Here at NaNoWriMo HQ, we are cheering ourselves hoarse in recognition of your epic creative accomplishment this November. One month ago, you committed yourself to this wild write-a-thon: 30 days of high-velocity, no-holds-barred, anything-goes noveling.

And now, 50,000 words and one month later, you are a NaNoWriMo Winner!

Oct 6 2012

Writer’s Hint: First Draft

It’s way too easy to fuss over the details before you get the story written.

The thing is, you have to give yourself permission to write a sloppy first draft, and promise your internal editor it can have a crack at the ms after it is finished.

Mar 29 2012

Writer’s Hint #2

Trouble with head hopping?

Try this helpful hint:

One Scene, one point of view.

Stay faithful to that advice and you can’t go wrong.

Janice~

Mar 2 2012

Revision Hell by Janice Seagraves

Revision Hell

by Janice Seagraves

1) Do a read through. Read your manuscript like a reader. Either print it out, load it into your ereader or change the font and read it on your computer. Note: changing the font will make your manuscript look different and you can see it with fresh eyes.

2) Keep a note pad by you as you read. Take notes, but keep it simple: Ch. 1 needs a better opening hook. Ch. 2 starts out too slow.

3) After you do your read through, go through it again, but this time write each scene down.

I won’t kid you, this is the hardest part of revision, but it is the most rewarding. Write it simply, Ch. 1: scene 3: the scene where the hero and heroine meet is too slow. Ch. 2: scene 1: the wake up scene is too cliché.

4) As you write each scene add a number from 1 to 10 for its importance to your story. Note: Don’t revise until you write all the scenes down.

5) After you have all the scenes down, you will be able to look each over each scene in your story to see which ones you want to delete. This step helps you see the bigger picture, so to speak.

6) But don’t delete yet!

7) Open a new file on your computer and name it “deleted scenes” with the title of your ms. In this file you’ll paste in the scenes you are taking out. It makes taking out those scenes nearly painless, and when you reread your ms you can see if your ms flows better without them. If it doesn’t then you can always put it back in.

8) After you have taken out the scenes that slowed your prose, reread your entire manuscript like a reader. If it flows, you’re done.

9) Send it to a beta reader, or if you’re feeling really confident sent it to a publisher.

Mar 1 2012

Watch Those Tenses

Watch Those Tenses

By Janice Seagraves

What are tenses exactly?

There’s the past tense, the present tense and the future tense. There are more of course, but for this lesson I’m keeping it simple.

Have I lost you?

To put it simply: Past tense is things that have already happened. Present Tense is things happening right now. Future tense is things that haven’t happened yet.

Example Past Tense: Sally went to the store to get some milk.

Here I used the past tense: went

Example Present Tense: Sally is going to the store to get some milk.

Here I used the present tense: going

Example Future Tense: Sally will go the store to get some milk.

Here I used the future tense: will go.

What tense should you use for writing?

In most fictions such as romance, suspense, paranormal, fantasy etc., I suggest you use past tense as most editors (not all) will prefer it. It was explained to me this way:

“When you tell a story, you tell it like it has already happened.”

But there will be times when you’ll need to use another tense: when something hasn’t happened yet or when someone is doing something right this moment in your story.

***

Here’s an example from Lord of the Ring:

[Galadriel descends to a glade and fills a silver pitcher with water from a stream. She stands before an ornate stand with a shallow silver basin upon it. The Lady turns towards Frodo.]

Galadriel: “Will you look into the mirror?”

Frodo: “What will I see?”

Galadriel: [stepping up to the basin] “Even the wisest cannot tell. For the mirror… shows many things…”

[She begins to pour the water into the silver mirror.]

Galadriel: “…things that were… things that are… and some things…” [She empties the ewer and steps back] “that have not yet come to pass.”

***

Past tense: –ed words, had, was/were, gone, done, finished, verb forms ending in -ing.

Example: I had already studied tenses for writing.

Present tense: am/is/are, going, doing, verb forms ending in –ing.

Example: I am studying tenses for writing.

Future tense: will be/shall be/will have, verb forms ending in –ing.

Example: I will be studying tenses for writing.