Secondary Characters. They can drive their co-stars crazy and they can also drive the plot. They can star in their own subplots and often support the protagonist’s goals. Or thwart the protagonist’s goals.
Benny, the unforgettable secondary character in “The Queen’s Gambit” by Walter Tevis
Using characters’ eyes to reveal emotion and meaning. If you’re serious about writing, you must notice subtext and how to convey it. And that often begins with the eyes.
Beth Harmon knows she will win several moves out in this scene of Queen’s Gambit
A look at more advanced ways of considering writing from some of the best craft books to come out in the last decade. Consider the narrator in your story, structure, proportion, and, most importantly, the heart of your work.
How-To tips and examples for adding fuel your characters’ fires. Your character should always have a lot to prove and master, so he or she can get off on the wrong foot and things can go downhill from there. Naturally.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy protagonist, the last known Earthling – Arthur Dent
Learn how to edit ruthlessly with these top tips with handy links! Make sure you get the most out of your next round of editing for your work-in-progress.
The Editor – going over the ms with an MOV.
We hope that you have found these encore posts to be useful reminders and prompts for your work-in-progress!
We wish you joy and peace in the New Year from all of us at Chanticleer!
January 1st, 2022, we will post five more of the The Top Ten Writing Posts for 2021 along with Kiffer’s Number One Tip for Writers in 2022!
When you’re ready,did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011.
Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).
If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.
We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!
Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.
A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information availablehere.
And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn morehere.
If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Reviewhereor to one of our Chanticleer International Awardshere.
Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
This Chanticleer article is a little more personal than most. Normally we speak generally, but sometimes you can’t replace a good ol’ personal anecdote.
Haruki Murakami:“Writing a long novel is like survival training.”
Barbara Kingsolver: “I have to write hundreds of pages before I get to page one.”
Jodi Picoult: “You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
Diane Gabaldon:“Writing is an active skill; the only way to learn is to do it, to actually sit down and write every day.”
With all this in mind, I want to talk here about my experience taking the advice of Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach from her article “How I Went From 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day.” Whenever I see a new idea for improving writing, I try to play Peter Elbow’s “The Believing Game.” The Believing Game, in short, is an exercise where you ask yourself what would happen if you accepted a particular suggestion as true, and then practice acting as if it were true and seeing what happens as a result.
This man believes!
1. Track where you write.
This was the one I thought was the silliest. During a pandemic, I don’t write anywhere except my bedroom/office, the kitchen, or the living room. However, when I really pay attention to where I write best, I notice a few things.
First, I write well in groups, even if that’s just online at the Roost (Chanticleer’s Online Community) doing writing sprints with friends and the help of Sprinto. Generally, timers help me quite a bit in my writing, because they give me permission to ignore the rest of the world until the timer goes off.
Coffee Klatch Write In is held at the Roost on ZOOM. The next Write-Ins are currently scheduled for Tuesday mornings. However, any Roost member can set up a Write In group to accommodate their time zones—which is handy since Roost members live across North America and around the globe.
Check us out!
We meet up once a week to do some writing. Usually folks join, we chat about what we’re working on for 10-15 minutes, and then dive in to work! Light conversation and the Chat are excellent ways to check in.
Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021 from 10 a.m. – Noon PST
Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021 from 10 a.m. – Noon PST
Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021 from 10 a.m. – Noon PST
I also found out, weirdly enough, that my most productive space is not my desk where I work from home and play videogames, but rather on my futon with plenty of pillows for back support using my laundry basket as a desk.
I don’t know what the magic is, but I really like working on this laundry basket. -DB
I have no idea what it is about these factors. Maybe it’s the giant stuffed pig that’s my quarantine companion, but that’s where I am happiest and most productive. The second-best place is at the dining room table with the roommate’s dog hanging out.
Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014. She preferred writing lying down and leaning on one elbow.
Maya Lou Angelo rented hotel rooms for a few months at a time in her hometown. She would have the management move all of the paintings and decorations out of the room. Also, they were not allowed in to clean or straighten just in case she had thrown away piece of paper with writing on it that might later prove to be useful. Ms. Angelo said that she would head to around 6:30 in the morning and hang out there until about 2:30 then she would head home to edit. The hotel room was creating and writing only. She would average 10-12 pages of written material a day. She would then edit these pages down to three or four pages in the evening at her home.
“Nothing will work unless you do.” Maya Angelou
2. Track when you write.
This next suggestion helps you learn when you are most productive. I have always dreamed of being that person who wakes up at 5am, reads for two hours, writes about what I read for another two hours, and then eats breakfast and jumps into amazing creative work. It would help if I didn’t need at the very least thirty minutes to drag myself out of bed.
NaNoWriMo this year gave me a strong reset to my writing habits. Having the regular goals made me prioritize my work, and being in quarantine removed many of the distractions I usually have. The deep dive even gave me some great community locally and on The Roost that I’m still holding onto.
Things that I ask myself when tracking:
What Project am I working on?
When did I start?
When did I finish?
What was my general mood?
How many pages/words did I get through?
Where did I write?
Additional notes
Doing NaNoWriMo this last November, I’ve finally discovered that while I can sit down and do paid work at almost any time, I do my best creative writing between 8-11pm. This is tricky, because that’s when most people want to hang out, but I can usually make late afternoon work well, too. The times that don’t work for me?Anytime before 11am. I can always do brainstorm work, but if I want to do writing I’m happy with and make progress in a story, I need to set aside some time in the evening.
This isn’t so much how much time you make to write (though that can help). It’s also about how much writing you do in a particular amount of time. Generally, I write 250 words every 15 minutes. I also write about 250 words every 30 minutes. Depending on how I time myself, I come out with a different amount. Likewise, if Aaron/Bach (from the opening paragraph) sits down to write for only an hour, she writes about 500 words. However, if she sits down to write for 5 hours, she can manage 1500 words in that same hour! The amount of time we know we can get lost in the work affects us each differently.
Looking for more advice regarding what to do with your NaNoWriMo? See this article Chanticleer posted in November here.
3. What do you write on?
Rather than the material (desk, floor, laundry basket), this means more to the tools you use to write. Referring back to Aaron/Bach, I write different places for different things. When I first started at Chanticleer (and I still do), took and kept notes in a journal about how things work here. There are a lot of moving parts and “under the hood” technology here at Chanticleer. I’ve noticed that Kiffer carries around a small black notebook and old school small planning calender even though we use Google Calendar apps and the latest digital management apps (hat tip to Argus Brown) here at the home office of Chanticleer.
Using my journal is also handy for our weekly brainstorming meetings. I find that I can generate 7 “ideas” in ten minutes if I am utilizing my trusty journal instead of my laptop. Now, very little of a full article or project would come out this exercise. It’s just brainstorming and laying out my ideas some place where I can keep track of them until I can work on the details. But it works! I’ve noticed that I have much more trouble brainstorming on a computer where the cursor blinks at me with menace and mocking intent.
The mocking cursor and time flying by.
The other thing that drives me up the wall when trying to brainstorm on a computer is there are so many distractions. If I have an idea, I can focus in, but if I’m casting around for thoughts, I’m open to the world, and the internet adores it when I’m open to suggestion. Somehow social media rarely helps me generate ideas for any type of writing.
Now, of course, once I’m running with an idea, I love the speed that I can put words down and edit when I type rather than scribble. Plus, my writing is always legible on a computer.
4. Mood
You know how it is, you’re in a bad mood, you need to do your writing, you sit down to do the work, and you get maybe half what you usually do done. What if that’s a pattern that you can predict? For me, knowing that when I sit down and I’m grumpy that my roommates haven’t wiped down the counters after cooking spaghetti (my first thought always being there has been a murder in my house), or maybe someone has said something mean on social media (somehow social media always features as an obstacle to writing).
5. Where will the story go next?
EL Doctorow famously said, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
While you probably have written down the broad strokes of what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of your story, it’s important to keep other ideas in mind.
I felt good seeing Aaron/Bach suggest this, as it’s been a longtime habit of mine to sketch out what I want to happen next after I bring a writing session to a close. Since I write late, often this is the point where I feel like I really need to sleep, I’ll do a brief summary of how I see the rest of the text going, and if any strong images come to mind, I’ll write those down as well, hoping to use them as the story goes on.
When I return and see those notes, I simply delete them as I write the scene it suggests, keeping my notes clean and easy to read for what comes next. With the images I can even copy and paste them directly into the work as the place I think they’ll fit best appears on the page.
6. What are you excited about in the story?
I just started editing the first draft of a novel I finished in October. One of the big critiques my writing group gives me is that the conflict doesn’t start soon enough, which I thought was ridiculous!
In the first chapter, my YA protagonist has the 3-person panel for his high school senior project possessed by a conduit of 100 dead souls who he has promised to guide from Limbo into Heaven! What could be more intense than that?!
However, in rereading the work with fresh eyes I notice that my characters eat. A lot.
Now, this is probably from my great love of all breakfast foods and missing going out to restaurants, but everyone in this book can’t get to any scenes because they’re too busy giving light exposition at The Old Spaghetti Factory. As I go through, I find myself skipping these scenes to get to the next on, which tells me that, yes, they are not exciting. If as the writer I don’t care about a scene, it needs to go. If there’s key information I feel like is in that scene, I write it down separately and keep an eye out for the right place to insert it, rather than dragging the reader through yet another pointless meal—even if I am craving a Dutch baby with powdered sugar, cinnamon, maple syrup, and fresh fruit. Maybe with a side of breakfast sausage. Mmm. And hmmm.
Dutch Baby with fruit and powdered sugar on it
7. Review your information
So, for me, what I’ve learned is that I write best in areas where I can be comfortable and don’t have easy access to videogames. I like having friends, either virtual, stuffed, or furry, because then I feel like I’m accountable to someone, even if they only want to listen to me brainstorm when I’m giving them pets.
I am officially an evening person. I love mornings for relaxing, watching the bay, drinking coffee, and making extravagant breakfasts. If you haven’t made yourself Spanish tortilla, it’s easier than you’d expect—give it a try.
A few times a week I need to set aside my evenings for creativity, and that means no Mandalorian with the roommates (sorry Baby Yoda) or virtual game night with friends. If they want to hang out, they can come co-work (write) with me.
I do my starting work in a journal of some sort, and then I do the writing work on a computer. Editing and marketing work also happen on computers, mostly out of necessity and the predominance of the internet.
I am gentle with myself when in a bad mood. Rather than lamenting that I couldn’t do as much as the day before or the week before, I remind myself that creativity is a process, and that even though I was in a bad mood I put in the time today, and that habit counts for more than any single day worth of word count.
I write best when I can work from notes that show me what scene I’m most drawn to write about next in my story. That lets me stay focused on excitement as I go through the work.
Finally, now that you can figure all this out for yourself, protect the things that let you write. They’re the loveliest tools you can give yourself.
8. Set goals
Nailed it
Ask yourself what your stretch goals are, and what goals are you confident you can meet. Go back to your goals periodically. Do they need to be adjusted for where you are in your w-i-p (work in progress). Editing requires a different focus than plotting. Plotting requires a different mind set than creating your characters or atmosphere.
What are your methods and writing habits?
We’d love to hear from you! What spurs you on? What trips you up?
Examine your own life to best see how you can maximize your own productivity and be the author you want to be!
Maybe this is getting something to the point where you can use one of our many Chanticleer services, from the Manuscript Overview, to the Editorial Book Review, to testing the mettle of your work in the Chanticleer Awards. Whatever goals you set, make sure that you keep your gaze on meeting them as you write!
Speaking of the Chanticleer Awards, did you know that we’ll be announcing the Finalists, First Place Winners, and Grand Prize Winners at our Tenth Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22)? The CIBA Ceremonies will run in tandem with them from April 7-10, 2022! We’re optimistic we will be able to see you in person at the beautiful Hotel Bellwether here in Bellingham, WA.
Writer’s Toolbox
Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.
I was asked by Orna Ross of Alliance of Independent Authors to share what I consider to be the “Seven Must-Haves for Independent Authors” at UPublishU event that was held at the Book Expo of America 2016 held in Chicago. Of course, I agreed!
However, the Seven Must-Haves are applicable for all authors whether they are self-published, small press published, traditionally published, or hybrid published. I formed the talk based on the following questions:
What are the Seven Must-Haves?
What is the traditional publishing tool that authors can implement to propel their writing careers to new levels and to earn an income from selling their books?
What is the single most important publishing tool for first-time authors?
What is the cornerstone of any author platform?
What should every author know about communicating and marketing in the Digital Age?
How can an author set her books apart from the millions of titles that launch each year?
How can an author expand readership?
What should continue to grow and never disappear in today’s new era of publishing?
Each of one these questions will be answered in the Seven Must-Haves blog-post series.
What is the traditional publishing tool that authors can implement to propel their writing careers to new levels and to earn income from their books?
Have you ever wondered how best-selling authors can churn out a book or two each year?
How they can continue to hit “home-runs” with each new title?
They use the tried and true tools that have built the publishing industry. Authors will benefit from taking the best tried and true methods of traditional publishing and combining them with today’s best publishing practices.
One of the best tools that traditional publishing houses and literary agents make available to their authors is the power of a manuscript overview. Most best-selling authors have great editing and feedback from agents and senior editors from the very beginning of a work. This feedback comes in very early in a work’s process and allows for the author to publish more works and not as an afterthought.
The Editing Process (when one is working with a literary agent and/or publishing house) goes like this:
The author works on a rough draft – the early drafts of a novel. He creates the theme, the characters, the setting, the tone, the story, the plot lines, the dialog style, and selects the genre and has an audience in mind (YA or mystery fans, fantasy or Science Fiction readers, etc.). After the author creates the story with a beginning, middle, and end, he then sends this early unedited draft of the story to his editor or agent to read and to get feedback.
Authors who work within this editing system then begin scratching out the next inklings of story ideas, or they will resume working on other drafts that are further down the editing schedule, while waiting for feedback about the manuscript overview from their agent/editor. Once the feedback (manuscript overview) is received, then the author decides what to incorporate and which suggestions to implement in the next drafts. He then reworks the draft while another work’s manuscript is being over-viewed or is in a separate stage of editing. Some authors who write within this system will have two or three works “in play.” Also, some authors write in different genres while as the works are in different stages of the editing process.
Have you ever wished that someone would give you objective feedback about your manuscript? Or that someone would give you the feedback that will take your work from good to great?
What is a Manuscript Overview:It is an objective evaluation of a story idea that is fully formed with a beginning, middle, and end, but still in an early draft stage. The MO comes before LINE EDITING and COPY EDITING.
What is the process:The entire manuscript is read and evaluated by a top editor for the following:
Does the work have a compelling story?
Is there more than one story in the manuscript? It is quite common for a manuscript to have two, three, or more storylines.
Are the characters engaging? Interesting?
Are there too many characters? See above.
Are the characters pathetic, sympathetic, or empathetic?
Is there inconsistent character development?
Are there plot holes? Smoking guns?
Does the story wander?
Is there “head hopping” or unplanned POV changes?
Does it take to long too engage the reader?
Does the story stay within its world construct?
Does it follow the “laws” of the setting?
Does the story sag in the middle?
Is the ending satisfying?
Does the beginning intrigue?
Is the dialog appropriate?
Is there too much backstory? Too many details?
Does the scenery and setting work with the story?
and so forth
Or is it spot on and ready for a Line Edit?
The editor then writes a brief and honest evaluation of the work that addresses the above questions.
If you do not have an agent or editor, you can still get this type of brutally honest feedback with a manuscript overview from Chanticleer Reviews.
Remember, that a manuscript overview is NOT a Line Edit or a Copy Edit. It consists of broad sweeping strokes of feedback for the author to consider for the next round of drafts. Incorporating line-editing suggestions can typically shorten a manuscript by at least twenty percent, thereby paying for itself with the savings on copyediting.
The editor then sends his comments, suggestions, and concerns about the work back to the author in a manuscript overview. It is up to the author to take these recommendations and decide whether or not to incorporate them in the next draft of the manuscript.
Many of the authors who have used Chanticleer’s Manuscript Overview service have found that their writing was greatly improved and have discovered that the feedback has enabled them to be able to take their next works to a higher level.
I’m incredibly appreciative of the many positive and helpful things the reviewer had to say in the manuscript overview. The feedback is terrific and more comprehensive than any other I’ve received… Many thanks, again! Brian L.
All of her suggestions were right and I hope to make them to the best of my ability. It’s like taking a powerful and quick course in advanced writing. Please thank her for me….Working with someone of her caliber would take my writing to another level. – L.V.
Please thank the editor for her insightful and pinpoint comments as to how I can make the book better. They were very good and I’ve already incorporated many into the manuscript. –D.S.
When the author decides that the story is ready (and the lit agent and/or publisher agrees), she may send it off for another manuscript overview with either the same editor or get a second opinion. Or the author may decide that the work is ready for a Line Edit.
Line Editing is defined as a thorough and focused reading of the manuscript on a line-by-line basis with suggestions, comments, and remarks noted for the author to consider. For more information about what line-editing encompasses, please visit our Editing Guide.
After the author incorporates the line edits, the work then moves to a Copy Edit.
Copy Editing is a very technical read of a work for flaws in grammar, punctuation, syntax; consistency in spelling, numerals, hyphenation, etc.; flagging any inconsistencies that have made it past the Copy Edit such as eye color, name spelling, location, timing from point A to point B; and tracks any internal inconsistencies in the story (conflicting abilities or inabilities, location inconsistencies), etc.
After Copy Editing, the work then goes to Final Proofing.
The manuscript then goes back to the author for final approval to begin the publishing formatting for digital and print.
To circle back around to the first question:
What is the traditional publishing tool that authors can implement to propel their writing careers to new levels and to earn income from their books?
This is how: Each time a work goes back to an editor for evaluation and editing takes time. During these interludes, the author continues to write new works or continues to work on other manuscripts that are further down the editing chain.
Fundamentally, the manuscript overview allow authors to WRITE and CREATE rather than rework and reword a story idea again and again while trying to get it “right.” The honest feedback gives the author an advantage of the traditional publishing houses where authors continuously get feedback and are under contract to produce. Manuscript overviews allow the author to spend creative time developing stories, characters, unique language, and new plot twists rather than trying to dissect their own works. They also allow for the author to gain fresh perspective.
The manuscript overview saves the author time and energy, and if the author is self-published, then money in editing fees.
Each stage of editing brings an entirely new set of fresh eyes and fresh perspective to a work. Imagine the kind of polish that will bring to your work.
Put the power of traditional publishing’s collaborative expertise behind your work. Begin with a manuscript overview. Our clients, who have taken advantage of the Chanticleer Reviews Manuscript Overview service, swear that they will never go back to writing another novel without first having a manuscript overview conducted on early on.
How much is the fee for this powerful editing tool?
$425 for 2,000+ word overview/evaluation from one of Chanticleer’s senior editors for a work under 110,000 words.
Get objective, honest, and brutal feedback from one of Chanticleer’s top editors who edit for New York Times and Amazon best-selling authors.
*If you publish with a hybrid or cooperative publishing house, we can work with their Style Sheets. We work with many authors who publish in a variety of ways, but want honest and objective feedback regarding their manuscripts before they submit them.
This is the probably one of the few times that an author should not polish a work before submitting it to a contest. Judges are looking for raw storytelling ability and/or originality of story concept. CBR has been contacted by publishers and literary agents to hold a RAW NaNoWriMo contest to search for that next Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen or Wool by Hugh Howey. Does your RAW NaNoWriMo 2015 work have a compelling story? Is it original? Does it have an irresistible plot arc? Will your work’s characters resonate with readers?
