization, damn email, damn hitting send.

Agent number 1 was really nice to me. She told me my writing was “strong” which I know now is agent speak for “please don’t kill yourself. I can’t have your blood on my hands…” because that term “your writing is strong” pops up in almost every form rejection that comes my way.

I didn’t even know what a query letter was. I found out. And then I did unthinkable thing number two. I queried widely, to the most open and friendly of agents. To the agents who would really like my book. But I didn’t research how to write a query letter first. Yes, I know. You don’t have to say it. I am still shaking my head. I filled those queries with boastful, typo’d comments and sent them out with names spelled wrong and with a vain, puffy bio. No joke. Some were nice enough to send out the automated rejections. Some weren’t and I don’t blame them.

I then wrote the good one. Really good! In fact I got a lot of response to my “good query letter.” And the requests for partials flooded my inbox. That’s the process, for those who don’t know it. You send the query and if the agent likes it they ask for a partial, if the agent likes that, they ask for the full, if the agent likes that you get an agent! Which still doesn’t mean you get your book published, because after all that work, the agent has to do the same thing you just did with the actual publishing houses. Crazy right? Yep.

So I send those partials out and I proceed to do unthinkable thing number three. I know… high drama. Agents don’t seem to like prologues. My manuscript started with one of those. Agents don’t seem to like back story, my manuscript is full of it. (But I like a good back story, doesn’t anyone want any description anymore? Sheesh.) And let’s not even touch the typo issue. One of the reasons I am writing this very blog is for editing practice. Needless to say as soon as I sent them out, the rejections on the partials began to pour right back in. Yuck. Oh sad and sorry day.

So I rewrote the beginning, paid someone to edit the beast, and started again. Eureka! I have some interest. No contract, but some interest. Meanwhile, I started feverishly writing novel number 2 to keep my mind steady. Only to find out this is exactly what all decent agents and publishers tell you to do. Really, when will I learn to read advice first instead of after I figure it out the hard way? The basic idea is finish the first novel, really finish it, so that it can be read and understood. Query widely, and write number 2 while you wait. If you have no luck with novel number 1 by the time you are ready to query novel number 2, it is time to put that first baby down. No joke no crying, no whining, just do it. I am not there yet. Not even almost. Well maybe almost…this stuff is hard.

So here is my take on the whole adventure. I am a really lucky person. I have found what I love to do. This is rare. I can finish a book. That is rare. I learned the process the hard way… I don’t think that is rare… maybe? I would like to think I am not the stupidest first time novelist on the face of the planet, but I guess I could be. Absolutely anything is possible.

I thought I would sum up this entry with the actual query letter I send out, followed by my two favorite rejections so far, and then end with the pitch I wish could send. The dream pitch. Okay, here goes:

Actual query letter for Haunting Anne

“Dear Agent’s name spelled right,

Anne is not your average girl. Imagine a deeply flawed, borderline sociopathic, Anne of Green Gables. For one thing, she sees ghosts, two of them to be exact, who live with her, and raise her like a good family should. For another, she is not fond of actual humans and this distaste for her own kind leads her to do some very, very bad things. <em>Haunting Anne</em> follows the life and adventures of a new kind of “young, creative, protagonist,” at the same time as it chronicles the tragic family history that precedes her, chases her, and ultimately defines her. Think Alice Hoffman and Stephen King sit down and rewrite “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

In my novel Haunting Anne a dark, unstable girl, finds herself on a unique (and sometimes dreadfully funny) journey from her industrial, east coast, urban playground to the Deep South where she confronts a father who abandoned her in order to get rid of ghosts who she cannot afford to lose. The 82,000 words of my strange, sad, character driven novel, weave history, crime, mystery, and psychological intrigue into a fast paced story that is, in the end, a simple tale of a girl who needs to find her way home.

(This is where I insert what I have researched about each agent and why I believe they should read my novel… and I really do the research. I learned that you NEED TO DO THE RESEARCH.)

About me:

I am a Sociologist by profession and degree. I teach Social Behavior and Social Interaction as well as many courses in Deviance at the university level. My background made it possible for me to create multi-leveled characters that are believably capable of many horrible and wonderful things. I live in New Haven Ct. with my husband and my three daughters. I am 38 years old and this will be my first published novel.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration,

Sincerely,

Suzanne (contact info here)

Okay: Now come my Favorite Rejections:

“This is brilliantly written. A really sharp, vivid portrait. Unfortunately, this isn’t something we could represent ourselves. I wish you good luck elsewhere.” This one made me very, very happy until I searched some writer’s forums and found out this person is usually very nice.

And then there was this one. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants. It made me want to query him again with the next one. It made me want to sit with him and drink a beer. I am not kidding:

“‘I am 38 years old and this will be my first published novel.’ I can hear Annette Benning’s American Beauty character saying that.” My friend Sarah thought it was mean, but I think he was right. I can see Benning in that scene in the car, you remember…”I will sell this house.”

Now I want to put down in writing the pitch that I want to send. It has nothing whatsoever to do with a book. The Dream Pitch:

“Dear glorious agent whose picture is so lovely on your website,

I write. I write fast. I can write whatever you are looking for. I can write 10,000 words a day if I have a good idea and I am not interrupted. I am also not bad looking, which I know is important because I am a sociologist and we do studies on that kind of stuff. This means I could sell books. My jacket flap would be nice.

I play well with others. I will tear apart anything I think is brilliant if you say it will be better. I have a huge ego when it comes to the color of my eyes, but not when it comes to my writing. I believe authors need to work at what they do. I am willing to do the work.

Take me on, believe in me, if nothing else I could amuse you for the term of our contract.

Thanks,

Suzanne”

Pandering? Yes? Prostitution? No… not yet anyway. Kissing ass? Of course. But that is the truth. Honesty can be so base and ugly. But I wish we could all be a little more honest.

Suzanne M. Palmieri

Suzanne is a Sociologist by profession and degree. She teachs Social Behavior and Social Interaction as well as many courses in Deviance at the university level.

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Go with your gut. Always. Never question it.

This is what I’ve learned. A hard lesson that took about a month to make its way through my thick skull.

Being a first time novelist, I believed that everyone had something to teach me. I was willing to take advice from anyone who offered, and run with it.

Run, I did. New York marathon entrants had some tough competition at the time.

Thankfully, this writer became tired. And frustrated. My book was a mere shadow of what it once was. Granted, it needed work in the beginning (and let’s face it, it’s still kind of the beginning-and still needs work). But, I took helpful, friendly advice entirely too far. Advice that didn’t even always make sense to me.

Alexis’ story became a farce of sorts. A movie, even. Someone recommended I approach my novel as such. What?!??!  That was one piece of advice I didn’t take, yet it ended up happening. Everything I loved about Alexis, and my other characters, was trashed simply to make The Abandoned Edge of Avalon more ‘commercial.’ More agent ready. More publishable. Right….

After about ten revisions, my book was practically all action and dialogue-with no depth. Yes, a good hook at the start is obviously important. Questions that force the reader to continue should be presented as soon as possible. The story should start where it starts-not twenty, fifty, nor even five pages in. Well, I took that to an extreme.

A pivotal scene that once occurred a few chapters in, I pushed forward to the third paragraph. Yes, the third paragraph. Where is a reader to go if everything is answered and put on the page right away? To a different book-that’s where. Not a good thing. That scene is now back where it belongs.

I have found that if I don’t believe in my own work, no one is going to.

I read an excerpt from a book recently that helped me ‘snap to.’

Writers write for the readers, correct? We don’t write for the editors, agents, nor the publishers. The readers are the ones who will ultimately buy our books. If a person is not a reader in the first place, don’t force them to be. Write for people who are apt to pick up a book. Do not go for shock factor just to gain readership.

Write for the words, the style, the feel, atmosphere, along with many other reasons. Mostly, write for yourself, and the reader will know your heart and soul.

I admit I sold out for a short while, and I’m rather ashamed. I lost myself by listening too much to others. But, I’m back on track and my book pleases me again. It seems to be pleasing my readers, as well. And that’s what all of this is about.

Please, learn from my mistakes, and set yourself free with your words and ideas!

Eden Tyler

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Spilling all the beans?  When to start talking about your WIP

I don’t know about you, but I have killed many a plot line by talking.  I don’t know what happens, or why, but I seem to lose the will to write it down after I have told the story.  For me, the story has to unfold on the page; it has to come out like it is something I haven’t heard before.  As if the story is being told and I am not the writer, but the listener.

So… if I spill the beans about an exciting new idea I have for a novel, I don’t end up writing it down.  Instead, it just comes out of my mouth and spills onto the floor and gets mopped up, absorbed back into the universe.  So I have learned a quiet patience about my work.

The first novel was an outright secret.  I didn’t tell anyone on purpose.  I didn’t even want to tell myself.  It was a surprise.  That was a good thing.  I never really did understand why it took me all these years to write a good story.  I was always the storyteller.  At sleepover parties when I was a little girl I could scare people right into calling their moms to pick them up.  As I grew older and told stories to colleagues in my academic circles they would inevitably say “You should write that down!” But I simply could not do it.  I couldn’t do it until it was a secret.

And after that I had SO many ideas!  Book ideas were everywhere I looked.  The old man in the grocery store became an aged, un-captured, sociopath who follows a mass murderer around and everyone thinks he is going to be a hero, but all he really wants is one last kill.  And then there was the story about the woman who was in a car crash and the Mexican man who mowed her condo complex lawn comes to her as she is dying in her car, only he is a ghost type of figure who leads her through her past and present and possible future (you know, a take of on Dickens, with a whiff of Stephen King) and let us not forget the story of Meg, the literary agent who needs to return to her small sea side city to help unravel the mystery of her sister’s death twenty years before.  All of these were well mapped out, plotted, stories.  They could have been decent books…. But I wrecked them!  I sat in my kitchen and told them out loud to any one who would listen to me.  And in doing so, made myself so bored when I sat down to write them, that they wouldn’t come out. Used up … washed up… already told stories.  Humph.

But we do, as writers, have to share…do we not?  It is important, especially with a WIP (work in progress for all of you out there new to the biz) to get a good, solid critique.  So what do we do about this?

I figured it out… at least for myself.  I have to keep quiet about the book and write.  I have to get the story out on paper.  The whole story.  The beginning the middle and the end.  And I have to map out the chapters in between.  For me, this means about 20k words.  It is then that I can safely begin to discuss my project without losing interest.  See, at this point it is already done.  The rest of it is an assignment.  For example in my current WIP The Junk Garden, I knew there had to be this crazy showdown in a motel parking lot.  I knew why it had to happen, and I knew the gist of it.  I knew what came before and what was to come after.  So even though it simply stated SHOWDOWN AT

THE STARDUST MOTEL, I could safely talk about the book knowing that I had to write that chapter soon.   (I just did, by the way, and I am really happy with it.)

How about you?  Do you ever ruin a story for yourself by spilling the beans too soon?  Or is it better for you to talk the whole thing out before you write?

Suzanne M. Palmieri

Suzanne is a Sociologist by profession and degree. She teaches Social Behavior and Social Interaction as well as many courses in Deviance at the university level.

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Top 5 Benefits of Working Out for Writers

MarcilLall video

You probably already know that working out has great benefits. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old; the positive effects of working out are the same for everyone. There are different ways of working out including running, walking, cycling, weight lifting, dancing, and aerobics. How often you workout affects how good your health is. Did you know that exercising on a daily basis can actually save your life and prevent potential deadly illness like diabetes and heart disease? It limits your chances of becoming obese and provides a natural high that no other drug can match – seriously! Working out is an essential part of life, and we all need to participate.

Here are some specific positive effects that you’ll get when working out:

1. It gets your blood flowing. When your blood flow is increased, it raises the amount of oxygen to the brain. This is what helps you to think clearer and easier. Increased blood flow also promotes the release of endorphins and natural painkillers, making you naturally feel good all over. Once your blood flows better throughout your body, it decreases your chance for heart attacks and helps you lose weight a lot easier by increasing your metabolism.

2. Working out increases the creative and natural thought processes. When you participate in any form of physical exercise, it naturally boosts your mood. This in turn creates a happier sense of being and causes your creative and natural thought processes to flow more freely and easily. It has been said that persons of a more creative nature will oftentimes use body movements to overcome “blocks”. This therefore relates exercise to be very effective in creative thinking because of the movements it involves.

3. Working out helps to improve your mood. When you exercise, your brain releases certain hormones such has serotonin (in women) and testosterone (in men), which have been proven to elevate mood. There have also been studies that have shown a very strong link to diseases such as depression and anxiety disorders to a lack of exercise.

4. Exercise reduces muscle tension and stiffness. People oftentimes believe that too much physical activity is what causes them to be stiff or sore. This is not always the case. Not enough exercise and general movement can cause one’s body to develop stiffness, soreness, cramps, and tension. Exercise is one of the body’s natural ways of releasing built up tension and stress. When done on a regular basis, working out can relieve and help prevent knots and tension that have been built up from stress, prolonged sitting, and prolonged standing.

5. Working out on a regular basis can provide you with a mental break. Say for instance, you are the type who finds yourself getting stressed way too easily. By walking, running, or lifting weights, you can find ways to eliminate those negative energies. Or, for example, you might have an anger problem. Getting a punching bag or taking karate classes are both great outlets for this type of negative emotion. Even if you just need a place to escape to, walking alone on the track or working out a gym can provide you with a wonderful coping mechanism and peace of mind that you will find no place else.

As you can see, the benefits of working out really are worth the short amount of time and energy that you have to put in.  Especially if you would like t see your writing and focus improve.  Thousands of scientists, doctors, and manufacturers have tried to create medicines that match up to the natural feelings of happiness, peace, and serenity that we experience from exercise. Still, there is no exact match that’s identical to the long-term benefits that working out provides. Doctors are steadily prescribing exercise to patients for better, healthier, and happier lives. Who can blame them? Exercise is the overall treatment for a better well-being and for your writing.

Marci Lall

Our guest blogger is a personal trainer in Toronto who focuses on helping women lose weight and sculpt their bodies.

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