Remember that these
RULES are simply suggestions or pointers, if you will. However every
editor I've ever met is looking for these mistakes.
1. Joe and Edna
Beercan.... you know these people. Picture them sitting in their tiny
trailer with their 5.3 kids and their 2.5 dogs. They didn't graduate.
They had to quit school in order to help their families. These are
people buying your book. In a school system a LOT of teachers review
the reading material quickly like this....word count. If more than 5
words per chapter are above the reading level it will quickly get
your book dismissed. I am not saying to be condescending when you are
writing. I am saying that the higher number of people who understand
what you are writing, the more likely it is to sell to a wider
audience, so keep it simple. If you don't naturally speak using those
words, chances are neither does your reader.
2. It is NOT a
publisher's or editor's job to fix your bad grammar! They have
hundreds of submissions a day, every day. If you don't even have your
spelling right, your novel is going in the trash can. So get a
thesaurus, dictionary and grammar book and comb every word. Try not
to rely on your spell-checker. Remember that it can't really read!
LOL
3. Adverbs! I read
an article once that was written by an editor and she was very
adamant about the use of adverbs. Don't use them often. They are
monotonous and rhetorical. Why say, “whispered quietly” when
there isn't any other way to whisper?
4. Hooks! If you
can't get me hooked right away I am putting the book down. So it is
best to start with your action scene. However, do not resolve the
issue right away. Let that scene be resolved at the end of the next
chapter. Simply, get them interested and switch scenes. This can be
the last scene on the first page and not resolved until the last page
or most times it is done with flashbacks to another time. The point
of the book is to keep them reading.
5. Never assume.
When you assume you make an ass out of you and me. Look at the
word... ass...u...me. In other words, don't Google a fact from a
website and put it down as truth. Fact check! Fact check! Fact check!
When you're done with that would you mind very much fact checking
please?
6. If you've only
written your story down once... it isn't done. Before you submit you
had better make certain it's polished. So rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
7. Make certain your
lose ends are tied up. That character that you left stranded in the
beginning of the book is still there! I, as a reader want to know
what happened to him. Don't leave a lead character abandoned after he
was finished getting the main character out of trouble. Cameos are
fine. I still require a resolution or at least an explanation!
8. Show don't tell.
Don't tell me he's a villain, show him swindling an orphan or kicking
a puppy.
9. I as a reader
want to relate to your character. If he has no human frailties,
aspirations, a sense of justice... I'm putting the book down.
Remember that you as a writer are writing for an audience, not
yourself.
There are a
multitude of these. Writing is about self-expression and while that
is true, if I don't understand what you are saying then you are
pretty much talking to yourself. Aren't you? Lol
