Tag: editing

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

How To Drive a Magazine Editor Crazy by Lori Hatcher

Professional, friendly and witty are words I use to describe Lori.  I met her at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference last year through a mutual friend.  Lori was part of the staff at BRMCWC and needed volunteers to do a mock Toastmasters meeting. Toastmasters is an international speaking organization.   As a Toastmaster member, I volunteered.  We became fast friends over e-mails and working together at the conference.  I consider it an honor to have her  as a guest on Write With You.  I know we all will glean from her vast knowledge as a magazine editor.

How to Drive an Editor Crazy, Part 1

By Lori Hatcher

As the editor of a print magazine, I receive submissions from writers in every stage of their writing journey. Some have impressive portfolios, and others are just beginning. Wherever you are on the spectrum, the tips I’ll share in this two-part series will help you submit polished, professional work so you WON’T drive your editor crazy.

How to Drive an Editor Crazy

  1. Paraphrase Bible verses.

This is true confession time, friends. A book editor once threatened me with death and dismemberment when she double-checked the Scripture references in one of my devotional books and discovered I’d used the LHV (Lori Hatcher Version) of the Bible. Because I’d depended on  my memory, which was a mishmash of the King James, New International, and Holman Christian Study versions, there was no way she could check my Scripture references for accuracy in punctuation and quotation. My carelessness and laziness caused her hours of extra work and slowed down the editing process considerably.

 

After a humiliating time of confession, repentance, and restitution (I sent her Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Almonds with Sea Salt and Caramel Cashew cookies by overnight mail), I had learned a valuable lesson. When quoting Scripture, choose a translation, then copy and paste EVERY Bible verse, with its appropriate reference, from your Bible software into your article. Even if it’s John 3:16, don’t rely on your memory.

 

  1. Lowercase the word Bible.

I’m always a tiny bit shocked when a writer fails to capitalize the B in Bible. Whether you revere or believe in the Bible is not the issue that determines this rule. All style manuals require a writer to capitalize any holy book, whether you’re citing the Qur’an, the Talmud, or the Bible. You should also capitalize common epithets for the Bible such as the Word and Scripture, but not adjectives indicating the Bible, like biblical or scriptural.

 

There are many rules governing the correct way to quote Scripture, capitalize books and parts of the Bible, and handle religious terminology. The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style is my go-to resource to keep it straight. It’s helpful, user-friendly, and relatively inexpensive. Whatever resource you choose, remember—NEVER quote a Bible verse from memory or fail to capitalize the Bible. If you do, you’ll drive your editor crazy.

 

Lori Hatcher is the editor of Reach Out, Columbia magazine and the author of the devotional book Hungry for God…Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women. A blogger, writing instructor, and women’s ministry speaker, her goal is to help women connect with God in the craziness of life. You’ll find her pondering the marvelous and the mundane on her blog, Hungry for God…Starving for Time. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter (@LoriHatcher2), or Pinterest (Hungry for God).

 

Lori HatcherHeadshot

Categories
Grammar and Grace

How to Choose the Correct Pronoun

What’s wrong with this sentence? Me and Cam finished the Army Ten-Miler. Me should be I, right? Easy. Most people agree pretty quickly on that sentence structure.

How about this one? Mrs. Powell invited Sara and I to lunch.  Anything wrong? Yes. I should be me in this sentence. Although me is the correct pronoun, more and more professional people today (including print reporters as well as newscasters) use the wrong pronoun.

Does it sound tricky? Sometimes I is correct. Sometimes me is correct. How do you choose the correct pronoun?

Here’s a simple way to check:

Mrs. Powell invited Sara and ______ to lunch.

How would you say it if the invitation included only the speaker?

Mrs. Powell invited I to lunch. No.
Mrs. Powell invited me to lunch. Yes.
So—Mrs. Powell invited Sara and me to lunch. Yes.

I in the above sentence is a direct object.

*Pronouns that work as direct objects, indirect objects, or objects of prepositions must be objective pronouns.

Here’s a list of objective pronouns:

me                      us                     whom
you                     you                  whomever
him, her, it      them

A direct object tells who or what receives the action done by the subject.

Irene Hannon has written many books.|
The Steelers will beat the Patriots this year.
The children’s librarian read them a story.

An indirect object tells for whom or for what an action is done.

The blogger wrote his authors an email.
Bailey and I sent the seniors an invitation.
Zac Brown could sing me a song any time.

Here’s a list of prepositions:

About             along               before             between          during             in
above              amid                behind            beyond            except             including
across             among             below              by                    excluding        inside
after                as                     beneath           despite           following        into
against           at                      beside              down               from                like

 

near                through          until                within                as to                    with regard to
of                     to                       up                    without             except for           because of
on                    toward            upon               according to    in addition to    by means of
over                under               via                   along with        in case of            in regard to
since               underneath   with                apart from       instead of            in spite of

 

Use the simple test above, and you shouldn’t have any problem choosing the correct pronoun.

Happy writing!

Hope Toler Dougherty holds a Master’s degree in English and taught at East Carolina University and York Technical College. Her publications include three novels Irish Encounter and Mars…With Venus Rising, and Rescued Hearts as well as nonfiction articles. A member of ACFW, RWA, and SinC, she writes for SeriousWriter.com. She and her husband live in North Carolina and enjoy visits with their two daughters and twin sons.

Author of Rescued Hearts
               Irish Encounter
              Mars…With Venus Rising
Visit Hope at www.hopetolerdougherty.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories
Publishing Perspectives

Handling Editing With Grace

Publishing Perspectives column

1461260062_7c3bf62f2e_oWriting a book can be hard work. Then you polish it: more hard work. Then there’s the hard work of finding a publisher and getting a contract. Ah, at last you can rest from your travails, right? Nope! Lots more hard work ahead, I’m afraid.

Be wary of any publishing house that takes your book to print without doing an editing pass themselves. Even if you paid for editing from another service. Each publisher will likely have their own style preferences that require an editing pass. In addition, they employ editors whose job is to (gasp) edit your book to make it the best it can be (in their opinion, which the house values as evidenced by employment). Beyond the standards of grammar and punctuation, each editor will have their own approach to polishing dialog, point of view, character and plot arcs, and narrative. No book is perfect. Ever. Even after it’s published.

Handling this editing can be emotionally difficult. It can feel like criticism, and sometimes not even like constructive criticism. Your book may have already been critiqued by your writing friends. You may have already paid for professional editing. And yet here is your baby, all marked up with comments and suggestions. You may wonder if you have made a mistake in choosing to work with this publisher.

Don’t interpret edits as a personal commentary on your story, your writing, or you as a person. The editor is simply attempting to improve your book according to their experience and their understanding of what will work in the market. Yes, perhaps editors could occasionally phrase their comments more tactfully. Just keep reminding yourself that edits are not meant as a personal attack, and that encouragement is not necessarily the primary purpose of the editor – that’s mostly the job of your friends, family, and agent.

So if receiving edits makes you feel depressed, try these three steps.

  • Take a step back. When you first receive the feedback from your editor, take a deep breath and a quick look to see how extensive the work will be. Then close the file and step away for at least 24 hours.
  • When you do return to work and start dealing with the edits, try to detach yourself a bit. Edit as if you are working on someone else’s book. When you feel the emotions getting high again, take a break until you can detach.
  • Remember that wording suggestions are just that – suggestions. You are not likely required to simply accept the words that the editor has inserted/deleted. If you don’t like the exact changes the editor made, figure out what the editor is trying to achieve and then fix the problem in your own way. If it’s not obvious why the editor made changes, definitely ask what they were looking for. You may thus learn how to improve your writing, but you will definitely learn more about what the editor likes and does not like.
Categories
A Little Red Ink Editing

Why Hire an Editor?

Why hire an editor if you’ve got a great critique group and you’re a grammar stud?

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Answer: A fresh set of eyes. But there’s more.

A good editor is worth his weight in Sumatra. But a great editor? When you find someone you can trust with your baby, whose goal is honestly to help YOU make it the best it can be? It’s tough to put a price tag on that kind of worthy investment. It could pay you back.

And then some.

Over the next few months, we’ll hash out specifics on where to find a qualified editor (and how to whittle down the choices), the different levels of editing (substantive, line editing, copy editing, proofreading), and what’s important in navigating the editor/author relationship. But for today, let’s stick to why you need a freelance editor.

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Whether you want to pitch your work to an agent or acquisitions editor in TradPub Land, or you want to brave the Indie Ocean and see this writing thing through on your own, hiring a qualified freelance editor is a business-savvy move.

[bctt tweet=”Hiring a qualified freelance editor is a business-savvy move. Let’s talk reasons. #amwriting #amediting #A3″]

A good editor will give you professional, objective feedback.

A fiction editor knows what to look for in a story, in a plot, in pacing, in character arc. A non-fiction editor has an edge when it comes to structuring your book with compelling advice or arguments, including anecdotal evidence and research (and they’ll know how to document it). Both have learned the craft by either studying it for themselves (fellow-writers) or through professional courses of study.

All good editors—no matter the material—will be objective. They’ll tell you where your pacing drags, where your protagonist acts out of character, where your argument falls flat, and where you’ve broken a promise to the reader. They won’t be cruel, but they’re not family. They’ll be honest without worrying about facing you at the Thanksgiving table.

A good editor will notice things you miss.

Some editors, like me, are also writers. (And even we hire editors before we publish, if we’re wise.) When we spend hour upon hour staring at All the Words, our minds begin to fill in words that ought to be there but aren’t. During your self-editing/revision process, it’s easy to move things around and forget to tweak every detail. Especially in fiction, the story is a tapestry, tightly weaved. Every single thread matters, and if you pull one, it tugs others, causing a wrinkle in the story surface. An editor’s job is to offer a fresh set of eyes, catch the wrinkles, and smooth those details out.

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A good editor will spot things you overdo.

Maybe you have a pet word or phrase. Perhaps you overuse a sentence structure. You might over-explain when you ought to give your readers more credit. You might have several characters who sound exactly alike when they speak. Or—in the larger scheme of things—you could be so careful to consider your surprise ending as you write that you inadvertently give too many clues.

Subtlety is a beautiful thing.

I often make guesses about where a story will go in the margin. Sometimes, writers have laughed because they’ve done such a fabulous job of setting up the red herrings, I was completely blindsided; a few have decided to rewrite, because they realized their plot was too predictable. With nearly every client, I hear, “I don’t know why I didn’t see that!” And often, those clients learn from the first edit. When they come back with another manuscript, they’re not making the same mistakes anymore. Their craft is improving from the editing process.

[bctt tweet=”A good editor will help you hone your writing while keeping your voice intact. #amwriting #amediting #A3″]

A good editor will help you hone your writing while keeping your voice intact.

If an editor rewrites your words or changes your story to the point that it doesn’t sound like you anymore, step back. Evaluate whether they’re showing you how a few simple tweaks can tighten your writing, or whether they’re changing your voice. Either way, they shouldn’t do this all over your manuscript. They should help you see the possibilities, make suggestions, and let you decide. You are, after all, the author.

Day 100, 365, KEEP OFF THE GRASS

There are rules, and then there is poetic license. Personally, I believe in knowing the rules well enough to break them with flair. I also believe that—in dialogue and deep POV—a character’s voice ought to shine through more than the author’s. And a character may not use perfect grammar. There is freedom in writing well enough to bend the rules effectively.

There are great editors out there. The goal ought to be to find an editor who works well with YOU, sharpens YOU, encourages YOU, learns YOUR voice, believes in YOUR story, and will help you make it the best it can be. Finding one can be an ordeal, but when you’ve found them, the editing process can actually be fun.

[bctt tweet=”I believe in knowing the rules well enough to break them with flair. Character voice–author voice–matters. #amediting #amwriting”]

Hit me in the comments with this: What’s important to YOU in an editor?

Thanks to Jennifer Bradford, Matt Hampel, Nic McPhee, and Andreas-Photography for the most excellent images. They win the Internet.

Categories
Grammar and Grace

Book List for Editing

The concept of selecting a good product. Computer generated 3D photo rendering.

Punctuation and grammar come easily to me. I remember rules from elementary school, can recite a whole list of prepositions, and can use a semi-colon with confidence. For those times that I’m stumped about comma placement or which word to choose, I have a few go-to reference books that help me out every time.

Strunk and White’s, The Elements of Style, is a small book packed with information. Chapters include Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, and my edition, the third, has a chapter called An Approach To Style. This potent little package should sit on every writer’s desk within easy reach.

edit 3

I also use The McGraw-Hill College Handbook. It lists prepositions and conjunctive adverbs, shows how to fix dangling modifiers, and explains parallelism and subjunctive tense. This book isn’t the only one that can help with problems, but it’s the one I have. You probably have an English handbook left over from your college days. Check your book shelves.

eidt 2

Three other books that I’d recommend as references are Renni Browne and Dave King’s, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Revision and Self-Editing for Publication by James Scott Bell, and Gary Provost’s, 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. These are helpful books writers should read and reread as often as possible.

edit 1png

All these books are good references, but I’ll be here to help, too. In each post, I’ll show the correct usage of a punctuation or grammar rule and try to explain the reason behind it.

Let me know if you have a question you want to see addressed. Thanks for your imput!

 

 

Categories
Polishing Your Message

Three Steps to Confident Feedback

Ever ask a friend’s, relative’s or colleague’s opinion on something you’ve written? You wait patiently, trying not to stare, interpreting each facial expression as a sign or clue. Finally a reply, “I like it,” or “It’s good,” is uttered with no additional words following.  You think to yourself, That’s it? That doesn’t help me.

Perhaps on occasion you have been the person responding above not knowing what to say.  You didn’t feel confident offering your thoughts. You’re not an expert or a published author. You still have trouble calling yourself a writer.

Well, “It’s good,” doesn’t say anything.  To a writer the phrase is too vague, too meaningless. He or she is seeking feedback more specific.

Whether asking for feedback or offering feedback, here are three steps to help readers share responses to a draft.

Before you start to read, let go of the pressure to catch every error or mistake. There is a difference between editing/proofreading and reader responses. Don’t be afraid. You are qualified to respond. You are an experienced reader, and writers need to know how their message is being received or interpreted. You are qualified to offer your reaction and thoughts to something you read.

Next, keep it simple. Keep it nice, and remember three things by ReadWriteThink.org:

PQP: Praise-Question-Polish.

Step 1: PRAISE.   Always find something positive to say about the piece you have been asked to read. Perhaps you like a particular phrase or word choice that lingers in your mind after reading, or you like how the writer describes a scene which easily forms in your mind’s eye. Always find something big or small to praise within the work.

question mark

Step 2: QUESTION.  As you read make notes of any questions that enter your mind. Maybe you wonder why the author doesn’t mention something you would expect to be included on the topic, or where the baby was in the scene when the mother went to the store. Any questions while reading can offer insight the author may need to improve or revise the current draft or work.

Step 3: POLISH.   Finally, offer specific ways you think the writer could polish the piece. These comments cannot be too vague. When you offer an idea to polish, the writer cannot be wondering what you mean. He or she needs a starting point or direction to act on your comment. Read-Write-Think suggests three types of comments: vague, general/useful, and specific. Below are examples of each:

Vague:  “Revise the second paragraph.” or “It’s good.”

Useful/general: “shiny engiveI don’t see enough background information or support for your idea.” or “Can you describe the kitchen scene better?”

Specific:  “I like how you give the points to remember, but can you add an example to help readers better understand what you mean?” or “The title doesn’t seem to convey the topic.”

If grammar and mechanics are your strengths, by all means offer comments and corrections. If you think something doesn’t look right, but you are not sure, you may suggest the writer double check a concern. The main thing about “Polish” is to give the writer a starting point or direction to consider changes.

Writers know what they intend to say in the message, but the receiver of the message does not always hear it as intended. If you are asked to offer quick feedback on a draft, just remember PQP. You can always find something positive to say, did you have any questions, and offer a specific comment the writer may consider to polish the piece.

You don’t have to be an expert or published author to provide helpful feedback to a writer. And as a writer, what you do with the feedback is entirely up to you. Some suggestions will spur new ideas, and some will lead to a dead end and remain left behind.  Nonetheless, diverse readers, diverse backgrounds, and diverse worldviews will encourage your message to be received differently. Stay focused on your message and meaning, use feedback to clarify and polish, then send your message out trusting the Holy Spirit to handle the rest.

[bctt tweet=”provide helpful feedback to a writer #writers #readers #polishing”]

[bctt tweet=”asking for feedback #writer #reader #drafts”]

Source acknowledged:  www.readwritethink.org,

ReadWriteThink.org is a nonprofit website maintained by the International Literacy Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, with support from the Verizon Foundation.”

Image Credits: Colin Harris, Dave Wilson   https://www.flickr.com/photos/

Categories
A Little Red Ink

Dialogue Tips

dialogue film crew

When you write dialogue, think like a screenwriter. Every minute of screen time, every word counts. Don’t add fluff. 

You don’t want readers to skim your conversations because nothing’s happening. If it doesn’t move the plot forward, cut it, cut it, cut it.

Here’s something else that doesn’t belong in your conversations: director commentary. 

Sure, people buy DVDs with bonus footage, but I don’t know many people who actually watch the version with the director chatting the whole time—explaining, telling what he wanted from the scene, making himself sound generally witty. (Peter Jackson doesn’t count. Of course you watch those.)

Seriously, though. Audiences want the end product. They want to be entertained. They want the scene to play out in their mind. And they don’t want to think for one second about the writer behind the scenes—at least the first time.

Here are a few dialogue tips to help you accomplish that.

1. Use the word “said.” Avoid sounding like a thesaurus with your dialogue tags.  No one wants to be wowed with your synonym skills. Statistics show that readers actually skip over the word “said” in their reading. It doesn’t even register. All they see is dialogue (which is what you want). 

If your characters are replying, interrupting, cajoling, remarking, and muttering? There’s no way people can miss that. 

     “Are you kidding me?” Jen queried. “Just tell me we can undo it,” she complained. “What will it take?” 

     “We’ll do what we have to do,” Will countered.

     “We better,” she sniped. “If we lose this account because you dropped the ball—”

     “Relax,” he challenged. “Your attitude isn’t going to help us win them over.”

It can get annoying after a while, right? 

vancouver
2. Use action beats about 50% of the time. An action beat is exactly that—a moment filled by the character’s action. When it’s right next to the dialogue, it’s clear who’s just spoken. Often, an action beat can do more to convey the emotion than an explanation, with no “said” involved. Isn’t that same excerpt better like this?
“Are you kidding me?” Jen snapped her head to the side. She swallowed, then turned back and locked gazes with Will. “Just tell me we can undo it. What will it take?”

 3. If the characters are taking turns nicely, don’t tag every give and take. Sometimes, it’s obvious. 

     Will stood a little taller. “We’ll do what we have to do.”

     “We better. If we lose this account because you dropped the ball—”

     “Relax. Your attitude isn’t going to help us win them over.”

     Jen rolled her neck and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths, her shoulders relaxed an inch. She met his gaze once more. “I’ll smile, and you dig us out of this hole you got us in.”

Make sense? A little goes a long way.
Thanks to McBeth and Vancouver Film School for the images.
Categories
Editing

Be a Reader First

Read, Writer

One of the key ingredients you should look for when hiring an editor is a love of reading.

I don’t think there’s an editor who said, “I think I’ll become an editor because I hate to read.” If they did, then I wouldn’t recommend hiring them to assist you with your writing project. That would be like hiring a book burner to run the local library. It’d be a lost cause.

Before I decided to write or edit, I was an avid reader. I have been – ever since my babysitter read The Saggy Baggy Elephant and The Little Engine That Could over and over, to my delight.

By the time I was in kindergarten, Ramona Quimby was my favorite character. When I got hold of Judy Blume and met Fudge and Peter, I couldn’t put her books down. In high school, I loved Holden Caulfield’s discontent, I hated how Lenny killed everything he touched, and I grimaced with amazement as Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack experienced unsupervised life on the island in Lord of the Flies. By then, I’d also discovered books I shouldn’t be reading, like Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series.

When I left college, Anne Rice and Lestat, I’d developed a relationship with Jesus. I then married and began having children, so my reading preferences switched to the world of non-fiction, mostly under the parenting and marriage topics.

Until Edward Cullen, Bella Swan, and Jacob Black showed up. I resisted the vampire, knowing that’s where I’d left my reading when I became a Christian. But when my Christian friends kept raving about the story, I decided to give it a shot. I’ve never read an entire series so quickly in my life. I’m a processer. A slow reader. I take in the details and go back to reread for clarity when I need to. I read all four books in the Twilight series in nine days. Bad writing. Good writing. Whatever. Stephenie Meyer immersed me in a vivid fictional dream.

Since then, Steven James has kept me dreaming through Patrick Bowers’ life. I’ve also enjoyed numerous books by DiAnn Mills and Lynette Eason, among others.

I read across genres. Suspense, Romance, Contemporary. Sci-fi, Fantasy, Dystopian. I love YA. And I still read non-fiction, but my topics have broadened.

Because if you’re going to be a writer, there’s so much to learn from reading others’ work. What works. What doesn’t. What you enjoy about each book. And what you hate about it. Which rules you can get away with breaking and when. As well as which rules should always be followed.

And as an editor, I’m a reader first. Always.

There have been countless times I’ve grabbed a self-published novel and known from page one I was going to be too distracted by the errors in spelling and punctuation to ever make it into the story itself. There have also been times I’ve wished I could edit the best-seller and offer suggestions for improvement. If you can’t pull me into a fictional dream within the first three chapters, it’s likely I won’t keep reading. And honestly, I should be engulfed by the end of the first page.

So, I’d like to invite you to join me in an adventure in editing through a reader’s eyes. Because I will always be a reader first.

In my column, The Critical Reader, we’ll take a look at a book each month, and I’ll share what I thought could be improved and what worked (in my humble opinion). My plan is to reveal tips for you and your writing through looking at the work of other authors. And I’ll try to mix it up a bit from genre-to-genre and between fiction and non-fiction.

Until then, here’s to reading!

[bctt tweet=”And as an editor, I’m a reader first. Always. #editor #editing” via=”no”]

 

Categories
A Little Red Ink

Character Motivation

Everybody wants something. Why do YOU want to write, for example?

Maybe you want to write a book for the story’s sake. A vociferous, misunderstood character started vying for your mental attention and enthralled you with his antics. He gets under your skin in all the right ways, and he’s an entertaining guy. You don’t want the world to miss out.

Maybe you like to challenge people. You’re on a metaphorical soapbox, and—rather than flat out preaching at the masses—allegory would be a better, wiser venue for your message. It’s time people question the status quo. Or act on their convictions. Your story will call them on that.

2D Joost

Or maybe you want to be rich and famous. You fancy yourself the next J.K. Rowling or Frank Peretti. (NOTE: If this is your motivation, you’re in the wrong field. There’s an easier road you should travel, somewhere.)

I know there are scads of other reasons people write. But the point is: something drives you.

Something’s got to drive your characters too.

Character motivation matters.

And I don’t mean only your main characters.  Would you want to watch a play—no matter the genre—where only the protagonist and the antagonist were played by humans? Everyone else was a cardboard cutout?

(NOTE: Even though there are no other humans pictured below, I am NOT saying The Doctor interacts with a bunch of emoticons-on-sticks. Far from it. I simply couldn’t resist using THESE particular cardboard cutouts when I spotted them.)

doctor cutout

Too often, I read books in which the cast may as well be made up of action figures. The MC wanders over near the smiling cut out when he needs encouragement and hangs out with the stereotypical thug when he feels dangerous. He can’t bum a cigarette, though, because there’s just the one. Permanently in Dude’s hand. You’d have to cut his hand off to get rid of that thing.

As Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said,

every.

single.

character.

should want something—

even if all he wants is a glass of water.

Surround your main characters with a cast of characters who are also each desperate for something, determined to change something. To achieve something.

To defuse the bomb.

To hear their father say he’s proud of them.

To find the cure.

To get her to say Yes.

Give them motives and goals, and SHOW your readers what they’re after.

For truly multi-dimensional characters, give them motivations that might surprise the readers. Show a soft side or a deep-seated fear in the heart of the bad guy. Maybe you’ve got a selfless and thoughtful protag, but there’s one thing she absolutely cannot STAND. Show it to us.

[bctt tweet=”Surprise people. Add dimension to cardboard characters with motivation. #writing tips #ALittleRedInk”]

Okay, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Flat Out Love, by Jessica Park. If you’ve read this book, you know what I’m about to say. (If you haven’t…) There actually WAS a cardboard cut out character–an enthralling one, I might add–Flat Finn. Talk about a quirky cast, all flawed and winsome!

flat stanley

But what about other favorite books? Don’t you love reading a novel that makes you want a sequel—where your favorite minor character gets to play lead? Even if there’s NOT a sequel? I love dreaming about what could be.

How about Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings? History, politics, culture, and languages were all so well-developed that there could have been shelves full of books penned. I’d have adored Eowyn and Faramir’s story. Or more about Samwise. He gets my vote for the true hero.

Serena Chase’s Eyes of E’veria series? During The Ryn and The Remedy (her reimagining of “Snow White and Rose Red”) I wanted more of Cazien the pirate. Got him. She wrote The Seahorse Legacy and The Sunken Realm (summer of 2015), a phenomenal, gripping retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”

Ronie Kendig’s Rapid Fire Fiction. This may be one of Ronie’s greatest areas of giftedness. She’s made me crave another SERIES. And then delivered. Twice.

Charity Tinnin’s Haunted. I empathized with the bad boy much more than I intended to, and his story is on the horizon. That’ll be an automatic pre-order for me.

Steven James’s Patrick Bowers Files. I loved every scene with Tessa or Ralph. I felt like I knew them.

Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. What about Angela? And I’d have loved a prequel about Brom.

All of these books left me wanting more. And got me to immediately follow the authors on Twitter and Facebook. Marketing genius, writers.

Writing genius.

Who is the most intriguing minor character YOU’VE read recently? What was it that got to you?

[bctt tweet=”What minor character makes you wish he’d gotten center stage? #amreading #amwriting”]

 

Thanks to Joost Assink, Richard Anderson, and Heather N. for the photos.

Portions of this content were previously posted at www.alittleredink.com