Write Nonfiction in November

Tomorrow marks the end of the Write Nonfiction in November 2009. I had one more guest blog post, but it consisted of more advice about promoting books. I figured we did enough of that for one month. Instead, I though I’d offer you my check list for finished work.

This seems appropriate since you should be nearing the end of your November nonfiction project. Remember? You were supposed to start and finish a piece of nonfiction writing in 30 days. That’s what the WNFiN challenge is all about. It’s not just about reading the great blog posts. You are supposed to be writing as well.

Assuming that you have written something this month and assuming that you are nearing completion of that something, let’s take a little bit of time to talk about what needs to happen before that something gets sent out to an editor, agent or publisher.

As a journalist as well as an aspiring author, I constantly have to think about the quality of work I send out. This does not just mean the quality of my writing. It also means whether I am sending out material that has been fact checked, proof read and formatted correctly. I have to be sure I’ve met word counts, sent along photos, quoted people correctly, and spelled names and companies correctly as well—not to mention that I have to be sure I’ve made sense and gotten my point across succinctly.

For this reason, over the years I’ve come up with a check list of things all writers should ask themselves before they actually say their projects are finished and turn them in or send them off for consideration. I hope you find it useful.

Nina Amir’s Finished Work Check List

1. Have I said what I meant to say?
2. Have I written as concisely as possible?
3. Have I written as simply as possible?
4. Have a used the style appropriate for this publication?
5. Is the article the correct length?
6. Are all the names spelled correctly?
7. Is the manuscript formatted correctly?
8. Is my conclusion as strong as my lead or introduction?

Also:

1. Have I read it aloud to find errors I might miss when proofreading or editing on the hardcopy or on the computer screen?
2. Have I let it sit for a few days or more and then reread it to help me edit with more perspective?
3. Did I run the spellcheck function?

And:

1. Have I read the piece with a critical eye?
2. Have I asked someone else to read my piece?
3. Have I searched out every passive verb in my piece and changed it to an active verb or changed the sentence construction to allow for an active verb and stronger sentence construction?
4. Have I tightened each sentence by cutting out unnecessary words?

If you go through all 15 points on this check list, you’ll submit much more “finished” work than you would if you didn’t bother to take the time to do so.

Until tomorrow…happy writing and finishing your 2009 WNFiN projects.

About the Author

Nina Amir is a seasoned journalist, nonfiction editor, author, consultant, and writing coach with more than 30 years of experience in the publishing field. She has edited or written for 45+ local, national and international magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and newsletters on a full-time or freelance basis. Her essays have been published in five anthologies and can be found in numerous e-zines and Internet article directories. An award-winning journalist, she also has a proven track record as a book editor; one of her client’s books was self-published and then purchased and re-released verbatim by Simon & Schuster (Fireside) and another won the 1998 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award (Inspirational category), received a contract from William Morrow but remained self-published and went on to sell over 115,000 copies. Another of her client’s books recently was purchased by O-Books, a fast-growing British publisher.

Nina also is an inspirational speaker, spiritual and conscious creation coach, teacher, and the regular holiday and spirituality expert on Conversations with Mrs. Claus, a weekly podcast heard in more than 90 countries and downloaded by 110,000 listeners per month (www.thefamilyyak.com). Through her writing and speaking, Amir offers human potential, personal growth and practical spiritual tools from a Jewish perspective, although her work spans religious lines and is pertinent to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions.

Additionally, Amir has written and self-published several booklets and workbooks, including:

• Using the Internet to Build Your Platform One Article at a Time, 8 Tips for Getting Publicity, Exposure and Expert Status by Providing Free Copy Online
• The Priestess Practice: 4 Steps to Creating Sacred Space and Inviting the Divine to Dwell Within It
• The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation: How to Mystically Manifesting Your Physical and Spiritual Desires
• From Empty Practice to Meaning-Full and Spirit-Full Prayers and Rituals…in Seven Simple Steps
• Navigating the Narrow Bridge: 7 Steps for Moving Forward Courageously Even When Life Seems Most Precarious

Currently Amir is writing four books; she also compiled a Jewish celebrity cookbook for which she is seeking a publisher.

To learn how to use the Internet to build your platform one article at a time, why every author needs a platform or how to enhance your expert status by posting articles online, go to:
http://www.copywrightcommunications.com/Teleseminars.htmlorhttp://www.copywrightcommunications.com/Products.html

Nina Amir
CopyWright Communications
cpywrtcom@aol.com

www.copywrightcommunications.com
www.purespiritcreations.com

http://www.facebook.com/people/Nina-Amir/1180528530
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nina-amir/6/460/134
http://twitter.com/ninaamir

www.mysoncandance.wordpress.com
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http://www.examiner.com/x-7363-San-Jose-Jewish-Examiner

Help writers find the wonderful information and resources at Write Nonfiction in November all year:
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Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are wrote about this month or start a discussion.
http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

Since we are on the topic of editing (see yesterday’s post), I thought we should follow that line of thinking into another area: marketing. This gives us another way to look at what we do when we edit our work or have professional editors help us polish our writing.

To do this, I’ve asked Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, back again to write another blog post—this time about the relationship between editing and marketing. She explains how the writing we send out into the world—especially the writing we are trying to sell—must put our best foot forward. As the adage goes, you only get to make a first impression once. If your writing is making that first impression, you better make sure it “looks good” or reads well

Editing IS Marketing: Boning Up on First Impressions
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

First impressions are important. We all are aware of that as we brush our teeth and try to unknot the rat’s nests from the back of our hair each morning. In fact, first impressions are part of our marketing efforts, whether we are marketing ourselves (for example, an interview or a TV appearance) or marketing our books. And, yes, editing is an essential part of that first-impression effort, thus an integral part of marketing and promotion.

Here are a scattering of helpful tips gleaned from my HowToDoItFrugally Series of books.

Five Editing Myths Waiting To Trip Up Your Campaign to Market Your Work

If your English teacher told you something is OK, it is.

No! Language rules and style guidelines have changed since you were a sophomore. And your English teach may not be familiar with the variety of style choices.

If a manuscript or query is grammar-perfect, you’ll make a great first impression.

No! Lots of things that are absolutely grammatically correct will annoy publishers, agents and others.

Always use your Spell and Grammar Checker.

Maybe. Some well-known editors suggest you don’t use it at all but The Frugal Editor gives you dozens of ways to make it your partner instead of your enemy.

Your publisher will assign a top-flight editor, so you don’t need to worry about your manuscript or article.

Maybe, but don’t count on it. Besides, you can be a better partner for an editor if you know something about the process—and you’ll also know better when to nix her suggestions! In any case, I suggest hiring an editor of your own before you submit your copy.

Formatters and editors will take care of the hyphens, ellipses and all the other grungy little punctuation marks that English teachers avoided teaching, because they didn’t know how to use them either.

Chances are, you’ll catch even great formatters and editors in an error or two if you know your stuff!

About the Author

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction, a former publicist for a New York public relations firm and an instructor for the UCLA Extension’s renowned Writers’ Program. She is a former journalist and editor with years of publishing and editing experience including national magazines, newspapers and her own poetry and fiction. Her The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) won USA Book News’ best professional book award and the Irwin Award. The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor ) is a top publishing book for USA Book News and Reader Views Literary Award winner.

http://HowToDoItFrugally.com
www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo
www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion. http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

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Yesterday we discussed query letters and how to make them immaculate. However, all the writing nonfiction writers turn in to editors, agents or publishers must be immaculate. Therefore, they must learn to be great editors of their own work. That is not to say that all writers don’t need to have their work edited by professional editors—almost all do. However, most don’t have their query letters or the articles they submit for publication edited professionally. Therefore, they do need to be their own best editors to some extent.

In fact, all writers need to develop great editing skills. In this way, we become able to hone our writing and look at it critically, thus improving it in terms of content and strength as well.

Although I work as a professional editor, I thought I’d extend the professional courtesy of allowing another professional editor to discuss the topic of editing. So, today, Lee Pound, a writing coach, book editor and publisher and seminar producer with a huge amount of experience, discloses his 10 top editing peeves—and how to avoid them.

Ten Top Editing Errors to Avoid
By Lee Pound

As an editor and publisher, I see a steady stream of nonfiction writing, most of it filled with easy-to-correct mistakes guaranteed to turn off readers. Since the objective of writing is to persuade readers to accept your ideas, use your techniques or buy your products and services, you must fix these mistakes to make your writing work.

Here the top 10 writing errors I see and suggest writers avoid:

1. Dull openings

The title and first sentence of your book or article have one purpose, to get the reader to read the next sentence. To do this, plant a question in the reader’s mind and don’t answer it. The question must be an item the reader wants to know and must read further to get answered. To keep the reader reading, do not answer this question until you have planted another.

2. Flat structure

Most non-fiction writers adopt an “and this, and this” style of organization. They think up fifteen items they want to give you and present them in no particular order. Then they stop.

The best structure builds on what has come before, much like a suspense novel builds to a climax. Start with what your reader knows, then add the next step in the process you are teaching. Build each step into a bigger and better whole, and bring the reader along for the ride.

3. Lack of characters

Many nonfiction writers think characters only work in fiction. This isn’t true. The best way to create readability is to use powerful characters as examples of how your processes work. They can be used in either short stories or in testimonials.

Don’t forget to include yourself as a character in your own book. You are teaching from your experiences and impressions and that is what your readers will learn the most from.

4. No call to action

A call to action at the end of the book is one of the most important items many writers leave out. Once you give readers great material, you must tell them what to do with that material. The call to action is a specific statement of the next step for your readers.

5. Long paragraphs

Many writers fill an entire page with one paragraph. This creates two problems. First, the long paragraph causes a visual barrier to reading, since many readers will see it as too difficult. Second, it makes your reader think about the book design, not the information you are presenting.

Break your paragraphs into three or four line increments and you will be amazed at how much easier they are to read.

6. Straight facts

Too many writers pile fact on fact as they write, thinking that the more information they throw at us, the more that information will stick. This is not true. Too much information without relief creates overload and stops the reader. Break up the information with stories and examples, and the reader will get far more out of the book or article.

7. No coherent theme

The single most important step you can take before you write is to decide on a theme for your book or article. When a writer skips this step the writing wanders from idea to idea, confusing the reader. A theme outlines the message you want to give the reader in a short one or two sentence statement.

8. Verbose writing

Wordiness is a problem with most writing. After you have written your book or article, read it and remove every word you don’t need. You can edit out between 20 and 30 percent of the words without losing the meaning.

9. Use of jargon, adverbs, passives and big words

All of these items hinder the reader’s understanding of the book or article. Jargon limits the audience, adverbs weaken the sentences, passives distance the reader from the message, and big words make the reader notice the writing, not the message. Avoid all of them.

10. Being boring

The ultimate crime for a writer is to bore your readers. If they are bored, they will not read what you have written, and your message will not get through. Use stories, characters and examples to keep your writing interesting.

In summary, the main point of writing is to promote your message, whatever that may be. Writing mistakes make the writing harder to read and therefore less accessible to your audience.

About the Author

Lee Pound is a writing coach, book editor and publisher and seminar producer. He is the author of 57 Steps to Better Writing, and editor of Coaching for the New Century and Adapt! How to Survive and Thrive in the Changing World of Work. He also has written three novels and three family histories.

Lee’s career includes 15 years as a local newspaper editor, 20 years as a chief financial officer in the publishing business, 35 years as a speaker, and 10 years as a coach and consultant. He is co-producer of the Speak Your Way to Wealth seminars.

www.leepound.com

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion. http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

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If you want to sell your nonfiction writing, at some point you’ll have to write a query letter. This holds true whether you are writing a book, an article or an essay. If you remain uncertain about what writing a query letter entails, return to the origins of the word itself. The word “query” means “a question” or “an inquiry.” A query letter asks an editor or an agent if they might be interested in purchasing your work or representing you.

Remember that a query letter has three basic parts: a “lead” (Yes, just like the beginning of an article…) or a paragraph that “grabs” the reader and explains what the manuscript is about; a paragraph describing the details of the manuscript; and a paragraph explaining why you, the author, are the perfect person to write this particular book, essay or article.  (For more information on how to “pitch” yourself and your ideas, read yesterday’s WNFiN post.)

Once you’ve managed to get these basic elements into your query letter, there are some other things you need to do…such as turning out a flawless letter. Here’s what Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the  multi award-winning Frugal Editor, has to say about how to accomplish this feat.

Five Things to Avoid for a Pristine Query Letter
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

We are selling our work when we approach any gatekeeper whether that’s an editor, an agent, a contest judge, or some other person who gets to approve or nix our work. Here are five little things to avoid so you’ll look like the professional you are:

• Don’t tell the gatekeeper you always wanted to write. You can think of something more pertinent to your cause (and something more original!) than that.
• Don’t use the verb “quote” when you want the noun “quotation.” Some style books will tell you that it’s okay, but agents and editors can be a picky lot. Use zero-tolerance grammar rules for your queries.
• Don’t pitch more than one book or article at time. You want to give just one your best shot.
• Don’t call your own idea or work marvelous or awesome. Gatekeepers think these are four-letter words.
• Don’t overdo exclamation marks, question marks or the use of sentence fragments. (Yes, fragments are acceptable when they’re used for a good reason.)

Here’s one last suggestion from the stable of fiction writers’ tricks: Use anecdote and dialogue to make the nonfiction sample you submit with your query come alive.

About the Author

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction, a former publicist for a New York public relations firm and an instructor for the UCLA Extension’s renowned Writers’ Program. She is a former journalist and editor with years of publishing and editing experience including national magazines, newspapers and her own poetry and fiction. Her The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) won USA Book News’ best professional book award and the Irwin Award. The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor ) is top publishing book for USA Book News and Reader Views Literary Award.

http://HowToDoItFrugally.com
www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo
www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion. http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

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I tend to be a fairly verbose writer. My husband actually calls me “The Queen of Verbosity.” Yes, I can write a lot in a short amount of time. I admit it.

When I’m working on assignment, I often find that I have exceeded my 1, 500-word article requirement, for example, by at least double – if not triple the words. This may happen when I simply have researched so thoroughly that I have too much information for one article, or it may be that I’ve interviewed too many people. Or, I might just have a lot to say on the topic. No matter the reason, if the editor has told me to turn in 1,500 words, I cannot turn in 4,500 or even 3,000 words. I have to turn in something closer to 1,500 words.

You do have a little lead way typically; most editors won’t be upset if the receive an additional 100-200 words unless they have specifically told you that they only have space for 1,500 words. On the other hand, editors hate to receive too little copy. It’s much easier to cut a writer’s copy than it is to add to it.

Given my tendency to overwrite, I have become somewhat of an expert at cutting my own copy down to size. This, I believe, has not only made me a better editor but a better writer as well. To accomplish this feat—and sometimes it feel like a feat—I go through an article manuscript line by line, word by word, looking for ways to tighten sentences so I can meet a word count. At least once a month I shorten a 3,000-4,000-word article to 2,000 words by going over it many, many times looking for ways to cut, improve, strengthen, you name it. 

Write enough articles or essays, and you’ll either get very good at writing to a specific word count or at cutting until you meet it. If, like me, you continue to write long, you’ll want to start practicing cutting words and tightening sentences. If you like social networking, you can practice this every day on Twitter.com, where you are allowed only to type in 140 characters describing what you are doing at any given moment. Sometimes this takes some major editing and cutting and tightening.

Or just take any manuscript of yours, or even a paragraph you’ve written or a letter, and try to shorten it to half its current size. Work at it until you manage to accomplish this goal. The rules are simple: Retain all important elements. Lose all unnecessary words. Combine. Cut. Delete. Rewrite. Make sure the message remains but the ancillary bits and pieces go.

Or give yourself an assignment. Write about something—anything—within a certain word count range. For example, describe how you met your best friend or your spouse, but do it in 400-500 words.

This skill will come in very handy when you get an assignment like the one I recently completed for a dance magazine. I had to profile three dance companies and include a lead to the story, but I couldn’t exceed 1,000 words. That basically meant that I had 300 words to describe each company and 100 words to entice readers into the story itself. You’ll also find this useful when writing short biographies of yourself, book jacket copy and other short pieces. If you are just getting started as a nonfiction writer, writing “shorts” for magazines gets you a foot in the door. Often these stories are just 200 or 300 words long.

If you’d like to look at an example of my own work, you can examine the following lead to a story I wrote about learning to cycle up steep grades. By the time I had included two of the three interviews I had conducted, my story was already double the length it needed to be. So, despite the fact that I liked my lead, I knew I had to shorten it. I managed to take it from 176 words to 78. That may not seem like a lot, but if you can do that throughout an entire article, you will cut its word count by more than half and turn in a really strong, well-written, honed, highly-crafted piece of writing.

First Draft – 176 words

Highly-conditioned cyclists who train on flat terrain or who regularly cycle on hilly routes may think they easily can scale the steeper inclines found in California’s mountain  ranges.  However, they may be surprised to find themselves with quivering leg muscles and aching lungs as they struggle for the summit of the first big “hill.”  Indeed, riding on the mountain roads in our area requires more than average leg and lung strength as well as a unique mind set and skills set.

If you are thinking of taking up mountain cycling – not to be confused with mountain biking – or if you find yourself struggling up the hills on your current routes, you might want to posses a few conditioning strategies as you begin your grind up the first grade – and the next – and the next.  Possessing some knowledge of the best ways to get in shape for mountain riding and the best ways to cycle up hills will put you in good stead both as you begin your conditioning routine and as you continue tackling ever-larger hills.

Second Draft – 126 words

Cyclists who typically ride on flat terrain or hilly routes may think they are fit enough to easily scale the steeper inclines found in California’s mountain ranges.  However, when they attempt a mountain ride, they may find themselves struggling for the summit of the first big “hill” with quivering leg muscles and aching lungs.  Indeed, riding mountain roads requires special conditioning.

If you are thinking of taking up mountain road cycling, or if you find yourself struggling up the hills on your current routes, you might want to use a few training strategies before you ascend the first steep grade.  Specifically conditioning yourself for mountain riding will put you in good stead both as you begin your conditioning routine and as you continue tackling ever-larger hills.

Third Draft – 78 words

Cyclists who typically ride on flat or rolling terrain may think they are fit enough to easily scale the steeper inclines found in California’s mountain ranges.  However, when they attempt a mountain ride, they may find themselves struggling for the summit of the first big “hill” with quivering leg muscles and aching lungs.  Conditioning specifically for mountain road cycling helps avoid this scenario by increasing cyclists’ ability to reach the top of steep grades more easily and quickly.

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Taking a break from my guest bloggers, I though today I’d treat you to a look at the similarity between writing articles, essays and books-the view from where I sit. I’m a journalist by trade, and, while I happen to be a working freelance journalist, I really make my living editing nonfiction books for my clients. When I’m not engaged in those two activities, I work on writing my own books. (Ask me when I find time; the answer: “Not often,” which might explain why none of them are done. My clients books get done, though.) Therefore, I often combine my knowledge of one field – journalism – with the other – book editing – and vice versa. More accurately, I might state that I often see that I can use my journalistic skills when writing or editing books, and I’m sure that all that book editing has helped my journalistic endeavors.

Let’s take a look at five ways you, too, can develop and combine these same skills.

Articles and a Book Chapters Equate to the Same Thing:  While I was attending college at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication (many years ago), I had the pleasure of not only studying magazine journalism from best-selling author and seasoned journalist Professor John Keats but also of having him as my college adviser and travel guide for a semester in London, England. He taught me many things, but when it comes to writing books, one lesson has remained in my head: Writing a book is like writing a series of articles on the same topic.

I offer this lesson today for this reason:  I find that when writers get stumped by the enormity of the task of writing a whole book, it helps to “chunk it down,” as they say. If you can look at the book as a series of articles, this can seem even less daunting than a series of chapters.

That said, chapters are, indeed, nothing more than articles. They share all the same characteristics. Articles have a lead, or a paragraph or two that draw the reader into the story in an intriguing manner. They have a statement of purpose that follows, or may be included, in this lead. A chapter includes these elements as well; if it didn’t, no one would want to read further than the first line or past the first page. An article also has a middle section, which elaborates on the purpose and offers data, quotes, arguments, or any other type of information to make the article’s point, or to fulfill its purpose. A chapter also has a middle that must accomplish the same job. Then, both possess an ending, which sums up what has been said. While an article often encourages the reader to think about the subject further, a chapter’s ending peaks the readers interest in the next chapter.

If writers keep this simple format, which is no different than the essay/article format I laid out in an earlier blog, in mind as they write their books, they won’t feel so overwhelmed.

Journalists or essayists should ask themselves this question: How many essays can you write on a certain topic? Can you write 10 or 12? If so, add an introduction and, possibly, a conclusion, and you’ve completed a book. If you’ve already written the essays or articles, you’ve written a book without even trying! That’s the best of both worlds!

Interviews Make Good Fodder for Books and Articles: Many writers don’t think reported articles have anything to do with their prescriptive nonfiction books, because they don’t plan on using quotes from interviews in their books. They plan on using their own ideas and information alone. However, most self-help, human potential, personal development books, and spiritual books, as well as most other prescriptive nonfiction books, become stronger in content if the author takes the time to interview some “other” experts on the topic. You can then do one of two things: use a few of their comments as quotes to corroborate your premise or simply incorporate the information into your book as “research” and give them credit for their help in your acknowledgements section.

Most of my books constitute prescriptive nonfiction and are based on my own ideas and experience. However, prior to beginning the writing process, I use my journalistic interview skills to pick other people’s brains. I bring my tape recorder and act as if I’m interviewing them for an article. And who knows, maybe I’ll even write an article on the topic using them as a source; if I get it published, it will help me build my platform for that book! That’s called killing two birds with one stone. (I am a bird lover by the way…)

Journalistic Endeavors Create Better Nonfiction Book Writers:  I’m not saying journalists are better writers; I’m saying that by writing articles, which requires that you meet deadlines, write to specifications, check facts, adhere to word counts, work with editors on a regular basis, and write short pieces with beginnings, middles and ends, you become a better writer. These skills come in handy later when you begin working with a freelance editor or an editor at a publishing house, as well as when it comes time to meet the deadlines you agreed to in your publishing contract. If you are self-publishing, it will help you stick to your own deadlines.

Over the years, I’ve gained a superb ability to go through an article manuscript line by line, word by word, looking for ways to tighten sentences so I can cut words and meet a word count. I’ve been known to shorten a 3,000-word article to 2,5000 words by going over it many, many times looking for ways to cut, improve, strengthen, you name it… (I tend to over research and then have way too much information and way too much to say when I write articles, which means I then have to cut and slash before I can turn in an article. Sometimes, however, I end up with more than one article – a nice bonus!) Write enough articles, and you’ll either get very good at writing to a specific word count or at cutting until you meet it.

Journalists Practice Detachment, A Skill Authors Need to Learn, Too:  I also have become very detached from my words, and I suggest all writers try to take this attitude with their writing. When you write articles, especially reported articles, for publications, you basically are given an assignment that you fill. You are contracted to do a job – turn out an article on a particular topic of a certain word-length by a certain deadline. You do the job, and they pay you. If they decide to cut 200 of the words you sweated over, it shouldn’t be a big deal to you. You did your job. You got paid. They are happy. Like they teach in spiritual traditions and meditation, become detached. If you can then take some semblance of this attitude to the writing of your book, when an editor says, “You know, I think this paragraph is unnecessary. Let’s cut it,” you won’t be appalled. And when an editor wants to move a chapter or rewrite a couple of sentences or asks you to find a way to cut 10,000 words, you won’t be disturbed. (I’ve more often than I care to say, had to cut a 5,000-word article down to 2,000 words, knowing from the start I only had to write 2,000. If I can do that, anyone can cut 10,000 words from a 60,000-word manuscript. ) Maybe you’ll even offer to let them simply go ahead and do it for you.

Articles, Essays, Chapters and Books Need Constant Trim Tabbing: As one last developmental editing tip, I’d mention that writing articles, essays, chapters, and books seems to me a bit like flying an airplane. I understand that pilots and their planes tend to be off course more than they are on course (something like 90 percent of the time). Pilots, therefore, spend most of their time doing something called “trim tabbing,” constantly navigating the plane back onto its original course with slight adjustments. Writers have to do the same, looking at where their writing is going, where it is taking them, and deciding if its current course is the one they set for that piece of writing, whether its a reported article, an essay, a chapter, or a total book. And then they have to trim tab to make sure the writing stays on course and ends up at the pre-planned - and desired - final destination. Of course, sometimes an unplanned destination works out better, but more often than not, a piece of writing whose writer has determined its flight plan and keeps it on course until it lands will have a better chance of turning out a successful manuscript.

And while you’re writing, don’t forget to enjoy your flight!

(Note: In case you want to know more about me and don’t want to click on one of my pages or go to my website, today I’ll post a bio for myself! Everyone else gets one, why not me…)

About Nina Amir

Nina Amir is a seasoned journalist, nonfiction editor, author, consultant, and writing coach with almost 30 years of experience in the publishing field. She has edited or written for more than 45 local, national and international magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and newsletters on a full-time or freelance basis. Her essays have been published in five anthologies and can be found in numerous e-zines and Internet article directories. An award winning journalist, she also has a proven track record as a book editor; one of her client’s books was self-published and then purchased and re-released verbatim by Simon & Schuster and another won the 1998 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award (Inspirational category) and has sold over 100,000 copies.  

In addition, Nina is an inspirational speaker, spiritual and conscious creation coach, teacher, and the regular holiday and spirituality expert on Conversations with Mrs. Claus, a weekly podcast heard in more than 90 countries and downloaded by 85,000 listeners per month (www.thefamilyyak.com). Through her writing and speaking, Amir offers human potential, personal growth and practical spiritual tools from a Jewish perspective, although her work spans religious lines and is pertinent to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions.

Nina has written and self-published several booklets and workbooks, including: Using the Internet to Build Your Platform One Article at a Time, 8 Tips for Getting Publicity, Exposure and Expert Status by Providing Free Copy Online; The Priestess Practice: 4 Steps to Creating Sacred Space and Inviting the Divine to Dwell Within It; The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation: How to Mystically Manifesting Your Physical and Spiritual Desires; From Empty Practice to Meaning-Full and Spirit-Full Prayers and Rituals …in Seven Simple Steps.

Currently, Nina is writing four books and four blogs, including Write NonFiction in November.

www.purespiritcreatons.com/wordpress

www.mysoncandance.wordpress.com

www.thekabbalahofconsciouscreation.com

She also compiled a Jewish celebrity cookbook, for which she is seeking a publisher. 

www.copywrightcommunications.com

408-353-1943

cpywrtcom@aol.com

Writers can never get too much advice from editors about how to improve their writing. And even editors can learn from other editors. That’s why I asked yet another editor to join me in writing a blog for Write Nonfiction in November.

Teresa Leyung Ryan and I move in similar circles, and many of my friends and associates rave about her work. I attended a class Teresa co-taught at the San Francisco Writers Conference two years ago (actually I repeated the class again last year) on how to pitch to agents, and that year I won the pitch contest at that very same writing conference using information I learned from her. (I have to admit the pitch I made was for a novel…That was the year I entered and won NaNoWriMo.)

Most of the people I know, however, offer testimonials about her manuscript consulting services, so I asked her to write a blog post about creating compelling writing. She did this by providing a view through her eyes – an editor’s eyes. Additionally, she has used several memoirs as examples, making this post a perfect prelude to tomorrows post on writing in that genre.

How to Look at Your Manuscript with an Editor’s Lens

By Teresa LeYung Ryan

Manuscript Consultant and Career Coach

Author

Since writing a story with the intent to engage the reader is so much like meeting a stranger and wanting him/her to be interested in you, I will focus on how to make the first quarter of your story a compelling read.

I love working with diligent writers who want to transform their manuscripts into page-turners. However, there are things you can do before you give your work to an editor. Let me show you how you can help yourself.

As an editor, the four biggest mistakes I encounter are manuscripts that are weak in these elements:

• Planting hook(s) or story-question(s);
• Grounding the reader with the three Ws (Who?  When?  Where?);
• Showing (not telling) what the protagonist wants;
• Paying attention to language and rules

Let’s learn from the pros.

Planting Hook or Story-Question:

In The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston hooks us with the first line: “You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you…”   Then, Ms. Kingston transitions into her story with:  “Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one . . .” 

Grounding the Reader with the Three Ws:

In Woven of Water, while the story timeline spans from 1957 to 2005, Californian author Luisa Adams brilliantly shows us who she was as a girl (not with a year-by-year narrative, but with a single exquisite chapter).  Because she grounded us with “who, when, where,” we eagerly follow as she takes us into her enchanted world of a “cottage in the forest.”

Showing What the Protagonist Wants:

In The Other Mother, young Carol Schaefer wants to ask questions:  “Was there any way to keep my baby?  Was there anyone who would help me find a way to do that?”

Paying Attention to Language and Rules:

Read the first five pages of Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt and you will see how this wordsmith plays with language and rules. (You can “bend” the rules to create flow, but you must not ignore them.)

Sentences Deserve Your Attention:

 Nina Amir’s post on her blog  http://writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com/2007/11/ is a must-read.

 Remember Groucho Marx’s line “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas…”? That sentence got a lot of laughs.  But, what if you didn’t want to be funny (ambiguous in this case)?

How would you rewrite these poorly constructed sentences?

• He likes to fish near the Farallon Islands and they jump when they’re hungry at dawn or dusk.
• She insists on knowing when I come home and leave, not to be nosy, but for safety reasons.
• Being cautious as not to step on the dog’s tail, the children tip-toed away from him while sleeping.
• My husband still in bed snoring, I have always enjoyed rising before dawn and I eat my toast and drink my green tea on the terrace.

To improve your sentence structure and other skills, I recommend these books:

• The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
• Woe is I: Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner

More Advice:

• In all four stories (The Woman Warrior, Woven of Water, The Other Mother, Angela’s Ashes), the authors present memorable experiences by employing authentic details, unusual story-worlds though real, and poetic language. You want to do the same for your story.
• Also, these stories have another vital component-all four plotlines have what Martha Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots, Pure and Simple, calls “Cause and Effect” linked scenes.  Another must-read blog:  http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/search?q=first+quarter
• When you’re writing non-fiction and do not have the luxury of rearranging the sequence of events to create a page-turning plotline, you can engage the reader by using concise expositions to leap over blocks of time in order to focus on the core themes and fast-forward the story. A helpful website: http://www.memoriesandmemoirs.com
• You the author must show the reader what the protagonist wants, even if the protagonist doesn’t know at first. 
• We don’t have to “like” a protagonist, but, we do need to connect with him/her on an emotional level.

In the fiercely competitive arena of the publishing world, how does one stand out in a crowd?  Building relationships is one key to success in this business. Another key is to know how to translate the themes from your life to your writing and articulate those themes as community concerns.  I want to see all hardworking writers realize their dreams. My best wishes to you!

About Teresa LeYung Ryan

Manuscript Consultant and Career Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of Love Made of Heart, helps clients identify themes and polish their manuscripts, market themselves to agents and publishers, and map out their careers. She specializes in creative non-fiction, memoirs, women’s fiction, and fiction for children and young adults. She is the Literacy Liaison for Women’s National Book Association–SF Chapter, Group Mentoring Co-Chair at California Writers Club–SF Peninsula Branch  and Past President at California Writers Club–SF Peninsula Branch. Additionally, Teresa uses her mother-daughter story, Love Made of Heart, to advocate compassion for mental illness and to help survivors of family violence find their own voices.  The book is: archived at the San Francisco History Center; recommended by the California School Library Association; recommended by the California Reading Association; and used in Sociology classes and Advanced Composition English-as-a-Second-Language classes.

 www.LoveMadeOfHeart.com

Okay, so I know that at least Linda is still reading this blog. (Thanks, Linda, for giving me reason to keep blogging! And congratulations on writing 45,000 words of fiction and finishing your nonfiction proposal all in less than 30 days. You deserve more than just a gold star!)

Linda has asked me to go back to the topic of editing and clarify an important point – the need for professional editing. I offered a bunch of tips of self-editing your work, and I mentioned that I happen to be a fairly good editor of my own work. However, I did not mean to imply that it isn’t a good idea to get professional editing help for your nonfiction projects. In fact, I highly recommend hiring a professional editor, especially if you are going to be self-publishing your work.

You can edit your work numerous times and still miss content issues and serious grammatical mistakes. Because you know your topic so well and are so close to your work, after you’ve edited your project a certain number of times your eyes can no longer see even the most glaring errors – not to mention the smaller ones. A fresh set of eyes on your work always proves helpful, and a set of eyes that are honed to look for anything concerning grammar and punctuation, content, structure, and flow of a book can be invaluable.

Believe me, I realize that hiring a professional editor represents an expensive undertaking. (I know what people pay me to edit their books — and what they pay other editors that charge more than I do. Plus, I need a good fiction editor for my novel, and I haven’t yet been able to afford one.) So, I’d love to be able to tell those of you who can’t afford to hire a professional editor like myself that it’s enough to find a good friend who was an English major in college to give your work a read through, but I can’t in good conscience do that. It’s true that finding a few good readers for feedback and a bit of editing helps. Don’t ever turn down the offer, but distinguish between “readers” and “professional editors.”

I’m editing a project right now that my client told me was edited twice before. She actually paid two people – one who said she was an editor and one who was a school teacher (I’m not sure if she is an English teacher or not) – to read her manuscript. She was amazed when I sent the first chapter back to her. The other two “editors” hadn’t corrected even half of what I corrected. They had left all her passive sentences (those using any derivation of the verb “to be”) without even mentioning that the book consisted of only about 15% active sentences. (Passive sentences are boring to read because they create weak and uninteresting writing.) These two people also were very familiar with the subject of her book, and, therefore, didn’t notice when she wrote about something without fully explaining it in a way that anyone – even someone not familiar with the subject – would understand. (I read every book I edit as if I know nothing about the subject at all, even if I know something about it. And I assume the reader knows less than I do. In this way, I help the writer fill in content gaps, or questions that might have been left in the readers’ minds. You can’t do this for yourself, nor can someone else who knows your subject really well – unless they are trained to do so.)

Also, distinguish between “editors” and “proofreaders.” After all the editing is complete, you need a good proofreader to catch any typos, misspellings, extra spaces, etc, but your proofreader shouldn’t be making grammatical changes. I edited a book for a client who then hired a proofreader who thought she was an editor. He let her go through the whole book and change every “he” and “she” to “he/she.” She also changed how I was using commas in a series, so the usage no longer was consistent throughout the book.

So, by all means learn how to be a good editor of your own work. And when you can edit your work no more, hire a professional editor. And when that editor completes the job, hire a good proofreader.

I spend a lot of my time editing other people’s articles and books. However, I happen to think I work as a pretty decent editor for myself as well. However, most people don’t find it so easy to edit their own work. Here are a few tricks to help you be your own best editor as well.

The first trick involves disassociating yourself from your own writing. In other words, unattach yourself from your own words. Pretend they aren’t yours but those of some strange writer whom you’ve never met. Don’t look at your sentences or paragraphs as personal creations but as impersonal prose that must be cleaned up, polished, shortened, tightened, made more active, etc.

If you have a difficult time accomplishing this, try my second trick: Put your writing project away for as long as possible. Sometimes I have only a few hours or a day before I have to begin editing it. Other time I can close the document and not reopen it on my computer for a week or more. The longer you wait to reread your words, the less attached you will feel about them. Sometimes I’ve come back a few weeks later and read what I wrote and wondered if I was even the one who wrote the piece!

Next, edit the first time through looking for as many errors or things to improve upon as you can– grammar, passive sentences, content issues, structure, etc. With each consecutive editing, pick one issue to focus upon. For example, the next time you edit the piece, read for transitions. The next time, check for passive sentences, then for tense issues. This will help you avoid missing a particular problem in one or two areas of your piece.

My best editing tool comes into play when I need to cut words to meet a word count, which, as I’ve said, I must do quite often. Even if you haven’t exceeded a word count, go through your manuscript as if you need to cut at least 300 words or more. Look at every sentence to see how you can reduce the number of words you have used and make every word work to its utmost capacity.

Then, if you can, put the piece away for another day or two. Read it one last time, this time, aloud. This will help you catch anything you might have missed. If you don’t have time for all of these steps, use as many as possible, and then use this one.

Blogger’s Note: I’ll be in the air traveling tomorrow all day and will try to post a blog at some point, if possible. If I don’t get to a spot where it’s possible to post, look for a new blog on Wednesday. There will be no blog on Thanksgiving;I’m off for the holiday. And, I’m traveling again on Friday, but I’ll try to post something when I return home. Please bear with my sporadic blogging during this holiday week. Happy Thanksgiving.