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How to Make Sure You Hit Your Writing Deadlines

Ever notice how you tend to deal with things that have a due date or an expiration date (and a punishment for missing that date) first while you let other things slide? You read your library books before the books from your own collection because they’re due on a certain date. If you don’t return them you’ll owe money. You eat the food that’s about to expire even if it’s not what you’d prefer because the uneaten food is a waste of money. You hurry up and finish the project for which you borrowed a neighbors’ power saw because if you don’t return the saw on the date you promised, you’ll jeopardize the friendship. You write the article that has a deadline because missing it means no paycheck (and probably no further work from that publication).

All of these scenarios have a due date and a punishment attached for missing that date. The deadline and the punishment combine to motivate you to do these things, even if you’d rather be doing something else. This aversion to punishment can be used to further your writing career and help defeat procrastination. But what about the problem of not all writing projects having due dates? When you’re working on your first novel, non-fiction book proposal, or collection of short stories and you don’t have a contract, how do you impose due dates and punishments?

There are a couple of ways to do this. First, you can simply write the date on your calendar and come up with a punishment that you will impose on yourself if you don’t make it. Maybe you won’t take that weekend trip you’ve planned and for which you’ve already paid a non-refundable deposit, or you won’t go to that concert for which you’ve already bought tickets. Whatever punishment you choose, it has to hurt. You can’t just say, “Oh, I won’t watch my favorite TV show.” That’s not enough pain because, really, you can catch the show later. The punishment has to hurt monetarily or emotionally. Or you have to also attach the risk of hurting other people, such as by skipping that family trip or backing out of a an event that you promised to organize.

And the biggie: You have to stick to the punishment. You can’t let yourself off the hook even once. Do it once and you’ll do it every time. You have to go through with whatever punishment you choose or it won’t be an effective way to boost your output. You have to choose a punishment that not only hurts, but one which you will actually impose. “I’ll throw myself off a cliff if I don’t finish this book by July 22nd,” isn’t realistic. (Unless you have some serious issues, in which case you need a mental health professional. Right now.) “I’ll sell one-third of my beloved jazz records if I don’t make the deadline,” is more realistic.

If you’re not willing or able to impose your own punishments, enlist someone else to help you. Make yourself accountable to a friend or family member. If you set a due date and miss it, have that person come stand over you until you complete the punishment. Make them stand over you until you make the call to cancel that trip. Have them stand over you while you run those concert tickets through the shredder. Make them stand by while you tell those people who were counting on you that you won’t be able to do whatever it was you promised you’d do. Choose your person wisely. They have to be tough enough not to give in when you beg and pushy enough to make you do what you need to do.

Yes, this is a harsh way to improve productivity and make sure you reach your daily word count. Not everyone will respond to these tactics, but it is human nature to do those things with due dates first. This is simply a way of making human nature work for you. If you have trouble completing open-ended projects because they can always be done “later,” try imposing due dates and punishments on yourself. Remove “later” from the equation and see if you don’t work harder and smarter to avoid those punishments.

(Photo courtesy of Alan Cleaver)

Don’t Forget Offline Writing Research

It’s great that we live in an age where information is just a couple of mouse clicks away. Gone are the days when we had to slog through the stacks at the library for even the simplest research. Unfortunately, too many of us have become excessively reliant on the Internet for our research needs. It’s so convenient that we are often reluctant to take the time leave our comfy chairs and go out into the world to do our research. There are some things, however, that the Internet cannot give us and to exclude them from our work for the sake of convenience is to produce a weaker work, one that is devoid of sensory details and the personal touch.

If you want to produce a rich, true account of your character’s experiences or fill your non-fiction work with the details and facts that will set it apart from competing work, you’re going to have to go offline for at least some of your research. Here are some offline places and methods that will bring that spark of life into your work.

Libraries

Even though all kinds of books and references are online, there is still no substitute for an old-fashioned library. Not only do they have resources that you may not be able to get online (microfiches of old local newspapers, locally published books/histories, and out of print books that are no longer available, for a few examples), they are filled with people who can help you. Employees may be well versed in local history, for example, or have already helped someone else track down that obscure fact that you’re looking for.

Museums/national parks/preservation efforts

If your work requires a trip into the past, there are no better places to see actual battlefields, historic homes, artifacts, clothing, and artwork than at museums and parks dedicated to preservation. Sure, you can see that clothing, artwork, or artifact in an online catalog, but getting up close to it will reveal the tiny details you can’t see in a picture. And there’s nothing like being in a historic place to give you a sense of what the people who lived there experienced as far as weather and scents. They are also great places to get writing ideas.

Personal interviews

Never underestimate the power of actually talking to someone who knows what you want to know. Whether you’re interviewing a CEO for an article about life behind the desk, or a zookeeper about his work (since your novel’s main character is also a zookeeper), there is no substitute for the experience of actual human beings. You’ll not only hear about what their life is like, you may also get to watch them in action.

Universities

Colleges and universities are a treasure trove of information. Their libraries often subscribe to journals and newspapers that municipal libraries don’t carry and which may not have an online presence (or, if they do, you as an individual will have to pay to subscribe). You can talk to professors that teach and research the topic you’re working with. If your work is fiction and set at a college, you can spend a few days observing the students and their activities. Some larger universities also have collections of artifacts or documents related to local history, art, and culture.

In-person visits

Sure, you can Google the location for your next novel and see pictures and maps, but there’s nothing like being there. When you actually visit a place, you can experience the people, traffic patterns, weather, and architecture in a way that pictures and maps can’t convey. You can hear the sounds and smell the smells, as well. All those details will lend an authenticity to your work that you can’t get from the Internet. If your desired location is too far away, try setting your book closer to home or at least let a native of the area read your work to see if it feels authentic to them.

Support groups

If your character is an addict, an abused spouse, going through a divorce or dealing with grief, it can be hard to put yourself in those types of situations. If you’re writing non-fiction about these tough topics, you’ll need more of a personal experience than books can give you. Support groups, though, are full of people dealing with those types of situations. You may be able to sit in on some group meetings if you ask in advance and mention that you are doing research for a book. You’ll likely be asked to keep in the background and to keep anything you learn confidential, but hearing the stories and seeing the emotions can give you what you need to make your work authentic.

Reenactments

Reenactments aren’t limited to just the battlefields, although those are invaluable if your work covers historic battles. Places like Williamsburg, Virginia and other “living history” museums reenact everything from the nightly lamp lighting in a village to butter churning. Seeing how a process actually worked is better than reading about it and then trying to recreate it on the page.

Observation

This is simple. Get out and watch what people do. If your character is a teenager, spend some time watching what they do and how they act with each other. If your character is a teacher, ask if you can shadow a class for a day. Is your character a farmer? Tag along with a farmer for a day. Find ways to observe the people you want to write about. It’ll make for a more authentic work and it may take your character beyond the stereotype that you would have otherwise created.

Businesses, organizations, and associations

There are all kinds of organizations that might have the information you need. Whether you’re looking for information on how a product is made or how a rescue organization does its work, for example, you can find it by visiting various organizations and asking for information or observing how things work. Unless the information is proprietary or confidential, many organizations are wiling to share.

Hobby groups

If you need to know what it’s like to be someone who flies model airplanes, scuba dives, restores old cars, or plays Dungeons and Dragons every weekend, you might want to visit some local hobby groups. Many don’t require membership and are happy to show off their hobbies to others. You don’t have to learn how to do the activity yourself, but watching other people do it and asking questions can yield a deeper understanding than simply reading about the hobby online.

Veteran’s groups

Want to know what a certain battle was like, or what the uniforms of the time felt like? There are no better people to talk to than those who were there. While you can only speak directly to veterans of more recent wars, you can find groups dedicated to preserving the memories and information gleaned from those who served in older wars. There are also groups dedicated to the experiences of women on the home front.

Courthouses

Courthouses have records of births, deaths, real estate transactions, and business filings. Not to mention all of the criminal files. Much of this information is public record. They also house some historic documents and records that are open to the public. If your character is a lawyer (or criminal) you can even spend some time in the courtroom watching actual cases unfold as many trials are open to the public.

The Internet can be a good place to begin your research or gather general facts, but when it comes to the small details and personal experiences that make a work authentic, there’s no substitute for getting out into the world and observing how actual people live their lives. And who knows? Maybe in the process of researching one work you meet someone or hear a story that is just so fascinating that it becomes the idea for your next work.

(Photo courtesy of Ellen Forsyth)

1000 Words a Day Writing Challenge

If you find yourself in a position where you aren’t writing as much as you would like to, a great way to push yourself to do more is to do a 1000-words-a-day challenge. The actual number of words you choose to try to write daily doesn’t have to be 1000. It can be any number that fits your writing goal, and it can be higher or lower depending on your circumstances. 1000 words a day is a good starting numner if you aren’t sure how much you have been writing.

If you have taken one of these challenges in the past, you may not have managed to complete it. What often happens is a writer sets a daily goal, but something happens one day which prevents them from achieving the number of words they set. They then try to make up for the words they failed to write the previous day in addition to their normal daily goal. The result is many get behind to the point where they don’t feel they can make up for the past days and quit. This is a complete shame because, in many cases, they were still writing more than they were before the challenge, just not their predetermined goal.

There is a simple solution to this which will greatly increase your chances of completing the challenge without quitting in the middle. In addition to your daily goal, you want to set an absolute minimum number of words you will write each day. A good number for this is 10% of you daily word goal. For example, if you want to write 1000 words a day, the absolute minimum you will write in a day would be 100 words. While this may seem like a silly little thing, it can make a huge difference when it comes to the way you process the challenge.

The biggest change is that it redefines failure. Instead of failing by not writing 1000 words, you only fail if you don’t write 100 words. If you can’t write 100 words one day during the challenge, then one of two issues is going on. You either aren’t truly committed to writing 1000 words a day, or 1000 words a day is too ambitious a goal for you.

The 100-word minimum is a failsafe. Again, if you are barely making 100 words each day, then your original goal of 1000 was unrealistic. This minimum should only come into play when something unexpected happens to prevent you from writing, not because of writer’s block. What it allows you to do is to be disappointed you didn’t reach 1000 words one day without thinking you failed the overall challenge. It also means you don’t have to make up the words the next day. It keeps the challenge going instead of giving you an excuse to quit.

So why have a daily minimum number of words at all? Having that daily minimum number means that no matter how hectic a day may get, you have made writing a big enough priority that somehow, someway, you’ll find 10 minutes to sit down to write those 100 words. It also prevents you from beginning to form the bad habit of having days where you don’t write at all, and reinforce the habit that no matter what, you will write at least a little bit each and every day. This will help to reinforce the fact that writing is a priority in your life, and something you are determined to do on a daily basis.

Below are the steps you need to take to set up your challenge:

Step one: Determine the goal of how many words you want to write each day.

Step two: Determine the minimum number of words you must write each day (10% of your goal amount is a good number).

Step three: Determine the length of the challenge. It could be a month, 100 days, six months or a year — whatever best fits your circumstances. If you are trying this for the first time, a month is a good place to begin.

Step four: Determine if there are any off days. Some people may not have any at all while some may exclude weekends or one particular day each week. Again, make the challenge fit best to your particular circumstances.

Step five: Let others know about the challenge to keep yourself honest. When you let others know you are attempting a challenge, even if it’s only your family, you usually make a more concerted commitment, and hold yourself more accountable, than if you don’t tell anyone else. it’s harder to quit when you’ve stated to others what you’re going to do.

Step six: Keep track of your daily word count throughout the challenge, and record it somewhere. If you’re truly committed to reaching your daily word count goal, you’ll find the challenge will greatly increase the amount you’re able to write on a daily basis, and over the length of the entire challenge.

(Photo courtesy of Andres Nieto Porras)

10 Approaches to Writing Revisions

Most people think of revision as painful and something that should be avoided. It’s much more fun to play with a first draft than to try to take something half-baked and shape it into something publishable. If you want to make money writing, though, you have to revise. No one’s work is perfect on the first try, and no one is going to pay you for a half-complete idea filled with errors. Revision is essential.

During revision, you’re looking for more than just typos and grammar mistakes. You’re looking for continuity issues (does the character look and sound the same throughout the book, is the timeline consistent, do the scenes advance the work, does your non-fiction make sense and proceed in a logical order, etc.), things that can be cut or shortened (unnecessary scenes, redundant scenes or topics, lengthy descriptions, etc.), and things that need fleshing out (too-short character descriptions, scenes that come to an abrupt end and make no sense, and topics that aren’t fully covered). That’s not everything that will likely need to be fixed in your work, but these are some of the main items.

There are many ways to revise. If you want to excel at revision, you have to find the method that works for you. Here are several different approaches. Try a few and find which one (or a combination) works best. Personally, I prefer to read things aloud. I always find the most mistakes and “clunks” in the writing this way. My way doesn’t have to be your way, however.

Read it aloud

Reading a work out loud reveals unrealistic dialog, repetitive sentence structure, and many other errors. When you read something silently (especially for the umpteenth time) your eyes tend to see what they want to see. Reading it out loud, however, forces you to focus on what the words actually say, rather than what you think they say. If you feel stupid reading to an empty room, you can read your work to another person or to your plants or pets.

Let it sit

Some people find that putting the work away for a time (a couple of weeks to over a month or more) gives you some distance from the project. When you do come back to it, it is with fresh eyes that see all the flaws you couldn’t see when you were wrapped up in it.

Revise immediately

While letting your work sit may lead you to look at it with fresh eyes, there’s something to be said for jumping right into revisions while the work is still fresh, especially if you tend to be the type to procrastinate. You’re still immersed in your world and you haven’t forgotten where you’re trying to go and what you’re trying to say. You might also be more likely to finish the project if you revise immediately. (While waiting for something to “sit” you may get involved in other projects and never come back to this one.)

Let someone else read it

It’s nerve-wracking, but letting someone else read your work can be a good revision technique. An impartial third party can see places where things get confusing, where characters act inconsistently, or where contradictions or continuity issues appear. They can also give you valuable feedback about what “works” for them as a reader and what does not. Pick someone you know who can be both constructive and kind in their feedback. You don’t want someone who says, “It’s great,” if it’s not, but neither do you want someone who’s so harsh that they crush your dreams.

Start at the back (or in the middle)

Reading from the beginning to the end is the common way to revise. But some people have success if they start in the middle and work to the end, or start at the end and work to the front. Reading out of order can force you to think about the overall structure of the work and it takes you out of the zone where you’re seeing what you expect to see.

Read and outline

Some writers like to read their work and make an outline as they go. When they’re finished with the outline, they go back and read it to see if it “hangs together.” The outline may reveal places where the story becomes redundant, or where things are not explained clearly or left out altogether.

Revise as you go

Some people like to write a few pages and then go back and revise them before continuing on with the story. They make those pages as good as they can make them before moving on. There is some benefit to this as mistakes that could snowball (strange subplots or unnecessary characters) are caught early and eliminated before they become major issues that have to be eradicated in the next draft.

Talk to yourself (either on paper or actual speaking)

When I revise, I have conversations with myself. Sometimes I write these out in a notebook (for example, “What is this character trying to accomplish and how is this getting her there?”) and then I answer the questions, sometimes making notes about where this is covered elsewhere, noting something that isn’t clear, or making lists of things that I still need to show or do. It’s messy because I end up going back and forth in the notebook, checking prior “conversations,” adding to them and making new ones as I go along, but it keeps the flow of the book moving for me and keeps me in the mind of characters.

Keeps notes as your write the first draft

Sometimes you’ll write something that you know isn’t really working, but you keep going just to keep the first draft moving. Make a note before you move on. That will alert you during revision that you need to pay particular attention to that place.

Color it

You can use several different colored highlighters and sticky notes to mark various sections and problems. One color for technical issues. Another for character issues and another for plot. Use still another color for continuity problems. When you’ve got everything colored, it’s easier to see what you’re working on and work backward and forward in the manuscript to address everything.

Revision isn’t as bad as some writers make it out to be. It does require more discipline than the freedom of a first draft requires, but it can still be fun if you approach it in a way that works for you and is effective. Just think about the ways you work will be so much better when you’re finished.

(Photo courtesy of Denise Krebs)

Action Is Required to Be a Good Writer

Action is needed to be a become a good writer

My parents were cleaning out their house the other day and decided to get rid of the old piano. Seeing it go to my young cousin brought back memories of my attempts to learn to play. I didn’t take lessons, at first. I just banged away on the thing, sure that I was creating masterpieces. I was sure that I was the one in a million prodigy who didn’t need lessons. I could create and compose beautiful works without any formal education, thank you very much. (I’d like to apologize now to my parents for subjecting them to that!)

Then came the lessons. I hated them. Lessons did not jibe with my image of myself as a prodigy. Practicing scales and simple pieces felt like going backward. It was boring and frustrating. Did I really need to learn how to place my fingers on the keys? Did I really need to practice Chopsticks again? I did not (I thought to myself). So I rebelled. I whined. I dragged my feet. I refused to practice what was assigned and went back to creating my “masterpieces.”

Thankfully, my parents insisted that I stick with the lessons for a year. The first six months were a battle, with one or both of them hovering over me making sure that I did what I was supposed to do. Then something happened. I started to get better. I progressed to better pieces. I played in a couple of recitals and found them fun. The practice became something that, while I still didn’t look forward to it, I didn’t hate because I could see that it had value. I started to enjoy learning the rules of piano playing. And I gave up on my masterpieces because I realized they were really crap. Once I understood the “rules” of the piano, I understood that I was breaking them all to no good effect.

Today I’m still not a prodigy or even particularly gifted on the piano. (Others in my family have the gift and I know that I don’t have it compared to them.) But I am proficient. I may never play in Carnegie Hall, but I can hold my own. I know the rules and I sometimes break them, but now I understand what rule I’m breaking (and why) and it sometimes turns out well. I occasionally compose my own work for fun and it’s not completely terrible because now I know what I’m doing.

So why am I telling you this story? Because learning to be a better writer follows much the same journey for most of us. When I started writing, it was pretty much the piano all over again. (Possibly worse because in this case some well-meaning teachers had told me that I was a good writer, fueling my prodigy fantasies even further.) I churned out poetry that I thought was deep and wonderful. It wasn’t. I churned out novels that I believed would make me millions of dollars. They didn’t. I churned out articles that made no sense and had no focus. None of this was because I had bad story ideas or nothing interesting to say, but because I had not yet mastered the basics of the craft. My grammar was poor and my punctuation was worse. I didn’t know the first thing about novel or article structure. I didn’t have the discipline required to learn the rules (and I didn’t really think I needed it because, hello, prodigy here). I just banged out whatever caught my fancy and thought it was wonderful. Agents and editors were less than enthusiastic.

The good news is that those piles of crappy manuscripts were practice. I learned something from each of them (primarily that poetry should be left to others because I am really bad at it). At first I thought, “Phooey. Those people who are rejecting me don’t know anything.” But then I slowly realized that they were right. I needed more practice before I would be even close to publishable. So I wrote more crap and gradually found that it got better. I got some low paying assignments and won a couple of contests. I took some courses and read a lot of how-to and reference books. In other words, I learned the rules of writing and publishing and I practiced.

My writing career has progressed, although I’m still not where I want to be. But I’m closer. I still don’t know all there is to know, and I likely never will. Through practice, I understand the difference between good work and bad. I know that I cannot just slap words on the page and expect them to be good. I have to learn the craft and master the rules (and then play by the rules when seeking work). Only then will my work be good enough to earn money and support me.

We all want to believe that we are the exception, the prodigy, the “gifted one.” We want to believe that we will succeed on the first try and be the overnight success story; that everything we churn out is gold. The truth is that most overnight success stories have often spent years laboring in obscurity before hitting it big. The media conveniently leaves out their failed attempts and years of struggle in an effort to make the story more glamorous. Success in anything, be it writing, piano, or painting, requires lots of practice. The oft-quoted number is 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. You have to learn the fundamentals before you can progress.

It’s not always fun or glamorous and sometimes it’s downright painful, but practice is the only sure way to succeed. If you think you can skip it because you’re that, “one in a million,” you might be right. Likely, though, you’ll simply find yourself having to go back and practice like the rest of us. Welcome to the club.

(Photo courtesy of Pedro Ribeiro Simoes)

What to Do If You’re a Victim of Plagiarism

how to deal with plagiarism of your writing

You’re trawling the internet one day and you see one of your articles or blog posts posted on someone else’s website. Your byline is missing and there’s no reference back to the website where the original work was posted. Or, you’re reading a book and you notice that one section seems familiar and then it dawns on you that it’s so familiar because you wrote it. Yet there’s no citation listing you as the author. Yeah, you’ve been plagiarized. You might have a moment where this makes you secretly happy. In some ways, it’s a twisted validation of your work. Hey, my stuff was good enough to be worthy of stealing! But then you get angry. “What right does this person have to use my hard work without compensation or credit?” Answer: Absolutely none.

You can let it slide, but the plagiarist will likely just keep stealing. If not from you, from someone else. You need to take action to put a halt to this behavior (or at least make yourself a less attractive target). If you’ve been victimized, here’s what you need to do to uphold your rights.

Document the plagiarism

This is especially important in cases of online plagiarism where the content in question can be easily removed when the plagiarist senses trouble brewing. Print the page in question (keeping the headers intact), or do a screen capture of the work in question showing the URL. Keep a physical copy of the work of any books or magazines in which your work appears uncredited.

Figure out how much work was stolen

This may be time-consuming, but try entering paragraphs from several of your articles into search engines to see if you get any matches. Search through the site where you found the first offense to see if there are any others. Often a plagiarist doesn’t stop with just one piece. If you find your work on multiple domains, do a WHOIS search to determine who owns those domains. It may be that one person owns several websites and is posting your stuff on all of them thinking you won’t connect the dots.

Figure out who you’re dealing with

Are you dealing with a company, a famous blog, or an individual? If the piece in question has been posted on a large company website or a famous blog, you may have more recourse simply because the company isn’t going to want to have their reputation sullied by accusations of plagiarism. The owners of the website will likely be responsive to your request for compensation and will probably go after the author. At the very least they’ll remove the work in question.

If you’re dealing with an individual who simply lifted your stuff for their personal blog, you’re probably dealing with someone who does not have the money to pay out on any claims. And the person may be a jerk who tries to claim that you are actually the thief (more on this below). The best you may hope for is an apology and the removal of your work. You’ll be lucky to get any other compensation.

Contact the appropriate person

If your work is posted on a large website or in a book/magazine, you need to contact the publisher, not the author. The author will do nothing to help you and may try to hinder you by reverse-claiming you as the plagiarist. Contact the publisher and demonstrate proof that your work has been stolen. If you’re dealing with an individual, you have no choice but to contact them directly. They may be apologetic, or they may want to fight. You have to decide how hard you’re willing to fight if it comes to that. In either case, send the contact person a cease and desist letter, along with an invoice (if appropriate) and details about what you expect them to do next (remove the content, pay up, stop printing books, etc.). Send all correspondence by certified mail, if you can, since this will provide a record of your contact.

Figure out what you want

Is it enough that the offending content is simply removed from the site, or do you want monetary compensation? Will a link back to your original article suffice? Do you want the publisher to immediately cease and desist printing books that contain your content? Tell the contact person what remedy you want. If you want to be paid for your work, you can try submitting an invoice with your initial communication demanding your standard fee. Sometimes that’s enough to scare an individual into paying up or at least removing the content.

Be willing to negotiate

If the person can’t afford to pay you, consider other remedies such as a public apology posted on their site. If the site gets relatively heavy traffic, you can ask that they post a link back to your original site in the apology or in the purloined content. That may bring in enough visitors to act as compensation for your work.

Go to the web host and/or search engines

If you’re not getting help any other way, report the offender to the company that hosts their website and/or request removal from search engines. Website hosting companies and search engines fear getting sued for hosting stolen content, so they may be willing to help you.

Lawyer up only as a last resort (and only if it’s worth it)

A lawyer is expensive and should only be invoked after everything else has failed. And only if they can do anything for you. If you’re fighting with an individual, the chances are good that you would pay more in legal fees than you could ever recover from the plagiarist. Even if you get them to agree to pay you for the work, that amount will likely pale in comparison to your legal costs. You might make a point, but you have to determine whether making that point is worth it financially to you. If you’re dealing with a company, however, a lawyer may be able to recover significant damages for you. Talk to a reputable attorney and see what they say.

Keep records

Keep records of any and all contact with the plagiarist or publishers. You’ll need it if you have to escalate your efforts beyond the first contact point, or if you get a lawyer involved and you have to go to court.

Contact your network

If you have a network of other writers that you know (either online or in real life), alert them to the plagiarism. They may want to check to make sure that your plagiarist isn’t stealing their stuff, too. If several of you are affected by the same plagiarist, you can band together as a group and you may get better results than if you each approach the thief individually. If you want to pursue legal action, splitting the legal fees can make such action a more appealing option than going it alone.

Plagiarism is serious business. Reputable companies and websites will be horrified to learn that they are posting stolen content and will likely do all they can to get it removed and punish the plagiarist. It can be harder to get any resolution from an individual, but it may still be worth it to simply let them know that you know what they’re doing. It may not stop their activities entirely, but they may remove you from their target list.

(Photo courtesy of Dave O)

12 Things NOT to Include in a Query Letter

If you want to be published in a magazine or by a traditional book publisher, the chances are that you’ll have to submit a query letter at some point. At its most basic, a query letter is simply a letter that details your project and your writing credentials to a prospective editor, agent, or publisher. Yet the query letter is a source of great angst for writers because it is often the only piece of information that a gatekeeper will see before either rejecting your work or asking to see more. When one piece of paper controls that much of your destiny, the pressure to get it right is enormous. It’s the first step on your way to getting to submit your work.

Tons of books and online resources exist to help you write the perfect letter. However, in addition to the things that you should do, there are plenty of things you need to avoid, as well. Here are twelve things that you should never put in a query letter unless a fast rejection is your goal.

Mistakes

This is the first contact that an editor or agent has with your work. If it’s riddled with typos and grammatical errors, they aren’t going to take a chance on anything more from you because you’ve already demonstrated that you are not capable of submitting error-free work. Proofread, rewrite, and polish that letter until it’s perfect, and then have someone else (or several someones) read it, too, to make certain that you’re not overlooking something. You want your letter to show you as a competent, careful writer, not as someone who dashes off stuff and submits it without a care. You always want to be improving your writing skills.

Gifts or bribes

Writers will sometimes include items like tickets to shows, homemade items, or even money in an effort to get an agent or editor to look at their work. This strategy will always fail. First, it’s unethical for an editor or agent to accept any sort of gift or bribe. Even if they accepted the gift and swore that it didn’t influence their decision about your work, the perception would be there, should word of the transaction get out. (And publishing is a small world, so word would get out!) A reputable agent or publishing house would not risk their reputation by accepting any sort of “gift.” Second, since they aren’t accepting it, it becomes something for them to deal with, either by returning it to you or throwing it away. See number 9, below, for more about why agents and editors don’t want extra “stuff.”

Anything that reveals your stalker tendencies

It’s recommended that you mention in your letter where you heard about the agent or editor, or any personal contact you may have had, such as a meeting at a conference. What isn’t recommended is that you mention that you know the person has three kids, that they go to such-and-such church, and that you know that their family went to Barbados last year. If you Google the agent or check up on them on Facebook, keep your findings to yourself. Keep any mention of what you know about the agent or editor to the professional realm, only.

Arrogance

Yes, you should give the agent or editor some clue about where your work fits into the marketplace. If it’s similar to a certain successful work, or if it combines elements from two or more successful works, it’s okay to mention that briefly. What’s not okay is to talk about how your book will be the next bestseller, how it will outsell anything by J.K. Rowling, or how it will make millions for you and anyone lucky enough to publish your work. Keep it real, please. If you’re this arrogant and unrealistic in the query letter, the agent or editor is already thinking that working with you will be too much trouble.

“Over the top” language

You want to avoid all “over the top” language, cuteness, rudeness, or crudeness just to get attention. Your book or article may rely on crude humor, bad language, or a unique voice and you want that to show through in your letter. A little of this can be fine if it is truly needed to represent your work and if it is handled well. But when you resort to this type of language and/or style in an effort to shock or get attention, it will fail. If your whole letter is nothing but F-bombs, baby talk, or crude jokes with no purpose, expect to be rejected.

Your age/photo

You want your work to be judged on its own merits. That means removing yourself from the equation as much as possible. You don’t want an agent or editor to know how old you are or what you look like until they are so captivated by your work that age and looks don’t matter. Most gatekeepers will disavow that age or looks sway their decision but bias, even if unintentional, can play a role. It’s somewhat true in our visual world that younger, better-looking, TV-worthy authors are in demand. If an editor knows how good (or bad) you would look on TV, on a book jacket, at appearances, or in a book trailer that may sway their decisions. Send only your work and don’t include any mention of your age or a photo that you think would be “perfect” on your book jacket.

Anything not relevant

When you talk about yourself and your credentials in your query letter, only mention credits and accomplishments that are relevant to the work in question. Don’t include the fact that you won your 8th-grade writing contest. Don’t list your work history unless your work is relevant to the book or article. Don’t mention your hobbies, favorite foods, movies, or books, either. Agents and editors do not care that you love Twinkie’s and Pretty Woman. They only care about the project you are pitching.

Bizarre fonts, papers, and formatting

You think you’re making your submission stand out by submitting it in a 14-point calligraphy font on hot pink paper. The agent or editor thinks you’re being annoying and hurting their eyes. Stick to the accepted conventions.

Anything not requested

Agents and editors are drowning in paper. The last thing they need from you is anything that they did not specifically request. This means no complete manuscripts or even chapters, no copies of your self-published book, no resumes, no cute drawings that would make “perfect” cover art, a DVD of your ideal book trailer, and no head shots. You may think you’re saving the agent time by making all of this available to them, but they only see more crap they have to dispose of or send back to you. Only submit what is requested. If an agent or editor wants more, they’ll ask for it.

Multiple projects

A query letter should be for one article or book. Don’t submit one letter that covers the three manuscripts you’ve got stuffed in a drawer, or the fifteen articles you’ve got on your hard drive. One letter = one project. Always.

Incomplete projects

Only query a finished manuscript or a fully fleshed out article/non-fiction book proposal that you are ready to write if given the go-ahead by an editor. No editor wants to read a fantastic query letter only to hear the writer say, “Great. I can have the completed manuscript to you in three months. Maybe four.” You’re not querying a half-baked idea here, or a book of which you’ve only written the first three chapters. You’re not feeling an editor out on whether or not you should continue with the work. You’re querying something which is complete and ready to go, or you need to wait until it is.

Anything personal about you

I’ve already mentioned that you shouldn’t include a photo or mention anything irrelevant in your query letter, but you should refrain from mentioning any other personal information, as well. You may think you’re “bonding” with the agent if you tell him or her that you have three dogs or that you volunteer at a hospice. You may think you’re gaining a sympathy vote if you mention your spouse’s recent death and lack of life insurance, or if you mention that you are disabled. Agents and editors aren’t cold, unfeeling people, but the bottom line is that they do not need to know these things about you. Mentioning things like hobbies or pets only takes up valuable space in a letter that needs to be as brief as possible. Worse, mentioning things like disabilities or tragedies brings up the bias argument again and a gatekeeper will likely steer clear to avoid the perception that their decision was somehow influenced by your tragedy. Talk only about your project and leave out anything personal.

A query letter is a professional introduction of your work to an agent or editor. As such, it needs to be kept professional in both tone and appearance. It is not a place to showcase your “creativity” or lifestyle choices. It’s not a place to expound upon your literary greatness or to discuss all the things that you and the agent have in common. Since it shouldn’t be longer than one page, typed, single spaced, and in 12-point font, you have limited real estate with which to work. Make every sentence count and don’t waste them on things that are not relevant or which may actually hurt your chances.

(Photo courtesy of Andy)

23 Ways Writers Alienate Clients, Publishers, Editors, and Agents

How writers alienate clients and plublishers

Being a writer isn’t usually thought of as a job that annoys and alienates other people. It’s not like you’re a telemarketer. But it’s entirely possible to so annoy and anger your clients, publishers, agents, and editors to a degree that they will never want to work with you again. Obviously, this is not the way to create a productive writing career. Here are twenty-three things you don’t want to do if you want to be successful and keep happy clients and associates.

Don’t follow directions

If you are told to keep a piece to a certain word count, do it. If you’re told to format a work a certain way, do it. If you’re told to turn in drafts at certain points during the project, do it. Clients and editors have these rules for a reason. You are not allowed to go against them just because you feel like it, or because you’re artistically inspired to do so. If you have a genuinely good reason for wanting to go against their directions, ask first. Don’t just do it and assume it will be okay. It won’t.

Miss your deadlines

Deadlines are set for a reason. The client needs the project. The magazine or book goes to the printer on a certain date. Your clients are counting on you to deliver by the deadline you’ve been given. Preferably earlier if you can manage it. Never miss a deadline. If something comes up that will make you miss the deadline, communicate that immediately and do all you can do to rectify the mess, but expect the client to be very unhappy.

Submit error-filled or incomplete work

You’re a writer. You’re the one they’re counting on to submit a clean manuscript. Errors, typos and mistakes happen, but do everything you can to make sure they don’t happen to you. Recheck everything to make sure you’ve included everything the client asked for. If the client wanted a messy, mistake-filled project, they wouldn’t have bothered hiring a professional.

Be demanding

Agents, editors, and their interns and assistants do not work for you. They can be your partners in getting your work published, but you do not get to give them orders or make unreasonable demands. Asking your agent’s intern to make ten copies of your manuscript for your family to read is just wrong. Make them yourself. Similarly, you don’t walk into a meeting and demand coffee or a twenty percent increase in your fee. You can advise when asked and negotiate when appropriate, but being demanding and pushy will get the door slammed in your face.

Be a diva

People who throw fits when things don’t go their way, who think that they are above criticism, and who insist that their work is always perfect and does not need revision are divas. No one is perfect and everyone’s work needs touching up. Get over it and be humble. Listen to the client and take feedback constructively. Throw your fits in private, not in the client’s office.

Don’t communicate

You don’t want to communicate so much that you become annoying (see #11), but most of the time you are expected to let the client know how it’s going, especially if you are having any problems. Ask questions if something isn’t clear and let the client know if anything might prevent you from meeting a deadline.

Be impatient

Clients, agents, and publishers all have a lot of work to do. They’ll get to your submission or your invoice when they have a chance. Pestering them daily will only make them mad. Exercise some patience. If a significant amount of time goes by without hearing anything or if they haven’t contacted you after promising to do so by a certain date, then it’s okay to send a quick email or make a quick call saying, “I submitted Project X to you on such-and-such date and haven’t heard anything. I just wanted to make certain you received it or if there are any problems.”

Don’t do the assignment

If you are assigned to write an article on fly fishing, the editor does not want to receive your fabulous article on bowling instead. You write and submit what you are assigned, not what your “muse” directed to you write. There are plenty of excuses writers use not to write. Don’t fall for them, and make sure you find the time to write.

Don’t seek clarification

If you don’t think you have a good grasp of what the client wants, you need to ask for clarification. Don’t do what you think they want, make sure you know it’s what they want. Too often a writer produces a work that technically meets the assignment guidelines, but falls short of what the client envisioned for the product. This is sometimes a failure to communicate and since you can’t read minds, you need to be sure you know what the client wants. Ask and then try to get it in writing so there are no misunderstandings later.

Be financially unreasonable

Fees for most projects are negotiated up front, as are the cases where the writer can increase the fee (the client asks for more revisions than negotiated, the scope or size of the project changes, etc.). That’s the time to ask for more money if you think you’re worth it. Holding the project hostage at the end while you argue for more money isn’t cool. If you do this, you’d better have a darn good reason and be prepared to end up in court.

Be needy

Yes, you want to communicate with the client and you want to be sure that what you’re writing is going to meet their needs. But you don’t want to be the person that they just can’t get rid of. Always calling and asking about tiny things, asking for feedback and critique when it’s not appropriate, and asking for detailed explanations of rejections just screams insecurity. Editors and publishers want confident writers, not writers that require babysitting.

Be unprofessional

If you have to go to a client’s office or appear in a video chat, dress appropriately. Skip the shorts, sweats, and pajama bottoms. Speak clearly and make eye contact. Don’t mumble or use slang and curse words. Be polite to everyone you interact with, including receptionists and interns. Act like the professional you are.

Don’t know your limits

Yes, you want to be involved in the production of your book or magazine article, but things like cover art, marketing, legalese, placement within the magazine, and paper choices are best left to the professionals. Once you’ve sold your work, other professionals step in to work through their parts of the process. If you insist on butting in at every stage, you’re going to wear out your welcome. Fast. If someone asks your advice, give it quickly (without expounding at length as to why you’re such an “expert” in this area) and then shut up.

Don’t know your limits, Part II

Don’t take on work for which you are not qualified. While it’s fine to stretch a little bit, claiming to be an expert at something that you know nothing about is wrong and will only cause problems when you can’t deliver the work as promised. Don’t advertise yourself as being able to write a proposal for a multimillion dollar grant if you’ve never written a grant proposal in your life, for example. Build your skills through volunteer work or for lower profile clients before you put yourself up for big assignments.

Resort to gimmicks to get attention

Calling at odd hours, sending gifts in the mail, sending singing telegrams, writing in strange fonts or colors, or in any way trying to “stand out” is frowned upon. If you must respond to someone’s kindness, a simple thank you note will suffice.

Be immature

Getting rejected sucks, but acting like a baby, throwing a tantrum over the phone, sending hate mail, or posting your gripes on Facebook or your blog will ensure that the agent or editor will remember you and will never look at anything you send in ever again. Ever.

Call or email when you’re mad

Something hasn’t gone right with a project and you’re pissed off. Resist the urge to pick up the phone immediately. It’s in the heat of anger that things are said that can’t be taken back and which aren’t even rational. Cool off, think the situation through, and then call or email. It may really be the client’s fault, but venting your anger all over the place isn’t going to help.

Outsource without permission

If you’ve taken on too much work, it can be tempting to ask a friend to help you out and write a couple of articles or chapters for you. But there are problems. First, your contract may prohibit this and there can be consequences if you’re caught. Second, the other person may not do professional work and you could be stuck with the bad rap. Third, this practice gives the impression that you don’t care about the client enough to pay attention to their project and that you are too disorganized to handle your workload.

Plagiarize

It doesn’t matter how strapped for time you are, or how unreasonable the client may be. Stealing another writer’s work is just wrong. And on the same note, never submit the same work to two clients without permission. No editor wants to see that their article is exactly the same as the one their competitor ran three months ago.

Play hard to get

An agent or editor isn’t going to spend days trying to track you down. Make sure that you give working and correct phone numbers and email addresses, and that information is consistent across your letterhead, website, and business cards.

Disappear

If at any point in the project you don’t think you can continue, tell the editor. Don’t just stop returning phone calls and emails, even if you think you have a good reason. Agents and editors will remember your disappearing act.

Have loose lips

Many clients expect confidentiality. Even those that don’t specify it contractually aren’t going to be happy to see you talk about their work or see you make fun of them on your social networking profile. And be careful what you say in public, too, because you never know who is listening. Keep your mouth shut about your clients, your work for them, and anything that you learn about them while working on their projects.

Be a drunken fool

The higher your profile in the writing community, the more that drunken or foolish conduct will reflect upon you. You might be able to get away with it if you’re unknown (but I still don’t recommend it), but if your name is appearing regularly in magazines and books, you have to watch what you say and do in public. Just because you work behind a computer doesn’t mean that you are invisible. You don’t want to get out of control at parties (particularly business-related functions), post a video of your drunken striptease on Facebook, or have your sister-in-law post pictures of you kissing the waiter at your cousin’s wedding. Clients don’t like to be associated with writers who engage in bad behavior.

Publishing and the business world are much smaller than you think. It doesn’t take long for word of bad behavior to spread. If you turn in shoddy work (or turn in nothing at all), act like a diva, and make unreasonable demands, you can expect to find that getting assignments will become very difficult, if not impossible. Be professional and on your best behavior at all times. That’s the way to make money as a writer.

(Photo courtesy of hobvias sudoneighm)

11 Elements of a Successful Author Website

Having a web presence is almost mandatory for writers these days. Whether you write fiction, non-fiction or are a freelance writer, a website gives readers and clients a way to find you, interact with your work, and hire you for jobs. It also gives you a chance to reach out to people who might be encountering your work for the first time. As with any communications medium, you need to to make a great first impression and offer people reasons to come back. In addition to making sure that it’s free of grammatical errors and typos, here are eleven things you should consider adding to your website.

Contact information

This is the most important thing to have on your website. You want people to be able to contact you with job offers, appearance requests, and questions. If you have fans, you want to be able to interact with them. Don’t make it hard for people to find you. If you do, they’ll give up and not come back.

Appearances/Events

Let your readers know where you’ll be appearing or speaking. Use this page to keep them informed of any events you’ll be attending or organizing. Let them know of any benefits for attending such as book signings, giveaways, discounted book purchases, etc.

Purchase information

If you have anything to sell, be sure to include links. You may offer the ability to purchase directly from your website (this will require some sort of e-commerce solution), or provide links to Amazon or other retailers. Include the ISBN numbers of any books so stores can easily order them. Make it easy for people to buy your work.

A clean, consistent, professional design

Don’t clutter up your site with lots of colors, fonts, animations, and images. Don’t make every page look different. Keep it consistent. Make your navigation system easy to follow. Make the site professional-looking. Cutesy might work if you’re a children’s author, but freelancers and book writers should keep it professional. People like sites that are easy on the eyes and easy to navigate. Funky colors and fonts may make an artistic statement, but they can also make your readers crazy.

Freebies

People love free stuff. Maybe you give away a short story related to your current novel, or you put together a short guide to your non-fiction subject of interest. Maybe you give away some character background information or provide a playlist that captures the mood of your book. Post sample chapters or excerpts from your work so people can try before they buy. Think of something that your audience will want or find useful and give it away. People also love contests, so you might consider hosting one every now and then.

About/Bio/Resume

For non-fiction writers and freelancers, this will be similar to a traditional job resume detailing your experience and expertise in your field. For fiction writers, it will be a list of your publishing credits and anything that makes you qualified to write that particular story (for example, your main character is a teacher and you’ve been a teacher for fifteen years). In either case, be sure to clearly describe the types of work you offer and maybe tell a bit about your personal story or how you got into writing. Just don’t go on too long or include too much irrelevant information. You can also include some reviews/testimonials about your work. Depending on your experience and what you offer this section might be one page, or a main page with several links leading off of it.

Media/Press Kit

This makes it easier for the press to find everything they need to know about you. You can include your bio, a photo, cover images from your books, links to other interviews you’ve done, and reviews of your work. These should be downloadable documents that the media can reuse them in their own materials.

Links to your social media platforms

If you’re on social media, include links to your active platforms. This is an easy and effective way to promote your writing.

A blog

A blog doesn’t have to be something that you contribute to five times a day. You can post once a week, or every other week, as long as what you have to say is relevant and interesting. Use it to keep readers abreast of your progress on various projects, or answer fan questions. Post about your work process so people can emulate you if they wish. Post about recent experiences you had at events or signings. Keep it relevant, though. Too many posts about your dog or your garden (unless you write about dogs or gardening) will turn people off who came to learn about your work.

Information about upcoming projects

If you have books in the pipeline, give your readers a heads up about what’s coming. You may be contractually limited in what you can say, but readers always want to know what you’re working on now. Even freelance writers can let their clients know that they’re expanding into new markets or pursuing a relevant non-fiction book.

Resources

This could be a list of links to some of your research sources, ideas for book clubs, ideas for teachers (if your work is used in classrooms), links to other sites or blogs on your subject matter or which you find helpful, FAQ answers, or anything else that you think your readers will find valuable.

Not everything on this list is necessary or applicable to every type of writer. The key is to understand who your readers/clients are and the things they’re likely to be seeking at your site. A young adult author will have a very different site from a scientific author. A freelance writer’s site will look different from that of a book writer. Give your readers and clients what they want from your site in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand and you’ll be on your way to success.

(Photo courtesy of chamko rani)

Using the Sims to Facilitate Writing

Use the Sims to help with creative writing

I confess: I’m a huge fan of the computer game, The Sims. I’ve played it since the first iteration and have spent an embarrassing amount of money and time on the game. It used to be a guilty pleasure until I discovered that I could use it to further my writing. I could play and work at the same time! (Well, sort of.)

The Sims lets me quickly create characters and let them live through situations (well, most of the time they live, sometimes they die) that would take me weeks of outlining to accomplish. I can experiment with various personality traits. I can give them jobs (they can even be writers), let them run their own business, keep them unemployed, or get them fired or promoted at work. They can be criminals or good guys. I can make them rich, or keep them poor. I can make them happy or mad. I can put them in relationships with other Sims (both hetero or homosexual), leave them unattached, or I can make their relationships go bust. They can even have affairs. I can give them pets or kids. Heck, in the latest iteration of the game I can even experiment with zombies, vampires, and witches and even send my Sims into the future or off to college. All of this is fodder for my creativity and stories.

More than once I’ve created a character and let them go about their business with very little assistance from me, just to see what they’d do. I’ve taken notes and used their actions and reactions in my work. If things get completely out of control, I can just exit the game without saving and go back to a time when things were better. That’s hard to do after you’ve spent a hundred pages going down the wrong path in a novel. Even better, I can save a pristine version of my character and use him or her over and over again in new games to create new stories. I can then pick the story I like best and write about it. That’s a lot easier than working through four or five stories on paper.

The Sims is a great way to spark my creativity when it’s at a low ebb. Sure, I still sit down with paper and pencil and sketch out characters and novel ideas. There are some things a computer game can never address, after all. But it is fun and different and it goes beyond just superficial details like looks and jobs. For example, I can create characters that are “made for” another character, or I can create characters that I know are going to antagonize or even hurt other characters. (These can later become supporting characters in a novel.) I can reform bad characters, or make good characters go bad. And then I can sit back and see what happens without having to slog through pages and pages only to discover that it wasn’t such a great idea after all.

I’ve even taken some of my characters and their stories and posted them to the online Sims community and let other Simmers give their input as to what the character should do next. It’s amazing what other people think of and getting their input expands my work even further. I can also take characters that others have created and add them to my game, creating even more mayhem. In a way, it’s a form of fan fiction that spills over into “real” the novels and stories that I’m working on.

Even if you don’t use it for your “serious” writing, The Sims can be a big help during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) if you participate. When you get stuck, just boot up the game and play for a while (but not too long or you’ll waste too much time). You’ll quickly have lots of fodder for your story that will push you toward that 50,000-word goal.

If The Sims isn’t your thing, or if you need more of a fantasy element for your character creation, there are other options. There are plenty of MMORPG’s that allow you to create your own characters and situations, or you can try traditional paper and pencil role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder.

Okay, so The Sims is never going to qualify for a tax deduction as a “business related expense.” But it has helped my creativity and given me a chance to explore new characters and situations while having some fun in the process. I just have to be careful not to spend too much time with the game because then it just becomes a tool for procrastination.

(Photo courtesy of Eurritimia)