Tag Archive for: catholic writing

Religion and Politics – A Polite Conversation

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You know the old saw about not bringing up religion and politics in polite company? Well, I’m going to bring up both, as we have just entered the second annual Fortnight for Freedom. The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has again called for two weeks of prayer and action to address many current challenges to religious liberty. As Catholics, how do these two facets of our lives intersect?

Last year, a few days after the election, I attended an evening presentation by Archbishop Charles Thompson of Evansville, Indiana. He opened his remarks by relating an encounter with one of his archdiocesan priests who had asked how he was to comfort parishioners distressed with the outcome of the election. His response was something to the effect of, “I was upset when I woke up and heard the results, too.” He paused, then added, “Of course, as a Catholic, I would have been just as upset no matter who won.”

That is the only statement I remember from the whole evening.

Political parties and governments are man-made, not God-created. Therefore, no party will embrace the full truth Christ preached. Yet, I know staunch Democrats and staunch Republicans who cannot fathom being Catholic without being a diehard member of their party.

A year ago, I believed that all Catholics knew more about their faith than I did. I am a convert, granted, from some thirty years ago, but the instruction I received prior to becoming Catholic was pretty spotty. To me, ‘conversion’ was nothing more than attending a different church – one with lots more ritual than I was used to, but hey. No biggie. Years passed. Then I encountered my first anti-Catholic sentiment. This was a turning point. I realized I was poorly equipped to explain my faith, which had quietly become the basis of who I am. I poured my energies into learning about the reasons behind all those ‘unreasonable’ tenets held by Catholics. This is not to say that I don’t struggle, because there are some teachings that are hard for me. But rather than turn my back on the Church, I have learned to accept some mystery.

I have come to realize that many of us (Catholics) do not understand, much less embrace, those core beliefs. Regular readers of this blog likely do, but the average Catholic, maybe not so much. And this is why our government, elected by us, is able to erode our freedom of religious liberty.

What steps are necessary to reclaim and restore those freedoms?

Remember (or perhaps understand) that as Catholics, we do not hold to a single conversion experience; rather, our lives are a continual conversion toward God. Moment by moment, we conform to His image, His reasoning. This is an ongoing, life-long process. With that in mind, we can do some of the following:

First, pray. Then pray. And last, pray. Pray for ourselves, that we become more Christ-like in our hearts, so that we can carry out the work of His kingdom within our sphere of influence. Pray for our leaders, both in the Church and in the government, that all will work for the good of the poor and the oppressed. Pray for those we don’t understand; pray for our enemies. Often, when we open ourselves to listening to others, we discover we have far more in common than we have differences.

Catechize ourselves. If you don’t understand why the Church teaches against contraception, read Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. An excellent resource in understanding the Bible itself is Jeff Cavins’ Great Adventure Bible Timeline series. Have you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church? I highly recommend it. In the past, I had used my Catechism like a dictionary. Have a question? Find the topic in the Catechism, look it up, and read two or three paragraphs about the subject. But the document is so much more than that. It is compassion, it is clear, it is welcoming. It explains the faith without judgment or apology. It invites.

Catechize those around us. When those uncomfortable subjects come up around the water cooler or in the break room, you’ll be in the unique position of being a myth-buster. Who knows? Maybe your spontaneous comment will be the one that stays with someone for months, and motivates them to learn more or reevaluate their thinking. Don’t forget your family and your faith community. We are all at different stages in our journeys, and we have much to learn from each other.

Vote. Educate yourself. Then vote your conscience.

Write your congressman and senators, at state and federal levels. It’s easy to do, especially now that their offices accept email. I’ve become a letter writer. That use of my God-given talent may be the most important. Only He knows. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Write an encouraging note to a friend.

Most of all, love. A joyful, listening heart is what we all long for, and will open more doors than any of our words.

You’ll notice that my approach to the Fortnight for Freedom begins at home, within each one of us. Our faith was never meant to stay there, though. Ships are not built for the harbor, but for the challenges of the open seas. Such is our faith.

Make sure your ship is seaworthy, and go. Become a fisher of souls.

Dismantling Writer’s Block

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Writer’s block.

I don’t believe in it.

Okay, I’ll hedge that a bit.

All writers have moments when the words don’t come, or they have to be pried out of our brains like candy out of a three-year-old’s grasp. I do acknowledge that fact. Those moments are not fun.

Those moments are always uncomfortable, even anxiety-provoking.

“Writer’s block” is a great excuse when you need one.

But I’ve learned that when I run up against the dreaded blank-page-combined-with-blank-brain syndrome, rather than “try harder,” I need to dig deeper.

For me, writer’s block is a symptom, not a disease. It almost always shows up when something else is wrong.

I’ve run up against it twice in the past couple of weeks. The first time, I was working on revisions to a book length manuscript. The rut began to form when I tried to revise in accordance with a critique partner’s suggestions. Mind you, there was nothing at all wrong with her suggestions; I understood and agreed with them. And yet the more I tried to comply, the deeper the rut became, until I was stuck.

When I finally stepped back and reevaluated, I decided to trust my own instincts and disregard the advice. The floodgates opened. Ta-da! No more writer’s block.

The other instance was when I was trying to write a post for a guest blog appearance. I got so tied up in how awesome all the other guest-bloggers were (and how hard it was going to be to compete with them) that I couldn’t think of a subject to write about. Fear of the unknown kept my fingers off the keyboard, with that blasted cursor mocking me.

And then I recognized what I put in parentheses in that paragraph.

I know better than that! At a simple decent-human-being level, or at the level of maturity befitting the color of my hair, I know better than to compare myself to others. And at the level it matters most, as a Catholic Christian believer, I know that we are all given the exact gifts God wants us to have. I can entertain exactly zero envy over the other bloggers’ humorous or clever or passionate posts. Once that flash of insight came, I was able to write.

Here are some of the tools for dealing with writer’s block I’ve discovered over the years, none of them my own, by the way. I credit the many authors who traveled ahead of me with these ideas!

1.       Give yourself permission to write badly – and then write. The words you tap out on your computer are not etched in stone. You can delete what doesn’t work later, so just start putting words on paper, so to speak. I’ve often started out with “I have no idea what to write next, but I have a sense that such-and-such character might do/say this, or that plot idea might happen.” Within a few sentences, it usually morphs into something I can work with. The unanticipated gift of this method is that I often discover a gem that livens up the story.

2.       Get out of your own way. Figure out what’s wrong. If there are underlying issues, acknowledge and face them. If fear has you paralyzed, stare it in the face and then stomp over it. We are all insecure. We all fear failure, success, taking a risk, criticism, making a commitment. Deal with what ails you, and then write anyway. If there’s something wrong with the manuscript, try writing the scene from a different character’s perspective or go a different direction for a while.

3.       Change your scenery. Get up and walk away from the computer. (I can’t tell you how many times a solution came to me as soon as I shut down the laptop and stood up!) Even better, go outside. Smell the flowers. Let the sunshine warm your face. Listen to the raindrops on the street, the leaves, the roof. Go to a museum, or a movie. Go to the zoo and watch people watching animals. Go to the mall and make up outrageous stories about the people walking by.

4.       Get physical. Go for a walk or a hike. Dance. Play a game of tennis or hopscotch or go for a bicycle ride. Anything to get the blood flowing in your muscles—and in your brain.

5.       Write something else. Write a thank you note or an email or an honest-to-gosh real live, old-fashioned letter! Free write, or use a writing prompt. Write fiction if you’re stuck on a nonfiction piece, and vice versa. Interview your characters; ask them what they want you to know.

6.       Do something creative with your hands. Draw or paint a picture. Do it with your non-dominant hand. Make a quilt square or embroider the beginning of a pillowcase design, if you like fabric arts. Cook something really yummy from scratch, and enjoy the aromas and textures along the way. Garden, whether it’s indoor or outdoor. Write something longhand. Try that with your non-dominant hand!

7.       Engage with another human being. Hey, we’re writers. It’s a solitary activity. Sometimes we forget how much we need to connect with others. Take a break and play with a child. Talk with your spouse and make eye contact. Volunteer, officially, or just lend a helping hand. Go out for coffee with a friend, or invite another family over for dinner.

Rather than a curse, writer’s block can be a blessing. Listen to it. Let it tell you what you need to do, or not do.

Just don’t let it be an excuse to keep you from your passion.

How do you identify writer’s block? What strategies do you employ to get past it? What have you learned from it?

 

 

Community! Find it in Unexpected Places!

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I took up a swimming challenge at our local YMCA in January, and I’ve had plenty of time while plowing through the H2O to contemplate. One of the things that came to me recently – and which I did not anticipate – was what swimming (or any solitary sport), writing, and faith have in common.

Did you notice the word solitary? Swimming is singularly solitary, because your face is in the water and the opportunities for interaction are pretty limited. This is true for writing, minus the face-in-water part. It’s an internal activity. Faith comes down to one’s core beliefs, which is, by definition, extremely individual.

What I never expected to discover with swimming is community – and yet it is there. Maggie, Ann, and Linda show up at roughly the same times I do for laps. They bring smiles, enthusiasm, and energy which all rub off on me. (Hopefully, I bring the same to them!) They also challenge me to do more than I ever thought possible, both in distance and in perseverance.

This is what a faith community does for us, as well. While we are responsible for nurturing our own growth, its potential is exponentially expanded when we share our faith with each other, and deepened when we gather to worship as community.

Writing communities can be powerful agents of support and encouragement, too. Because of the solitary nature of writing, it’s important to connect with other writers, whether through online venues such as Catholic Writers Guild, or through face-to-face opportunities.

So how is one to find these opportunities? The question of finding critique partners has come up a few times recently in the CWG blog. It’s not always an easy question to answer. The first step is to find writing groups. You’re here, so you’ve discovered this wonderful community. There are some forums for critique groups; check them out and see if they are a good fit. Also, participate in the live and online Catholic Writers Guild conferences whenever possible, and consider saving up for the annual writing retreat. Opportunities abound within this group!

Beyond CWG, check with your library or a nearby college for local groups. Google writers, authors, or writing groups in your area. (I recently found two groups in my area that I had no idea existed; you might be surprised!) Attend a local or regional writing conference, even if it’s not in your genre. You might connect with another author and decide to trade manuscripts for critique. Sometimes critiques are raffled off as writing fundraisers, or are offered as an extra benefit at a workshop. While this last idea isn’t as likely to result in long-term relationships, you will get some insight on how to improve your writing.

Many special interest associations exist, and most have local chapters. Check out American Christian Fiction Writers (which is focused on the Inspirational market and has a slightly different audience than the Catholic Writers Guild), Sisters in Crime (misters are welcome to join), or Romance Writers of America®. RWA® has a wide variety of online special interest chapters, one of which might address your genre, although all are focused on writing some variation of a Happy-Ever-After ending. Mystery Writers of America has an associate membership level for unpublished writers.  SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, is a gold mine of information for writers of children’s and young adult literature.

You might want to try out Critique.org, an online group that runs on critique exchange. No cost is involved, other than your time in exchange for someone else’s. Or consider an online writing class. One of my critique partners built a years-long critique relationship with a fellow writer she has never met in person. You can find class offerings on Announceonlinewritingclasses, a yahoo group. (Be judicious. When I first discovered online classes, I signed up for several at the same time, not realizing how much time and energy they can take. The cost adds up, too, but if you only sign up for the ones that really apply to your interests and level of expertise, it’s possible to develop a critique relationship with a like-minded author.)

For more on critique and critique groups, see my CWG post from May 22, 2012.

How have you found a writing community that meets your needs? How did you find Catholic Writers Guild? My guess is that many of us came from other groups; share what was best about them!

Balance in Fiction Writing

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Balance.

A few days ago, Ellen Gable Hrkach posted a great blog on common errors to avoid in writing fiction. One item she mentioned got me to thinking, namely too much dialogue.

What’s ‘too much’?

A lot of times that depends on the genre you’re writing. Clearly, screenplays and graphic novels rely almost exclusively on dialogue.

Novels, however, require a blend of narrative, description, introspection and dialogue. The ratio of one to the other changes with both prevailing ‘style’ and with genre. Novels written a century ago utilize long passages of description and flowery stretches of dialogue, whereas the trend today is for faster, tighter construction in all areas, especially dialogue.

How do you know if your manuscript has a good balance? Part of this comes down to voice, that elusive factor that makes your work yours. However, we’ve all had the experience of reading a book and finding ourselves skipping over passages, maybe even pages. If we skip too much, we’ll put the book down – and if that happens, we may never pick it up again.

Not good, if you’re the author.

Next time this happens, stop and analyze why you lost interest. Chances are there was too much of one element on the page. Too much description. Too much internal monologue, or perhaps too much narrative. Sometimes too much dialogue, but if that’s problematic, it’s more likely because the ‘voices’ of the characters are too similar. They need to be so distinctive that the reader knows who is speaking. Even so, if they go on for pages, the reader may tire. (For more on dialogue, click here.)

One helpful technique is to analyze your manuscript for the different elements and highlight the pages. Margie Lawson teaches a method for this in her Deep Editing classes. Choose different colors for narrative, description, emotion, dialogue, and internal thought, etc., then go to town with your highlighters (or crayons, or whatever your inner child wants to play with!). If one color dominates a page, revision might be in order. One of my critique partners occasionally says of my work, “This section has too much yellow.” Since we’ve both taken Lawson’s class, I immediately understand what the problem is. My work flows better if the page has a rainbow of colors. Another application of this technique is to apply your highlighters to one (or more) of your favorite published books.

Keep in mind there is no ‘one size fits all’ in fiction. Thank God! Otherwise, reading would get boring! Check out a wide variety of books to see how other authors manipulate the elements that create story.

For instance, action novels such as Lee Child’s Reacher series use lots of dialogue, but it’s nearly all less than one line long. Child also uses relatively long stretches of description/narrative, and he tends to go with one or the other at any given point. His books are effective, powerful, and popular.

Debbie Macomber takes a more blended approach in her wildly successful women’s fiction and romance novels. You will find narrative, description, introspection and dialogue on nearly every page.

Many authors are exploring screenwriting classes, some for the challenge of breaking into a new field, but most for a better understanding of both story structure and use of dialogue. While this is an excellent strategy for honing of specific elements, written fiction is more effective and more engaging when the entire spectrum of tools are used to create the final product.

The subject of balance also touches on pacing, which is a topic deserving of its own post. Narrative, description, and interior monologue can slow the pace—although skillfully applied, they can ratchet up the tension until it is unbearable. Dialogue tends to speed things up.

As you can see, there isn’t a cut-and-dried answer to ‘how much is too much’. But a willingness to analyze and evaluate your writing will always make it stronger. Look at your work with an eye toward what you want to accomplish in a given scene. Learn to use all the tools in your toolbox. Buy books on the craft of writing. Review them once in a while. Take classes. Be open to feedback from trusted colleagues, and then decide how (or if) you will apply their advice.

Find the best balance for your story and your voice.

Have you struggled with this aspect of writing? Do you have tips to share? Please do!

Query Letters – How to write a good one

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You’ve just typed The End on your manuscript, your gloriously awesome book that’s going to rocket to the top of the New York Times best seller list! Editors are going to line up at your door, fighting to be the one privileged enough to publish your work. Thousands of people will stand in line for your signature at book signings, and you’d better clear your schedule for the television talk show circuit. Oh, and make sure your bank account is big enough to hold all the moolah that the USPS is going to deliver to your door. You are on your way, baby!

Except…no one is knocking. In fact, no one is even lurking in the shrubbery. And when it comes down to details, you’re not entirely sure how to get the attention of those New York editors, or even agents. You’ve been talking up your project to all your relatives, your friends, even your acquaintances. You’ve let a select few read your work (you deserve to be paid for it, after all!), and they rave about it! Why, it’s better than (fill in the blank with your favorite—and very rich—author)!

What to do???

This is what: set up a systematic, professional plan for querying.

It’s going to require hard work, persistence, and a thick skin to sell your work. If you do this part right, you’ll have a much better chance of actually getting published. And if your work rises above the fray, you may make it to that rarefied atmosphere of best seller-dom. If you do it wrong, you’ll get nowhere in traditional publishing.

A query letter, whether submitted via email or hard copy, is a one-page business letter with a fairly standard format. It is brief, professional in tone, and your only chance to connect with some agents or editors. Let’s look at the elements of the letter, and some common pitfalls to avoid, as well:

Research your targeted agent/editor. Make sure s/he is interested in the type of project you are pitching. Don’t send your speculative fiction to an agent who represents cookbooks and memoirs. Make sure they are accepting new clients. Then, send an individually addressed letter to the specific person—and spell their name right. The advent of email queries has tempted too many authors to try the ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, multiple-recipient approach. Sound like spam to you? It does to the recipients, and most delete without reading. I can’t stress these items strongly enough. I follow several agents on Twitter, and the biggest reasons for not reading past the first paragraph of the query letter are included in this list.

Cutesy doesn’t work. Use white paper if submitting via hard copy, or no background wallpaper on your email submission. Use standard fonts and font sizes. Times New Roman 12 works well; beautiful flowing script fonts don’t. Remember, this is business—on your end and on theirs.

Pitch finished projects. Keep in mind agents get thousands of queries a month. An unfinished manuscript isn’t competitive.

Only include personal information as it relates to your project. Your family, hobbies, other career, etc., are not fodder for this letter. If your story has strong elements that include fighter pilots or dulcimer players, and you are a fighter pilot or a dulcimer player, then include that; otherwise, as fascinating as your background is, it’s irrelevant. Also, resist the urge to say that your mother (or best friend, or spouse, etc.) thinks yours is the best book ever. Let the agent or editor be the judge.

Do include any writing credits. I’ve had interesting responses with this. At a pitch session for book length fiction, I sat with one editor who literally wadded up my nonfiction writing credits and threw them away. Clearly, he was unimpressed. However, the next editor was quite taken with the same information and spent time exploring it. Those credits lifted my submission above the standard in her mind. Bottom line: it doesn’t hurt to include writing credits. At the very least, it demonstrates that another editor somewhere thinks your work is worth publishing, and that you have experience with the editorial process. Always list membership in writing organizations and contest wins or placements. Again, some agents/editors value this more than others. But if you don’t toot your own horn, they’ll never know.

Keep it professional and polite. A query letter is a great place for confidence, but not such a good place for an overinflated ego. If you have a critique group, run your query letter past them. Sometimes they can see an area you need to emphasize more, or can suggest better wording. As an aside, one of my critique partners discovered she was pitching the wrong aspect of her story. Once she corrected that, her queries began getting responses.

So the basic format is:

Dear Ms. Specific Name Spelled Correctly,

I am seeking representation for my completed, xxx-thousand computer word count (name of genre) manuscript, Best Book Since War and Peace, set in (time, place). (If the story has a theme that is unique, you may wish to include it here.)

The next two paragraphs are like the back cover blurb would be for the book. Generally, one paragraph for the main character, the second for the other lead. Go to the bookstore (or your private library) for examples. Your goal here is to give a solid sense of the plot, a taste of your voice, but not a synopsis with lots of details or the resolution of the story.

The fourth paragraph will list your writing credits.

Close with a polite ‘I hope to hear from you soon’ and make sure to include your contact information.

Keep a spreadsheet or record of your queries. Make notes; don’t be afraid to follow up after a reasonable time (usually listed on the website), but don’t stalk. The publishing community is a small one; take care to develop your reputation as one of consummate professionalism. Divas and stalkers have no place in the business.

Query. A lot. Set aside time, set a specific goal, and keep the queries flowing. Follow the submission guidelines on the websites; they differ. Evaluate your responses and adjust future queries accordingly. But keep at it. And continue to work on improving your craft. If you’ve significantly revised and improved a project, don’t be afraid to re-query. Agents and editors really are looking for great stuff to publish. Give your work its best chance to catch their eye.

There are lots of sites and books out there that are great resources. Check with your writing organization for reputable agents, and make sure agents you query are members of the Association of Author’s Representatives. *No legitimate agent will ever charge a fee for reading your work.

What have your experiences with querying been like? Any advice? Questions? I hope this post helps rocket your work to the status of ‘sold and published’ – and best seller-dom!

 

 

 

 

Gotcha! Hooks: What They Are and How to Create Page-Turning Fiction

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What’s a hook??? I admit to scratching my head over that term, and for a much-too-long time. I would hear it when people were discussing top-selling novels; I’d see it in articles about the craft of writing. It was a frequent comment from my critique partners. “Not much of hook there, Leslie.” (Insert visual of me scratching my head. Again.) They tried to explain it to me: Leave the reader hanging at the end of the chapter. An unanswered question. A cliffhanger.

Well, that was all fine and dandy, except I didn’t get the concept. Until our critique group got down to business and I began to evaluate other people’s unfinished work. Over time, I began to recognize when the end of a chapter or scene felt flat. I began to see how they worked through the process. And then when I saw what my fellow writers did to spice up the work, it finally began to make sense. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place for me when I read James Scott Bell’s Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict & Suspense.

The basic idea is to end a chapter with the character facing peril of some sort, whether an internal conflict or an external plot development. The higher the stakes for the character, the better. In fact, Bell suggests the character must face death in some form – physical, psychological or professional. Of course your story isn’t filled with melodramatic, overblown situations, but each character must have something crucial at stake in each scene. By setting it up so someone is forced to face failure at some level, and then leaving the conflict unresolved, you create a hook.

Hooks come from disaster (Bell’s death) looming, occurring, or simply being implied. The hook can be expressed through dialogue, as a plot twist, as emotion, or via action. The hook can be an actual question, although I’d caution you to use that technique sparingly. I read a book once that ended every chapter with a question, and it felt like old-fashioned middle grade fiction. It didn’t work so well in an adult novel. Whatever method you chose to create a hook, take care to do it in a way that doesn’t leave the reader feeling manipulated. That usually has the opposite effect from what you intend!

One of the most common errors is the form that many of us learned in school: To write each chapter with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This works for nonfiction, but if you want a fiction reader to say “I couldn’t put it down!”, try ending the chapter a paragraph or two early. You’ll be surprised at how well this simple technique works. Then use that bit as the beginning of the next scene.

Go to your personal library of favorite books, or to the library or bookstore. Page through your favorite authors’ work and read the last paragraph of each chapter. You’ll get a solid sense of what creates a hook in short order.

It’s always a question that leaves the reader wanting—no, needing to know what happens next??? Whatever you do, don’t answer the question until the end of the book! Well, you can answer bits of it as you go along, but don’t answer the main question of the book until the end.

Hopefully, the result will be an ocean full of readers happily chasing the hook you’ve dangled – and saying, “That book was so good, I couldn’t put it down!”

How do you define a hook? What’s your approach to creating one? Share your favorite technique!

Members: We need some volunteers!

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If you are a dues-paying member, you should have gotten this e-mail last Friday; however, I’m posting it here again to try to catch more of you.  Of all the programs the CWG has done, this one is the one that most directly helps Catholic writers in their marketing efforts and is a boon to Catholic bookstores as well.  We really need dedicated people to keep it going.  We’ve been blessed with Sarah, Carol-Ann and Mary–will we be blessed with you, too?

–Karina

One of our most successful programs is the Seal of Approval, which vetts books for quality and Catholic content with the goal of marking those qualified to stand on the shelves of Catholic bookstores.  Three wonderful ladies have been handling this:  Sarah Reinhard, Carol-Ann Chybowski, and Mary Gildersleeve.  This year, however, Mary needs to bow out, and Sarah is looking for an apprentice/ assistant.   Would you be willing to help out?

The Seal of Approval runs on a quarterly schedule, and handles ten to thirty books a quarter.  We have a cadre of around twenty-five readers.

Below are the duties:

Mary Gildersleeve, SoA Awards Coordinator:

Once winners were chosen, SoA Coordinator took care of the letters, which involved:
•    filling in the blanks for the Yes List and emailing the SOA art
•    sending that information to Margot Davidson, so she could mail hard copy seals
•    sending drafts of No letters to Ann for proofing, suggestions, etc.

SoA Coordinator, Sarah Reinhard (apprentice/assistant needed):

Monthly:  I fill out Committee report with updates on needs and achievements of the SoA committee.

As Needed:  I correspond with officers on the needs and issues of the SoA that cannot wait for the meeting.

Right before a submission month:
•    promo on Guild blog

During submission month:
•    Forward subs to Carol Ann
•    Once a week, I usually do a once-over on the spreadsheet, touch base with Carol Ann, make sure there are no flaming emails or such. Some weeks, it seems to be an hourly sort of thing. Other weeks, I don’t even know SOA exists.
•    Part of this time frame also includes sending follow-up emails to authors as their electronic copies come through.
At the end of the sub time:
•    I check the spreadsheet and verify that we do have electronic copies of all the books (sometimes I just email Carol Ann and she checks)
•    Remind Carol Ann that we need to recruit readers, give them the timeline, get info lined up
During the eval time:
•    forward evals to Carol Ann as they come in
•    alert authors where hard copies need to be sent
Near the end of eval time, closing in on awarding time:
•    touch base with Carol Ann (and Mary) with the titles that I think need to be evaluated by Core Team (I also monitor this through the eval period…if I see a flag go up, I’ll read the evals and see if we need to get on it)
•    I also make the “call” on some titles—sometimes, our evaluators are a little overzealous in rejecting a book
•    At the end, as we get to awarding, I’ll email Carol Ann (and Mary) and give them the Yes List, the “I’m Not Sure” List, and the No List.
Mary then took care of the letters, which involved:
•    filling in the blanks for the Yes List and emailing the SOA art
•    sending that information to Margot Davidson, so she could mail hard copy seals
•    sending drafts of No letters to Ann for proofing, suggestions, etc.
On occasion:  Authors will not be happy with the Committee decision; I am the person who deals with their replies. Carol Ann (and Mary) do not.  I consult with the officers when there is an issue that needs consideration.

After awarding is done,
•    I copy the list of Yes titles into the SOA google doc, email it to a list of Guild members (Ellen, you, Ann, Maria for the newsletter, Jen for the blog, and a few others who I can’t remember offhand)
•    I move the titles off the working part of the spreadsheet into the archived part of the spreadsheet
•    I move the decline notes into a different part so our working doc is clear again

Please contact Sarah Reinhard at soa(at)catholicwritersguild.com if interested.

Tag! You’re It! Writing Dialogue in Fiction

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 “Hi, Beth,” waved Justin.

“Why, Justin, I haven’t seen you since our high school prom six years ago, the one where our mutual friend, Erik, got suspended for spiking the punch,” gushed Beth.

“Ho, ho,” chortled Justin. “Those were the days! He went on to become a successful, if whacky and innovative executive with an online social network. What have you been doing since then?” he queried.

“As you know, my family life was difficult and I had many obstacles to overcome, but I triumphed by speeding through college in record time, completing my undergraduate, double major degree in only two years, and am graduating from medical school next week,” Beth elaborated.

Are you bored yet? Grinding your teeth and wanting to throw this story across the room? I am; it was painful writing it!

Good dialogue can carry a story; conversely, badly written dialogue can sink one faster than the Titanic’s spectacular and ignominious end. Many resources are available, from Renni Browne and Dave King’s Self Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition to Write Great Fiction: Dialogue by Gloria Kempton, and more. If a good book on the craft of writing dialogue doesn’t reside on your shelf, I strongly suggest you consider acquiring one.

Let’s examine this fragment to see why it’s so grating. There are four issues here: dialogue tags, stilted language, indistinct voice, and information dump.

Dialogue tags are the words we use to indicate that a character is speaking. When I wrote the first draft of my first novel, I spent hours dreamily staring into space while trying to conjure the cleverest dialogue tags ever. My characters retorted, snorted, coughed, shivered and quivered their lines. After reading the above example, you can see how awful it was!

In reality, you only need a few simple guidelines.

1. Use the word ‘said’ whenever necessary. It’s an almost invisible word to the reader, whereas all the chortles, queries, etc. do nothing but draw attention to the author—not the story. The author should be entirely invisible, and your goal is to keep the reader engrossed in the story, not yanked out by strange word choices.

2. Keep in mind that physical actions are not involved in uttering speech. Rather than succumb to the temptation of using the action as a tag, use it in a separate sentence as a ‘beat’ that reveals body language and moves the story forward. For example: Justin pulled up short when he recognized the woman approaching him. A spurt of pleasure shot through him, and he waved. “Hi, Beth!” (Note how this example could go any number of directions. Maybe he wanted to avoid her, but couldn’t; maybe his response is anger over an unresolved conflict. Whatever the case, the greeting becomes much more complex and compelling.)

3. If only two persons are involved in a stream of dialogue, omit tags entirely. This works especially well when the characters’ voices are so different that it is obvious who is speaking by their speech patterns. But don’t be afraid to add an occasional beat to keep it clear for the reader.

Which leads us to stilted language and indistinct voice.

The best way to avoid stilted language is to read your dialogue out loud. If it feels or sounds awkward, change it. Each character should have distinctive speech patterns, too; make sure the words and delivery you choose remains authentic to the individual character. As you read the dialogue out loud, it should be obvious which character is speaking at any given time. Let’s make Justin a Texas cowboy and Beth a California Valley girl (yes, I know I’m dating myself, but it’s an easy ‘dialect’ to show for our purposes).

Now we have: A spurt of pleasure shot through Justin when he recognized the woman approaching him on the sidewalk. He whipped off his ten-gallon hat and waved. “Howdy, Beth! I ain’t seen you for a coon’s age.”

Beth, preoccupied with her Smartphone, lifted her gaze. A smile wreathed her face and she squealed. “Ohmygosh! Justin! It’s been, like, too-too long! Since high school?”  As you can see, these two wildly different styles will never overlap in dialogue. Not all characters will be such polar opposites, but if you give each character a distinctive voice, whether through style (i.e., women tend to use longer sentences, while men tend more toward brief statements) or specific verbal traits, it will strengthen both their characterization and their dialogue.

A word about foreign words and idioms: a little goes a long way. If your character is fluent in French and sprinkles French phrases into her speech, limit those to one every few pages. If a character’s speech is very back-woodsy and old fashioned, pick one word to highlight that pattern and write the rest in ‘regular’ English. For a southern drawl or an Irish brogue, use that as a descriptor outside of the dialogue and use word choice and placement to reinforce the pattern. Trust your reader to catch on. They will.

Last: information dumps. This is where characters bring in information that the author wants the reader to know but doesn’t have an organic way to get it across. Hence, awkward dialogue that no one in real life would use, such as: He went on to become a successful, if whacky and innovative executive with an online social network.

When you find those in your writing, ask yourself if the information is truly important. If so, is it crucial at this point in the story? If yes, then find a more relaxed way to get it into the story, either as internal dialogue (Beth’s mind went back to the last time she’d seen Justin. The high school prom. The one where Erik had been suspended for spiking the punch. “Justin! It’s been years!”), or in more natural sounding dialogue (“Justin! It’s been years!” Beth’s face heated at the memory of their high school prom. “I’m still embarrassed at how I acted after—“ She broke off her sentence, and Justin, grinning, finished it for her. “After  Erik spiked the punch.”

Dialogue can make your story sing, and those who can do it well often do well on other aspects of the craft. As a plus, the more of your story you can tell via dialogue, the better the structure will be, so it’s worth the effort to improve your skills in this area.

What are your tricks or tenets about writing dialogue? This has been a quick and dirty, and by no means comprehensive look at writing dialogue. Please share your experience!

 

 

Ms. Manners Goes to Conference! Conference Etiquette for a Better Experience

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Headed for Catholic Writers Conference? Are you excited? You should be! What an opportunity to rub shoulders with industry professionals, to put faces and personalities to folks you’ve met online, to renew friendships, and to network. This is a once in a lifetime experience; make the most of it. There will never be another gathering of exactly the same people at this point in their faith and writing journeys. Truly you are in Arlington, Texas, because God has called you to be there!

Each of you has a specific reason for attending, a goal you hope to accomplish. If this is your first conference experience, the coming days are likely to be a roller coaster of euphoria juxtaposed with self doubt. Be assured that you are not the only one grappling with these feelings. I hope this knowledge translates into a greater sense of ease in a new and sometimes intimidating environment. Here are some words of advice (of wisdom, too, hopefully!) for both newbies and veterans, for authors, for agents, and for editors, geared toward making this conference the best it can be for everyone:

1)      Everyone’s goals are the same, ultimately. Editors want to find the next diamond of a manuscript to publish. Agents want to discover the next author whose career they can guide to new heights. Authors want to find a publisher and/or agent to promote their awesome work. And in this particular setting, all of these people want to serve God with their talents and gifts in the way that pleases Him the most.

When viewed through that prism, competition loses the edge of greed and rejection loses its sting. We’re all on the same side, and God’s looking out for the good of each person’s life and career. This doesn’t mean you should fail to promote your product, just that there is no need for fear.  Which brings us to the next point.

2)     Be confident. You have something no one else does: your voice, and your work. These are gifts that God has given you, gifts that you have honed with hard work and prayer. No one can duplicate your contribution. Take heart in that fact, and know that your work will find its home. Maybe through this conference; maybe not – which leads to…

3)      Don’t take rejection personally. Sometimes it just isn’t a good fit for the publisher or agent. Imagine a library with thousands of books. You have three days to find the best two. You will have to create a system to sort and discard the ones that aren’t suitable for your purpose. Do you see that many wonderful, deserving books will be overlooked? This does not reflect on the worthiness of each one, the same way it does not reflect on your particular project. And in today’s climate, many options are available. So…

4)      Be open. There are many possibilities that we may not recognize in our limited, human view. Be open to new ideas, new directions, new options. You may discover a brand new path, or even a calling! You may discover it through…

5)      Networking. This is the whole purpose of a conference. Meet people! Ask them what they write, who they want to represent, what they want to publish. Have a brief answer for these questions, too, so you can give a nutshell sense of your project when it comes up. (I write ___, and my current project is about ___.)

This is a remarkably small community, and the contacts you make in the next few days will serve you for your entire career. Do not discount the importance of these interactions. They are crucial for your success. But remember…

6)      Be nice. This should go without saying, especially in this setting, but we are human and sometimes we need to be reminded. Keep your comments positive; you never know who might overhear or repeat something you said in a frustrated or disappointed moment. Again, this is a remarkably small community even though it may not seem that way.

Also, restrict your interactions to appropriate venues. Don’t try to pitch to an agent or publisher in the restroom, or shove your manuscript under the door of the stall. I have witnessed the first and have heard of the second, so these are not as far-fetched as they seem. Be considerate of folks. If the target of your interest has a headache or gets a pained look on their face when you approach, be brief. Introduce yourself and say you’d like to send them a query if that is acceptable; believe me, they will remember and appreciate your kindness. And that goes a long way. Which leads to the last point…

7)      Be yourself. This may call for leaving your comfort zone, though. If you tend to be shy (many writers are!) push yourself to be more sociable. It’s not hard; smile and ask people around you about themselves. You’ll be glad you did. If you are an extrovert, recognize your tendency to overshadow the more timid among us and let them shine, too.

I hope each one of you has a wonderful experience at the Catholic Writers Conference! And… Oops! I forgot the most important words of advice! HAVE FUN!

 

 

 

 

 

Freedoms We Hold Dear – Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience

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The United States was founded by numerous groups fleeing Europe in search of the freedom to practice their religion, free from tyranny or persecution. Now, after hundreds of years, our government – once envisioned to be a tool to protect those freedoms – has seen fit to attempt to restrict the practice of specific Catholic beliefs. Many other Christian people recognize this assault on freedom of religion, and stand in solidarity with us.

Freedom of conscience is a bedrock tenet of this country, and in fact, is recognized as a basic human right. From Wikipedia: In 1948, the issue of the right to “conscience” was dealt with by the United Nations General Assembly in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

I suspect that our current political climate has given rise to the first time many of us have had to exercise this right. Many conscientious objectors have done so in the past, refusing to partake in war. Some have been allowed to serve in noncombatant roles in the military or in civilian service. Others have paid a higher price and been imprisoned or fled the country to avoid the same. Our Catholic heritage is rich with martyrs who have chosen to cling to God rather than submit to earthly rulers and unjust laws.

As a nurse, I exercised my freedom of conscience in declining to be involved in medical procedures that run counter to my religious beliefs. (Read: abortions.) And yes, it came up in situations far removed from the places one would expect. My beliefs were always respected, even if not understood or agreed with. The only cost I paid was the occasional shake of a coworker’s head indicating disagreement.

The Obama administration backed down from its initial directive that medical personnel do not have the right to freedom of conscience in the matter of abortions. The cost this time could have been a fine, a job, or even prison. Public outcry changed that.

Now the threat is to our hospitals, schools, and outreaches that help the poor or those in some sort of need no matter their race or religion. To be very clear: The cost is not to us. It is to those we attempt to serve. (And of course, the many persons employed in this service.)

We are called, first and always, to pray. The United States Council of Catholic Bishops has asked us to educate ourselves and advocate for the protection of conscience rights.

Remember that even those who oppose our beliefs are on a faith journey, whether they acknowledge it or not. I truly believe that the Church is viewed as a country club by many. Therefore, we are faced with a ripe opportunity for evangelization, which is nothing more and nothing less than love in action.

Rather than divisiveness, let us seek to find Christ in others. Let us show Him to others. Let us continue to be His hands, His feet, His voice in this world. His love.

Our mission has not changed. Maybe our awareness of it has – and that’s not a bad thing.

Keep the faith. Do it with courage and with joy. Go forth and bear fruit in a world which hungers for it.

Finally, draw strength from Galatians 5:23: …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

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