Peril On Your Street

     There have been many authors or agents who have provided tidbits of knowledge that shape the way I look at my writing performance. The one for today was given by Bob Welch, an excellent author ( American Nightingale, A Father For All Seasons) and a co-worker at two stops on my journalistic journey.      His point was to identify the main focus of a novel by using only three words. Such a tactic forces the author to determine what his or her novel is about, and stick to that focus. The formula can usually be summed up in this way: Protagonist Verb Object. The result might be something like Anna Confronts Witchcraft or David Battles Racism. I could be satisfied with something that simple, but I go a little deeper when examining the novel I recently finished.      My point is to look at the underlying theme, and in this novel that concerns perceptions. One of my joys in reading sections of this novel to my writing group is to hear react...

I struggle with this subject. I have since I began the process of selling my projects. I even solicited the help of experts and paid for their input. It remains a topic of great importance. Why so much angst? Because that letter can derail all the months and years of work an author puts into a novel. Good literary agents receive hundreds of queries per day. That is one reason I roll my eyes when someone says it must not be hard to get published because there are literally thousands of published works in a Barnes and Noble or other bookstore. Behind every published work are millions of good works that don't see the light of day via a publishing house. I believe the query letter is one reason to explain that. There are many who are prepared to give advice on proper technique. Literary agent Janet Reid (known as the Query Shark) writes that no query letter can contain more than 250 words. I believe brevity is good, but is that sparse enough? Most agents don't adhere to suc...

This should have been my first blog upon entering the Electric City Writers. Heck, I believe it should be the first thing taught to those entering Journalism and Communications schools, and those seeking to earn a Master of Fine Arts. Here's why. Any writer is going to get his or her head handed to her while being critiqued. Deal with it! Okay, usually that handing of one's head is done in quite a gentle manner, but the point is that your work is going to be criticized. If one believes he or she is the epitome of literary success, prepare to be humbled. (Well, F. Scott Fitzgerald is excused from that, as are many other noted wielders of the craft.) Other good writers in your group will find your flaws, and, yes, you have them. Here's the best part of being criticized by your peers. It enables you to make changes before you present your work to a literary agent. You think those in a writing group can be critical? That's nothing compared with the work done by good a...

The first critique session last Saturday of the Electric City Writers gave each of the four members attending a chance to read three pages of material aloud. That was a fortunate number for me because that is the length of my opening chapter. (Point to remember: Each writer is doing his or her work in manuscript form, which means 12-point type, usually in New Times Roman, double spaces between each line. This is done so those doing critiques or a literary agent can make notations on a printed page.) I will address only the impact of critiques on my opening chapter. I am a journalist, so I write in a style that accents facts over description. The first part of my opening chapter is a bit of historical record regarding one particular city. (I won't get into specifics because I don't want to give away my story line. Such revelation will be saved for literary agents and fellow members of the writers group.) I worry a bit that such an opening makes this read like a work of non-fic...

I have been a lone wolf for much of my writing career. That is especially true as I launch my desire to be a novelist. It isn't that I see myself as lacking a need for criticism, or that I am so good that others' views are immaterial. I simply haven't found the right fit. I had the option of three writers groups in Colorado. Two were rejected because they involved a considerable amount of travel to attend meetings, and I already had a daily 52-mile round-trip commute to get to and from work. The idea of getting into the car for another commute was not attractive. The third was rejected on the basis of one meeting notice posted at the local library. It suggested that members bring their scrapbooking and other outside activities for the next meeting so everyone could see what activities were attractive to members other than writing. This was an immediate turn-off. I loved my times attending the Pikes Peak literary conferences in Colorado Springs. I got to meet great authors...

I wrote this early this week as Tropical Depression Florence quietly swept through our section of South Carolina. I put it in quotes only to separate it from the rest of this entry. "My Sunday is as gentle as a rainy day can be. No one expected that when Hurricane Florence was approaching the Carolina coast. Forecasts called for major damage throughout North and South Carolina, including our little corner known as the Upstate. The rain today is somewhere between a drizzle and a mist. The wind barely stirs the upper branches on tall trees. The forecasts for our area were as accurate as those for the 2016 presidential election. Two days ago, the predictions called for us to get nearly 3 inches of rain, and winds to be nearly 50 mph. Nearby Greenville, only 25 miles to our east, was expected to get nearly 5 inches of rain. What happened? Those big bands on the northern side of Florence veered a little more to the north. The rain-laden storm front didn't dip into our area. No ...

The last 48 hours have been a time of changing reality as experts try to predict what Hurricane Florence will do. Here's a short synopsis. Two days ago, when I wrote my first blog about the storm, dominant predictions said the hurricane would hit on the southern North Carolina coast and sweep to the north and west. Those predictions called for a storm moving at a reasonable pace. It would travel through the center of North Carolina, and the most damaging rains would fall in the mountains of western Virginia. That track would have little effect on Upstate South Carolina, the area where we live. We might get an inch or two of rain. That call for apparent safety didn't last long. The dominant predictions changed and called for a western surge through North Carolina, in large part sparing the Virginia mountains. The effect on our area raised somewhat from only minimal rain and wind to 3 to 5 inches of rain and winds of more than 30 mph. That prediction also didn't last lo...