Evelyn Puerto, Author | My exploration into writing, publishing and other interesting stuff

Write Away

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Evelyn

When I picked up Write Away, I had never heard of the author, Elizabeth George. All I knew of her book is that several authors have said this is a “must read.” I’m inclined to agree with them.

Write Away is an excellent overview of the craft of writing, from the perspective of how one successful author creates her novels. She clearly is in the camp of those who plot more up front before starting to write, but that resonates with me. More planning up front does free your mind for the art, rather than the craft of writing, as she puts it.

I especially appreciated how much detail of her process she shared. This has given me much to think about, and many ideas I can adapt to my own writing. She even provides a step by step plan for creating a novel. While I may never follow her plan exactly, it does give me some direction as I work on the novel I’ve already started. The structure her plan provides will help me be certain I have addressed the key elements that all successful novels need.

Character development gets a lot of attention, and she offers a wealth of ideas for creating characters that readers will relate to, will cheer for, and most of all, believe. She also explains the value of research and how it contributes details that add to the credibility and richness of your book.

When discussing how to create settings readers feel are real, she demonstrates from her own novels how she researches places, and merges real ones together to suit her plot. Using details from her research, her settings ring true and do more than just provide a place for the characters to walk around in. They can function almost like another character.

Write Away also contains a thorough discussion of viewpoint, the multitude of point of view possibilities, and advantages and pitfalls of each. She’s honest about her preferences, but gives fair shake to the others. Voice, and how to create a distinct one for each character, is also covered. She suggests ways to write dialogue that sounds as though real humans, rather than artificial creations are talking. Even though that is exactly who is supposedly speaking, you don’t want your reader to think that.

The book is filled with lots of examples so you can see what she means. Many are from her own work, and some get rather long. A few times I got lost in the story, and forgot I was reading to learn how a certain element of the craft is executed well. I noticed that she used one excerpt in three different spots.

But these are minor quibbles with what is sure to be a valuable resource for me as I try to make the jump from writing non-fiction to fiction.

She sums it up by saying you need talent, passion and discipline. Talent and discipline or passion and discipline may get you published, but lacking the discipline of getting down to work, or as she puts it, using the bum glue to adhere yourself to whatever you sit in to write. The key is without discipline, it’s unlikely you’ll find success as a writer.

In short, Write Away is an excellent work on the craft of writing that delivers as much information as a textbook, but is entertaining to read and very practical, with some humor thrown in along the way.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Elizabeth George, how to write a book, Write Away | Leave a comment

Resources for Formatting Your Book

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Evelyn

I’ve been working on formatting my second book for publication, and got completely stalled out. For the life of me I couldn’t make my headers and page numbers behave, no matter how many times I read the instructions provided by CreateSpace or the help in Microsoft Word.

So I looked for some other resources and came up with three.

How to Format Your Novel for Kindle, Nook, the iBookstore, Smashwords, and CreateSpace…in One Afternoon (for Mac) by Ed Ditto

If you don’t use Mac, then skip this one. This book uses the writing software Scrivener to do much of the work for you. I use Scrivener and love it. However, it was first written for Mac, so the Windows version is not quite as sophisticated as the Mac. The book description states “Windows users will still find it a helpful foundation to build from, but it calls on a few features only available in the Mac version of Scrivener.” Do not take this to mean that you’ll be able to do your formatting in Scrivener.

Being an optimistic soul, I thought I could figure out some work arounds. Instead I spent hours searching forums, only to find out that some of the functionality, such as creating a table of contents automatically, that is available in Mac is simply not there in Windows. So much so that it was easier to forget about Scrivener for formatting my book.

Having said that, this is a very well-written, easy to follow guide. I had no difficulty following the instructions for the tasks I could perform. It seems to me that if I used the Mac version, I’d have no problems getting all the formatting done in an afternoon, as the book’s title promises. I did learn a few things about Scrivener that I didn’t know that will be helpful. If a guide ever comes out for Windows users, I’ll be sure to buy it.

Also, in the week or so since I tried to use Scrivener to format my book, Scrivener released a new version for Windows. Some of the functionality of the Mac version should now be available to Windows users. I wouldn’t assume, however, that Scrivener for Windows is ready (as of this writing) to be used as a formatting tool.

So after having spent two days for nothing, I tried:

Smart Formatting: How to Format and Upload your Novel to Kindle, Smashwords, and CreateSpace by Shauna Bickley

This short little guide written for PC users of Microsoft word does a good job covering the formatting and uploading of books. It discusses what you need beyond your manuscript, such as a cover image, back cover text, a book description and more. It also gives detailed information about how to set up accounts with Smashwords, Kindle Direct Publishing, and Create Space, including making pricing and royalty decisions.

There are helpful tips about what kinds of formatting to delete and other ways to achieve the same result that won’t wreak havoc on your eBook, as well as how to format your book properly to meet the requirements of each publishing platform.

However, it goes a little too fast over styles, almost assuming the reader has some understanding of how they work. Since I’ve been a styles dunce, this didn’t help me a lot. There are plenty of details of which styles the author created for formatting her own books. These specifics were very helpful for me get started creating my own.

Overall, this is a useful book that gives a good overview, but it doesn’t give quite enough detail for the actual formatting. If you are not sure how to use styles or set up headers and footers, then you’ll need to get that help somewhere else.

Then I tried:

Format YOUR Print Book with CreateSpace…and Lulu, using Microsoft Word by Tim C. Taylor

Finally, the resource I was looking for! This guide gave the details, with step by step instructions and screen shots that got me through. I finally think I have some comprehension of styles. Following the instructions in the book, I was able to make those unruly headers and footers behave.

My one beef is that the tips given are not presented in the order you should do them. The section that gives instructions on how to set up section breaks comes after the header and footer section. But at the beginning of the book, the author clearly advised readers to read the whole book, experiment on a sample manuscript (not the one you plan on formatting), and then go back and format your manuscript. Had I followed that advice, I would have saved myself some time.

Another valuable feature is that instructions are given for Word 2007, as well as for older versions of Word. Additionally, information about formatting eBooks is also included.

If you want detailed instructions of how to format, this is the guide for you.

Posted in Publishing | Tagged book formatting, format a book, publishing your own book, self publishing | Leave a comment

Flying Cars are Now a Reality

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Evelyn

I grew up watching the Jetsons, and longed for the day when like Judy Jetson, I would travel by flying car. Decades passed, and it seemed that flying cars would remain just an impossible dream, as fantastic as the scenes from Star Wars with the flying traffic making its way through the city in an orderly fashion.

Not only could you avoid getting stuck in rush hour traffic, but think of the possibilities. Want a picnic in a remote spot? Need to get to a small town not served by commercial airlines? Or just want to drop in on an old friend who lives far away? Or maybe you just need to get out of town in a hurry.

Whatever your reason for wanting a flying car, there’s hope. Flying cars are already in production. The first model to go on sale was developed for the rich, and reflects the sleek design of science fiction.

The second was developed for humanitarian purposes, with a focus on ease of use and safety. Check out their video, which explains how they came up with the design they are using.

Anyone else want a flying car? Which would you buy, and how would you use it?

Posted in Fiction becoming reality | Tagged flying cars, science fiction | Leave a comment

Words that Work

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Evelyn

As writers, or even as human beings, we all want our words to work for us. We want to communicate, to persuade, to amuse our listeners.

Frank Luntz’s Words that Work is an engrossing read of words that do work, whether in politics, business or just everyday life. He doesn’t just give his opinions. Rather, they are backed up with extensive focus group and other research.

Luntz summarizes his book in just one sentence: It’s not what you say, but what you hear. Using case studies and examples, he demonstrates just how easy it is to think you are saying one thing but your audience hears another.

He sets up ten rules for effective communication:

1. Simplicity: Use small words
2. Brevity: Use short sentences
3. Credibility is as important as philosophy
4. Consistency matters
5. Novelty: Offer something new
6. Sound and texture matter
7. Speak aspirationally
8. Visualize
9. Ask a question
10. Provide context and explain relevance

Throughout the book, as he shares anecdotes of companies and politicians who communicated well (or not so well), he explains which of the rules were followed and which were broken. This made it very clear just how powerful the right words can be, and how deadly the wrong ones are.

Astounding to me were the examples from politics and commerce of people or companies who needed desperately to communicate with the public and either completely failed to do so, or used silence as their communication strategy. Luntz suggests other ways they could have shared their message, potentially avoiding the disaster that happened.

One chapter lists 21 words or phrases that will work in 21st century communications, with sometimes lengthy explanations why. It’s interesting, just coming off the 2012 elections, to note the politicians who used these in their campaigns, and the ones who did not.

Some reviewers gave Words that Work a one star rating, largely because they took exception to Dr. Luntz’s political views. Those ratings do not do justice to the research and analysis that went into the conclusions of the book. The political bent of the author is irrelevant to the worth of his findings.

I was interested in this book primarily as a writer (although I found the entire thing fascinating). Much of what I learned will be helpful as I write website copy, the copy for the back covers of my books, and any other advertising copy I’ll need. For me, learning to follow Rule #2 (short sentences) will be a challenge.

Overall, Words that Work is a useful read for anyone who uses words for a living and wants to harness their power effectively.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged words that work | Leave a comment

What Moving Taught Me About Writing

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Evelyn

Last month we moved from one state to another. Writing got shoved to the bottom of my do list. Packing, cleaning, unpacking, finding my way around a new city, on top of Christmas shopping, travelling to visit relatives and a trip to Florida for a funeral had to take priority.

As I was lamenting my lack of time to write, I learned some things from moving that can help me become a better writer.

Let Go of Junk, and then Let Go of Some More

We thought we did this. When I was unpacking, I found lots of stuff I really didn’t want that the movers had lovingly swaddled in paper. I also uncovered stuff I didn’t know we had. It all got in the way of figuring out just where to put things.

There are plenty of distractions in the writing life. They need to be as ruthlessly purged as the decorative glass plate I think I might need some day, or the ugly serving platter given as a gift by someone I didn’t want to offend. Whatever they are, whether instant messenger or the solitaire game on the computer, I need to get rid of things that allow me to waste time.

Social media can be a trap as well. One writer I know sets a timer, and does what she needs to do on Facebook or Twitter. When the timer goes off, back to work she goes.

Break it up into Small Pieces

I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of boxes the movers brought into my new house. Wistfully I thought of the days when everything I owned fit in my car. Where to start? And where does it all go?

I picked one room (master bedroom) and got that one done. Then I moved on to the kitchen. I worked on one room at a time, and pretended I didn’t see the boxes in the others. Six weeks later I’m still not done, but I can count the unpacked boxes on my fingers. And I’m ignoring all the books stacked up on the floor because we ran out of shelves. In the dejunking process, we gave away too many bookshelves. Oops.

My writing to do list is often overly ambitious, and I’m discouraged by all the projects I have going that don’t ever seem to get done. I’ve found that setting daily goals makes it all more manageable. One at a time, I work my list, and I don’t worry about what I’m not going to get to today.

Look at Things Differently

I saw a pile of boxes: my cat saw a great place for a nap.

Sometimes looking at my writing from a different perspective helps. An article that’s not working can be reworked into a short story. A scene can have a greater impact if it’s moved to a different setting, or just a different place in the book. Changing point of view in many scenes in Beyond the Rapids helped me turn otherwise dull moments into scenes with life. A fresh view can make all the difference.

Get Some Help

Since we are new in town, we didn’t know anyone to call for help. Most days my husband was at work, and I was alone (I can’t really say the cat did more than provide some entertainment). The days Tony was able to do some unpacking, the job moved along so much quicker. Just having another opinion on where to put things made a huge difference.

Outside opinions have often helped me, especially when I felt stuck. They don’t always provide the answer, but sometimes what they said triggered a revival of inspiration.

Don’t Give Up

I worked on my kitchen for two days, and still had a mountain of boxes. But I kept at it, box by box, and it finally got done. Keep taking it box by box, piece by piece amazing how fast it will get done.

The same is true for writing. Even a goal of one page a day will result in a full length novel in less than a year.

Does anyone else have some insights into writing moving or other life changes have taught? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Posted in Writing | Tagged writing tips | Leave a comment

After 10 Years, it’s Time to Set some Goals

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Evelyn

Even though I didn’t know it, my writing career began 10 years ago. It’s high time I set some goals for my writing.

It’s a funny confession, coming from someone who worked as a professional strategic planner and marketer in the health care industry. I have made attempts at setting writing goals in the past. The problem was I was creating goals for a mission I didn’t really believe in. Deep down, I wasn’t sure I wanted to achieve what I was putting on paper.

The result was since I really didn’t care about the kind of writing I was doing, I found myself losing interest. Motivation was harder to come by. I knew I was in trouble when cleaning my toilets or weeding the garden were more appealing tasks.

The lesson here for anyone who works independently is that you have to care about what you are doing. Deeply. Passionately.

I’ve read those words many times in other blogs and books. Now I know that they are true. You can’t write just for the potential money you will make or because someone else tells you it’s a good genre to get into. Or whatever reason.

Part of my struggle was not understanding what I cared passionately about. I had a hard time thinking of things I wanted to write about that excited me. Where I went wrong was confusing the excitement of skiing down a mountain with being gripped by an idea or concept that keeps invading your thoughts that you think about on and off and can’t get out of your mind. It’s a different kind of passion and excitement.

But now I’ve come to the point where I know what I want to do with my writing career, and that it write novels that entertain and explore questions of good against evil and how these ideas can be defined very differently, depending on one’s world view.

So what about you? Have you found something you are passionate about enough to write about? Got some 2013 goals set? Here’s my first stab at mine:

1. Finish and publish my book on what I learned about writing, publishing, and marketing books
2. Write and publish 2 novels
3. Figure out just how to use Facebook effectively as a marketing strategy
4. Do 20 speaking engagements

One thing I’ve learned about goals: big ones don’t get done unless there are some smaller steps to shoot for, every month, every week, and every day.

This means I have a target of 1000 words every day, while I am in the first draft stage. I’ll spend a little time refining these into monthly and weekly targets, without going into too much detail. (The last think I want to do is spend too much time on goals and not enough on actual work!)

But for now, I’ve got some quarterly milestones set:

January to March

1. Finish and publish writing book
2. Draft Novel #1
3. Find beta readers
4. Investigate speaking engagement possibilities

April to June

1. Draft Novel #2
2. Receive feedback on #1 from beta readers
3. Start booking speaking engagements
4. Come up with a Facebook strategy and use it

July to September

1. Edit and publish Novel #1
2. Receive feedback on #2 from beta readers
3. Do 10 speaking engagements

October to November

1. Edit and publish Novel #2
2. Start planning Novel #3
3. Do 10 speaking engagements

Posted in Writing | Tagged Writing goals | Leave a comment

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Evelyn

This month I read How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, which is a great primer that would be valuable for anyone just starting to write in these genres.

Card covers the topic in five sections:

1. The Infinite Boundary, which helps the reader divide science fiction from fantasy, and gives an overview of the multitude of sub-genres that exist.

2. World Creation, which provides valuable tips on generating ideas and creating the world that will be the setting for your story. World creation involves more than just naming a planet; Card offers guidance on creating the rules of magic, language, and more.

3. Story Construction covers deciding who the main character is, where the story begins and ends, and types of stories. While much of this information is basic writing, Card gives examples from science fiction that reinforce his points.

4. Writing Well highlights many common errors that writers (and not just beginners) fall into, as well as giving examples good writing.

5. The Life and Business of Writing gives advice on agents, publishing and more.

One valuable feature of the book is the numerous examples of well-written and not-so-well-written science fiction. These do tend to be more science fiction than fantasy, so fantasy authors may be disappointed. Another is the extensive list of science fiction and fantasy authors Card recommends.

This book seems to be geared to anyone new to writing science fiction or fantasy, and especially a newer writer. I’m glad to have found a short book that has all the basics covered so clearly. It will serve me well as a great reference whenever I get bogged down or just want to refocus.

While somewhat dated, especially in the publishing section, most of the book present writing tips that are timeless. While I already knew some of what Card taught, his book filled in some gaps in my knowledge. Each author brings their own perspective to the writing and creative process, and I learned much from Card’s slant on what I had learned elsewhere.

Beyond the writing tips, Card’s book is inspirational. He closes one chapter with what I think sums up one of the great purposes of science fiction and fantasy: “Speculative fiction […] provides a lens through which to view the real world better than it could ever be seen with the natural eye.”

Beginning writers, anyone new to writing science fiction, or any writer who wants a short work on the basics of fiction writing will all benefit from reading this book.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged How to Write Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card | Leave a comment

Character and Point of View Need to Work Together

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Evelyn

I’ve just finished another indie book that was an enjoyable, imaginative story slightly flawed by some writing mistakes. This time, at least, the writing problems didn’t exasperate me to the point of wanting to quit reading.

But it’s worth discussing what I thought was wrong. The book was shown mostly from the point of view of a fairly young male. As a character, he was well-drawn and likeable, good traits for the hero of the book. However, nearly every time a new female character was introduced (or entered a scene), the author gave us a detailed description of what she was wearing, far more details than most males would notice, let alone comment upon.

Setting aside that the clothes probably didn’t need to be described quite so extensively, unless the point of view character (in this case, the young male) was really into women’s apparel, it didn’t make sense to me that he was that interested in the lace details and so on that the women were wearing. After he fell in love with one of them, it would have been slightly more believable that he would observe the details of her dress, but not completely.

In addition, with only one or two exceptions, what the women were wearing had almost no bearing on the plot, other than to show social status. It seemed to me that the author loved the descriptions of the clothes and so included them, but they detracted from her book. Had the descriptions of the clothing been presented from the point of view of one of the female characters, with some reason why she was so hung up on what the others were wearing, it would have helped, rather than hindered, the flow of the novel.

The lesson here is that information given by the point of view character has to mesh with what that character knows and would be interested in observing. I’ve been guilty of this error myself. In my own book, I have a worried 12 year old boy notice the spring flowers he was walking by. One of my beta readers pointed this out, saying she didn’t think he’d care about the flowers. I let it stand, since he commented on the flowers because his younger sister was picking them, slowing down their progress. I have to admit, it was a case of liking my sentence and my imagery and not taking an objective look at my prose to decide if it helped the story or not.

This reminds of a scene in one of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels in which he suggests that his writer friend completely rewrite one of her books. She objects, saying it would be painful.

“What does it matter,” he responded, “if it makes a better book?”

May we all be willing to endure the pain of chopping out our favorite lines and paragraphs if we end up with better books.

Posted in Writing | Tagged point of view, writing tips | Leave a comment

The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Evelyn

Book Review: The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova

Aptly named, Ben Bova’s book dissects various points of the craft of writing, showing where many writers fall short. He uses some of his own short stories to illustrate his points, which I think is one of the strengths of the book. His format of discussing the theory, providing an example through a short story, and then giving an analysis with a checklist is a great way to present a wealth of information in an understandable way, easy to remember way.

In reading some of the negative reviews, I get the sense the reviewers interpreted “science fiction that sells” as “science fiction written to fit the hot selling formula of the day.” I don’t see it that way. I think Bova was attempting to teach writers to create high quality fiction that readers, editors, and publishers will want to buy. He is inspiring as he challenges writers to turn their ideas into fresh stories that challenge readers to think. That’s hardly teaching writing by formula, in my opinion.

Other reviewers have commented that Bova includes practical pointers that other books on writing overlook. I fully agree, and appreciate that he included so many useful suggestions. His chapters on character, background, conflict and plot all clearly explain how a writer creates and combines these elements to develop a gripping story.

Later chapters cover novel writing. The chapter on thinking out your novel before you write it gives some great suggestions on how to prepare enough outline and background information so you can write more efficiently. He does mention that your characters may take over the story, causing you to rewrite the outline. But that’s a better place to be than having to scrap large sections of a novel that just don’t work.

His final two chapters discuss one of the science fiction writer’s main goals: the get the reader to think. He shares ways to develop themes and ideas, and where to find inspiration.

Given the book’s 1994 publication date, it is a little dated in terms of the publishing industry and technology. Surely it is no longer necessary to tell people not to submit handwritten manuscripts. The massive rise of self-publishing happened long after Bova wrote this book. However, his advice on writing is as relevant as it ever was.

As someone who has never tried to write science fiction, I consider this book to be a great resource as I try to write in a new genre. Much of his advice would be useful to writers in any genre. Given all the material this book contains, I’m delighted I read it and would recommend it highly.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged Ben Bova, writing science fiction | Leave a comment

Many Reasons to Give Thanks

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Evelyn

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, mainly because it is one holiday that has not been commercialized and its true meaning is still acknowledged. I have many reasons to give thanks this year.

Professionally I am grateful that my writing has received some recognition. Last weekend, I attended the awards ceremony to accept my Reader’s Favorite bronze medal. Until I won this award, I swung between believing in the story I told in Beyond the Rapids, and wondering if I had not done it justice. Had I done a good job? Or a rotten one?

Favorable reviews and the bronze medal helped answer that question.

As a result, I decided to pursue writing full time. I’m thankful for this new direction and new career.
My wonderful husband is supportive, for which I am grateful. On the personal side, we’ve seen two friends and a relative cured of cancer and one stepdaughter graduate from pharmacy school and find a job.

God has blessed us abundantly this year. May He do the same for all of you.

Posted in Marketing | Tagged book award, Reader's Favorite, Thanksgiving | Leave a comment

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