NEED A SECOND OPINION?

A couple of months ago I had one of those wretched nights when you know something unpleasant is going on in your body. Although I was very feverish and thought I must just have one of the vicious viruses going around, I needed a ‘second opinion’ from my doctor. I will always be very thankful for that decision. Within a few minutes she had rung the ambulance, inserted an intravenous drip and given me a shot of morphia to ‘tide me over’, as she put it, for the fifty minute trip to the hospital. One not-so-small kidney stone had caused a blockage which had caused an abscess which had caused my whole system to be poisoned.

Have you ever thought of authors needing a ‘second opinion’ on their manuscripts before they are submitted to an editor or agent for that most important decision? Some writing their very first novel may need a third, fourth – even fifth opinion. So who can writers consult for those opinions?

I was very fortunate to have a very knowledgeable doctor who immediately realised the gravity of my situation and acted accordingly. But I certainly needed those folk at the hospital who did those vital tests needed for the ‘third opinion’ hospital doctor to ask the specialist, the urologist, to give the fourth opinion and order the correct treatment he had been trained to give.

And what about the people who have been asked for opinions on another writer’s sweated over efforts to present the story they have taken a long time to finish. How should they respond?

My doctor knew I was very sick – which incidentally I did not know at the time – and acted appropriately to help me. I am so glad she had been well trained to know what needed to be done. So writers need to be careful who they ask to read their manuscripts. Family members and good friends may be okay for that ‘first opinion’ but not be the best qualified readers for the second. They can say whether they enjoyed your story or not, but because of your close relationship may not wish to hurt you if they do not think it is a good story. Some may also be too hesitant to point out problems in your fiction writing technique. I also hasten to add that it may not be wise to ask some friends with writing experience to read your efforts, especially if they are not readers or writers of your particular type of genre. I have also discovered that writers only of non-fiction – yes, and even editors too of non-fiction – are not always the right folk to ask to check your fiction manuscript.

And there is another problem for those of us who know other published authors in our genre whose books we like and would like to pluck up courage to ask. Most are so busy they rarely have time to read whole manuscripts sent to them – especially by beginner writers. Over the years there have been published authors who have started their own businesses as manuscript assessors. There usually is a charge of course because these writers are using their own writing time to try and help others.

One such author I know of is Jeanne Marie Leach.

She has her charges listed on her website. For example, she offers what I think is a very fare first offer:

No charge for basic read of first 5 pages – which determines extent of editing necessary.

Do click here and check out her website.

Omega Writers in Australia has one free manuscript appraisal up to 50 pages each year as part of their help for their members. Other writers groups and organisations also offer help in various ways. It is VERY worthwhile being a member of a good writiers organisation.

There are thousands of folk writing novels, including Christian Fiction. Being just a reader who wants to become an author is not enough these days –perhaps it never was? The competition to get our books out there to readers is fiercer than ever today. To have any chance to be successful in having readers be so blessed that they rave about our novels, we have to seek to achieve the highest standard we can. Attending workshops for writers, studying “how to...” books are essential for anyone who wants to write a novel.

Whatever you do, please recognise that especially if you have had little training for writing a novel of any genre, you most likely need at least a ‘second opinion’ to make it the best you possibly can before trying to find a publisher – or also self-publish of course.

I have tried to help other writers over the years but like many other published authors, there have been too many times I hate to have had to say, ‘Sorry, I am afraid my own commitments right now schedule right now does not give me enough time to do your manuscript justice.’

Please leave a comment about any other authors you know of, and especially any you have had personal experience with, who currently can offer help with fiction manuscripts.

Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author.
Over the years she has enjoyed mentoring writers and trying to share what she has been learning about writing novels. She has enjoyed many speaking appointments and has presented workshops at various writer's groups, including Romance Writers of Australia and in recent years at the Word Writers events in Queensland sponsored by Omega Writers and Wombat Books. She lives in Tasmania with her husband Ray, who is also a published author of the 31 Day Devotional books and a contributor to the ICFW Friday Devotions. She is currently trying hard to get back into completing her 18th manuscript as she continues to recover from septicaemia. Mary's novel, Return to Baragula, is the first book featured on the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance http://acrba.blogspot.com.au ncing in November.

WRITERS, BEWARE THOSE RULES

Over the years I have heard many discussions and read many comments on blogs and emails about “rules” for writing fiction. I have also known discussions about submission guidelines to publishers and agents. Very rarely have I heard discussions about Entry Rules for writers’ contests. I for one have rather taken for granted that these rules are read and followed carefully. The last few weeks I have seen for myself, and been considerably surprised, the number of writers who either do not read and digest contest rules, or seem to think they can somehow get away with breaking them.

My local writers’ group has just sponsored a short story contest. As my postal address was used to receive the entries, I quickly checked each one to make sure the entry form was filled in correctly, the fee paid, the story complied with the word length and the name of the author was not on the manuscript. These and others requirements were all clearly stated in the contest rules.

There have been numerous times over the years I have been one of the judges for various writing contests. Those manuscripts I received had already been through the hands of coordinators. Any entries that had not obeyed the contest rules had already been disqualified so I never did see any of those. However, I have heard far too many stories of why entries have had to be disqualified. If the rule says to send only the first fifty pages of a novel in a certain size and type of font, it means exactly that. A one-page synopsis means exactly one page. Some do not understand that a synopsis is far more than a back cover blurb.

A few days ago those of us on our short story contest committee met. We were to commence reading entries to start the process of selecting the best ten to forward to the final judge. I had to report and show that several entries were well under the word limit. We briefly discussed whether they should be disqualified. Judges find it difficult enough to choose winners from stories that vary in length from 1500 to 2000 words. Despite the fact some of those entries may have been excellent short stories, in fairness to all the other entrants sadly we agreed they had to be disqualified.

This made me understand even more why some manuscripts are rejected by editors and agents. Some writers simply do not study the “Rules” stated as “submission guidelines” or if they do, hope “just this once” it would be over-looked.

For example, if a submission guideline for a particular line or genre book has a word limit, what must an editor think when the manuscript is many hundreds of words over or under it? If an agent or editor states they do not accept a particular type of book, e.g. poetry, children, romance, I wonder how many writers think they may be the “exception” to that request – or “rule”? I cannot help but wonder if this is at least one reason so many publishers these days state they will only accept submissions through an agent who can "disqualify" a manuscript. Of course, each agent must also know a publisher’s submission guidelines, what kind of books the publisher specifically states has no interest in even considering.

And briefly back to those other “Rules” I mentioned before. We do all know there are indeed basic rules of grammar, punctuation, spelling (although these even vary between different countries!). Unfortunately at times some try to make suggestions how to make manuscripts stronger a rule for all fiction. It is generally agreed that we must know “the rules” to know just how to be able to break them when necessary to try and make our stories shine. Certainly very experienced, multi-published authors may be able to break some “rules” successfully but I would issue a warning to beginner writers here.

I thoroughly agree with Brandilyn Collins who simply declares, “Story rules!” And her stories do certainly shine!

However, those kind of “rules” are more about the technique of story-telling. They do not apply to entry requirements, guidelines, rules for writers’ contests.

Do read and digest those entry rules – and follow them the very best you can! You never know, you might be a winner!

Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author.

A Queensland farmer’s daughter, she became a registered nurse before going to Bible College. She and her minister husband have three adult children and five grandchildren, enjoyed over 47 years of ministry including church planting in Australia, two years in England, three short term mission trips to Africa and now live in Tasmania, Australia's island state. Her 19th title, Justice at Baragula was released May, 2011 and was a CALEB fiction finalist in 2011. To read more about this Australian author click here 

She is also on Facebook as MaryHawkinsAustralianAuthor.

BREAKING THROUGH THE WALLS - TO WRITE

Today Ray and I went with our adult children here for Christmas holidays from the Australian mainland to see the movie, Tin-Tin. It was a most enjoyable family film. Our children began reading Tin-Tin when they were quite young and have a number of those comics still on their shelves. In a couple of scenes the comment was made, “when you come to a wall, you’ve got to break through it!”

For this writer, those words accompanied me home in the car. Having this blog to write made the statement even more relevant. Why? Because over the last couple of weeks a number of invisible yet very real walls have appeared across my pathway to writing my next book! Breaking through them has required more than one type of “hammer.”

There has been the Wall of Sickness and now whooping cough which has infected our grand-children. We have six youngsters under ten years. The youngest is 10 weeks. By the grace of God and wise management by parents she has so far escaped its ravages. Prayer is sustaining the family as sleep has been in short supply. Christmas Day this year was certainly “different.” We did join them all in the open air for far too brief a time to give and receive gifts but no hugs, no kisses! I am a “hugger” so that was particularly difficult!

Over the years, the Wall of Distraction has often come to taunt me day in and day out. Before long my writing schedule is derailed and I become frustrated, even despondent. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who prods me along. So many times he not only helps with tasks that should be my responsibility, but picks up the “axe” of priorities and helps me break through. I have to remember to let some things in the house and garden remain untidy, to delegate some responsibilities and try harder to ignore others. Having dealt with those levels of self-discipline, I still have to put seat on this chair, read back over some of what I’ve already written until I’ve crept back into the heads and hearts of the characters in my latest story.

At last! Fingers poise for a moment over the keyboard. A deep breathe, and off they go trying to keep up with those characters’ fears and problems, tears and triumphs. I am writing again at last!

None of this is easy. My having a perfectionist nature makes that very evident and something about myself I’ve had to come to grips with many times over the years. God sure knew how much I needed the help of a sympathetic “close enough is wonderful” husband to get me back on track to crash through that “Wall”.

Unfortunately, as in that Tin Tin story today, there are too many times series of Walls to break through when actually working on a manuscript.

Sometimes plots and characters just won’t “behave” as I thought they would or should in certain situations. This is the Wall of Disappointment when things don’t work out in the story. The encouragement of fellow writers through face to face contact at meetings, conferences, reading other writer’s blogs, tips on many aspects of writing help tear the walls down plank by plank or even brick by brick.

The Wall of Aging becomes an excuse as I find it takes more and more time to assemble fresh and stimulating words and plots. I can’t do much about the years but accepting a slower work rate allows for escape holes to appear in the barrier between me and my final edit.

There are all kinds of Walls of course that can slow or even stall the writing process. But my final one I’d like to mention here is the Wall of Criticism, especially from family and close friends. This is a hurtful barrier which I can only really conquer with the sense of conviction I’m doing what is pleasing to the Lord. I may not be a “World Winner”, but God will use what I’ve framed and had accepted by editors and publishers to be a blessing to someone somewhere.

Essentially, this is the best “Wall Breaker” I know. Nothing you do for the Lord, with the Lord and according to the Lord’s purposes will ever be contained by the “Walls” of the world, the Flesh or the Darkness. In fact, when all is said and done it has only been because HE is the one who has been my strength to break through the walls that would stop me writing – and being – what HE wants me to do and be.

What about your world – whether it is also that of the writer or some other tasks?

What kind of Walls do you discover may block the road you know you should be faithfully travelling on?



Ray and Mary with 2011
CALEB Award certificates.

 Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author. A Queensland farmer’s daughter, she became a registered nurse before going to Bible College. She and her minister husband have three adult children and five grandchildren, enjoyed over 46 years of ministry including church planting in Australia, two years in England, three short term mission trips to Africa and now live in Tasmania, Australia's island state. Her 19th title, Justice at Baragula was released May, 2011
Read more about her books, her husband Ray and his devotional books on their blog from the website: http://www.mary-hawkins.com/

Just Do It!

I am often asked how I began my writing journey towards being a published author, as though armed with that knowledge, the supplicant could simply replicate the process and accomplish the same. Like everything else about my life, I cannot really recommend my own path as typical. The truth is, I wrote my first book out of sheer boredom.

My husband and I were the only expatriates at the time in a southern Bolivia city, working with a Christian ministry organization. While my husband traveled the Andes mountains two weeks at a time, I was stuck at home with three preschoolers, no car, no TV, no radio. Once my preschoolers were in bed, I had only the handful of English-language books I’d read dozens of times. I finally decided if I had nothing to read, I’d write a book instead. Stories scribbled while my babies slept became Kathy and the Redhead, a children’s novel based on my growing-up adventures at a missionary kids boarding school.

Like most writers, you will find the path to writing success a very individual journey. But there are a few strategies that can help maximize those possibilities:

1. Just do it!

I couldn’t say how many people over the years have confided in me their ambition to write a book. Many have carried a particular book idea around for years. They don’t want to share that idea because someone might steal it. I'm often asked if they should copyright it. [NEWSFLASH: Ideas are not copyrightable! If you’ve had one, be sure someone else has had the same]. Invariably, these idea-hoarders are bursting to let me in on their secret--so long as I promise not to steal it. Be sure once I’ve heard it, I’ve yet to be tempted!

The only way to write a book, an article, a short story, a poem . . . is to stop talking, sit down, and do it!

Which brings me to the second strategy.

2. Discipline--be persistent!

How does one sit down and write that book? By writing the first page, then the second and on to the third until the book is finished. Plenty of people start books. Too few finish them. The persistence to keep on going, no matter how far away that finished goal seems, day after day, page after page, is what makes a writer, not a great book idea.

Having written now fourteen novels, three of approximately 250,000 words, I’ve learned not to even think of how much remains of the project—it is too discouraging to look 18 months down the road—but just of the next scene, the next chapter. As I discipline myself to do this day after day after day, fourteen times now I’ve had the pleasure of suddenly realizing that I’ve written the last paragraph and can scribble ‘The End’ at the bottom of the page.

The difference between the successful writer and the drop-out is not their talent, but their persistence.

3. Write what you know.

A protagonist peeling off a parka in the middle of the Amazon. An experienced archeological team in the Peruvian Andes leaving an Inca find-of-the century unguarded to go eat supper (and then displaying horror that their find is stolen!). A Colombian drug lord choosing a backwoods English village for an operating base (because the author is from that village, making it easy to describe), instead of Miami, Rio, or anywhere with a swinging night life. All these tell me that the writer whose manuscript I’m reading hasn’t the smallest personal knowledge of the settings they’ve chosen to write about.

Your writing can only breathe reality and authenticity if you know what you’re writing about.

4. Don’t stop there . . . always pursue new knowledge.

On the other hand, what's the fun in limiting settings and plot lines to one's own personal experience! I’ve kicked around some of the planet's wilder settings, which is a wonderful advantage as a suspense novelist, if not so comfortable in real life. But I also research thoroughly enough to put the pieces of what I dig up together with what I already know on the ground and extrapolate--well, let's just say, intel some government agencies figure I shouldn’t know!

I never stop learning. Everything I hear, read, experience, research for a writing project gets filed into my mental data banks. You want to know about Guarani ethnomusicology, Mennonite history, the unparalleled brutality of the French in their colonies, I can pull out the stats. If I can see no present use for that data once the project involved is over, be sure that someday it will crawl into the pages of some other book I write.

5. Listen to editors.

Editors are smarter than you think. If they tell you something isn’t good enough, don’t run out to self-publish. Start rewriting!!

I would not be where I am today if it weren't for editors who took time to tell me where I was going wrong even while rejecting my manuscript. Or if I hadn't taken their advice and plowed it back into rewrites. If nothing else, the editor knows what sells. So if they’re willing to take their time to give advice, a wise writer pays attention.

Too many quite talented writers never make it to print because they’re just too proud to submit their work to an expert critique or too lazy to go back and improve their rough draft.

In Conclusion (as my preacher husband would say):
One of my sons loves music, but as a teenager played no instruments, had never had a voice lesson, and to my ear at least could only just carry a tune. So I was astounded to find out he was now lead singer of the youth worship band. When I broached him diplomatically about his lack of any musical training or visible native ability, he informed me airily, “Oh, Mom, you don’t have to have talent any more to become a pop star!”

Since then he has been lead singer for countless ‘gigs’, including at Miami's Hard Rock Cafe. Confirming a long-held conviction of my own concerning my teens’ choice of music styles!

There is a truth, though, that it is not innate talent or grammatical skills that make a great writer, though those do help. Many with ample talent and fine writing skills will never write a book—because they never get around to it! Like the hare and tortoise of Aesop's fable, they will be passed along the path by the writer who perhaps doesn’t have Hemingway's genius, but has a passion to write that keeps them plugging along, writing, rewriting, tearing apart and putting back together. Each rewrite a little better until one day an editor takes a look at their work and says, "Hey, this is fabulous!" And suddenly (actually, make that many months later!) they find their byline on a printed page.

Bottom line, there's only one real strategy for writing.

Just Do It!

Investigative Techniques From The Trenches

Your writing can only breathe reality and authenticity if you know intimately what you’re writing about. Is it true, I am frequently queried by would-be writers of international intrigue, that I have been able to write fiction about counternarcotics operations in Bolivia, guerrilla warfare in Colombia, the Islamic militant threat south of the Rio Grande, or today's Afghanistan with enough authenticity to have government sources demanding to know where I got classified information?

Yes, it is, an interesting tale in itself (bottom line, any place on the planet government intelligence can send an agent to dig around, some missionary or humanitarian worker will already be there and know more than they do). It helps to have lived in six countries and traveled thirty or so. But what if one doesn't have those travel opportunities? How to learn to see, hear, smell, touch, taste and understand a wider world to bring it alive for readers? Here a few of my top tips I shared recently on a radio program for writers:

1. Collect experiences: The wider your base of experiences, the greater variety of situations on which you will be able to write with authority. That doesn't just mean how many places to which you’ve traveled. My life experiences have allowed me to know jungles, deserts, mountain precipices, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, fire, cold, heat, thirst, hunger, riots, coups, roadblocks, personal assault, and death--with all the sights and sounds and smells and emotions attached. Much was not pleasant at the time, but all are invaluable to my writing.

2. Collect contacts: You don't need to know all things about every subject you want to write about. You just need to know someone who does. I always have my eyes and ears open for people with expertise and experience in a background where I do not yet have contacts. For my last novel, Veiled Freedom, set in Afghanistan, I tapped Special Forces, private security contractors, counternarcotics, humanitarian aid workers, embassy personnel, bush pilots, and so many more who have been boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Nor are they as hard to approach as one might think. But that is a subject for another day.

3. Collect characters: People are not only your best source of on-the ground intel, but of color for your writing. Along with an interesting profession, I always have my ears pricked up for an interesting life story or just eccentricity of character. Again, the wider the sphere of people with whom you allow yourself to interact, the greater the pool you will have from which to draw characters, whether a jungle chief facing off with a condescending environmentalist (The DMZ), a cartel heir racing around in a red Ferrari (CrossFire), or a supercilious Special Forces sergeant determined to intimidate a female civilian--me! (Veiled Freedom). And don't avoid the unpleasant ones. My motto as a writer when eccentric, annoying or even nasty people cross one’s path is simple and effective. Don’t get irritated or even. Just write them into your next book!

4. Immerse yourself in your subject: It isn’t enough to collect interesting experiences and interview people. These must be tied together with thorough research so that you understand the implications of what you have seen and heard. Before I tackle a book set in a new country or political environment, I saturate myself in that place. Histories, biographies, political commentary, regional literature, travelogues, video documentary--I will have easily read 20,000 pages material before I ever pick up a pen or computer keyboard. Now the people I’ve met, the bits and pieces of what I’ve heard, seen on the news, etc. make sense and I’m ready to write the book.

5. Use the Internet as the invaluable tool it is: The Internet is an invaluable tool—how much information is out there really is enough to make any law enforcement nervous. Want to make that Colombian guerrilla commander in your pages real? Try reading his actual speeches posted to his website. Want to know the weaknesses of Hanford Nuclear Reservation security (FireStorm)? Read studies and blueprints posted by environmentalist groups protesting the place. For every place I write about, I keep a Google Alert set for daily news digests. I follow blogs and travelogues of 'boots on the ground' whose lives and professions mirror the characters I am writing about.

6. Combine experiences you do have with thorough research to create a reality you can’t experience: The secret is to develop a wide frame of reference in which to fit your research so that you can describe as vividly as though you’d really been there. ‘A jungle is a jungle is a jungle’. So is a desert. Whether an earthquake, the bitter cold of a blizzard, the vertigo of a thousand-foot precipice, terror of a mugging, the adrenaline tension of a military roadblock, once you’ve gone through any experience, you can use it in any similar setting on the planet. The secret is to research carefully those details unique to the setting in question. Again, those blogs and travelogues as well as Lonely Planet and other tourism guides can be invaluable.

7. Have experts read it afterwards: On the other hand, I have often had plot holes caught and details corrected just by having an expert on the subject read it—often details I wouldn’t even know to ask ahead of time. On a recent novel, I had Coast Guard, DEA, counter-narcotics, military intelligence, weapons and nuclear experts, fire marshal, experts, clinical psychologists, former ambassador. That they found only a handful of errors was confirmation that I'd researched well. But I'd have hated for the specs of a certain air battle to have made it into print as I originally wrote it, even if few readers would ever know the difference.

The ultimate compliment for an author is to get fan mail from those who are or have been in the field of which we write that say, "You really get it; I can tell from your writing that you’ve been where we’re at." Fiction or not, that should be our ultimate goal as a writer.