Contributor Laurie Brenner: Laurie is managing editor of a small town
historical newspaper in a past life (before the advent of
computers). She is an award winning author and
has published two books Changing Planes and The Little Book Of Becoming: Understanding The Law Of Attraction.
With with several books simmering on the back burners and current
internet writing assignments, Laurie is always busy writing. On
BookPleasures.com she shares her experiences and insights into
writing, editing, and publishing. Follow here to find out more about Laurie.
The Universe works in mysterious ways
-- most often in ways we cannot even perceive. I recently received
notice that I had written award winning fiction. The funny thing of
it is I used to think that in order for me to have the house of my
dreams -- I would have to be living my dream life -- that of being a
best-selling author.
That is not how it worked for me.
Though it took me 50 years to achieve my dream house (one
that was designed by me and built in conjunction with my husband) I
did achieve it (using Law of attraction principles that I've written
extensively about in other locations on EzineArticles). And it is a
beautiful house nestled on the Western Slope of the Sierra Nevada
overlooking God's country and ten acres of natural wooded hills.
It
is my dreaming ground.
Little did I know that when that
life-long dream got fulfilled, all of my dreams would come clamoring
at the door, begging entrance and a chance to sup at my table.
Warm-heartedly and unabashedly, I opened the door and let them ALL
in.
I have been a writer since I could hold a pencil. And I
have reams and reams and reams of written material from before there
were computers -- which means I had to hand-type them all. Or write
them by hand.
When I was in my early twenties, I wrote
several children's picture books that summarily got rejected one
after the other -- only to find that one of the publishers I had sent
my book to actually printed my book under the name of the
illustrator. Argh, that was a deep-mining experience, from which I am
only now recovering the gems.
This was all prior to the 1976
copyright law changes that prevented them from doing just that. What
I took away from that event was somehow (convoluted though it may be)
I felt I was not good enough.
I did not realize how untrue
that was until just a few years ago. If I had just tilted my eyes a
bit and looked at it differently I would have realized that if it is
good enough to steal and publish -- it meant that I was good enough
to publish!
But as we go through life, and especially if we
are working on continually improving ourselves, we come to realize
that our self-worth cannot be determined by anyone outside of us. We
are the ones who MUST set the standard of our own self-worth. Letting
someone else do that for you is giving away your power.
What
happened next meant a new unfolding for me. The many books I kept on
the back shelf of my mind started flying towards me, flapping their
covers like wings and cooing at me, hovering above my head, first
this one, then that one, until finally one touched down.
Though
I had completed a non-fiction book before I wrote this novella, I did
not really count that as part of my repertoire because non-fiction is
really not my gig. Non-fiction is something I do easily having been a
newspaper editor and reporter for several years. Non-fiction, to me,
is not writing -- it's typing -- to steal a quote from Robin Williams
doing a parody of Truman Capote.
I prefer to write fiction
because in fiction, spirit can speak more freely to the reader
without the writer getting in the way. Fiction is harder to write
because it has to make sense. Truth does not. And the truth in
fiction is the one the reader assigns to it -- it is not that of the
writer. Fiction is a personal experience.
That's the way I
like to write.
Keep that in mind when you write fiction. Your
fiction must make sense even if you are asking your readers to
suspend their disbelief. Make it sensible.
So how do you
write award-winning fiction? Follow these few steps and you will find
yourself on your way to becoming an award winning fiction wrter:
1.
Write simply -- and write as you speak. Do not affect a voice that is
not you -- this bleeds through the writing and gets all over the
reader. They do not like it. It is messy and sticky.
2. Start
with topics you know -- even in fiction -- it is more real that way.
3. Leave the Litter-A-Chure at the door -- Talk to your
readers, do not try to impress them with your vocabulary. Otherwise
you are just masturbating on the page in public. No one wants to
watch. Trust me.
4. Open a vein -- Lawrence Block said that
and he is correct. Write from your heart, not your head.
5. A
good yarn goes a long way -- and remember it is SHOW them not TELL
them.
6. Writer's write -- Find a way to write every day.
EVERY DAY! One author wrote a mere hour a day and created more than
50 novels doing just that.
7. Create dialogue that is real --
there is nothing worse than stilted dialogue. Write like people talk.
If you need help, go to the mall and sit where you can hear people
talk, record their conversations on paper to get a "feel"
for dialogue.
8. Develop a perspective and stick to it.
Unless you are really good, stick with one perspective, tell the
story from one point of view.
9. Leave out the boring stuff
-- If it does not further the story - do not put it in.
The
bottom line is that when you write, write in a manner that keeps the
reader turning the page. Draw them in -- make them want to find out
how it ends. Even if they do not like the ending -- if you write well
enough, they will read it cover to cover. They may say "I hate
that book.," of "what a stupid ending," or "I
cudda done better."
But they read it and felt something
about it. And to me -- that is what it is all about anyway.
Getting
your readers to feel.
I was so stoked when I recently
received this unsolicited review of my book, "...this book must
be read by millions..."
I always thought that myself --
not because of some egoistic need, but because this little novella
really has healing within it -- fiction story and all. When I wrote
it, it was more like I channeled it -- I watched a movie and tried in
the best manner possible to describe what I was seeing.