Tag: writing experience

Categories
A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Through the Years

lighter look at a writer's life

Has your writing training “ruined” you in some ways? Do you notice plot holes, awkward point-of-view changes, and overly-predictable twists? I experienced this phenomenon recently.

My pastor asked me to produce and direct our church’s Christmas play, which is nothing new. I have been doing productions in some form or another for years, and I was thankful for the early heads up, as opposed to waiting until November to try to throw something together. He asked me to look over a play from a drama service he had found, so I paid the fee and downloaded the sample.

I am not one to knock someone else’s work, but my writing training radar kicked in as I read–and not in a good way.

The play in question hit me over the head with the biblical message, with several “sermonettes” tacked randomly into the dialogue. How many workshops have I attended about avoiding preachiness and subtly weaving in the spiritual message? Too many to count.

Another important lesson I have learned over the years is the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule. In the scenes I write, my characters should be actively DOING things, not just talking about them. Having my character “shiver to the bone under his light jacket in the unexpected snowstorm” is better than having the character exclaim, “It’s so cold!”

This play had a lot of telling, with characters standing around talking about what they would do or what they had done. Long monologues about random characters were featured. Much talk with little action had me squirming in my recliner as a I struggled through the piece.

Once finished, I flipped back to the front and noticed the copyright date: 1977! That would explain the awkwardness, as well as the references to records and outdated phones.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

There were certainly some great pieces written during that time and before, but today’s writers—and readers—are different. Many expectations have changed, and we must meet them before audiences turn us off or put away our pieces before finishing them.

So what to do about the Christmas play? I found the very first play I ever wrote, circa early-2000s, and dusted it off. A few changes and updates here and there (Cell phones have changed everything, haven’t they?), and I think ’ll have a solid production. The story holds up surprisingly well, and I miraculously managed to do a lot of showing instead of telling, even though I was a greenhorn at the writing thing back then.

Here’s hoping my other pieces will hold up over the years!

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child.

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

Build Your Platform with Magazine Articles

Last week I taught several workshops at a Christian Writers Conference and also met one on one with numerous authors. As typical for these events, many of the people were at their first conference.  Because I’m an acquisitions editor at a New York publisher and we do many types of books, my schedule filled quickly with appointments where authors were pitching their book ideas.

For a few of those meetings, they were double 15 minute typical length because I was critiquing their submission (something done as a part of this particular conference). In each critique, I was asking the author questions about their publishing experience and learned they had little or almost no experience.

 

While we love the permanence of books, the publishing numbers tell a different story. If a traditional publisher takes your manuscript and publishes it, you will be fortunate to sell 5,000 copies during the lifetime of that book. Yes I know you want to sell more than 5,000 books but this volume is typical sales number in the publishing community and you are doing well to achieve it.

Yet within the magazine writing world, it is common to reach 100,000 or even 500,000 readers with your article. Your choices as a writer are not: books or magazines. You can do both and in fact writing for magazines will help you build your presence in the marketplace (called a platform) and sell more books.

A number of the writers I met with at the conference were writing nonfiction books. Inside their chapters, these writers were including their own personal experiences tied to the content of their book. With a little reshaping, these stories could be the elements in a magazine article. As I suggested this idea to writers, it was a new concept because they were focused on a book and not a magazine article.

How repurposing builds platform

Within the publishing world, this concept of using your writing more than once is called repurposing and a way to get more use from your stories. It is a practice that I encourage you to incorporate into your writing life. For it to work, you have to be aware of the rights you are selling to a publication. You do not want to sell “world rights” because then you give up any additional use of the writing. Instead, you want to clearly label the first page of your magazine article as selling “First North American Rights.” These words give the publication the right to publish your story. After the material is published, then the rights return to you as the author and can be used in your book.

In general, magazines are operating several months ahead. The specifics are different for each publication and you want to notice and keep track of these details so you can get use your stories in different areas,

Many publications are interested in personal experience articles. You can use your stories from your book chapters and easily rework them into a magazine article. As you get published on magazines, you gain publishing experience which is something agents and editors are looking for. You also build your presence or platform in the market. How? This exposure comes from the final part of your article: the one or two sentence bio. In your bio, you include your website which is hopefully something simple like your name or something else easy to remember.

Your magazine articles can be an on-going way to build and reach your audience. It takes some planning and intention on your part but repurposing your work can be easily accomplished with your writing.

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. Terry is the author of How to Succeed As An Article Writer which you can get at: Write a magazine article.com. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: Billy Graham Bio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @terrywhalin

Categories
Dear Young Scribes

How New Writers Can Build an Impressive Writing Resume with Zero Experience

Aspiring authors are frequently advised to build a writing resume in effort catch the attention of an agent or editor. The reason? Agents and editors search for writers who are not amateurs. They want to work with writers who have proven themselves to be skilled in their craft and experienced with words and deadlines. When they see a list of publishing credits beneath your name, they will gain respect for you as a writer. It gives them a reassurance about your ability to produce quality, publishable-worthy content.

At least, this is what goes through my mind as I review submissions for Hartline Literary and Illuminate YA.

But I’m sure this advice might cause some inexperienced writers to cringe. How is it possible to build this kind of shining writing resume when your writing has only been published on your blog—if that?

Here are ways you can start now at building a writing resume that will cause your submission to stand out in a slush pile:

  1. Submit guest posts to blogs and online magazines.

Online publications are often searching for new content to build their database. Not only is this a great way to build your credibility as a writer, but it will also give you more exposure and help to establish your online visibility and platform.

Where to find this:

Use an online search engine to find blogs and online magazines that publish articles to the audience you hope to reach. (For example, if you hope to target a Christian teen audience, consider submitting an article for the blog to my magazine, PursueMagazine.net.)

  1. Write for your school and/or church newsletter.

Where to find this:

If your school publishes a newsletter, ask if you could contribute an article to build your writing resume. Same goes for your church newsletter. Find out if your church releases weekly newsletters; if so, ask how you can submit an article that meets their approval and guidelines. Many new writers have found this to be the best way to get their feet wet in the writing world.

  1. Enter writing contests.

Placing in a contest is one of the best ways to establish credibility as a writer. There are several writing contests you can find online that offer a variation of categories to enter—such as short stories, flash fiction, devotions, articles, novels, etc. Here’s a plus: Some of these writing contests are judged by literary agents and publishers.

Where to find this:

WritersDigest.com holds multiple contests each year. TeenInk.com offers writing contests specifically for teen writers. Many writing organizations and writing conferences offer annual contests for unpublished writers as well.

 

(Side note: Recently, a teen writer sent a proposal to me at Hartline and stated that her work had been critiqued in a contest by an editor at Penguin/Random House. This editor told her that, out of all the manuscripts she’d critiqued in that contest, this writer’s work was the most promising. You better believe this gave me a new level of respect for this writer’s work!)

  1. Publish your work in magazines.

After you’ve worked to establish yourself as a writer by publishing articles for free and/or writing for your blog, consider submitting your work to print publications. Again, find magazines that are targeted to your specific audience and publications that will build your expertise in a certain field. If you’re a fiction writer, search for magazines that accept short stories or flash fiction pieces.

Where to find this:

The latest Writer’s Market Guide (or Christian Writer’s Market Guide) is the best way to find a list of current magazines that are searching for submissions. Be sure to follow the specific writing guidelines listed in the writer’s market guide, and adhere to the specific theme if there is one.

If you begin to feel as though building a writing resume is annoying work that cuts into your book-writing time, remember this: Any time spent working with words is an investment into your writing career. Writing for blogs/publications will increase your visibility, validate your expertise, and help you practice writing quality content on a deadline.

Then, when an agent or editor receives your submission, they’ll know you’re not the type of writer who rushes toward achieving publication. Instead, you’re in this for the long haul. You’re dedicated and a hard-worker. You know what it takes to be a career-novelist, and you’ve already worked hard to invest in your career by first taking the time to build an impressive writing resume.

Do you have tips to add to this list? What’s the biggest struggle you’ve faced as you’ve worked to build your writing resume with zero experience?

 

[bctt tweet=”How New Writers Can Build an Impressive Writing Resume with Zero Experience #pubtips @TessaEmilyHall” username=””]

 

Categories
Create. Motivate. Inspire.

Write, Submit, Repeat

By all accounts, it was a productive year. Articles were accepted for publication. A book contract hung on my office bulletin board—front and center where I could draw motivation from the sight.

Several devotional collections accepted my submissions.

Then my husband sat down to wade through our tax returns and asked me for proof of how much I contributed to the household’s finances the previous year.

Not being a mathematician, I grabbed a scrap of paper and worked like a mad woman to add up the writing bounty…let’s see, add that, carry that number to this column, round up, no…round down…

The love of my life waited in quiet expectation for the grand total. “Um…well, it’s pretty much, uh… Wait. Let me add that column again…”

Sure enough, even with a busy writing year loaded with exciting news and opportunities, I barely made enough to take my sweetheart out to dinner.

Oh my goodness…what am I doing? When will I ever make enough to justify the time and effort?

Even with the promise of financial return on the horizon, it’s tough to keep writing and submitting without tangible payment.

But this is where we must dig in and persevere. The experts remind us: you are gaining experience, collecting clips, and building a platform. Keep writing!

If a magic formula exists, this is it: write, submit, and repeat.

The more we write, the better we become at forming and shaping ideas into words and sentences. We may not receive the green stuff for that newsletter article or VBS skit we labored over for hours, but we are glorifying our Lord by using the gifts He has given us.

With hard work and perseverance, the paying gigs will come.

Until then, keep writing!

 

Submission ideas: Church and associational newsletters, promo copy for special events at your children’s school or club, in-house feature articles on nursing home residents, obituary writing for families struggling to pull words together, letters to the editor, ad copy for local businesses (some of which could pay!)

[bctt tweet=”Write, Submit, Repeat!”]