How to write and publish the book that is inside you.
by Linda J. Falkner
"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want."
Margaret Young
When I was in third grade, I had the ugliest, meanest witch of a teacher that ever lived. Mrs. Snaggletooth had worms on her head instead of hair, and a wart on the tip of her nose the size of a quarter with black hair growing out of it. She ate children for lunch. I hated her and refused to go to her class. All right, my parents made me take my body to her class every day, but they couldn't force me to be there mentally. I spent that year writing stories in my mind, and by the time I entered fourth grade, I knew that I would be a writer. It wasn't a 'someday' thing; I was going to write a book when I was forty. I have no memory of how I chose that age, but that was the magical number that stuck in my mind.
I didn't know it at the time, but there is one huge difference between 'someday' and 'forty.' You see, unlike someday, forty actually comes. When I hit my thirty-seventh birthday, I realized that I needed to get to work. The deadline was approaching quicker than I ever thought possible, and I hadn't the faintest idea how to write, much less how to get published, so I did two things -- I joined the Tampa Writers Alliance and I began writing. My earliest work screamed 'beginner.' I made every mistake a writer could possibly make and a few extra that hadn't been invented. I was the expert on poor writing, but I learned. I completed my first book and had an agent accept it at the age of thirty-nine and eleven months, just a few weeks before my childhood goal arrived.
In the process of learning to write, I read a lot of how-to books, but The Magic of Writing is the book that I needed when I first began writing. This book will show you the mistakes that beginning writers make, and teach you how to write like a professional. It includes practice sessions to help you polish your work.
You don't need to be a professional journalist to write a book. While I have taken a ridiculous number of college classes in writing, that was just for fun. I did not major in professional writing, and have no journalism background. However, I have read most of the writing books available in the public library, and have purchased the best for my private book collection and ready reference. Besides reading, I have been active in writers groups, including The Tampa Alliance and various Internet groups. I attend yearly writing conferences and writing seminars whenever possible. I once took first prize in a local writing contest, but that's about it for my training as a writer.
By profession, I am a licensed mental health counselor. I work with people involved in the criminal justice system (the bad guys). My position requires clear and exact writing. A letter from me can make the difference between someone going free or spending time in prison. I never know when my written statements may have to stand up in court, and I write with this in mind. Accurate writing that communicates my message as simply as possible, is essential to me, and to my clients.
'Easy writing makes hard reading,
and hard writing makes easy reading.'
Unknown
Showing Your Story: Use Action, not Feeling
Imagine you are watching a movie:
The bad guy walks into the tavern and he is mad, furious, pissed,
and ready to kill. The good guy looks up and grabs his gun'¦
How did you know what the bad guy felt? Do you suppose he walked into the tavern and said 'Hey Joe, I'm really, really mad, in fact, I'm enraged with you. I'm going to kill you.' Of course not. You knew because:
Evil Sam walked into the bar glaring at Joe Good.
He twisted his black mustache as he stood with his legs
spread. Then Evil Sam spat, and as the saliva flew into
the air, he grabbed his gun and aimed it at Joe Good, but
Joe's gun was already cocked and pointing at Sam's forehead.
Notice that at no time did the story tell you how Evil Sam felt. It showed you with actions. This type of writing is easier to do if you imagine you are watching a movie. There is no need for a background voice saying: Sam is mad. And Sam won't say it either, but yet, you know from the actions. Movies are easy to show rather than tell, so always imagine that your book is a scene from a movie. Avoid words that tell how a character feels, and show it instead.
Telling words ' Avoid using them. Showing words ' Use these instead
happy laugh, smile, jump up and down
sad cry, whine, whimper, sniffle
angry glare, yell, scream, punch, throw
tired sleep, eyes closing, yawn
exasperated hit the table, stamped her feet
shy hid behind her mother's skirt, last in line, doesn't talk
outgoing pushed to the front, spoke first, grabbed the biggest'¦
excited jumped, yelled, laughed, ran in circles
frightened hid in the corner, said nothing, stared
WARNING: Be careful not to include telling words when using showing words. Examples of this are: She jumped for joy; he laughed with happiness; they cried with agony. Telling takes away from showing and weakens your writing.
Learning to show rather than tell a story is important in all kinds of writing. Showing, rather than telling, can even improve a term paper or technical writing. I'm going to save technical writing for another chapter and concentrate on fictional writing here, but I want to emphasis that showing is an essential part of all good writing, both fiction and nonfiction. Learning to show in your writing is an invaluable skill, but it takes practice to master.
Lets work on a story together. This first version tells what happens, but fails to show any action. It's sketchy and needs work. It includes many basic writing mistakes discussed in chapter two.
Susan was quite happy about her new pet. She was playing happily with her dog until the dog bit her. Susan was very upset after that.
Here is the improved version, taking out unnecessary words and showing rather than telling.
Susan's parents gave her a brown terrier-mix puppy for her birthday. She ran with the puppy and forgot about her other presents. She played chase and catch with the puppy for several hours and when the puppy attempted to sleep, she nudged it to wake it up. When the exhausted puppy nipped at Susan's nose, she ran to her mother crying.
SHOWING: Notice how much detail I added. When I removed words that told how Susan feels, I let my audience fill in the gaps, and made my readers an active part of the story. Although I removed the words 'was,' 'quite,' 'happy,' 'playing,' 'happily' and 'upset,' the final version is longer and contains more detail.
Now, let's go through this story and break down what I did to change it from telling to showing. The first sentence 'Susan was quite happy about her new pet,' has numerous flaws. Quite is used as a filler, and adds nothing to the sentence. 'Happy' tells Susan's feelings, but doesn't show us anything. Lastly, 'pet' is vague and gives little information. As far we know, the new pet might have been a bird, a cat, a spider, or even a spiny anteater. This sentence doesn't give any information about where Susan got this pet, or why. When you write a sentence like this, you are feeding the reader baby food ' bland and mushy. You haven't given the reader any reason to continue reading your story, and you have committed what I consider one of the greatest crimes of writing, you bored the reader. Here is the sentence again:
Susan was quite happy about her new pet.
Here is the first sentence rewritten into two sentences to answer the above questions:
Susan's parents gave her a brown terrier-mix puppy for her birthday. She ran with the puppy and forgot about her other presents.
Here is the next sentence:
She was playing happily with her dog until the dog bit her.
This leaves me with several questions. How does one play happily? If I told a hundred actors to 'play happily,' I think I'd see a hundred different versions of this action. You need to change this to show how Susan played. Now I'm left with a second question, and that is to ask why the dog bit her. It seems as though there is some missing information. I don't know if Susan abused the puppy, if she accidentally stepped on it, or if it was a vicious dog. The next sentence was rewritten to answer these questions:
She played chase and catch with the puppy for several hours and when the puppy attempted to sleep, she nudged it to wake it up.
This next sentence: ''¦the dog bit her.' leaves more questions. Where was the bite, and how serious was it?
The rewritten sentence, the exhausted puppy nipped at Susan's nose, answers these questions.
Now here is the last sentence:
Susan was very upset after that.
My question is, 'how does the reader know that Susan was upset?'
And the answer is, 'she ran to her mother crying.'
Here are some sentences for you to change from telling to showing. There is no one right answer, and everyone will interpret these statements differently. Try this:
The dog was happy.
The two questions you need to ask are what dog, and how did it show that it was happy. Here are some possible answers. In each case, notice I removed the word 'was' along with the telling word 'happy.'
Rover wagged his tail.
The Great Dane knocked over the little girl and licked her face.
The German Shepard ran around in circles.
The Chihuahua, Jose, fell asleep on Michael's lap.
About Linda J. Falkner
This is Linda Falkner's fourth book, and was written after numerous fans requested more information on how she wrote and published her books. Linda lives in Valrico, Florida with her son and two cats. She is currently working on her fifth book, 'From Shoves to Loves.'
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