Advice for Authors at Every Level of the Publication Journey

with guest Emily Rodmell, Harlequin Love Inspired Editor.

Beginning Writers

If you’ve just decided that you want to write a book or have been pursuing writing for a short period, this is the time to learn. Read craft books. Learn the mechanics of writing. Study plot and conflict. Explore different genres and figure out the one that you enjoy writing the most. 

Connect with writing groups. Meeting with other writers in all stages of their careers can be a valuable experience, whether online in groups such as Seekerville or in person via RWA or ACFW. Start to explore where you want to submit your book. Research agents and publishing houses. 

It’s very important in this stage to finish a book to prove to yourself that you can do it. So many beginning writers have multiple unfinished manuscripts languishing in their computers. I’d advise finishing one, even if it will never be published. Typing the end will be a breakthrough that can propel you to the next step of your journey.


Pre-Pubbed Writers

You’ve finished a book…or ten. You’re writing with publication in mind. Now is the time to refine your work and strive toward publication. 

Just because you’ve finished a book, doesn’t mean it should be published. But even if it’s not, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a valuable learning experience. Each book you write will teach you something and help you grow as a writer. This is a good time to get feedback on your writing. Submit to contests. Judges are often authors or editors or agents, and getting feedback from them can help you refine your work. Find critique partners in the industry. While your mother may love to read your work, you can get more honest feedback from someone who didn’t give birth to you. 

Once you’ve gotten some good critiques or feedback on your finished manuscripts, try submitting to an agent or publisher. If you’re fortunate, maybe one of your contest finals already led to a request. If not, research where you want to submit and follow submission guidelines. 

Some quick submission tips: 

1. Address your submission to a specific person. 

2. Always include a synopsis. 5-7 double spaced pages is the sweet spot. 15+ make our eyes glaze over. 

3. Highlight your experience in your query letter. If you don’t have experience, show us your research and enthusiasm. Tell us why you think your book fits with us. Don’t apologize for your inexperience. 

4. Spoil us. Editors and agents need to know all the twists and turns in your book. This isn’t the place to tease your ending. Tell us everything that happens.

5. Once you submit, start writing the next one. Don’t refresh your email or reread your book and drive yourself crazy finding typos. 


Newly Published Writers

You’ve done it. You’ve finally sold a book. This is an exciting time, but it’s not the time to get complacent. It’s the time to buckle down and work. First, start your next book if you haven’t already. Often, writers find that selling book number two can be harder than the first one. The first one you’ve spent years working on and perfecting and submitting. Then writers try to write the second one in a few months, and it often falls short. So, don’t rush through it. Make sure you go through the steps that you did with the first one. Get critiques. Revise. Put it aside for a few weeks and read it through with fresh eyes. Take your time, so that you don’t submit a book that isn’t ready. And understand that while you’re working on the next book, you’ll still be doing work on the first. Revisions, promotions, dedications and edits will be coming your way. Make time for them. 

Mid-level Writers

You’ve sold a few books. You’ve gotten past the second book slump. You’ve made it. Many writers often fall into complacency at this point. But that is not the way to go. Even if you’ve gotten in a groove and are selling regularly, it’s vital to keep growing and learning. 

Here are some tips to keep your writing moving in a forward direction: 

1. Don’t compare yourself to other authors. Every author has a different journey. Just because someone else writes five books a year, doesn’t mean you must. Make your own personal goals and focus on those. If you compare yourself to others, you’ll always fall short. 

2. Set realistic deadlines. If it takes you six months to write a book, don’t set three month deadlines. Every writer goes at their own pace, and it’s better to have too much time than too little. If you write too fast, your writing quality may go down and impact your career. An editor would rather you set a longer deadline than miss one or turn in a rushed book. And don’t forget to include time for all the things you still have to do for prior books. 

3. Keep up with the industry and trends and adjust and grow your writing. The books a publishing house are looking for change with the calendar. If you’re still writing books that they were buying years ago, you might have trouble selling. Be flexible and look to grow your writing. 

Experienced Writers

Writing is your career. You’ve been writing for many years. People know your name, and it can open doors. Newer authors are coming to you for advice. Surely you don’t need advice, right? Wrong. Publishing is a changing business, and you can always grow and learn new directions. Genres go in cycles, publishing houses open and close, sales go up and down. To keep your voice fresh, you need to stay on top of trends and try new things. 

Here are a few tips for experienced writers:

1. If someone mentored you when you were starting out, don’t forget to pay it back. I was just at the ACFW conference taking appointments, and a good chunk of the writers came to me and said that Tina Radcliffe or Lynette Eason (one of my authors and the newly named ACFW Mentor of the Year) mentored them and sent them to the appointment. Editors always appreciate authors who are great mentors. Thanks for giving back, ladies. If you are experienced, consider sharing your knowledge with others like these writers do. 

2. Don’t assume that because you’ve made it, you don’t need to research and do your homework. We get a lot of multi-published authors who submit to Love Inspired, and it’s often harder for them to sell to us than a new author. Because they submit a proposal without researching and studying what we do and what a series romance book requires. Even if you’ve written 50 books, do your homework before submitting to a new house or agent. 

3. Always keep trying to improve your craft. Strive to make your next book your best book ever. Readers will thank you for it. 

Thanks for listening everyone. I’ll be in and out today to answer questions about writing or the publishing industry or writing for Harlequin. To start the conversation, tell us what stage you’re in and what the best advice you’ve been given is. 

Emily Rodmell is the editor for Love Inspired Suspense. She has acquired more than 45 authors in her career with Harlequin and is always looking for more. Send her your high-intensity romantic suspense novels and unique and interesting contemporary romances. She can be found on Twitter: @EmilyRodmell, Facebook: Emily Rodmell, Editor and Instagram: @nyc_editor_life

All comments go into the party hat for the Weekly $50 Amazon gift card drawing.

One commenter today will win an assortment of Love Inspired books from Seekerville in honor of Emily's visit. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.

We also have birthday videos from three of Editor Emily Rodmell's authors!

Debby Giusti

Terri Reed.

Sharee Stover

Five Things I'm Thankful I Knew Before I Left The Island with Guest Clari Dees

Hello, everyone! Happy Birthday to Seekerville and all you lovely October-birthday readers! I’ve brought hot chocolate, fresh pumpkin bread with a light glaze on top, and some of my mom’s awesome whole-wheat cinnamon rolls. Pumpkin, whole-wheat, and cocoa beans. Sounds like healthy food to me! 

It’s fun to be on this side of the blog today. When Tina invited me to guest blog during Seekerville’s Birthday Celebration (thank you for inviting me back, by the way), I jumped at the chance and said yes. And then I started thinking. What is my topic going to be? What do I have to say? The things I know about writing could fill a thimble. Ack! And then Tina came to the rescue with another email. She said the overall theme for October’s party was going to be What I’ve Learned Since I Left the Island. And that gave me an idea.

    But before I get started, let me backtrack for just a second. There is one thing I learned before I ever reached the Island.

You cannot leave Unpubbed Island if you never arrive on the island.
 

I know. This should be obvious, but sometimes, the Old Tempter whispers to our hearts that it’s easier not to try at all then to try and fail and make a fool of ourselves in the process. But you can’t chase a dream by standing still. And you can’t hang out with Captain Jack on Unpubbed Island if you’re content to dog-paddle in the waters of the Someday-I’d-like-to-be-an-author Sea. So for those of you who, like me, found those first sandy steps onto the beach daunting… Congratulations! And Welcome!

And now back to my topic. I think I left it around here somewhere.

Oh, here it is.

    Five things I’m thankful I knew before I left the island.

1.    That list of revisions from my editor will not kill me.
 

When I opened that first revision email from my editor after selling my book, I nearly had a heart attack. There were so many! How had I even managed to sell it in the first place? How was I ever going to fix everything that was wrong without losing my story? Or my mind? Suddenly, a calm, rational voice filtered through the panic. Authors face revisions. It’s inevitable. It’s part of the process. It’s doable. Step back, take a deep breath, and work through them. One. At. A. Time.

What do you know?! My story and I actually survived the revision process.


2.    Publishing a book includes a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. It does not mean your editor forgot about your book. Or you.
 

Knowing this in advance saved me a lot of worry and panic and kept my editor from being the recipient of frequent “Is it done yet?” emails. That would probably have gotten embarrassing.

3.    Those one star reviews will come.

 
 Yep. That’s right. When you write a book and it gets published for more people than just your mother to read, some of those readers aren’t going to like your story. A huge shock. Right?! But when that first one-star review appeared, it didn’t cause a meltdown. I’m not saying it didn’t sting. It did. But being prepared meant that when I stumbled across it while at work, I didn’t cry in front of my coworkers.

And then I was even able to sort of smile at it. The reviewer said I must never have ridden a horse bareback or I would know the heroine’s rear would have been covered in horse hair.  My horse and I had a big laugh over that the next time I jumped on him and rode him around the pasture. Bareback. Our favorite way to take a quick jaunt. Horse hair on my rear. Uh, yeah. So? That’s not a big deal and not worth mentioning when you’re a horse lover. Besides, it goes along with the dog and cat hair. I just remember to brush it off before I go sit on any nice furniture.

And that’s how I try to handle other one-star reviews. Make note of anything that might have merit for future writing, then brush the rest aside and move on.

 Okay. Sorry. Got a little distracted there. Back to my list.

4.    Being a published author doesn’t mean you’ll be the next brilliant contest winner. Or even a finalist.

Nope. Not even a finalist. But that’s okay. Because those wildly varying scores might mean I’d sparked emotion in the readers/judges. And that was a positive thing. Now it was time to take a step back, get my initial reaction under control, and start mining the judges’ comments for ways to improve my story. That doesn’t mean it was easy, and it doesn’t mean I didn’t avoid those comments for several weeks after the first read-through, but knowing that better writers than I experienced these same things made setting aside my emotions doable. 

Eventually.

 5.    Just because you sold one book doesn’t mean you’ll sell the next one.

I’ll admit. That one brought a few tears. Rejection is not fun. It’s downright painful. It could almost be enough to make you want to quit. Crawl back in your cave and never voluntarily submit yourself to rejection again. But then I thought about Glynna, Julie, Missy, Ruthy, Cara Lynn, Mary, Janet, Tina, Pam, Myra, Debby, Sandra, and Audra -- The Fabulous Founding Ladies of Seekerville. I thought of all the stories they’ve shared about how rejection is part and parcel of being a writer. They are living proof that rejection letters are not the end of the road.
 

So I dried my tears, got up, dusted off my britches, and as I went back to my keyboard, I realized something. I had now experienced these writer’s trials firsthand, but they weren’t devastating.

Why?

Not because I am emotionally strong or brilliant or better than anybody else (I am, in fact, none of those things). I just had advance warning. I knew they could/would come, and I was as prepared as I could be without ever having experienced them before.

How?

Because other writers had shared their trials and triumphs, their ups and downs, their knowledge and experience.

Where?

Seekerville, of course. A place that is welcoming to everyone, be they self-assured, gregarious types or timid introverts; established authors or struggling wannabes.  
I am so very, very grateful for these wonderful ladies who generously give of their time, resources, and experience to teach, inspire, and encourage others, like me, on this wonderfully crazy journey called writing.

You Rock, Ladies!

Happy Birthday, Seekerville! 

I’m giving away a signed paperback copy or a Kindle version (winner’s choice) of my book The Marshal Meets His Match.

Just mention in the comments if you want your name in the cowboy hat for the drawing, and thanks for stopping by today.









Clari Dees comes from a large preacher’s family that spent their vacations doing mission work. She has visited almost every state in the US, helped teach VBS on a Navajo reservation, assisted with free medical clinics in Mexico, laid concrete tile on a church roof in Rapid City, SD, and laid brick on a church in Kentucky. When she’s not busy saving the world as a librarian—okay, so maybe it’s only a school student with an overdue paper—or tracking down an elusive genealogy question, she can be found at her computer plotting incriminating evidence for hapless fictional characters or enjoying her family and menagerie of animals in the country. She can be found online at www.facebook.com/ClariDees or cdeesbookshelf.blogspot.com

Seekerville 6th Birthday Details Can Be Found Here

Count Your Blessings...Not Your Royalties with Guest Blogger Jessica Nelson

If you're writing because you want to be rich, then put your hands down and step away from the keyboard.

That's right: Writing is not your one track to fame, wealth and all your dreams come true. 

Can you become a famous writer? Sure!

Can you become wealthy? Sure!

Can all your writing dreams come true? Sure!

Can you turn psycho in this business? Absolutely!

The good news is that there's a way to avoid a malady many writers have suffered (some call it greed, others the pits, others ambition but I like the term psycho). Nevertheless, I don't know that there's a specific name for it, but I do believe this malady can strike a writer at any time. Some symptoms involve checking your Amazon rank every five minutes, stressing yourself to write so you can pay your bills, and feeling like a failure when your manuscript is rejected. 

So how do we avoid this unnamed sickness that takes away our motivation and makes writing a chore rather than a pleasure? The most effective antidote I've discovered is....

*drum roll*...Thankfulness!!

That's right: Don't count your royalties, count your blessings!    

I've had a lot of wonderful things happen to me on this writing journey. Much like the Israelites created a verbal and written chronicle of all God had delivered them from, the miracles He performed and the ways He provided, I've got my own little writer's timeline happening.

If I start to feel worried or depressed about my progress as a writer, I try to remember the highlights of my writing journey thus far.

2003: My literature professor told me my essay was beautiful. She gushed on my writing. I immediately went home and started my first book, high on the idea of writing a story. (That book was never finished, by the way, but I did manage to pound out 47,000 words in the span of two years)

2005: I took a creative writing course with the same professor. At the same time, my newspaper editor suggested I write a book because he thought I wrote well and I'd make more money doing that than writing articles for the paper (not sure that's true, but it did inspire me to start writing toward publication.) This was when I started my first manuscript, which ended up being my first book to sell in 2011.

2006: I met a wonderful group of writers who taught me how to critique and hone my craft. I'm friends with them to this day, though we only critiqued each other for about a year. They are all published as well, now. Never give up!

2007: I joined a critique group to which I still belong. They were instrumental in shaping my writing! I was also a finalist in the Gotcha! contest that year. It was the only contest I've ever finalled in until I entered ACFW's Genesis contest years later. And I submitted a lot! I still have the score sheets and if I ever feel the writing doldrums sneaking up on me, I totally take those papers out!

2008: I got my very own laptop! Now I can write on the couch, in my bed, at Starbucks...Sometimes Starbucks is necessary to the creative process. Just sayin'. 

2009: A few agent requests on a manuscript! I keep writing on my lovely laptop.

2010: An editor wants a full! Maybe this time won't be a rejection.

2010: It is a rejection but with a request for edits. I was dizzy with excitement. I probably bought lots of chocolate that day. 

2011: Love Inspired Historical wants to buy my book!! I get an advance!! I am delirious with joy (and perhaps a bit of a chocolate high).

2012: Love on the Range releases. But the biggest blessing of that year was not the fact that a huge dream of mine had come true. Nope, the blessing that year was seeing the amazing amount of support and love and money put toward me and my story. The blogging community I had been a part of, FB friends, school mates and family were there for me in a way I'll never forget.

2013: I'm a guest on Seekerville, one of the first places where I cut my writer's teeth. I'm honored to be  here, so honored I brought Godiva. Cyber-Godiva. But there's a ton and you can choose whatever you'd like. I also sold a second book to LIH this year and dipped my toes in the self-publishing waters with my contemporary romances. 

 

This is just a list of blessings related to my writing journey. I don't know that I could count the multitude of blessings in other areas. 

Royalties are fun. They're sometimes needed. But they're not the sum of our writing talent nor the proof of our calling. While I believe that it is healthy for a writer to aim for success, in whatever way that author defines success, if at any time you start to feel the onset of a suspicious and debilitating sickness most writers suffer through, pull out your list of blessings.

I guarantee a full recovery!

 Tell me about your blessings. :-) Does any particular time or year stand out for you?

 Today I brought a lovely $25 Barnes & Noble gift card for one lucky commenter.

Jessica Nelson believes romance happens every day, and thinks the greatest, most intense romance comes from a God who woos people to himself with passionate tenderness. When Jessica is not chasing her three beautiful, wild little boys around the living room, she can be found staring into space as she plots her next story. Or she might be daydreaming about a raspberry mocha from Starbucks. Or thinking about what kind of chocolate she should have for dinner that night. She could be thinking of any number of things, really. One thing is for certain, she is blessed with a wonderful family and a lovely life.

 

For more birthday details, check here.

Confessions of a crazed writer

Myra here. Today I am going to confess a grievous crime from the early days of my writing career.

Yes, you will be shocked. You will be horrified.

You will probably die laughing to think mild-mannered Myra could stoop so low.

See, it all began back in the days post-graduation from the Institute of Children’s Literature, when I wrote for kids and teens. I had several magazine story sales under my belt, plus a really cool middle-grade novel manuscript that I was oh-so-proud of. The characters were based very loosely on my daughters and their experiences as competitive swimmers, and as a U.S. Swimming-certified stroke and turn judge back then, I knew whereof I wrote.

Did I mention this was the late ‘80s, when I was much younger and much stupider (at least about the publishing industry)?

But I digress. In those days I was a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which was not stupid at all. This was and is a fine organization. Our area chapter hosted a conference every summer, and we brought in some really big names in children’s publishing.

At one such conference, a popular multi-published author in our chapter gave me an introduction to an editor from a major publishing house that I really, really wanted to write for. The very charming editor kindly invited me to send her my manuscript, which I promptly did.

And boy, did I have high hopes! An “in” from a popular children’s author, a manuscript that had already garnered a sizable amount of positive feedback--this was a sure thing, right?

Okay, so a few weeks went by. Then a few months. This was back in the dark ages before everybody used email, so I snail-mailed a status request letter, complete with self-addressed post card. And another, and another over the course of about a year. Always the responses were vague. “Your manuscript is still under consideration, blah, blah, blah.”

One year became two years, and with every day that passed, I convinced myself that no news was good news. I mean, if she really didn’t want the book, how hard was it to just say no?

I asked my multi-published author acquaintance for advice, and she said I should just telephone the editor and ask for an update. Not counting the fact that the very idea of calling a big-name editor gave me heart palpitations, do you have any idea how hard it is to actually catch these people when they’re taking calls?

Thus began a very un-fun game of repeatedly leaving messages until finally . . . one sunny afternoon . . . she returned my call.

After all these years I don’t remember the specific details of our conversation. What I do remember is that it started out civilly, me asking for clarification about the status of my manuscript, her hemming and hawing about how she was so swamped, etc., would I remind her who I was, which book this was, etc., etc. Eventually it got to the part where she flatly said no, she didn’t want to publish my book.

And that is when I lost it. Utterly, humiliatingly lost it. Few times in my life have I been that angry--and just ask anyone in my family about how angry I can get when things don’t go my way!

It wasn’t just that she said no. It was that it took her two years to say no! Two long years of my life spent hoping, waiting, wondering. And then she had the nerve to make flimsy excuses and act like it was no big deal!

To my credit, I had kept writing during those two years, but that didn’t lessen my outrage that she took so long to reject this book. I may have given her a piece of my mind before hanging up, or I may have politely thanked her and said goodbye. I honestly don’t remember now.

The next thing I do remember is screaming at the top of my lungs and slamming around the kitchen with a big butcher knife (I was about to start supper when she called). I scared my middle-schooler daughters so badly that they phoned their dad at work and begged him to hurry home immediately because Mom had gone berserk. Heaven knows what they thought I was going to do with that knife!

I did calm down . . . eventually . . . and neither the cops nor the men in white coats arrived to haul me away to a padded cell. (In addition, no children, husbands, editors, or live animals were harmed during the making of this tantrum.)

There’s a lesson in all this, believe it or not:  

Never, under any circumstances, pin all your writing hopes on one submission, much less one manuscript.

To paraphrase an old infomercial, “Send it, and forget it!” Go on to the next project. Keep writing, keep coming up with new ideas, keep getting your material out there to increase the odds of eventually getting that long-awaited yes.

So what is the proper protocol for following up with an editor or agent who just never seems to get back to you? First of all, check their submission guidelines for estimated response times. Allow an extra couple of weeks, and if you still haven’t received a reply, a polite email requesting a status update is perfectly reasonable.

If interest has been expressed but you know the person is extra-busy, exercise patience and allow another few weeks. If so much time passes that you start to think you’re getting the runaround and the editor or agent is never going to get to your manuscript, it may be time to move on--most particularly if this was understood to be an exclusive submission.

At this point you can send a politely worded letter or e-mail respectfully stating that X amount of time has passed and if a decision cannot be reached by Y date, you must withdraw the manuscript from consideration so that you may submit it elsewhere. When that date passes, if you still haven’t received an answer, feel free to do exactly that! (But keep copies of your correspondence as backup.)

In all correspondence, no matter how impatient you become, be polite and professional! As we’ve said before on this blog, the publishing world is a tight-knit community. Burn a bridge with one editor or agent, and you may find doors slamming shut in other offices as well. (Pardon the mixed metaphor.)

I wish I could say I learned my lesson and never lost my cool again with a publishing professional. The truth is I’m not always a very patient person, and I’ve had to work hard at accepting that the only thing I have control over is myself. The only way to survive the frustration is to keep the focus on improving my craft, writing good books, and staying abreast of industry changes and marketing trends as best I can.

Remember, if you hope to gain the respect of other industry professionals, a businesslike approach is essential. The Golden Rule works, too. Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Even if they take two years to say no.

What “writer crimes” have you committed in the course of your career? What lessons have you learned?

Share your story and you could win a copy of Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting, by Holly W. Whitcomb.

In America, waiting presents an enormous challenge. We are impatient, "fix-it" kinds of people — and not all situations can be fixed. This book presents seven spiritual gifts that waiting can teach us: Patience, Loss of Control, Live in the Present, Compassion, Gratitude, Humility, and Trust in God. An excellent resource during times of waiting within the church year including Advent and Lent, the book includes spiritual exercises and reflection questions for personal or group use as well as a retreat design.

That AHA! Writing Moment

Everyone has AHA! Writing Moments. Those times when what was confusing suddenly becomes clear. It could be with the principles and elements of writing itself, or perhaps the writing journey.

I've invited some friends to share their AHA! Writing Moments, and hopefully they'll inspire you!   And if you're like me, curious about the term AHA Moment, itself, the New York Times has a brilliant article on the topic, here.


"My own AHA Moment was when Associate Editor Rachel Burkot explained to me that every single scene must show how it relates to the hero and heroine and their journey. Episodic writing had been explained to me but I never really got it. This explanation made me understand I could keep my scenes, I just had to turn them around to make this point clear, thus advancing the story development." Tina Radcliffe

"I had sent in several submissions to Love Inspired when editor Emily Rodmell kindly took the time in a rejection letter to explain to me what exactly Love Inspired books are about regarding tone, plots, etc. Though I'd been reading Love Inspireds, I'd missed the boat on some key elements to their stories. Sometimes you just need something laid out in black and white to "get it". That rejection was my AHA moment." Jessica Nelson

"My AHA! moment was during edits on my first book with Heartsong Presents. The copy editor (Donna Maltese) told me that a good way to stop telling, and SHOW was to stay in the moment and describe what was happening. That is when the showing vs. telling really kicked in for me." Rose Ross Zediker




"Sadly, I have AH-HA moments every day of my life, but how long they stay is questionable. My first came when I was talking to my editor for the very first time on the phone and asked her if she remembered the pitch I'd given her two years prior at ACFW (yes, apparently I really was that stupid not to realize editors come away from conferences glazed and with very little memory after a gazillion pitches). But I thought she might remember the crazy woman who blathered on about Gone With the Wind and how she'd begun writing her own novel (A Passion Most Pure) at age twelve after reading GWTW. Nope. When I realized that the manuscript I sent her was still sitting in a slush pile in the corner of her office, the proverbial light bulb went off in my "pitch" dark brain, illuminating my first AH-HA moment: Go for an agent first, publisher second. Sigh. Sure wish I'd paid my electric bill earlier ... :) "
Julie Lessman

"I'm not a jealous person. If you get to wear high heels every day and sip on a latte at work while I do endless loads of laundry, I'm happy for you. If you have your own indoor Olympic pool and heated tiles in the bathroom while I once scraped frost from the INSIDE of my living room windows, I'm thrilled that such wonderful things exist. If you can play symphony level piano while I struggle through Bach, I'm ready to applaud. I love being happy for other people and their gifts, because it shows the unbelievable, crazy generosity of our God.  But a few years ago, when Camy Tang wrote a blog post on 12K in one day, I struggled. I moaned. I groaned. I was never going to finish my book. EVER. And it was everyone's fault but mine. I spent two weeks whining, resenting every small interruption, and generally making my family miserable.  Then I prayed.  (I know. DUH.) And I saw those word counts as mansions. I saw them as exotic vacations. I saw first chair violinists and math geniuses.   AHA.

The high word counts are a gift and we should all be cheering when someone gets there. (Thank goodness this was before I joined 1K1hr or I'd have jumped from the roof before I got to the praying part!)" Virginia Munoz




"My AHA moment dawned while listening to Randy Ingermanson's recorded Continuing Education workshop from the 2011 ACFW conference. In essence, he was talking about characters and how every character in your book believes he/she is the hero. Even the villain, no matter how evil, believes he's doing the right thing. In just a couple of sentences, Randy de-mystified the whole GMC thing. The concept of characters having a life before Chapter One of my book became crystal clear and I saw how each character maintained their values and goals - their very identity - while confronted by conflicting ideals and how, by having their beliefs pushed to the wall, the unavoidable self-examination makes them grow." Audra Harders

"For the longest time, I couldn't get what seasoned writers meant when they bandied about the term "deep POV." I felt like I had POV down, but I wanted to go deeper. I read everything I could find about deep POV, but all I got was a glimmer of understanding at first. One day the floodlights went on. POV is "seeing" everything through a character's eyes. Deep POV is "thinking and feeling" everything the POV character thinks and feels without any explanation or "telling" words. It's "showing" how a character perceives the world so intimately that readers feel as though they're one with the character. That flash of insight was illuminating and helped me take my writing to a new level." Keli Gwyn




"My AHA Moment happened as a result of my agent, Natasha Kern, strongly recommending I read Stanley Williams's book The Moral Premise. The concept wasn't exactly unfamiliar to me. I'd been picking up on MPs in novels and movies without really realizing that's what they were. But Stan's book helped me understand how writers can begin to identify the underlying MP of their story and then learn to consciously use it to deepen and strengthen both character and plot."
 Myra Johnson





From Missy Tippens: "I had an "aha!" moment while taking Shirley Jump's online writing class, Good to Sold. On Shirley's checklist, she says to make sure each scene has a goal. Well, duh! I've always known that. But she showed us ways to check each scene and to fix those that didn't have an obvious character goal. I've found this exercise helps me make sure each scene serves a purpose (thus, less episodic writing!)."




"POV was a real struggle for me. It just took me forever to get what it meant straight. Now that I do it seems strange I couldn't understand the concept.
I remember reading a Jennifer Crusie romance and there was ONE paragraph in it with two different people having dialogue, something that's almost never done, which is why it was memorable.And with my neolithic understanding of POV I thought she'd changed the Point of View character within that paragraph.And I loved it.

I was saying back then, "SEE! Big star authors don't obey this rule, I don't have to either!"But later...much, much later...I re-read that paragraph and realized that even with those two dialogue lines it really wasn't in two people's POV and that clicked a light on. AHA! I started to see what POV really meant." Mary Connealy

"My AHA moment was when I finally figured out what agents and editors meant when they said to show not tell.  It was during a workshop with SCBWI actually and we had to print out our manuscript in the smallest font size.  We had to highlight all of the action scenes in one color and the dialogue in another. We were in a large room and were told to lay out our whole manuscript on the floor.  The visual was astounding. You could see where action occurred and all the unhighlighted sections were generally telling.  Woo Hoo!  I finally got it."Sandra Leesmith




"I thought the external and internal things that stand in the character’s way of achieving his/her goal was the conflict. My AHA moment was when my critique partner Shirley Jump said that the ROMANCE should also create another layer of conflict to the hero and heroine’s internal and external Goals, Motivations and Conflicts. The result: the romance complicates everything." Janet Dean




"A big AHA moment came to me via this post by Jenny Crusie. The gist is that when you’re writing, you must strike a balance between juice and craft. Juice is the pure joy of writing—the ideas, creativity, emotion, and excitement. Craft is the container for the juice—the thing that holds it and gives it structure so it’s not spilling all over the place.  Both are essential to a good story, and you need to get the proportions right.  For me, drafting = juice, and revising = craft.  But the bottom line is: You gotta bring the juice! "
 Anne Barton

"We only get one "aha" moment? Because I think I might be the "Aha!" overachiever, with folks bashing me over the head to point out the obvious regularly!  Like Tina's words of wisdom on episodic writing, a big one for me was re-thinking sentence structure. We all have a voice. A style. Our own flare. But words are words and if you're using too many words to describe things then you're wasting kissing time. Wasting kissing time should never be taken lightly!!! Reading a Seekerville post by Cheryl Wyatt, a light bulb went off... If I could re-structure my sentence the way she demonstrated, and cut ten words/page, that would be cutting 3,000 words WITHOUT CHANGING THE STORY. A whole candelabra of light bulbs went off. Ping! Zang! Zook! I re-visited the story and averaged 20 words/page. I cut over 6K without losing a thing. Now I do it automatically as I do my initial edits... Cut. Slice. Chop. Dice. What a wonderful lesson learned for this long-winded author!"
Ruth Logan Herne




From Glynna Kaye "A significant AHA! moment for me was when someone (my now-agent Natasha Kern) explained PREMISE to me in a way I could understand and apply it. From that moment onward, I can't imagine writing a story without laying that strong foundation, applying the glue that ties all the scenes together. In addition to a outer-level concept, I create an inner-level  sub-text, a "what's this story REALLY about?" statement of premise that helps keep me focused from beginning to end.  

At its most basic structure:   ______ leads to ______.  But ______ leads to ______. 

Examples:  
1) Basing self-worth on the ability to please others leads to self-dissatisfaction and the pleasing of no one. Basing self-worth on what God says about you leads to peace and self-acceptance.

2)  Fear of rejection leads to self-imposed isolation and superficial relationships. Embracing relational risk leads to acceptance and deeper connections.

3) Blind ambition leads to destruction of relationships. Love-motivated sacrifice leads to enduring bonds. 

"My AHA moment, by Cara Lynn James, or When I learned about Show and Tell. I thought I understood the concept of Show and Tell, but my editor didn't think I got it. She suggested I incorporate the information I wanted the reader to have in a scene, not in a sentence. For example: my heroine can't find a job. Instead of saying no one would hire her, I wrote a scene where she went from shop to shop and was turned down. I showed the effort she made and her discouragement. It takes up space to show something, but the reader should remember it much better than just a passing reference."

"My AHA moment came when I realized listening to well-meaning critiques won’t necessarily make my writing better. After following the advice of some great people, I made changes in my writing that ended up deleting my “voice.” Before that experience I really didn’t know what it was about my writing that made it unique and gave it the flow I was looking for, but by examining what I had changed and slowly bringing those elements back into my writing, I found the balance I needed to bring the music back into my writing. I also learned how to read critiques – with one eye on where I want to be, and the other on their recommendations." Jan Drexler




From Mia  Ross: "I’ve had plenty of AHA moments, but the biggest one occurred in 2009. I’d only written single titles up to that point, and my agent had mentioned (more than once) that it would be great if I wrote a series. Translation: if you could figure out how to give editors and readers what they’re looking for, we just might be able to land a publishing contract. My AHA came when I dusted off an old project that I still loved. Through more experienced eyes, it was easy to see the story had some merit but no focus. The supporting cast was distracting, and there was no underlying structure holding everything together. Once I realized those secondary characters could take starring roles in other books, the series concept finally made sense to me. If you’d like to see the results of my AHA moment, check out www.miaross.com."



 "My AH-HA involved scene endings.  Early on, I wrote long, long, long chapters to get to the big-bang, cliffhanger chapter ending that I knew would keep the readers engaged.  Trouble was I meandered through those long chapters with details that slowed the pace instead of moving the story forward.  Author Rita Herron critiqued my work and suggested shorter scenes with a hook at the end of each section.  EUREKA!  I didn’t have to include everything the character did each and every moment of his life. Instead I only needed to write the important scenes that moved the action or revealed his inner conflict or motivation or change of heart or all of the above.  I also needed to end each scene, as well as each chapter, with a hook." Debby Giusti

Share your own AHA! Moment in the comments for an opportunity to win a ten page critique for a writer and for a reader their choice of a copy of Ruth Logan Herne's A Family to Cherish or Janet Dean's Bride's of the West.  (one reader winner, one writer winner) Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.