This Week is…Book Review Week

I’ve read a couple of books in the past few weeks and I plan to make this book review week and post 4 reviews. There’s a memoir, a ‘popular’ mainstream book that has been made into a movie, a romance/mystery and hmmmm…what was that third books again?

Stay tuned!

P.S. If you’ve read something good lately, or have a book coming out soon, feel free to mention it in the comments section. I’m down with shameless self-promotion as well as the promotion of friends.

Writing Tips From Literary Consultant, Jeffrey Moores

Last Wednesday night Jeffrey Moores, former literary agent and current literary consultant, critiqued AgentQuery Connect members’ passages from their manuscripts over in the AQ chat room. He dispensed a ton of advice and tips, and 17 of those sweet writing tidbits I will share here.

1. If you can, skip using ‘first’ and ‘then’ to introduce action. It’s filler. Example: First she stood up, then she whirled around.

2. Instead of using two or three descriptor words, find one ‘good’ word that encompasses it all. His example: Instead of “sudden dead stop”, try “jerked to a stop”.

3. On adverbs (those words that end with ‘ly’): “Adverbs are usually weaker constructions that you could replace with more active verbs.” My example: He quickly ran to the store. He bolted to the store.

4. Use your verb choice to show your character. As Jeff asked, “how would grandma move across the room?” Wheel? Shuffle? Jeffrey added: “These are what I call “COMPOUND DETAILS”; those which show us an aspect of character development or theme or scene, while moving us forward at the same time.”

5. Don’t stuff a lot of details into one sentence. Do you have details you want to highlight for the reader? Focus on one per sentence and relate them to a theme or the character’s mood, etc. Justify why you are focusing on that detail. Save your details for the right moment.

6. When creating a scene, be careful how many images you throw at your reader. Allow time for them to sink in. Start with what is most pressing/important or sets the scene the best. What detail do you want to be the strongest? Give it the attention.

7. Delving into a character’s history needs to be warranted. There needs to be a reason for breaking the action in order to give some history.

8. When using words from another language or technical words that your reader may not know, add contextual clues so the reader can guess the exact meaning. Either that or use a narrator to explain what it is.

9. Hook your reader by putting the action first, then once you have them seeing a scene and wondering how your character ended up in this situation, move into telling, background, etc. to fill in the facts they need to know.

10. On other kinds of action… Actions causes reaction. Start by showing the action that propels the character and then move into the reaction. Show us what they see, then show us how they react. If something makes the main character yelp, show why they are yelping before they yelp.

11. Want to up the action? Speed things up? (Say you have a murder scene or a fight scene where you want to bring your reader to the edge of their seat and things to be happening one right after another.) Skip the ‘and’s linking those actions together. For example, instead of setting it up so this happened then that and this and this. Go for the jugular. This happened. That. This. That.

12. Early on, decide what your character’s level of smarts will be and what kind of things they will notice and in how much detail. Word choice and detail awareness create a character. For example, do they see erratic zigzags or 1 inch slices at regular intervals? Base the reaction and detail awareness on the character who is noticing the details.

13. Read aloud to hear the rhythms of you word choices, sentence lengths, etc. Anywhere you run out of breath or stumble, the reader will as well.

14. ‘Show’ when you can. Don’t tell the reader he was shocked or the mutilation was savage. Give us the details, let us draw the conclusion that this character is shocked and this is a savage mutilation.

15. Ensure your comparisons are equal. Don’t compare a cut to the bone to a papercut.

16. If you are using both second and third person point of view in your novel, break them apart so they are in different ‘scenes’.

17. You can start your novel with dialogue, just ensure that it isn’t between too many people and the scene and setting is immediately recognizable so you don’t lose your reader.

Chat and Critique with Literary Consultant, Jeffrey Moores Tonight

Hear ye, hear ye…

We are going to make you the best darned writer this side of the Mississippi tonight. Yes, that’s right, we’ve got Jeffrey Moores (former literary agent and current literary consultant) coming to chat with us on Agent Query tonight. Not only has he agreed to spend an hour and a half with us, he has 8 passages from our charming, intelligent and good looking AQ members. He will not only juggle these flaming passages, but he will catch them in his teeth, while dazzling us with his jokes.

As we enjoy our second cup of coffee/tea/gin of the morning, he is slaving over these 8 passages. He is editing, critiquing, and writing down comments to share with us tonight. He WILL make us sparkle and shine, folks.

So, what do you have to do to have this knowledge siphoned into your juicy brain? Join us! 8pm Eastern in the AQ chat room. This is the link. Click on it. At 8pm, hit ‘join’. You may have to refresh your browser if you get there before it is open. (You also need to be a member, but that is free and only takes 30 seconds.)

Here’s the plan:

I (the moderator) will introduce Jeff and go over the chat rules, etc. I will then paste one of the eight passages into the chat, followed by Jeff’s edits, comments, etc. Then there will be a chance for comments, questions, etc.. Jeff is willing to answer specific questions in regards to that piece and his comments/edits. Then, we’ll move on to the next passage. At the end of the chat, Jeff will have a general question and answer session. This is where members can ask general questions or specific-to-them questions that don’t have to do with the critiquing of the submitted passages.

Jeff is being very generous with his time and we are very lucky to have him helping us out, giving us that inner sanctum eye and showing us what kind of edits can make our work sing.

See you there!

Please note: Only the pre-selected 8 passages will be critiqued and commented upon during this chat. If you were not selected and would like feedback on your work, please contact Jeff at www.jeffreymoores.com to set up an appointment.

Advice From Literary Agent Sara Megibow

For those of you who missed the chat with Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency last Thursday, I’ve got some of the highlights here. However, if you want it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, you can check out the transcripts here. (You must be an Agent Query member to view them. The good news is, it is free.)

A few highlights:

#1: Having troubles figuring out the genre of your story? Check out the bookstore. Figure out where it would be placed in the store and voila! As well, if your story’s most important aspect and focus is on the romance/relationship between the hero and heroine, it is likely a romance. If you aren’t sure between two genres, say urban fantasy and romance or romance and mystery…read a few books in each genre and see which yours leans towards.

#2: Did you know that some agents, when they get sample pages that they like, they go to Google to check you out? They look for a positive web presence. So don’t go bashing agents, the publishing word or discusses how hard writing is, etc. Make it professional, folks!

#3: Here are a few genres/ideas that are flying over Sara’s desk like mosquitoes in a swamp and may or may not be overdone: vampires, divorced women opening B & Bs, war survivor stories, YA where the hero speaks to the dead or has secret world-saving powers they didn’t know they had and of course, have to save the world. Now, just because these story ideas are common at the moment, it doesn’t mean she’s going to shred your query if your story is based on the above. See #4.

#4: The art of writing is very important. It is more important than the POV (character point of view the story is written from), topic, or even how fresh the story idea happens to be. Fresh, good, strong writing wins. I.e. copycat story ideas can work if the writing is fresh. Although a fresh story idea is always compelling, but it needs good writing to back it up.

#5: Don’t start your novel with one big flashback. Start where the story starts.

#6: If you have quotes in your story, you don’t need the rights to use that quote in a published work at the time of querying–the publishing house will acquire them when the time comes.

#7: Some argue that saying ‘completed’ and giving a word count is redundant when querying. However, if you are querying Sara, do say, “My completed novel X, Y and Z is 100,000 words.” She likes that. Her perfect query would start something like so: “I have a completed 100,000 word romance novel set in regency England.” And then add the pitch paragraph…etc.

For more information on Sara and the agency she works for, be sure to check out the agency website–especially if you are querying.

We Need Volunteers For Writing Critique!

Spread the word! There is another chat coming up right away over on Agent Query. Wednesday night we’ve got Jeffrey Moores, former literary agent and now literary consultant coming to chat and critique. He’s already given me some great writing tips, just discussing what we’re going to chat about! Holy smokes! You don’t want to miss this one.

If you are a writer and you would like to throw a couple of paragraphs in the hat for a critique, please log on to Agent Query’s online community and put your name in the hat. It’s all 100% free.

Here is the lowdown, straight from AQ:

You need to bring your armored writers skin for this. On the bright side, despite the slings and arrows, you may receive advice that brings you to the next level, or at least helps you see the window you need to climb through to reach the next level.

What’s going to happen is this: AQ members who have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, are going to throw their name in the hat, here in this thread. I’m going to randomly draw 10 names tonight around 9 PM Eastern. Within 24 hours, those 10 people will provide about 100 words from one of their manuscripts (completed or in progress) and I will pass it on to Jeff. Jeff will then take a look over the work he gets and make notes, critique or possibly edit the short bit. During the Wednesday night chat, I will paste the original as well as Jeff’s comments/what have you all into the chat room so everyone in the chat can see it. Then Jeff will open the critique up for discussion. In other words, anyone in the chat can comment or ask questions.

By tossing your name in the hat, you are agreeing to have your work sliced and diced as well as commented upon. You are putting yourself out there and willing to face what may roll down the pipe. You don’t have to agree with the comments, but a professional attitude is always appreciated. You are also agreeing to have this piece available as part of the online chat transcripts for any AQ members to see, now or in the future.

What we are looking for are approx. 100 words in the following areas:

Narration: A place in your story where you (the author) are telling us what is happening in the story. This can also be a place in the story where the POV character is reiterating for the reader. For example it could be something like: They ran through the thicket, the sound of heavy footsteps gaining on them. Damp branches swiped at their raw skin. Blah, blah, blah.

Description: A character description, or a place description.

Random: A paragraph or two where you want thoughts from an expert. It can be something that doesn’t feel quite right to you, you have been debating with your critique partners, or even a paragraph you feel is so beautiful, it could make the Dali Lama weep.

* We are NOT looking for dialogue at this time. The goal of this chat is to help writers improve the way they tell their story. They way they set a scene, tell the read what is going on, etc. Dialogue is a whole other ballgame.

Please note that due to time constraints in the chat, there is a possibility that even if your name is chosen and work submitted, it may not be included in the chat.

If you have a paragraph or two that you would like to toss in the hat, please post your name in this thread. If you want to paste your piece here, now, in case your name is drawn, that is fine too.

Best of luck everyone! And a thanks in advance to any volunteers. I’m sure this will be a most-excellent learning adventure for all.